Chris Holm's Blog, page 36
January 3, 2013
Two New Best-Ofs
Today brings news of two new year-end best-of inclusions for the Collector series! First, Paperless Reading listed DEAD HARVEST among the Best Debut Novels of 2012. And second, reviewer Terry Weyna gave both DEAD HARVEST and THE WRONG GOODBYE honorable mention in her post of the Best Books of 2012. Thanks to Ken and Terry both!
January 2, 2013
Memorable's good, right?
Jon Jordan, the evil genius behind Crimespree Magazine, just named THE WRONG GOODBYE one of his Most Memorable Reads of 2012! And given the astonishing talent that comprises the rest of the list, I'd say memorable is a good thing, indeed. Thanks, Jon!
Still Feeling the Love in 2013
It's cold. And early. And, much as I would like to continue with my forced-editing-march through THE BIG REAP*, the day job beckons. So I'll keep this short. But good news is good news, regardless of hour or temperature. With that in mind...
Bane of Kings released his list of the 25 Best Books of 2012, and THE WRONG GOODBYE came in at #10!
Also, SFFMeta.com aggregated the Top Fantasy Books of 2012 as determined by average review, and DEAD HARVEST clocks in at #14!
And finally, the folks at Black Gate were kind enough to feature DEAD HARVEST in their recurring New Treasures post, so a hat-tip to them as well.
Thanks, all. Now, off to work for me.
*Note: This was not sarcasm. Forced-editing-marches may not sound like fun to you, but right this sec, there is literally nothing I would rather be doing. Yes, I know it's weird.
Bane of Kings released his list of the 25 Best Books of 2012, and THE WRONG GOODBYE came in at #10!
Also, SFFMeta.com aggregated the Top Fantasy Books of 2012 as determined by average review, and DEAD HARVEST clocks in at #14!
And finally, the folks at Black Gate were kind enough to feature DEAD HARVEST in their recurring New Treasures post, so a hat-tip to them as well.
Thanks, all. Now, off to work for me.
*Note: This was not sarcasm. Forced-editing-marches may not sound like fun to you, but right this sec, there is literally nothing I would rather be doing. Yes, I know it's weird.
Still Feeling the Love from 2013
It's cold. And early. And, much as I would like to continue with my forced-editing-march through THE BIG REAP*, the day job beckons. So I'll keep this short. But good news is good news, regardless of hour or temperature. With that in mind...
Bane of Kings released his list of the 25 Best Books of 2012, and THE WRONG GOODBYE came in at #10!
Also, SFFMeta.com aggregated the Top Fantasy Books of 2012 as determined by average review, and DEAD HARVEST clocks in at #14!
And finally, the folks at Black Gate were kind enough to feature DEAD HARVEST in their recurring New Treasures post, so a hat-tip to them as well.
Thanks, all. Now, off to work for me.
*Note: This was not sarcasm. Forced-editing-marches may not sound like fun to you, but right this sec, there is literally nothing I would rather be doing. Yes, I know it's weird.
Bane of Kings released his list of the 25 Best Books of 2012, and THE WRONG GOODBYE came in at #10!
Also, SFFMeta.com aggregated the Top Fantasy Books of 2012 as determined by average review, and DEAD HARVEST clocks in at #14!
And finally, the folks at Black Gate were kind enough to feature DEAD HARVEST in their recurring New Treasures post, so a hat-tip to them as well.
Thanks, all. Now, off to work for me.
*Note: This was not sarcasm. Forced-editing-marches may not sound like fun to you, but right this sec, there is literally nothing I would rather be doing. Yes, I know it's weird.
January 1, 2013
Lucky '13
So. 2013. Pretty crazy, that. Some folks might not be too wild about a whole year of 13, but me? I don't mind a bit. Hell, my first fiction acceptance was on a Friday the 13th, so maybe 13's lucky for me. Guess we'll find out.
So far so good, says I, because I woke today to a fresh round of year-end book-love.
First, Jenn of Jenn's Bookshelves selected DEAD HARVEST as one of her Rather Lengthy List of Books I Adored This Year. I'm one of four in her horror subsection, alongside Robert Pobi's BLOODMAN, a book that's high on my to-be-read list after having the pleasure of hanging out with Robert in Quebec. I'm honored to share some virtual shelf-space with him here.
Second, OzNoir named THE WRONG GOODBYE one of his Best Reads of 2012, a mere fifteen of the staggering 181 books he read this year! I'm sharing list-space with such staggering talent as Megan Abbott, Donald Ray Pollock, George Pelecanos, James Cain, and Johnny Shaw, so you can be damn sure I'm happy to be on that list.
And last, but certainly not least, The Fiction Stroker called DEAD HARVEST his favorite book of the year in his look back at all things entertainment for 2012.
Thanks, all, for the kind words. It's mighty gratifying to have folks connect with the Collector series. Writing it's a labor of love, to be sure, but without an audience who really gets 'em, what would be the point?
Now, onward and upward. THE BIG REAP still needs finishing, and after that... who knows where the year will take us? Here's hoping it unleashes a baker's dozen of awesome for you and yours.
So far so good, says I, because I woke today to a fresh round of year-end book-love.
First, Jenn of Jenn's Bookshelves selected DEAD HARVEST as one of her Rather Lengthy List of Books I Adored This Year. I'm one of four in her horror subsection, alongside Robert Pobi's BLOODMAN, a book that's high on my to-be-read list after having the pleasure of hanging out with Robert in Quebec. I'm honored to share some virtual shelf-space with him here.
Second, OzNoir named THE WRONG GOODBYE one of his Best Reads of 2012, a mere fifteen of the staggering 181 books he read this year! I'm sharing list-space with such staggering talent as Megan Abbott, Donald Ray Pollock, George Pelecanos, James Cain, and Johnny Shaw, so you can be damn sure I'm happy to be on that list.
And last, but certainly not least, The Fiction Stroker called DEAD HARVEST his favorite book of the year in his look back at all things entertainment for 2012.
Thanks, all, for the kind words. It's mighty gratifying to have folks connect with the Collector series. Writing it's a labor of love, to be sure, but without an audience who really gets 'em, what would be the point?
Now, onward and upward. THE BIG REAP still needs finishing, and after that... who knows where the year will take us? Here's hoping it unleashes a baker's dozen of awesome for you and yours.
December 31, 2012
Two of ten! (Okay, eleven, but still.)
I'm delighted to report that DEAD HARVEST and THE WRONG GOODBYE both made Elizabeth A. White's Top Ten Reads of 2012! (Okay, sure, she cheated and counted them as one spot so's she could still pick nine more, but whatevs. The woman reads 192 books this year; I think she earned the baker's ten.) Thanks, Elizabeth!
December 30, 2012
Auld Lang Syne
Some years, it seems, pass by quietly, without notice: no forward movement, nothing much of note, just a few more gray hairs to show for them, and some hopes and dreams pushed back to be tackled that next year.
Some years, life stacks up, all coming in a rush. When those years hit, all you can do is try your damndest to hold on.
1999 was like that for me. I graduated college. Got engaged. Lost my grandfather, whom I adored. Moved to Virginia to chase my dream of becoming one of those bug-hunters you see in movies like Outbreak and Contagion. Problem was, that dream wasn't me; it was an amalgam of what I thought I wanted, what I'd been good at in school, what other folks expected me to be.
Other folks who weren't my wife-to-be, that was. She saw how unhappy that path made me. Encouraged me to find another path. One mine and mine alone. And so I left grad school. Left Virginia. Left that path behind. And spent a lot of years chasing a new dream: one of becoming a published author.
Many of the years that followed were of the quiet type. Debt paid down and pages written, sure, but not the kind of progress that I hungered for. I wondered if I'd been wrong. If I'd made a bad decision. If I'd abandoned a perfectly fine path, a perfectly comfortable life, because it wasn't quite what I had hoped it would be. But I kept on down my new path anyway, because I didn't know what else to do but see it through.
Now I know better. Now I know that comfort is the enemy of happiness.
Looking back on 2012, I'm elated I was too butt-stubborn to give up. This year stacked up big-time, and with more good than bad by a damn sight. In February, I released my first novel, and people seemed to really like it. In September, my second, and most folks liked that one, too. I saw two of my oldest friends get married. I ate the best pork chop of my life in Cleveland, Ohio, at at table overflowing with my favorite folks. Had greasy, delicious poutine and fine Scotch with new friends and talented wordsmiths in Quebec. Spent one of the best weekends of my life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin of all places. I read in front of packed houses, and, but for store employees, one empty one as well. And I wrote my ass off, too, finishing three books in one year. HIT, I began writing in October of '11, and finished the end of June. PROOF, which started life as THE ANGELS' SHARE, went through many rewrites starting the day I'd finished HIT, and emerged quite different come September. And the third in my Collector series, THE BIG REAP, I broke ground on as soon as I sent off PROOF, finishing not ten seconds before I began this post, in draft, at least. Not bad for a fella with a day job.
I write this in part because I think it's important to reflect on where I've been and where I'm going. But mostly, I write it by way of thanks. The book community I've fallen in with as a result of all the ink I've spilled since I first set out down this path has enriched my life in ways I can scarcely find the words to describe. I'm truly honored to count those in it as my friends, my tribe, my home.
It's been a hell of a year for me, y'all, and it's been that way because of you. So thanks. And cheers. I hope your next year returns your kindness tenfold.
Some years, life stacks up, all coming in a rush. When those years hit, all you can do is try your damndest to hold on.
1999 was like that for me. I graduated college. Got engaged. Lost my grandfather, whom I adored. Moved to Virginia to chase my dream of becoming one of those bug-hunters you see in movies like Outbreak and Contagion. Problem was, that dream wasn't me; it was an amalgam of what I thought I wanted, what I'd been good at in school, what other folks expected me to be.
Other folks who weren't my wife-to-be, that was. She saw how unhappy that path made me. Encouraged me to find another path. One mine and mine alone. And so I left grad school. Left Virginia. Left that path behind. And spent a lot of years chasing a new dream: one of becoming a published author.
Many of the years that followed were of the quiet type. Debt paid down and pages written, sure, but not the kind of progress that I hungered for. I wondered if I'd been wrong. If I'd made a bad decision. If I'd abandoned a perfectly fine path, a perfectly comfortable life, because it wasn't quite what I had hoped it would be. But I kept on down my new path anyway, because I didn't know what else to do but see it through.
Now I know better. Now I know that comfort is the enemy of happiness.
Looking back on 2012, I'm elated I was too butt-stubborn to give up. This year stacked up big-time, and with more good than bad by a damn sight. In February, I released my first novel, and people seemed to really like it. In September, my second, and most folks liked that one, too. I saw two of my oldest friends get married. I ate the best pork chop of my life in Cleveland, Ohio, at at table overflowing with my favorite folks. Had greasy, delicious poutine and fine Scotch with new friends and talented wordsmiths in Quebec. Spent one of the best weekends of my life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin of all places. I read in front of packed houses, and, but for store employees, one empty one as well. And I wrote my ass off, too, finishing three books in one year. HIT, I began writing in October of '11, and finished the end of June. PROOF, which started life as THE ANGELS' SHARE, went through many rewrites starting the day I'd finished HIT, and emerged quite different come September. And the third in my Collector series, THE BIG REAP, I broke ground on as soon as I sent off PROOF, finishing not ten seconds before I began this post, in draft, at least. Not bad for a fella with a day job.
I write this in part because I think it's important to reflect on where I've been and where I'm going. But mostly, I write it by way of thanks. The book community I've fallen in with as a result of all the ink I've spilled since I first set out down this path has enriched my life in ways I can scarcely find the words to describe. I'm truly honored to count those in it as my friends, my tribe, my home.
It's been a hell of a year for me, y'all, and it's been that way because of you. So thanks. And cheers. I hope your next year returns your kindness tenfold.
I think this makes me an honorary member of Sleater-Kinney...
Adam Christopher, ace author of the wildly ambitious and critically lauded EMPIRE STATE (and also all-around nice fellow and great geek-entertainment conversationalist on Twitter) put together a list of his Favourite Things of 2012 (the "u" is his, obviously), and DEAD HARVEST is on it! I'm honored to've made such a fine list, featuring fellow authors Stephen Blackmoore, Owen Laukkanen, Greg Rucka, and John Hornor Jacobs, and some great music and televisual picks as well! (Punk-geek side note: this is likely the first and last time I ever hit the same best-of list as Corin Tucker.)
And Abhinav Jain of Angels of Retribution, who recently named DEAD HARVEST one of his Best Debuts of 2012, has just released his Best of the Best list, on which THE WRONG GOODBYE earns an honorable mention nod for Best Novel.
Thanks, Adam and Abhinav, for the kind mentions.
And Abhinav Jain of Angels of Retribution, who recently named DEAD HARVEST one of his Best Debuts of 2012, has just released his Best of the Best list, on which THE WRONG GOODBYE earns an honorable mention nod for Best Novel.
Thanks, Adam and Abhinav, for the kind mentions.
December 29, 2012
Cover Me
The Qwillery is hosting a Best Debut Cover of 2012 competition, and DEAD HARVEST is among the covers up for vote! If you're reading this, you're eligible, so what're you waiting for? Get over there, and make with the democracy. (Also, you know, fingers crossed you vote for me.)
Fantastically Fantastical!
Today, A Fantastical Librarian announced her list of Favourite 2012 Debuts, and DEAD HARVEST was on it, alongside fellow Angry Roboters Anne Lyle, Cassandra Rose Clarke, and Madeline Ashby, as well as a host of other mightily talented folks.
And yes, that's "Favourite" with a "u." On account of I'm so international and stuff. In fact, since Mieneke, the keeper of the list, is from the Netherlands, I plan on using this as evidence that I am, as cheesy rock bands have dubiously declared for decades, big in Europe.
Thanks, Mieneke!
And yes, that's "Favourite" with a "u." On account of I'm so international and stuff. In fact, since Mieneke, the keeper of the list, is from the Netherlands, I plan on using this as evidence that I am, as cheesy rock bands have dubiously declared for decades, big in Europe.
Thanks, Mieneke!
