Barry Lyga's Blog: The BLog, page 53

The third and final book in the I Hunt Killers trilogy has a name! As you can tell from the top of this post, the title is Blood of My Blood. Because two bloods in the title makes it twice as nice!

Here’s the description:

Jazz Dent has been shot and left to die in New York City. His girlfriend Connie is in the clutches of Jazz’s serial killer father, Billy. And his best friend Howie is bleeding to death on the floor of Jazz’s own home in tiny Lobo’s Nod. Somehow, these three must rise above the horrors their lives have become and find a way to come together in pursuit of Billy. But then Jazz crosses a line he’s never crossed before, and soon the entire country is wondering: “Like father, like son?” Who is the true monster?

The chase is on, and this time Jazz is the hunted, not the hunter. And beyond Billy there lurks something much, much worse. Prepare to meet…the Crow King.

So, yeah, there’s that.

Blood of My Blood will be in your hot little hands on September 23.

But if you can’t wait until September for I Hunt Killers action, I’d like to draw your attention to the parenthetical part of the headline above.

Lucky Day is a special project I’ve had in mind almost since the very beginning of the series. It’s set four years before I Hunt Killers and tells the story of G. William catching Billy Dent. I really love this little tale, and I’m thrilled that it will be available in the spring as an e-novella for y’all to read as you wait for Blood of My Blood.

So, that’s it for now. Stay tuned for the covers to both Blood of My Blood and Lucky Day, as well as samples! To be the first to see them, be sure to sign up for my newsletter!

I forgave them. Mostly because their letterhead is so cool looking.

Here’s what I posted recently on Tumblr…

11 Reasons To Bring Back Landlines In 2014 (Seriously)

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Here’s what I posted recently on Tumblr…

"Now anything you say about a controversial topic has to be unambiguous at the level of individual…"

Memory Monday: Tell, Don't Show

Recommended Reading from 2013

I love seeing my friends’ books in airport bookstores.

The Year We Broke Everything

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Each year, I aim to read around 50 books, which is close to a one-per-week pace. This year, I fell far short. That’s what happens when you write three novels and a novella in one year; there’s no time to read!

But among the books I did get the chance to read, there were several gems. And so, as I do every year around this time, I present a list of books I think y’all might enjoy as visitors to the BLog. Here, in no particular order, are this year’s:

Jumper by Steven Gould
Wildside by Steven Gould
Teen Boat! by Dave Roman and John Green
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
Gods Without Men by Hari Kunzru
The Intercept by Dick Wolf
Every Third Thought: A Novel in Five Seasons by John Barth
Ghostman by Roger Hobbs
Caught by Harlan Coben
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee

If you give any of these a try, I hope you enjoy them! Happy New Year and Happy Reading!

I saw this in a comic book store over Christmas weekend and I just had to buy it…

(From Superboy #108, October 1963. Art by Curt Swan.)

Here’s what I posted recently on Tumblr…

What's the best way to go about trying to get published and for others to notice your writing starting out??

Barry I just screamed I'm really excited for the third book I even signed up for your newsletter thanks for writing fantastic books

Will Jasper Dent #3 be up for pre-ordering on Amazon or iBooks? Or will I just have to manhandle some people in stores to get it on release day?

Will Josh make any appearances in any of the projects you're working on? I would really love to see him again.

I'm scared cause I don't know if JD#3 will be able to finish off everything on a good note and without me having to set it on fire. Why must you torment me so!?

parislemon:

minimalmac:

A sign of truth.

I’m positive I’ve…

Why did you have to end Game like that!? Is there going to be another book?

Hey! I was wondering if you'd read the Age of Ultron comic arc, and had Fanboy read it, what he would think of it? Also, are there any plans or thoughts for another book set in Brookdale? Or one that has a focus on comics?

I HUNT KILLERS #3 Info is Coming!

Memory Monday: The Definition of Manly

Just made my year-end donations to the USO and TAPS. I encourage everyone to take a moment to donate…

This Week in Rejection!: Tor

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Ten years after the initial release of Love Actually, it has become fashionable to bash the movie. Some of its crimes, as ticked off unrelentingly by the Internet cognoscenti: It is “unrealistic.” Women are reduced to trophies. Men are encouraged to execute “grand gestures” to win a woman against all odds. And so on.

I am an unashamed, unapologetic fan of the movie, but I actually agree with many of these criticisms. “Agree” in the sense that they accurately reflect the content of the movie, but — as Inigo said to Vizzini — “I do not think it means what you think it means.”

In short, writer/director Richard Curtis is deliberately committing the crimes of which he is accused…all in service of debunking Hollywood’s notions of romantic love. The obviously tongue-in-cheek tale of Sir Colin’s trip to the Americas and his rather unlikely lucky streak there (Shannon Elizabeth! Denise Richards! January Jones!) is a big clue to this — it’s a broad joke crammed into the midst of what appears to be an otherwise earnest set of tales, and proves that Curtis knows exactly what he’s doing. In short, if you accept that Curtis is knowingly taking the piss here, then you must admit that maybe he’s doing so elsewhere in the movie, too. 

Sure, Colin Firth’s “grand gesture” works — he gets the girl. But Andrew Lincoln’s doesn’t even have a shot at working. He gets a pity kiss and even he walks away saying, “Enough.” He’s walked up to the borderline of the romance trope and shaken his head in disgust. Curtis is commenting on his own movie’s proclivities within the movie itself, telling the audience, “Hey, don’t think this shit actually works, okay?”

Why? Well, it’s pretty clear what Curtis’s point is once you get to the very end of the movie.

The film ends with a video mosaic of actual people (read: not actors) embracing at Heathrow. The movie uses the absurd, overblown tropes of popular romantic stories and romantic comedies in service of a final point, represented in this mosaic. It’s not an accident that Richard Curtis ends the movie thus. Here’s what he — and Love Actually — is saying:

“So, you just spent two hours watching every cliché in the romance playbook, as well as some other stuff. And it made you feel a certain way, as it does every time you see it, in whatever movie. These are clichés because they work. But what I’m here to tell you is this: That pleasant, buzzy, love-y feeling you get from the fakery of the movies? It’s all around you. Right now. Look at these people I’m closing the movie with. They’re not actors, celebrities, or movie stars. They’re in love and they are loved and they’re real and they’re happy. Without ridiculous plot lines or rejiggered emotions or implausible coincidences. It’s right here, right now, and you have it, just like these people do. You don’t need a movie to feel this way — you just need the people you love and who love you. So stop looking for it in movies and go live it.”

The whole point of the movie is to obviate its own ancestors and its own lineage.

It’s so blindingly obvious that I’m still shocked when people don’t get it. Why end the movie with the mosaic otherwise? Especially since it bookends the similar scene at the very beginning of the film, in which Hugh Grant’s voiceover basically tells you what I’ve just said in advance, including saying, “Love actually is all around.”

Check out the movie poster: “The Ultimate Romantic Comedy.” The word ultimate refers to the end of a process. Curtis is telling you from the start: This is the last romantic comedy you’ll need to see.

As Daisy would say: “Duh.”

And that’s why I am happy to defend Love Actually.

Plus, there’s a Christmas lobster. How can you not love a fucking Christmas lobster?

Being this confident, while standing there in a Speedo and elf boots.

(From New Teen Titans #23, Sept. 1982. Written by Marv Wolfman. Art by George Pérez and Romeo Tanghal.)

You’re just going to have to take my word on this: Tor was using very nice paper for its rejection letters at the time.