My good mate Chris Golden came to stay with us for a couple of days after his Guest of Honour stint at Fantasycon. We were both tired from the weekend - add on top of that Chris's jet lag - so we decided to have a leisurely day on Monday in Hay on Wye. For anyone who's never heard of it, it's a small town in the Welsh hills with about 35 bookshops.
Yes, you read that right.
And of course, what we both needed after a weekend at Fantasycon was the opportunity to spend more money on books.
But Chris insisted. It's all his fault, really. That's what I told my wife, at least. I'd bought about ten books at Fantasycon, and in Hay I bouth another twenty (you just can't not buy them!). At my current reading rate that's about 8 month's supply, on top of the probably 1,000 books I haven't yet read. Do the math in too much detail, and it all gets a little depressing ...
Recent acquisitions include books by Ken Bruen, Ed Gorman, Walter Mosley, Dennis Lehane, Mark Chadbourn, James Lee Burke, and Joe Lansdale. Oh yes.
We had a great couple of days. We got some work done, too, though most of it consisted of chatting over current project THE SECRET JOURNEYS OF JACK LONDON in the car or over drinks. (The book, by the way, is progressing extremely well, and it's going to be a fantastic looking publication ... more details as and when the time comes).
It's been a good couple of weeks. On top of all this, I sold some more novels, details of which I'll post here as soon as the ink's dry and I get permission from the publishers. Suffice to say, I'm a happy puppy, and anyone who enjoys the collaborations I write with Chris, or my solo fantasy novels, will be happy too.
Ahhh, Fantasycon. I've been to lots of conventions, but this one always seems to be the highlight. This time last week I was just about to leave, and it already seems like many weeks ago. This one was particularly fun because my mate Chris Golden was over from the USA as Guest of Honour, and I had the pleasure of interviewing him on stage (the whole interview was filmed, and will be available online soon - I'll post details here).
I was on a good panel about Trends in Horror, along with Mark Morris, Sarah Pinborough, Joseph D'Lacy and Bill Hussey, and it was a refreshing change being on a panel where the overall feel for horror in this country was positive. Bill and Joe are writing for Bloody Books, a fine new outfit, and Adam Nevill, editor at Virgin, was in the audience, providing some insight into their line as well. Very positive.
There was the usual curry on Friday evening, and a very civilised bedtime of 2:30. Saturday evening was the banquet (where they served food I'm certain I saw the year before ... really, I wrote my name on a carrot to see if I get it again next year), and then the awards. I didn't win either award I was up for, but I was delighted to see my mates Conrad Williams and Joel Lane beat me. After the awards, the raffle, hosted by Guy Adams and Sarah Pinborough. Started off OK ... but even their sparkling wit and presentation couldn't save it from becoming tedious and soul-destroying by the end. Really, let's have twenty really good prizes, instead of 300 books that few people really want.
More beer, more wine, then home. I brought Golden home with me for a couple of days ... but that'll wait for another blog post.
Also subject of a future post ... I sold three new novels this week (hoorah!), which I'll tell you about when the contracts are signed.
Metallica's new album has taken a long time to grow on me. Sometimes when it takes me this long to get into an album, it's because it is, in fact, crap. Other times, it's because the album is destined to be a classic, rediscovered and replayed again and again over the years. I'm pleased to say that mostly, Death Magnetic falls into the latter category.
Let's face it, it's been a long time coming. St Anger infuriated a lot of people - I was one of those who initially loved it beause I felt it needed loving, and then I've fallen out of love with it over the years. Can't recall the last time I played it. And after the embarrassing, painful mess that was Some Kind of Monster, Metallica really needed to pull something out of the hat with this album.
What they've done, and mightily successfully, is to remember that they're a rock band. Hetfield's singing (not shouting) has never sounded better. Ulrich has rediscovered how to play the drums, dispensing with the terrible sound from the last album. Hammett is allowed to play guitar again, and Trujillo fits in as if he's always been a part of Metallica.
As for the songs ... they're all a fuck-you-MTV seven or eight minutes long. And they are HEAVY. My favourites so far are Broken, Beat and Scarred, which carried a thunderous chorus that'll shake your granny's dentures loose for sure. All Nightmare Long is a stormer, Cyanide is an obvious crowd-pleaser ... they all have quality, and though I find the instrumental a little tiresome - mainly, I think, because I'm so taken with Hetfield's singing once again - it's still worth a listen.
So, in summary: it's not the best album they've ever done. But it's fifty thousand miles from the worst. It's safe to say that Metallica are back, and that makes me a very happy puppy.
Okay, loads of news to catch up on, so I'm going to do so in a few posts over the next few days. Fantasycon was last weekend - I'll write a more in depth report on that over the weekend - and I had two book launches there, launching three books in total.
The first was on Friday night for my new novella THE REACH OF CHILDREN. It looks utterly fabulous, as you can see here, and there are a few reviews incoming over the next few weeks. Mike Marshall Smith, who wrote the wonderful introduction, says:
Lebbon has written one of the best and most emotionally convincing stories about death that I have ever read .
This is one of the most personal stories I've ever written, and I'm actually quite nervous that it's out there now ... there's so much about me here, and stuff I've gone through, that it feels as if I've offered something private up for view. But I've also found the writing of the novella very satisfying and rewarding, and I hope you enjoy it. If you're interested, check out the details here.
Also launched at Fantasycon, my two books from Allison & Busby, FALLEN and THE EVERLASTING. FALLEN just had a great review in the latest issue of SFX magazine, giving it 4 out of 5 and saying:
If Lebbon continues writing the Noreela stories to this high standard, the series could be as exciting as George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire novels - definitely a series to watch.
Which is nice.
More postings here over the next few days, including:
Death Magnetic
More horror books
Hay on Wye, and why I must never go there again
Chris Golden, and why he must never come here again
Fantasycon, or The Zoo that is Nottingham
... my news from the British Fantasy Convention, among other things. It's been a busy time here, but watch this space!
It's definitely growing on me. Definitely better than St Anger, that's for sure. I shall give it a couple of uninterrupted listens tomorrow on the way to Fantasycon.
Full report - about Death Magnetic, and Fantasycon - next week!
Jury still out ....
Well, wasn't summer a pile of shite this year? We had a sunny day a couple of days ago, and it felt like we'd moved to another part of the world. We love eating al fresco, and this year I reckon we managed it maybe fifteen times in total. The day of my UK book launch was a scorcher, and since then it's been crap.
Ho hum.
But the good thing about September swinging around, rainy weather and all, is that Fantasycon is fast approaching. In fact, it's on Friday! It's always one of the highlights of the year for me, and this one is going to be more exciting and busier than most. Chris Golden, my mate and co-writer from the 'States, is one of the Guests of Honor (see what I did there? In honour of our American friend?). Though Chris and I chat most days, it'll be great to actually see him for the first time in over a year.
Here's my schedule for the weekend:
Friday 7:15pm - Humdrumming Book Launch (where they'll be launching my novella The Reach of Children).
9:00 - Curry. Oh yes.
Saturday 10:00am - Trends in Horror (panel ... bear in mind this is 10am on the Saturday of Fantasycon, most of us wouldn't have hit the sack until 4am, and if you want anything approaching coherent discussion - let alone insightful and knowledgeable - go elsewhere).
Saturday 2pm - Allison & Busby book launch (for my novels FALLEN and THE EVERLASTING)
Saturday 4:45pm - I'll be interviewing Christopher Golden on stage. Bwa-ha-ha.
Saturday 7pm - Banquet
Saturday 9pm -British Fantasy Awards ceremony (I'm presenting Best Small Press with Reggie Oliver, and I'm nominated for Best Short Story and Best Novella)
Sunday 11am - When Does Fantasy Become Horror (panel)
So there you have it, the busiest convention weekend I think I've ever faced, and I cannot wait. If you're coming along, please say hello. Mine's a pint of decent ale, if you can find one.
I've yet to see someone reading one of my books on a plane, train or beach. Maybe it'll happen one day, maybe not. But a neighbour made my day for me today. He's been on holiday to Lanzarote, and in his hotel was a small library, and in that small library were a couple of my books. Hoorah! I am well-travelled!
Jack London said "The function of man is to live, not to exist." And he certainly did much living in his forty years. It's quite humbling to think that he died when he was just a little older than I am now, and yet he experienced so much in his lifetime. He was a student, explorer, tramp, gold prospector, political activist, oyster pirate, convict, and one of America's first celebrity authors. He had a very full life, yet challenging and depressing as well. This experience comes shining through in his writing.
When I was a kid I read London's most famous books: The Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf and White Fang. I'm re-reading them right now as research for an exciting new project (more of that in a minute), and I realise now that as a young teen I never realy got as much out of these books as I should have. The Call of the Wild isn't just about a dog; it's about being human. It contains what is probably my favourite passage of writing from any book (and as it's available for free download, I see no problem quoting it here):
There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive. This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame; it comes to the soldier, war-mad on a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the pack, sounding the old wolf-cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him through the moonlight. He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time. He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars and over the face of dead matter that did not move.
That is just beautiful.
Chris Golden and I are writing a series of YA novels about Jack London for Atheneum in the USA. Based on his three most famous works, they explore London's inspiration to write, the lengths he went to to live, not just exist, and the strange events that followed him along the way. It's fiction, of course, but fiction about one of the very best storytellers there has ever been. I'll update here when there's more news on these books.
It's always a pleasure to work with Chris, and this time doubly so. I look forward to the next year or two, delving deeper into London's extraordinary work, and trying my very best to live.
Over the past couple of days I must have signed my name over a thousand times. Three sets of signature sheets came in all at one, and my poor pen has been put through its paces.
The first was for CHILDREN OF THE NEW DISORDER, the novella I wrote with a popular children's writer (publishing under the pseudonym Lindy Moore). Creeping Hemlock Press will be publishing this one, and if the sig sheets are anything to go by, it's going to be one very gorgeous book.
Then came the sheets for THE REACH OF CHILDREN, the novella which Humdrumming are launching at Fantasycon. Thiis is a very personal piece for me, and I'll be talking about it more in forthcoming interviews in Black Static and Interzone.
Last to arrive were ... but I can't talk about this one. Not yet. Though I can give you a clue: Red Monks in hardback.
Coming soon, a blog post about the genius of the incredible Jack London, and why Chris Golden and I are researching his life so throughly.
|
RSS Feed
Archives
February 2001
March 2001
April 2001
May 2001
June 2001
August 2001
September 2001
October 2001
November 2001
January 2002
February 2002
April 2002
June 2002
August 2002
October 2002
January 2003
March 2003
April 2003
July 2003
October 2003
November 2003
December 2003
January 2004
February 2004
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
Links
The Noreela website
|
