Publication of Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences has been pushed back a month due to supply-chain/transportation issues. Getting the book from the printer to the warehouse is proving to be complicated. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t preorder the book, if you’re so inclined. Just click the link above to get to a page that has information, including where you can order a signed/personalized copy. The delay means an extra month of promo. It also meant that the Village Bookstore, which is hosting a launch event, had to rearrange everything quite late in the game.
I’ll be talking about the book when James Douglas interviews me during the Stephen King Rules film festival next weekend. My spot is on Sunday, August 21 at 4PM CT. This is the first of a number of interviews I’ll be giving in the coming weeks. The following Sunday night, I’ll be on Geek to Me Radio. I’ll be interviewed by the Crime Writers of Canada in early September and by Jeff Rutherford for his Reading And Writing Podcast as well. Check out my message board for more information as it becomes available.
There will also be something really cool happening on September 1st that I’m dying to talk about but can’t until it happens. Stay tuned!
We finally had another batch of rain after a three-week dry spell. When we go out, my wife and I only eat at places that have outdoor seating these days. There’s a place near us called the Kitchen that makes my wife’s favorite chicken sandwiches, so we go there fairly often. It was starting to rain when we pulled into the parking lot, but there’s a cover over the patio, although three sides are open. While I was inside placing our order, a squall started, with rain blowing horizontally, strong enough to push the chairs around. So we had to get our food to go. It was a good rainstorm, though. Much needed. The grass took advantage of it and started to grow all of a sudden. I had to mow the lawn for the first time since probably late June. It’s been hot ever since, but they promise us a week of rain starting in a couple of days.
I’ve had a rash of short story acceptances lately, some of which I haven’t yet announced because I haven’t signed the contracts yet. Here is what to look forward in the coming weeks and months:
- The Unburied Past, The First Line, Vol 24, Issue 2, Summer 2022
- Cold Case, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Vol. 3 No. 4, 2022
- Death Sentence, Black Cat Weekly #51, August 2022
- Something Strange, Land of 10000 Crimes, September 2022
- A Grave Issue, FOUND: An anthology of found footage horror stories, October 2022
- Good Neighbors, Gone, Red Dog Press, November 2022
- Aliana, Shining in the Dark, Dimensiones Ocultas (Spain), December 2022
Alas, I won’t be at Bouchercon when the anthology containing “Something Strange” comes out.
Those of you who’ve followed me for a while know that Brian Keene and I often discuss music. It was the motivator behind our collaboration Dissonant Harmonies. Recently, Brian started up his pirate radio station again and I started listening to it about a week ago as I work. I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. I tweeted words to the effect “Want to get musical whiplash? Listen to Brian Keene Radio. Bounce from heavy metal to hardcore rap to folk to country to yacht rock to pop to classic rock to horror short stories read by a variety of authors.” I consider myself fairly up on the music of our generation, but there have been some real surprises in his playlist that have me adding music to my iTunes console left and right. Check it out — just google the phrase. It plays through your browser. The juxtaposition of songs will have your head spinning. I guarantee it!
Since my last post, we’ve watched a handful of movies and documentaries. The best of the lot is Thirteen Lives (Amazon), about the rescue of the boys on a football team trapped in a cave during a monsoon. The Ron Howard film is truly excellent. As a follow-up, we watched the documentary The Rescue on Disney+, which sets the record straight, so I’m glad we watched that second. We enjoyed The Day the Music Died, about Don McLean’s most famous song. I also liked the documentary about Shania Twain, Not Just a Girl. The documentary Pennywise: The Story of IT is well worth a watch. Great interviews with the surviving cast and crew members, as well as terrific behind the scenes footage from filming. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a quirky film starring Emma Thompson that has what can only be described as some brave scenes. The Gray Man on Netflix is entertaining, especially because it has Ana de Armas.
On television/streaming, as with many people I am still processing the finale of Better Call Saul, which stuck the landing and then some. It turned out to be a love story after all. The Bear (Hulu) is an interesting story about running a small Chicago family-owned restaurant and dealing with all the crap that goes along with that. Black Bird (Apple TV+) is a series from Dennis Lehane based on a real serial killer case. It’s gripping and has a terrific cast. While I was looking up something else, I realized I’d never watched the final season of Homeland, so I rectified that. It was a good way to go out. Then I binged through The Orville: New Horizons, which takes what was originally parody or spoof and turns the show into serious science fiction tackling some big issues. I watched a couple of Britbox shows that were good, Crime and The Tower. I’m currently in the midst of the second season of a Brazilian crime series called Good Morning, Verônica (Netflix). It’s not as polished as some of the European shows, but it’s decent.
I’m currently rereading Stephen King’s Fairy Tale in preparation for writing my review. I recently finished Mr. Breakfast by Jonathan Carroll and Call Me a Cab by Donald E. Westlake (reviews available at the links) and Ocean State by Stewart O’Nan, which I haven’t reviewed yet.
