John Quick's Blog, page 2

All in the Name of Relaxation

Sometimes you just need to get away, even if it's just for a night. The real fun comes when even your escape refuses to let you free from the stress you were trying to avoid.

I'll explain. As a caution, this is a long post, though I think you'll find it amusing enough. Looking back on it, I certainly do....

A while back, I saw that Brian Keene was going to be at ConNooga in Chattanooga, a pretty easy 2 hour drive for me. I looked at my day job schedule and finances, and found that it was possib...

On the Horizon

It's been a busy week for me, and one where I haven't managed to get a lot of actual writing done. That always leaves me feeling out-of-sorts, but sometimes it's just unavoidable. I have made some progress on both SATYR and WARLOCK, as well as knocking out the prologue of my modern-day fairy-tale that will be up after one of those is done. Also, since my brain never seems to shut off, I've been tinkering with other ideas. So, in the interest of helping myself keep things straight, here's what...

Today Was a Good Day

Not one, but TWO cool things happened in the writing world today!
First, I officially signed with Bloodshot Books for the release of WHAT SLEEPS BENEATH, my coming-of-age / vampire novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo in 2016! Watch for it late this year or early next year. To whet your interest, here's the pitch I gave Pete Kahle to get him hooked:

"All Ryan wanted from life was to be cool enough to hook up with the girl of his dreams. If that meant breaking into the town’s abandoned asylum and stealin...

Exploring the Great Divide

Garbage. Unsatisfying. A waste of time. Audience rating of 53% on Rotten Tomatoes.

And yet also:

Awesome. Incredible. The epic we've been waiting for. Critic rating of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I'm talking, of course, about The Last Jedi, AKA Star Wars Episode VIII, AKA the newest divisive chapter in the long-running saga. What amazes me is how there seems to be absolutely no middle ground in reactions this time, aside from a very, very small few. I find it interesting enough that instead of doing...

Jeremy Todd Speaks, and So Do I

A little late sharing this out, but I did an interview with The Gal in the Blue Mask book blog , and it went up a few days ago. As an added bonus, you can also check out a character interview she did with Jeremy Todd, the "author" of THE JOURNAL OF JEREMY TODD! Make sure to give them a look!
Jeremy Todd's interview.
My interview.
Both will be up on the Publicity page very shortly.

MUDCAT: Release, Pre-Order, and Promotion

The time is coming fast, now: MUDCAT is about to escape into the world.


The date is set: December 5, 2017, and you can pre-order it now using the link on the right side of this page! Digital edition will be $3.99, the paperback is TBA (but yes, there will be both)! Stay tuned for updates regarding the promotional tour stops online as they are announced by JEA Press.
Make sure to also keep tabs on their page at http://www.jellingtonashton.com/ for more information as well!

Cover Reveal: MUDCAT

You know what? I love this so much, I'm not even going to build it up first. Without further ado, here's the full print cover for MUDCAT!


Click the image to make it bigger, so you can enjoy it at full size!
Thanks go out to the appropriately named Michael "Fish" Fisher for his incredible work on this one, and for elevating my "B-Movie" theme into an "A" cover.
Look for it to escape very, very soon!
#MudcatLives

The Fun of Writing Fantasy

I have two loves when it comes to fiction: horror and fantasy. Just as I've lost myself in a novel by Stephen King or Jack Ketchum, Richard Laymon or Brian Keene, so, too have I gone to other worlds in tales by Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, Patrick Rothfuss, and George R.R. Martin. By extension, I've tried my hand at writing fantasy, too, to mixed results.

One of the first original novels I did was fantasy. I intended for it to be the first of a series, and while I think there were some go...

I Definitely Know How to Run My Mouth

September is creeping into October, Halloween is almost upon us (yay!), and looking back, I've had a productive summer. THE JOURNAL OF JEREMY TODD came out near the end of July, I hit Scares That Care Charity Weekend days later, and I've done three different podcast interviews that came out since then where I've talked about JEREMY TODD, CONSEQUENCES, and dropped some hints about my forthcoming novel from JEA Press, MUDCAT. In case you missed any, here they were:

Arm Cast Podcast Episode 165,...

You'll Float, Too: My Review of Stephen King's "IT: Chapter One"

Adapting a novel to another medium is no easy task. Add in a previous adaptation that has achieved a level of cult success, and things get even harder. When the work in question is from Stephen King, a man whose career is littered with a series of hit-or-miss (mostly miss) adaptations to the screen, the task might even start to border on the impossible. Finally, consider that the source material is a whopping 1,000+ pages, and many would prefer to give up before they even begin. The odds are...