Paul Tremblay's Blog, page 9
February 10, 2013
My 2013 Boskone Schedule
It’s mid-February and you know what that means. Free chocolate for everyone It’s time for Boskone!
Feb. 15th Friday
7pm, King of Horror, Burroughs ( Westin)
Let’s pretend the interesting part of “world’s best-selling horror writer” is that last word. What’s Stephen King’s connection to Poe, Lovecraft, or the New England Gothic tradition? How can you always tell a King story? Does the new writing match his older stuff? Why so many movies and TV shows from his work? How does he compare to Dean Koontz, Neil Gaiman, or Joe Hill?
Faye Ringel (M), Vincent O’Neil, Paul Tremblay, Shira Lipkin
9pm, The Monster in the Maze, Harbor III
There is a monster. It is lurking in the shadows, waiting. There is always a monster. It might be the Minotaur in the Labyrinth of Crete or a beast living under London, but it is always there. Why? What is the monster, if it’s more than the dark shadow of the self? Explore the monsters that have haunted our sleeping (and waking) hours, and how we may (with luck and wisdom) find and defeat them. Discuss some works that did this (and examine if they did this successfully).
James Cambias (M), Darrell Schweitzer, Paul Tremblay, Christopher Golden
10pm, Zombies are Dead
Zombies are dead, but they just won’t die. What keeps them walking the world of popular culture? How have shows like _The Walking Dead_ not only survived but grown? The zomromcom (zombie romantic comedy) _Warm Bodies_ is in the movie theaters now, and _World War Z_ will hit them soon. How long can zombies last?
Erin Underwood (M), F. Brett Cox, Paul Tremblay, Brianna Spacekat Wu
Feb 16th, Saturday
2pm, Humor in the Stuff We Read, Carlton ( Westin)
What makes it funny? Is really hilarious fiction a sacred mystery? Or merely the judicious application of tools such as misdirection, buffoonery, wit, repartee, and the element of surprise? We’ll examine the nature of humor in the fiction of such seriously talented laugh masters as Terry Pratchett, Esther Friesner, Douglas Adams, Connie Willis, and perhaps our own panelists.
Justine Graykin (M), Craig Shaw Gardner, Paul Tremblay, Darlene Marshall, Daniel M. Kimmel
4pm, Gothic Literature Meets the Modern Imagination, Lewis ( Westin)
The fad began in 1764, but Gothic structures still cast long (and of course dark) shadows over artistic landscapes high and low. What needs do they feed? Which motifs still linger? How are they being transformed these days? Is Jonathan Strange a Gothic hero? The _Prometheus_ a Gothic castle? Bella Swan a Gothic princess?
Faye Ringel (M), Theodora Goss, Paul Tremblay, Christopher Golden
December 12, 2012
Tremblay spilled all over Weirdfictionreview.com
John Langan interviewed me for Weirdfictionreview.com, where I we such things like:
Langan: In general, do you draw inspiration/ideas from the music you listen to?
Tremblay: Definitely. Music was my first love/obsession, and in middle school/high school, it was my escape and sanctuary. I picked up the guitar in college and I am, at heart, a frustrated or wannabe musician. I’m drawn to the primal immediacy of music, and the visceral emotional impact it has on me. My favorite music makes me feel and makes me want to feel. I like to think that my best stories/novels have or can have a similar effect on the reader.
WFR also has published my toothy short story “Headstone in Your Pocket.”
Enjoy!
October 31, 2012
74 + Scary movies, 10 Scary scenes
Two years ago I threw down my top 74 horror movie list. Given the list is 2 years old now, I’d like to retroactively add a few more movies to that list, but do it without retroactively removing some of the old titles. That doesn’t make total sense, I know, but I’m doing it anyway.
Movies I’ve seen after I made the list:
–Lake Mungo goes in my top ten. No movie in the past two years has moved me the way that sad, creepy movie did. Link to my review. Clicky.
–May. Top 30. Finally got around to watching it this past weekend. Funny, sad, and disturbing. Like Mungo, the sadness comes from the characters’ authentic emotional lives and how those lives are broken or are being broken. The horror, of course, comes from the same place.
–House of the Devil. I’d put it somewhere in the late 60s of my list. The retro-horror movie dares to take its sweet ass time, and it looks real pretty. Effective enough to make the list.
–S&Man. Places in the early 60s of my list. A faux-documentary about extreme indie horror movies. Metafictional fun with a horrifying ending. Made doubly horrifying because REDACTED.
Oversights:
Ginger Snaps (Heathers with werewolves?) should’ve been on my list, and I should’ve given Clive Barker flicks some love toward the end of the list. Maybe Lord of Illusions (Scott Backula!) and/or Nightbreed.
TOP TEN SCARY SCENES
Two years ago Stephen Graham Jones copied my list of top 74 movies. So this year, I’m copying his top ten scary scenes.
My criteria for top ten scary scenes is purely subjective. I’m going by number of nightmares given to me along with a quotient involving factors of I-think-about-this-when-I’m-in-the-basement-alone and how fast do I then run up the stairs, plus the cover-my-eyes constant multiple, which can’t be forgotten. Anyway, enough math. The list.
1) Quint buys it in Jaws. I’m posting this scene but I’m not watching it. I saw it in fifth grade. I had twenty plus years of shark nightmares after. I’ve seen Jaws maybe 40 times since, but I won’t watch the Quint scene again. I never do. I cover my eyes or change the channel.
2) Donald Sutherland now playing for the other team in Invasion of the Body Snatchers:
3) Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy visited my nightmares almost as much as Jaws did. So much so, I really only watched the first and third of the Nightmare movies. His first kill messed me up good.
4) The end of Blair Witch project. So, yeah, anyone standing alone in the corner freaks me out. No one puts baby in the corner.
5) Event Horizon. The scene is when they find the film of what happened to the previous crew. This clip isn’t quite it, but you get the gist. When I saw it at the time, I resolved to never watch it again.
6) ‘Salem’s Lot. The kid at the window. I still sleep with my windows locked.
7) Lake Mungo. Finding the of footage on the cell phone. I watched this movie by myself and when this happened I moaned out loud to no one. An existential moan.
8) Rec’s final scene. I’d seen Quarantine first. So I figured I knew the ending to REC. Yeah, um, I was wrong.
9) Fright Night. The original. Sure it’s campy now, but the big-teeth reveal (much like Karen Black at the end of Trilogy of Terror) scared the kid that was me witless.
10) The Ring. Still too scared to watch the original version (which I own on DVD, but haven’t watched yet).
October 15, 2012
“A Night at the Paradise” essay at Manarchy
I wrote a big fat essay about the Helmet show I went to in August. It’s about music, sibling relationships, existential crisis, pop culture obsession, influence, art, and toddler-sized beers. Go read it!
September 10, 2012
Reading/Signing at the Brown Bookstore, Wednesday, September 12th, 5:30pm
The title kind of says it all, doesn’t it?
Many thanks to Bob Geake and Barry Lee Dejasu for having me back at the Brown Bookstore!
September 9, 2012
A bunch of Swallowing a Donkey’s Eye reviews/appearances/shenanigans
In no particular order!
–My Donkey playlist here. It’s a punk-tinged double album at Largehearted Boy
–The Booked podcast crew reviews SaDE. And they do a damn good job of it!
–The Booked podcast crew then interviewed me about the book, poop themes, and other subjects of great importance.
–Clarkesworld published a dual interview with myself and Nick Mamatas. It’s a satire about satire.
–Richard Thomas over at The Nervous Breakdown reviewed SaDE.
–Me and my book on the cover of my local weekly newspaper.
September 5, 2012
Chizine announces new novel (from me and Stephen Graham Jones) in conjunction with a new imprint
ChiZine Publications to Launch Young Adult Imprint “ChiTeen”
TORONTO, Ontario (September 5, 2012) — Co-publishers Brett Alexander Savory and Sandra Kasturi announced today a new imprint for ChiZine Publications (CZP) to focus on Young Adult fiction. Called “ChiTeen,” the first title will be The Unlikely But Totally True Adventures of Floating Boy and Anxiety Girl by Paul Tremblay and Stephen Graham Jones, scheduled for release in spring 2014.
“As a business, you can’t ignore the young adult market,” says Savory. “Over the last decade, writers like Rowling, Gaiman and Collins were consistently on bestseller lists. We’ve been wanting to get into the YA market for a couple of years, and now the timing is right.”
“Our editorial style lends itself to young adult fiction,” adds Kasturi. “CZP embraces the dark, the bizarre, the unusual. So many teens feel isolated or different and are looking for that outlet. ChiTeen will offer the same dark and weird stories with strong writing that CZP is known for, just with subject matter more suited for a younger audience.”
Kasturi and Savory will serve as ChiTeen’s co-publishers along with most of the CZP team. They are currently approaching authors to fill out their 2014 roster. They are not currently open to un-agented submissions for the new imprint.
As with CZP, distribution will be handled by HarperCollinsCanada in Canada and Diamond Book Distributors throughout the rest of the world. Foreign rights are handled by Cooke International.
Contact
Brett Alexander Savory, Co-Publisher
ChiZine Publications
http://www.chizinepub.com
brett@chizinepub.com
About ChiZine Publications
ChiZine Publications (CZP) is a two-time World Fantasy Award-nominated independent publisher of surreal, subtle, and disturbing dark literary fiction hand-picked by Brett Alexander Savory and Sandra Kasturi, Bram Stoker Award-winning editors of ChiZine: Treatments of Light and Shade in Words.
August 28, 2012
Cole’s second promo-video
You can see the strong directorial hand coming of age in this one.
August 24, 2012
Two new interviews
Both interviews manage to cover some different ground.
–First up, at mybookishways
–And at Frellathon.com
Besides Feebles and Pelicans, I do manage to talk about Swallowing a Donkey’s Eye as well.
August 20, 2012
Obstacle Course?
Monday AM silliness: I’ve decided to put Cole in charge of making promotional videos. Here’s the first. I was sent through a playground obstacle course. I’ll have you all know I supposedly “tied” Emma’s best time on the course. I think there was some funny business with the clock, dammit.
