Year: 2010

The metal band Denots has posted to their MySpace page three songs whose lyrics were inspired by Robert McCammon’s Swan Song. The songs form the trilogy “A Symphony of Frost and Fire.” Thanks to Jerimiah Peterson for the links!

A Symphony of Frost and Fire

  • “Friend”
  • “Mary’s Rest”
  • “Final Hour”

MySpace is defunct, of course. You can listen to the tracks on the Fan Audio page here.

In case you missed them, in 2008, two other metal songs inspired by Robert McCammon novels were posted to MySpace:

  • “Job’s Mask” by Kilyakai
  • “Stinger” by Engorged

These can also be heard on the Fan Audio page.

Subterranean Press posted the following update on their site today:

Robert McCammon’s mix of WWII and lycanthrophy, The Wolf’s Hour, done up in true epic fashion, will be out sold out on publication. We just received a huge batch of retail and wholesale orders that push our total copies ordered somewhere north of 900 copies, and there are only 750 copies in the print run!We plan to fill direct orders first, then those of our regular small specialty dealers. Finally, the large accounts will get copies, and some may find their orders cut back, especially as we haven’t received the rush of orders we expect from the limited edition’s strong Publishers Weekly review.

Remember, in addition to the novel proper, which features a number of full-color plates by Vincent Chong, The Wolf’s Hour also contains a brand-new 36,000 word Michael Gallatin novella, “The Room at the Bottom of the Stairs,” bringing the book up to 680 pages.

Robert McCammon’s latest novel, The Five, is centered around a rock’n’roll band named The Five. It’s the culmination of his lifelong interest in music, especially the rock’n’roll of the 1960s.

This month, Mr. McCammon launches Radio 678, a podcast featuring great rock’n’roll from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The focus will be on the more obscure songs from well-known bands, as well as songs from mostly-unknown bands.

Radio 678 Show #1 features music from Elvis Costello, Marvin Gaye, Peter and Gordon, The Farm, The Screaming Blue Messiahs, and more.

DJ Rick’s Radio 678 Show

  • Subterranean Press has posted the following update on their site:

    It’s rare for Publishers Weekly to review $75 limited editions, but they made an exception in the case of Robert McCammon’s WWII werewolf adventure, The Wolf’s Hour. We’re glad they did, as the review fairly jumps off the page with superlatives: “Originally published in 1989, this powerful novel fuses WWII espionage thriller and dark fantasy. Richly detailed, intricately plotted, fast-paced historical suspense is enhanced by McCammon’s unique take on the werewolf myth…. The limited edition hardcover reissue includes color illustrations from renowned artist Vincent Chong as well as a never-before-published companion novella, `The Room at the Bottom of the Stairs,’ which will raise interest in a planned collection of stories featuring Gallatin. McCammon’s fans will cherish this lovingly produced reissue of a werewolf classic that deserves to be unearthed and rediscovered.”

  • Italian website Carmilla has posted a new interview with Robert McCammon about Mary Terror, the Italian translation of MINE. You can read the Italian interview here or an English translation via Google Translate here.

Well, the time has come to say goodbye to summer and to prepare for another autumn and, beyond that, another winter.

I always feel a little sad at the end of summer. Or wistful might be the better word. There were so many plans for summer that never happened. You know that drill. You meant to take this trip to the beach, and something got in the way. You meant to stand in a woods and watch the fireflies—we call them “lightning bugs” down South— light up the night, but it never happened. You meant to go to a baseball game and kick back with the taste of a hotdog and the smear of mustard on your mouth, but somehow another thing seemed more important. Maybe you meant to just lie on a hilltop and watch the clouds move in their slow and stately progression, but somehow that didn’t seem important enough. I know all about this. It happened to me, too. I had plans that didn’t work out. Doesn’t everyone? And the thing that gets in the way? That’s called “Life.” Ah, well.

There’s always next summer. And plenty of time to dream about what might be, next time around.

Thank you for your comments and your readership. As always, if you didn’t read my work, I would cease to be. So thank you again for hanging in with me, and travelling with me over the many roads.

For anyone close enough to Birmingham to make the drive, I’m going to be speaking and reading at the Hoover Library on Tuesday, October the 5th at 7:00. It’s free, books are going to be sold there, and it’s a nice venue with a cool stage and very comfortable seats. The kicker is that I’m going to not only talk about the Corbett series and The Five, but I’m going to read the opening chapter of The Providence Rider and of course talk about that book too. So if anyone can make the drive, please drop by for the reading.

I’m going pretty well on The Providence Rider. Usually the toughest part for me is getting everything going, and then when the engine is started—so to speak—the machine sort of starts running itself. Lots of characters in this one and it may be a long book. Not sure yet. Well, okay…yes, it’s going to be a long book! Let me restate that: it will be as long as it needs to be to get the story told. Aren’t they all?

Speaking of long books, The “Ultimate” Wolf’s Hour comes in around six hundred and seventy pages, including the new novelette. You know, I look back on some of those and wonder how I wrote such long books. But then again, The “Ultimate” Wolf’s Hour is everything it needs to be. Story told. But story finished? After I did The Hunter from the Woods this summer, I enjoyed it so much that I immediately started thinking about doing more Gallatin pieces. This really was a fun book to write, and probably the most “fun” I’ve ever had doing a project. What was cool about it to me was that instead of writing one book for nine months, here I could finish a short story in a few days or a novelette in a week or so and then go to an entirely different locale and plot-line. So I really did have a lot of fun doing it, and maybe there’s more Michael Gallatin in the future if you guys like it.

Just wanted to check in briefly this time and give you an update. Writing this in the middle of the night—of course—so I’ll be getting back to Matthew and The Providence Rider.

But before I get back to work I may walk outside to my balcony, sit down and just listen for a few minutes.

You know, it’s still warm and the crickets and the night sounds are still out there. It’s really still summer, so maybe that goodbye was a little premature. The moon’s up, the world feels calm, and in the peace of solitude there’s still plenty of time to dream.

So yes, I think I won’t say goodbye to summer yet.

Not just yet.

Best Wishes,
Rick

  • If you didn’t listen to the latest installment of Psycho 60s, then you missed the announcement that Robert McCammon has completed The Hunter from the Woods, the collection of stories and novellas featuring Michael Gallatin, the main character from The Wolf’s Hour. Mr. McCammon reads a few paragraphs from the opening of that book at the end of podcast #4. 
  • Just when I think I know about all of the international editions of Robert McCammon’s novels, I find new ones. I just discovered that MINE, Stinger, and Mystery Walk were published in Bulgaria in the 1990s. Thanks to a Bulgarian reader who posted scans of the covers on a Bulgarian message board, I’ve added these books to the Book Cover Gallery. The Mystery Walk cover is most interesting, as they took the cover of the Pocket Books edition of They Thirst and replaced the vampire…. 

     

  • A friend of mine in Russia recently sent me the new Russian editions of Speaks the Nightbird and The Queen of Bedlam with their matching-theme covers. The covers have appeared in the gallery before, but larger scans showing more detail are now available. 

     

  • Here are some recent blog reviews of Robert McCammon’s work: 
    • Terri Rodabaugh posted a great blog about Boy’s Life 
    • Brian’s Book Reviews posted a review of Swan Song 

      “Swan Song is McCammon at his best and I rank it among the finest novels Ive ever read by any author.”

       

    • Rick Kleffel posted a fun blog about reading The Wolf’s Hour when it was first published 
    • Men Reading Books posted a fantastic review of Mister Slaughter 

      “I find McCammon’s work to be literary works of art. His writing style is the embodiment of an ‘achievement’ in modern literature and it is beyond my understanding why his work doesn’t get more widespread praise and readership.”

       

    • Horror Fiction Reviews also posted a great review of Mister Slaughter 

      “The author’s superb skill and craftsmanship is evident on every page, in snippets of description, in dialogue, in clever turns of phrase. McCammon does with language what every writer should aspire to do he enjoys it, he savors it, he has FUN with it—and he tells a damn good story at the same time.”