Brian Corley is the praised YA author of Space Throne and Ghost Bully as well as the upcoming new release GILM!. He is also a songwriter and musician in the well-received rock band, The Mars McClanes, who have been recording for twenty-one years and are based in Portland.

Not all authors can say that their novel started out as a song lyric, but for Brian, that’s exactly what happened. GILM!, his contemporary YA magical realism novel, is currently being released in conjunction with a new song of the same name, a collaboration with his band. What began as a writing exercise trying to find a word that rhymes with film, ended as a circuitous creative journey that spawned an energetic rock song and the kernel of an idea to write a thrilling fantasy story about a new kid trying to impress a girl.

Brian believes a great story is a good mixture of emotion and craft, something you can tell someone poured their heart into. For him, there’s nothing like someone telling you what a passage or a lyric means to them. He hopes his stories evoke an emotion in his YA readers that stays with them long after the book is closed.

A member of the SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association), Brian has received high praise from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and BookLife, among others, for his novels. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his amazing dog, Brisket.