Escape Hatch 063: Do You Know JACK?

Jackknife springs open; and all the Joe you need to Know.

JACK-pot

I’ve got a new Amazon Original out this morning, part of the Shivers collection. If you responded to the gentle, kind-hearted feel of “Ushers,” then, wow, are you in for a surprise! This one is about as gentle as a knife in the leg. Every now and then I feel an impulse to write one that’s hot and nasty (in the mode of Heart-Shaped Box, I suppose). Sometimes I resist. This time I didn’t. “Jackknife” is about bad things happening to a bad man; if it was a song, it would be punk rock played on a banjo. Is that a thing?

I’m glad to be a part of this digital anthology with some of the best writers in the game. I had an early read of my brother’s piece, “Letter Slot” and thought it was one of the finest short tales of the uncanny I’ve read in years. You’re gonna want that one on your Kindle.

(Did you know Owen also has an awesome Substack of his own called Don’t Press That Button? You do now!)

Rollin with Texas Joe

I learned a lot about writing fright fiction from reading Joe Lansdale—though Lansdale has probably forgotten more about crafting a scary tale than I’ll ever know (What’s that thing Apollo Creed says to Rocky in the third picture? “I taught you everything you know… I didn’t teach you everything I know.”). I started reading him back in the 80s. At the time, Lansdale was writing hillbilly splatterpunk, fiction as bleak and blasted as the Texas hardpan in August, and books like The Nightrunners and The Drive-In stunned and thrilled teenage me. I can’t tell you how cool it is that almost forty years later I’d be asked to pen an introduction to a collection of some of his hardest and darkest pieces. You can find it this fall from Tachyon Press.

Hangin with English Joe

We’re just under a month out from the U.S. launch of Joe Abercrombie’s newest novel, The Devils, a gruesome, violent, hilarious whirl through a Europe that might’ve-been in the company of a necromancer, a monk, a princess, a deathless warrior, a vampire, a jack-of-all-trades, and the best werewolf I’ve ever come across in fiction. I’ve been a big fan of Joe’s epic fantasies for years now—in a lot of ways, he’s the best writer in the field—and it’s such a pleasure to get to sit down and jabber with him in New York at Union Square, on May 13th. You’ll be there, right?

Out of the Box

Look what came in the mail.

The Grand Finale

And that about wraps up this issue of Escape Hatch, which turned out to be something of a Joe-splosion… a three-Joe-for-one extravaganza. (You can always count on my newsletter to provide you with the maximum Joe content allowable under the law—I won’t be out-Joe’d by any of my competitors, and that’s a promise.)

I’m just back from The Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans, where I had a chance to sit in a packed theater for the premiere of Natasha Kermani’s Abraham’s Boys (adapted from the story of the same name). I’m so glad folks liked it—I can’t wait for it to make its way out into the world. More news on that soon, I hope. While I was down there I ate fried beignets with crayfish jammed in them, went on a late night ghost walk in the Quarter, and got to hang out with some of the brightest and most exciting minds in horror. It reminded me all over again how much I love a silly scare in the dark. That was a great weekend—looking forward to doing it again sometime.

And I’m just a couple days away from finishing a project I’ve been working on for quite a while now. I guess I better get back to it. These last pages aren’t going to write themselves (think how unsettling it would be if they did). Here’s hoping you’re well, and that you have a good book close to hand, and the time to read it. I’ll catch up with you again in May.

— Joe Hill, Exeter, NH, 15 April 2025