Robert McCammon’s novel Cardinal Black, book seven in the Matthew Corbett series, has been nominated for “Best Horror Novel” in the 2019 Dragon Awards!
Anyone can vote. You don’t have to attend the con to vote, but you do have to register:
Congratulations to all of the nominees! Click here or on the image below to see all of the nominations.
Over the years, I’ve heard from dozens of people who have written to tell me that a Robert McCammon novel (often Swan Song and Boy’s Life) was the only thing that got them through a period of incarceration.
I just discovered the website Prison Legal News, which recently launched a project aimed at tracking the books that are banned in prisons in the U.S. Newsweek recently published an article about the project:
The project currently only has lists from eight states, but Robert McCammon books show up on two of the lists, so far. These titles are currently banned from prisons in the named states:
Iowa: Blue World (List of all books banned in Iowa prisons)
Kansas: MINE and The Wolf’s Hour (List of all books banned in Kansas prisons)
Prisons aren’t the only places where books are banned. Some schools also ban books. One such case took place in 2006 in Hernando County in Florida. Robert McCammon actually traveled to a school board meeting there to defend Boy’s Life. You can read about it and see video of his presentation here.
Polish publisher Vesper has announced that they will be publishing a translation of Robert McCammon’s Speaks the Nightbird (book one in the Matthew Corbett series) sometime in 2020! This will be their first McCammon publication. Other publishers have previously published Swan Song and Boy’s Life in Poland in recent years. In the ’90s, Polish editions of Boy’s Life, Stinger, The Night Boat, They Thirst, and The Wolf’s Hour were published. You can see all of the covers for the Polish editions in the Book Cover Gallery.
You can see Vesper’s announcement on Facebook.
More information when I have it!
The Taiwan publisher Nautilus has released their two-volume translation of Swan Song. This book was originally announced way back in 2013, and it was finally released on July 11, 2019!
Robert McCammon reader Paul West adapted part of “Blue World” for a short independent film called Jigsaw, which was directed by Clyde Baldo. Paul also stars in the film as John. The film has been submitted to several film festivals. It’s screening now at Action On Film Megafest 2019, which runs July 24–August 3 in Las Vegas. It has been nominated for Best Drama Short there!
The poster and the trailer for the film can be seen below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo3ay8N0OvA
Cemetery Dance has posted a production update for their limited edition of Usher’s Passing:
Usher’s Passing by Robert McCammon:
Robert McCammon has signed the signature sheets, the interior artwork is now completed, and this title just needs two more proofreads to be ready. (The file we started with had some problems due to the age of the book, so we’re being extra careful with our proofreading!)
Bulgarian publisher Ciela has acquired the translation rights for a Bulgarian edition of Robert McCammon’s 2018 novel, The Listener. Presumably, the book will be published sometime in 2020.
This will be the sixth McCammon novel published in Bulgaria. See the covers for the previous five books in the Book Cover Gallery.
Amanda Desiree, who previously reported on the happenings at StokerCon 2019, also attended the Locus Awards 2019 event in Seattle on June 29, 2019. She has written up her recollections of the events, which included Robert McCammon on a panel entitled “Playing in the Historical Sandbox.”
The most recent newsletter from Borderlands Press included this paragraph:
Special Note:
Series III is almost completely sold out. It’s not too late to subscribe to the entire series of great Little Books with some upcoming writers such as Ramsey Campbell, Robert R. McCammon, Caitlyn Kiernan, and others to be announced. To set up your subscription, Contact us at [email protected].
If you’re not familiar with the Borderlands Press Little Books, they are a series of little books featuring a variety of content from the authors. Some are collections of new short stories, some collections of reprints, some collections of essays, etc. Each book is a different color. Titles include A Little Purple Book of Phantasies, by Gahan Wilson, and A Little Cobalt Book of Old Blue Stories…and Stuff, by Mort Castle.
There are no details yet on the Robert McCammon book, but I can tell you that he plans to write four new short stories for the book. I’ll provide more details when I can.
A subscription to the series is not necessary. The Robert McCammon book will be sold individually, and Cemetery Dance posted that they will have copies available for sale, too.
The 2019 Locus Awards were awarded yesterday, June 29, 2019, in Seattle, WA. The Listener was one of the ten finalists for Best Horror Novel. The award went to Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World.
Robert McCammon attended the event and participated in a panel entitled, “Playing in the Historical Sandbox,” along with authors Amal El-Mohtar, Darryl Gregory, Molly Tanzer, and Connie Willis. With thanks to Mindi Welton-Mitchell, here are two photos of the panel that she posted on Twitter.
