A week from today is the official publication day for my new book Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences (and, yes, I have to look up the title every time I write it down—it was chosen by the publisher). I’m in full promo mode for the next several weeks, so you’ll probably get tired of hearing from me about it! So far, I talked about the book on Geek to Me Radio, during an interview segment as part of the Stephen King Rules Dollar Baby film festival, and, most notably in the Between the Lines feature of The Big Thrill newsletter from the International Thriller Writers.
Why most notably? The newsletter’s managing editor suggested that instead of doing the interview herself that I should ask Stephen King to interview me. They had done that before with Lee Child. I was understandably nervous about passing this request along to King. It’s not the sort of thing we normally do. I have interviewed him a few times in the past and we interviewed each other for the audiobook release of Flight or Fright, but this felt like a big ask. Fortunately he agreed without hesitation and the interview is the cover story for the issue. Even got my smiling face on the cover! Check it out—it’s pretty cool.
There have been a few reviews already and I’ve been pleased by the early response. You can read excerpts from the reviews here, along with links to the original publications.
I also had time to review King’s new book Fairy Tale (out today) for Cemetery Dance Online/News from the Dead Zone. The review was posted on Friday.
To get ready for the promo blitz (I have six video interviews set up this month and just finished writing up an email interview), my wife and I spent a long weekend in a beachfront house in Surfside Beach, about 90 miles from where we live. It’s a favorite getaway destination. We knew there was a decent chance it would rain all weekend, but we didn’t care. Our usual rental house was already taken, so we stayed in a different place, one that’s bit smaller but exactly right for us. It’s off the beaten path, whereas the other place is across the street from a busy restaurant with occasional bands playing late into the night. This new place is a lot quieter.
During the first night, we were awakened by brilliant flashes of lightning that were almost simultaneous with crashes of thunder that shook the house. (That’s not hard to do—houses there are on stilts to guard against flood damage.) The rain was vigorous and long-lasting. The lightning was intense. We enjoyed it.
However, it didn’t rain all that much after that. A few showers here and there, although it often looked like it was about to rain. We went for a walk on the beach one day but soon discovered the reason why the realtor had recommended we take mosquito spray with us. That nice green expanse between the house and the beach, which is a vegetation-covered dune, was home to swarms of mosquitos brought to life by the rain we’ve had over the past few weeks. They attacked us en masse. It was so bad we decided not to hazard the 30-foot trek again. Ferocious bastards. In the evenings when there was a breeze we could sit on the deck without being attacked, which was nice. There were also swarms of dragonflies, which were fascinating to watch as they darted about, feeding on mosquitos. Apparently each one could eat dozens, if not hundreds, of them every day, so they were our friends and we cheered them on.
I read three books while we were there. Two of them were different takes on similar subjects: ripping off money from drug dealers. First, I finished The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias, which has a mildly supernatural take on the subject. Then I read Heat 2 by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner, the literary sequel to the 1995 movie. If I’ve seen Heat, I don’t have much memory of it. The book does a good job of bringing readers up to speed, and it is simultaneously a sequel and a prequel to the events of that film. I thought I’d be covered with those books, but I was finished with them by Saturday. Fortunately, there were several books in the rental house, so I read a cozy mystery called Third Degree by Maggie Barbieri on Sunday.
This has been a bang-up year for short story publications. I have sixteen new stories either already out or scheduled before the end of the year. Recent pubs include:
- “Death Sentence” in Black Cat Weekly #51
- “Something Strange” in Land of 10,000 Thrills: Bouchercon Anthology 2022
- “Cold Case” in Black Cat Mystery Magazine #12
Convergence talks with contributors (including me) to Low Down Dirty Vote, a crime fiction anthology focused on voter suppression that contains my story “Kane’s Alibi.”
I also stumbled upon this nice review of my story in Road Kill V6: “The standout of the anthology is ‘The House of Sad Sounds,’ by Bev Vincent. A psychological horror story with a twist, this little gem reminded me of Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw. Vincent’s story would not be out of place in a high-literary story collection, and not because of any fancy stylistic tricks or high-falutin language.”
I discovered there were two feature-length installments of Midnight Diner, one of our favorite Japanese series. Set in a Shinjuku diner that is only open from midnight to seven a.m. and run by a mysterious scarred man known only as “master,” each episode features a particular dish that has resonance for one of the diner’s colorful patrons. Only one dish is posted on his menu, but he will make anything anyone requests, provided he has the ingredients. It’s charming. The two movies are only available on the Viki Rakuten app, but they’re only 99¢ each, which can be linked to your iTunes account. They take place between the three-season Midnight Diner series and the two-season Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories series. With the increased length, they allow a somewhat deeper dive into the characters outside of the diner, but only a little. The series is based on a manga called Shin’ya Shokudō. It’s also been adapted into Chinese and Korean versions.
I’m all in for House of the Dragon, though I’ve only seen the first two episodes so far. I’ve also seen a couple of episodes of She Hulk, which is cute and doesn’t take itself all that seriously. The best thing I’ve seen recently is a German Netflix series called Kleo. It’s set in the Berlins in 1990, after the wall came down but before reunification. Kleo is an East German assassin who was sent to prison by her handlers in 1987 for unknown reasons. Political prisoners are released in ’90 and she’s free to travel now, so she’s hell-bent to find out who betrayed her and why. The show reminded me a lot of Killing Eve, and it’s star, Jella Haase, bears more than a passing resemblance to Elizabeth Moss. It has some slapstick moments, but it’s also bloody and violent. Just my jam.
