Song by Timo "The Doc" Heikkinen, lyrics from a poem by
Robert R. McCammon. The "Professional Help" from Jouko
Isokangas (kontra), Aleksi Ikonen (drums), Anna Itkonen (vocals),
AP Sipilä (guitar), and Olli Tuomainen (soprano saxophone).
2009-06-10 — The Big J Read update and recent links
As noted below in the May 19 update, Jesuit High School in New Orleans is
sponsoring a community read this summer, and the book they've selected is
Robert McCammon's Boy's Life.
The Jesuit High School website now has a Boy's
Life Resource Page, with links to news articles about some of the
real-life events depicted in Boy's Life and other related articles.
Also, the Resource Page has these details regarding Robert McCammon's planned
visit to the school:
Let's Talk About Boy's Life
The Jesuit High School community is invited to
a program with the author on August 17, 2009,
7:00 p.m. in the Jesuit auditorium.
A student program with the author during the school day on August 18, 2009, has
been scheduled. Details about this event will follow at a later date.
A fantastic new review of Boy's Life has been posted on the blog
Trish's
Books.
2009-06-07 — Robert McCammon receives DeepSouthCon Phoenix Award
Robert McCammon was awarded the 2009 Phoenix
Award by
DeepSouthCon,
held this year in conjunction with Nashville's Hypericon 5 on Saturday, June 6, 2009.
The Phoenix Award is a lifetime achievement award presented to a science
fiction or fantasy professional with connections to the South.
Unfortunately, Mr. McCammon could not attend the awards ceremony. The award
was accepted on his behalf by Hunter Goatley.
2009-05-31 — Mister Slaughter update from Subterranean Press
Subterranean Press has posted the following Mister Slaughter update on
their site:
Robert McCammmon's latest historical thriller, Mister
Slaughter, is proceeding very smoothly toward publication. Vincent
Chong has turned in not only what may be the best cover of McCammon's
career, he's also contributed six interior illustrations to the novel—a pair of
which are posted to the book's page.
Robert McCammon is currently giving Mister Slaughter his final
proofing pass, and also has the two-color signature sheets for the limited
edition on hand. Meanwhile, back at the [SubPress] ranch, we have a long new
interview with McCammon about the Matthew Corbett novels, conducted by
long-time McCammon enthusiast Hunter Goatley, and will be
pairing it up with an exclusive excerpt from the novel, in a freebie chapbook
that we'll begin including with orders in a month or so.
Jesuit High School in New Orleans,
LA, is leading a summer reading program called The Big J
Read. Jesuit students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni will
all be reading Robert McCammon's Boy's Life this summer. An estimated
1,300 readers will participate in the community read. The project is
designed to encourage reading, and students will not be objectively
tested over the story. Robert McCammon will be giving a presentation
at Jesuit High School on August 18, 2009.
The links below lead to the Jesuit High School website:
Subterranean Press has posted the following Mister Slaughter update on
their site:
As you can tell from Vincent Chong's dust jacket, Robert McCammon's singular
creation Mister Slaughter is a nasty fellow indeed, surrounded as he is with
the implements of his chosen trade.
The novel progresses well, as we've just sent the author page proofs to review,
and will be printing ARCs for the book as soon as we have his corrections. In
addition, Hunter Goatley has just conducted an interview with Rick, which will
be included, along with an excerpt from the book, in an exclusive chapbook we'll
be including with orders for various SubPress titles through the summer and
fall.
Subterranean Press, Robert McCammon, and I have launched a new website devoted
to the Matthew Corbett novels. Matthew Corbett's World
contains information about the Matthew Corbett books, including excerpts from
Speaks the Nightbird and The Queen of Bedlam. It's a
work-in-progress, as there are still some additions planned for the site.
I've created a new banner image to promote the release of Mister
Slaughter. If you'd like to help spread the word, please feel free to
link to our banners! The relevant HTML code is below each image.
(Thanks to Steven West for the top banner!)
As noted a couple of months ago, Pocket Books will be releasing
Robert McCammon's epic 1987 post-apocalyptic novel Swan Song in a trade
paperback edition in November 2009.
The book will also be released as an eBook in November 2009. The page doesn't
list the formats yet, but will presumably be released in Adobe, Microsoft, and
Palm formats. Those are the formats in which The Queen of Bedlam was released. No
word yet on whether or not it'll be released in Kindle format.
The 1987 Dark Harvest anthology Night Visions IV contained stories
written by Dean Koontz, Edward Bryant, and Robert McCammon. Aside from a
paperback edition of the anthology, titled Night Visions: Hardshell,
the McCammon stories in the book have never been reprinted.
The first story, "The Deep
End," which won the 1987 Bram Stoker award for Short Story,
has been available on this site for a few years.
The final Night Visions IV story is a novella entitled "Best Friends." The novella
was nominated for the 1988 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella. It's not for
the squeamish, as it's probably the most visceral short story McCammon has
written.
2009-04-17 — Mister Slaughter now available for Preorders!
Subterranean Press has just posted the following:
We've just posted preorder information for Mister Slaughter, Robert
McCammon's third entry in his Matthew Corbett series of historical
thrillers. We've kept the numbered and lettered limitations low for
such an important book, and expect both to sell out fairly quickly.
(We've also promised copies to our regular dealers, making a quick
sell through even more likely.)
Head over to the book's page, check out the details, and get your
order in if you're of a mind.
Trade: Fully cloth-bound hardcover edition: $24.95 Limited: 274 signed numbered copies, in slipcase: $125 Lettered: 26 deluxe bound copies housed in a custom traycase: $500
2009-04-08 — More exciting news from Subterranean Press!
As we announced a few days ago, Subterranean Press will be publishing
Robert McCammon's new novel, Mister Slaughter. They've fast-tracked the
book for a planned Fall 2009 release; the manuscript is being copy-edited now.
Both signed limited and trade hardcover editions are planned. We'll have more
details about pricing soon.
Subterranean has also announced that they will be releasing signed limited
editions of two of McCammon's older classics, Stinger and The Wolf's
Hour. More details on these books will come in the future, as they're
concentrating on Mister Slaughter right now.
Robert McCammon will be a guest at the Surrey
International Writers' Conference in Surrey, British Columbia,
Canada, from October 23–25, 2009. While the conference is geared toward
writers, there is a signing event that's open to the public. No details of
when that event will be held have been announced yet.
For those of you who like to get website updates via RSS, a new
RobertMcCammon.com RSS Feed
is now available. RSS readers are built in many email and browser
applications. There are also RSS reader apps available for the iPhone,
allowing you to keep up-to-date wherever you are. You can subscribe
by clicking on the
RSS icon at the
top of each page, or by entering this URL in your RSS reader:
http://www.robertmccammon.com/feed
Robert McCammon was a keynote speaker at Alabama Bound on March 28, 2009.
He read a chapter from Mister Slaughter, his upcoming third novel in the Matthew
Corbett series. We're pleased to present video and audio of the reading for
your viewing and listening pleasure!
Thanks to Stuart Hale and Craig Popplewell for recording the event.
At the end of the presentation, Mr. McCammon revealed that the title of
the next Matthew Corbett book is The Providence Rider. Work on
that novel will not begin until he finishes the contemporary novel (the
"rock band" novel) he's currently writing.
Last year, YouTube user Viorica8597 posted a video she made telling the
story of
Isaac Woodward, the magistrate from Speaks the Nightbird, using clips from the movie
To Kill a King (click here to view the video).
The same user recently posted another video, this time telling the story of
Matthew and Rachel, using clips from The Scarlet Letter. You can watch
her new video by clicking here.
2009-03-22 — Robert McCammon video interview for Alabama Bound
The Birmingham Public Library recently posted a
video interview
with Robert McCammon to promote this Saturday's Alabama Bound event.
(I have corrected the audio/visual synchronization problem in the
original BPonline post.)
Robert McCammon will be reading from the upcoming third novel in the
Matthew Corbett
series, Mister Slaughter, at Alabama Bound.
If all goes as planned, video of the event will be posted here soon.
2009-03-06 — Swan Song trade paperback in November 2009
Turns out there's going to be one last Pocket Books reprint: a trade paperback
edition of Swan Song will be released in November 2009. The preliminary cover
art is shown to the right and has been added to the Book
Cover Gallery.
2009-03-01 — Rare McCammon short story added to site
The 1987 Dark Harvest anthology Night Visions IV contained stories
written by Dean Koontz, Edward Bryant, and Robert McCammon. Aside from a
paperback edition of the anthology, titled Night Visions: Hardshell,
the McCammon stories in the book have never been reprinted.
The first story, "The Deep
End," which won the 1987 Bram Stoker award for Short Story,
has been available on this site for a few years.
The second story, "A Life in the Day of," has been added to the
Short Stories page. You can read it by clicking
here.
The final Night Visions IV story, "Best Friends," will
be published here soon.
Robert McCammon will be a keynote speaker and will sign books at Alabama Bound on Saturday, March 28,
2009. The event will be held at the Birmingham Public
Library in Birmingham, AL. The Alabama
Bound website lists the participants (including our friend
Charles Ghigna), but the actual
schedule has not yet been posted.
Website All Poetry held a contest in
October 2007 for fiction-inspired poems. The winning poem was inspired by
Robert McCammon's post-apolyptic novel Swan Song. It is entitled
"Nuclear Comedy"
and was written by Anthony C. Ekman. Click on the title to read the poem on
AllPoetry.com.
2009-01-08 — New agent, new interview, new Italian edition
Robert McCammon has just signed on with the
Donald Maass Agency! It's too soon
for any news on Mister Slaughter, but the Maass Agency has already
started working to find a publisher for the novel. We'll have another update from Robert McCammon
within the next month or so....
Italian publisher Gargoyle Books
will be publishing La maledizione degli Usher, an Italian translation of
Usher's Passing, in March 2009. The cover art is shown to the right. Click on the
image to view a larger version (it has also been added to the Book Cover Gallery, of course). Thanks to Paolo for
the cover image!
In 2008, Pocket Books published new trade paperback editions of Robert
McCammon's novels Boy's Life and Gone South. Both editions included new
forewords by McCammon. Both forewords are now available on this site.
Hi all. I wanted to report on what was happening with Mister
Slaughter. Unfortunately we don't have a publisher yet, but never
fear, we're still pushing ahead. The deal is that I just didn't think
Pocket did a very good job with The Queen of Bedlam. There was
no promotion at all (well, there was a small ad in the New York Times
Review of Books, but that was because the publisher at Pocket liked the
cover), and I just can't throw Mister Slaughter into the fire.
If you guys want to know where I am mentally, just read the commentaries
in the new Pocket editions of Boy's Life and Gone South.
I'm not saying you should buy them if you already have them, but take a
look at those commentaries. They tell a harsh story, but it's where I
am.
Due to the economy, publishers are buying fewer books and seem to be
reluctant to put money in promotion or author's tours. If the book
doesn't make X amount of profits, whoever championed that particular
book gets his or her head cut off, because of the corporate structure of
the publishing world. And in my particular case and the case of Pocket,
I honestly think they have no idea how to promote the Matthew Corbett
series. Really...I don't think they understand the books or see the
potential in Matthew's story.
Wouldn't be the first time, guys. Recall that I had to fight to keep
Boy's Life from being turned into a run-of-the-mill mystery
piece, and that was only one of many fights I had with Pocket over the
years.
So here I am again, similar to when I took Speaks the Nightbird
home and thought I was done with publishing. This time, though, I have
lots of options and I'm determined to continue Matthew's story to the
finish. The problem is that sorting all this out is going to take some
time, and I want to be careful that I find the right people in the
business who'll help me continue on.
I had hoped that Mister Slaughter would be out in October of
2009, but it probably won't be. I'm cleaning house, and what I have to
do may add several more months to the schedule.
One of the elements of Mister Slaughter is that Matthew is really
beaten and bruised by Tyranthus Slaughter during the course of the book,
but he never gives up. The book is about not quitting in the face of
adversity, as a matter of fact. Matthew is not a quitter. He's a good
example for me to follow, and that's what I intend to do.
Thank you for hanging in with me, and hopefully within a month or so,
I'll have some better news.
Best Wishes,
Robert McCammon
October 30, 2008
2008-09-16 — An Update from Robert McCammon
Hi everybody,
I wanted to check in and tell you how much I appreciate your comments.
I guess it would be a cliche to say that your positive response to my
work is one of the major things that keep me going, but this doesn't
make it any less true. A writer very often feels like he or she is
working in the dark, so any candle of response is much appreciated.
Again, thank you for taking the time to write in and let me know.
I finished Mister Slaughter in June, but I'm still waiting to see
exactly when the book's going to be published. My agent and publisher
are "in talks" (another cliche, I suppose, but again true) and I'm
hoping to find out something within the next couple of weeks.
In the meantime, I wanted to tell you what the future holds. Knowing
from experience that nothing can be written in stone, my plan is to
write a contemporary novel next, before I do the next Matthew Corbett
book. It's about a rock band and is set in the summer of 2008, but
that's about all I can say right now.
The Matthew Corbett books are a real challenge to do, with putting
together the story and the research, and I've decided it would be fun
(?) to do this book set in the here-and-now before getting started on
the next Matthew story.
As a matter of fact, I hope to do another contemporary book after I
finish the next Matthew book as well. I'm planning on doing seven more
Matthew books, so it looks like I'm not going to be sitting around in
retirement like I thought I was going to be a few years ago, so in
that instance my crystal ball was severely cracked. And I'm glad it
was, because I really am enjoying writing the Matthew series.
So...that's basically where I'm going for the next few years. At one
point I'd hoped to be able to do a Matthew book every year, but
they're too complicated for that and I do need some downtime between
them. This idea about the band has really reached out and grabbed me,
so we'll see. This is kinda scary for me because I haven't written a
contemporary book for a good long while (as in many years).
Again, thanks for your comments and your participation on the website.
Thanks for all your well-wishes and your appreciation of my work, and
I'll talk to you again further along the way.
Check the links at the top of the page for all sorts of information related to the works
of Robert McCammon.
Introduction
Robert McCammon is the award-winning author of 14 novels and numerous short
stories. In the 1980s, McCammon's horror novels were among the most popular
published, including such bestsellers
as Swan Song,
They Thirst, and
Stinger. In the 1990s, McCammon's
work turned toward the mainstream, with such novels as the phenomenal
Boy's Life, MINE, and Gone South.
Now, after a ten-year hiatus, a new Robert McCammon novel,
Speaks the Nightbird, is available from
River City Publishing!
This web site is the official Robert McCammon web site. In addition to
information and news related to Speaks the Nightbird, you'll also
find short fiction, a bibliography, interviews, and lots more.
