Paul Tremblay's Blog, page 23
April 2, 2010
Big Machine by Victor LaValle
"Horror fiction at its best is in the business of pushing back the barriers, or risking the absurd in order to reach the sublime."–Ramsey Campbell (from the foreword of Alan Moore's SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING, book 1)
I need to go back and amend my top 10 books of 2009 list and put Victor LaValle's amazing and brilliant BIG MACHINE at number one. I mean, compare BIG MACHINE to the pile of steaming mediocrity of some of the 'big' books (big= media hype, buzz, and more buzz) I've been reading...
March 30, 2010
Creature! Announced
Annoucing the sale of John Langan and Paul Tremblay's anthology, Creature! Thirty Years of Monsters, to Sean Wallace at Prime Books, by Stephen Barbara at the Foundry Literary + Media.
Go to the Creature! blog/site for more details, monsterly links and items, and even leave suggestions for your own favorite monster stories.
Events this week: Newtonville and Walpole B&N
–Thursday, April 1st, 7pm, Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut Street, Newton, MA
I'll be reading/signing/swimming (yeah, lots o' rain here) alongside David Hosp, Hank Phillipe Ryan, and Dave Zeltserman. Crime!
–Saturday, April 3rd, 1pm-2pm Barnes and Nobles, 82 Providence Highway, Walpole, MA
I'll be sitting at a table, signing books, and spitting spitballs at those who don't buy my books. I've been practicing.
March 22, 2010
Recent reads and tunes
Taking a breather from reading Tod Goldberg's harrowing facebook account of commie tanks rolling over America and onto his front lawn (wolverines! and *gasp!*), to talk books and tunes.
–Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbot: Based on true-life trunk murders from the 1930s, a wallflower named Marion is left in Phoenix to essentially fend for herself by her opiate addict doctor hubby. Marion works as a nurse at a local clinic, becomes friends with nurses who supplement their meager pay by partying...
March 18, 2010
Author John Langan on the Sleep books
In the interest of full disclosure, John and I are part of a mutual admiration society (see my top of '09 list and his novel House of Windows) and we're very good friends. That said, he's not a smoke blower, and his blog post about my novels is filled with awesome.
March 17, 2010
Sneak peak at the cover to IN THE MEAN TIME
IN THE MEAN TIME is my forthcoming dark, lit, horror, weird short story collection, hitting the streets in October.
And yeah, this isn't all that sneaky a peak at the cover. Permission has been granted. You don't have to look through your fingers or anything like that. Anyway, art and design by the fab Erik Mohr, he who does all of CZP books. This is the preliminary cover (font might change). Two heads, of course, are fab as well.
March 16, 2010
Upcoming gigs
–This weekend (March 19-20th) I'll be at Vericon on the Harvard University Campus. I just knew I'd get into Harvard some day… Part of the weekend fun includes me signing at the Harvard University Bookstore from 1:30-2:15 pm.
–Thursday April 1st, 7pm, I'll be at the Newtonville Books with Dave Zeltserman and others to be announced.
–Saturday April 3rd, 1-2pm, Walpole Barnes and Noble. Just signing. And maybe juggling. Or tap dancing.
March 11, 2010
Stuff (Spring Break edition) plus Phantom at Largehearted Boy, NSTW at The Cult (Palahniuk), dance
–My spring break starts tomorrow at 12:00 pm. At 12:01 I'll be listening to Lionel Richie and will dance on the ceiling. Oh what a feeling.
–I've already seen both movies, but I bought copies of Pontypool and The Big Lebowski so I can keep their dvd goodness close to me.
–Looking forward to starting Megan Abbot's Bury Me Deep.
–Emma says "I eat (chips) so I can stay alive."
–I'll admit that I still watch and love Survivor. Boston Rob is fantastic. Coach is my favorite all-time tool/crazy...
March 7, 2010
Weekend signings recap (with blue laws, angry Genevichs, and only 38 things to do in Salem)
–Thursday night, Odyssey Bookshop: South Hadley is a far away land, at least for me, and if driving through two hours of non-accumulating-but-annoying snow and sleet is some kind of entry-into-the-Berkshires-test, I aced that sucker. Or maybe that's a Free Masonry test, I'm not sure. Regardless, I shared the reading stage with the talented and magical Jedediah Berry. Jedediah read from The Manual of Detection, and then read part of a modular short story (which was envy-inducing with...
March 3, 2010
Peace, Monsters, and Workshop
Quickie reviews of three recent(ish) reads.
–Occupied City by David Peace. Occupied City is the follow-up to Tokyo Year Zero (one of my fav reads of '08, and a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Awards). It's 1947, and a man walks into a bank, claiming to be an Occupation authority, saying that dysentery has broken out in the neighborhood and that everyone in the bank needs to drink his medicine to be protected/inoculated. The result is a mass poisoning (linked to previous war crimes) that...
