Escape Hatch 055: See You In Blighty
GollanczFest2024; Ushers and New Demons; Scott Carson; Dad Viewing
A Panel and a Signing
I’m in the UK on Saturday the 16th of March for Gollanczfest 2024, where I’ll be hanging with some of the finest writers in F&SF: Joe Abercrombie, Garth Nix, Natasha Pulley, Alastair Reynolds, Joanne Harris, Ben Aaronovitch and a who’s who of other outstanding genre writers. It goes down at the Leonardo Royal London, St. Paul’s. The fun starts at 9:30 AM and goes the whole dingdong day.
I’ve got a panel at 2PM called Somebody’s Watching Me and I am ashamed to say I don’t know what it’s about. Let’s find out together! Meet me in the Wren Suite. (Side note: one of the major characters in King Sorrow is named Colin Wren. I take this as an omen. I take everything as an omen.)
And directly afterwards I’m doing a signing for Waterstone’s in the Shakespeare room. The schedule says 2:45 on that and I see no reason to doubt them.
It was kind of Gollancz to invite me over for their shindig and it’s always good to hang out with other writers and readers, especially the writers and readers who share my enthusiasm for fright fiction and suspense. Come on and say hello. I won’t bite and if I do, I’m up to date on my shots, so I almost certainly won’t catch anything from you, WHEW.
Face the Music (Hall)
My bro Owen is in my backyard, at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH, on March 22nd, where he’ll be talking about his ingenious new novel, The Curator. This is a book that has it all: revolution, torture, phantom death ships, and cat worship. I loved it the way I loved John Fowles’ The Magus, the way I loved that movie The Fisher King (remember that one?!). This is gonna be a great night—don’t miss out on it.
The Bigger Fool Theory
The thriller writer, Michael Koryta, also pens straight-up horror novels under his pen name Scott Carson, and his newest, Lost Man’s Lane, out in about two weeks, is a killer.
Lost Man’s Lane plays in the same league as Stranger Things and the original Nightmare on Elm Street and it runs like a charm. I’d love to know more about how Michael/Scott pulled it off.
And as it happens, I’m going to have a chance to ask him. We’re doing an event together on April 1st—yup, that’s right, April Fool’s Day—at the Nashua Public Library, 7PM. Whether he’s the bigger April fool for inviting me or I’m the bigger fool for accepting remains to be seen. I guess you’ll just have to show up and find out.
Inner Demons
It won’t be long until the Kickstarter for New Demons, an anthology edited by Keith Lansdale, Joe Lansdale, and Patrick McDonough goes live and starts taking orders. It’s a thrill to be in such a high caliber collection, one that’s gathered fresh fiction from the likes of S.A. Cosby, Robin Hobb, Stephen Graham Jones, and the curator himself, Owen King.
I wrote six stories last year, back-to-back-to-back, and my story for New Demons, “Ushers,” was one of them (“The Pram” was another). I turned it in, and not long after, a weird thing happened, and it wound up optioned for film. That’s like going out for a walk and finding a fifty dollar bill on the street—I’ve been lucky enough to have a few short stories optioned, but usually they were published first. Big thanks to Gary Dauberman for taking a chance on an eerie little short and I hope they do something wonderful with it.
You don’t have to wait for the film to find out what the story’s about. All you have to do is sign up to be notified when the New Demons Kickstarter goes live and then buy yourself a copy of the book. There’s gonna be a lot of good stuff in there—fans of dark fiction won’t be disappointed.
Go Out Rocking
I sometimes get asked who I’d cast as Judas Coyne in a Heart-Shaped Box movie. I’d rather leave those questions to a director and a casting team… but I was going through some old photos and came across this screen grab from when I used to play Guitar Hero as Judas Coyne. So this gives you a rough idea of what he looks like in my head:
I’m close to wrapping up the third draft of King Sorrow and while I’ll be glad to get on with the next project, I’ll miss these characters. They’ve been good traveling buddies.
Away from the keyboard, I’ve been watching Masters of the Air, which should surprise nobody. I’m basically a dad cliché: I listen to Boston and .38 Special while I’m doing the chores, I never miss a Jason Statham movie, I read Joe Pickett novels, and if Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg are doing a WWII show, I’m obviously going to watch it.
My wife and I also recently tore through the first season of For All Mankind, an irresistible alternate history by the same dude who brought us that brilliant Battlestar Galactica reboot. I was pleased to see Nate Corddry in there, doing his usual thoughtful, subtle work—Nate narrated “Dark Carousel” on audio and was a wonderful Duncan Locke in the never-released Andy Muschetti version of Locke & Key.
And if you want to know how I kill a Sunday afternoon, this is what I did over the last three Sundays:
Admit it, you just went “aww,” you couldn’t help yourself. I get it. Everyone does that.
When one of the twins is having a hard time sleeping, I rub his back and tell him, “all is well—warm and cozy—simple and easy.” It’s something like a chant, something like a hypnotic spell, something like a prayer.
I hope all is well for you, that you’ve managed to stay warm and cozy this chilly, wet spring, and that you’re keepin it simple and easy. Catch you again soon.
Sorry, guys, Substack went and jammed in a bunch of "pledge your support" buttons that I didn't know were going to be there. Kinda breaks up the visual flow of the newsletter. I probably clicked something I shouldn't'a clicked. What can I say, I'm a menace.
I'll be traveling from Belgium! Looking forward to the event, the panels and signings: I have some Nix, Pulley and Aaronovitch books.
And, if you don't mind, a whole pile for you to sign too 😁