Escape Hatch 043: Spring Plans Un-Hatched

February 8, 2021

Apr 17, 2023

I don't know about you, but my in-box runneth over with spam. It just never stops, does it? Thanks for taking a look at my own self-promotional crap. I'll make this one a little shorter than the usual mile-long update.

My Face On Your Computer

What with the ongoing plaguedemic, Boskone-58 -- everyone's favorite Boston based fantasy/SF/horror convention -- has fled to the safety of the online world. I'll be there with them, and if you login, you too can enjoy the experience of me raving semi-coherently from your favorite device. Schedule below. Catch you there?

All times EST.

Friday the 12th, 9:30PM: Reading with Paul Tremblay. Paul is always a good time; I've heard Survivor Song was his best yet. I haven't decided myself what I'm going to read. Probably summin from Full Throttle.

Saturday the 13th, 1PM: I'm interviewing Boskone's Guest of Honor Joe Abercrombie about his new trilogy, which began with the stunning A Little Hatred, and accelerated into The Trouble With Peace, which was one of my stone cold favorites of last year. In a lot of ways, Joe A. is the John Le Carre of epic fantasy. He does all the things you hope for in a big sprawling fantasy -- for my money he writes the most intense battle scenes of anyone working in fiction today -- but there's also a lot more here. His kings and councils wrestle in the moral smog of realpolitik, the only old warriors are the ones who know when to run, and the righteous usually get what's coming to them: a boot in the face. I'm hoping I can gull Joe A. into revealing how he all makes it look so easy.

Saturday the 13th, 2:30: Exploring The Exorcist. I'm getting together with Jennifer Williams, Bracken MacLeod, David McDonald, and Tonia Ransom to discuss the virtues of William Peter Blatty's 1971 masterpiece, a novel of theological horror written with the surgical precision of a Michael Crichton thriller.

Sunday the 14th, 11:30AM: I close out my convention with a panel about modern horror comics. I'll be talking about how best to use the unique comic book form to shred nerves and spread dread with Jack Haringa, Maura McHugh, and Gillian Daniels.

Cold Call

Wishing best of luck to my pals, director Scott Derrickson and scribe C. Robert Cargill, who start shooting The Black Phone this week, an adaptation of my 2004 short story, which appeared in 20th Century Ghosts. It's g'damn amazing to get a film made at all... to have a pair of friends making one for Blumhouse feels about as impossible as a disconnected phone ringing with a call from the dead. But it seems to be actually happening. I wrote that story over the course of a couple months in the winter of 2003 - 2004 and when it was published in The Third Alternative, I was paid in copies of the issue. What a trip.

But wait!

Like they say in the Shamwow commercials (are there still Shamwow commercials?) there's more. If you miss me at Boskone, I'm doing a live signing and conversation with Rich Capiobianco for ComicCon Live on February 20th. The details haven't been publicly posted at the time of this writing, but their FaceBook page will have specifics shortly. I'm sure we'll be talking about this:

The Haunting of Hill's House

About four months ago I set two goals for myself. One is to read 50 books a year for the next 10 years and the other I'm not talking about (yet). I'm on my 8th read of the year right now, Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett. It runs along with the unstoppable haste of a Panzer. Other highlights so far this year include H is for Hawk by Helen Mcdonald and Unapologetic by Francis Spufford. If I could stick to my current pace, I'd actually read 66 books in 2021 but sooner or later I'll pick up some big beasts (Fingersmith by Sarah Waters is lurking in the wings) and slow down.

I've got two projects going at the same time. There's the one you know about -- the Locke & Key/Sandman crossover -- and the other, which I'm not talking about (yet). They're both clicking along on their own energy... all I have to do is show up. It isn't always like that. I try and notice and be grateful when it's going good.

Hope you're well, reading good things, and are able to make it to some of the Boskone events. Thanks for subscribing to Escape Hatch; I'll do my best not to crush your in-box with my crap, and to hopefully keep it at least a little interesting when I do write you. Hang in there --

Joe Hill