Christian Laforet's Blog, page 6

The Comic Book Syndicon

This Sunday is one of Windsor’s best comic conventions, the Comic Book Synidcon. It isn’t the biggest event, but I can say (I’ve been to them all), it is probably the most fun.

I was lucky enough to be invited as a guest this year (along with that freeloader, Ben) and will be selling and signing copies of my books.

So come by, check out the cosplayers, buy some comics and enjoy the show!  

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Comic Book Syndicon 2017 TV Ad!

A commercial for the upcoming Comic Book Syndicon (which I’m am a guest at). Check it out

And the Winner is…

Trapped!

It was a close race, with Trapped pulling ahead in the last couple days to take the win (by one vote). Fan favourite story, Summer’s Friend had the lead since the start, and seemed like a lock. In fact, I was so sure that it was going to win, that I had already started coming up with some ideas for the follow-up (Maybe one day, I’ll explore those ideas). But, a final few votes turned the tide, and Trapped came out on top.

Trapped 2 (definitely not going to be called that) will be available for your reading pleasure right here in the early summer.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote!

-C

Book Signing!

I’ll be signing copies of No Light Tomorrow (alongside Ben Van Dongen) this Saturday from 1pm – 3pm at the Coles Bookstore located inside Tecumseh Mall!

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Time for a Sequel

I’ve been thinking recently that it would be fun to go back and write a sequel of sorts to one of the stories in The Space Between Houses. I’m not really sure why I think this is a good idea, it will almost certainly end in disaster.

Anywho, if you’ve read the book, and have always wanted to see a sequel to one of the stories contained within, check out the poll below and let me know which one it is. Whatever story gets the most votes will get a sequel which will available right here for free on this very website. No promises exactly when, but most likely in May.

Take Our Poll

 

Toronto Bound!

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This coming Wednesday (as in tomorrow), I will be heading to Toronto for a reading. This marks a new achievement for me as I’ve yet to do anything book related in the big city since starting this whole being a writer thing.

The event is put on by publisher ChiZine (I just raved about one of their books, The Acolyte, in one of my previous posts) and is held monthly. I first heard of the event from horror master and all around cool guy, Craig Davidson (AKA Nick Cutter) a few months ago, and almost immediately, Ben and I started making plans to get out for one of them.

As luck would have it, I met one of ChiZine’s head honcho’s at Bookapaloza in Whitby at the very end of last year and basically sealed the deal for attending.

Both Ben and I will be reading from No Light Tomorrow, along with a third guest, and I’m super excited about the whole thing. It’s nice to get out of town and meet new folks.

If you are in area, and what to come out and hear me babble for a bit and then grab a few beers, follow the link to the event page (ChiSeries) for all the details.

-C

Adventure Worlds Summit 2017

The First Annual Adventure Worlds Press summit is nearly upon us (Feb. 10th – 12th), and I’m pretty pumped for it! Wait, you don’t know what I’m talking about? I’m pretty sure I mentioned the summit at some point in the last few months. Hold on, I’m going to go check.

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Hmm, looks like you’re right, I’ve never once talked about the summit. Well then, I guess now’s as good a time as any.

In a nutshell, the Adventure Worlds Summit is a weekend where all of the Adventure Worlds Press projects and ideas for the rest of the year (and slightly beyond) will be hashed out. The idea is to sit down, and make a plan for what’s to come.

Although this is the first annual summit, the weekend getaway has been going on for a few years now with the Adventure Worlds crew (we used to call it the writing retreat). It’s usually three people (although the first year we had four) in a cottage for a few days writing like crazy.

The retreats were always fun and productive. I wrote the majority of my stories for No Light Tomorrow, as well as a healthy part of my novel at the previous retreats. There’s usually way too much food and way too much booze (two things I love having way too much of). This year will mostly be the same, except now that Adventure Worlds is a publisher, we (Ben and Myself) figured we might as well get some business done as well.

The main item on the docket will be the upcoming crime anthology. The stories are being written as I type this, but we need a name and we have to start looking at cover ideas and designs. Plus, we want to do something special for the launch that will take some serious planning. Beyond that book, there are a couple of smaller projects that need to be discussed. I have a few ideas that need fleshing out, but could be amazing.

So there you have it, the first annual Adventure Worlds Press Summit! I’ll be tweeting out all weekend, as well as plastering pics all over Instagram. If you’re interested in such things, follow me for all the wacky happenings.

-C

My Twitter

And Instagram

Best of ’16

When you’re a writer, you are constantly being asked, “Who’s your favourite author?” Or, “What is your favourite book?”

And being a huge book nerd, I love answering that question. For the sake of this post however, I will only answer one of those questions…sort of.

I’m going to go through and give you my five favourite books…of 2016. Now, to clarify, this does not mean the book was written/published in 2016, but rather, last year is when I read it.

Also, the order they appear below is not an indication of how much I liked one over the other, but rather, is a chronological listing of when I read them.

With that said, let’s get to it!

Ready Player One (Ernest Cline)

This is a big one! I’d been hearing about Ready Player One for a while. Both my buddy Ben (co-writer of No Light Tomorrow, for those new to my site) and my neighbour Ted (What’s up, Ted!), recommended this book highly to me.[image error]

Now, I may label myself a ‘horror’ guy, but if I have a second love, it’s science fiction.

So, what did I know about this book before reading it? Besides the high praise it was getting, I knew it was about a video game, and that there was a crap-ton of 80’s geek references.

Is that all it’s about? Kinda. But it works very very well! With the lone exception of a single scene that was not so much poorly written, but more a missed opportunity, Ready Player One was a huge homerun.

It was so good in fact, that Señor Spielbergo himself is making it into a movie!

The Stepford Wives (Ira Levin)

Confession time, I didn’t even want to read this book. I was actually trying to hunt down a copy of Ira Levin’s even more famous work, Rosemary’s Baby, when I came across Stepford Wives. I’m not going to lie, I had no idea The Stepford Wives was a book. I thought the movie was an original creation. So when I was perusing Amazon, baulking at the highway robbery that was the price for Rosemary’s Baby, I saw The Stepford Wives listed as an item like the one I was searching for.

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Being that I am an impulse shopper, I ordered it!

And boy howdy, am I glad I did. The Stepford Wives is a sharp, witty, disturbing book that was (and still is) completely relevant to the times. Levin did an amazing job of making the characters that we’re supposed to like, very likable. You cheer at their triumphs and weep at their failures.

One thing to point out though, this book is small. It goes to show how much things have changed in the publishing world that The Stepford Wives, which is basically a novella, would be a big hit back in the 70’s, but today would not get the time of day from most publishers because of it page count (or lack thereof).

And for those wondering, yes, I did get myself a copy of Rosemary’s Baby. Sadly I have not read it yet. But who knows, maybe it’ll be on next year’s list.

The Girl with all the Gifts (M.R. Carey)

I was on vacation when I picked this one up. I was already reading something else and knew I wouldn’t even crack the cover of the book until much later (I told you I’m an impulse buyer), but something jumped out at me from the book’s cover. The blurbs.[image error]

Most books have blurbs from other authors, Girl with all the Gifts has one from Joss fricking Whedon! It’s a good thing it does to, because there is nothing else besides the title and cover image (both of which reveal nothing as to what the book is about) and more blurbs to be found. But I figured hey, if the guy who gave me Firefly likes it, then dammit, I’ll give it a shot.

It wasn’t until I got home and looked up a bit about the book that I realized I am very familiar with the author. You see, M.R. Carey (as his name appears on the front), is none other than Mike Carey. Who the hell is Mike Carey, you ask? He’s a long time comic book writer. And if you know me (and if not, I’m about to tell you), you know I’m a comic book fanatic! I’ve read all kinds of Mike Carey’s comics. This cemented the purchase as a sound one in my mind.

The book, sort of a YA dystopian thing, only filtered through adult levels of horror and human suffering, is a fantastic read.

Like Ready Player One, The Girl with all the Gifts is getting the movie treatment as well. You can even watch the trailer right here!

The Acolyte (Nick Cutter)

Okay, so a couple years back, I had the opportunity to hang out with Nick Cutter and Andrew Pyper when they came through my home town for their book tour. I acted as a moderator/interviewer for their event here, and so had to bone up on their work before that night. Since Simon and Schuster (their publisher) was kind enough to send a copy of each of their new books, I got to reading.

[image error]What did I discover? These guys were some seriously great writers. Cutter’s book, The Deep, was pure nightmare fuel. I was hooked. Since then, I made it my business to read his other work. Which brings me to The Acolyte.

Unlike The Deep (or The Troop, another of his books), The Acolyte is not really a horror story at all. Sure, lots of horrific things happen within its pages, but it isn’t a horror story per say.

What it is, is a detective story set in an extremely messed up future where the catholic faith has become an even more terrifying thing than it already is (hard to imagine, I know!).

This book had me hooked from the first page.

Another thing, the book itself is gorgeous! Let’s all give a round of applause to ChiZine for the dynamite presentation.

The Terror (Dan Simmons)

Dan Simmons has been around for a long time, but this is my first forays into the man’s work. I was aware of the Terror since it came out some years ago, but always was put off (and most likely intimidated) by its size and premise. This book is a monster! 800 pages of small text. It is also an historic fiction. [image error]

Now, in theory, I was down with historical fiction, but in practice had never actually read any. I had seen Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (never read the book), and knew that this weird new sub-genre was growing in popularity, but it was not enough to cause me to pull the trigger on The Terror.

That all changed when I got a discount at my local Chapters. I snagged the book post haste.

In a lot of ways, I’m happy that I put off reading the Terror until now. A couple years ago even, I would never have finished this book. It would have been too daunting a task. Now? I ate it up!

I will say, Simmons is maybe the most literary horror writer I’ve come across. The Terror is a great crossover read for those snobbish types that normally wouldn’t be caught dead with a horror novel in their hands.

A couple honourable mentions (I struggled with expanding the list size to something arbitrary like 9, but then told myself it would be okay because I would do this instead).

The Troop (Nick Cutter)

One Night in Mississippi (Craig Shreve)

Wind through the Key Hole (Stephen King)

S. (J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst)

So there ya go. My five fave books of 2016. What books did you dig last year? Let me know in the comments.

-C

Novel update

I guess I should give an update on my novel. It is the most asked question I get these days and so I figure it’s only fair to shed some light on where it’s at and where it’s going.

I started work on it a few years ago (or pretty damn close to), and it still has a ways to go. I did hit a big milestone back in late summer/early fall of last year when I finished the first draft. I was proud to have gotten that far, but I also knew that there was going to be a lot of work ahead of me.

I’m not going to bore you with the details, but the cliff notes version is this: I kept changing what happens in the book. Because of those changes, huge sections of the novel which I had already written, became irrelevant to the story and were cut out. This indecisiveness has resulted in a patchwork collection of words that is a complete mess. Needless to say, I had become very discouraged.

It wasn’t until the end of last December (as in about a month ago!) that I finally came to terms with the story I am trying to tell. All decisions have been made. There is finally, once again, a clear direction. It’s time to start a new draft of the book (draft #4 for those keeping score). For this draft, I am just adding in those final elements I am missing and smoothing the edges on the other additions. From there, I will start cleaning it up heavily and preparing it for the editor.

…Just not right now.

For the immediate future, I thought it best to set the novel down for a couple months. I’ve been working on it in one way or another for years and I think it’ll help tremendously to come back for this 4th draft with a fresh mind.

That doesn’t mean I’m not writing anything, as I’m currently chugging away on the crime novella for Adventure Worlds Press that I mentioned in an earlier post a couple weeks ago. And more importantly, it doesn’t mean I’m abandoning the novel. I truly believe that it will be a scary book and can’t wait for everybody to read it! I just want to make sure it is everything I know it can be before I release it on the world.

-C

First Reading(s) of the Year!

One of my favourite parts of being an author is when I get the opportunity to do readings. For some, the mere thought of standing before a group of strangers and reading something aloud is terrifying. For me, it’s more a feeling of nervous excitement. It’s somewhat exhilarating when I’m standing before a room full of people, all of whom are there to hear me read something from one of my books.

So with that said, I’m rather excited to be doing not one, but two readings this week.

The first, which is tonight, is being hosted by local publisher Urban Farmhouse Press. Now you’re probably wondering why UFP is having me read when I am not published through them. Good question. You see, UFP are some great folks and have put together a monthly showcase featuring authors from a different local publisher (Windsor has several). And yep, you guessed, tonight is Adventure Worlds Press’ turn at bat.

My AWP partner in crime, Ben Van Dongen, will be reading as well. And since, as of this moment, Ben and I make up 100% of AWP’s authors, we’ve invited a couple friends to fill out the card. First is horror author, Mick Ridgewell. As well as historical fiction writer Dave Rocha.

As usual, besides readings, there will be signings and books for sale. Oh, and snacks, don’t forget the snacks.

More info here.

And if you want to learn more about just what the heck Urban Farmhouse Press is all about, go here.

The second reading, which will be this Saturday, takes place at the Goodwill Bookstore. Both Myself and Ben will be there, and as a special treat, we are going to be accompanied by new adult author, Jessica Gouin. What makes it so special is that it is Jessica’s first public reading (this is your chance hecklers!).

For the deets, click here.

I hope to see some of you at one (or both) events.

-C