Paul Tremblay's Blog, page 4
February 2, 2016
The Doom that hung out in Providence at a Reading: 1/30/16
Saturday I took part in a weekend set of readings hosted by the Lovecraft Arts & Sciences.
Niels and Carmen were gracious hosts and it was a wonderful evening of readings. More pics!
For all my time spent in Providence, I’ve never been to the Arcade. Very cool building
Then dinner at a Korean BBQ with a motley crew (not Vince Neil etc…) of writers:
Then the reading! Pics of John Langan and myself. Mostly me…(included in the pictures is one where I hold tea strangely, I look pleased and surprised looking into my own book, I am pointing at Barry in the audience. Barry…). I apologize for not getting photos of the talented Matthew Bartlett reading. For the record, I did not take pictures of myself.
Reading wise, I read two pages of A Head Full of Ghosts, then the first chapter and another section of Disappearance at Devil’s Rock. Fun was had by most.
A couple shots of the Lovecraft Arts & Sciences post-reading:
Video!
And lastly, hey, go pre-order Disappearance at Devil’s Rock!
January 13, 2016
Disappearance at Devil’s Rock: Cover reveal, excerpt, and Q&A at the WSJ
My next novel DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL’S ROCK will be published June 21st, 2016. Today the Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog posted an excerpt and a Q&A with Michael Calia.
Click for Q&A madness! (in which I talk about the book, places named after the devil, a bear attack?, and the satanic dangers of dehydration)
Click for pre-order madness at BN.com and Amazon!
December 28, 2015
My favorite books of 2015, plus more, (Yes, it’s another year-end-list, fraught with peril and anxiety for all)
Let’s get to it and make with the lists and such.
Best books published in 2015 that I read
—Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick DeWitt: My favorite book of the year. To call it Princess Bride meets the Coen Brothers is fair but also sells the novel short. No novel that I read was as funny and serious, and I’ll say it, magical, as this novel was.
—Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates: Written as a letter to his teenaged son, BtWaM is a blistering contemporary history lesson and a call for change. Profoundly moving.
–Three Moments of an Explosion by China Mieville: His best fiction collection to date. Incredible range of stories and characters.
—The Visible Filth by Nathan Ballingrud: Deeply disturbing. If you weren’t already afraid of your cell phone and computer and local barflies and your own, complicit dark heart, then, well, you will be.
—Vermilion by Molly Tanzer: Read and you will be charmed by Lou Merriweather and Molly Tanzer’s endlessly inventive romp through a steampunk, ghostbustin’, old west.
—Symphony for the City of the Dead by M. T. Anderson: Russian history–from the revolution to Stalin, WWII, and the siege of Leningrad– compellingly intertwined in the life and times of composer Dmitri Shostakovitch.
—When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord: A meticulously stylized werewolf novel without any werewolves. Trust me. You’ll dig it.
—Dead Soon Enough by Steph Cha: A LA PI novel with big and small secrets, yes, but it’s also about family, and what family means. I find myself still thinking about this book and its characters at odd times.
—Safe Inside the Violence by Christopher Irvin: Wonderfully restrained collection of dark/crime short stories that create a menacing cumulative affect.
—Hausfrau by Jill Alexender Essbaum: One of the darkest books I read this year. Totally unhinged and erotic and un-erotic (in the right way, if that makes sense).
—Familar 2 (Into the Forest) by Mark Danielewski: Even though much of it is cat fan-fiction, I’m hooked.
Favorite books of 2016 that I’ve read already because I have a time machine, or people have sent me ARCs.
Elizabeth Hand’s HARD LIGHT, Brian Evenson’s A COLLAPSE OF HORSES, Victor LaValle’s THE BALLAD OF BLACK TOM, Laird Barron’s SWIFT TO CHASE, and Andrew Michael Hurley’s THE LONEY should all be on your must-read lists for 2016. I can all but guarantee they’ll be in my top ten list for next year.
October 28, 2015
74 (huh?) Top Horror Movies part III: A New Beginning, sort of.
To the way-back machine!
In 2010 I posted a list of my 74 favorite horror movies. Decent list. I gussied it up a few years later but today, I will issue the updated, definitive list. Well, not really. The same list, plus additions, oversights, and retractions.
ADDITIONS (movies I’ve seen post 2010)
Lake Mungo. Sad, creepy, smart. Goes in my top 10
Martha Marcy May Marlene: Very well done, personal film on attempting to survive a cult. Genuinely disturbing
The Canal. Manages a slow build beginning that continually builds to a crazed ending. Visually stunning at times.
It Follows. Believe the hype. The movie instantly drops you in its dreamy, murky, terrifying world. I (unlike some) love the ending and it’s implications as well. Goes in the top 20
The Babadook. Believe the hype part 2. Like It Follows the fairy-tale-gone-wrong world is mesmerizing. A very brave movie about the perils of parenting. Goes in the top 20 as well (I think I need more than 20 in my top 20)
Take Shelter. Is Michael Shannon’s character having a psychotic break or is he really having visions of the end of the world? I wish I wrote this movie. Top 15
Kill List. Such a menacing, nasty, flick. Mix of hitman noir with occult horror. Gets under your skin and stays there.
Sauna. Like Kill List, brutal and disturbing. Nightmarish descent into a regret-fueled hell for two brothers caught in the Russo-Sweeden war from hundreds of years ago
The Snowtown Murders. Based on real life murders. Sad, brutal, terrifying. You will be changed by this movie.
Room 237. yeah, I know. Not a horror movie but a documentary about people watching a horror movie. I still love it and it goes on my list. So there.
Cropsey: Another documentary, but one as scary as any horror movie about kids going missing on Staten Island, an abandoned mental hospital, and satanic panic.
OVERSIGHTS (ie. movies I saw pre-2010 I should’ve included on the list.)
Ginger Snaps, The Host, and The Brood should be there. Don’t know what I was thinking in 2010
Quatermass and the Pit needs to be moved up. Way up. Session 9 is top ten as well.
RETRACTIONS
Dog Soldiers is good and a lot of fun, but not top-list worthy after a recent viewing. Pontypool, Paranormal Activity, Omega Man, The Birds, Cemetery Man get bumped too. Sorry, tough choices have to be made.
Wall Street Journal: Hollywood Moves Back to Demonic Possession Stories
My novel and mention of its movie deal plays a prominent role in a large article by Michael Calia. Very cool!
September 13, 2015
Sunday night round up: 5 Scary Things on Wall Street Journal Speakeasy and Stephen King on Salon.com
Nothing is scarier than a Sunday night, of course. But Michael Calia over the WSJ Speakeasy asked me for a list of 5 Scary Things about Pop Culture. I have opinions.
5 Scary Things About Pop Culture, According to a Horror Novelist
At Salon.com I was asked for my reaction to Stephen King being awarded the National Medal of Arts.
September 1, 2015
A September 1st update: LitReactor Book Club and Stephen King.
September! Back to school! Blah, blah, blah.
Take the sting out of the end of your summer by joining the A Head Full of Ghosts Book Club discussion over at LitReactor. It’ll be fun. Do it! Click here.
September, eh? Blog-wise, I slacked through August. I feel shame.
What did you miss? Mainly this tweet by Stephen King!
So amazingly cool and generous of him to read the book and say that. I started reading (never mind writing) because of him. Needless to say, I’m humbled and now (even more) insufferable.
July 20, 2015
John Hay Library of Providence and H. P. Lovecraft
Quick intro-aside: Still exhausted and bleary-eyed from a wonderful weekend at NECON. Everyone there was friendly and wonderful and it’ll take me the rest of the summer to properly recover from the festivities.
On Friday morning a group of folks, (Brian Keene, James A. Moore, Charles Rutledge, Mary SanGiovanni, Nick Kaufmann, his wife Alexa, Dave Thomas, and me! Huge thanks to Brian for setting up and organizing the visit.) visited the John Hay Library at Brown University. Gorgeous building. Christopher Geissler, of the Librarian for American and British Literary and Popular Culture Collections, spent an our with us and shared some their Lovecraft artifacts. Christopher was so gracious and accommodating and we can’t thank him enough. The great news is the Library is preparing a Lovecraft exhibit for the public to open possibly the day before the Necronomicon convention begins. So con goers, put a trip to the John Hay Library in your schedules. Let’s make with the photos!
“Commonplace” notebook.
First page of the commonplace notebook.
another notebook
interior of notebook 2
Notes for At the Mountains of Madness
more story notes
Original long-hand MS of AtMoM. (ignore my shadow reflection on the plastic sleeve of the page)
page 2 of AtMoM
cover page
original typed MS of AtMoM
CoC title page
CoC manuscript.
The Colour Out of Space
Dunwich title page
letters
In the library with HP.
Group shot (photo by Charles Rutledge)
Not pictured were all the Charles Dexter Ward pages, more letters, a smooshed mosquito that bit Lovecraft (so I suggest we make a Lovecraft Jurassic Park, but I do not volunteer to watch the Lovecraft paddock) and an and incredible collection of Lovecraft fan-art drawn by a teen-aged Robert Bloch. All of which will be on display from late August through January!
Brian Keene also talks about the trip and includes some pictures.
July 8, 2015
Essay at Nightmare Magazine: The Politics of Horror
A discussion of Alien vs. Aliens, footnotes, and why a progressive horror story works better than a conservative one. There, I said it.
June 17, 2015
Thursday, June 18th, WORD in Brooklyn
I’ll be at WORD bookstore in Brooklyn on Thursday, June 18th, from 7:00 to 8:30, and so will the awesome Laird Barron and Cara Hoffman.
Join us. You know you want to.
