My Favorite Poem Sixth Annual Literary Event with TV host Mike Royer

My Favorite Poem Sixth Annual Literary Event with TV host Mike Royer Image gallery

Presented by Alabama School of Fine Arts at Alabama School of Fine Arts

September 23, 2011

Lovers of poetry gather to hear a representative group of 15 citizens recite their favorite poems from childhood.Sponsored by the Birmingham Arts Journal and the Alabama School of Fine Arts. Hosted by TV personality Mike Royer. Alabama School of Fine Arts in Historic Downtown Birmingham, Alabama.

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AMONG THE POETRY GUESTS:


Actress JAN HUNTER
Author ROBERT MCCAMMON
and
Jesse Bates
Steve Edmondson
Linda Newby Stephan
Margaret Stefanson
Kelsey Bates
Scott Downs
Danielle Eggers
Peter Kirchikov
Judith Norwood
Rod Major
Joe Whitten

Several updates from the past couple of weeks:

  • Japanese illustrator Kazuki Tamada has contributed another piece of artwork inspired by The Wolf’s Hour. You can view a larger version of his art, as well as see his other illustrations, by clicking on the image or here.
  • Publishers Weekly has posted a great review of the Subterranean Press edition of Robert McCammon’s first novel, Baal. You can read it on the PW site.
  • Robert McCammon recently finished signing the tip-in sheets for The Hunter from the Woods, which Subterranean Press is about to send to the printer for its November publication.
  • Mel Odom posted a superb review of The Five on his Bookhound blog.
  • A post about the Matthew Corbett series was posted over on Wisdom of Bookmonkey.
  • Author Laraine Herring posted one reason that Boy’s Life is so effective.
  • A fantastic new review of Boy’s Life was posted on Right2Left.

Stay tuned for some exciting news about Robert McCammon ebooks!

YouTube user ~somebody~ has posted a song based on the Robert McCammon short story “Something Passed By”. The lyrics for the song can be found below.



“Something Passed By” on YouTube
SOMETHING PASSED BY — ~somebody~

burst into flames like Johnny James
if I don’t drink the high octane
somehow time has been reversed
people age back to their births
this weather now… it acts so strange
especially those concrete rains
and gravity…depends on where you’re at
the wrong place and you may end up…flat

the newspapers read… the three words the experts had said
“SOMETHING PASSED BY”
different physics now apply
“SOMETHING PASSED BY”
no where to run, no place to hide
“SOMETHING PASSED BY AND TOOK THE SKY”

the laws of nature have been changed
its molecules…rearranged
we shake our heads, don’t understand it
sit back and watch the widespread panic
what happened to our beautiful planet?
maybe we took it just for granted

The Hunter From the Woods
From Subterranean Press:

Robert McCammon’s new collection of linked tales featuring Michael Gallatin, hero of his classic novel, The Wolf’s Hour, looks to be headed to the printer ahead of its scheduled date. At the moment, we’re waiting for Rick to set pen to signature pages. As soon as those are in hand, The Hunter from the Woods shuttles off to the printer.

In the meantime, head over to the Hunter page to check out a few of Vincent Chong’s seven full-color interior illustrations. Hunter is preselling so well that we many not have copies available to our wholesale and large online retail accounts. A direct order is your best bet to guarantee you receive a copy.

From Subterranean Press:

We have a few great bits of Robert McCammon news to share with you today.

  • We’ve just reached agreement to publish his next Matthew Corbett novel, The Providence Rider. As the novel opens, Matthew is a problem-solver having difficulty negotiating the consequences of his encounter with Mister Slaughter. Readers are going to be thrilled at the Dickensian cast of grotesques and characters in The Providence Rider, from stout friend Hudson Greathouse, to the ever in shadows Professor Fell, to new characters such as Mother Deare, Madame Chillany, the Thacker Brothers, and the turbaned, deadly, Sirki. Perhaps best of all, the signed limited and lettered editions will feature a story from Matthew Corbett’s world available nowhere else. Sign up for our newsletter for more details, due soon.
  • After a bit of delay, the signed limited edition of The Five is in stock and shipping, with the lettered edition due soon. Thanks to everyone for their patience, while we sorted out some difficulties with the slipcases. The limited edition may be sold out, but you can still pick up a signed copy of the first trade hardcover.
  • We’re in the homestretch on The Hunter from the Woods, McCammon’s new collection of linked stories and novellas that features Michael Gallatin, the lycanthropic hero of his classic novel, The Wolf’s Hour. Be sure to check out the long novella from the collection, “The Room at the Bottom of the Stairs”, available on Hunter’s page.
  • All of the work is done on the classic novel, Baal, virtually unobtainable in hardcover at a reasonable price, until now. Our edition of Rick’s first novel is just waiting its place in our production queue.

WARNING!!  SPOILERS FOR THE FIVE BELOW!!!!!

 

 

Hi, guys! Hope all is well and your summer has been good.

I’ve been getting some interesting reviews and comments about The Five. Thanks to everyone who’s bought the book and read it, and thank you for voicing your thoughts.

I see many, if not most, reviews compare The Five to MINE and say that it is a crime/thriller without any supernatural content.

Students, consider these questions…

  1. Who is Gunny?
  2. Why did Gunny suddenly appear when Jeremy has finally decided to commit suicide?
  3. Do you think there’s any reason that Jeremy’s last name is “Pett”?
  4. How do you think the video was manipulated?
  5. Who was the girl at the well?
  6. Any symbolism in the crows circling the field?
  7. What was the thing that George has seen in the hospital room? The black “origami”?
  8. What is the reason the story of Stone Church is in the book? There is one. A BIG reason.
  9. Why is it that Jeremy wants to give up the “hunt” at some point and Gunny brings him back on track?
  10. What is the meaning of Ariel’s dream of the figure in the field belching out crows?
  11. What is Connor Addison’s role? Why was he there to shoot one of the band members?
  12. What is DJ Talk It Up’s role? Why is he there to…you know what.
  13. What is the meaning of the rock opera that Eric Gherosimini is writing? It’s called “Ground Zero”. And…crucial here…Gherosimini says it’s about “the war”. What war is he talking about?
  14. Let’s speculate and say that Gunny is a demonic figure who wants to use Jeremy to stop THE FIVE from writing the song. Why? What’s in the song that merits that sort of attention? The clue here is who the song speaks to.
  15. Consider True’s thoughts about Stone Church, and how the reappearance of those people—those souls stolen by Hell—would change the theological balance of the world. Consider that Jeremy knows he is bound to Hell for what he has done. But…maybe a Marine with a family to get back to, much like the situation in his favorite movie Gladiator, is enough to make him find those lost souls, and say to them…”Follow me” to a way back to the world?
  16. And consider who the song goes to. I will tell you that the girl at the well is an angel in human form. Remember that she was the last to take a drink of water, after serving everyone else. Remember that the girl to whom the song means so much was nearly the last one into the club, and she almost sacrificed her place in by helping someone else get in before her. She is, indeed, on her way to becoming an angelic figure…to use her music for the power of good…and THAT is why Gunny the demonic figure wanted to stop the song from being written and reaching her.

Cheers!

Robert McCammon

 

Zombies! x 3Robert McCammon’s zombie tale “Eat Me” is proving popular in these days of zombie madness. A couple of years ago, it was reprinted in the John Skipp-edited Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead.  Now the story is about to be reprinted in the anthology Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!  This collection is edited by Otto Penzler and also includes stories by Stephen King, Joe Lansdale, Robert E. Howard, and many more.  You can pre-order the book from Amazon; it will be released on September 13, 2011, by Vintage Crime.

“Eat Me” was originally published in the 1989 anthology Book of the Dead. It can be read for free here.

Subterranean Press sent out a special “Robert McCammon Updates” email today.  Some of the information we’ve already posted (the cover art for The Hunter from the Woods, the free ebook of “The Room at the Bottom of the Stairs”, the ebook release of The Five, and reader reviews of The Five), but the beginning of their email includes some news we haven’t posted:

Welcome to our extra, Robert McCammon-centric newsletter this week. As you can tell, a lot is happening, with the release of the 36,000 word novella, The Room at the Bottom of the Stairs, as a free ebook, and the art for The Hunter in the Woods progressing.

A few things not mentioned below, to whet your literary appetites:

— Rick McCammon just turned in the latest Matthew Corbett historical adventure, The Providence Rider, an even longer and more engrossing tale than its predecessor, Mister Slaughter, which had chills and thrills aplenty.

— After he takes a brief respite to recharge his creative batteries, Rick plans to write a long (at least 30,000 words) novella exclusively for book publication by SubPress. As this is one of our favorite lengths, we can’t tell you how much we’re looking forward to reading Lawson.

— Finally, while we’re finishing the work on the limited edition of Baal, we’ve already started preliminary work on the next McCammon limited, Bethany’s Sin. Look for more information soon.

As always, happy reading, and thanks for your continuing support.

Bill Schafer

And finally, there’s this regarding the limited editions of The Five:

Finally, we realize that the limited edition of The Five is more than a bit overdue, for which we apologize. There was a hang up on the slipcases, now solved. We expect the cases to ship to our offices on 8/19. We’ll ship the limited edition as soon as they arrive.