News & Blog

It’s the most wonderful time of the year again — Halloween! My favorite holiday, for obvious reasons, what with me being such a horror hound and all.

Tonight, as we’ve done for a few years now, Alexa and I are going over to our friends’ house in Kensington to help hand out candy to the neighborhood trick-or-treaters. It’s always fun. The kids get really into it, and that means I do, too.

I hope to be able to kick back with a horror movie before then, but I may not have time. If I do, I think I’m going to go with something fun like House or Return of the Living Dead or The Masque of the Red Death. (Not Dario Argento’s Inferno, pictured above, which is the source of a great image for Halloween but not really a great film.)

Whatever you and your loved ones have planned, I hope you have a fun, spooky, and safe Halloween!

Folks, if you read and liked Die and Stay Dead (or Dying Is My Business, for that matter), please consider reviewing it on Amazon, Goodreads, or your blog. We really need to get the word out there if you want this series to continue. Even just spreading the word among your friends helps!

Thanks for your support! We now return you to your regularly scheduled kvetching about Doctor Who…

Mark your calendars now, folks! I will be reading at the New York Review of Science Fiction series on Tuesday, November 4th with the estimable John Langan! Guest curated by Amy Goldschlager of Locus, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus Reviews! Here’s the info:

THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION READING SERIES
The SoHo Gallery for Digital Art
138 Sullivan Street (between West Houston and Prince)
7 PM (doors open at 6:30)

Get there early for a good seat! Admission is free, but there is a $7 suggested donation. I will have personal copies of Die and Stay Dead with me to sell and sign, but it would be even more beneficial if you bought a copy from your favorite bookseller instead and brought it with you for me to sign. That way, the publisher will see the book selling, which is super important.

This is likely to be my last reading of 2014, so if you missed the others you’re not going to want to miss this one! Also, my mom will be there!

Last weekend, Alexa and I went to an Edgar Allan Poe exhibit, “Evermore: The Persistence of Poe,” at the beautiful Grolier Club on the Upper East Side. It was a delicious, early Halloween treat for a Poephile like me! The exhibit was filled with all sorts of Poe ephemera and memorabilia, including rare manuscripts, first editions, and personal items. There were even a few keepsakes that, in my opinion, crossed the line into creepy obsession, such as this actual preserved lock of Poe’s hair!

Here’s a first edition of Poe’s only novel-length work of fiction, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym:

Here’s a poster to a movie I wish existed. If it did, it would undoubtedly be my favorite movie ever!

I was especially pleased to see this Richard Corben comic-book adaptation of “The Fall of the House of Usher” as part of the exhibit. It reminded me not only that I had a copy of it as a youth back in 1984, but that Corben’s amazing artwork really got under my skin and stayed with me. (I’m only sorry the cover is partially obscured here by glare.)

I have a tonne more photos from the exhibit over at Flickr. The exhibit is running at the Grolier Club through November 22nd, free of charge. If you love Poe even half as much as I do, you owe it to yourself to check it out. It’s amazing.