Author: goathunter

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.”

  • 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