Answering a musical question about Brambleman

Here’s a one-question interview by Susan Helene Gottfried for her blog at West of Mars (which sounds like the setting for my first three novels).

Thanks, Susan.

What song makes you think of your book?

Answer: “One of Us” written by Eric Bazilian, performed by Joan Osborne, inspired me to write Brambleman the way I did. In other words, it actually made me think of the book. (And they are listed in the Acknowledgments.) Brambleman’s theology is based on the song. Supernatural beings rely on public transportation, and buses are vehicles of both salvation and terrible, sometimes random justice. The book attempts to answer the musical question:

“What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home?”

Here’s one of my favorite versions, on acoustic guitar without vocals.