Hugh Howey's Blog, page 90
June 11, 2012
To “The One Thousand…”
I’ll never forget discovering Blind Melon. It was a bootlegged cassette passed from a friend in Raleigh to another friend in my small North Carolina hometown. I wore that cassette out, let me tell you. I got my best friend hooked. I got my brother hooked. It didn’t come out of my car for weeks and weeks. And then we heard they were coming to town.
They played in some club in Charlotte. I feel like the word “elevator” or the number “13″ was in the title. My brother would remember. Anyway, this place is the size of two living rooms. The stage was about eighteen inches off the ground. And there were probably 100-150 of us packed in there. My brother and I staked out positions right in front of the stage. Shannon Hoon, a ridiculous talent who died much too young, was screaming and jamming out a foot away from us. I’m pretty sure I touched him. I was that creepy dude. I knew every lyric and sang them all.
It was the only time I’d ever body surfed a crowd. At one point, my brother and I were both riding the crowd, which was going absolutely nuts, and we bumped into each other, and my brother and I embraced as much as two crowd-surfing dudes can awkwardly embrace, and we were screaming out how much we loved each other and what a righteous fucking night it was and how glorious to be alive and all that heady bullshit that comes from drink and loud music and the madness of a small riot.
And life rarely gets better than this. We witnessed greatness that we had discovered on our own. We saw it up close and personal. And then we sat back on our couches and tuned in as that talent exploded. The next time I saw Blind Melon in concert, it was in a massive stadium from a thousand rows back as they opened for Lenny Kravitz. It wasn’t even close to the same concert, but I loved seeing “my band” up there.
Let’s be straight: I’m no Shannon Hoon. Which is fine. I’ll take my lesser talents and longer life any day. I doubt I could handle half of what that man went through. The only comparison I want to make is the rabid fanbase one acquires from being independent. From being discovered and re-discovered via word of mouth. My readers are fucking awesome. I’ve blogged about this repeatedly (here’s where a less lazy blogger would include links. All I have is a search bar up there. Which someone else installed, because I’m a lazy blogger).
I’m approaching my point, hang in there.
A few weeks ago, my FB friends started a discussion. The number of followers was approaching 1,000, and they began to warn me of the FB limit of 5,000, and that I would soon be bumping up against this. Several readers wanted to point out that they had been on the Wool bandwagon from the beginning (even better: on the Molly bandwagon long before that). So the concept of The One Thousand arose. My first 1,000 fans. The people who told people who told people, which made Wool a success at all.
I’ve already let slip the fact that the next Wool book (or perhaps I, Zombie) will be dedicated to The One Thousand. It doesn’t mean I don’t love the next thousand readers, but it’s a nod to how important the grassroots beginnings have been, and that these readers will always be near and dear to me. I owe everything to their enthusiasm and efforts.
The same goes for all the Amazon reviewers (and Goodreads and B&N and LibraryThing, etc.) The call for more Wool began with Amazon reviews. There would be no Omnibus, no Juliette, without that feedback and encouragement. And so, as I sit on 999 reviews for the Wool Omnibus, with only a handful of those from people who have never read the book (looking at you, Pink Prose and Trashy Romance), I wanted to take a moment and thank each and every one of you. Yeah, I’ve read them all. I have refrained from commenting on every single one (how creepy can I get?), but I have said hello to many. Thank you for taking the time to tell me and others what you thought of this series. Thank you even to those who took umbrage with some decisions and spelled out their dislikes with specifics. I get up in the morning and I write because there are signs out there that I’m being read. I can’t state strongly enough what a huge influence this is on me, and how much it means to my fragile ego.
To The One Thousand. I give you all six stars. Don’t spend them all at once.
June 10, 2012
Tweet Love from Rick Riordan
It’s hard to top Joel McHale Tweeting about you. Unless Rick Riordan comes along and calls your book “top notch.” Can you dig this? The bestselling author of the awesome Percy Jackson series sat down (one presumes) and read WOOL. A self-published collection of short stories and novellas largely written during NaNoWriMo.
The universe is out of whack. I’m expecting a well-aimed meteorite will soon correct this…
June 6, 2012
Life on Jupiter
The last week has been a mind-numbing blur. I feel like I’m just tackling the thing in front of my nose, hoping to do it well, then hitting the next thing. ConCarolinas was a blast, and came right on the heels of my trip to NYC to meet with several publishers. The day after the Con, we stuffed our U-Haul and drove 12 hours to Jupiter, FL. Just an hour from our new house, I suffered a blow-out. It sounded like a cannon going off inside the container. After a two-hour delay, I finally joined my wife and dog at our new home.
It didn’t feel much like a home last night. All we had was a mattress inside, as the movers we lined up here bailed on us. A neighbor came through with his own movers this morning, and we were able to empty the truck and get it returned. We rewarded ourselves with a quick jaunt to the beach, then ran a crapload of errands before coming home and tackling box after box.
It feels a little more like our home, now. Still a ton to do. Hopefully, by the start of next week, I’ll be back in the swing of things. I’m already planning on getting out over a dozen signed books tomorrow, which will relieve some stress. Now to get some writing done, so I can feel somewhat normal…
June 3, 2012
An Update on Signed Books
Believe it or not, in the midst of all this moving nonsense, I’m still printing mailing labels, signing books, and stuffing them into padded mailers. I will be a little behind, as I had to ship books to the Florida address rather than chance missing them in passing. So, some of the recent orders will go out next week. I’m used to getting these out the day after they are placed, so I’m frustrated with the effect the move is having on my system. Everything should be back to normal soon.
June 1, 2012
Charlotte Meet-Up!
A bit impromptu, but it looks like it’s happening anyway. I know of a few people who want to get together during ConCarolinas, not all of whom are attendees. So I think we’re gonna go somewhere for food Saturday night. The panels from 6:00 – 8:00 aren’t all that enticing, so that might be a good time.
ConCarolinas is taking place in the Hilton Hotel at University Place (near UNC Charlotte). Not sure yet where we’re gonna eat, but it’ll be someplace close by. Maybe we’ll have pizza delivered and eat by the pool. Who knows. So let’s just plan on meeting in the lobby (right inside the front doors) at 6:00.
And if there’s just four of us, no problem. If there’s fourteen, maybe we’ll go on a raid, or something. Beat up some Klingons.
Live-Blogging ConCarolinas 2012
3:09 P.M. – I’m late to the first panel. Can’t find the staircase.
ConCarolinas 2012
I’m back from NYC and checked into our hotel room at ConCarolinas 2012. Looking forward to some entertaining panels, meeting new people, and not seeing the piles of boxes in our house.
It’s cool that a work convention can feel like a little vacation from all the chaos lately. Monday morning begins the physical process of loading the U-Haul. Tuesday evening, Amber and I will be in our new home in Jupiter, FL. I can’t wait to update the site from there, maybe show some “before” pictures, and begin the process of settling down and returning to some semblance of a routine.
For now, though, it’s time to just enjoy ourselves and the geek-fest that’s about to begin! If you happen to attend, we’re trying to get a group together for dinner on Saturday, so join up with us. I’ll be wearing the blue coveralls tomorrow. Yes, there will be pointing and laughter. I’m acclimated.
May 31, 2012
Holy crap, I have the awesomest fans!
Well, I didn’t look like an asshole last night. At least, not for the reason I feared. I would guess we had 20 or so readers show up at Lillie’s Victorian. It could have been more, because the hostess screwed up the reservations and had us at the front of the bar instead of back by the fireplace. But no matter, we had a blast.
I want to thank everyone for showing up and for being so damned awesome. The best part of the night, for me, was looking up and seeing former strangers talking about everything not-Wool. The group just gelled.
It also turned into something of an all-star author meet-up. Matthew Mather (author of the fantastic ATOPIA series) made an appearance, as did Dave Cullen, who wrote one of my favorite books, COLUMBINE. Kristin Nelson, my dynamite agent, stayed for a while. And Tim O’Connell, one of the rising stars at Knopf/Random House, stayed until after midnight.
I look forward to everyone sharing the pics they took, hearing what they thought of the evening, and seeing how fast all the spoilers I doled out permeate the interwebs. Yeah, the meet-up crowd knows more about the Wooliverse than anyone other than me. I believe a napkin full of schematics was smuggled out of the joint at some point…
It was a magical night for me. It must’ve been: I never stay up past midnight. So thank you to everyone who made it and to everyone who really wanted to be there but couldn’t. One of the highlights of my journey thus far, without doubt.
May 28, 2012
NYC! Come hang out on Wednesday!
Come hang out with me this Wednesday, the 30th, at Lillie’s Victorian Bar and Restaurant. It’s right at Union Square, which is great for most trains. I’m planning on hanging out from 8:00 until 10:30 or so. The last time we did this, there were eight or so of us, and the time just flew by. It was a blast. I expect this meet-up to be no different.
Oh, and we’ve got the primo table reserved. A big square sucker back in front of the fireplace. So I need at least 11 of you to show up, otherwise I’ll look like an asshole.
Don’t let me look like an asshole.
USA Today’s Bestseller List
This is something I never thought I’d see: One of my books on a national bestseller list. I’m #98 in USA Today among all books.
I remember the first time I popped onto any list of any sort. It was the Science Fiction > Anthologies list on Amazon with the very first Wool book. I think it happened back in October or November of last year. It began my obsession with screen-capping my books on lists, always assuming they were about to drop right back off.
Still operating under that assumption, so here goes:
