Paul Tremblay's Blog, page 22

Best trick basketball shot from a writer of narcoleptic PI novels you'll ever see

It's hard to tell from the phone-cam, but I shoot this ball over a bunch of powerlines (safety first!). I hereby challenge any published author to a game of HORSE. 

The pull quote from my press conference after the shot: "I'd like to thank my parents for encouraging me to spend countless hours alone in my back yard, shooting hundreds of shots a day, and cultivating my anti-social behavior."

Only one of the neighborhood punks mugging for the camera at the end of the video is mine. Just so you...

Out of Print tees. Consume!

So you like classic lit, eh? How about classic lit on a tee shirt. Of course, right?

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Picked this up in Newbury Comics today. As SH5 is one of my all-time favorite novels and the book cover on the tee is the same edition that my parents had in their bookcase, I had to buy this.

More classic book tees including Brave New World and Catch-22 at Out of Print Clothing.

Guest Judge for the Chizine short fic contest

The 15th Chizine Short story contest was just announced and I'm a guest judge along with Brent Hayward, Gemma Files, and David Nickle.

Quoting the Canadian site:

PRIZES:

1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes: Publication in ChiZine: Treatments of Light and Shade in Words at seven (7) cents per word (USD).
There will also be five honourable mentions.
GUIDELINES:
***PLEASE NOTE: SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED UNTIL JUNE 1st, 2010!***
• Dark.
• Well-written.
• 4,000 words or less.
• Rich Text Format or Microsoft...

NSTW in the Well-Built City and pre-order In the Mean Time

No Sleep Till Wonderland found it's way into Jeffrey Ford's Well-Built City as a reading recommendation for the month of May. Theme of sleep, of course. Thanks for the rec, Jeffrey!

My forthcoming collection In the Mean Time is due to be published in all kinds of formats. Formats! Limited edition hardcover, Kindle and other DRM-free ebook formats, and as a trade paperback.  The trade paper is currently up for pre-order at amazon.

What's a Phorlam? Wofford College's Shared Worlds: A fantastic bestiary

Shared Worlds is a summer writing program for teens offered by Wofford college. Cue description!

"The faculty of Shared Worlds creative writing camp has called on some of speculative fiction's most compelling storytellers to chase down and gather up all manner of wondrous beasts. Scroll through our Fantastic Bestiary and don't forget to return in August when the students of Shared Worlds 2010 have illustrated entries with original artwork, and included their own thoughts on these beasts."

The s...

Publishing Must Die 2: The Bloodening

Here's part 1, if you missed it.

Rant disclaimer: the following is not professional, or polite, and more emotionally charged than well reasoned likely, and surely could be called sour grapes, whatever, go ahead, I don't really care heroic if you're so inclined.

"Coscom Entertainment is pleased to announce that Simon and Schuster's Gallery Books imprint (formerly Pocket Books) has acquired the rights to reprint two of its mashup novels, The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies by...

Nick Mamatas vs. Newsweek

Newsweek's online culture wag, Malcolm Jones, opined that the Library of America must be "running out of writers" because of its inclusion of "fringe" author H P Lovecraft. And Mr. well-read says of Shirley Jackson: "And then, in May, here comes an entire volume dedicated to …. Shirley Jackson? A writer mostly famous for one short story, "The Lottery." Is LOA about to jump the shark?" Oh, those dirty genre writers! When will they learn?

As I'm wont to do, I spent most of the weekend stewing ...

2009 Shirley Jackson Awards Nominees Announced

Press release

For Immediate Release

Contact: JoAnn F. Cox

Awards Administrator

admin@shirleyjacksonawards.org

Nominees for the 2009 Shirley Jackson Awards

Boston, MA (April 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...

Love for Tremblay books in Ellen Datlow's The Best Horror of the Year

"The Little Sleep by Paul G. Tremblay (Henry Holt and Company) is an intriguing first novel that drags readers along with its narcoleptic detective protagonist through the pain, powerlessness, and humiliation of his medical condition while forcing us to accompany him on his search for truth no matter where it leads. Mark Genevich's car accident several years before the beginning of the novel has left him battered and odd looking and with narcolepsy—i.e. he falls asleep at the drop of a hat...

Won't someone think of the children?

Headline in the Boston Herald: Kid spouting swear words at Sox game is way off base. The piece that reads like something that would appear in The Onion, only she's serious!

Five-year-old kid does a pint-sized rendition of Kurt Russell doing USA Hockey coach Herb Brooks from in the movie MIRACLE. He says *gasp* "Screw 'em," toward the end of the clip. Civilization will never be the same, right?

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Scandalous. 

My favorite lines from the Herald hysterics:

"Not only was Red Sox Opening Day on Easter...