• A new audio interview with Robert McCammon can be found in the latest installment of Pod of Horror. The interview was conducted a couple of weeks ago by Mark Justice. You can download Pod of Horror #58 from the Pod of Horror page at Horror World or from iTunes.

• The first launch event for Robert McCammon's Mister Slaughter will occur at The Alabama Booksmith in Birmingham, AL, on Wednesday, January 20, 2010, at 6 PM Central. Mr. McCammon will sign copies of Mister Slaughter, which will be available for purchase at the event. You are welcome to bring other McCammon books to get them signed, of course.

  As they've done in the past, the Alabama Booksmith will also be offering signed (and personalized, if desired) copies of Mister Slaughter by mail. Please see the bottom of the Signings Schedule for details.

  For a complete list of signing events, please see the Signings Schedule. We hope to add more dates and locations soon.

• Subterranean Press has posted the following update on Mister Slaughter:

  First off, the Library Journal review for Robert McCammon's Mister Slaughter is just in, and we couldn't be happier. As they note, "Fans of dark historicals will enjoy this thrill ride, but they should be ready for some heavy-handed violence with a balance of historical context and intrigue." Yes, Mister Slaughter is one bloody, suspenseful ride, but you shouldn't expect less from the tale of a pre-Colonial era serial killer, and the heavy moral choices he presents to his pursuer.

  The second bit of good news is that we've received enough orders to put the trade hardcover out of print on publication. We'll allow the first printing copies to make their way into bookstores, libraries, and large online retailers, but chances are very good that we'll be headed to a second printing very shortly. So if it's important to you to be assured of getting a first printing, the only way to be absolutely guaranteed of one is by ordering direct. Whatever printing you end up with—or the limited edition for that matter—we're sure you'll enjoy this thrill-a-minute historical excursion. Just be sure to wear your bloody apron.

• Robert McCammon will be a guest of the Blog Talk Radio show The Funky Werepig on Sunday, January 10, 2010, at 9 PM ET. The show will air live at that time and will be archived on the site afterward.

• Mark Justice recently interviewed Robert McCammon for an upcoming episode of Pod of Horror. We'll let you know as soon as the show is available for download.

• A number of new-to-the-site book cover images have been added to the Book Cover Gallery. These include:
  • Russian hardcover edition of The Queen of Bedlam (ACT, 2010)
  • Avon uncorrected proof for Bethany's Sin
  • UK proof for Gone South
  • Doubleday uncorrected proof for Halloween Horrors
  • Japanese paperback of Post Mortem
  • Japanese paperback of Swan Song (book 1)
  • Japanese paperback of Swan Song (book 2)
  • French hardcover edition of The Wolf's Hour
  • French Hot Blood
  • French Hot Blood (later edition)

  Thanks to Bob Jackson for the photos of the Bethany's Sin and Gone South proofs!

• The launch of Robert McCammon's Mister Slaughter will occur at Borders, Waters Place, Ann Arbor, MI, on Friday, January 22, 2010, at 7 PM. Mr. McCammon will do a reading and book signing. Copies of Mister Slaughter will be available for purchase, along with the trade paperback editions of Speaks the Nightbird, The Queen of Bedlam, and Swan Song.

  As previously noted, Robert McCammon will also be attending ConFusion 2010 in Troy, MI that weekend (January 22–24, 2010).

• As expected from this week's earlier announcement, Subterranean Press has officially sent Mister Slaughter off to their printer.

• Subterranean Press has posted a 171-page excerpt from Robert McCammon's upcoming novel, Mister Slaughter. From the Subterranean Press website:

  As we're within days of sending Robert McCammon's manhunt masterpiece, Mister Slaughter, to the printer for its January release, we figured now was a good time to post a huge excerpt from the novel to the SubPress site. Head over to the book's page and read the first 171 pages of this explosive thriller, but be warned, the excerpt ends with a cliffhanger, so you'll need to order the novel to see how the plot threads are resolved.

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

• Reviewer Clayton Bye has posted his review of Robert McCammon's Mister Slaughter. The review contains plot spoilers. The highlight from the review:

  "Mister Slaughter is Robert McCammon doing what he does best. His descriptive abilities take us back to a world that is a composite of 30 some years of development in New York City (1700-1730). His characters, always larger than life and ever so quirky, never cease to entertain. And his story is complicated enough that Matthew Corbett can proudly stand shoulder to shoulder with Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot."

• Author Chuck Wendig has posted his review of Robert McCammon's Mister Slaughter. The review contains a few mild spoilers. In the review, Chuck states, "I haven't enjoyed a book like this in years."

• The maintainer of the blog eReader1 has posted about the Kindle release of Swan Song. The review concludes with "...in all that bleakness, McCammon gives us a beautiful message of love, hope & faith. That the purest of souls can be the most powerful."

• In October 2009, Robert McCammon attended the Surrey International Writers' Conference in Surrey, BC, Canada. Author J.J. DeBenedictis posted a blog summarizing the panel "Bestsellers Deconstructed," which featured Robert McCammon, Michael Slade, and others. Ms. DeBenedictis graciously granted permission for the reproduction of her blog here.
  "Bestsellers Deconstructed" @ SIWC 2009

• The new Pocket Books trade paperback edition of Swan Song should be available in stores now. It can also be purchased online from Amazon, B&N, etc.

  Swan Song is also now available as an eBook for several different readers. The list price for the eBook is $7.99, but Amazon has the Kindle version for only $6.39.

  • Purchase the Swan Song trade paperback from Amazon.com

  • Purchase the Swan Song Kindle edition from Amazon.com

  • Purchase the Swan Song ePub edition from Pocket Books

• Anthony Nadeau sent in some photos from his meeting with Robert McCammon this evening at the Surrey International Writers' Conference in Surrey, British Columbia. You can view Anthony's photos here.

• Since it's Halloween week, this seemed like a good time to post Robert McCammon's last horror short story, "The Miracle Mile," from the 1991 HWA anthology Under The Fang. I've also posted McCammon's introduction to the anthology.
  • Introduction to Under the Fang

  • "The Miracle Mile"

  • The original shared-world premise for Under the Fang

• James Reasoner recently posted a McCammon-related blog entitled Forgotten Books: Baal - Robert R. McCammon.

• The maintainer of the blog "All There Is" recently posted About a terrifying book called The Night Boat.

• Publishers Weekly has posted their review of Mister Slaughter. Mild plot spoilers....

  ---

  Mr. Slaughter Robert McCammon. Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $24.95 (440p) ISBN 978-1-59606-276-4

  Murder and ghoulish mayhem are the order of the day in bestseller McCammon's colorful third thriller featuring problem-solver Matthew Corbett and his escapades in early 18th-century America. After confronting a criminal mastermind in The Queen of Bedlam (2007), Matthew finds himself a celebrity whose exploits have become sensational fodder for colonial tabloids. This heady attention contributes to a bad lapse of judgment when he and his senior associate, Hudson Greathouse, accidentally allow a brutal murderer, Tyranthus Slaughter, to give them the slip while they transport him to prison in Philadelphia. The rousing narrative details Matthew's dogged pursuit of the indestructible Tyranthus as the killer cuts a bloody swath through the Pennsylvania wilderness. McCammon shows a sure hand balancing scenes of Matthew's quiet contemplation with the cold-blooded carnage that makes his quarry's name so appropriate. (Jan.)

  ---

• There's now a Robert McCammon channel on Twitter! Note that this is the channel for this website; tweets will be posted by Hunter....
  @RobertMcCammon on Twitter

• Robert McCammon will be a Special Guest of ConFusion 2010 (and Subterranean Press) in Troy, MI, January 22–24, 2010. Information about the convention can be found on the ConFusion 2010 website.

• Also, a reminder that Robert McCammon will be attending the Surrey International Writers' Conference next weekend, October 23–25, 2009, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. There is a signing event that's open to the public.

• Another review of Mister Slaughter has been posted to Bev Vincent's Onyx Reviews website. The review contains many spoilers for the novel's plot, so be careful about reading it. The review ends with this statement:

  The book is a fine installment in a series whose charming protagonist has a lot of life left in him.

• If you live in the Suburban Chicago area, the Fremont Public Library book discussion group will be discussing Boy's Life on Tuesday, October 27, 2009.

  BookMarkers Book Discussion: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, Fremont Public Library, 1170 N. Midlothian Road, Mundelein. "Boy's Life" by Robert McCammon will be discussed. Call (847) 918-3206 or visit fremontlibrary.org.

• Author Chuck Wendig recently posted a blog in which he ranks his favorite Robert McCammon novels. It's a fun read, but may not be for everyone. You can read the blog on Chuck's Terrible Minds site.

• The first full review of Mister Slaughter has been posted by Mark Sieber at Horror Drive-In. A link to his starred review, as well as great, early comments by Brian Keene, Mark Justice, and Wayne C. Rogers can all be found on Matthew Corbett's World.

• Steve Berman of the blog GuysLitWire recently posted a fantastic essay on why Boy's Life is one "of the greatest reads. Ever." You can read the essay here.

• The first chapter from Mister Slaughter has been posted on Matthew Corbett's World.

  Also, don't forget that video and audio of Robert McCammon reading a different chapter from Mister Slaughter is available here.

• Thanks to the recording efforts of Stephen Ellison, Mat Grau, and Jason Giaccone, we now have video and audio of Robert McCammon's visit to Jesuit High School in August for the culmination of The Big J Read community reading project.
  Robert McCammon @ The Big J Read

Hi everyone,

I wanted to give you an update of what's going on, and tell you a little bit about my recent trip to Jesuit High School in New Orleans.

First off, I'm about a hundred and twenty to a hundred and forty pages away from finishing the new book. Still looking to finish it up in (late) September, because as I near the end of a project I start writing faster. I'm doing my ten p.m. to six a.m. schedule right now.

I've gotten a few questions I'd like to answer. One was about why I don't do a book about The Lady from Boy's Life. I actually did start on a book about her before I wrote Boy's Life, but for one reason or another I wasn't satisfied with it. I got about two hundred pages in. It just wasn't coming to life for me, though, so I put it aside. It did have some pretty interesting bits: a swamp snake that travelled with her as her companion and hated all other humans due to the murders of her "children," a town of half-submerged antebellum mansions, a shadowy New Orleans maskmaker who created masks for criminals and murderers that actually became the person's new face...but I couldn't make it go. I think I was conflicted about whether to portray "voodoo" as fantasy or reality.

Another question is why I didn't—or wouldn't—do a sequel to The Wolf's Hour. I actually had planned on doing a sequel, or more than one sequel, but Irwyn Appelbaum, who was the honcho at Pocket Books at the time, shot the idea down. I usually don't listen to honchos, but he said he thought my primary audience was women, and he didn't think women liked "war books."

Hmmm. I wonder now if he ever read the book?

But anyway, I was off on the next book at the time, so I didn't worry about it. As for doing a sequel now, it might be interesting, but my plate is pretty full. If I was to do that, it would be a long way down the road, and for the present, the Matthew series suits my need to do action/adventure.

Speaking of New Orleans, it was a great trip. I spoke to a gathering of parents on Monday night, and then on Tuesday spoke to the students in two sessions. Everybody there was fantastic, I think I was able to connect with the guys (you can make up your own mind on that if and when you see the videos) and it was just really fun.

One thing: if you see the video of the first session, you will see terror leap into my eyes at the beginning of the question-and-answer session when I realize I can't hear the questions being asked. Yow. So I was able to take the microphone down to the floor and both hear the questions and answer them more "face-to-face." You always think what hideous thing might happen when you're in front of an audience like that, and 8th to 12th grade young men are a tough audience. I had the mental image of tumbling down the steps leading from the stage to the floor, either to land on my face or on my backside, which would've made a memorable trip and a great YouTube vid.

The gentleman who serves Jesuit High School as the Director of Alumni, Mat Grau, posed two questions to me a couple of weeks before I left Birmingham for New Orleans. They were "Who is Cory today?" and "What is he becoming aware of?"

So, as you'll see and hear in the videos, I wrote Cory a letter and asked him, and he was kind enough to write me back.

He wrote:

Hello Rick, I hope everything's good with you. The family's doing well. My daughter is really getting up there now. Twenty years old! Can you believe it? Well, I'm glad you haven't forgotten your old bud. We do go back a ways, don't we? I haven't been to Zephyr for a long time. The interstate has a way of speeding you right past the turnoff, but that's okay because I always know that when I'm ready to go back to Zephyr, Zephyr is always ready to welcome me. I've given some thought to the questions you asked. I am both the same as I was and different too. Aren't we all? It seems to me that this is part of the challenge of life—to try very hard to keep some inner part of yourself flowing pure and clear and strong, while the world throws everything it can at you to muddy your river. I have to admit—my river has known some turbulence. It has been tested over rough rocks and daunting falls. It has at some places in its journey been darkened by silt and sullied by garbage. But I have tried—and still try—my best to keep it flowing strong toward the sea of its ultimate destination. Wherever that may be. I have a road I walk. I call it "my road." I particularly enjoy it in late August, in the fading blue light of summer, betwixt and between the sun and the moon. I think of many things on this road. I remember, I dream, I imagine. I give thanks for what I have, and what I have to look forward to. Often on this road the cicadas of late summer sing in the trees. I never fail to hear them say, from either side of that long and twisting road— Zephyr...Zephyr...Zephyr. I know where I've been. I don't know exactly where I'm going. But I do believe that when I get there, it will be a wonderful place. Thank you for your letter. Take care. Your friend, Cory. P.S. You'll never believe what I found the other day on eBay. I bought it. It's not in style anymore, but it sure is a pretty bike. I wonder if it might be the very same one. And if it would remember me, and wake up like a lamp turning on in the dark. Now that would really be magic, wouldn't it?

As always, thank you for your readership, your comments, and your interest in my work. Like I said, I hope to be finished with the new book soon, and in this household that will be a very happy day.

Best Wishes,
Robert McCammon

Webmaster's note: We hope to have audio and video of the Big J Read events posted here within the next week or so.

• We're giving away five (5) Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) of Robert McCammon's Mister Slaughter! Visit Matthew Corbett's World for details!

• The Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) of Robert McCammon's Mister Slaughter have arrived. The ARCs are sent out to reviewers and booksellers ahead of publication. Thanks to Bill Schafer at Subterranean Press, we'll be giving away copies of the Mister Slaughter ARCs in the coming weeks. Keep an eye on Matthew Corbett's World for details!

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

• New fan artwork based on Robert McCammon's novels has been added to the Fan Artwork page.

  "Drowned Skull" by Olivier Frot The Night Boat

  "Drink with Me" by Candra They Thirst

  "Change" by Jordan Blake The Wolf's Hour

• A technical issue with the Guestbook has been corrected. Apologies to anyone who couldn't post over the past few weeks....

• Robert McCammon's zombie short story, "Eat Me," will be reprinted in the upcoming Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead, an anthology edited by John Skipp. The book will be published as a trade paperback in October (according to Skipp) by Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers.

  Robert McCammon won the 1989 Bram Stoker Award for Best Short Story for "Eat Me." The story can be read for free here.

• Thanks to Larry O. Gay, more photos from Alabama Bound 2009 are now available.

• Robert McCammon's The Queen of Bedlam is now available as an iPhone application. The app uses Iceberg Reader to display the book. It's priced at $15.99. For more information, see this blog post. It can easily be found via an iPhone by simply searching the App Store for "McCammon."

• Robert McCammon's Facebook page is easier to find now, using the following URI:

  http://www.facebook.com/author.robert.mccammon

• Subterranean Press continues to work on getting Mister Slaughter ready for publication. Things are proceeding according to plan....

• Finnish jazz musician Timo "The Doc" Heikkinen has composed a song using the opening poem from Boy's Life as its lyrics. A video of a recent performance of the song can be found on YouTube.

  Song by Timo "The Doc" Heikkinen, lyrics from a poem by Robert R. McCammon. The "Professional Help" from Jouko Isokangas (kontra), Aleksi Ikonen (drums), Anna Itkonen (vocals), AP Sipil� (guitar), and Olli Tuomainen (soprano saxophone).

• As noted below in the May 19 update, Jesuit High School in New Orleans is sponsoring a community read this summer, and the book they've selected is Robert McCammon's Boy's Life.

  The Jesuit High School website now has a Boy's Life Resource Page, with links to news articles about some of the real-life events depicted in Boy's Life and other related articles.

  Also, the Resource Page has these details regarding Robert McCammon's planned visit to the school:

  Let's Talk About Boy's Life

  The Jesuit High School community is invited to a program with the author on August 17, 2009, 7:00 p.m. in the Jesuit auditorium.

  A student program with the author during the school day on August 18, 2009, has been scheduled. Details about this event will follow at a later date.

• A fantastic new review of Boy's Life has been posted on the blog Trish's Books.

• The author of the blog Adventures in Fiction—A Writer's Journey has posted an article, Opening Salvos 3: The Queen of Bedlam, about the opening paragraphs of The Queen of Bedlam.

• Lou Sytsma recently posted this review of The Queen of Bedlam.

• Robert McCammon was awarded the 2009 Phoenix Award by DeepSouthCon, held this year in conjunction with Nashville's Hypericon 5 on Saturday, June 6, 2009. The Phoenix Award is a lifetime achievement award presented to a science fiction or fantasy professional with connections to the South.

  Unfortunately, Mr. McCammon could not attend the awards ceremony. The award was accepted on his behalf by Hunter Goatley.

• Subterranean Press has posted the following Mister Slaughter update on their site:

  Robert McCammon's latest historical thriller, Mister Slaughter, is proceeding very smoothly toward publication. Vincent Chong has turned in not only what may be the best cover of McCammon's career, he's also contributed six interior illustrations to the novel—a pair of which are posted to the book's page.

  Robert McCammon is currently giving Mister Slaughter his final proofing pass, and also has the two-color signature sheets for the limited edition on hand. Meanwhile, back at the [SubPress] ranch, we have a long new interview with McCammon about the Matthew Corbett novels, conducted by long-time McCammon enthusiast Hunter Goatley, and will be pairing it up with an exclusive excerpt from the novel, in a freebie chapbook that we'll begin including with orders in a month or so.

  Preorder Mister Slaughter from Subterranean Press

• Jesuit High School in New Orleans, LA, is leading a summer reading program called The Big J Read. Jesuit students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni will all be reading Robert McCammon's Boy's Life this summer. An estimated 1,300 readers will participate in the community read. The project is designed to encourage reading, and students will not be objectively tested over the story. Robert McCammon will be giving a presentation at Jesuit High School on August 18, 2009.

  The links below lead to the Jesuit High School website:

  • The principal's letter to parents

  • Robert McCammon's letter to Jesuit High School

  • Boy's Life Introductory Presentation (audio/video)

Jesuit High School sophomore students with their copies of Boy's Life, May 8, 2009

• Boy's Life is also a selected book for grades 9–12 in the Oregon Battle of the Books.

• Subterranean Press has posted the following Mister Slaughter update on their site:

  As you can tell from Vincent Chong's dust jacket, Robert McCammon's singular creation Mister Slaughter is a nasty fellow indeed, surrounded as he is with the implements of his chosen trade.

  The novel progresses well, as we've just sent the author page proofs to review, and will be printing ARCs for the book as soon as we have his corrections. In addition, Hunter Goatley has just conducted an interview with Rick, which will be included, along with an excerpt from the book, in an exclusive chapbook we'll be including with orders for various SubPress titles through the summer and fall.

  Preorder Mister Slaughter from Subterranean Press

• Subterranean Press, Robert McCammon, and I have launched a new website devoted to the Matthew Corbett novels. Matthew Corbett's World contains information about the Matthew Corbett books, including excerpts from Speaks the Nightbird and The Queen of Bedlam. It's a work-in-progress, as there are still some additions planned for the site.

• I've created a new banner image to promote the release of Mister Slaughter. If you'd like to help spread the word, please feel free to link to our banners! The relevant HTML code is below each image. (Thanks to Steven West for the top banner!)
  

  <a href="http://www.matthewcorbettsworld.com/"><IMG
  SRC="http://www.matthewcorbettsworld.com/images/slaughter-banner.gif"
  WIDTH="468" height="60" title="Robert McCammon's MISTER SLAUGHTER"></A>
  

  

  <a href="http://www.matthewcorbettsworld.com/"><IMG
  SRC="http://www.matthewcorbettsworld.com/images/slaughter-banner.jpg"
  WIDTH="468" height="60" title="Robert McCammon's MISTER SLAUGHTER"></A>
  

• As noted a couple of months ago, Pocket Books will be releasing Robert McCammon's epic 1987 post-apocalyptic novel Swan Song in a trade paperback edition in November 2009.

  The book will also be released as an eBook in November 2009. The page doesn't list the formats yet, but will presumably be released in Adobe, Microsoft, and Palm formats. Those are the formats in which The Queen of Bedlam was released. No word yet on whether or not it'll be released in Kindle format.

  Simon & Schuster product page for Swan Song eBook

• The 1987 Dark Harvest anthology Night Visions IV contained stories written by Dean Koontz, Edward Bryant, and Robert McCammon. Aside from a paperback edition of the anthology, titled Night Visions: Hardshell, the McCammon stories in the book have never been reprinted.

  The first story, "The Deep End," which won the 1987 Bram Stoker award for Short Story, has been available on this site for a few years.

  The second story, "A Life in the Day of," was added a few weeks ago.

  The final Night Visions IV story is a novella entitled "Best Friends." The novella was nominated for the 1988 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella. It's not for the squeamish, as it's probably the most visceral short story McCammon has written.

• Just when I thought I had all the Russian editions in the Book Cover Gallery, another cover from 1994 has popped up, this time for a Russian translation of Gone South.

• Subterranean Press has just posted the following:

  We've just posted preorder information for Mister Slaughter, Robert McCammon's third entry in his Matthew Corbett series of historical thrillers. We've kept the numbered and lettered limitations low for such an important book, and expect both to sell out fairly quickly. (We've also promised copies to our regular dealers, making a quick sell through even more likely.)

  Head over to the book's page, check out the details, and get your order in if you're of a mind.

  Trade: Fully cloth-bound hardcover edition: $24.95
  Limited: 274 signed numbered copies, in slipcase: $125
  Lettered: 26 deluxe bound copies housed in a custom traycase: $500
  

  More information about Mister Slaughter can be be found on the Subterranean Press site and here.

• As we announced a few days ago, Subterranean Press will be publishing Robert McCammon's new novel, Mister Slaughter. They've fast-tracked the book for a planned Fall 2009 release; the manuscript is being copy-edited now. Both signed limited and trade hardcover editions are planned. We'll have more details about pricing soon.

  Subterranean has also announced that they will be releasing signed limited editions of two of McCammon's older classics, Stinger and The Wolf's Hour. More details on these books will come in the future, as they're concentrating on Mister Slaughter right now.

• Robert McCammon will be a guest at the Surrey International Writers' Conference in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, from October 23–25, 2009. While the conference is geared toward writers, there is a signing event that's open to the public. No details of when that event will be held have been announced yet.

• For those of you who like to get website updates via RSS, a new RobertMcCammon.com RSS Feed is now available. RSS readers are built in many email and browser applications. There are also RSS reader apps available for the iPhone, allowing you to keep up-to-date wherever you are. You can subscribe by clicking on the RSS icon at the top of each page, or by entering this URL in your RSS reader: https://www.robertmccammon.com/feed

• Robert McCammon was a keynote speaker at Alabama Bound on March 28, 2009. He read a chapter from Mister Slaughter, his upcoming third novel in the Matthew Corbett series. We're pleased to present video and audio of the reading for your viewing and listening pleasure!
  • Video and audio of McCammon's reading from Mister Slaughter.

  • Photos from Alabama Bound 2009 (including a new photo of McCammon posted by the Birmingham Public Library)

  Thanks to Stuart Hale and Craig Popplewell for recording the event.

  At the end of the presentation, Mr. McCammon revealed that the title of the next Matthew Corbett book is The Providence Rider. Work on that novel will not begin until he finishes the contemporary novel (the "rock band" novel) he's currently writing.

  We hope to have some news about Mister Slaughter soon!

• Vintage cardboard stand-up advertising displays for Boy's Life and Gone South have been added to the Book Cover Gallery.

• Last year, YouTube user Viorica8597 posted a video she made telling the story of Isaac Woodward, the magistrate from Speaks the Nightbird, using clips from the movie To Kill a King (click here to view the video). The same user recently posted another video, this time telling the story of Matthew and Rachel, using clips from The Scarlet Letter. You can watch her new video by clicking here.

• The Birmingham Public Library recently posted a video interview with Robert McCammon to promote this Saturday's Alabama Bound event. (I have corrected the audio/visual synchronization problem in the original BPonline post.)

  Robert McCammon will be reading from the upcoming third novel in the Matthew Corbett series, Mister Slaughter, at Alabama Bound. If all goes as planned, video of the event will be posted here soon.

• Turns out there's going to be one last Pocket Books reprint: a trade paperback edition of Swan Song will be released in November 2009. The preliminary cover art is shown to the right and has been added to the Book Cover Gallery.

• The 1987 Dark Harvest anthology Night Visions IV contained stories written by Dean Koontz, Edward Bryant, and Robert McCammon. Aside from a paperback edition of the anthology, titled Night Visions: Hardshell, the McCammon stories in the book have never been reprinted.

  The first story, "The Deep End," which won the 1987 Bram Stoker award for Short Story, has been available on this site for a few years.

  The second story, "A Life in the Day of," has been added to the Short Stories page. You can read it by clicking here.

  The final Night Visions IV story, "Best Friends," will be published here soon.

• French publisher Bragellone, via their Milady imprint, has released a new paperback edition of La Mal�diction de Bethany, a translation of Bethany's Sin. The cover artwork has been added to the Book Cover Gallery. Also added is the preliminary artwork for the book.

• Robert McCammon will be a keynote speaker and will sign books at Alabama Bound on Saturday, March 28, 2009. The event will be held at the Birmingham Public Library in Birmingham, AL. The Alabama Bound website lists the participants (including our friend Charles Ghigna), but the actual schedule has not yet been posted.

• Website All Poetry held a contest in October 2007 for fiction-inspired poems. The winning poem was inspired by Robert McCammon's post-apolyptic novel Swan Song. It is entitled "Nuclear Comedy" and was written by Anthony C. Ekman. Click on the title to read the poem on AllPoetry.com.

• Robert McCammon has just signed on with the Donald Maass Agency! It's too soon for any news on Mister Slaughter, but the Maass Agency has already started working to find a publisher for the novel. We'll have another update from Robert McCammon within the next month or so....

• Italian publisher Gargoyle Books will be publishing La maledizione degli Usher, an Italian translation of Usher's Passing, in March 2009. The cover art is shown to the right. Click on the image to view a larger version (it has also been added to the Book Cover Gallery, of course). Thanks to Paolo for the cover image!

• Robert McCammon and Joe Lansdale were recently interviewed by Jason Ridler for his article "Founding Fathers: A Look at the Original HWA" for the website The Internet Review of Science Fiction. Click here to read the article.

• The cover to a French trade paperback edition of Stinger from 1989 has been added to the Book Cover Gallery.