The Commons: Book 1: The Journeyman: Volume 1 (The Commons: A Contemporary Fantasy Series)

Paul Reid died in the snow at seventeen. The day of his death, he told a lie—and for the rest of his life, he wondered if that was what killed him.

The Commons is the afterlife—but not the one Paul expected. It is a vast, frozen America where memory is currency, identity is power, and a corporate tyrant feeds on the souls of the dead.

When three strangers board a bus to nowhere, their lives end in a violent crash. What follows is not escape, but a relentless journey through a broken world where monsters are built from regret, and freedom comes at a cost no one wants to pay.

For readers who loved American Gods and Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

A mind-bending work of contemporary fantasy— haunting, propulsive, and impossible to put down.

Winner: Illinois Library Association's Soon to Be Famous Illinois Author Project

"Scenes of intense action and fantastical creativity make Peck an author to watch." — Publishers Weekly

"I forgot to breathe for long stretches of time and some of the imagery will haunt me for quite some time." — Amazon Reviewer

I tell tales big and small. Life's magical, but it isn't always enough for a good story. So I make up the rest. To me, it's not real until I've put it into story form, which means I repeat myself a lot. In fact, the phrase that passes my lips most often is, "I may have told you this before, but ..." I've made my living writing about TV, its celebrities, and its past. (I used to pen a column called "Ask the Televisionary" for TV Guide.com.) I've also put food on the table reviewing restaurants, writing about travel, and doing SEO and content strategy. Only the writing counts in the end. I have a godawful memory, so I focus on the written word. I like to think that over time, I've gotten better at it--the writing, not the remembering. I forget important dates. I'm pretty good with movie lines. But after several years, I tend to tweak them. I prefer my versions over the real ones. Funny goes a long way with me. Probably further than it should. I grew up outside Philadelphia and have lived in New York, L.A., and San Francisco. My current home base is Chicago. At holiday time, the missus and I terrorize the world via The Little Drummer Boy Challenge. Please join us.