About F. Paul Wilson (FPW)
FPW Author Bio
Paul was born and raised in New Jersey where he misspent
his youth playing with matches, poring over Uncle Scrooge and E.C. comics,
reading Lovecraft, Matheson, Bradbury, and Heinlein, listening to Chuck
Berry and Alan Freed on the radio, and watching Soupy Sales and Shock
Theatre with Zacherley.
He is the author of more than forty books: science fiction (HEALER, WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS, AN ENEMY OF THE STATE, DYDEETOWN WORLD, THE TERY, SIMS), horror thrillers (THE KEEP, THE TOMB, THE TOUCH, REBORN, REPRISAL, NIGHTWORLD, BLACK WIND, SIBS, MIDNIGHT MASS), contemporary thrillers (THE SELECT, IMPLANT, DEEP AS THE MARROW), novels that defy categorization (THE FIFTH HARMONIC, VIRGIN) and a number of collaborations. In 1998 he resurrected his popular antihero, Repairman Jack, and has chronicled his adventures in LEGACIES, CONSPIRACIES, ALL THE RAGE, HOSTS, THE HAUNTED AIR, GATEWAYS, CRISSCROSS, INFERNAL, HARBINGERS, BLOODLINE, BY THE SWORD, and GROUND ZERO.
He has peeked into Jack's teenage life in the young adult novels, Jack: Secret Histories and Jack: Secret Circles.
Most of his short stories are collected in SOFT & OTHERS (1989), THE BARRENS & OTHERS (1998), and Aftershock & Others. He has edited two anthologies: FREAK SHOW (1992) and DIAGNOSIS: TERMINAL (1996). He has written for stage, screen, and interactive media as well.
THE KEEP, THE TOMB, HARBINGERS, and BY THE SWORD all appeared on the New York Times Bestsellers List. WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS won the first Prometheus Award in 1979; SIMS won another, THE TOMB received the Porgie Award from The West Coast Review of Books. His novelette “Aftershock” won the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for short fiction. DYDEETOWN WORLD was on the young adult recommended reading lists of the American Library Association and the New York Public Library, among others. He was awarded the prestigious Inkpot Award from the San Diego ComiCon and the Pioneer Award from the RT Booklovers Convention. He is listed in the 50th anniversary edition of Who's Who in America.
His novel THE KEEP was made into a visually striking but otherwise incomprehensible movie (screenplay and direction by Michael Mann) by Paramount in 1983. THE TOMB is in development as “Repairman Jack” by Beacon Films and (we hope) will not suffer a similar fate. His original teleplay "Glim-Glim" aired on Monsters in 1989. An adaptation of his short story "Menage a Trois" was part of the pilot for The Hunger series that debuted on Showtime in July 1997. "Pelts" was adapted by Dario Argento for Masters of Horror.
Where i'll be 2010
(not all of these are definite)
Liberty States Writers Conference - March 13
Iselin, NJ
Southwest Florida Reading Festival - March 20
Fort Myers, FL
World Horror Convention - March 25-28
Brighton, UK
(combined with the Stoker Awards)
Jubilee Jambalaya Writers Conference - April 10
Houma, LA
RT Booklovers Convention - April 29-May 2
Columbus, OH
Pen to Press Writers' Retreat - May 25-29
(I'll be teaching)
New Orleans, LA
Crypticon - June 18-20
Everett, WA
Thrillerfest - July 8-10
NYC
NECon 30 - July 16-18
Rhode Island
Writers for New Orleans Workshop - September 2-5
New Orleans (duh)
BoucherCon October 14-17
San Francisco
World Fantasy Convention - October 28-31
Columbus, OH
my so-called life
...but only the bits that have to do with writing. Don't worry, I won't annoy you with news of my children's birthdays or pictures of my cat. (Wait...I don't have a cat.) This is not a blog, more of a diary. Keep an eye here on a regular basis. Or don't. It's not all that exciting.
2/28 - 55 pages into The Dark at the End.
2/26 - another ton of snow. At least no power failure this time. Good weather for writing and watching movies.
2/25 - Matt Costello sent me this link to a trailer for the interactive movie we scripted back in the 90s. Sadly, "Bombmeister" was never released. But it would have been an awesome interactive film. (Of course, they misspelled the title)
2/24 - came across this Winter Olympics animation from BBC - a very cool 42 seconds
2/21 - realized I contributed to 2 Stoker nominees: He is Legend and Writers Workshop of Horror. I'm ambivalent about writing awards in general, but good luck to them.
2/20 - Bad Movie Night at Doug Winter's. Saw "X-Cross" and Miike's "Imprint" (see the newsletter for FF reviews) plus selected short subjects.
2/19 - Jonathan Mayberry interviewed me last month. Lots of talk on the writing process. It went up today.
2/18 - I'm surprised how much I'm into the Winter Olympics. Jeez, I even watched curling tonight.
2/16 - in this True/Slant piece I ask should Barack Obama be the NRA's man of the year? I found some interesting statistics that point that way.
2/13 - started the last RJ novel today. Working title: The Dark at the End.
2/12 - power finally back this AM. Have I told you how much I HATE winter?
2/11 - 21 hours later the power came back on for 5 hours, then quit again. Kept the fireplace going and wrote on the laptop.
2/10 - posted a new True/Slant piece on the DSM-v - the book that defines who's normal and who's not. I know =I'm= normal, but I'm not so sure about the rest of you...
2/9 - we haven't dug out from the snowpocalypse yet and now the Northeast snowmageddon begins. Another good day to write, but I'm getting tired of this.
2/8 - on Borders about creating the Adversary Cycle
2/6 - the Mid-Atlantic snowpocalypse strikes. A good day to write.
2/4 Borders again. Talking about the tightrope and potential pitfalls in manipulating the 9/11 events for a thriller
2/4 True/Slant: contacting the unconscious patient
2/3 - back at Borders I yak about creating a series hero (guess who?)
2/3 - VIRGIN and the long-out-of-print SIBS go up on Amazon (which still doesn't have BUY buttons on any of my MacMillan tites. Still, at $2.99 - such a deal
2/2 - it's pub day for Jack: Secret Circles, the new RJ young adult (but it's not available at Amazon)
2/2 - I'm guest author over at the Borders sf/fantasy blogsite for a couple of weeks. Check it out
2/1 - back from Boot Camp and what do I find? MacMillan, the parent company of my publisher, is having a spat with Amazon over the pricing of e-books. In a snit, Amazon has removed all the BUY buttons from MacMillan titles – not just for Kindle editions, but all editions. And this on the eve of the Jack: Secret Circles pub date. Swell.
FEBRUARY
1/31 - home again, home again. Once more, the new writing samples by the Boot Camp grunts this AM showed quantum leaps in quality. That's gratifying.
1/30 - a long but rewarding day with the Boot Camp grunts. They all seem serious about writing and accepted the detailed criticism - not always easy to hear - with grace and even enthusiasm.
1/29 - heading off to Towson, MD for my annual stint at the Borderlands Boot Camp for Writers. The instructors meet the 24 grunts tonight and lay out what we're up to. Then, bright and early tomorrow AM, the real work begins.
1/28 - thanks to Webby on the RJ forum, SIBS is one step closer to Kindlization. VIRGIN is in the pipeline as well.
1/27 - you don't want to hear this but...just because you're slim doesn't mean you ain't fat - http://tinyurl.com/yhyp894
1/26 - my author copies of the limited edition of SECRET CIRCLES arrove. I love the dj art
1/25 - from ITW via my publisher: "Congratulations! AFTERSHOCK & OTHERS by F. Paul Wilson has been nominated as a finalist in the Best Short Story category for the 2010 Thriller Awards." Ain't dat nice. I didn't know it was even being considered. In fact, I didn't know they had a category for short story collection. Must be new. Or a mistake.
1/24 - well, bummer. The end of the Jets' season. Frustrating game. Wait'll next year.
1/22 - working on story beats and the logic train of the last RJ novel. Looks like this one might run long because I've got a lot of ground to cover.
1/19 - received author copies of the Brazilian edition of The Keep. Love the cover and the idea of using one of the crosses for the "T" - but why'd they have to use the movie's version of the cross? Past Brazilian editions have been published in a kind of haphazard fashion. This looks like the beginning of a matched set, especially with "Volume 1 of the Adversary Cycle" (in Portuguese, of course) on the cover.
1/18 - the first copies of the trade edition of Jack: Secret Circles arrive. The cover continues the same motif as the Jack: Secret Histories paperback, but in a garish blue instead of red. Oh, well, it’s eye-catching at least
1/17 - I found this Aussie who thinks an awful lot like I do, so I did a quick True/Slant piece on him, with video
1/16 - finished an interview for Jonathan Mayberry’s blog. Should appear next month.
1/15 - finished the first run through of the Boot Camp submissions - some pretty good, some not so good. I prefer the not so good because those folks really get their money’s worth.
1/15 - saw Mamet's "Race" tonight. A fascinating examination of the many perspectives and permutations of racism. James Spader, David Alan Grier, and Richard Thomas handled the sten-gun dialogue well, but the plot - about three lawyers dealing with racism's Rubik's cube - is way contrived. The ending is abrupt and unsatisfying, but in this case it's the journey that matters, because there's no destination.
1/13 - a new true/Slant piece: Homeopathy=quackery
1/10 - Yes! Paula Guran sent me the .pdf files for Healer, Wheels Within Wheels, and An Enemy of the State. Now, to get them Kindlized.
1/10 - Judy Comeau writes to tell me that Aftershock & Others and Ground Zero both made her 2009 top-ten list.
1/9 - I signed up for Carbonite backup a few days ago. It’s finally finished storing away 27+GB of data, and from now on, every change I make will be filed away. With a 3-year subscription, the cost is <$0.12 per day. That’s a sweet price for relief of backup anxiety.
1/8 - word from David Hartwell that the publisher’s production department is looking for the revised Fatal Error. His assistant, Stacy, had never read a Repairman Jack novel, so she read this one and sent me her notes. Her newbie insights were valuable, and I decided to finesse some of the confusions of a reader entering the series at this late stage. I promise Hartwell the revision by the 11th.
1/8 - spoke to someone from Amazon’s Kindle department about arranging e-publication of my LaNague Federation sf novels. He’s into it, talking about a promotion for all five novels and the short stories. The Tery and Dydeetown World are ready to go, but I need the files for Healer, Wheels Within Wheels, and An Enemy of the State, all written in the dim, dark days before word processing. Need to contact my POD publisher, Paula Guran.
1/7 - word from my agent's foreign rights department that The Touch and The Tomb will soon be back in print in Brazil.
1/6 - my usual Czech publisher has fallen on hard times, but a new one has made an offer on Ground Zero. Sold.
1/5 - I’m officially invited back to the Jumbalaya Jubilee Writers Conference in Houma again. Can’t miss that.
1/4 - posted a new True/Slant piece on banning trans fats with a link to my (sadly) prescient story Lipidleggin'" from 1978
1/1 - checked the mail drop and found my contributor copies of Rick Hautala's novella “Reunion” from P/S in the UK. I wrote the introduction.
JANUARY
2010
12/31 - 2009 was a crummy year for a lot of people. I hope you folks got through it okay. If not, I hope 2010 works out better for you. Happy New Year to all.
12/29 - the official pub date of Jack: Secret Histories
12/26 - "TPOTC&OE" went live at the Kindle store today. "The Last Rakosh" is still in the pipeline.
12/24 - I hit the "Publish" button on Amazon's Digital Text Publishing site and sent "The Last Rakosh" and "The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus & Oddity Emporium" to the Kindle Store. They won't show up for a few days (especially with the intervening holidays) but I'll let everyone know when they do.
12/23 - I do want changes in THE KEEP tpb - minor clean-ups and clear-ups like I did for the Borderlands edition. I send those in today. (No, I'm not changing Glaeken's name to Fred.)
12/22 - Merry Christmas to me: this weighty box arrove with a return address of "Criterion." Inside is the "AK 100" collection - 25 Kurasawa films in a beautiful red linen-bound box. But no clue as to why I received it or from whom besides "Criterion" (who packages the set). But to whomever and whatever: THANK YOU!
12/21 - sent in the revised Secret Vengeance. I added a character and expanded another's role and wound up adding about 6k words.
12/20 - Harry Morris and have been going back and forth on the cover for FATAL ERROR. He sends something brilliant. See it here.
12/19 - The Author Is the Last to Know Dept. (again): Readers are writing to me, saying THE KEEP isn't available. What? It hasn't been out of print since 1981. So I check with the publisher and learn they're planning a trade paperback edition for next year and are letting the mmpb stock run out. BTW, do I want to make any changes? Hey, thanks for letting me know.
12/18 - I read "The Christmas Thingy" to a bunch of kindergarteners and 2nd graders. They were a great audience. Rarely do they guess what Thingy is going to steal, and this time was no exception.
12/17 - with advice from Joe Konrath (who's been there, done that), I start the process of Kindlizing "The Last Rakosh" and "The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus & Oddity Emporium." They're shorter length and a good way to get my feet wet, I think.
12/17 - The Author Is the Last to Know Dept.: a reader writes saying she'd like me to sign the copy of Ground Zero she wants to give her guy for Christmas (no problem), but can find only copies of the second printing. Where can she get a first printing? Huh? I didn't know it had gone back to press. Author's LIKE to know these things. It makes them happy.
12/16 - heard talk about getting a brain tumor from your cell phone? I check it out on True/Slant
12/14 - afraid of nitrites? Despite what you’ve heard, maybe BBQ is the way to go. Another True/Slant piece
12/10 - this AM's news says the vote on the gay marriage bill has been put off, maybe indefinitely. That effectively kills it. See? They didn't grease the right palms.
12/9 - someone recut "The Keep" into a 16-min zombie film. Click on "Das Zombie"
12/8 - we have a gay marriage bill wending its way through the NJ state legislature and I was speaking to a lesbian who's been devoting 20 hours a week lobbying to pass it. I mean, trying to reason with NJ legislators! I told her get real. This is Jersey, the most corrupt state in the union. You don't persuade these folks, you pay them.
12/4 - Barbara Boxer really ticked me off so I had at her on True/Slant
12/3 - I found this really useful app (Readbility) for reading poorly designed websites
DECEMBER
11/30 - sent in RJ-14. I'm starting to favor FATAL ERROR as the title.
11/28 - notes from my beta readers are in. Time for one last pass through the ms for RJ-14 before submitting it.
11/24 - received copies of the Japanese edition of CRISSCROSS. I love those little books. Kenji posted the covers
11/23 - a True/Slant post on A glimpse at typical patients during a morning at a family practitioner's office. Roland Emmerich will not be filming this, but you might find it interesting...
11/19 - just finished copyediting my li'l RJ story "Piney Power" for the ITW YA anthology, FEAR: 13 Stories of Suspense and Mystery.
11/19 - Why is the left afraid of Sarah Palin? If I had the answer, I wouldn't be asking on True/Slant.
11/18 - Although I liked its early debunking mindset, "The Mentalist" has become as realistic and suspenseful as "Murder, She Wrote." I'm done.
11/17 – Check out The Von Sholly History Of Monsters. Amazing work. I can't name everything on this mural, but I got quite a few.
11/15 - back from Murder & Mayhem in Muskego. What a great group of writers and readers, plus Ruth & Jon Jordan are the BEST hosts evah.
11/2 - Horror World says my newsletter 'sploded their inbox with people applying for a free signed copy of GROUND ZERO
11/12 - went to NYC for the AAP's Author Adopt-A-School program. It's an outreach, matching NYC public schools with authors to encourage the love of books and reading. Spoke to 3 different classes of 7th & 8th graders in the Bronx (in the shadow of the new Yankee Stadium), plus a school newspaper interview. They all got a free copy of Jack: Secret Histories, and I got new minds to subvert. What a great bunch of kids.
11/11 - just posted a new True/Slant piece giving you the real deal on resveratrol, that miracle compound being touted as a panacea. Read before you get sucked in.
11/8 - I've got a draft of the 14th (penultimate) RJ novel that I think is readable. Sending it out to my beta readers for tear up and tear down. No title yet. (This is an ongoing problem for me.) Hoping they'll come up with one.
11/6 - postponed an invitation to be a guest at WonderCon in 2010 until 2011. Wanted very much to go next year but it's sandwiched between World Horror in the UK and the Jambalaya Writers Conference in Houma. Cons in Brighton, San Francisco, and Louisiana over the course of 17 days. That might be just a little too much fun, even for me.
11/5 - my agent took me to a screening of "The Blind Side" today (he repped the book). I was sort of blind-sided by the film. Didn’t expect to like it so much. I got verklempt in parts. The whole cast is wonderful, but Sandra Bullock...if she doesn't get an Oscar nom for this, she never will.
11/4 - sent off my contract for the hint fiction anthology + a bio of < 25 words (of course)
1/1 - just got word from this French fellow, Stephane, that the French version of THE KEEP graphic novel with Matthew Dow Smith is about ready. 18+ euros seems kind of steep. (Stephane has built an online shrine to the film. Obviously, he's insane, but he's a good guy and we've agreed to disagree.)
NOVEMBER
10/31 - toured the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. Literally indescribable. For those who don't know the story, this heiress to the Winchester fortune was convinced she must never finish the house she lived in or the spirits of all those killed by Winchester rifles would carry her away (or something like that). So she kept building…and building, for 38 years. The result is an Escher-worthy maze of 160 rooms, the product of an unbalanced mind with an unlimited budget.
10/29 - due to rain delays on the connecting flight, I had a looooong trip to San Jose for World Fantasy Con. Ran into Peter Straub in the Fairmont lobby. He'd also had a long weather delay so we commiserated in the bar over vodka (him) and gin (me), and the day improved.
10/27 - the trade paperback of the (slightly) revised REBORN is published today.
10/23 - RIP Soupy Sales. As a kid I loved this guy; his dog White Fang cracked me up. Check out this episode with the Rat Pack from his show back in the 60's: Sinatra gets pied!!!
10/21 - saw the play "A Steady Rain" and am very disappointed. Cast = Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig. Set = 2 chairs. The 2 do decent American accents and wring what they can from a script that contains reams of exposition. Mostly telling without showing. Info dumps do not good drama make. FAIL!
10/20 - starting to proof the SECRET CIRCLES galleys for the Gauntlet edition. I wish I didn't know how it ends.
10/20 - I read the Wachowski Bros' 1995 script for "Plastic Man." Paul Reubens was to star. Wouldn't that have been a hoot? I think he'd have been perfect as Plas.
10/19 - geekalicious mail from Japan: a 2-page letter from Hideo Kojima telling me how much he enjoyed the new Japanese edition of CRISSCROSS, plus a tie-in T-shirt from his forthcoming Metal Gear Solid game, "Peace Keeper."
10/17 - had a sit-down at B-Con with John Helfers from Tekno Books. They want to package a Repairman Jack companion and an anthology of short stories about RJ-type characters. I like the ideas but there’s a minor kink or two that need to be ironed out before I get on board.
10/15-18 - BoucherCon in Indianapolis. A mystery/crime convention where the attendees are more staid and definitely skewed further north agewise than any other con I attend. But writers, editors and agents are the same everywhere and ruled the bar. (Stephen Schwartz gives you a warm, first-timer’s look at the con here.
10/14 - ever wonder about "the pompatus of love" on Steve Miller's "The Joker"? I reveal the secret here
10/14 - recorded a segment on Pod of Horror #56 with the redoubtable Mark Justice. If you've time, give a listen.
10/11 - I call out Scientology on True/Slant
10/9 - I’m interviewed on Whispers Paranormal Radio. (I come in at around the 45-min mark and sound cretinous)
10/8 - on the flight home from Phoenix we passed over the Barringer meteor crater between Winslow and Winona. Even from miles up that thing is big.
10/7 - excellent signing at the Poisoned Pen as usual. Great store. Some regulars from the RJ website showed up, plus got to meet a new bunch of readers. Tonight I added a second spot in the Phoenix area to my list of favorite hotels in the world. One is Frank Lloyd Wright's Arizona Biltmore and now the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale. It's genuine retro '50's (built in '56) down to the last Rat Pack-era detail, and expertly managed. I'd go back in a second. Catch the slide show and cool vibraphone music
10/3-4 - in Baltimore at NAIBA, an independent booksellers trade show. Tom Monteleone showed up and we chatted with Stephen Hunter who I've been reading for years but never met. If you haven’t tried his books, by all means do. He’s a top-notch thriller writer.
10/2 - spooky and unsettling book trailer for Sarah Langan's AUDREY'S DOOR. http://tinyurl.com/yc4ym4k
OCTOBER
9/26 HERETIC, the graphic novel proposal Tom Monteleone and I worked up way back when has risen from the dead. A major label wants to do a "pilot issue." Don't know what the hell that is, but we've put something together.
9/25 - it's national punctuation day http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/
9/24 - I received unofficial word last night, but now it's official: Ground Zero will appear on the October 4 NY Times Bestseller list. ANd you folks made that happen. Thank you.
9/21 – early flight out of LAX to Houston for my 1st signing at Murder by the Book (my 1st time in Houston, as a matter of fact). Wonderful staff, real book people. Good turnout - some fellow and his wife drove 4 hours from the Shreveport, LA area. Now =that= is a devoted reader. I shared the event with Hank Schwaeble who signed his first novel, Damnable (which I recommend to RJ fans).
9/20 - race from Killercon to Burbank for lunch with Barry Rosenbush, one of the RJ film producers, (nothing new I can talk about) and a signing at Dark Delicacies. Good turnout of LA-area regulars from the website. Plus David Schow made the trip over the hills to join us.
9/17-19 - KillerCon in Vegas…an impressive out-of-the-gate start to this now-annual con. Lots of West Coast writers and readers. Slushpile played after the autograph party. I broke even on what little gambling I did. (Which is unusual - typically I lose my entire stake; sometimes I think I should simply hand the pit boss my money and do something constructive with the time I would have spent losing it.)
9/17 - lots of BS out there about the swine flu vaccine. I try to counter some of it here
9/16 - SECRET VEGEANCE sent in to Susan Chang (my YA editor). This completes my 3-book YA contract. I do believe I have a 4th YA Jack in me, but no more after that. That doesn’t preclude other YA novels. I like writing for that age group
9/15 - today is the official publication date for Ground Zero: Repairman Jack vs the 5-million-copy print run of Dan Brown’s latest.
9/13 - I begin inputting the final edits on SECRET VENGEANCE, the 3rd YA Jack novel.
9/12 - I was going to Bouchercon, then I wasn't, now I am again. Sheesh. See Where I’ll Be
9/11 – I remember this day in 2001 like it was yesterday. I was in Nantucket, happily typing away on THE HAUNTED AIR. After seeing the towers fall, I couldn't write for weeks. Reality had trumped my fiction. I ...felt, What's the point in writing thrillers if this is what real life is going to be?
9/10 - I was going to WFC, then I wasn't, now I'm going for sure. Missed it last year, can't miss 2 in a row
9/9 - a brief True/Slant piece on Camille Paglia's latest. The Salon article referenced is a must-read
9/8 - firmed up the Phoenix details: The Poisoned Pen Oct. 7. See Where I’ll Be
9/7 - just reminded that Ground Zero releases the same day as Dan Brown's sequel to The Da Vince Code. Swell.
9/7 - mostly recovered from New Orleans. Vegas next week, then Burbank, Houston. Oy.
9/3-6 - This is my 3rd time at Heather at Graham’s Writers for New Orleans Workshop. Good people, good times. Slushpile (Heather’s band with rotating personnel except for Heather, Dave Simms, and myself who seem to be the constants) played the music for the dinner show. This year’s conference was better than last - we weren’t chased out of town early by a hurricane. A lot of late nights, though…
9/2 - just lost 45 pages of his new book through an act of monumental stupidity: accidentally overwrote a Word file with material from another, then copied that to his backup drive, thus overwriting the original (good) backup. And my backup of the backup ...does not contain the un-overwritten file. (This may not make sense because I am SICK about it.)
9/1 - a brief interview in "The Big Thrill" newsletter, yakking about Ground Zero.
SEPTEMBER
8/26-28 - a getaway to Maryland's eastern shore. Stayed at the inn where they filmed parts of "The Wedding Crashers."
8/25 - the Forum at repairmanjack.com recorded its 200,000th post today. That doesn't count posts from the old board or the posts we lost in the big software update a few years ago. What a gabby bunch.
8/25 - True/Slant: are you infuriated that congress will exempt itself from the healthcare reform it intends to pass? I am.
8/25 - a student/teacher guide for Jack: Secret Histories just arrove via email. Never seen anything like this; kinda cool. Especially for MY book.
8/24 - sent the Jack: Secret Circles sig sheets back. Signed them over the weekend while away in Amagansett. Writers bitch about signature sheets (which are later bound into signed limited editions) but I've found I can sit around with friends, have a drink and conversation while signing away. The job goes pretty quickly that way.
8/22 - my save-the-triffids post has stirred up some virulent anti-triffid sentiment.
8/20 - another True/Slant post: Save my triffids! (Please?)
8/20 - my Toshiba netbook arrives. So far, so good. Even has a serviceable word processor installed.
8/19 - the ms of Tim Lebbon's new collection appears. Looking forward to it but won't be able to get to it for a while.
8/18 - a geeky post on True/Slant:
8/18 - a BIG box of signature sheets for Jack: Secret Circles arrives. Oh joy.
8/16 - the Toshiba Laptop That Wouldn't Die just did. I think I'll replace it with a netbook. All I use it for is writing and email when I'm on the road, and the netbook's small size will make it easier to use on planes. The way seats are spaced nowadays makes it almost impossible to use a full-size laptop.
8/15 - I'm part of the latest podcast from genrefinity.net. A free-form, wide-ranging conversation wherein I sound like Ratso Rizzo. (I hope that's my mike's fault and I don't sound like that in real life.)
8/14 - spent an interminable time on the phone with the NJ taxocrats. And when they put me on hold, what do I hear? Mellencamp's "Authority Song." As if!
8/13 - RIP Les Paul. I met him in the late 60s when my band auditioned for him and his son in his Mahwah, NJ studio. They were looking for rock bands to produce/record. For a legend he was pretty much a regular guy. He talked to our guitarist about his Stratocaster and how he thought it might be improved. He recorded a demo tape of some of our original songs. We thought we were pretty good. He disagreed. We didn't make the cut. No hard feelings. He was no doubt right.
8/13 - posted a True/Slant piece of food porn. The website makes me hungry, but it might make you sick.
8/12 - turned in a piece on THE DAY OF THE JACKAL for the ITW book, THRILLERS:100 MUST READS. After almost 40 years, it still holds up as one hell of a thriller.
8/10 - invited back (I was there in 2007) to the 11th Annual Southwest Florida Reading Festival in Fort Myers next March. Lemme think about this . . . go to Florida in March or stay in NJ . . . in March. *sigh* okay, I'll go. A tough choice, but some times ya gotta suffer for your art.
8/9 - ARCs for the trade edition of Jack: Secret Circles arrove yesterday. Didn't expect them so early. Pub date's not till Feb 2010
8/7 - just received the new German edition of Reborn. They're calling it ERWECKUNG. I'm told that means "resurrected." Close enough. Lots of times they change the title without telling me. I can see that with something like ALL THE RAGE, which was a play on the English expression (they called it TOLLWUTIG), but why change HOSTS to TODESFREQUENZ?
8/4 - By the Sword officially published in paperback today
AUGUST
7/30-8/6 - went through 5 novels during my annual vacation/read-a-thon with widely varying levels of engagement.
7/29 - last entry for the month. Off to Nantucket for a week where my Internet access will be spotty and slow. This is my annual reading vacation so I'm bringing along a stack of books.
7/26 - back to work on RJ-14. Took me a while to get back up to speed after the hiatus. This is why you need to write every day - to keep that narrative momentum going.
7/25 - received cover flats for the mmpb of Jack: Secret Histories (not due for publication till Jan '10). Sort of redefines garish, no?
7/24 - finished the Secret Vengeance revamp. Now to put it aside and let it marinate a few weeks.
7/23 - a milestone at the repairmanjack.com Forum: reader #2700 just registered. We're closing in on 200k posts. I used to be able to read them all, now I dip in and out of the threads.
7/22 - Allen Wyler asks me to be a judge again for the ITW Awards next year and I accept. Am I crazy?
7/22 - doing edits, additions, reconstruction of Secret Vengeance this week, then will put it away for a few weeks before another reread.
7/17-19 - NECon is a blast. Great to be back after missing last year. Did a lot of jamming on Saturday night. Here’s a shot with Dave Simms and Rhodi Hawk
7/16 - for the first time in 20 years I don't make my world-famous Planter's Punch for the pre-NECon festivities. Time for a change, but I don’t know what to substitute. Doug brought Cachaca and we started off with that mixed with lime and progressed from there. I had planned a single-malt tasting but we never got to it.
7/14 - crankiness from Publishers Weekly, which found GROUND ZERO "less than satisfying." I much prefer the Bookgasm review.
7/14 - new post on True/Slant: Could violent videogames be saving lives? It’s a broad conclusion; more of a hypothesis, really. Someone had to tender it. The name of the column is, after all, “The Next Question.”
7/13 - decided to put aside RJ-14 and work on Secret Vengeance. It’s due October 1 and needs work.
7/13 - crap. News arrives that Charlie Brown is gone. RIP, Charlie.
7/12 - Yow. Nearly 4k views on the True/Slant piece. A lot of disagreeing, but generally civilized. I love T/S.
7/11 - great dinner at Cipriani. Possibly the best banquet dinner ever, plus an open bar which I never had to go to because the patrolling wait staff wouldn't allow my wine glass to go dry. ITW got it right this time. Wound up sitting next to Whitley Strieber, who is never dull.
7/11 - survived 2 panels (the audience outnumbered the panelists on both counts, so, yay) and 2 signings.
7/10 Got dragged (no pun intended) to a transvestite karaoke bar (don’t ask) in the village last night. The ladies there are awfully tall.
7/9 - hopped a train to NYC. Did some more reading on the train. Introduced my agent at a luncheon at Thrillerfest. My literary agency, Writers House, co-sponsored the opening night reception, so I got to sign copies of The Touch. Later on I stayed too late at Dillon's pub in NYC. Probably could have done without the Irish car bomb.
7/8 - reading a Secret Vengeance draft. Been a long time since I was through it. Needs lotsa work.
7/7 - I post a new True/Slant piece: "There ain't no such thing as a right to health care." Somebody had to say it.
7/6 - Hey, dat old Black Wind is #1 on Dark Delicacies bestseller list this week. How’d that happen?
7/5 - proofed the rest of Secret Circles. Now to reread what I've written on the 3rd YA book. I like writing for teens and tweens.
7/3 - Hey, guess what? I just learned I'm Moby's favorite author. He says so himself.
7/3 - the cover for the new French edition of The Keep has a familiar vibe. Does that silhouette remind anyone else of the poster for Carpenter’s “The Thing”? Just a little?
7/2 - check from Brazil for the new edition of O Fortim (The Keep). I really do <3 my backlist.
7/1 - word today that The Tomb and Bloodline are going back to press for new printings. I <3 my backlist.
JULY
6/30 - received the proof pages for Jack: Secret Circles. Oh joy. By this point I'm sick of a book. Even my near, dear deathless prose palls.
Also receive a case of The Touch reissue. Where am I gonna put this stuff?
6/29 - if you support science, truth, and/or free speech, please read and sign the petition linked in this True/Slant piece.
6/27 - no writing today. I take a day off and go to the beach.
6/25 - it seems everyone I’ve ever known is already on Facebook. Was I the last person on Earth to join?
6/24 - just finished page proofs for the Reborn. A bit taken aback by the grand guignol finale. I wrote that? I’d forgotten how big a part Glaeken (as Veilleur) plays in the book. And of course there’s Jonah Stevens, whose later machinations surface in Boodline and send ripples through all the remaining Repairman Jack novels.
6/22 - writing away on the new book while proofing the Reborn pages. Finding errors!!! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Ain’t no such thing as a perfect book.
6/22 posted “Calling Dr. God…” on True/Slant.
6/20 - received a copy of the new trade paperback of The Touch. It includes its prequel, “Dat-tay-vao.” Looks reeeeal nice.
6/18 - word from Molly Bender (of Bent Pages in Houma, LA), bookseller extraordinaire and certified crazy lady, that Jack: Secret Histories is on the Accelerated Reader List and the libraries down there are stocking it.
6/16 - the page proofs for the fall trade paperback reissue of Reborn arrive. They were derived from the Borderlands Press edition, so I don’t expect much work proofing them.
6/16 - I joined Facebook today, mostly so I could see photos from the Stoker weekend posted on folks’ pages (you can’t view if you don't belong). I haven’t regretted Twitter, so this should be okay. Everybody warns me that it will suck up my time. We’ll see.
6/15 - a contract for the Japanese edition of Crisscross arrove while I was away. One of my favorite Jack novels.
6/13 - a busy day at the convention with signings and panels and interviews, plus the requisite West Coast hajj to In N Out Burger for an animal-style double-double. The banquet goes smoothly that night and I accept the Lifetime Achievement Award.
6/12 – Friday is a long, drawn-out comedy of errors as Slushpile (Heather Graham’s band with yours truly on drums) gets booted from one rehearsal space after another. We’re scheduled for three sets at the party tonight and we’ve never played some of the songs together, not even once. But it works out. We’re loud and we don’t suck too bad, and people are drinking, so they don’t mind. (At least no one booed.)
6/11 - off to the Stokers in LA. I manage to write five pages on the plane before my battery runs out. I have a spare but I decide to catch a few winks instead, because I never get enough sleep on these West Coast trips.
Land in LAX, rent a car, and head for a lunch meeting with Beacon in Santa Monica (see the Movie section for more on that). Then it’s off to Burbank for a mass signing/party at Dark Delicacies which turns out to be great fun and very crowded. (Offer readers a bunch of their favorite authors, free beer and food, and they show up in droves. Imagine that.) I sign a lot of copies of Aftershock & Others (and that is not a bad thing).
6/10 - pass the 200-page mark on Rj-14.
6/9 - The Complete Little Orphan Annie vol. 3 arrove today. This is a magnificent (I don’t use that term lightly) hardbound series. Daddy Warbucks goes broke in the crash of ’29 and Annie’s on her own as the Great Depression begins. What a wonderful role model she was for girls back then. Just because you’ve seen “Annie” (the play or the movie) don’t think you know Annie. She’s not little miss sunshine. She’s the ultimate realist, physically and emotionally tough - tougher than many of the adults she meets - and nobody’s fool. I love this gal.
6/8 - new T/S post on the link between Vitamin D and folate and racism. No kidding.
6/5 - the Infernal paperback is back from another printing
6/4 - post a True/Slant piece on Vitamin D. It isn't a sexy subject, but it's more important than most people know:
6/2 - contact from Lawrence Mark Productions (I, Robot, Dreamgirls, Jerry Maguire) about remaking The Keep. I direct them to Paramount…and I’ll never hear from them again. Ya know…with people remaking movies that were done right to start with, why can’t someone remake this film, which was bolloxed up the first time and get it right?
6/2 - received The Complete Dick Tracy vol. 7 today. The Mole, BB Eyes, etc. Mind-boggling stories. Outre as all hell. Bordering surreal
JUNE
5/30 - off to BEA today and today only. Usually I make a weekend of it and hit the publisher parties, but I'm behind on the new novel and have a wedding to go to tonight. I stopped by the Planet Stories booth and signed some copies of Robots Have No Tails. I signed ARCs of Ground Zero until we ran out. I feel bad for the people who waited in line but didn't get one. (If it makes anyone feel any better, I didn't get one either.) Right after that, I hopped in my car and headed back to the Jersey Shore for the wedding.
5/27 - Matt knows PowerPoint so he put together the Masque proposal for THQ. They want severely stripped-down presentations which forced us to skim the surface of a very rich, intense gaming experience.
5/27 - Matt knows PowerPoint so he put together the Masque proposal for THQ. They want severely stripped-down presentations which forced us to skim the surface of a very rich, intense gaming expreience.
5/23 - do a True/Slant piece on my signing for the wounded vets down in San Antonio. Needed to get it out of my system.
5/21 - the hint fiction preys on my mind. The deadline is June but I can’t put it off. I come up with “Pranksters.” It’s only 22 words (3 under the limit) the editor loves it. (Yes, it will fit very nicely h ere, but you’ll have to wait for the book.)
5/20 - a request for a piece of what’s called “hint fiction.” It’s ultra-minimalist prose that leaves it to the reader to fill in the blanks. Hemingway's "Baby Shoes" is the most famous example. If you don’t know it, here are all 6 heart-wrenching words: “For Sale, baby shoes, never worn.” I’m allowed 25 words. I’m not doing short stuff, but 25 words…can’t resist the challenge.
5/18 - the travails of recent excursions deep into the heart of Texas and the untamed Maryland wilderness proved too much for my trusty travel blazer. It began unraveling - physically and spiritually - and had to be put down. But not to worry…I have a backup.
5/18 - email from Gary Frank the writing conference next March run by the Liberty States Fiction Writers is looking for guest speakers and would I be interested. March 2010 looks pretty clear now. A tentative yes.
5/17 - Nanci Kalanta writes to say that the Aftershock & Others raffle is done: 506 entries. I need to pick 5 numbers between 1 and 506. I do - and they’re all prime. Those will be the winners.
5/16 - the first speaker at the “Murder, Mystery and Mayhem” workshop is MIA, so that leaves it to Heather Graham and me to ad lib something for the attendees. We come up with a flash-fiction exercise, divide them into teams, give them some time, then critique the results. Works out fine.
5/15 - Tim Lebbon wants to know if I’ll do an introduction to an upcoming collection of his short fiction. He’s another excellent Brit writer, so I agree on the spot.
5/15 - flew back from San Antonio (4 hours), then drove straight to Maryland (4 hours in heavy traffic) for the MRW “Murder, Mystery and Mayhem” workshop tomorrow. This gets wearing.
5/14 - finished signing early at Center for the Intrepid and Brooke AMC (ran out of books). Saw horrendous injuries at CFI. Wrote about it here.
5/14 - Conrad Williams, a British writer I met at WHC, writes to ask if I’d like to do a story for a western (as in cowboy) themed anthology “that will marry that genre with those of horror, fantasy, science fiction.” Well, I already did that in Razored Saddles and don’t know if I can do it again (seeing as I’m off short stories). I give him a sorta-maybe because he’s a good guy and an excellent writer. (Check out his new novel, ONE, out 6/9.)
5/13 - off to San Antonio to sign books for wounded GIs at the Center for the Intrepid and Brooke Army Medical Center tomorrow.
5/12 - word from Blake Crouch that the short story he wrote with Jack Kilborn (AKA JA Konrath) was up for free download. It’s called “Serial” and last month they’d asked me to read it and maybe blurb it. I said, “SERIAL reads just like a Crouch or Kilborn novel: Full speed ahead, no flinching, no blinking, no brakes.” Download here.
5/12 - my publicist tells me I’ll be signing ARCs of Ground Zero at BEA on May 30. I’d love to stick around for the parties, but I’ve got a wedding that night.
5/10 - Bad Movie Night at Doug Winter’s place in Virginia. Saw a couple of good 'uns: "The Nest" (French) and "[REC]" (Spanish). But BMN wouldn't be bad without bad, like "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace" (intentionally bad) and Frank Pacholski (hurlingly bad).
5/9 - word from Liz Berry at Thrillerfest that I’m on 2 panels on Saturday, July 11, one in the AM, the other late afternoon.
5/8 - finished and sent back the copyedited ms of Secret Circles. A little more space on the desk now.
5/8 - ARCs of Gauntlet's Ground Zero arrove today. Another amazing cover by the hypertalented Harry Morris.
5/7 - Chris Morgan wrote the current version of the Repairman Jack script. Back it 2007, when I was a guest at San Diego ComiCon, we hung out and he told me how much he loved Healer and how he wanted to do a screenplay for it. He told me some of his ideas and they knocked me out. So today I asked him if I could drop his name when my agent sent off the book, and he said sure. His last film, Fast & Furious 4, had a $72 million opening weekend, so Chris has got a bit of credibility these days.
5/6 - dinner with my publisher at my agent’s home (a beautifully restored townhouse in Chelsea). My publisher tells me we moved a pile of those bargain-priced books reissued in January. My agent tells me a movie producer connected with the Twilight film is interested in some of my non-Jack books. I say I’d like him to take a good look at Healer for reasons I’ll explain tomorrow.
5/6 - a producer connected with Overture Films writes to inquire about film rights to The Keep. He’s seen the graphic novel and…the usual. I told him to check with Paramount.
5/5 - THQ wants the Masque proposal in Powerpoint. Yikes. I don’t know nuttin bout Powerpoint.
5/4 - Nanci Kalanta of Horror World informs me that Aftershock & Others holds the one-day record for raffle entries. (That would be because of the newsletter readers, of course.)
5/3 - finally back from WHC in Winnipeg after a seemingly interminable trip - long to start with, but lengthened by weather delays in the Northeast. A small convention but I enjoyed the folks who showed up. Met new people and had a good time.
5/1 - Weston Ochse wants me to do an introduction to his anthology of stories based around lightning. Also wants to reprint “Aftershock.” I say yes to the first but will have to check with my publisher on the second since that’s the title story of the new collection.
MAY