Charlie Huston's Blog

When you don't visit for a long time, it's nice to bring a gift upon return.

Case in point: Random House is offering the first Joe Pitt casebook, ALREADY DEAD, for free in multiple ebook formats.

The free offer is going to last for about two months.  But that's just the download window. Once you have the book, you get to keep it. It won't be disappearing from your device two months down the road.

Most of these require that you already have or create a free account at the host site.  For Amazon a...

View full post on Charlie Huston's website »

You decide…

"…the joe pit books are like lord of the rings for people who like seriously fucked up shit."

Thanks, Brian G.

View full post on Charlie Huston's website »

Despite not fitting in my ass, this website is still deeply embedded there.

And I don't have too many ideas about how to get it out.

When you get a lightbulb stuck in your ass and you go to the emergency room, legend has it they insert a suction cup dart from a kid's gun into your ass, stick it to the (hopefully) intact lightbulb, and gently withdraw. There may be muscle relaxants involved.

I wouldn't know.

There may be a similar procedure for getting a website from your ass, but I can't find ...

View full post on Charlie Huston's website »

Oh, hey, I had a new book come out on Tuesday,

The fifth and final Joe Pitt casebook, MY DEAD BODY.

I can't honestly say it slipped my mind, but it did fall down the priority list of things to think about. Which is just plain weird.

Spend about five years of your life writing a long story in five volumes and then kind of not have time to reflect on the publication of the last volume and you'll feel how weird it is.

And I'm still not reflecting.

I expect this is going to be one of those delayed...

View full post on Charlie Huston's website »

Here's what's currently on deck.

October 18th.MY DEAD BODY
The release party.
We have a venue change from the last few release parties.
Dave and David of Secret Headquarters are mad bastards and have opened a record store. And when I say "record store," I'm not just revealing myself as a fusty old man who refuses to say CD store. I mean they opened a fucking record store. So, in the spirit of selling dead media, we're having the party there.
Vacation Vinyl
4679 Hollywood Boulevard
LA, CA 90027

View full post on Charlie Huston's website »

Getting stuck sucks.

I'm not talking writer's block here.

When I imagine writer's block, I have visions of a vast balloon inflated in the middle of my brain, squeezing all thoughts against the inner surface of my skull until they are flat, two dimensional and useless.

I've never been hit with anything like that.

(NOTE: yes, that is the sound of me knocking wood in the background.)

But getting stuck is another matter.

I get stuck on little things, tiny things, inconsequential things that I should...

View full post on Charlie Huston's website »

Southern California is trying to kill us again.

It does this on a fairly regular basis, but it's really making the extra effort this time around.

We've got many miles, several man made firebreaks in the form of highways, and lots and lots of burnable real estate between us and the fires, but smoke is in the air, again, ash is on the leaves of the trees, again, and from my porch I can see a smoke plume that stretches from due north on the horizon to somewhat south of west-south-west. A smoke...

View full post on Charlie Huston's website »

Here's what's currently on deck.

October 4th

The West Hollywood Book Fair.

I'll be sharing a panel on Sunday, October 4th from noon to 12:55pm.

GHOSTS, GHOULS & GOBLINS: EXPLORING THE SUPERNATURAL IN MYSTERY FICTION

Jan Burke

Charlie Huston

Alaya Dawn Johnson

Linda O. Johnston

Moderator: Leslie Klinger

PLEASE NOTE THAT I WILL NOT BE SIGNING AFTER THE PANEL

October 10th.
The Southern Festival of Books, Nashville, TN.
I'll be speaking on Saturday, October 10th from 4-5 p.m in the House Chambers of ...

View full post on Charlie Huston's website »

There is no center of gravity to my writing.

This is, I believe, and temporary state of things.

But for years now, for as long as I've been doing this for a living, my writing life had revolved around a single major project.

What that project might be at any time changed every six to nine months, but there was always a singularity that every other project had to allow for.

Always there was either a crime book or a Joe Pitt book that was in first draft; the stage where I lavished the most...

View full post on Charlie Huston's website »

If you are even a semi-regular reader of Bruce Sterling's beyond the beyond blog, you will know that one of his current thought frames is a futurist vision that breaks most everything into categories he has described as Gothic High-Tech and Favela Chic.

I could attempt to articulate these ideas, but you'll probably have a better time watching a video of the man doing it himself. Such a thing can be found HERE.

The ideas are, in and of themselves, both fascinating and viable. Which is to...

View full post on Charlie Huston's website »