Tour De Farce
I'm back from Spain, where I had a hell of a good time, and put on five pounds. Big thanks to the folks at Celsius 232 for inviting me to their party in Avilés. Let's do it again sometime.
One of the many pleasures to come out of the visit to Spain was the time I got to spend talking with M.R. Carey, author of the novel The Girl With All The Gifts, and the comic Unwritten... among many other works. Mike is one of the most inventive and humane creators working in genre today, and I'm looking forward to picking up our conversation when we get together again in August for a series of events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Come be part of the chat! We'd love to see you and tickets are already available. Here's our schedule:
East Kilbride, Scotland
August 19th, 7PM: Apocalypse Now • a chat with M.R. Carey and Yours Truly about the end of the world.
East Kilbride, Scotland
August 19th, 8:30 PM: East Kilbride Unbound
(This is truly fucked up - they're asking us talentless authors to do some kind of public cabaret style performance. I have threatened to play the piano. If I follow through, I pledge to do so very badly, and make everyone who shows up sing along with me.)
Edinburgh, Scotland
August 20th, 5:45 PM: Terrifying Dystopian Dramas with M.R. Carey and Joe Hill AKA Bingo The Laughing Dog Faced Boy
(Are you beginning to see a theme?)
See you there, guys.
Stats
Watching: Man in the High Castle, Season One. I love Rufus Sewell's sweatered, father-knows-best Nazi... an indelible character. He's one of these actors like Ian McShane who you just wish was in everything.
Reading: Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I see Rufus Sewell was in the mini-series, so that'll probably be good. Er. And Ian McShane too. I guess that seals it.
Listening: American Gods by Neil Gaiman, read by George Guidall. Awesome. Boy, I wonder if they cast anyone I'll like in the TV show? I'm also checking out some great songs by a folk singer named John Craigie.
Happy Thoughts: John McCain, a good man with a conscience and a backbone, didn't vandalize American health care just to score points for his team. Spider-Man: Homecoming was even better the second time... I caught a few jokes I missed on the first pass. My amazing boys are tanned, fit, carrying summer work, and weirdly still happy to hang with their Dad. I'm going to see Dunkirk this weekend. I learned how to play "Instant Karma" on the piano. No I won't be playing it in Kilbride.
Lockin' On Heaven's Door
Locke & Key: Heaven and Earth appears in comic shops and better book stores all across the land on August 16th. There's a lot here to dig into: "Open The Moon," a story of summer magic set in the early twentieth century, "Grindhouse," in which a squad of ruthless gangsters seek refuge in Keyhouse, and a little shitshow of a tale titled "In The Can." Plus photos of a visit to the Lovecraft's real life counterpart, Nahant, Massachusetts, and a gallery of Shane Leonard's extraordinary Locke & Key photo covers.
All three stories were released back in the day - "Open The Moon" was even nominated for an Eisner Award back in 2012 or thereabouts - but they've never been collected so it's nice to see them get a handsome wide release.
Holy shit, will you look at this Kinsey commission, illustrated by Cape artist and pencilling wünderkind Zach Howard? Is there anything Zach can't do?
On the subject of Locke & Key, the Hulu TV show is shaping up nicely - we're having a lot of fun with it. Beyond that I don't have much to report. It's my standing policy not to run my gob about shows or movies that haven't been filmed. Because until they've been filmed there's nothing to talk about.
Comic Relief
I'm a little unsatisfied with Escape Hatch -- at the moment I'm not doing much with the newsletter beyond letting people know what I'm selling and where I'm going to be making appearances. Which I guess is okay, but it does feel sort of crassly commercial.
Stay tuned, though. I have an idea to hopefully make this newsletter a bit more fun and to give people more of a reason to read it. It'll take me a while to pull together, but when I do, I might even shift to firing issues of Escape Hatch off more frequently (weekly?). Look for something in mmmmmaybe December? It'll take me some time to lay the foundation for what I have in mind.
And no, I don't think I ought to say much about my intentions. Except that the clue is right there in the title of this section.
Into The Bright
Big thanks to Locus Magazine for awarding The Fireman Best Horror Novel of the year, and congratulations to all the other amazing winners: Charlie Jane Anders! Cixin Liu! Al Reynolds! I'm stunned.
The Latest Whether Report
Whoa! The new book, Strange Weather, isn't out until the end of October, but the first pre-release reviews are in, and I'm relieved to report they were good ones. Both Kirkus and Booklist were kind enough to honor Strange Weather with starred reviews. The former said "worth waiting in line for, if you're a Hill fan. If you're not, this is the book to turn you into one." The latter calls the four short novels in Strange Weather "masterfully crafted single-sitting reads reminiscent of the very best of the short works by giants of the form".
Here's the part where I remind you that signed copies of the book are available for pre-order, from places like Water Street Books and Books-A-Million (B&N will have signed copies as well, I just don't have the link for that yet). If you do decide to order a copy - scribbled in or not - you have my gratitude.
I think that about covers it for today. I was going to write a thing about an idea I had for a new category in the Academy Awards, but this newsletter is long enough. Maybe next time, huh? Even I can only take so much of me.
Hang in there. I'll be back before you know it. Lucky you!