Orrin Grey's Blog: Shovel Murders & Monologues, page 70

A Last-Minute Signal Boost

Today we're going out of town for a few days for a wedding, but before I go I just wanted to post a couple of signal boosts. First off, the fine folks over at Innsmouth Free Press (where I've been known to write a regular column and also the occasional story) are having a donation drive to try to raise $1400 by the end of June. So if you've not been by the site I suggest you give them a look, and if you like what you see then definitely consider donating. It's for a good cause, if I do say so...

Anniversary

I'll keep this short, because we've been doing a lot of things and I'm beat. This week has not exactly gone according to plan so far, but that doesn't matter because eight (8) years ago today I married the most wonderful person in the world and it's still the best decision I ever made.

Plans

As is probably obvious by now, I'm not going to make it to ConQuest this year. More's the pity, since there were people I was hoping to hang out with. Hopefully next year.

I'll also be a little scarcer than usual on the Internet for the next week or so, since tomorrow is the first of a whopping nine days off work for me, and we've got a lot of little oddments planned. Wednesday is our eight-year anniversary, and then the following Saturday my wife's sister is getting married. So, a pretty full...

Stickers

I got a package of stuff from the Art of Mike Mignola site, and everything was adorably individually wrapped and sealed with these incredibly awesome little skull-head guy stickers:



So awesome! I just want to know where I can get some of those stickers! I would stick them on everything.

The Year of Living Nonfictionally

There's a first-line meme going around right now in which I would love to participate, but here's where I have to make a shameful confession. I have exactly zero (0) new fiction projects in the works that are far enough along that they could even be considered projects, let alone that they could have first lines. All I have right now are concepts, thoughts, jumbles, ideas waiting to accrue enough flotsam to become a story. And precious few of those.

(Because for me, writing a story is a lot l...

RIP Frank Frazetta

Whenever someone dies, it's always tempting to find a way to talk about how formative they were on you. I don't know why. I try to avoid doing it too much myself, but one instance where I really can't is the passing of Frank Frazetta.

I can remember in high school reading through my library's remarkably good collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs books, most of them with Frazetta covers and many with interior illustrations as well. Not only did he influence many if not all of my favorite later art...

Unexpected!

Well, that was a surprise!

About three years ago I sold a story called "The Clowder." I was very excited at the time, because it was my first big sale, and one for what would have constituted pro rates when I started out. Unfortunately, it never saw print, or so I thought.

This morning, I logged onto Goodreads and saw that there was one more book than usual on my author page. That's right, it would appear that CAT TALES 2, which features my story, has finally arrived after all!

The story in ques...

Reisz & Francavilla (They're Cops)

Unleashed, a truly excellent YA werewolf novel by Kris Reisz which longtime readers may remember kept me up too late last time I read it, is being re-released in a new trade edition today. In honor of the occasion he is not only running a contest where you can win signed books and artwork, but he's also giving away a free e-book containing four of his short stories.

In the meantime, Francesco Francavilla, one of my favorite non-Mignola artists, is starting a Hellboy week over at his art 'blog,...

Free Comic Book Day 2010

I'm a couple of days late reporting back on this, but my weekend was a little busier than I'd anticipated. So: Free Comic Book Day was a success! Much better than last year. I got the Mouse Guard and Sixth Gun comics, as well as a couple of others. No place I went to had The Tick, but otherwise I'd consider it a good haul. I also bought a super-cheap copy of Death Jr. because it had a Mike Mignola cover and interior art by Ted Naifeh.

That afternoon we also watched the first volume of Batman: ...

Film Columny

In other movie-related news, my column on international horror cinema continues over at Innsmouth Free Press. In April I talked about a couple of creepy Spanish films, one better than the other: Shiver and The Orphanage. I also contributed a book review for Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror.

And if you're interested in some really juicy film-column goodness, Jesse Bullington and Molly Tanzer's DIY Films of High Adventure columns are now going to start appearing at Fantasy Magazine ...