I signed a contract last night for a forthcoming anthology appearance, but I still can’t really talk about it until the fall. I’m very pleased that it all worked out in the long run.
I also got the green light to write a story based on a pitch I made for the Evolve 2 anthology. I have until December to flesh out the concept behind a story that I’m thinking of calling “Red Planet.”
Dread Central has a nice review of Dead Set: A Zombie Anthology.
I’ve been working on the rewrite of the short story I’ve been talking about recently. After ripping about four pages out of a 10-page manuscript, I ended up with a tight 1800 word story. I then pulled a very few bits out of those excised pages and wove them back in to end up with the current draft, which is about 2100 words. Whereas the first draft hit readers over the head with the theme, in this one I think it is much more subtly and, I hope, deftly handled.
I’m about 250 pages into The Whisperers, the new Charlie Parker novel by John Connolly. The entire book seems like one big metaphor for PTSD. It’s clear from one section that Parker himself has suffered post-traumatic stress, though his manner of handling it wouldn’t be found in any psychology manual. One of the book’s secondary secrets, the nature of what a group is smuggling across the Maine-New Brunswick border, is easily guessed, and I’m not entirely sure how they got the stuff to Canada in the first place, but that’s neither here nor there.
When Under the Dome came out, I bought a copy of the signed/limited edition from Scribner. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, almost nine months later, the book is still sitting in its shipping box, and I’ve never taken off the shrink wrap to look at it. It’s not doing me much good, and I already have a copy of the novel signed by King from his Atlanta appearance, so I decided to put the S/L up on eBay. If you’re interested in getting a reasonably priced book signed by King, here’s your chance. My starting bid is essentially the same as what I paid for the book. The auction ends on Sunday.
