I hear they’re getting snow up in Dallas today. Stranger things happen, but that ranks right up there. We’re in the 40s, dropping to the 30s tonight, with persistent rain, which makes it feel even colder.
I saw the preliminary cover art for When the Night Comes Down from Dark Arts Books today. Very nice! When it’s finalized it will be posted first at the Dark Arts website.
My interview from a couple of days ago is now online at Ultimate Woodlands. The accompanying photo shows me in my office at my rolltop desk. Perched atop the monitor is the owl my wife gave me for inspiration. There are some other icons of the trade — a paper skeleton from my daughter and, behind the owl, barely visible, a skull that I use as a paperclip holder. Behind the skull, a Stephen King bobblehead from some event a few years ago. On the filing cabinet there’s a sketch of a windmill that I bought in Dryden in West Texas a few years ago while I was doing research for a novel. On the monitor, the manuscript of the novel in progress, though you can’t make any of it out. I cleaned up the stacks of paper from the floor around the desk before the photographer arrived.
I received my contributor copies of Dead Reckonings #6 today. This issue contains my lengthy review of Sarah Langan’s novel Audrey’s Door — in fact, it’s the lead review…or at least the first one in the magazine. I’m not sure if I’ll have anything in #7 — I’m going to submit a review of Black Hills if I can get it done on time, but there’s no guarantee it will be included.
Also received the January issue of Locus today. Yes, you read that right. For some reason, the issue went missing and I had to request a replacement. The February issue came last week.
I submitted my first poem for publication this week. A shot in the dark, really — the subject matter is a touch obscure, although related to something very familiar. I was inspired by Don Delillo’s latest book, in part. It’s sort of a one-shot deal — if the market rejects it, I can’t think of anything else I’d do with it, though I spent quite a bit of time on it.
