Issue 66 • King Sorrow On The Rampage

The American Tour; Abraham's Boys on the big screen; Some Kind Words for the King; An Exercise in Murder

King Sorrow Takes America

This October I’m headed out on the road with my big scaly beast of a book, beginning with a return to New York Comic Con—I was last there about five years ago for Hill House Comics—and proceeding to a book launch event at Water Street Books, my local indie and amazing long time supporters. The full tour is here:

After spreading Sorrow in Seattle, San Diego, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, New York, Traverse City, and Brookline, I’m off to the UK for a round of appearances there. As you can see here, the schedule remains under construction, but really savvy fantasy and horror fans might have some informed opinions about where I’m going to be Halloween weekend.

Is that enough? NO! It’s not! I’m going to Canada too, for the Tour De Fear: a series of events with a master of the thriller, Linwood Barclay… who is himself just out with his first foray into supernatural fiction, the smashing Whistle.

If you’re able to make any one of these events, I promise we’ll have some fun. But if you can’t catch me in person, don’t fret. We’re doing our best to make sure lots of independent bookstores will have signed copies on hand. Barnes & Noble and Waterstones are also both offering signed editions. For a while longer it’s possible to pre-order signed (and personalized!) copies from Water Street Books as well, although we’re creeping up on a cutoff point. For U.K. readers, I’m doing signed and personalized copies for those who pre-order from the Sevenoaks Bookshop.

Abraham’s Boys on the big screen

Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story, Natasha Kermani’s masterfully suspenseful film, based on my short story, is popping into theaters just a few days from now, on July 11th.

It’s getting what they call a limited release run (we’ll have to wait and see if it expands to more screens) but if you live near a good art house, you might have a chance to sink your teeth into this one. Hope you’re able to catch it on the big screen.

From the Dept. of Early Reactions

Brian K. Vaughan is one of my favorite writers in any medium so I was thrilled as hell to see he’s having some fun with King Sorrow. He posted about it in a recent edition of his own newsletter, the excellent Exploding Giraffe.

Want an advance copy of SPECTATORS?

John Scalzi had some nice words for the book over on Threads:

And my ol’ pal Chris Golden liked it:

And if that isn’t enough, our first review is in: a starred review in Library Journal. I better stop there, while my big fat head is still small enough to fit through my office door.

An Exercise in Murder

I was honored to be invited to join the line-up for Simon & Schuster’s Sherlock, a new anthology authorized by the Conan Doyle estate. It’s a funny thing: I had an idea for a traditional Sherlock Holmes story two years ago and promptly filled up four cards with notes on it. And then I set it aside and… waited. To see if there’d ever be a good excuse to write it. And now I’ve got one.

When I was thirteen, I had a deal with my parents. Bedtime was 8, but I could stay up to 9 if I was reading. I discovered I could zip through one of the original Sherlock Holmes stories in exactly an hour; it took four nights to chew my way through one of the novels. My mother acquired a Calabash pipe for me and it’s possible sometimes I sat around, chewing on the stem and trying without much success to make deductions. I learned about a semi-private club, The Baker Street Irregulars, that held a dinner once a year to celebrate Sherlock Holmes; I had heard you entered the dining room by opening a bookcase in a bookstore in New York and stepping through into a secret banqueting chamber out back. As it happens, I’m a member of the Irregulars now, or was, the last time I checked, although I still don’t know about the secret door, as I’ve never been able to make one of the dinners.

Anyway… I usually write my stories with a specific reader in mind. I wrote King Sorrow for my wife; I wrote Heart-Shaped Box for my father; I wrote The Fireman for my mom. But I guess when I write “An Exercise in Murder” I’ll be writing it for whoever I was when I was 13. I’ll do my best with it, I don’t wanna disappoint the kid. He was a little nerdy, but he was all right.

That’s Enough Out Of Me

Well, I went and packed about everything into this newsletter I dared to pack into it. I’m about to fall off the grid for a couple weeks (in fact: by the time you read this, I will have already fallen off it… I wrote this issue at the end of June and then scheduled it for publication on the 7th. That’s one of the reasons the U.K. schedule still has some holes in it. They’ve probably been filled by now).

I’m going to get my bare feet into the icy green Atlantic and look for crabs and fossils with a pair of three-year-old boys. I’m digging on a John D. MacDonald novel right now, and I’ve got an Ian Fleming and a Keith Rosson lined up right behind it, which is my idea of fine summer reading: McGee, Bond, and some shrieking creatures of the night. My July is looking o-kay.

But I’ll be back at the end of August and next time you hear from me, we’ll be damn close to the publication date of King Sorrow. It’s been a while since the last one… I hope you’ll feel like it was worth the wait.

In the meantime, here’s wishing you something good to read and some easy days in the high summer. Hang in there and we’ll chat again before you know it.

— Joe Hill, Exeter, NH, July 2025