Stephen Graham Jones's Blog, page 255

WestWord, Young Werewolf

Both the coolest cover and the coolest write-up. Cover photo by Anthony Camera, write-up/interview by Jason Heller: http://www.westword.com/arts/with-mon...

Mongrels Events

Six days out from going on the road a bit with Mongrels. Here’s the where and the whens, in order from first to last, with a couple extras at the end, extending into June. And, all the images, click them to go the place: GRRM’s cool theater down in Santa Fe, this Saturday: [ this one / above was originally May 10th, yes—had to reschedule. apologies for any difficulties or near-misses ] Bookworks, down in Albuquerque Library of Congress, Washington DC Tattered Cover, with Richard Kadrey Boulder Bookstore, here in Boulder land Murder by the Book, Houston, Texas Deeper into Summer: and . . .   which will include: Then, July 16th: [ more event-specific image/flyer coming, I’d guess, as we move through summer ] For now, that’s the what, the where, the when. But things tend to happen all in-between, too. I’ll update this as necessary—could be some SLC, could be more Texas. Have werewolves, will travel, yes? To say it different: would be a crime not to take a werewolf road-novel out on the road itself. Hope to see some of y’all out there. Oh, and I guess not everybody’s seen all of Mongrels yet, yeah? Here’s the author-photo, via the Cocteau’s listing:        

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Chapter one of Mongrels, a-live and kicking: Or: paste. http://a.pgtb.me/Pqw0HD/kRClT It’s on Facebook now, but it’s through Scribd, I think? So, there may be some more direct way to link/embed it, not sure. Scribd is new to me.

Mongrels UK

Happening just after it does on this side of the water. Also: these are the first final copies I’ve seen. Very exciting.

Mongrels in Salt Lake City

Where I lived last fall. Click the image to go to the place: [ or click here ]

Canceled Shows I Still Carry a Torch For

And, two that “finished,” but maybe didn’t get to quite go their intended distance: Uncoincidentally? Deadwood and Hannibal are my two favorite things to ever happen to television. So it probably stands to reason that I’m A) going to want more, and B) going to suspect they didn’t get a fair shake.

Slasher TV

And lo it came to pass, that the slasher did migrate to the small screen. Well, what we used to call the small screen. But the home viewing experience isn’t what it was in 1988. Nowadays, the image-quality and sound are practically theater, right? But that’s not the reason for the move, I don’t think. My first suspicion as to why the slasher would find a home in our living rooms, it’s that everybody keeps saying we’re in a golden age of television. So, the slasher, needing eyes as it does, goes to where those eyes already are. Except that’s too easy an explanation. Could it be that the networks and their prudishness aren’t controlling the game anymore? The Walking Dead has made gore a family-friendly experience, and Hannibal’s seeded some real darkness all through the nightly schedule, to say nothing of all the Dexters out there on the harder cable. But I don’t quite accept that as the prime reason the slasher’s gone tv. Relaxed standards might be a part of it, but not the main part. What I really think it might be, it’s just that the nature of the slasher has always been ready-made for television adaptation—for serial viewing. The beats of the slasher are pretty much “body/body/body/body/body . . . reveal-then-twist,” right? With a lot of suspense sequences stringing it all together. Lots of stalking, lots of slasher-cam, lots of red herrings, and maybe an ill-advised party or three, to get everyone in the same room, mix things up all over again.  . . . → → →

Critical Companion

Coming Soon

Serious Poeming

Layli Longsoldier, killing it on the page. This is exactly how art can work. I would say how poetry can work, but, really, this feels bigger than just one form, one medium. As the poem talks about. Click here to go there, and then never leave, except to spread this poem more and farther: My big plan? That there’s a recording online of this getting read out loud. By her, by someone.

Al Jazeera Panel

Was live, and now it’s here. Good times, good panel, good hosting; we could have gone a couple hours I figure. And, we were all talking before things cued up, and I don’t think any of us are trying to pull JK Rowling down. I mean, all writers owe her for creating a whole generation of readers, yes? I know I was always there at midnight, waiting for the next Harry Potter, and I’ve kind of ceremoniously handed her books on to my kids. At the same time, though, in her “History of Magic in North America,” we/Natives may come off a bit like a fantasy creature. For some cultures, maybe this is cool, I don’t know. Problem for us, it’s that it’s been going on for a while now, and’s just one more way to invisible us, to lock us in the past, all that. Anyway, rather than policing every representation, maybe we should just see misrepresentation as an opportunity to educate, yeah? And, as for why Rowling’s catching all this grief from all over for this, for what’s really just a few paragraphs in four pages, it’s probably because her fiction goes so wide that people feel it’s not something they can shrug off, as it/she kind of informs reality. Anyway, me? When I first read it, I was kind of bummed, yeah, but, I mean, when there’s Redskins flags everywhere, when every third school has us as a mascot (I’ve taught at two of them, PhD’d at another), there’s levels of being bummed, too. So  . . . → → →