Year: 2010

  • The Italian website ThrillerCaf� has posted a new interview with Robert McCammon regarding the recent release of Mary Terror (MINE) from Gargoyle Books. An English version of the interview can be found here.
  • A review of Mary Terror was recently posted to the Italian site Ca’ delle Ombre. A translation of the review via Google Translate can be found here. Here is a quote from the review:

    “Perhaps the most beautiful and complete novel by Robert McCammon never published in Italy, Mary Terror has an intrinsic message of rare beauty and magnificence….”

  • Author Bob Ford recently posted an open letter to Robert McCammon on his blog. Magic Among Pages describes his thoughts after recently reading Boy’s Life for the first time.
  • Publishers Weekly recently posted a profile of Subterranean Press that mentions the release of Mister Slaughter as an ebook.
  • The website E-zine Articles recently posted a new review of The Queen of Bedlam: A Summer Must-Read: The Queen of Bedlam. Here is a quote from the review:

    “Again, Robert McCammon showcases his versatility and amazing talent in crossing genres directly into a suspense novel. This page turner is set in early Eighteenth century Manhattan. There is a serial killer on the loose and Matthew must find him. Then, the book morphs into a journey of… rich characters, hairpin turns, unexpected surprises, and a bunch of ‘wow, who would have thought that.'”

  • Author Alison Kent blogs about Swan Song and concludes with:

    “Bottom line, McCammon is an incredible storyteller. There’s a reason this book is still in print twenty-five years later. I loved it!”

Robert McCammon will be a guest at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, from October 22–24, 2010. While the conference is geared toward writers, there is a signing event that’s open to the public on Saturday, October 23, 2010, from 5:30 to 7:00 PM.

This year, Mr. McCammon is scheduled to conduct two workshops and to particpate in a panel discussion.

 

  • Page One
    Speaker: Robert McCammon
    Time: Friday 1:30pmHow to (really) get started. What do you need? How far along do you need to be on an outline or plot? Time to stop wasting time and get started on your writing project…but exactly how? And how important is Page One, anyway? That’s what we’ll be covering. (Come prepared to write in class).

     

  • An Eye and an Ear For Dialogue
    Speaker: Robert McCammon
    Time: Sunday 9:30amDialogue can make or break any writing project. How do you know it’s any good? Learn to see good dialogue on the page as well as hear it in your head. Come prepared to write in class.

     

  • A Sense of History
    Moderator: Jeffery McGraw
    Panel: Anne Perry, Jack Whyte, Robert McCammon, Diana Gabaldon
    Time: Friday 3:30pmWriting historical fiction poses unique challenges and offers unique rewards. Our panel gives some insight into the process of crafting stories set in the past that appeal to modern readers.
  • The still-in-development Blue World movie from Frontsight Productions was mentioned on the website ReelChicago.com on June 16, 2010: 

    Rutger Hauer attached to thriller feature

    Producer Nehs plans to shoot here next spring

    Action actor Rutger Hauer

    PRODUCER MICHAEL NEHS of Frontsight Productions is slated to shoot Blue World, his long-in-development thriller, in Chicago next spring.

    Director Charley Rivkin and Adam Witt adapted Robert McCammon’s Bram Stoker Award-winning short story, about a priest resisting his desire for a porn star he’s trying to protect from a serial killer.

    Nehs says Rutger Hauer, Bryan Dennehy, Steven Weber, Seymour Cassel and Kaitlin Doubleday are attached to star. Frontsight is a division of Nehs’s Templar Studios, which long has had plans to construct a post-production facility in Old Town. See frontsightproductions.com.

     

  • A new mass-market paperback of Le Mystere du lac, the French translation of Robert McCammon’s Boy’s Life, has been released in France by Pocket. The new cover art for the book has been added to the Book Cover Gallery. Click on the image below to see a larger version of the cover.The book should be in French bookstores now. It can also be ordered from online bookstores, including Amazon.fr.

     

  • Artist Vincent Chong has posted his revised artwork for the cover of the upcoming Subterranean Press limited edition of The Wolf’s Hour. Click on the image below to see a larger version of the art. 

 

Hi again, guys. I wanted to check in and thank you for all the kind comments about Swan Song. I’m glad you enjoyed that book and certainly glad you still have an interest in it.

I see that James Melzer’s review of Swan Song includes a picture of the original cover, and I have a story to tell you about that.

When that original cover was presented to me at Pocket Books, I hit the roof. I begged and pleaded for them not to use what I considered to be a “cartoon” depiction of evil. I offered all sorts of options. I even drew my own picture of what I wanted the cover to be, which was a nuclear cloud with a barely-defined “face” within it. (Actually, that picture was used in a reprint edition).

Anyway, I went around and around with the publisher at Pocket over what I thought was a “comic-book” cover. Basically, I was patted on the head and told to go away, because the art director knew what sold and he knew what the market wanted to see.

I asked to speak with the art director.

He walked into the office wearing, as I recall, a hot-pink tie with a sickly-green coat. Looking at his mismatched and garish clothes made me feel a little sick. But I realized, this is why the garish colors are on the cover of the original Swan Song…art is in the eye of the beholder, even if that eye is nearly half-blind or otherwise unable to see anything but a blast of miasmic and frenetic hues.

So…that’s why the incandescent red-and-orange clown face is on the cover. They came to their (color) senses only years later at Pocket, with the latest edition that I think looks very good. But that first cover…OMG!!!

Again, thanks for the comments!

Best Wishes,
Rick

Subterranean Press has posted the following update on their site:

Have a look at Robert McCammon’s The Wolf’s Hour page, where we’ve just posted two of the full-color interior illustrations, including the foldout death train scene. The book is progressing nicely, on schedule for its fall release. We’ve designed the book and proofread it once, and are going through it a final time. Now that all of the art is in, we’ll be ordering Advance Reading Copies in the next week.Speaking of the art for The Wolf’s Hour, Vincent Chong blogged a bit about the influences behind his striking cover for the book.

Hi everyone, and as always thank you for taking the time to check in, see what’s going on and make comments on my work. Your input is always appreciated.

I’d like to talk about a few subjects near and dear to me this time out. First up: work-in-progress. I’m very excited about what’s coming up in the future, namely the really beautiful edition of The Wolf’s Hour and of course The Five, which I believe (or would like to believe) is the best book I’ve ever written. So I personally am “stoked” about what’s ahead.

I guess you know by now about the new Michael Gallatin novelette, The Room at the Bottom of the Stairs. Well, I had a lot of fun writing that and I started thinking…you know, Michael’s story is far from being told.

So…while The Wolf’s Hour is fresh on my mind, I’m doing a new book of short stories about Michael Gallatin. The reason (well, one reason) I never went back to do a Wolf’s Hour sequel is that I figured I’d said everything that needed to be said. I mean, really, The Wolf’s Hour is packed with just about every World War II situation I could think of. What else could I write that wouldn’t be repeating myself?

I started thinking…maybe short stories would be the way to go. And I’m not usually into writing short stories because I prefer the longer form, but in this case I was thinking I could do some different things in different (and experimental) ways and see what happens. So right now I’m doing this book of Gallatin short stories and including probably another novelette. I hope also in this book to answer some of the questions that have been posed about…well…about a lot of Michael Gallatin’s past and future.

Okay. That said, I’m working hard also on the next Matthew book. So don’t worry, The Providence Rider is trotting along.

Now…another thing near and dear to me. The podcasts.

Oh, the humanity! Also…listen to all that silence in the room.

Guys, the podcasts are really mostly for me because I enjoy doing them. If I hadn’t become a writer (and I didn’t have much of a choice on that one), I probably would have gone into sound production and become a recording engineer. I really, really do enjoy working with music and sound. Also, for me it’s a bigtime stress reliever and I do need that.

So…I’m going to do two more Psycho 60s podcasts (the last one being our time machine trip to the Northern Soul dance club in July) and then shift the format to what I call Radio 678. I’ll be broadening the focus of the show to include songs from the 70s and 80s. I plan to do one of these a month.

Guys…I’m not taking any time away from my writing. I know you don’t necessarily want to hear music or hear me talking about music on the website, but this is all for the good, believe me. So I hope you give them a listen and I hope you enjoy them and…you know what?…you might glean from them some better understanding of me and why I write what I do.

Now, I have to address a comment that was made by an Irish gentleman on Facebook. The comment being that I am arrogant because I don’t want the first four (actually, I believe it’s the first three) books I wrote to be re-published. The idea is that I’m arrogant because I say they’re not good enough to be published again and I supposedly should let the readers decide that.

Well, the books are available. They’re on eBay and other places, I’m sure. They’re in used book stores, yes they are. I’m not trying to destroy all the old copies of those books. They’re out there. I just think my writing has progressed over time and I don’t think those books need to be published in large quantities with my name on them saying I’m the writer of the Matthew Corbett series or The Five or some future novel. Those books are starter novels. They got me going, but I’d like to think I’ve come a long way since. In essence, they’ve done their job.

Am I arrogant for this? For deciding that readers should not buy those early books expecting the quality of the new work? I’m trying to save people some money! Is that arrogant?

Gee, I kinda got my feelings hurt over this one.

If deciding that I require excellence in my work now, and that if someone sees my name on a book they know they will hopefully get as close to an excellent experience as I can give them…yeah, I’m as arrogant as I can be.

And I guess I’m proud to be arrogant.

See, I made the decision that these books are not up to my current standards so you guys wouldn’t have to.

Sir, when I come visit Ireland you owe me a brew.

Onward.

Summer’s here! Have fun and keep reading!

Best Wishes,
Robert McCammon

Where I’m “At”

Hi everyone, and as always thank you for taking the time to check in, see what’s going on and make comments on my work. Your input is always appreciated.

I’d like to talk about a few subjects near and dear to me this time out. First up: work-in-progress. I’m very excited about what’s coming up in the future, namely the really beautiful edition of The Wolf’s Hour and of course The Five, which I believe (or would like to believe) is the best book I’ve ever written. So I personally am “stoked” about what’s ahead.

I guess you know by now about the new Michael Gallatin novelette, The Room at the Bottom of the Stairs. Well, I had a lot of fun writing that and I started thinking…you know, Michael’s story is far from being told.

So…while The Wolf’s Hour is fresh on my mind, I’m doing a new book of short stories about Michael Gallatin. The reason (well, one reason) I never went back to do a Wolf’s Hour sequel is that I figured I’d said everything that needed to be said. I mean, really, The Wolf’s Hour is packed with just about every World War II situation I could think of. What else could I write that wouldn’t be repeating myself?

I started thinking…maybe short stories would be the way to go. And I’m not usually into writing short stories because I prefer the longer form, but in this case I was thinking I could do some different things in different (and experimental) ways and see what happens. So right now I’m doing this book of Gallatin short stories and including probably another novelette. I hope also in this book to answer some of the questions that have been posed about…well…about a lot of Michael Gallatin’s past and future.

Okay. That said, I’m working hard also on the next Matthew book. So don’t worry, The Providence Rider is trotting along.

Now…another thing near and dear to me. The podcasts.

Oh, the humanity! Also…listen to all that silence in the room.

Guys, the podcasts are really mostly for me because I enjoy doing them. If I hadn’t become a writer (and I didn’t have much of a choice on that one), I probably would have gone into sound production and become a recording engineer. I really, really do enjoy working with music and sound. Also, for me it’s a bigtime stress reliever and I do need that.

So…I’m going to do two more Psycho 60s podcasts (the last one being our time machine trip to the Northern Soul dance club in July) and then shift the format to what I call Radio 678. I’ll be broadening the focus of the show to include songs from the 70s and 80s. I plan to do one of these a month.

Guys…I’m not taking any time away from my writing. I know you don’t necessarily want to hear music or hear me talking about music on the website, but this is all for the good, believe me. So I hope you give them a listen and I hope you enjoy them and…you know what?…you might glean from them some better understanding of me and why I write what I do.

Now, I have to address a comment that was made by an Irish gentleman on Facebook. The comment being that I am arrogant because I don’t want the first four (actually, I believe it’s the first three) books I wrote to be re-published. The idea is that I’m arrogant because I say they’re not good enough to be published again and I supposedly should let the readers decide that.

Well, the books are available. They’re on eBay and other places, I’m sure. They’re in used book stores, yes they are. I’m not trying to destroy all the old copies of those books. They’re out there. I just think my writing has progressed over time and I don’t think those books need to be published in large quantities with my name on them saying I’m the writer of the Matthew Corbett series or The Five or some future novel. Those books are starter novels. They got me going, but I’d like to think I’ve come a long way since. In essence, they’ve done their job.

Am I arrogant for this? For deciding that readers should not buy those early books expecting the quality of the new work? I’m trying to save people some money! Is that arrogant?

Gee, I kinda got my feelings hurt over this one.

If deciding that I require excellence in my work now, and that if someone sees my name on a book they know they will hopefully get as close to an excellent experience as I can give them…yeah, I’m as arrogant as I can be.

And I guess I’m proud to be arrogant.

See, I made the decision that these books are not up to my current standards so you guys wouldn’t have to.

Sir, when I come visit Ireland you owe me a brew.

Onward.

Summer’s here! Have fun and keep reading!

Best Wishes,
Robert McCammon

  • Artist Vincent Chong, who did the artwork for the Subterranean Press release of Mister Slaughter, has posted a blog about the inspiration for his cover art for the upcoming Subterranean limited edition of The Wolf’s Hour. You can read his blog here.

     

  • A new image has been added to the Fan Artwork Gallery. Artist Nikooru Shimo painted a collage inspired by Robert McCammon’s Boy’s Life.Click here or on the image to view a larger version.