Frankly put, Joe R. Lansdale is an American literary treasure, and his characters Hap and Leonard are a substantial portion of the reason why this is so. So a collection of Hap and Leonard stories? Yes, sir, more please, sir. Here’s Lansdale talking about his collection Born for … | Continue reading
And look! It’s a library! (Actually I suspect it’s not a library anymore because there’s a newer library off camera to the left. But it was a library, once, and that counts.) Tonight I’m at Prairie Lights bookstore, one of my favorites, and the festivities begin at 7pm. Tomorrow … | Continue reading
How is Kaiju a bestseller? Let’s add it up! New York Times: #10 (Combined Print & eBook) USA Today: #19 (This list covers all books sold in the US) Audible: #6 (Audiobook Fiction) Los Angeles Times: #4 (Hardcover Fiction) Indie Booksellers: #10 (Hardcover Fiction) Amazon: #15 (Fi … | Continue reading
Aw, hell yeah, pure parking lot goodness. Of all the hotel window shots this trip, this one is definitely the most parking lot-licious. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Tonight: Parma/Cleveland! At the Parma-Snow branch of the Cuyahoga Public Library! 7pm! Tomorrow: Boulder! … | Continue reading
Location is everything — or, if not everything, then still quite a lot, especially when considering the work of foundational fantasist H.P. Lovecraft. For Tour de Lovecraft: The Destinations, master games writer Kenneth Hite gets out the map and takes us traveling, from Arkham to … | Continue reading
Recorded at the final JoCo 2022 concert. For those of you who don’t know, I commissioned this song from Jonathan when Redshirts came out a decade ago. It’s a lovely song, made even lovelier by the fact that Aimee freakin‘ Mann is singing background on it here. My life is delightf … | Continue reading
There are tropes in literature that we all know, and, well, maybe not always love. For Static Over Space, author C.G. Volars thought about the tropes and what might happen if you flip them… and them flip them again, in an entirely different direction. C.G. VOLARS: Here’s a bit of … | Continue reading
A year ago today, we brought home this complete doofus. Life has definitely not been boring since then. Happy gotcha day, Charlie. May we have many more with you. — JS | Continue reading
Oh, hello. First, I am home for two! Whole! Days! in the middle of the tour, which is not to say that I am not currently touring; I have an online event in a couple of hours from this writing, in fact, with the Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona. If you’re seeing this … | Continue reading
The sun is out today! Well, at least some of the time. I will take that. Also, Brookline, hello! I am in you and looking forward to the event tonight at 7pm at Brookline Booksmith. Tomorrow: United Theater in Westerly, Rhode Island! First, me, at 7pm, and then Pacific Rim, at 9pm … | Continue reading
Here’s a fun little thing I did over at Tor.com today, assisted by their able graphic artists: The Kaiju Preservation Society Workplace Guidelines: The Too-Short Version. It’s what you need to know to survive a world that has massive creatures who could step on you like you step … | Continue reading
St. Patrick’s Day is rainy here in Richmond, but we’re still going to have a good time at tonight’s event, which is at 6pm at Sam Miller’s Restaurant, presented by Fountain Bookstore. Remember that proof of vaccination will be required, so be ready to show that off (I have mine o … | Continue reading
Sometimes an idea or concept gets played with so much in fantasy and science fiction that it seems impossible to try to reclaim it from the trope pile. What to do? If you’re J.L. Worrad, you try to breathe new life into it anyway… and in doing so discover something essential abou … | Continue reading
I neglected to post this yesterday, on account that during the time that I usually post a picture like this, I took a nap. But better late than never! My window this time looks in on an interior courtyard. And has this cool light fixture in it, so, I thought you would still like … | Continue reading
After a very early morning, I have landed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for the first event of the book tour, at Flyleaf Books. Things are going a little bit differently this time, with the signing starting at 5:00 p.m., followed by the actual event at 6:00 p.m. so if you are c … | Continue reading
Finally! My newest book, The Kaiju Preservation Society, is out and in the world (or at least, in the US and Canada, the UK edition comes out on Thursday). It’s available in Hardcover and eBook, and also in Audio, read by Wil Wheaton. You can get it at your local bookseller, or o … | Continue reading
We were supposed to be back home on Saturday and I was meant to have a full day to act like a sloth before I started tour activities. Ha! Ha! Ha! Our flights were delayed and we ended up flying into Indianapolis yesterday and having friends driving us to the Dayton airport to pic … | Continue reading
With a book title like Live Nude Aliens, it’s obvious that J.D. DeLuzio is going to be writing from perspectives other than his own. But in this Big Idea, DeLuzio shares how when it comes to writing the other, he gets by with a little help from his friends. J.D. DeLUZIO: Imagine … | Continue reading
Fasten your seatbelts, folks: Max Gladstone is about to take you on a trip. It goes to his past, and through it, and winds up at the heart of his latest novel, Last Exit. MAX GLADSTONE: In the summ… | Continue reading
What is the purpose and meaning of art? Ask a thousand artists, you’ll get a thousand answers — and in this Big Idea for The Circus Infinite, author Khan Wong offers his take… and… | Continue reading
I’ve had a few people note I have book sales in Russia, and were curious what my thoughts were about that given the Russian invasion of Ukraine. So, with respect to my Russian sales: 1. IR… | Continue reading
You may know of the short, stocky horses of Iceland. But Sarah Tolmie discovered something interesting about the horses of Iceland, and decided that therein would lie a tale, entitled, of course, A… | Continue reading
I’m off to the JoCo Cruise for the next week, and while I have populated in the Big Idea pieces between now and when I return, you probably shouldn’t expect too much else here from me b… | Continue reading
If you think “fake news” is a new innovation, well, Katharine Cowley has news for you: It’s rather older than you think. She offers an example from the pages of history, and expla… | Continue reading
I signed a shitload of books. Here are some but not all of them. If you ordered a signed copy of Kaiju from Subterranean Press, it has now been signed and will be on its way to you presently (timed… | Continue reading
When you sense something is lacking in a genre you love, how much effort does it take you as a writer to address it? For G.R. Macallister, quite a lot — and in writing her novel Scorpica, she… | Continue reading
Context: Brandon Sanderson, who has been a #1 New York Times bestseller as co-writer of the Wheel of Time series and his own Stormlight Archives novels, announced a Kickstarter in which he offered … | Continue reading
The Post-Cold War Era now officially has birth and death dates: It was born on November 9, 1989, which is the day when the Berlin Wall fell, and it died on February 24, 2022, which is when Russia i… | Continue reading
Editor Sean Patrick Hazlett has an anthology about war coming out at, shall we say, an evocative time — and as he explains in this Big Idea, the stories in the Weird World War IV anthology ar… | Continue reading
The Kaiju Preservation Society, with cat for scale And it looks fabulous, as of course it would. It’s a really real book now! That exists in the world! And, no, that never gets old. By tradit… | Continue reading
In this Big Idea post, JD Blackrose notes how a phenomenon in real life had an impact on the story she was trying to tell in her new novel (and series debut), Demon Kissed. JD BLACKROSE: I didn’t e… | Continue reading
Sometimes, to get a Big Idea, all you need is an instigating inspiration, a neat idea… and maybe a Google doc or two. Rob Hart shows us how it all comes together in this piece on his new nove… | Continue reading
The technical reasons being my laptop not being able to find Delta’s wifi when I have a Big Idea to post. As a consequence a Big Idea post will be going up in the afternoon (I usually do them… | Continue reading
Every society has systems it runs on. For Inheritors of Power, author Juliette Wade had to create systems that not only explain the culture, but show how every system binds those in it… for b… | Continue reading
Faithful readers of Whatever will remember that in December, Athena totaled her car on Interstate 70 after running over debris from an accident involving two other cars. This was unfortunate, but s… | Continue reading
When does a novel need a Big Idea? Sometimes an author starts with one, but then other times, as Michael Mammay tells you regarding his new novel The Misfit Soldier, it arrives on its own schedule.… | Continue reading
Last year Krissy decided that she wanted to upgrade our bathroom suite, and not in just a “new hand towels and shower curtain” way — a whole revamp. I was fine with this, I said, … | Continue reading
What is justice? And who is it for? And how is it meted out? These questions and others like it are at the heart of The Justice of Kings, and author Richard Swan is here to explain why sometimes, t… | Continue reading
I’m genuinely confused as to what’s actually happening here, and I crave your insight. Help me in this moment of crisis. — JS | Continue reading
Don’t worry, the instant she’s on the other side, she’ll wonder why she’s on that side, too. She’s a very cat-like cat this way: The best side of the door is the side … | Continue reading
I don’t know if you knew this, but in certain quarters of the Internet, it is currently the fashion to suggest that men are being squeezed out of mainstream science fiction and fantasy, as it… | Continue reading
You like the sort of person who would enjoy a big ol’ stack of new books and ARCs, so: Here’s a stack for you! What here looks like just the thing to make you set aside your weekend pla… | Continue reading
It’s related to their upcoming horror film Studio 666, as I understand it. The movie looks terrible, but hopefully the fun, cheesy kind of terrible that will be enjoyable to watch. We’l… | Continue reading
Look, Spice! A book! As they say, three things make a post, and here are the three things! 1. The Kaiju Preservation Society comes out in exactly a month. And also exactly four weeks, because this … | Continue reading
Last night my cousin Sarah let me know that my uncle Gale, my father’s brother, had passed away. This hit me pretty hard. Growing up, Gale was the closest of my non-immediate family, literall… | Continue reading
I was the subject of some discussion last week in the comments of the site File 770, specifically on the matter of whether my occasional snarking on Twitter at the sad, attention-seeking dudes who … | Continue reading
Yes, there’s a tour, yes, it’s going to be in person (knocks on all the wood), and yes, I’m excited. This tour is going to be a little shorter than some of my most recent in-perso… | Continue reading
Gods are complex characters in the best of times… and in Rise of the Mages, author Scott Drakeford wanted to see what gods might be like in not necessarily the best of times. Read along as he… | Continue reading