Publishing Extravaganza

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animals both domesticated and wild, grip your ankles and say your prayers 'cause the shows about to get started. Prepared to be mystified and delighted by this publishing extravaganza.





Based on the PW article called What Do Teens Want?, it seems an overwhelming majority of teen readers want books that don't suck. Wonder who they had to pay for that insider knowledge?

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I spoke briefly the other day about Stephen King's new book Under the Dome, and I wanted to mention something interesting that literary agent Michael Stearns of Upstart Crow Literary Agency found--or rather something he didn't find--in the book.

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Cormac McCarthy gives a rare interview to the Wall Street Journal to discuss his novel The Road. Here's a snippet I personally enjoyed:

WSJ: How does that ticking clock affect your work? Does it make you want to write more shorter pieces, or to cap things with a large, all-encompassing work?

CM: I'm not interested in writing short stories. Anything that doesn't take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.

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The first 171 pages of Robert McCammon's Mister Slaugher are available on the Subterranean Press site. What are you still doing here? Get over there and start reading.

Later Fiends,

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Under the Leviathan's Malice

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animals both domesticated and wild, the holidays are fast approaching--I know this because the news has started carrying stories about the evil atheists and tyrannical Jews trying to eradicate all things Christmas with whip-cracking laws that further separate church and state--so bring on the cheer!




I just got my copy of Stephen King's Under the Dome. It's been 30+ years in the making, and the early reviews have been positive. At 1088 pages, the book is a monster, a poster child for why people should purchase e-readers, and I'm sure there are plenty of people barking about how many trees sacrificed themselves for King's drivel. All that aside, I love long, sprawling novels, and King's long, sprawling novels are some of his very best. They're perfect fireside books on those cold winter nights.

Before I begin Dome, I have a couple of other books I want sink my eyeballs into first:



Malice by Chris Wooding and Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. These were Halloween gifts-- yes, in my house we exchange books on Halloween--I haven't gotten around to reading yet.

Which reminds me ... if you want to find out what I'm reading, or some of the stuff I have read, you can check out my virtual library on Goodreads.com. I'll add the link to the sidebar so it's always available.


Later Fiends,

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Under the Talisman

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animals both domesticated and wild, the man in black fled across the desert, and we all followed ... ever since.

Yeah, that's right, dear reader, I'm talking about Stephen King. I remember hearing from time to time about this novel he was working on that was, alas, never to be completed, much the same way I thought the Dark Tower series would never be completed. I love being wrong (which is usually the case) and this is no exception.

Under the Dome, perhaps SK's longest novel ever, clocking in at a massive 1500 pages, will be released November 10, 2009. Let's just say I'll be picking up a copy.

Here's the plot synopsis:

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens—town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing—even murder—to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.

And though I'm not an avid comic reader, and I wasn't all that interested in Marvel's Dark Tower and The Stand adaptions, I recently learned that The Talisman, a collaboration between Stephen King and Peter Straub, will be released in graphical form through Del Ray and is due out in the Fall of '09.

I'll be wrapping my greedy fingers around that one, too.

Later Fiends,

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