Punktalk

SFeXy!

Sexy SFX magazine out of the UK has released the last two installments of their Pulp Idol 2008 fiction contest feature, with advice for beginning writers from the likes of Joe Abercrombie, James Wyatt, and myself. In issue #170, I contributed some words of wisdom on page 60. And in the recently released #171, I’m to be heard several times on page 68, with a little photo in the sidebar to boot. As before, many thanks to editor Dave Bradley for being so kind and generous. Classy guy, and a real classy magazine; catch the cover features on the new HELLBOY (#170) and X FILES (#171) movies…niiiice.

*****

The hardcovers for VOICES FROM HADES are in my hands now, and they are really, truly gorgeous things to behold (with clear plastic library-style book covers to protect them from the salivation of envious friends). The 100 copy standard hardcover has full color illustrations by Travis Anthony Soumis (oh, they are gorgeous in black and white in the paperback edition, of course, but color gives them twice the impact) and a red bound-in book ribbon. The 26 copy lettered edition comes slipcased, has a sinfully soft and rich leather cover with red foil stamping, a black bound-in book ribbon, and beautiful red end papers with a ribbed texture (not to mention a translucent sheet over the signature page). A work of art, as were the lettered editions of DOOMSDAYS and my brother Scott’s OVER THE DARKENING FIELDS which I received a short time ago, too. Anyway, I hope you were lucky enough to nab one of these two editions of VOICES. Meanwhile, I’m pleased to report that Dark Regions, the publisher in question — headed by the super-cool and exceedingly generous Joe Morey — has hired me to write another book in my LETTERS FROM HADES series. This one’s a novella that, like BEAUTIFUL HELL (one half of the book UGLY HEAVEN, BEAUTIFUL HELL, with Carlton Mellick III), is a sort of sequel to LETTERS, but a sequel with an unusual approach. You’ll see. It’s to be called THE FALL OF HADES and DR hopes to release it this year if I can keep up the momentum writing it. More on that in the future, fellow sinners.

Page 123

Fabio Fernandes at POST-WEIRD THOUGHTS (http://verbeat.org/blogs/pwt/) has tagged me, the fiend! This is what it’s in regard to:

“I just noticed I have been tagged by Mark Newton in his blog regarding…the current meme/trend in the blogosphere:

Pick up the nearest book, turn to page 123 and write down the fifth sentence.”

Okay, Fabio, I’m game. I’m reading Walter Jon Williams’ absolutely fascinating METROPOLITAN, which in 1995 was thoroughly New Weird before they were using (or deriding) the term New Weird. What I love most about it is his skill with description; he really brings this world to life, with its retro-future style, technology as oddly primitive as might have been imagined in the 1940s, and everything fueled by the mysterious substance called plasm. Anyway, on page 123, the fifth (full) sentence reads:

“The visual details fade as she climbs, but the awareness, the knowledge, of what’s below never seems to leave her mind: steel and stone, brick and concrete, the ponderous matter that encloses and shelters and sustains all the world’s fragile life, that generates plasm and powers her ascent.”

Whoa.

I’m enjoying this book so much that I’ve already got the sequel, CITY ON FIRE, in the wings. Now who to tag, myself? Maybe I’ll try Walter Jon Williams! Yes! Bwa ha ha ha!

http://www.walterjonwilliams.net/index.php

Post-Weird Thoughts mega-review

Over at the review/interview site Post-Weird Thoughts, out of Brazil, Fabio Fernanades has done an in-depth “mega-review” of my Jeremy Stake stories, which consist of the short story “In His Sights” from THE SOLARIS BOOK OF NEW SCIENCE FICTION, volume 1, and of course my novels DEADSTOCK and BLUE WAR. Thanks for this article, Fabio, and for the congrats for the Campbell Award nomination. Here’s where to go:

http://verbeat.org/blogs/pwt/2008/06/megareview-jeffrey-thomass-jer.html

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(And don’t forget PWT did an interview with me at their site, recently, too: http://verbeat.org/blogs/pwt/2008/06/interview-jeffrey-thomas.html)

***

Note: Knowing my fascination with Vietnam and how my travels there influenced BLUE WAR, Fabio says, “We are presented to at least two alien races of our dimension: the Choom, who look pretty much like us except for their wide, frog-like mouths (and whose name Thomas probably been borrowed from an old nation in medieval Vietnam, the Chom).” This is interesting, but I came up with the Choom in 1980, quite a long time before my interest in VN and my first trip there in 2004. I’m not familiar with this Chom Fabio speaks of, though the web page for the My Lai Peace Park says, “The Hre, also called Cham re, Chom, Kre and Moi Luy, have 120,251 inhabitants, mainly living to the west of Quang Ngai and Binh dinh provinces. “ As far as the Choom go, I can’t recall why Choom, though because of their wall-to-wall mouths it might have been because it sounds like “Chew ‘em,” which I know I’ve had someone say as a joke in some Punktown story or another. But as I say, very interesting, Fabio, very interesting…
 

“Deadstock” finalist for John W. Campbell Award

I’m extremely excited to relate that my novel DEADSTOCK is a finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. The Center for the Study of Science Fiction says, “The John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best science-fiction novel of the year is one of the three major annual awards for science fiction…The Campbell Award is the only award of the three (the other two major SF awards being the Hugo and Nebula - JT) selected by a committee small enough to discuss among its members all of the nominated novels. The current jury consists of Gregory Benford, Paul A. Carter, James Gunn, Elizabeth Anne Hull, Christopher McKitterick, Farah Mendlesohn, Pamela Sargent, and T.A. Shippey. Starting in 2008, Paul Kincaid replaces Farah Mendlesohn… Nominations come from the science-fiction publishers as well as individual jurors.”

The full list of finalists for 2008, in alphabetical order, consists of:

HARM by Brian Aldiss (Del Rey)
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)
In War Times by Kathleen Ann Goonan (Tor)
The New Moon’s Arms by Nalo Hopkinson (Grand Central)
Mainspring by Jay Lake (Tor)
The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod (Tor)
Brasyl by Ian McDonald (Pyr)
Time’s Child by Rebecca Ore (Eos)
Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff (HarperCollins)
Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer (Tor)
Zig Zag by Jose Carlos Somoza (Rayo)
The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper (Eos)
Deadstock by Jeffrey Thomas (Solaris)
Axis by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)

This is, as I say, most exciting. Of course I don’t expect DEADSTOCK to win, but just to be a finalist in such company — wow. And congratulations are in order for Solaris, an imprint barely over a year old standing tall amongst some very impressive, long established publishers.

The winning novel will be selected by jury and announced at the Campbell Conference on July 11th.

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Nick Curtis, my partner in crime at Necropolitan Press, has designed a really stunning page to promote our forthcoming release of Paul G. Tremblay’s novella THE HARLEQUIN & THE TRAIN. The site is called “You Are Not Rudy,” Rudy being the main character. Or are you Rudy? The site might have been called, “Pray you aren’t Rudy.” Anyway, Check out Nick’s beautiful work…
and while you’re at it, pre-order Paul’s brilliant book:

http://www.youarenotrudy.com/

Springsteen meets Punktown

First off, thanks for the comments for my last post from people who reassured me that there are in fact those who read my ramblings. So here’s some more…

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The new review site out of Brazil, Post-Weird Thoughts — the squid brain-child of Fabio Fernandes and Jacques Barcia — features an interview with me. Thanks, guys. I look forward to the site’s forthcoming “mega-review” of DEADSTOCK, BLUE WAR and the related short story “In His Sights.”

http://verbeat.org/blogs/pwt/2008/06/interview-jeffrey-thomas.html

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Prefer to hear rather than read your Jeffrey Thomas interviews? Gail Z. Martin, author of THE SUMMONER and THE BLOOD KING, has conducted a second podcast conversation with me as part of her “Ghost in the Machine” series. She interviews me, and I turn the tables and interview her, and it’s all good. Here are the means by which you may access it:

Web player:

<!– AudioAcrobat.com Player code BEGIN –>
<div class=”aaplayer”><iframe src=”http://www.audioacrobat.com/playweb?audioid=P1ed247b4f53e009d71b5f6ef11a1e8d4Yl5%2BR1REY2Nw&amp;buffer=5&amp;shape=3&amp;fc=FFCC00&amp;pc=AAAAFF&amp;kc=888800&amp;bc=FFFFFF&amp;brand=1&amp;player=ap03” height=”20″ width=”164″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”></iframe></div>
<!– AudioAcrobat.com Player code END –>

Email link:

http://www.audioacrobat.com/play/WXnzLmn4

Download link:

http://gzmartin.audioacrobat.com/download/GhostInTheMachineMartinThomas2.mp3 <P></P>

Thanks again, Gail!

***

I’m proud to pass along the following announcement from writer/editor Harrison Howe, taken from the message board at Shocklines.com:

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE: Tales inspired by the songs of Bruce Springsteen

Hello all,

You may have heard mention, on this message board and other places, about the above-mentioned anthology. I’m pleased to announce that the final manuscript has been delivered to PS Publishing. The TOC is as appears below. As soon as there’s a link to pre-order the book, I’ll post it here. It’s slated to see publication in Spring 2009. It was a long and tough journey and I thank everyone involved for helping making this exactly as I envisioned it.

Darkness on the Edge:

Tales Inspired by the Songs of Bruce Springsteen

Edited by

Harrison Howe

CONTENTS

Nothing Forgiven………………………………………………..Lee Thomas

(Inspired by “Something In the Night”)

Fire……………………………………………………………….Elizabeth Massie

(Inspired by “I’m On Fire”)

Atonement……………………………………………………….Gary A. Braunbeck

(Inspired by “My Father’s House”)

Kneeling In the Darkness………………………………………Lorne Dixon

(Inspired by “Point Blank”)

The Hungry Heart………………………………………………Michael A. Arnzen

(Inspired by “Hungry Heart”)

Die Angle…………………………………………………………Lawrence C. Connolly

(Inspired by “Murder, Inc.”)

From the Dark Heart of a Dream………………………………Tom Piccirilli

(Inspired by “Adam Raised a Cain”)

Independence Day…..…………………………………………….Sarah Langan

(Inspired by “The Rising” and “Independence Day”)

Ain’t No Angel Gonna Greet Me……………………………..…Guy Adams

(Inspired by “Maria’s Bed”)

With These Hands……………………………………………..…Kurt Dinan

(Inspired by “Factory” and “Two Faces”)

Wings for Wheels………………………………………………….John Palisano

(Inspired by “Thunder Road”)

Across the Border………………………………………………….Peter Abrahams

(Inspired by “Across the Border”)

The Room………………………………………………………….Jeffrey Thomas

(Inspired by “Candy’s Room”)

Fog Boy………………………………………………………………T.M. Wright

(Inspired by “My Father’s House”)

Darkness on the Edge of Town…………………………………….James A. Moore

(Inspired by “Darkness on the Edge of Town”)

Lightning Can’t Catch Me…………………………………………Gerard Houarner

(Inspired by “State Trooper”)

In Winter…………………………………………………………….Nancy Kilpatrick

(Inspired by “Streets of Philadelphia”)

Armageddon, Now Available in High Definition…………………Nate Southard

(Inspired by “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)”)

Devil’s Arcade……………………………………………………….Mark Newton

(Inspired by “Devil’s Arcade”)

I’m so very, very psyched to be a part of this, rabid Bruce fan that I am. My story “The Room” is a Punktown tale, which is fitting because Bruce’s first three albums have a funky, gritty urban vibe, and — along with gritty urban movies by Martin Scorsese like MEAN STREETS and TAXI DRIVER — helped plant the seeds for Punktown’s emergence. “The Room” takes its inspiration from the song “Candy’s Room” but also gives a nod to Springsteen’s little street characters with big dreams like the Magic Rat and Spanish Johnny and the narrator of the beautiful “Meeting Across the River.” It was tough choosing just one song for this anthology, but I decided I wanted one from “Darkness on the Edge of Town” owing to the book’s title. The coolest part of all this? Bruce gave the project his official sanction. Man oh man! Anyway, you can follow the entire thread at the Shocklines.com message board here:

http://shocklinesforum.yuku.com/topic/4714/t/Darkness—Edge-Tales-Inspired—Songs–Bruce-Springsteen.html

Thanks, Harrison! Can’t wait to read all the other stories, too; this is bound to be one fascinating collection of tales!

What the F***?

1. Echoes in the cybervoid.

I have the sinking feeling lately that no one at all reads this blog, but I have a habit of talking to myself when alone, so I’ll push on, if only to kill time here at work as I wait for the graveyard shift to end…

2. I Am Legend

Once I groaned to hear that Will Smith was to star in this; well, he was the best thing about it. No cocky posturing or wisecracks, just solid acting, and the portrayal of New York run wild was beautifully imagined. I even got teary eyed when a certain nonhuman character (no, not one of the mutants) died. But as others have been saying, it was the mutants that pulled the movie down. Off screen, the concept that they were out there was scary, but when you see them — well, as I said in my recent review of THE HOST, it’s easier to make a nonhuman creature like that movie’s critter or the dinosaurs in JURASSIC PARK seem real than it is to portray a human figure, to give it weight and a solid, convincing presence. It’s even hard to trick the human eye when it comes to natural animals; see JUMANJI and others, for example. People have criticized the deer in I AM LEGEND but I thought they were done better than the mutants, at least. These vampiric creatures seemed to mark the final evolution of the super fast zombie as seen in 28 DAYS LATER and the remake of DAWN OF THE DEAD (actually, the first fast zombies I recall were at the end of REANIMATOR). I did like how the I AM LEGEND creatures are so wired that instead of sleeping, they stand up in a room with their heads bowed, breathing so fast it’s like they’re panting.  (Maybe they’re coffee rather than blood drinking vampires.) But their faces are eerily unhuman, and not in a good eerily unhuman way. Well, it was still a very fun movie for me because it was I AM LEGEND, after all, one of my very favorite novels of all time, but the Vincent Price version remains truest to the novel and still my favorite of the three adaptations.

3. OWW (Our Wonderful World) Newsflash

Dateline Framingham, Masachusetts. A 13 year old student lingers after class, approaches teacher, pulls knife and demands $20 so he can buy a copy of the new Grand Theft Auto videogame. He lowered his demand to $1 before finally giving up the knife. More frightening than this creature’s dangerousness is his mind-numbing stupidity. Did he really think this idea would prove successful? Well, I hope they have videogames at whatever juvenile detention center he’s bound for. Maybe this Grand Theft Auto game will hone the child’s thieving skills so that in the future he will have a little more finesse.

4. What the F***, Mr. McCammon?

I recently finished Clive Barker’s WEAVEWORLD, and boy, it was the best novel I’ve read by him. The creature called the Scourge may be the most compellingly described/imagined monster in any story I’ve read. Now I’m workin through BLUE WORLD, the collection from Robert R. McCammon, who I’ve never read before this. The stories have been pretty solid, often reading like episodes of TWILIGHT ZONE (or at least, NIGHT GALLERY), with the standout I guess being “Night Calls the Green Falcon,” about an aging super hero serial star tracking down a serial killer, with each little chapter ending with a serial style cliffhanger. (I recall a music video I really liked for a song which I believe is called “Kryptonite,” in which an old guy puts on a super hero costume and tries to defend a young woman from a lout; this video HAD to be inspired by this story.) One story, the fog-shrouded DOOM CITY, could almost be the inspiration for the SILENT HILL games, and naming streets in the story SOMETHING PASSED BY after famous horror writers reminds me of SILENT HILL, too. My favorite story thus far may be SOMETHING PASSED BY, a profoundly creepy story about our world gone mysteriously wrong; it has some truly eerie images and surreal happenings, and a lot of real pathos, too. But often, even my favorite writers have their “what the f***” moments. Hell, I know I must have plenty of them myself! I plan on making this an ongoing feature on this blog, but right now I’ll pick on Mr. McCammon, with all respect and apologies. In this case, it’s his story YELLACHILE’S CAGE, a kind of SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION or GREEN MILE affair, “Magical Negro” character and all. The narrator supposedly isn’t good at writing — the first sentence begins, “I kant write too good” — and then goes on to spell correctly words like “wondrous” and “palsied.” Ack!! Better not to have used the poor writing device, which is quickly forgotten, at all. But as I say, this is a minor quibble, as my “what the f***” observations will generally tend to be, for a good collection of 80’s/King era horror. Next up is the novella BLUE WORLD that closes the book — and by the way, that’s what I wanted to name my novel BLUE WAR originally, until I remembered this collection had already claimed it. Damn you, Mr. McCammon!

THE SURROGATES invade Westborough

1. Send in the Clones.

So the other day at work two fellow employees were overheard saying something to the effect that, “Bruce Willis is filming a movie at AstraZeneca today.” Huh? First off, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals — makers of Nexium and other magic elixirs — is the place I spend five, six, sometimes seven nights a week, on the graveyard shift with a bunch of other weary zombies. At first I thought this talk was just some weary, sleep-deprived gibberish, but when I left work that morning I saw a fleet of trucks across the street at a little-used warehouse belonging to my company, and police standing guard outside the parking lot. Later that evening, returning from some shopping, I saw more activity over there, and it surely looked like a movie might be in the works. Sure enough, that night at work I saw a notice posted on the bulletin board explaining that scenes for a Bruce Willis SF thriller called THE SURROGATES were indeed scheduled to be shot on AstraZeneca property between May 8-16. I’m not sure if Bruce himself was involved in any of these scenes, but one employee who apparently had a look at the set described the use of green screens and said there were bodies lying around (real bodies? my team leader Phetsamone asked nervously). The posting gave a brief synopsis of the movie. Here’s how it’s described at www.imdb.com:

“Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop (Willis) is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others’ surrogates.”

The posting at work said the surrogates are clones, not robots. Well, Publishers Weekly — via Amazon.com — in its description of the graphic novel upon which the movie is based calls them andoids, so whatever. Anyway, it sounds compelling, rather Punktownish and right up my alley. Willis is always dependable, so I have no doubt it will be entertaining at the very least. But why couldn’t they ask me to play one of those dead bodies lying around in the warehouse? This weary graveyard shifter could have played that role quite nicely.

2. Bigfoot invades Westborough!

More excitement in my hometown of Westborough, Massachusetts. I just picked up a very fun book called WEIRD MASSACHUSETTS, and lo and behold, admist all the ghost stories and abandoned mental institutions there’s a story about a guy who claims to have twice encountered a Bigfoot-type creature he dubs “Big Hairy” in Westborough’s 1650-acre Cedar Swamp (which is just a few streets away from me; I’ve heard coyotes howling at night from that direction, in the past). I’ve never heard anyone else in town ever lay claim to seeing this creature that the witness claims to have encountered twice, but then he does appear to have spent a lot of time hiking, camping and hunting in the swamp in the 80’s. I used to venture in there to target shoot, sometimes, in the 80’s myself, and brother Scott and I shot scenes for some of our crazy homemade videos in there, too. And I will tell you this: one time as I was walking in the Pine Grove Cemetery, on a back path that borders Cedar Swamp, I heard something large rustling through the dense trees at the edge of the swamp. It had to have been something large, and I thought maybe it was a deer, but I definitely envisioned a Bigfoot thingie in my mind and I was utterly creeped out, my instincts telling me to get the hell out of there fast. It was almost a feeling of panic. So…who knows, right? Westborough has inspired the mythical town of Eastborough that frequently pops up in stories by both my brother Scott and me, and I have a story called THE NIGHT SWIMMERS in the anthology CRYPTO-CRITTERS Volume 2 in which two brothers (hmm) encounter another kind of strange creature in a swamp based on Cedar Swamp. But beware — there are bigger creatures one needs to look out for, and even in the city we’re not safe, let alone some obscure eerie swamp!

3. Monsters invade New York!

I caught CLOVERFIELD on DVD recently and I really liked it, as I knew I would. Intense, even grim, and the shaky camera work didn’t bother me (others have complained about it), though granted, the theater experience might have been different. I had heard the monster is barely seen but I think its appearances are balanced just right, with parasitic mite-beaties thrown in (like the bug critters in RODAN and the raptor-type babies in the remake of GODZILLA) to spice things up. The monster surely seems to be some kind of metaphor for 9/11, or at least exploits 9/11’s resonance, just as Godzilla’s city-stomping apparently echos the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while THE HOST comments (very directly) on an actual contamination of Seoul’s Han River. This gives the movie another disturbing layer that I quite like. There was one “what the fuck?” moment for me, and I don’t want to be a spolier here, but there’s a scene where a guy in an open field in broad daylight turns around to see that the skyscraper-sized monster (sort of a reptilian praying mantis mutant) has tip-toed up on him from behind. Not only that, but his two friends are apparently facing in that direction and yet react with surprise. Come on! But it is a scary moment…with the monster raining more mites from behind its (dirty) pulsing gills as it looms there in what I guess was meant as its pay-off or money shot. Again, though, a very satisfying movie overall, and I’d like to see it again, but I did enjoy THE HOST more, if I had to choose between the two.

So what weirdness is going on in your backyard?

THE SURROGATES:

graphic novel: http://www.amazon.com/Surrogates-Graphic-Novels/dp/1891830872/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211058667&sr=8-1

movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/

WEIRD MASSACHUSETTS:

http://www.amazon.com/Weird-Massachusetts-Travel-Legends-Secrets/dp/140275437X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211058729&sr=1-1

CLOVERFIELD:

http://www.cloverfieldmovie.com/

A side note: my own little Westborough was #73 on a recent Best Places to Live list…

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/moneymag/0707/gallery.BPTL_top_100.moneymag/73.html

…while AstraZeneca was #83 on a 2008 list of Best Companies to Work For.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2008/maps/city/83B.html

Boy…ain’t I the lucky one? Yeah, it’s all well and good until Bigfoot crashes the scene!

The first review of VOICES FROM HADES…

…is here at Don D’Ammassa’s site, Critical Mass. I like his review but I’d take exception with this observation about the collection’s characters: “presumably they weren’t nice people to start with, which is why they ended up in the Netherworld.” In my Hades stories, often times it’s the good who are consigned to Hell and the corrupt, protected by their religious allegiance no matter how black their souls truly are, who win the favor of Heaven. It’s a comment not so much on celestial judgment but the workings of our mortal world with all its pious hatred and injustice. Maybe a read of LETTERS FROM HADES would more fully address this unfairness in my Hades universe (though I believe I get my case across in this collection, too, in such stories as “The Burning House,” in which a sweet child is condemned to Hell simply for not being baptized – and “Siren,” in which jaded people from Heaven venture into Hell as tourists to hunt the Damned for sport). In any case, it’s overall a good review from a site I can consistently rely on to notice and remark on my books.

“The book will introduce you to an afterlife that is an odd and fascinating mixture of traditional views of hell and some very untraditional ones indeed.”

Review in full: http://www.dondammassa.com/R2b2008.htm#Voices_from_Hades

Hades, and other interesting places

It’s here. I’ve held it in my hands at last, like a flower of black petals beaded with a dew of blood, stolen from a visit to Hell — and I’m going to tell you something deadly serious about it: this is one beautiful book. It’s the trade paperback of my VOICES FROM HADES, from Dark Regions Press, a collection of all the short stories I’ve set in my version of Hades (as seen in my novel LETTERS FROM HADES and the novella BEAUTIFUL HELL in the book UGLY HEAVEN/BEAUTIFUL HELL). The cover, featuring art by Travis Anthony Soumis and design by David Barnett, is one of my favorites of my book covers — a real knockout. And Travis supplies an illustration for each story as well; they’re just magnificent. An observation: I think the illos got swapped for two of the stories — the goat-headed Baphomet species of Demon was, I believe, to accompany “The Burning House,” whereas the industrial looking city was meant to represent the city of Tarturus in the opening story, “The Abandoned.” However, it still works, since the Baphomet breed is briefly mentioned in “The Abandoned” (plus, he’s a great opening image for the book), and the city illo now accompanying “The Burning House” could be the city featured in that particular story (plus the smoke pouring into the sky goes along with the “burning” of the title). Also, the illo for “Piece of Mind” shows these weird globes hanging off strands of living human tissue; in fact, in the story the globes are slotted into hollows in the bodies of huge metal towers to which this web of tissue is attached. But it’s still a great, eerily weird illo that gets across the general feel of the story’s imagery. Travis and I have collaborated a lot — he’s done the covers (and sometimes interiors) for PUNKTOWN: SHADES OF GREY, PUNKTOWN: THIRD EYE, the hardcover edition of AAAIIIEEE!!!, the long-delayed THE SEA OF FLESH AND ASH, and he’s been hired to do the forthcoming VOICES FROM PUNKTOWN, also from Dark Regions, too. If I could only work with him as the artist on all my future books, I’d be quite content. Anyway, not to boast but I am seriously proud of this collection; I think it’s a lot of strong material, and taken as a whole has something of the feel of my collection PUNKTOWN, in that the stories together weave a tapestry of the world in question. Please have a look, here at the publisher’s web site:

http://darkregions.com/

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Funny synchronicity, here; yesterday I blogged about Jack O’Connell’s THE RESURRECTIONIST and in my blog I used the Latin mean culpa. Today I opened his book to the opening quote: Mea maxima culpa. Just thought that was interesting…

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LIFE AMONG THE DREAM MERCHANTS and Other Phantasies is a phantastic collection of poems by Kurt Newton, a writer I’ve admired for some years now. I provided the introduction to this book, and the cover art (a collage of old steel engravings), of which I’m very proud. Well, I just wanted to call attention to the fact that it’s now being offered at the cool online store, Horror Mall. I urge you to get this book — Kurt will immerse you in as creepy and dream-like an atmosphere as any horror lover could desire. And a little note: I almost stole “The Dream Merchants” as the title of the original NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET novel I wrote, before I went with “The Dream Dealers” instead. Oh, and another note; as thanks for my contribution to his book, Kurt went overboard and bought me a beautiful framed print by Robert S. Connett (cover artist of my book DOOMSDAYS). Thanks again, Kurt! You can order the book here:

https://www.horror-mall.com/LIFE-AMONG-THE-DREAM-MERCHANTS-AND-OTHER-PHANTASIES-by-Kurt-Newton-p-17915.html

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Down East Books, Maine’s largest publisher, recently released my brother Scott’s brilliantly creepy collection MIDNIGHT IN NEW ENGLAND. Now they’ve released a new anthology called OTHERWORLDLY MAINE, in which Scott has a story alongside such beginners as Stephen King, Mark Twain and a certain Mr. Thoreau (whose bio precedes Scott’s in the back of the book). Oddly, his tale is missing from the contents given at their web site, but trust me, it’s in there. You can order the book here:

https://secure.downeast.com/store/product.php?productid=1889&cat=0&page=1

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There…now go buy your mom one of these books for Mother’s Day, will ya? Oh come on, she’ll loooove it! (Scott gave our mom OTHERWORLDLY MAINE, after all!)

Morbid Self Attention

I’m not sure that I’d noticed this before; if I did, and discussed it here previously, mea culpa. Anyway, SF SITE featured a “Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2007: Readers’ Choice” as compiled by Neil Walsh. DEADSTOCK just made it on the list of 20 titles, at #19. An interesting bunch of books chosen:

http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best08b.htm

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I just picked up Jack O’Connell’s THE RESURRECTIONIST, because his literate, noirish, psuedo-horror police thriller WORD MADE FLESH is one of my favorite reads of recent years, and BOX NINE was similarly dark and quirky (I want to give it another read, and check out THE SKIN PALACE and WIRELESS, too). Read what Amazon has to say about THE RESURRECTIONIST, and tell me this doesn’t sound compelling:

http://www.amazon.com/Resurrectionist-Jack-OConnell/dp/1565125762/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210146639&sr=1-1

Not to mention, Jack lives in nearby Worcester and gave me a fantastic blurb for my forthcoming HEALTH AGENT:

“Wild, weird, clever and brutal, Health Agent is a crazed ride into the heart of that bizarre reality known as Punktown. Jeffrey Thomas has a diabolical imagination and, thankfully, the talent to vent it through a unique and always engrossing voice. Think William Burroughs meets Clive Barker on a mescaline-drenched junket through one gothic-industrial hell and you get some small sense of the exam that this Health Agent is going to give you. Now turn your head and cough.”
—Jack O’Connell, Author of Word Made Flesh

***

My other recent purchase at Amazon? My favoritest movie of all time, which I’ve never owned on DVD (or, surprisingly, even on video, though I taped it off cable at some point):

http://www.amazon.com/Taxi-Driver-Two-Disc-Collectors-Robert/dp/B000R8YC18/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1210146814&sr=8-1

Wherein Travis says, “I don’t believe a person should devote his life to morbid self attention. I believe a person should become a person like other people.”

Are you talkin’ to me?

(By the way, EVERYONE is entitled to their own opinion, but some opinions are just plain wrong. I can’t believe some of the brainless comments about the super-groovy THE HOST — reviewed in my last post — at Amazon, etc., but check out the two-star review of TAXI DRIVER given at Amazon, that includes such wisdom as: “I know it’s supposed to be a drama flick but it could have had a little more action…I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.” God help us.)