A conversation with Ben Percy, author of ‘Red Moon’

Join us Tuesday for a live video chat with Ben Percy, author of “Red Moon.” Part modern werewolf thriller, part allegorical tale, it’s a big, juicy novel that debuts the same day. Out live chat will be here at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. Eastern) -- join us.

The book both is and isn’t a departure for Percy. It’s less literary fiction than his novel “The Wilding” or his 2007 book of short stories “Refresh, Refresh.” But like those books, it’s also close-up with nature and deals with physical force and violence.

If that sounds male-oriented, it could be. But the book isn’t -- some of the most compelling characters in his huge cast are women. And also werewolves, known as lycans in the book.

Percy recently crossed gender lines in real life when he wore a custom-made pregancy suit for a story in GQ. “At first it feels cumbersome, parasitic. I knock into walls, tables, doorways. I cannot fit it under my clothes, so I wear it on the outside, my torso green and rounded, turtled,” he wrote. “I do pushups in my pregnancy suit. I mow the lawn in my pregnancy suit. I chop wood in my pregnancy suit. I read the newspaper in my pregnancy suit and rest a steaming mug of coffee on the belly. I sweat in the pregnancy suit — horribly — and I develop a rash and begin to smell fungal. I do not have sex in the pregnancy suit.”

He also appeared on the “Today Show” to try to explain what he’d learned about gender difference in general and the burdens of pregnancy, such as he experienced them, in particular. He sort of stumped Steve Harvey.

We’ll ask him Tuesday about his nonfiction writing as well as his new book. Make sure I don’t get stumped by joining us to ask a question during our Spreecast, which will be online here.

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