Paul Tremblay's Blog, page 18

Back from WFC, and boy are my arms tired

To quote MCLUSKY: "I'm fearful, I'm fearful, I'm fearful of flyin'. And flyin' is fearful of me."

So, yeah, I don't like to fly. I can't control the lizard part of my brain that screams YOUR BODY SHOULDN'T BE UP HERE, SITTING IN A CHAIR IN THE SKY, AND YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN'T EAT THOSE PRETZELS TOO. Even though, mathematically, I understand the infinitesimal odds of dying in a plane crash. Freaky human, I am.

The short version is that I had one of the best weekends ever. Didn't really participate in much of the con programming. At all. I did a reading (I read "Our Town's Monster," a story I'm shopping around), and attending the big Chizine fall release party. At the party, I did a punk rock reading from "The Teacher." I think I'll swear at all audiences before reading from now on.

I won't name drop, but I pretty much got to eat with and speak with who I wanted to. I even got lifted in the air once. There might be a picture of that some day. To old friends and new, thanks for the great weekend, and I can't wait for the next one.

On the plane ride home, in between bouts of abject terror, I talked with a guy who thought the con was okay, but that he was shy and he had a hard time connecting with folks, etc. I couldn't help but think back to my first few cons (because it's always about me!) and how I worked myself in a veritable lather over shyness/self-esteem issue. Hell, at World Horror in 2002, I spent most of the time napping in my hotel room because I was so frazzled about the whole thing. But, the con experience for me got better. Partly because I got used to it, got used to myself being there, if that makes sense. But mostly the con experience has improved because I'm lucky there's an insane bunch of fools who share my interests and who actually tolerate my presence. And my presents.

Group hug for the lot of yas. Now go buy my book.

Guest Blogger: Nate Southard

Please put your virtual hands together for Nate! And Enjoy!

HORROR ON THE CRIME SHELF

By Nate Southard

Hi there.  For those of you who don't know me, I'm Nate Southard.  I write scary stuff.  Whew!  Glad we got that out of the way.

Paul was kind enough to let me hijack his blog for the day.  He did this because he's a great guy, and because he wants me to destroy the negatives I have locked in a floor safe.  My father taught me many things, but what I most remember was when he told me, "Nothing greases the wheels like incriminating photos."

Thank you.  Enjoy the veal.

In all seriousness, I'm running a blog tour this week, bouncing around from friend to friend like a drunk sorority girl.  Yesterday, I wrote a guest essay for Lee Thomas' blog (http://leethomas.livejournal.com/185855.html).  I wanted to use my time at Paul's place to talk a little bit about one of my favorite topics: the blending of the crime and horror genres.

For years, I read horror almost exclusively.  I know, I know.  I never said I was cultured, smart, or handsome (feel free to correct me on any of those).  After years of seeing what the latest crop of horror writers had to offer, I started looking for something else.  I was kind of mired in a certain corner of the genre, and it really felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again.  I branched out by diving into crime fiction, and I found a lot of it to be just as terrifying as the books on the horror shelf, if not more so. 

See, a lot of the horror I was reading at the time (and much of the horror that can be found in today's small press and some of the majors) was concerned with big things.  They were, for the most part, stories about the apocalypse and demons and monsters.  It didn't matter if they were vampires, zombies, werewolves, or something completely new.  Everything was big and epic.  I couldn't find a lot of intimacy there.  The crime fiction I started reading provided that intimacy.  These were stories of broken people, isolated from the world by tragedy or choice, and the events that unfold around them become horrifying as a result. 

But sometimes, the horror is more up front and in your face.  The first crime novel I read that had a blatant horror edge was Sacrifice by Andrew Vachss.  In the sixth entry in his Burke Series, Vachss weaves a horrific tale of a gifted boy with multiple personalities, one of which is a monster called Satan's Child.  Vachss ties voodoo, assassins, child pornography, and the "Satanic Panic" of the eighties into something that will leave you shuddering.  The sad part is that Sacrifice, like most of Vachss' work, is based on his own experience as an attorney and investigator.  There's very little make-believe to his fiction.

Though I didn't read it until years later, the amazing Joe R. Lansdale blended horror and crime together beautiful back in 1989 with Cold in July.  In this stirring novel, a father kills a burglar in his living room.  Shortly after, the burglar's father is released from prison and vows revenge.  Things only get worse from there, as terrible truths that neither man suspects come to light, and soon everyone is racing to stop a porn-ring and a ruthless killer.  The scene where the characters sit down to watch one of the ring's tapes is more frightening than most of the horror novels being published today.

A few years back, Tom Piccirilli shifted his focus from horror to crime, and the novels he wrote during that shift are an amazing blend of the two.  The masterpiece of this period is The Dead Letters.  The novel tells the story of Eddie, a man who lost his daughter five years prior, a victim of the serial killer known as Killjoy.  Though Killjoy claimed 21 victims, he abruptly stopped killing, disappearing completely.  Only now Killjoy is communicating with Eddie through letters, and it looks like the killer might be trying to repent.  Piccirilli twists scenes of nail-biting suspense, gut-wrenching horror, and mind-altering surrealism in what is probably his best novel to date.

And then there's Gillian Flynn.

For my money, there is no better writer of both suspense and horror than Flynn.  Her debut novel, Sharp Objects, is the harrowing tale of a reporter returning to her home town to investigate the disappearance of a child.  The reporter is a former cutter, and her entire body is a patchwork of scars.  We meet her mother and sister, and the events that transpire between the three females are enough to send anybody into a gibbering tangle of fear.  The novel's final chapter is a punch right to the gut, and it will leave you both breathless and sleepless.

Every now and again, you'll see some people (let's just go ahead and say small-minded people) cry over how horror is dead, how it isn't in bookstores, and how no one is buying it.  Well, that's true, provided you ignore all the truly horrific books that are selling.  There's horror out there, folks.  It's just not on the horror shelves.  If you want horror-real horror-you need to get in close, where things happen by hand and there's no one you can trust.  You can have your zombies and demons.  Give me a broken father who misses his children.  Give me a reporter who's in over her head.  Give me a gun for hire trying to help a damaged child.  That's where the horror happens, in the quiet moments before things get really loud.

Next Monday, November 1st, my debut novel Red Sky will be available for pre-order.  It's a gritty, grisly tale of a bank heist gone wrong and the terrible things the perpetrators find while trying to flee through the deserts of New Mexico.  If that sounds like your cup of tea, I hope you'll head over to Thunderstorm Books (http://www.thunderstormbooks.com) and reserve a copy.  It's a limited edition, so there may not be copies available when the book is released early next year.

Thanks for putting up with my yacking.  If you'd like to follow my blog tour, you can find me tomorrow at Brian Keene's place (http://www.briankeene.com).  I'll be talking about rat rods, drag races, and how it all ties into writing.

74 (huh?) top Horror Movies

There's a group of film critics/enthusiasts putting together a rather impressive list of top horror movies, along with detailed essay/analysis of each film. I can't recomend reading this list enough.

So, to play along, somewhat, I'm posting a list of my top 74 horror movies. 74 because no one does a top 74 list. And, it's sort of a cop out on my part, but this is not an objective list. It's a personal one. So there are some objectively bad movies on this list. This list is only about the mark these flicks left on me. So there.

1. The Thing: Carpenter's best film. It's not even close. Tension, claustrophobia, a wow-monster, and a fatalistic machismo that's almost charming.

2. Jaws: I had shark nightmares for decades after seeing this film. Quint remains one of the most memorable characters in the history of film, and the USS Indianapolis scene is perfect.

3. The Exorcist: The power of my list compells you!

4. Evil Dead II: Seeing this movie is akin to the first time I heard Hukser Du or The Ramones. What is that, and I want more.

5. The Fly (Cronenberg): I've only seen it, in its entirety, once. That's all I can handle. So grotesque and so sad.

6. Alien: This movie affected me before I saw it. Listening to my parents talk about it in hushed tones, and awe, sent me ducking under my blanket and sleeping with the light on.

7. Ravenous: A flawed movie I suppose, but one with such quirky charm. I have to admit I'm a little obsessed with the flick. I own the soundtrack and listen to it frequently. My kids call it "dragon music."

8. Pyscho: The overhead shot/kill, and the end reveal of Norman mother still give me shivers, even after all the repeated viewings.

9. Frankenstein: The rose petal scene.

10. Night of the Living Dead (original, of course): They're coming to get you, Barbara. I greet my agent this way all the time.

11. The Shining: Yeah, Jack starts off crazy, but the atmosphere of menace maintained throughout the movie just might be unmatched.

12. Them: Giant radioactive ants from the New Mexico desert attack LA. Easily the best of the 50s giant monster movies. Make me a sergeant in charge of the booze…

13. Creature from the Black Lagoon: Unlike Them!, which I think holds up much better today as a film (the appalling sexism in Them isn't as in your face as it is in Lagoon), Lagoon still has the Creature, my favorite monster design.

14. Rosemary's Baby: Hail Satan? Maybe?

15. The Blair Witch Project: I saw it before the hype and loved, loved, loved it. The ending particularly. This movie is a bellwether for me. If you didn't like it, we're probably not going to have much common ground in the horror genre.

16. Duel: Dennis Weaver yelling, "Come on," for thirty minutes straight while fleeing from a crazed truck driver. Works for me.

17. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1979): That ending, man. That ending!

18. Let the Right On In: Mood and character. Smart, quirky, sad. My current favorite vampire flick.

19. The Wicker Man (original): Another movie with a perfect affect ending. Bonus pts for Christopher Lee as a scary hippy.

20. Bubba Ho Tep: Perfect union of Bruce Campbell and Joe R. Lansdale. Surprisingly emotive story for all its goof.

21. The Descent: As scary and claustrophobic as a movie can get. And that's before the monsters show up.

22. The Dead Zone: I used to be able to do a mean Walken impersonation: "The ice, is gonna break!"

23. The Devil's Backbone: Man's inhumanity to man is more frightening than the supernatural, as always.

24. Event Horizon: No movie has disturbed me as much as this. The film clip of the previous crew, in particular.

25. Silence of the Lambs: It puts the lotion in the basket….

26. Session 9: Flawed, but I so love this movie. Mainly for the Danvers State Hospital setting. I grew up near there, and it was our ultimate haunted house.

27. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Icky, but undeniable.

28. 28 Days Later: Tense, scary, and smart (until the dumb rambo ending)

29. American Werewolf in London: Great mix of humor and horror. Griffin Dunn is a reason to watch. And I had a crush on the nurse.

30. 'Salem's Lot: Kid floating outside the window gave me nightmares.

31. Halloween: I hate slasher flicks, but this one is still scary.

32. Nightmare on Elm Street: I still hate slasher flicks, but this first, non-wisecracking Freddy gave me nightmares. Notice a theme emerging?

32.  Godzilla (original): Orson Wells narrates the fiery destruction of Tokyo. Seen as a kid, I just loved watching a giant monster. Watching it now, with post WW2 Japan as the backdrop, it's downright disturbing. Or as disturbing as a guy in a rubber monster suit gets (further reading, Shambling Toward Hiroshima by James Morrow)

33. Something Wicked This Way Comes: Fantastic adaptation of the Bradbury classic.

34. Near Dark: Vampire noir.

35. Rec: A genuinely scary zombie movie, with an unforgettable ending.

36. Tremors: If I find this movie on TV, I can't not watch it. Alex Keaton's dad as a gun nut! Giant worms! Jaws on land! So much fun.

37. Cemetery Man: Disturbing and weird.

38. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (original): You're next!

39. Donnie Darko: The dread of tragedy that hangs over this movie is palpable. Scary bunny.

40. War of the Worlds (original): I won't watch the remake. Still in love with the original design of the martian spaceships.

41. Jacob's Ladder: Doesn't hold up as well as some, but still, packs a creepy punch. *twitches my head really fast*

42. The Wolf Man: Might've been my first horror movie. Lon Cheney Jr, soft dissolve, and misty foggy woods.

43. Pi: Math horror!

44. Wolfen: Albert Finney as a tough guy cop and Gregory Hines tap dances around werewolves. Wait, that part didn't happen. Yet another movie that gave me nightmares.

45. Gremlins: The most subversive holiday movies (check the dates, it came out around xmas) ever. I won't eat after midnight.

46. The Thing from Another World: So what if it's an attacking carrot. Still good.

47. Rodan: Yeah, Rodan. The opening mine scene (larvae under the water) is the scariest three minutes in big-monster Japanese movies, hands down.

48. The Birds: I might like Mel Brooks's High Anxiety better.

49. Re-Animator: Title kind of says it all. Gory mayhem that offers a certain panache.

50. The Abominable Dr. Phibes: A smarter, slightly less sadistic (though no less cruel and disturbing) precursor to the lame SAW movies. That's right, I said lame.

51. Fright Night: Rear-window with a vampire. Plus, lots of 80s fun.

52. The Lair of the White Worm: Man, I didn't realize how many vampire movies I have on here.

53. The Last Man on Earth: An effective adaptation of I AM LEGEND starring Vincent Price.

54. Omega Man: A less effective adaptation, but stylistically, presents a more believable 70s apocalypse. And Chuck Heston.

55. Dawn of the Dead: Probably, and objectively should be higher. But this is my likes list. So *sticks tongue out*

56. Ringu: I threw away my betamax after this flick.

57. The Legend of Hell House: Ectoplasm? Really?

58. Exorcist III: Some great shocks. And George C. Scott. I mean, George C. Scott!

59. Quatermass and the Pit: More nightmares of the ghostly alien thingy for me.

60. Creepshow: Pulpy fun.

61. Seven: Another precursor to SAW, this one with much more style and real menace. Kevin Spacey screaming for the officers in the station is a truly memorable scene.

62. Phase IV: Doesn't exactly hold up to a viewing today (clunky dialogue), but the atmosphere and ending do hold up. Ants building reflector shields, man. Ants. No ants are voiced by Sly Stallone or Woody Allen.

63. The Butcher Boy: Neil Jordan, adapted from a fine novel.

64. Trilogy of Terror: This is only here for the "Prey" vignette. A scary-ass doll with lots of teeth. Then a scary-ass Karen Black with lots of teeth. Again, more nightmares for the kid-me. Why did I watch all these movies?

65. Shallow Grave: The Ewan McGregor flick. Yeah, this is a horror movie. I stood for the last thirty minutes, because I couldn't watch it sitting.

66. Ils: Much better than the strangers, of course.

67. Lifeforce: Space vampires that suck your, well, lifeforce. This movie is more than Mathilda May. Really!

68. The Man with X-Ray Eyes: Wild camp until the truly horrifying ending.

69. Dog Soldiers: Aliens with werewolves

70. Pet Semetery: Solid adaptation of one of King's scariest novels.

71. Cape Fear/Night of the Hunter: The Simpsons still do it better.

72. Pontypool: First 20 minutes are as good as any no-budget horror film can get.

73. Paranormal Activity: Yeah the characters were stupid tools, but they were believably stupid tools.

74. Horror of Dracula (or any other Hammer film really): Christopher Lee scares me.

Admitted holes in my horror viewing: Audition and a few other Asian horror movies (haven't watched them because they look like they'd be too much for me to take, gore-wise). The Italian horror movies everyone loves. Gorgeous set pieces of kills does nothing for me however. It's likely a reflection of my lack of critical muscles when it comes to film, but I prefer character over visual style, generally.

Fair air time to a not-so-great ITMT review. Right?

From Publisher's weekly:

Paul Tremblay, ChiZine (Diamond, dist.), $15.95 trade paper (216p) ISBN 9781926851068

Tremblay (No Sleep Till Wonderland) collects 15 world-ending whimpers that probe disintegrating, tormented personalities, both individual and societal. Many of the stories are seen through the troubled eyes of children and adolescents. A girl's second head channels notable women of history in "The Two-Headed Girl"; a boy narrates environmental disaster in "The Marlborough Man Meets the End"; and a disturbed teen guides readers on a terrifying tour through a decaying amusement park in "We Will Never Live in the Castle." Tremblay turns childhood's creepy-crawlies into grim glimpses of possibly well-intentioned but ultimately fatal government machinations ("Rhymes with Jew") and personal choices that bedevil humanity into self-destruction ("Headstones in Your Pocket"). Bitter and depressing, these inchoate slices of the apocalypse can only be tolerated in small doses. (Oct.)

I could complain about factual discrepancies–like there is zero mention of environmental disaster in "Marlborough Man" and the head-scratching reference to "well-intentioned but ultimately fatal goverment machinations" in "Rhymes with Jew". Insead, I'll just reference my hand-dandy video guide of how to deal with rejection.

Coming soon (hopefully tonight or tomorrow), my list of top 75ish horror movies ever made.

2 more ITMT reviews

From Naomi Johnson at THE DROWNING MACHINE:

"The most difficult task facing the short story writer is deciding what to leave out, how to create those gaps in the story or character that best reveal the story or character; what to resolve and what should remain ambiguous. After reading these stories I am convinced that Tremblay is a master at evoking images by using shadows, at creating worlds by ending them."

From Chris Hallock at ALL THINGS HORROR:

"There are a number of reasons why I highly recommend this collection. Each story is unique and even though we know Tremblay is the writer, every voice seems fresh, distinct, and realistic. There is never a moment where a theme or character feels like a retread of the others. Tremblay knows how real people think and speak, and that the most important things sometimes lurk hidden in their messages. With his collection, Tremblay is providing us the keys to unlocking those secrets even though we run the risk of exposing ourselves."

Both reviews please and humble me. And to celebrate, I'll be eating chinese food tonight. A little Kung Pao, me thinks…

KGB reading series raffle. Time running out on great prizes

The KGB reading series, hosted by Ellen Datlow and Matt Kressel, are holding their bi-annual fund raiser for the series.

1 dollar gets you a crack at some mighty fine prizes:

Stuff like Neil Gaiman's keyboard, tuckerizations from Jeff Ford and Caitlin Kiernan.

And, you can win a shot at a signed 6 CD audio of The Little Sleep too.

Get bidding. Just don't bid on the things I want.

A slew of recent reads

I bet you didn't know slew is a mathematical term. Well, it isn't, as far as I know.

The Amazing Screw-on Head by Mike Mignola: Goofy fun, if not a little slight at times. I keep wanting to call it 'screw-top head' for no other reason than I'm prone to saying wrong words. Like all the time. Especially with people's names. Not that I have ever met a Screw-top Head. Not sure I'd like to, to be honest.

They Live by Jonathan Lethem: A 30K word long-form essay on the Carpenter film by Lethem. I mean, was this book written for me, or what? Loved it, all of it, all the time. Lethem strikes a nice balance with critique, historical background, prol politicking, pop culturing, and good cheezey fun banging at the gong that is the Carpenter Conundrum (the dude can be brilliant and so howling bad, often in the same film).

Handling the Undead by John Lindqvist: The first 3/4ths of this book are as good as horror fiction gets. The dead in Stockholm wake up, but aren't looking for brains or carnage, necessarily. They want to go home. And later, when rounded up, they sort of reflect what the living are thinking. There are some unfortgettable scenes of loss of grief in this book. Too bad the end gets lost in a new-age afterlife explanation that just plain sucks. Still very much worth reading, and still so much better than your average zombie book (like FEED).

The Orange Eats the Creeps by Grace Krilanovich: Teen hobo vampire junkies in the northwest, and narrated with a fractured, Burroughs-esque kinda beat. Dig it.

Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas: Meg is a schlock novelist (who is forever working on the "serious" novel) and sometime reviewer confronts big ideas about the end of the universe and the fantastic while searching for her own storyless story. Thomas's (she wrote POPco which I dug mightily) end-o-universe suppositions are very interesting, but the characters get lost at times in their cooler-than-thou hipsterness posturing, to the detriment of the proceedings.

The Science of Fear by Daniel Gardner: Stats, evolutionary theory, politics, culture, and psychology all get the microscope treatment in this book about fear, or more specifically, our cultural fears, and how the risk element of most are all out of whack and lead to terrible decision making. Can't recommend this book enough.

 

IN THE MEAN TIME is out today!

The collection, it lives! I ain't to shamless to ask kindly for your patronage, amazon reviews, mentions, blogs, tweets, facebooks, bat signals, prank calls, and anything else you can think off.  Keep your eye out for more news and cool free stuff assocaited with the book. In the meatime…

–Buy at amazon, BN, Borders, Indies, and elsewhere.

–See the blurbs from Jessica Anthony, Laird Barron, Kevin Brockmeier, Brian Evenson, Helen Oyeyemi, Ann Vandermeer, and Kevin Wilson HERE.

–Read a free sample, the first story, "The Teacher," HERE.

A review and an interview (hey, that rhymes!)

–From Charles Tan's review of In the Mean Time:

"Considering the quality of Tremblay's short fiction, a collection like In The Mean Time is long overdue. There are a handful of authors which I consider are the "writer's writer": Jeffrey Ford, Jeff VanderMeer, Kij Johnson, Mary Robinette Kowal. Paul Tremblay easily belongs to that list, and this book proves it."

–From my Hellnotes (Ty Schemberger) interview:

"No, really. We're still like the neanderthals watching some unlucky sap from our clan get chomped by a tiger as a way of learning and remembering to try and avoid the tiger: it's a see-a-dire-situation-and-learn-from-it thing that's hardwired in us. It's why people will sit around and talk about their zombie or apocalyptic contingency plans, right?"

Jurors announced for 2010 Shirley Jackson Awards

Boston, MA (October 2010) — In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson's writing, and with permission of the author's estate, the Shirley Jackson Awards have been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.    

The Shirley Jackson Awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics, with input from a Board of Advisors.  The awards are given for the best work published in the preceding calendar year in the following categories:  Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Single-Author Collection, and Edited Anthology. 

The jurors for the 2010 Shirley Jackson Awards are, alphabetically:

Andy Duncan, winner of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and two World Fantasy Awards, one of them for his debut collection, Beluthahatchie and Other Stories (Golden Gryphon Press); second collection forthcoming, The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories, (PS Publishing, 2011); English faculty at Frostburg State University in Maryland.

Gemma Files, winner of an International Horror Guild Best Short Fiction Award for her story "The Emperor's Old Bones"; author of two collections of short stories (Kissing Carrion and The Worm in Every Heart, both Prime Books), two chapbooks of poetry, and a novel (A Book of Tongues, ChiZine Publications).

Helen Oyeyemi, author of The Icarus Girl and The Opposite House, which was short-listed for the 2008 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Fiction; winner of a 2010 Somerset Maugham award for White is for Witching, her third novel.

Lee Thomas, the Bram Stoker Award and the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Stained (Wildside Press), Parish Damned (Telos Publishing), and The Dust of Wonderland (Alyson Books); author of numerous short stories, including the collection In the Closet, Under the Bed (Dark Scribe Press); forthcoming titles include The Black Sun Set, Focus, Torn, and The German.

David Wellington, author of zombie novels Monster Island, Monster Nation and Monster Planet (Thunder's Mouth Press); and vampire novels, including Thirteen Bullets, Ninety-Nine Coffins, Vampire Zero and Twenty-Three Hours; a werewolf series, including Frostbite (Three Rivers Press) and continuing with Overwinter.

The Board of Advisors for the Shirley Jackson Awards includes editor Bill Congreve; author and critic, Stefan Dziemianowicz; award-winning author and critic, Elizabeth Hand; renowned scholar and editor S.T. Joshi; author and teacher Jack M. Haringa; author and founder Sarah Langan; author Mike O'Driscoll; author and founder Paul Tremblay; award-winning and best-selling author Peter Straub; editor Ann VanderMeer; and award-winning and best-selling novelist Stewart O'Nan.  In 2010, founders and former jurors F. Brett Cox and John Langan join this illustrious group.

Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) wrote such classic novels as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, as well as one of the most famous short stories in the English language, "The Lottery."  Her work continues to be a major influence on writers of every kind of fiction, from the most traditional genre offerings to the most innovative literary work. National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novelist Jonathan Lethem has called Jackson "one of this century's most luminous and strange American writers," and multiple generations of authors would agree.

 Website:    ShirleyJacksonAwards.org