Stephen Graham Jones's Blog, page 270

Ones That Got Away on YouTube

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here and:

Look What the Cat Dragged In

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Don't be afraid to embrace a song, or how it makes you feel. Remember the person you were when it touched you, or where you were — Brian Azzarello At the end of December 2011, I finally read Robert McCammon's A Boy's Life. One of the more amazing reading experiences I've had—maybe I'd somehow known to save it for the month before I turned forty? Anyway, somewhere in it the grown-up narrator says how important it is to always keep listening to the new music, how that keeps you alive in a very important way, and then he goes on to list a lot of bands I'd never consider listening to. It flashed me back to one of CJ Box's Joe Pickett books, where Joe's daughter accuses him of getting off the music train at one comfortable station, and never going anywhere else, and what we get from this is that Joe's kind of stubborn and stuck, is afraid to move forward, is using what he grew up with like a security blanket. And then, on the radio some recent Sunday morning, a DJ was playing this clip of a Michael Stipe interview, where he was saying the day Patti Smith's Horses dropped, he listened to it all night, ate a bowl of cherries, threw up, and was never the same again, that he knew now what he wanted to do, to be. It really hit me, that. I mean, not the Patti Smith—I just had to look up how to spell her name (the obvious  . . . → → →

This was (my) 2011

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Favorite movie → Tucker & Dale vs. Evil Favorite novel → The Enterprise of Death or 11/22/63 Favorite collection → We Live Inside You Favorite non-fiction → Shock Value or Teenage Wasteland or Blind Descent Favorite current tv → Breaking Bad and Phineas & Ferb Favorite catch-up tv → Deadwood tv I miss the most → Alias Best re-watched tv → Dead Set Favorite comic book series → Locke & Key and Scalped Graphic novel I'd never read before, now lovewantneed → Pixy Comic character I miss the most → Nailbunny Favorite short film → "Mockingbird" Favorite foriegn movie → I Saw the Devil or Memories of Matsuko Movie I rewatched the most → Outlander or Bandslam New music to me → Scott Biram Bands I listened to the most → Slim Cessna's Auto Club and Steely Dan Singer I listened to the most (again/always) → Bob Seger Song I listened to the most → "Your Latest Trick." maybe "Trudy" Best re-read book → Relic, always Best trip → Todos Santos Best ankle surgery → neither Broken nose → check Concussions → check, check Head CT → yep Various x-rays → it's getting ridiculous Favorite water bottles, now → Contigo Miles ridden on road bike → pretty much none Miles ridden on buses → without count Best decision → no more smartphone Worst decision → this shirt I bought today at Shepler's (really I love it) No, actually → doing a Tattered Cover reading from my Kindle Most life-changing talk I went to → on a.  . . . → → →

11/22/63

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I really really want to review it, but . . . anybody noticed that I only tend to do write-ups for books that are either problematic (or offensive to my delicate sensibilities) or that I can use a step to get up on my soapbox? And King's 11/22/63, it's just a solid, well-told, strongly-written book. And, if we're to believe the sign-off at the end, a book written in, what, six weeks? I mean, I'm usually not intimidated by how fast somebody else can kick a book out — more like challenged — but I'm sure this book has a lot of pages. I hit it on Kindle, but even there I could tell this was higher than the usual page-count. Anyway, to not review it, let me just say that I think it's his best since Lisey's Story. Not that I didn't dig Duma Key and Under the Dome and whatever else there's been, but this one, I don't know. It seemed to matter to him in a different way. That unmagic date, I mean, JFK, it all meant so much more to his generation than to mine (I'm born eight years and two months post-Dallas, I think. meaning Challenger is my JFK). But, even though time-travel should definitely allow him to get mired down in the quicksands of nostalgia — nope. He makes 1958 real, but he doesn't slather it with the sentimental. And, his language this time around, his word choice, it's as on as I've ever seen him. And the story  . . . → → →

Ledfeather in e-bookland

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who knew. and, it's coming to Kindle in February. click the cover to go to the place.    

Battle of the Books

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It's live over at LitReactor. And it's in keeping with that write-up I did over at Fantasy Matters a bit ago. And I guess I also kind of winged off the same stuff in my reviews of Freedom and The Last Werewolf. And, hopefully it's not in any working against my first write-up dealing with all this, "On Genre," at The Cult. And, I could have even been talking about some of this stuff (though running it through 'fiction' and 'nonfiction') here, forever ago.

Growing up Dead in Texas

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Greenwood, Texas It's where I grew up. And that's me on the cover, my little brother behind me. That's a pecan orchard we lived in for two or three months. It was the best place ever: our trailer was a double-wide, but it was one of those ones that's only half-long. Lke a single trailer that had been cut in half, folded back on itself so it was like a square now, almost. We lived there across one winter, and that was the first winter I remember that we got snow. These big fat flakes falling on New Year's night. We were playing Risk inside, but kept coming out to watch these snowflakes melt on our hands. Like I said: the best place ever. But, Greenwood: when I lived there we didn't have a post office. Not sure if they do now. And, everything, it was either farming or it was basketball. Well, and trucks. Always trucks. And, as for a synopsis, man. I'm going to start telling the whole novel from page one if you get me started. So, how about the tagline from MP Publishing's page? An investigation of the places we're from, and the places we still live when we close our eyes, Growing Up Dead in Texas explores small-town life, family, and what it really means to go home. Just hit that link to go a more full write-up. Anyway, I know I've been horror horror horror these past few years, and I still am, always will be. But this isn't.  . . . → → →

Machine Readable, and other news

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a podcast interview from MileHiCon 2011′ up at Machine Readable. was fun; I'm always kind of awed, talking to DJs who know what they're doing, who can keep a conversation going, who have done actual research beforehand, all that. or, to say better: I'm the most useless keep-aliver of a conversation ever (unless we're talking specific years of trucks, or violence I've seen done to animals, or books of any kind, or horror movies), so, hanging out with people who have made an art of it, man. also, though days if not weeks late, there's tight review of Warmed & Bound over at The Rumpus. and, last week my story "The Silent Game" posted over at the so, so, so cooly designed Plots With Guns, my ten recs for Halloween posted at Slushpile, The Denver Post ran an article on zombies that I'm in, Clarkesworld let me participate in a group discussion on The Weird (and a first line of mine's in this), and I participated in a reading at the LoDo Tattered Cover here in Denver (such a cool venue). all of which I should have posted last week (or was it the week before?), but, man: been editing and proofing and going over and over (wonderfully — this is the best kind of work) a novel I have hitting in June. Which I still can't announce. But soon, soon. Rocking cover, rocking publisher, great editor. It's a perfect storm of goodness. And also the best thing I've ever lucked into writing. coming up  . . . → → →

Happy Halloweening

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or, 'Five Horror (Movie) Anthologies,' but that doesn't look so cool as a title. nor does 'Five Horror-Antho Movies.' really, I couldn't find anything properly cool. and I'm far from the first dude to make a list like this — though I might be the first to limit it to just five? — and mine's not nearly so wonderful and exhaustive as some, but still and anyway, here's five I happen to especially dig: Screamtime The "Dream House" one if one of the better haunted house stories I've yet to luck onto. Terror Tract John Ritter. Three horror stories. Can't miss. Creepshow "Father's Day" is mandatory viewing in all circles I travel in. Trilogy of Terror Very Matheson. And all good horror comes in trilogies, as we all know. Trick 'r Treat Long-delayed, then DVD only, but at last, it's ours forevermore. Very slick.

My Intro for the Killage

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