Paul Tremblay's Blog, page 20
August 4, 2010
Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
Don't let the breezy summer-fic looking cover fool you, Aimee heads into dark and heady territory with her mesmerizing second novel; one I suspect won't be understood/appreciated by the beach readers or the book clubbers. That sounds snooty, but I don't care because it's true.Rose is nine and one morning realizes she can taste the emotions/feelings of the person who prepared her food. She first discovers this power while eating a cake her mother made, and tasting her deep sadness and...
August 2, 2010
Last chance to pre-order limited edition of IN THE MEAN TIME
Today and tomorrow are the last days for pre-orders of the fancy schmancy limited edition of IN THE MEAN TIME. The limited, trade paper, ebook will all be unleashed on October 15th.
As described on the publisher's page, you get 4 extra stories with the limited, a fancy new cover, plus the following may (or may not, no guarantees in this life…) happen as part of the limited:
–The ability to shoot three pointers and curse like a librarian who was once a sailor.
–You will grow three inches...
July 29, 2010
To the darkside? Nah, just bought an iMac.
After much soul-searching and seeking counsel with friends, elders, and people with two-bit opinions, I decided to leave the austere life of a PC user, and buy an iMac.
How's it going so far? I'm typing from my work laptop because I don't have my new Mac yet. I left my slow and wrinkly PC with the Mac folk so they could data mine it and transfer all my important stuff: stuff like my secret recipes for blood pudding; pictures of me, Putin (Joey, not Vladimir), and Melissa Rivers; screenshots...
July 26, 2010
Summer reading
July has been a blur of my son's baseball games (20 plus in the past month) and fun weekend trips. In between, I've managed to get some reading done. Most of the books come recommended. Only one, not so much.
In no particular order:
Occultation by Laird Barron. Laird's second collection is as breath taking and original as his first. Themes and style are built upon instead of recycled. Scenes in "Mysterium Tremendium" flat out creeped me out and gave me a nightmare or two. I can't remember t...
July 23, 2010
Artist Mara Sternberg adds Illustrations to In the Mean Time
Mara Sternberg is contributing 15 story header illustrations to my collection, In the Mean Time. Her work is fantastic, and I couldn't be more pleased that her art will be in my book.
She posted a sampling of the work on her facebook page.
Ogle?
July 14, 2010
Link roundup (Shirley Jackson, Dave Zeltserman, Laird Barron and more)
In lieu of a real blog post (because I'm supposed to writing right now, really!), some links of note:
–Laura Miller (Salon.com): "Is Shirley Jackson a Great American Writer?"
Nice essay on the works and influence of Jackson, plus a bonus plug for the Shirley Jackson Awards
–Jeff Vandermeer (Omnivoracious): "Shirley Jackson: Novels and Stories"
Jeff discusses the new Library of America edition of Shirley Jackson's work.
–Dave Zeltserman: (Barnes and Nobles) "The Razor Thin Line Between Crime and...
July 11, 2010
2009 Shirley Jackson Awards winners announced!
(Speigel & Grau)
Finalists:
Last Days, Brian Evenson (Underland Press)
The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters (Riverhead)
The Owl Killers, Karen Maitland (Delacorte Press)
The Red Tree, Caitlin R. Kiernan (Roc)
White is for Witching, Helen Oyeyemi (Nan A. Talese)
NOVELLAWinner:Midnight Picnic, Nick Antosca
(Word Riot Press)
Finalists:
The Language of Dying, Sarah Pinborough, (PS Publishing)"Sea-Hearts," Margo Lanagan (X6, coeur de lion)Shrike...July 7, 2010
Readercon Schedule (July 8-11)
Readercon is this weekend folks. It's that time of year already.
I will not be terribly busy, which translates into more time spent in the dealers room, the hotel watering hole, and more time spent making fun of John Langan:
Friday 12:00 Noon, VT: Reading (30 min.)
a short story from his forthcoming collection _In the Mean Time_.
I anticipate reading two of the short-short pieces (both under 2K words) in In the Mean Time (likely "Harold the Spider Man" and "The Marlborough Man Meets the...
July 2, 2010
World Cup: An Ugly American's Perspective
Well, I'm not really, like, super ugly. More kind of average-looking, you know, I have my good days and bad days. Anyway!
I'll admit up front that my knowledge of the game is rudimentary at best, despite having been an assistant coach for two season and a head coach for one season at the JV high school level (aside: first day on the job as a teacher, the school's athletic director pointed his crooked finger at me and said, "JV soccer." I responded with, "I've never played the game in my...
June 16, 2010
Are you ready for the Summer?
Well, my academic year is over until after labor day. My kids don't get out of school for a few more days, so here I am, with nothing to do but spew on my blog
–1.5 days into my vacation, and I've already watched two movies.
JAWS: I wasn't intending to watch JAWS, but while sitting on my couch, eating Rice Crispies, and flipping through channels, I happened across it, and I can't NOT watch Jaws when it's on. Sure there's iconic shark fun, but it's Dryfuss and Shaw who make the movie so...
