Author: goathunter

Hi everyone,

As always, thank you for your comments and questions and most of all for your readership. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: a writer would be nothing without readers, and I gratefully appreciate the time and effort you spend on my behalf.

I wanted to answer a couple more questions this time out, but first I wanted to talk about some things I’ve seen remarked on: the first being that the time between Matthew Corbett books seems very long and the second being the idea that I get no “respect” from the publishing industry.

The story behind Mister Slaughter (there’s a story behind everything, isn’t there?) is that it was finished and turned into my then-agent in April of 2008. I wasn’t happy with the job of promotion that Pocket had done with Queen of Bedlam. I was balking at doing another book with Pocket, and I wanted an “upgrade” in terms of what the publishing house (Simon and Schuster) would do with Mister Slaughter. So my then-agent came back to me with the revelation that Scribner (part of the Simon and Schuster company) was going to publish Mister Slaughter in hardback, everything was in place for that to happen, but we had to wait for Susan Moldow, the head honcho (honchess?) at Scribner, to sign off on the deal. That wouldn’t happen, though, until September because Ms. Moldow would be away during the summer. But I was told not to worry about it, because the deal was a “slam dunk”.

Imagine what I felt like when I got a call from my then-agent in October of 2008 saying he didn’t know what had happened, but the deal had blown up and Scribner would not be publishing Mister Slaughter but I was welcome to go back to Pocket.

Still can’t figure out if it was a setup to get me to go back or if I was just plain lied to, but I fired my then-agent within a couple of weeks after that and went on the search for a new agent and, of course, a new publisher. That turned out in time to be Subterranean Press, based in Michigan.

I was pretty down about things, but I started writing The Five in February of 2009 and finished in October of 2009. That book is making the rounds of New York publishers. I’m hopeful for a quick result, but it might be months before the book is picked up by anyone. So right there is an example of how you can finish a book and it’ll be a year or two before it comes out.

I’ll begin The Providence Rider in March and intend to finish in October. But what I’m trying to say is, the long lag between books is not my doing. I want to get on a solid publication track. So what might appear to you as an excessive time between books is particularly frustrating to me. I’m trying to get the corporate horses to pick up their speed, and the nags won’t go. Sometimes they refuse to move at all.

As for Pocket, my hope was that they’d see the potential in the Matthew books and really go to work promoting them, but I think my horror work still gets in the way there. One problem is: where do they go on the shelves in a bookstore? My name is still in the horror section, but the Matthew books are more Historical Mystery. We all know Boy’s Life was not “horror”, and neither was Gone South, yet those two books are shelved in the horror section where booksellers (particularly the big box stores) recognize my name from my earlier works. That’s one reason I caution beginning writers to be very, very careful how they start out, because if you begin as a genre writer you’re going to find it a very hard, torturous journey to be able to do what a writer ought to feel free and be encouraged to do: write about any subject, in any timeframe, that appeals to the creative nature. But I think Pocket just couldn’t get a handle on the Matthew books, and I probably stayed at that particular party too long.

Now to the part about “respect”. Again, we’re talking about corporations. They respect money. Can you ask for respect from a building? From stones and bricks? You might, but you’re not going to get it.

I get the respect I need from you guys. I re-read something I wrote awhile back, the introduction to my short story collection Blue World. I was talking about fast cars, the idea of moving forward, and in it I kept coming back to the phrase “Trust me”, in regards to letting me take the wheel and steer the ride. That’s what I feel you do, in allowing me freedom of the creative nature. You do trust me, and right there is the best respect anyone could ask for.

I will tell you that I think The Five is the best book I’ve ever written. All-in-all the book is exactly what I hoped it would be. The Five is something I have needed to say for a long time, but it took me awhile to know how to say it.

I feel like there are great things ahead. I have ideas stacked up and ready to go. There are things I could tell you now that would make you jump with joy, if you’ve liked my work up to this point. All I can say is…trust me.

I hear you when you say the wait between Matthew’s stories is long, and I wanted you to know it’s a problem I’m actively trying to solve. I think Subterranean Press has done a fantastic job with Mister Slaughter, and I have no hesitation in saying I hope they will publish the rest of the series.

Okay…onward, then.

Denise Quinn and Mike Wilkerson (among others) have both asked about sequels to Swan Song and The Wolf’s Hour.

I’m thinking of (maybe) a sequel to The Wolf’s Hour, but I have so much on my plate yet to do that I want to keep on my schedule. Now, that’s not to say that if The Wolf’s Hour actually becomes a movie and does well that I wouldn’t really really give some thought to continuing the story, but…

My take on sequels is that they’re never going to be as good as the original book. Yet my intention is for you to actually want me to write a sequel. Does that make sense? If you want me to write a sequel, it means you enjoyed the book and the characters enough to want to keep going with them. That’s a very high compliment to a writer, but sometimes (I think particularly in the case of Swan Song) the story is told and if there’s any continuing story it should be written in the reader’s own imagination.

I don’t consider Matthew’s stories to be “sequels”, but rather one continuing book. His story is not finished yet, and won’t be until we get to the last book in the series. But everything else I’ve done, I kinda figure those stories are finished. Having said that, though, it’s really a good thing that you want me to write sequels because it’s an indication of how much you enjoyed the original work.

Hope that makes sense.

I know there’ve been some questions about the availability of e-books. Believe me, this is an area of chaos and confusion for the book industry. I find it very interesting that Amazon promoted the Kindle as being able to download current bestsellers within minutes of their pubdates, and then suddenly the publishers are saying they want four or five months leeway between the release of new books and the e-book version. So that’s why Amazon is plundering back-lists and the publishing companies are trying to grab hold of as many older titles as they can. It’s a complicated issue. Amazon wants to be able to set e-book prices and the publishing industry wants to be able to set e-book prices. Chaos and confusion, added to by the huge number of e-book readers on the market and soon to be on the market. I have enough chaos in my day-to-day, so like you guys all I can do is watch the circus parade go past and wonder who’ll be bringing up the rear with the brooms. No doubt it’ll be the writers.

Again, thank you so very much for your comments and I particularly appreciate that you’re reading and re-reading the older books. I hope you’ve enjoyed Mister Slaughter. I will say about The Providence Rider that not only do we leave New York in this book, we also leave the colonies. But—no fear!—we’ll return to the familiar trappings of Number Seven Stone Street ‘ere the tale is through.

See? I’m getting back into the colonial mode after the rock’n roll book!

Thanks for reading and for writing, and I’ll talk to you again a little further on.

Best Wishes,
Robert McCammon

Hi everyone,

As I’m waiting for the official pub date of Mister Slaughter, I’ve been going back over comments and questions that some of you guys have posed over the last few months, and I wanted to respond.

First off, I can’t tell you how fortunate I feel to have loyal readers. Telling a story and communicating with people is what it’s all about, and I have to say that looking back over all the comments I feel like a very lucky person indeed. I’ve always said that I first write a book for myself because it’s a story I want to read, but knowing that other people are enjoying the books, understanding the characters and what I’m trying to express…it’s really a great feeling, so I wanted to thank all of you very, very much.

I really enjoy reading your comments. I’m so glad my work has given you pleasure and, in a way, become a part of your life. What more is there for a writer, than to reach out and be accepted? Again, I’m a very fortunate man.

To the comments and questions:

Jean-Frederic Chaleyat asks about movie rights to The Wolf’s Hour, and what’s going on there.

I can answer that the movie rights have been optioned and there’s a very good chance the movie will actually be made…but, as always, we’ll have to wait and see.

Paul Taylor asks if there’s any way the “hardcore” can read The Village.

You know, I took The Village out of its box not long ago and re-read it. I think I probably need to tighten it up some, but it wouldn’t be such a difficult task. The problem—and I think this is also part of why it was never picked up by a publisher—is that it concerns a part of World War II that most Americans know nothing about. (And probably don’t care much about, either!) Namely, the partisans fighting in Yugoslavia against the Germans. There’s really more to it than that, but it’s told from the viewpoint of the Russians and…well, it’s a pretty complicated plot. Plus it’s very bloody and violent. But…I might at some point clean it up and put it out there, so The Village is certainly not dead. It’s just that right now I have so many other things going on.

Frederic Doss asks how he would find out about acquiring the film rights to Gone South.

Years ago, I got a telephone call in the middle of the night from a young man who’d just won a big lottery jackpot. He’d gotten my number from the operator by saying it was an emergency call. But, anyway, he wanted to use some of his newfound money to option one of my books and make a movie.

I spent about an hour talking him down to earth. I told him to enjoy his money and not throw it away, which is exactly what he would’ve been doing if he’d tried to get into the movie-making business.

The film business will gladly eat any amount of money you wish to throw at it, burp and ask for more. Without hugely deep pockets and a studio behind you—and even with these things—you would likely have nothing to show for the money you’ve spent.

I hope someday Gone South becomes a movie. I hope others of my books become movies…if they turn out to be any good. Because, really, even spending multiple million dollars on movies doesn’t mean they’re going to be watchable. It’s just feeding the beast.

So, Frederic, thank you for asking, but please keep your money, go out to good dinners, enjoy some bottles of wine and nice trips and have fun with your cash. Even if you had millions to throw away, I would say don’t go down that movie road. There’s a reason most movies are put together by conglomerates and financial companies using other peoples’ money!

Wayne Rogers wants to know what happened to my hair.

Okay, here’s the mathematical formula to explain it: Life as a writer + dealing with the publishing business + fatherhood to a teenaged daughter x the trials and tribulations of 2000 to 2009 = WYSIWYG!

Lisa Schneider asks if I might be coming to Southern Cal for a signing, and Jodi asks if I might be coming to NYC for a signing.

Not anything planned right now, but I think we have to see how Mister Slaughter does.

If I could work out some book signings in both places, that would be fun.

Carmella Dillman asks if Speaks the Nightbird will be released as an ebook.

Working to figure out if that’s possible right now. Also working on getting some other titles into ebook formats.

Kyle Bakke asks if I’m not proud of Swan Song, and why I never talk about it.

Kyle, I’m very proud of Swan Song, but when it first came out it was blasted by some critics who said I was trying to copy King’s The Stand, and much of the heat directed at me over that book was pretty hot. Over time, Swan Song has stood on its own, but I guess it’s still a sore spot for me. One of the reasons I wanted to do historical work was that for awhile some of these same critics were saying that everything I was writing was ripping off King. I remember somebody talking on a forum about MINE, saying that they’d heard it was an idea King was going to do and that I must have ripped it off before he could write it. Another person said I’d ripped the Wolf’s Hour character off from the werewolf in The Talisman.

But the deal is, the last King book I read was The Dead Zone. I just stopped reading him, because of the very cutting criticism I was getting. Somebody even said the monster in Stinger was like the monster in IT, which I never read.

So if I don’t talk about Swan Song, it’s not that I’m not proud of my work…it’s just that it was not really recognized as my work until enough time had passed to cool some fires.

Some news: The Five is making the rounds of publishers right now and I’ll be starting the next Matthew Corbett book, The Providence Rider, pretty soon. I’m putting the plot together now, and tying some things together with things that happened in Mister Slaughter. Going to be interesting to get my head back in the flow of 18th century language as opposed to modern.

Again, thank you very much for your comments. I’m so glad you all have your favorite books.

This sounds like a cliché, I know, but my favorite book is always the one I’m working on.

Thanks for sticking with me.

I wish you a great and happy beginning to 2010, and I look forward to your continued comments and questions on the website.

Best Wishes,
Robert McCammon

Hi all,

I wanted to say that I finished the new book about a month ago, it went to my agent on the 29th of October, and it will start making the rounds of publishers after Thanksgiving. I have no idea where it’s going to wind up, so we’ll see.

The title is The Five, which is also the name of the band. The image is one I put together just for fun to send out with the manuscript. I enjoy playing with graphics and fonts, so I thought I’d do this “mock cover”. By no means am I a graphics professional, but I decided I’d do it anyway after I finished writing the book.

The manuscript came out to 523 pages, a little longer than I’d anticipated but they always seem to come out longer than I think they will.

The last two weeks of writing were really tough, as I had to finish before I went to the writers’ conference in Vancouver. I’d made plans back last March or so to go to Vancouver, and I realized in September that I was going to crash into the conference date and not be finished unless I picked up the pace. I could’ve gone without finishing, but (at least for me) when I’m so close to the end of a project my sleeping schedule goes crazy and I can’t do anything without having the book foremost in my mind, so I would’ve been bumping into walls in Vancouver and not been much good for anything.

Any writing project to me is like a slow-motion marathon. It’s going to be nine months, and you have to be careful not to “kick” too early or you’ll burn out before you finish. I kicked early on this one, and I was running full-out trying to finish and so the world went away from me for awhile and, likewise, I went away from the world.

But now, happily, The Five is done, I’m very excited and pleased with it and in a way it represents a new beginning (again!!) for me. A new agent, a new publisher, and (we hope) a new opportunity. As I mentioned in another post, The Five is a contemporary novel, which I’ve not done for awhile.

I’m going to give myself a few months to recuperate and then I’ll start on the next Matthew book. As I’ve also said, I’m planning on going back and forth in the next few years between doing the Corbett series and writing more contemporary books.

I’m very pleased about the quality of my writing in The Five. I think it’s way beyond what I’ve done before, and I have to credit Matthew Corbett for that. I believe that writing the historical series—and being somewhat constricted in language, yet having to be as painstaking and imaginative with language as you’re able to be—has helped my abilities. I have great fun with the language in the Corbett series, and I found in writing The Five that I didn’t have to “think” quite so hard to find the right way to say or describe something. It just seemed to flow much more smoothly, and I do credit Matthew for that.

So…Mister Slaughter comes out in January, The Five will be after that (who knows when, but I hope it won’t be too long) and I’m planning on finishing the new Matthew book, The Providence Rider, next autumn. Actually, probably around October. And also probably very near the time I told the good folks up in Vancouver I’d come to the conference again!

Well, the wheels of the bus do go round and round.

Thanks again for your interest in my work, and thank you for the time you spend in checking on the website and keeping up with my writing. I’ll let you know later on as things progress.

Best Wishes,
Robert McCammon

Hi everyone,

I wanted to check in and again say thank you for your comments and observations. I believe I mentioned to you guys last time about how much I value your presence, so I thought this time I would talk a little bit about the new book and some other things coming up.

First off, I’m on track to finish the new book in September, and I’m really looking forward to that because it’s so intense. I’m into my late night work now, staying up until five or so in the morning most days. If you don’t know, the book is about a rock band on their final tour across the Southwest who decide to end their “run” together by writing a communal last song. I can’t say the name of the book because it’s also the name of the band, and I don’t want that getting around just yet.

It has a strong supernatural element, but I can’t really say it’s “horror,” unless you consider the horrific things people can do to each other. I’ve been interested in music pretty much all my life, particularly in the retro keyboards and combo organs of the ’60s, but this book is set in 2008 and hopefully does a good job of illuminating the day-to-day (or gig-to-gig) trials and tribulations of working bands. One thing, the language is very rough, really a lot rougher than I’m used to writing, but I think it’s true to life.

I’m actually writing some “songs” for this, which is also something I’ve never done. Well…lyrics for songs, that is. Writing in the voices of people in their mid-twenties instead of my real age has been a challenge, too. But, hey, a writer has to be something of an actor, too, so I put that down to necessary stagecraft.

Another interesting thing is that I’ve needed to come up with a lot of fictitious names for bands, though I do reference many real ones. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought I had come up with a cool band name nobody else could’ve conjured, and then I go to Google to check it and…WHAM!…there’s a real band with that name.

Anyway, a September finish for that one. Here’s something I’ll throw at you from the book: Stone Church. (Not the title nor the name of any band in the book).

As I understand it, there’s a January pub date for Mister Slaughter from Subterranean Press. The artwork that’s going to be in there is awesome. Bill Schafer of SP gave me the opportunity to suggest one more piece of art than was initially slated to be in there, and I hope I picked out a good one. (At least it sure does look good to me!)

I’ll have to spill the hotspur peas and tell you that Matthew does survive Mister Slaughter, though I can tell you it’s a close-run item. In fact, he survives it to appear again in the following book (title can’t be revealed yet) that begins in New York and goes to one of the Bermuda islands. I’m currently researching the fascinating subject of underwater diving suits, diving bells and such in the early 1700s. Did you know that somebody had already built a working submarine by 1620? It was powered by twelve oarsmen, the oars sealed up against the inrush of water by tight leather sleeves.

I’ll be starting this book probably in February. After that, I’m planning on doing another more modern book (well, set in the 1930s) that takes place in New Orleans. Then back to Matthew again.

So, I just wanted you guys to know what’s coming up. I appreciate so much the comments and well-wishes, they are very much needed sometimes around four in the morning.

Thanks for checking in with the website!

Best,
Robert McCammon
July 27, 2009

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

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.

Best Wishes,
Robert McCammon
September 15, 2008

In December 1998, Robert R. McCammon wrote this letter for the old Lights Out! web site to let his fans know what he’d been doing for the previous six years.

First off, thanks for your interest in the site and in what I have done and am doing. I hope I can answer some of your questions.

For a long time I’ve wanted to write and let everyone here know what’s been going on, but I think you may understand why I haven’t kept in touch.

I’ve been reading posts here and there concerning what has happened to me. One person heard I was sick and dying, and another advanced the belief that I had inherited a major estate from a relative and was kept too busy running it to write anymore. This particular post ended with the statement that “this is what happens when writing is no more than a hobby”.

Okay. Here’s the tale, if anyone wants to hear it.

When I finished Gone South a few years back, I wanted to take some time off to be a fulltime father to our little girl, who was at that time a newborn. So I did.

Then I needed to think about what I had written and what I wanted to do next. Since about the time of writing MINE, I’d been moving out of the horror genre. I enjoyed working in that area for many years, but there came a time when it just wasn’t very appealing to me anymore. Bear in mind that my first book (Baal) was published when I was 25 years old. I was a kid, and I thought like a kid. But as I grew older I wanted to move beyond the horror genre, for the simple reason that I didn’t feel challenged by it. Also, the horror genre became to me like a box. It’s very limiting, in my estimation. Others may think differently, and more power to them.

After Gone South, I wondered what I could do that would be both challenging and would make me push myself as a writer. I’ve always enjoyed history, so I decided to strike out in the direction of the historical novel.

Well, I soon found out that with the research involved, the historical novel is much more difficult to do than what I’d been writing before. After two years, I finished a (very long) book set in colonial Carolina in 1699, called Speaks the Nightbird. It’s about a witchcraft trial and might be called a mystery but is not supernatural. But, anyway, I wanted it to be as historically correct as possible, right down to the language.

At this point I decided also to start fresh with a new publisher.

To make this long story shorter: I ran into (collided with, actually) an editor who wanted me to change the book to make it into (my opinion here, of course) an historical romance. I will be kind to the memory of this person. We did not see eye-to-eye on anything. I simply could not make the changes I was asked to make. The book is by no means perfect and does need to be edited, but I had to draw the line somewhere.

Well, I was kind of stuck at this point because no one else wanted Nightbird. I was told that publishers were expecting a certain kind of book from me, and this wasn’t it.

My choice was to remove the book from consideration. Then I had to get back up on the horse and try again. I had another story in mind, about a Russian theater troupe in World War II, and I began my research. Again, this was a hard road to travel.

I found myself snakebit, due to the problems I’d had with the aforementioned editor. Never in my career had I ever encountered a person or situation like this, and I had trouble coming back from the experience.

The truth is that I was afraid to work, for fear of another rejection. I did keep at the new book, called The Village, but only a few pages at the time. I got very depressed during this time period, and I wondered if I ought to just quit. I was wondering what else I could do, and realized I couldn’t do very much else.

I can tell you what depression is. It’s your mind trying to shut off pain. Unfortunately, it also shuts off pleasure. So for many months there I was a hermit in the house, trying to work a little bit, trying not to let anyone outside the family know how bad off I was, and trying to figure out what my role in the world would be if not as a writer.

I kept at it. I will not try to tell anyone how I emerged from this state of mind, or what I learned while I was in this sunless realm. This is for me alone.

But: I did find joy in life again, and I did finish The Village after three years. Just last week, as a matter of fact.

Now, this is not quite a happy ending because I don’t know who’s going to publish the new book, or if it will be published at all. I don’t know what will happen to Speaks the Nightbird, though I do hope it will someday be published. I don’t know if these books will be published under my name or under a pen name.

So, I guess the next chapter is about to be written. What will happen in it, I have no idea.

Thanks to all for your comments and questions. Thanks for keeping up and for reading my work. And also many, many thanks to Hunter for maintaining the LIGHTS OUT site and for being a great friend.

Robert McCammon

December 16, 1998