From Subterranean Press:

The Five

Last week Robert McCammon was in our office to sign 1600 copies or so of his new novel, The Five, which has drawn even more praise from Stephen King. You may recall that he referred to it as McCammon’s “best novel ever”. In a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly, Mr. King added The Five to his list of summer reads, and had this to say: “It’s scary; it’s also a soaring anthem to the redemptive power of rock & roll.” We couldn’t agree more, and thank Mr. King once again for supporting the book.

All copies of the trade hardcover of The Five have shipped to customers, so if you preordered one, you shouldn’t have much longer to wait. We had Rick sign extra copies, so while our large online retail and wholesale accounts are being sent second printings, we still have a small number of signed firsts on hand to fill direct orders.

While Rick was here, we had him sign 75 or so first edition copies of his most recent historical thriller, Mister Slaughter. It’s a great introduction to the Matthew Corbett series, and stands alone well.

Finally, Tomislav Tikulin has turned in both dust jackets for our new edition of the classic McCammon novel, Baal, which is in the final round of proofreading. We’re right on schedule for our fall publication.

Finally (this time, really), if you want to see a few photos from Rick’s trip to the SubPress offices to sign books, check out Robert McCammon’s website.

Posted on Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 at 9:03 am.

Here are a couple more recent great reviews of Robert McCammon’s new novel, The Five:

  • The October Country: Review: ‘The Five’ by Robert McCammon

    The Five is the assured, confident work of a man who has climbed back to the top of his game. It’s tight and suspenseful, and yet manages to take long sidetrips into the histories of the characters that don’t detract from the action, but instead enhance it. This is the kind of book you get lost in; the type of story that you’ll find yourself reflecting on long after you finished it, wondering what those characters are up to now. Do yourself a favor and pick it up today.

  • cctheprofessor: The Five – “Everything is quiet but the song that keeps me sane”

    This current novel, The Five, is not only about a band; it’s about music. That swelling ache you get in the marrow of your bones when you hear your favorite guitar maestro let his fingers fly over the frets and strings. The pounding your heart begins to do when you hear that bass line beat it’s way through the speakers or the drum beat begins to thump. This novel is brilliantly alive with that love and passion for music.

Robert McCammon plans to attend the Surrey International Writers’ Conference in Surrey, British Columbia, October 21–23, 2011. An open-to-the-public signing session will take place Saturday evening. In addition to that, Mr. McCammon will be leading and participating in the following sessions:

  • Name It and Claim It

    Time: Saturday 10:30am

    Robert McCammon invites you to explore the idea of coming up with character, town and place names that have significance and resonance in your work.

  • Accurate Accents and Delicious Dialects

    Time: Sunday 9:30am

    In short, when to use dialect, when to lose it and how to tell the difference.

  • Genre Bending

    Time: Sunday 11:00am

Robert McCammon traveled to Troy, MI, on June 6, 2011, to sign and inscribe copies of his new novel, The Five, at the Subterranean Press warehouse.  Over the course of two days, he signed over 1600 copies of The Five, plus about 80 copies of Mister Slaughter.  If you order The Five directly from Subterranean Press, you will receive one of these signed copies.  Photos by Hunter Goatley.  Thanks to the great folks at Subterranean Press for putting out such a beautiful book and for being such gracious hosts!

The first pallet of cases of THE FIVE
The second and third pallets of THE FIVE
Robert McCammon inscribing
Robert McCammon
Ready to be bagged....
And ready for boxing and shipping....

There have been several notable blog posts and articles about Robert McCammon’s work in the past week or so.  Here are some of the more interesting links:

I know many of us would love to see some film adaptations!

From Subterranean Press:

Robert McCammon — Updates on BAAL and THE FIVE

Baal by Robert McCammon first cover.jpg

Tomislav Tikulin has just turned in the first cover for Robert McCammon’s classic, Baal, which has been fully proofread and is on schedule for release this fall.

Next week, Rick will be in our offices to sign and inscribe copies of The Five. While he’s still here signing, we’ll be shipping copies of the trade hardcover. (The limited, which is nearly sold out, will ship as soon as the slipcases are in our offices.)

Posted on Tuesday, May 31st, 2011 at 10:19 am.


Stephen King has a column in the June 3, 2011, issue of Entertainment Weekly with his reading list for the summer.  He includes The Five in the twelve books profiled.  You can see a scan of the page by clicking on the image to the left, but here’s what he wrote:

THE FIVE Robert McCammon
One of the finest horror-suspense writers of the late ’70s and ’80s returns with a riveting novel of a rock band (the Five) pursued by a mentally unstable Army vet who’s offended by one of their videos.  It’s scary; it’s also a soaring anthem to the redemptive power of rock & roll. You probably won’t find it in your bookstore, so go to your (hopefully nonmalevolent) computer and click on subterraneanpress.com.

Robert McCammon will be signing copies of The Five (and other books) at the Alabama Booksmith in Birmingham, AL, on Tuesday, June 14, 2011, beginning at 4 PM.

From the Alabama Booksmith website:

If you would like to reserve a copy, and we do not have your information on file, you may send it to our easy, secure and encrypted web form by Clicking Here

If you would like to reserve a copy or copies, and we already have your information on file, please Click Here

Alabama Booksmith
2626 19th Place South
Birmingham, Alabama 35209

One Tree Hill logoThe season 8 finale of the CW TV show One Tree Hill featured a lengthy quote from Robert McCammon’s Boy’s Life.  The episode, entitled “This Is My House, This Is My Home,” was written and directed by Mark Schwahn, who is a long-time fan of McCammon’s work.  Here’s the scene as described by a fan on Facebook:

…the little boy Jamie was narrating a passage about living in a magic time and town etc and they pan up and show him reading “Boy’s Life”.

One Tree Hill screenshot
One Tree Hill character reading Boy’s Life

Here’s the passage quoted:

You know, I do believe in magic. I was born and raised in a magic time, in a magic town, among magicians. Oh, most everybody else didn’t realize we lived in that web of magic, connected by silver filaments of chance and circumstance. But I knew it all along. When I was twelve years old, the world was my magic lantern, and by its green spirit glow I saw the past, the present and into the future. You probably did too; you just don’t recall it. See, this is my opinion: we all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God’s sake. And you know why we were told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they’d allowed to wither in themselves.

After you go so far away from it, though, you can’t really get it back. You can have seconds of it. Just seconds of knowing and remembering. When people get weepy at movies, it’s because in that dark theater the golden pool of magic is touched, just briefly. Then they come out into the hard sun of logic and reason again and it dries up, and they’re left feeling a little heartsad and not knowing why. When a song stirs a memory, when motes of dust turning in a shaft of light takes your attention from the world, when you listen to a train passing on a track at night in the distance and wonder where it might be going, you step beyond who you are and where you are. For the briefest of instants, you have stepped into the magic realm.

That’s what I believe.

The episode can be viewed on Hulu.com.