Laird Barron's Blog, page 45

A couple of items as we move (already) into the latter days of October…

I will be reading a brand new story called “Slave Arm” at Inquiring Minds at 7pm November 3rd in New Paltz.  The Hudson Valley Horror himself, John Langan, will also be on the scene. There will be refreshments.

John can’t handle the truth

One week remains on the Amazon 1.99 Kindle sale of my new collection. This book has done well so far. Thank you to everyone who’s picked it up. I appreciate the amazing support I receive from my audience. You folks make it possible for me to continue doing what I do.

John Langan and I traveled from Rifton into NY City yesterday for my group reading at WORD in Brooklyn. Train rides, taxi rides, subway rides galore. We spent most of the afternoon visiting with Peter Straub, a writer who has been a literary idol of mine since my teens. That visit requires a post of its own, so I’ll come back to it in a day or two.

After departing from Peter’s house we went over to FinePrint Literary Management Headquarters and rendezvoused with my agent Janet Reid. Janet is among the best things that has happened to me professionally and this was the first occasion we’d met in person. I also had the pleasure of meeting her associate Brooks after speaking with him on the phone many a time. They plied me with some of the finest, smoothest bourbon I’ve sampled in a while. Then Janet called a livery cab and squired us over to the Word event.

WORD is a lovely bookstore. It’s an honor to read at the podium where the aforementioned Peter Straub recently stood. Many thanks to Alex, Jen, and staff for all their hard work. The basement where readings are conducted was standing room only–just under fifty people showed up to hear the five of us read spooky tales. David Barr Kirtley brought down the house with his rendition of Gahan Wilson. I read “Gamma” and hung around afterward to sign a few books. The evening wound up over at a local watering hole with some Glenlivet. I had the pleasure of chatting with two other FinePrint clients, authors Sean Ferrel and Jeff Somers. Also had a nice conversation with Kris Dikeman and Robert Levy.

Around 10, Janet bundled us into a taxi bound for Grand Central Station and off we sailed back to the Hudson Valley. We rolled into the yard at around 1am and called it a long, long, but terrific day.

A new interview with Nathan Ballingrud at Weird Fiction Review.

And a reminder that I’ll be in New York tonight at Word.

From the Devil to Cosmic Horrors: A Night of Fears: “Prepare for Halloween with a night of tales of terror! Bring your flashlight and your safety blanket and settle in as readers present stories from old-world gothic to modern horror. The evening features Laird Barron (The Beautiful Thing that Awaits Us All), translator Susan Bernofsky (The Black Spider), Jason Diamond of Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and others.”

Five observations about writing:

*Beware of prescription masquerading as advice.

*Methods of the writing process are unique to the writer.

*People are fond of saying, “X is lazy writing.” No, X is probably fine. Lazy writing is lazy writing.

*Characters must be compelling. It isn’t required that they be sympathetic.

 

*I prefer the long view of my writing life. I don’t get trapped in the daily ebb and flow of word count. Assessing progress on a monthly and annual basis is more coherent. It also tends to keep me saner.

Here is an interview I just did with the Russian ezine Darker. Thank you to Vlad Zhenevsky for the many great questions. Next month he’s reviewing The Croning and The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All.

The Google translate leaves something to be desired, so I’ll clarify the opening question. Vlad asked what three childhood incidents would be important to my biopic. I said, cancer surgery at one and a half years. The first time I got punched in the nose, six years. My first time racing long distance with sled dogs, fourteen years.

Among a slew of projects, I’m working on two introductions for books slated to arrive in 2014. Scott Nicolay has emerged onto the weird lit scene the past couple of years, most recently with a story in the Ligotti tribute anthology The Grimscribe’s Puppets.

Fedogan & Bremer will bring out Scott’s debut collection, Ana Kai Tangata, sometime next year. While his work is influenced by the classics, he filters and distills it into contemporary art that is distinctly his own. It’s definitely not your granddad’s weird–this stuff has metal in it.

I’m also sewing up a foreword for Richard Thomas’s upcoming project The New Black. A hard hitting anthology of neo noir tales from writers such as Stephen Graham Jones, Paul Tremblay, and Micaela Morrissette.

Wonderbook looks fascinating. Put together by Jeff VanderMeer, the contributor list to this illustrated guide features Gaiman, Moorcock, and Martin and a host of others. Nothing but rave reviews thus far.

Order it here.

One of the best collections I’ve read in recent years is Windeye by Brian Evenson. A slim book of around two dozen stories, it is a dark, surrealistic odyssey that left me with stranger dreams than usual. Dry suits that are portals to hell, murderous horses, and murdered folks who won’t stay dead, it’s a fabulous grotesquerie that fits in your pocket. Alongside the likes of Stephen Graham Jones, George Saunders, and Kelly Link, I consider Evenson one of the heavyweights of contemporary North American weird fiction. Get it here.

I present to you two of the best short subject videos you’re likely to find on the internet.

Thank you to Karl Pfeiffer for turning me on to The Cat with Hands. One of the creepiest things I’ve seen in a while. Hands down.

“I Say Fever” by Ramona Falls is a great song, but the video is a work of disturbed genius. Peter Gabriel, the old school innovator of music videos, could not have done this better.

John Joseph Adams’s Nightmare Magazine showcases a lot of fine work in the horror genre. Two originals and two reprints are scheduled each month, alongside an editorial and a guest essay. He’s featured Kaaron Warren, Genevieve Valentine, Clive Barker, Dale Bailey, Sarah Langan, John Langan, and Connie Willis, among a growing host of other top notch authors. Head over there and read (or listen to) Norman Partridge’s Bloody Mary. Norm should be on every horror enthusiast’s reading list, but in my mind he’s become synonymous with October.

Some links to fearful things this morning in the lonesome October:

Paul Goat Allen reviews The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All. Amazon has it on a month long special for Kindle.

Litreactor talks horror films.

Steve Berman’s latest is available at Strange Horizons.

Archer is always scary good. Welcome to the Danger Zone.