Author: goathunter

Some Thoughts On The Wolf’s Hour

Hi, all. November is upon us. Also upon us, and something I’ve been very excited about for a number of months, is the beautiful edition of The Wolf’s Hour from Subterranean Press, which I consider to be the Ultimate Edition of that work. I’d like to take a few minutes to talk about that book, if I may.

Where did the idea come from? I’ve thought about that and I can’t really answer it. I do know I’m very interested in World War II history, and also the “lore” and “allure” of secret agents. You may not know that I tried to put myself in the running several years ago to pick up the James Bond series when the publisher was casting about for a writer. I didn’t get the spot, and I guess I’m glad I didn’t because my work has evolved in another direction, but I always thought I could do a “bang-up job”—British lingo there—putting across an action-oriented secret agent novel.

So I decided to think about doing a different kind of secret agent, and using of course my interest in World War II and general weirdness. What could possibly make my hero different? I wondered.

Then I had the Ah, ha moment. Eureka, as they say.

But if he’s going to be that, I decided, it has to be believeable all the way. It has to be made real. It can’t just be dropped in like a gimmick. There has to be a backstory and a wealth of personal history—and tragedy—and if this unreal hero is to become real he must first and foremost be made human.

Now, the fun part about putting this hero together is that I knew there would be a lot of action. If you know what I mean?

Usually I don’t get to write scenes like that. If you read the new novelette “The Room At The Bottom of The Stairs,” you will see that I decided to go for the gold in terms of the bedroom scenes. Someone mentioned to me after reading those scenes that they were “very earthy.”

Well, yeah. I don’t get a lot of opportunities to write “very earthy,” so in this case I thought…go for it, all the way.

They actually may have said “very dirty,” but I heard “very earthy.” Same difference. I guess?

I realized when I was writing The Wolf’s Hour that it was going to be a long book, but I didn’t realize until looking back and re-reading this Ultimate Edition how fully-packed the thing is. I mean, it is intense. I think every possible situation one could throw at a hero, whether he is merely human or more than human, is in this book.

The action scenes were great fun to write. I do mean, here, the physical action. You know. The fighting scenes. Okay? Well, they were fun to write. But I never wanted my hero’s life-condition to be a gimmick, something that is used when the pace falters or the story runs out of steam or you just need a good jolt to throw at the reader. No, his situation had to be honest, as much as I could make it.

It had to be depicted as a life lived in both great joy and deep sadness, because for all my hero’s abundant strength and speed and animal passion, he also walks alone. He must pay the price for what he is, and though the decision to be what he has become was not his to make…there is still the price to be paid, and so this becomes more than a story about a secret agent in World War II who is a lycanthrope. It is also the story of an innocent boy who set out to catch a kite and became a solitary traveller through a dangerous world.

I am very proud of The Wolf’s Hour. It appears that this is another of my books that, thankfully, is growing in stature with the passage of time. I have been asked many times if I would ever consider doing a sequel. Again, there are so many events packed into this book that I might have a hard time writing a book-length sequel. But after writing the shorter piece “The Room At The Bottom of The Stairs,” I started thinking… hmmmm, well, maybe I could do a sequel of sorts that was not really a sequel but that did continue my hero’s story.

So…I sat down this summer and wrote what has become The Hunter From The Woods, a collection of short stories and novelettes starring Michael Gallatin. He gets to move around quite a bit, from a ragtag circus in Russia to fighter planes clashing over North Africa to a freighter in the fog of the North Atlantic and beyond. It was great fun for me to rouse Michael Gallatin to new adventures and…who knows what the future holds for him?

Thank you for your readership, as always, and I hope you enjoy the Ultimate Edition of The Wolf’s Hour. I suppose you know the title is a takeoff on “The wolf is ours” and the idea of the eleventh hour, which was indeed “the wolf’s hour” in the lore of several mythologies.

Happy November to you all, and good reading to you as well.

Best Wishes,
Robert McCammon

Subterranean Press posted this update on their site today:

We’ve just received the shipping notification from our printer that the first two advance copies of Robert McCammon’s werewolf classic, The Wolf’s Hour, are en route to our offices. We have orders for more than 1100 copies of the limited edition—the print run is only 750— so we will not be able to fill orders for any of our large online retail accounts.

To guarantee yourself a copy, your best bet is to place a direct order at this point. As a reminder, our edition includes not only the novel proper and a number of full-color plates by Vincent Chong, it also features a brand new 36,000 word novella, “The Room at the Bottom of the Stairs.”

Finally, be on the lookout for an announcement concerning McCammon’s epic (over 180,000 words) thriller with a supernatural backbeat. We have some really nifty promotional ideas for The Five that we think will make it an even bigger treat for Ricks many fans.

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