Matt Ruff's Blog, page 28
March 17, 2016
In Vancouver tomorrow night
Earlier this week I chatted on the phone with April Snellings of Rue Morgue magazine. The interview is up on the magazine’s website today.
Tomorrow I head up to Canada for a reading and signing at Pulpfiction Books in Vancouver, BC; I’ll be at the Main Street store, starting at 7 PM. Should be an exciting trip. The train tracks north of Seattle have been closed for the past couple days due to landslides. They’re open again now, but if I get bored with the Amtrak wifi, I can watch for falling rocks.
This will the last official stop in the Lovecraft Country book tour, but I’ve got a couple other events coming up in the months ahead:
On Friday, April 8, from 11 AM to noon, I’ll be at Emerald City Comicon, signing books at the University Book Store booth (#5100).
On Saturday, July 23, starting at 4:30 PM, I’ll be reading and signing books at the LoveCraft Brewing Company (yes, really!) in Bremerton, WA.
March 14, 2016
Bavaria NW
Willkommen to America
Over the weekend I was in Leavenworth, Washington, a former railroad-and-timber town that reimagined itself as a Bavarian theme village in the late 1960s. The local indie bookstore, A Book For All Seasons, is always one of my favorite tour stops.
I also gave a reading at the Wenatchee Public Library. It turns out Nancy Pearl had been there a week earlier, saying nice things about Lovecraft Country and The Mirage, so we had a great crowd. Thanks to everyone who showed up!
My next event will be this Friday, March 18, at Pulpfiction Books on Main Street in Vancouver, BC, starting at 7 PM.
In related news:
* A recently discovered typewritten manuscript of The Cancer of Superstition, coauthored by H.P. Lovecraft and Harry Houdini, will be offered at auction by Chicago’s Potter & Potter Auctions on Saturday, April 9. For an estimated $25,000-$40,000, it could be yours! You can download a copy of the auction catalog here.
March 10, 2016
Lovecraft Country, now on YouTube
As promised, here’s the video of last Friday’s reading and Q&A at the University Book Store.
My next two live appearances will be this Saturday, March 12, at A Book for All Seasons in Leavenworth, WA (signing books, 11 AM-1 PM) and the Wenatchee Public Library (reading & signing, 2 PM).
Also:
* On Tuesday, I did an online interview with Bill Kenower of Author Magazine. You can listen to that here.
* Paul Di Filippo reviewed Lovecraft Country for Locus online. Spoiler: he liked it.
* Via @bylisagold, a story about the Neglected Books blog, which seeks to rescue forgotten books from obscurity. New Yorker article here, actual blog here.
* And finally, this week’s cute odd couple tale comes from Brazil, where a retired bricklayer and a Magellanic penguin have adopted one another.
March 7, 2016
Monday notes, with bonus tentacles
* Despite the rain, we had nice turnout for Friday’s event at University Book Store. For those of you who missed it, I left behind a stack of signed books, and a video of the reading and Q&A should be online soon.
* On Saturday, Lisa and I attended the Literary Lions Gala, a fundraiser for the King County library system. Nancy Pearl emceed and Ruth Reichl was the featured speaker, but the high point of the evening for me was meeting GeekGirlCon cofounder and all-around superfan Adrienne Fox, who showed up at my signing table with Lovecraft Country inspired Cthulhu nails.
* The other high point of the evening was Nancy Pearl giving Lovecraft Country a special shout-out from the stage. And here she is on the podcast That Stack of Books, saying more nice things. Thanks, Nancy!
* Locus magazine, which already gave Lovecraft Country a thumbs-up in their January issue, has another glowing review this month, this time by Tim Pratt: “[The] characters are some of the most fully realized and human I’ve ever encountered, neither idealized nor stereotyped: they are people, with their own flaws and virtues, all shaped by their experiences with systemic oppression and personal prejudice, and all coping in different ways that consistently ring true psychologically. The sections of the novel are interwoven beautifully, telling miniature stories while advancing the overall plot, and provide an array of differing viewpoints and visions of a complex and dangerous world. The book is often harrowing, yes, but it’s also a testament to the power of family, community, ingenuity, and love to overcome (or at least cope with) unendurable horrors. It might be my favorite Matt Ruff novel yet, and that’s saying something.”
* Via io9: artist Steve Thomas has created a set of Lovecraft-themed travel posters. You can buy prints of them here.
* Next Saturday, March 12, I’ll be traveling east of the Cascades for events at A Book for All Seasons in Leavenworth, WA (signing books, 11 AM-1 PM) and the Wenatchee Public Library (reading & signing, 2 PM).
March 4, 2016
Some Friday links
* The trailer for the Ghostbusters reboot dropped this week. Die hard Melissa McCarthy fan that I am, I really want to give it the benefit of the doubt, but I think I’d have gone a different way with the Leslie Jones character.
* In Entertainment Weekly, actor Ernie Hudson shares his own bittersweet memories of appearing in the original Ghostbusters.
* From Virginia, my old college pal Jeff Schwaner sends a link to an article in the News Leader about Beyoncé’s “Formation,” the Negro Motorist Green Book, and why black travelers in the Jim Crow South had to carry their own condiments and utensils.
* Via Twitter: the first letter Kurt Vonnegut wrote to his family after surviving captivity in Germany and the firebombing of Dresden. (The text is from the book Letters of Note, by Shaun Usher.)
* And finally, one last reminder that I’ll be reading from Lovecraft Country tonight at the University Book Store, at 7 PM.
March 3, 2016
Tomorrow night at University Book Store
A reminder that I’ll be reading and signing books tomorrow night at the University Book Store, starting at 7 PM. This will be my last public Seattle-area event for the current book tour, so if you’ve been wanting to catch my act, come on down. (If you can’t make it to the reading but would like to get a book inscribed, you can call the store in advance and they’ll make sure it’s taken care of.)
It’s still early days but the novel seems to be doing well so far: Lovecraft Country is #6 on the PNBA indie bestseller list for the second week in a row, and it also made the national bestsellers extended list. I also got a surprise shout-out on local TV yesterday, demonstrating once again that librarians are awesome.
March 1, 2016
Home from the country
Sunriver, Oregon
I had a wonderful time in Oregon over the weekend. Saturday night’s reading at Sunriver Books & Music was well-attended despite competition from the local dinner theater group, and Sunday morning before my flight out I had time to go for a long hike and commune with the geese using the Sunriver golf course as a winter stopover.
Powell’s on Sunday night was a pleasure as always, and I signed at least a hundred copies of Lovecraft Country for stock, so if you missed the reading you can still pick one up.
My next event will be a reading and signing at the University Book Store on Friday, March 4, at 7 PM. This will be my last public Seattle-area appearance on the current book tour. If you can’t make it but would like to get a book inscribed, the store is accepting advance orders.
February 26, 2016
This weekend at Sunriver Books and Powell’s
I had a great time last night at my old neighborhood indie bookstore, Queen Anne Book Company. They now have many signed copies of Lovecraft Country.
This weekend I head to Oregon for two more events. I’ll be reading and signing books tomorrow at Sunriver Books & Music, starting at 5 PM. On Sunday, I’ll be at Powell’s City of Books at Burnside at 7:30 PM.
If you’re in Seattle and haven’t caught my act yet, you’ll have one more chance next Friday, March 4, when I’ll be reading at the U.W. University Book Store, starting at 7 PM.
Also:
* Nancy Pearl gave Lovecraft Country a shout-out on Twitter!
February 23, 2016
Thursday night at Queen Anne Book Company
My next event for Lovecraft Country will be a reading followed by Q&A and book signing at the Queen Anne Book Company this Thursday night, starting at 7 PM.
Some other quick notes:
* Over the weekend I signed books at the Seattle Mystery Bookshop. Hanging out with the customers and staff was fun as always, and this time I got a ghost story in the bargain—it turns out the Broderick Building, where the bookstore is located, is supposedly haunted by a dead man in a bowler hat.
* The UK travel agency The Co-operative Travel has picked Lovecraft Country as a “fantastic holiday read for 2016.” The whole list is worth checking out—I’m in good company.
* In addition to some very nice reviews of the novel’s contents, I’m also getting a lot of positive comments about Lovecraft Country‘s cover art and physical design. The artist’s name is Jarrod Taylor. You can see more of his work here, including an alternate concept for the cover of The Mirage.
February 19, 2016
For the weekend: Langston Hughes’ playlist
Langston Hughes (left) and a 1954 iPod being serviced by AppleCare technicians (right)
At Wednesday night’s reading at Third Place Books, an audience member asked me about the music I listen to while I’m writing, which reminded me of something I’d come across during my research for Lovecraft Country. In the July 3, 1954 edition of The Chicago Defender, Langston Hughes devoted his weekly column to a discussion of his own musical tastes, including a list of “some of my all-time favorites” (YouTube links added where available):
AFTER HOURS — Erskine Hawkins
SO LONG — The Charioteers
DEAR OLD SOUTHLAND — Duke Ellington
RAG MOP — Lionel Hampton
OPEN THE DOOR RICHARD — Dusty Fletcher
WEST END BLUES — Ethel Waters
SEE SEE RIDER — Bea Booze
BIG NOISE FROM WINNETKA — Bob Crosby
GOOD MORNING BLUES — Count Basie
SEPTEMBER SONG — Walter Huston
BLACK NIGHT — Charles Brown
YELLOW DOG BLUES — Bessie Smith
MARDI GRAS IN NEW ORLEANS — Professor Longhair
LOVE CAN HURT YOU — Juanita Hall
DEPUIS LE JOUR — Dorothy Maynor
CANTE FLAMENCO — La Niña de los Peines
SATURDAY NIGHT FISH FRY — Pearl Bailey & Jackie Mabley
CARELESS LOVE — Josh White
BEGIN THE BEGUINE — Tiny Grimes
WINTER WONDERLAND — Henry Bonnemere
EMPTY SPACE — Lyn with Jimmy Jones
TEA FOR TWO — Willie Smith Quintet
ME AND MY CHAUFFEUR — Memphis Minnie
AHI VIENE LA CONGA — Nilo Menendez
STRAIGHTEN UP AND FLY RIGHT — Nat King Cole
Hughes goes on to discuss other musicians and pieces he likes, offering alternative suggestions for readers who can’t get their hands on the original tracks: “If you haven’t heard Lloyd Glenn’s ‘Chica Boo’ read Dorothy Parker’s poetry… And if you’ve never heard Bessie Smith’s ‘Backwater Blues’ then study the Book of Job.”
The Chicago Defender‘s archive has been digitized, and should be available at any good research library. (I got my back issues from the Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington.) Hughes’ column appears on page 11 of the paper.
