John Everson's Blog, page 22
October 3, 2012
~ NightWhere book launch party Oct. 6th!
The “official” Chicago launch party for NightWhere‘s release is happening this Saturday, October 6th in the “Galerie des Terrors” — the downstairs of Berwyn, IL’s Horrorbles horror memorabilia store.
I’ll be there from 7-10 p.m. reading excerpts from the book, passing out beer (free ’til my cooler’s empty!), talking to horror fans and signing copies of books. Hopefully my own.
Come on out and celebrate horror with beer, books and a reading or two from the novel that has been called “A batshit crazy, hot, wet, ride into hell!”
September 30, 2012
~ Tweets for September 2012
NIGHTWHERE review by @MommysReading73: “FREE. KEY.” and “brilliantly disturbing on so many levels.” http://t.co/jXgVNol6 @SPHorror #horror #
Local Connection: Naperville novelist John Everson is interviewed by England’s SCREAM Magazine: http://t.co/kjFlrLI8 #naperville #chicago #
Why the DARK? Why do we love VILLAINS? @WDGagliani interviews me about that & my @SPHorror novel NIGHTWHERE at http://t.co/kjFlrLI8 #horror #
NIGHTWHERE Review: “a darkly erotic, deeply disturbing and hauntingly engaging tale that took my breath away.” http://t.co/NJhzyoea #horror #
“NIGHTWHERE may not be ‘hauntingly beautiful’, but it’s a hell of a good read.” Read the full review: http://t.co/NJhzyoea #horror #ebook #
Want a sneak peek at my next novel? Read Violet Lagoon in CREEPTYCH- it’s basically the prologue! http://t.co/BXp2D6b7 #bnbuzz #nook #horror #
Been a long time since I NEEDED to play Linkin Park… But I sure did tonight! #FrustratedByAWorldOfIdiots #
Heading out again to hang @chicagohorror as a guest at the Horror Film Fest today – signing books in the lobby! #chff #indiefilm #horror #
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-09-30
Been a long time since I NEEDED to play Linkin Park… But I sure did tonight! #FrustratedByAWorldOfIdiots #
Heading out again to hang @chicagohorror as a guest at the Horror Film Fest today – signing books in the lobby! #chff #indiefilm #horror #
September 23, 2012
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-09-23
NIGHTWHERE Review: "a darkly erotic, deeply disturbing and hauntingly engaging tale that took my breath away." http://t.co/NJhzyoea #horror #
"NIGHTWHERE may not be ‘hauntingly beautiful’, but it’s a hell of a good read." Read the full review: http://t.co/NJhzyoea #horror #ebook #
September 16, 2012
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-09-16
Local Connection: Naperville novelist John Everson is interviewed by England's SCREAM Magazine: http://t.co/kjFlrLI8 #naperville #chicago #
September 9, 2012
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-09-09
September 6, 2012
~ Horrorfind ’12: the New Horror
Last weekend was both a Return and a New Beginning.
I returned to the Horrorfind Weekend Convention in Gettysburg, PA after eight years. A lot of water has rushed under the horror bridge since the last time I was there.
But it was also a new beginning… most of the reason I went was because my new publisher, Samhain Horror, was a sponsor. A preview of the print edition of NightWhere debuted there and I spent most of the weekend at the Samhain table near the con registration desk catching up with my longtime editor, Don D’Auria (who knew he was as big a Jean Rollin fan as me?) — and meeting all of my new labelmates. There were eight Samhain authors in all at the convention, as well as Samhain’s Marketing Maven, Dawn Martin, and digital production man, Jacob Hammer. I have to applaud the positioning of the Samhain table — right across from the convention hallway bar. Who could ask for more?
I had briefly met a couple of them before, and have crossed paths with most of the rest on email once or twice, but this was the first time I really got to talk to Brian Moreland, David Bernstein, Hunter Shea, Damien Walters Grintalis, Ronald Malfi, Mick Ridgewell, and Russell James. They’re an amazing group, and I think the weekend really brought us together and formed some strong friendships for the future.
Friday (Arrival)
I rented a car at the Harrisburg, PA Airport to get to the convention hotel in Gettysburg (which is a good 40 miles away!) and since I hit town a little early, I took the opportunity to have a quiet pre-con lunch and write for an hour at the Appalacian Brewing Company (that’s ABC to me). They had a great Trail Blaze Brown Ale (just enough hops to start thinking IBA) and so I ended up adding another pint glass to my growing collection of brewery glasses!
After a couple pints and a thousand words on the laptop, I realized I couldn’t procrastinate any longer, so I drove across town and joined the party. I met most of the Samhain crew as soon as I walked in, and over the next 24 hours caught up with my old Leisure Books/Delirium Books labelmate Michael Laimo, talked a bit with Tom Monteleone, Mark Sieber (Horror Drive-In) and finally (after years!) met Nick Cato and Colleen Wanglund (Horror Fiction Review), Athena Schaffer (Crowgrrl.com), and my Leisure Books copyeditor, Dave Thomas. And I got to hang out with my friends Jerry and Don from Synapse Films.
Friday night was really a night of introductions and people arriving (and, of course, the appropriately termed Scaryoke – scary in a “please God, no more” kind of sense, not in a bloodcurdling fear one).
Saturday (The Big Day)
Saturday is the big day of Horrorfind — 10 hours of shopping for cool horror stuff and meeting celebrities like Doug Bradley (Hellraiser), Ray Wise (the guy’s been in EVERYTHING), Malcolm McDowell, and Patty Mullen (Frankenhooker)… and then many more hours of drinking and talking.
Brian Moreland and I started our Saturday morning with our live fiction reading hour (strangely enough, author readings were the ONLY programming this con offered!), and Hunter Shea (see picture) joined us to present a multimedia extra – an episode of his internet show Monster Men. For my segment, I read the intro to NightWhere and then pulled out an old story that few have ever seen or heard, since it has only appeared in the limited Dead Inn anthology from Delirium nearly a decade ago — “Sacrificing Virgins.” People cringed and smiled in equal measures, so I think it went over well!
During the rest of the day, I bounced back and forth from signing books in the Celebrity Room to the Samhain table, and that night, our intrepid Marketing guru Dawn Martin, as well as our esteemed editor Don D’Auria took the whole Samhain crew out to dinner at an Irish pub in downtown Gettysburg. It was amusing to see how “tourist” oriented the downtown area was (who knew there could be like, five ghost tours in a five-block area?)
Nevertheless, we had a great time at dinner (I can’t believe Jacob ate that WHOLE steak) and returned to find the lobby and driveway packed with drinking, jabbering horror fans. We joined them for several hours… And as I went back to my room at 2:30 a.m. (after getting to sit in the driver’s seat of a hearse!), I found that someone had considerately placed a comfy chair in the elevator.
Sunday (Last Minute Buys and Packing It In)
On Sunday morning, I somehow ended up as the first person “alive” at the Samhain table, and I did a quick video interview with Count Gore De Vol before I finally did some shopping at the Synapse Films table and then packed up for home.
Before I left (actually as I was packing up at the table), Celebrity Guest Ray Wise stopped by the Samhain table, and Damien and I signed copies of our books for him. He seemed like a great guy; I wonder what he’ll think of NightWhere?
These things always end way too soon. After Ray left, I shoved the last things in my suitcase and headed to the rental car.
I did end it all the way I began though – sampling regional beer. Once I had ditched the car at the Harrisburg Airport (ya gotta love an airport where you can walk through all three terminals in about 5 minutes!) I had time for a late lunch/early dinner of crabcakes and hushpuppies and discovered another exceedingly drinkable area beer — Clipper City’s Phillips Amber Ale.
Here are some pictures from the rest of the weekend:
Special thanks to David Bernstein, Sandy Shelonchik, Brian Moreland and Dawn Martin for some of these photos!
~ Horrorfind 2012: Dawn of the New Horror
Last weekend was both a Return and a New Beginning.
I returned to the Horrorfind Weekend Convention in Gettysburg, PA after eight years. A lot of water has rushed under the horror bridge since the last time I was there.
But it was also a new beginning… most of the reason I went was because my new publisher, Samhain Horror, was a sponsor. A preview of the print edition of NightWhere debuted there and I spent most of the weekend at the Samhain table near the con registration desk catching up with my longtime editor, Don D’Auria (who knew he was as big a Jean Rollin fan as me?) — and meeting all of my new labelmates. There were eight Samhain authors in all at the convention, as well as Samhain’s Marketing Maven, Dawn Martin, and digital production man, Jacob Hammer. I have to applaud the positioning of the Samhain table — right across from the convention hallway bar. Who could ask for more?
I had briefly met a couple of them before, and have crossed paths with most of the rest on email once or twice, but this was the first time I really got to talk to Brian Moreland, David Bernstein, Hunter Shea, Damien Walters Grintalis, Ronald Malfi, Mick Ridgewell, and Russell James. They’re an amazing group, and I think the weekend really brought us together and formed some strong friendships for the future.
Friday (Arrival)
I rented a car at the Harrisburg, PA Airport to get to the convention hotel in Gettysburg (which is a good 40 miles away!) and since I hit town a little early, I took the opportunity to have a quiet pre-con lunch and write for an hour at the Appalacian Brewing Company (that’s ABC to me). They had a great Trail Blaze Brown Ale (just enough hops to start thinking IBA) and so I ended up adding another pint glass to my growing collection of brewery glasses!
After a couple pints and a thousand words on the laptop, I realized I couldn’t procrastinate any longer, so I drove across town and joined the party. I met most of the Samhain crew as soon as I walked in, and over the next 24 hours caught up with my old Leisure Books/Delirium Books labelmate Michael Laimo, talked a bit with Tom Monteleone, Mark Sieber (Horror Drive-In) and finally (after years!) met Nick Cato and Colleen Wanglund (Horror Fiction Review), Athena Schaffer (Crowgrrl.com), and my Leisure Books copyeditor, Dave Thomas. And I got to hang out with my friends Jerry and Don from Synapse Films.
Friday night was really a night of introductions and people arriving (and, of course, the appropriately termed Scaryoke – scary in a “please God, no more” kind of sense, not in a bloodcurdling fear one).
Saturday (The Big Day)
Saturday is the big day of Horrorfind — 10 hours of shopping for cool horror stuff and meeting celebrities like Doug Bradley (Hellraiser), Ray Wise (the guy’s been in EVERYTHING), Malcolm McDowell, and Patty Mullen (Frankenhooker)… and then many more hours of drinking and talking.
Brian Moreland and I started our Saturday morning with our live fiction reading hour (strangely enough, author readings were the ONLY programming this con offered!), and Hunter Shea (see picture) joined us to present a multimedia extra – an episode of his internet show Monster Men. For my segment, I read the intro to NightWhere and then pulled out an old story that few have ever seen or heard, since it has only appeared in the limited Dead Inn anthology from Delirium nearly a decade ago — “Sacrificing Virgins.” People cringed and smiled in equal measures, so I think it went over well!
During the rest of the day, I bounced back and forth from signing books in the Celebrity Room to the Samhain table, and that night, our intrepid Marketing guru Dawn Martin, as well as our esteemed editor Don D’Auria took the whole Samhain crew out to dinner at an Irish pub in downtown Gettysburg. It was amusing to see how “tourist” oriented the downtown area was (who knew there could be like, five ghost tours in a five-block area?)
Nevertheless, we had a great time at dinner (I can’t believe Jacob ate that WHOLE steak) and returned to find the lobby and driveway packed with drinking, jabbering horror fans. We joined them for several hours… And as I went back to my room at 2:30 a.m. (after getting to sit in the driver’s seat of a hearse!), I found that someone had considerately placed a comfy chair in the elevator.
Sunday (Last Minute Buys and Packing It In)
On Sunday morning, I somehow ended up as the first person “alive” at the Samhain table, and I did a quick video interview with Count Gore De Vol before I finally did some shopping at the Synapse Films table and then packed up for home.
Before I left (actually as I was packing up at the table), Celebrity Guest Ray Wise stopped by the Samhain table, and Damien and I signed copies of our books for him. He seemed like a great guy; I wonder what he’ll think of NightWhere?
These things always end way too soon. After Ray left, I shoved the last things in my suitcase and headed to the rental car.
I did end it all the way I began though – sampling regional beer. Once I had ditched the car at the Harrisburg Airport (ya gotta love an airport where you can walk through all three terminals in about 5 minutes!) I had time for a late lunch/early dinner of crabcakes and hushpuppies and discovered another exceedingly drinkable area beer — Clipper City’s Phillips Amber Ale.
Here are some pictures from the rest of the weekend:
Special thanks to David Bernstein, Sandy Shelonchik, Brian Moreland and Dawn Martin for some of these photos!
August 30, 2012
~ Amazon’s got my back!
My backlist, that is. And I can’t tell you how happy I am about that. Today I can proudly say, “My ass is Amazon’s!”
When I signed my first paperback book deal with Leisure Books, the premier imprint for horror novels five years ago, I never imagined that the company would be essentially mothballed less than four years later… but the ebook revolution and flawed business models ultimately killed Dorchester Publications (and its imprints like Leisure Books) after the New York-based publisher had been in the mass market paperback game for 40 years.
My novel The Pumpkin Man was the last original horror title they released in trade paperback that I’m aware of (it came out in October 2011), just as my novel Siren was the last mass market horror title they issued the summer before (right about this time in 2010).
It’s felt like a really long spiral since August 2010, and I’ll miss all of the staff at Dorchester that I’ve worked closely with over the past couple years, but at last, the deal is done. I speculated back in March that the most likely bidder to buy Dorchester’s catalogue was Amazon, and a few weeks ago, that guess was confirmed when it was publicly announced that Amazon was the sole bidder so far in an auction for Dorchester’s titles.
Today, Amazon issued the following press release noting that the deal is completed and they have finally acquired over 1,000 Dorchester titles. I signed an amendment a couple weeks ago that means my first five novels – Covenant, Sacrifice, The 13th, Siren and The Pumpkin Man - will all now be reissued by Amazon’s 47 North imprint. That means they’ll be available in paperback format again, as well as continue in ebook. And it means I’ll actually see royalties from them again!
Here’s the press release that started circulating an hour or so ago:
Amazon Publishing Acquires Publication Contracts to Over 1000 Books from Dorchester Publishing
SEATTLE—August 30, 2012—Amazon Publishing today announced that it has acquired through an auction the publication contracts of over 1000 books from Dorchester Publishing. As part of the process, Dorchester authors were offered the opportunity to join Amazon Publishing and receive the full back royalties that Dorchester indicated were owed.
“Working with the Dorchester author community during this auction process has been a tremendous experience for all of us,” said Philip Patrick, Business Development Director at Amazon Publishing. “We are happy to be able to pay their back royalties and we’re thrilled to welcome them to the Amazon Publishing family.”
“Amazon Publishing is breathing new life into my series, and I’m very excited to see what the future holds,” said Tracy Madison, award-winning author of the Gypsy Magic series.
“I am excited beyond words about being offered this chance to join Amazon Publishing. I cannot thank them enough for stepping in and giving former Dorchester authors the chance to move ahead,” said Deborah MacGillivray, author and agent of the late Dawn Thompson, author of The Ravening. “Dawn literally lived for her writing. Amazon Publishing is helping me safeguard Dawn’s legacy, and to see that new readers can continue to find her books,” said Dawn’s sister, Diane Thompson.
“This new relationship will enable the works of countless talented fiction writers to serve their established readers and reach new ones across the globe,” said Gregg Loomis, author of The Bonaparte Secret.
“The transition from Dorchester to Amazon Publishing means that our authors will now be able to reach so many more readers and markets worldwide than they ever could before. That truly is something to celebrate,” said Vicky Piekarski and Jon Tuska, co-owners of Golden West Literary Agency, in a joint statement.
Going forward, the acquired Dorchester titles will be published under the appropriate Amazon Publishing imprints: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror titles to 47North; Romance titles to Montlake Romance; Mystery and Thriller titles to Thomas & Mercer; Westerns and other titles to AmazonEncore. Titles will be available both in print and as Kindle books. Under the terms of Amazon’s bid, any former Dorchester Publishing authors that chose not to work with Amazon Publishing will have their rights revert back to them to pursue other publishing opportunities including self-publishing via the Kindle Direct Publishing platform.
Amazon Publishing is the publishing arm of Amazon.com. Amazon Publishing’s West Coast Group includes imprints AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing, Montlake Romance, Thomas & Mercer, and 47North. Amazon Publishing’s East Coast Group publishes adult trade, children’s and young adult titles. For more information about all imprints of Amazon Publishing, visit www.amazon.com/amazonpublishing. Amazon Publishing is a brand used by Amazon Content Services, LLC.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. The new latest generation Kindle is the lightest, most compact Kindle ever and features the same 6-inch, most advanced electronic ink display that reads like real paper even in bright sunlight. Kindle Touch is a new addition to the Kindle family with an easy-to-use touch screen that makes it easier than ever to turn pages, search, shop, and take notes – still with all the benefits of the most advanced electronic ink display. Kindle Touch 3G is the top of the line e-reader and offers the same new design and features of Kindle Touch, with the unparalleled added convenience of free 3G. Kindle Fire is the Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games and web browsing with all the content, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, Whispersync, Amazon Silk (Amazon’s new revolutionary cloud-accelerated web browser), vibrant color touch screen, and powerful dual-core processor.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, and www.amazon.es. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
August 26, 2012
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-08-26
Off to one of my favorite places on Earth: Santa Fe. New Mexico chilies, beware! #
Pre-order APPALACHIAN UNDEAD to get zombie stories by me, Jonathan Maberry, Gary Braunbeck…plus a free movie! http://t.co/a3GSCIzA #
Huge thanks to @RichardPF for the amazing "Dark Dark and Twisted" review of NIGHTWHERE that he just posted on Amazon: http://t.co/7qGqPvbQ #
