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Scott Hawkins

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

https://www.scotthawkinswrites.net/

Twitter

scottrhawkins

Genre

Fantasy, Humor and Comedy, Fiction

Member Since

June 2014

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I'm forty-nine and I live in the Atlanta suburbs with my wife and a whole bunch of dogs. ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

Are you planning a sequel to The Library at Mount Char? I need a sequel. Please, will there be a sequel? There must be a sequel. Sequel.

Scott Hawkins Hi Emme, & thanks for the question.

This one's been coming up a lot lately. The short answer is "probably." I'd like to, but it's not a sure thing.

I'l…moreHi Emme, & thanks for the question.

This one's been coming up a lot lately. The short answer is "probably." I'd like to, but it's not a sure thing.

I'll be a little bit vague here to avoid spoilers, but there are reasons why it might be tricky to find a suitable antagonist for this hypothetical sequel. I think I might have an idea for how to get around that, but there are also some issues around creating a satisfying character arc. That part I'm less clear on how to fix.

Having said that, I spent last weekend working on a short story set in the Mount Char universe. Working in that world again was really fun. So yeah, I'd like to.

Side note: The short story will be put up as a freebie on my web site, shawkins.net, at some point in the next few weeks. I'd do it sooner, but the web site doesn't actually exist yet. I need to get on that. Also I need to vacuum. And the garage is a mess.

Best,

Scott

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Maupassant said that talented authors should be called illusionists because of how they can write on something unreal and make it feel like real life. Well let me tell you that you're a hell of an illusionist. Your book was extraordinary and I've never ever read something similar in my life. Props for the originality. So, I was wondering how did you come up with the idea of the Palapi language? Thanks!

Scott Hawkins Hi Amel,

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it, and it's a huge relief that some of that is finally making it onto the page. The worst part about starting out …moreHi Amel,

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it, and it's a huge relief that some of that is finally making it onto the page. The worst part about starting out as a writer is that when you do the book, it's always vivid to you. Mount Char is my first published novel, but the fourth one I wrote The thing is, this one is no more or less vivid to me than were the other three. Reader reactions indicate that I am alone in this. :-)

Anyway, as far as Pelapi--that was one of the core ideas of the book, but it mutated a little during the writing process. The gist of it is this:

When I was at school I took a lot of courses that dealt with the sub-field of artificial intelligence called natural language processing (NLP). NLP is the attempt to get machines to understand written and/or spoken languages that people use--Spanish, English, French, whatever. So I spent a lot of years gazing into my navel and trying to figure out what we really mean by 'understand' and 'communicate' and 'think.'

One of the things that came up during this time is a notion called the Sapir-Worf hypothesis. That says, essentially, that the language you think in to a large extent determines what you can think about. There does appear to be some truth to this notion.

For instance, I (vaguely) remember reading an article about how tribesmen from the amazon were being displaced by deforestation. These guys had essentially grown up in the stone age, but when the logging company moved in they had to move to Sao Paolo or wherever. So all of a sudden they're surrounded by TV, cell phones, all that stuff. Naturally they were curious, but when people tried to explain to them how it worked, they ran into a language barrier--these guys just didn't have the notion of "electromagnetic spectrum" and "radio" in their language. Cell phones had to be explained in terms of "the invisible sky spirit carries the message" or whatever. And no matter how you explained it, it was still going to look an awful lot like magic.

So, one of the core notions of Mount Char was to turn this on its head. It crossed my mind that these fish-out-of-water tribesmen might have words in their language for thinking about reality, manipulating reality, in ways that look an awful lot like magic to modern eyes.

As originally conceived Mount Char was going to be more of a fish-out-of-water comedy type of thing. This REALLY old dude who grew up thinking in neolithic language had somehow stumbled on the secret of immortality and is now living in the suburbs. He's lonely because he doesn't have anyone to talk to--he's fluent in English, of course, but there's no one who understands how the world really works under the hood. So he takes these kids and teaches them in the old ways so he'll have someone to talk to. Eventually you end up with this one peculiar neighborhood where they can (for instance) raise the dead, but nobody knows how to make a phone call. I thought there was some comedic potential there.

Anyway, that was fine, as far as it went, but then we needed an antagonist, and so forth and so on. So the emphasis shifted a little bit.

Anyway, thanks for the question & hope that helps!

Best,

Scott(less)

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Combine Editions
Scott Hawkins’s books

Average rating: 4.05 · 91,602 ratings · 15,942 reviews · 8 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Library at Mount Char 4.05 avg rating — 89,745 ratings — published 2015 — 48 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Blacktail 4.07 avg rating — 2,275 ratings — published 2026 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Linux Desk Reference (Open Source Technology Series) 3.94 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 1999 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Empty Box it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Apache Web Server Administration and E-Commerce Handbook (Prentice Hall Ptr Open Source Technology Series) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Complete Linux Shell Programming Training Course by Ellie Quigley, Scott Hawkins (Goodreads Author) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	BEA WebLogic Server Administration Kit 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2003	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Guia Esencial Apache 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2002 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Scott Hawkins…

25 posts
Scott Hawkins's Blog

Scott Hawkins: A Quiet Revisiting

I’ve always appreciated the chance to revisit things and enhance them. Updates bring a quiet sense of possibility and are just a bit unnerving if you look at them too closely. This website update is a continuation—a place to gather the evolving pieces of my writing life in one spot, to share new developments, and to leave a few breadcrumbs for anyone curious enough to follow them. Most days, my wr Read more of this blog post »

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Published on January 23, 2026 15:43

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Here at Goodreads World Headquarters, we sort through a lot of books each month. Our monthly Readers’ Most Anticipated Books feature is exactly...

Scott is Currently Reading

Scott Hawkins is currently reading

The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son

by Pat Conroy

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Jan 26, 2015 10:54AM

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Scott’s Recent Updates

Scott Hawkins and 1 other person liked Tim Rice's review of Blacktail: "4.5/5 I love it when authors aren't afraid to really go off the expected path with their plots. And when plots involve battles with divine powers. Great book, couldn't put it down. Almost as good as Mt. Char, which I thought was an impossible bar to " Read more of this review »
Sep 15, 2026 05:41PM · see review
Scott Hawkins and 7 other people liked Basma Elkholy's review of Blacktail: "You know when you’re in one of those lucid dreams that you are too invested in, and want to ‎know where it leads but you don’t want it to end?.‎ Then when you wake up, something in you have changed?‎ This book was that. it is one of the most beautiful " Read more of this review »
Sep 13, 2026 03:46PM · see review
Scott Hawkins and 1 other person liked Adriane Weaver 's review of Blacktail: "3.5 ⭐️. Pretty violent at times and very unhinged. I didn’t enjoy it as much as Library on Mount Char but still entertaining. I need to know what’s wrong with this author for him to come up with such unhinged books "
Sep 13, 2026 03:43PM · see review
Scott Hawkins and 10 other people liked Matty's review of Blacktail: "Blacktail is a strange, brutal, and moving dark-fantasy novel. Hawkins takes the familiar idea of a revenge story and turns it into something much more mythic and unsettling, following Blacktail, a wolf whose grief and anger lead him on a journey inv" Read more of this review »
Sep 13, 2026 03:42PM · see review
Scott Hawkins is now following Victoria Schwab's reviews
Sep 01, 2026 02:21PM · like

More of Scott's books…

Quotes by Scott Hawkins (?)

“Steve sighed, wishing for a cigarette. “The Buddha teaches respect for all life.” “Oh.” She considered this. “Are you a Buddhist?” “No. I’m an asshole. But I keep trying.”
― Scott Hawkins, The Library at Mount Char

100 likes

“Peace of mind is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it.”
― Scott Hawkins, The Library at Mount Char

tags: conflict, peace-of-mind

94 likes

“The only real escape from hell is to conquer it.”
― Scott Hawkins, The Library at Mount Char

tags: hell

52 likes

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Polls

BOTM Poll for Oct 2017 - Modern Classics/Popular Reads Pick
Based on recommendations from the group with the most second's. Please pick your preferred group read below!
Remember, you can change your vote any time up until closing of the poll. Polls will be open for one week.

It by Stephen King

70 votes, 27.6%

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

63 votes, 24.8%

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

48 votes, 18.9%

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

29 votes, 11.4%

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

24 votes, 9.4%

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

20 votes, 7.9%

254 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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A Good Thriller: Pick If For Me - June Read	25	92	May 26, 2015 02:56PM
The Seasonal Read...: Summer Challenge 2015: Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE POSTS)	3424	696	Sep 01, 2015 07:40PM
Joseph Beth Sci-F...: The next 2016 meeting is scheduled for...	3	42	Sep 22, 2015 07:28AM

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Scott’s Quotes

“I had begun to perceive my genitals as imaginary beasts in some epic fourteenth-century Scottish poem.”
― Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole

6 likes

“And a second thank you to my genius editor, Julian Pavia, who pushed me as hard as I’ve ever been pushed and made this book better on every page.”
― Blake Crouch, Dark Matter

1 likes

Scott’s Friend Comments

Comments (showing 1-3) post a comment »

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message 3: by Brianna the Bibliophile

Apr 11, 2016 06:12PM

I'll just leave this link here: bookriot.com, 100 Wonderful, Strange and Unusual Novels. I came across your book on this list, too!

reply | flag

message 2: by Scott

Mar 30, 2016 02:36PM

Brianna the Bibliophile wrote: "Congratulations on all the publicity on GR recently! Every time I log on, your book is featured on the news feed as one of the best reads a GR author has to offer! And I have to agree completely, L..."

Hey Brianna,

Yeah, this is really neat! We did the paperback launch a couple weeks ago, so it's probably getting more of a push from the Crown guys than usual, but the response has been fantastic.

Also, re: Top 10 -- I'm sincerely honored, especially coming from you. I see your status in my feed and holy crap you read a lot. :-)

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message 1: by Brianna the Bibliophile

Mar 28, 2016 08:29AM

Congratulations on all the publicity on GR recently! Every time I log on, your book is featured on the news feed as one of the best reads a GR author has to offer! And I have to agree completely, Library at Mount Char has quickly moved to my top ten favorite books of all time!

reply | flag

Scott Hawkins’s Followers (3,667)

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Scott Hawkins

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