Cash, Steve 1946–

PERSONAL: Born 1946, in Springfield, MO.

ADDRESSES: Home—Springfield, MO. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Del Rey, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Writer and recording artist. Recordings include The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, 1973, It'll Shine When it Shines, 1974, The Car over the Lake Album, 1975, Men from Earth, 1976, Don't Look Down, 1977, It's Alive, 1978, The Best, 1981, Modern History, 1989, Now Hear This, 1990, Archive Alive!, 1997, 13, 1997, and Time Warp, 2000.

WRITINGS:

The Meq (science fiction), Del Rey (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Singer-songwriter Steve Cash is best known for an impressive career spanning several decades with the country-rock group Ozark Mountain Daredevils. In 2005 Cash ventured into novel writing with the publication of his first book, The Meq, the first in a planned series of three novels. The story follows twelve-year-old Zianno, or "Z", as he learns shortly before the death of his parents that he belongs to an immortal race called the Meq. Z begins a worldwide odyssey to meet other Meq and learn what the future holds for him and his kind.

Robert Lightbody, reviewing The Meq for January Online, called the work "an astonishing, inventive and addictive book … a truly remarkable and entertaining piece of storytelling that had me completely gripped from the very first page." In a review for SFSite.com, Victoria Strauss wrote that "Cash provides an evocative portrayal of the dreamy, drifting rhythms of the Meq's existence, their simultaneous involvement with and detachment from the stream of Time. He also effectively contrasts the restless, ever-developing course of human history with changelessness that's at the heart of Meq nature." Library Journal reviewer Jackie Cassada remarked that "Cash's first novel displays the author's storytelling talent as well as his original approach to fantasy," while Jon Courtenay Grimwood noted in the Manchester Guardian that The Meq is an "impressive debut [that] crosses under-stated fantasy with an elegant, not-quite-coming-of-age story."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Guardian (Manchester, England), January 18, 2003, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, review of The Meq, p. 29.

Library Journal, January 1, 2005, Jackie Cassada, review of The Meq, p. 103.

ONLINE

January Online, http://www.januarymagazine.com/ (January, 2004), Robert Lightbody, review of The Meq.

Ozark Mountain Daredevils Home Page, http://www.ozarkmountaindaredevils.com/ (January 20, 2005).

SFSite.com, http://www.sfsite.com/ (March 22, 2005), Victoria Strauss, review of The Meq.