My Wild Life

I live in a New England city of about 36,000 people. I can walk to the hospital where my kids were born, or turn a different direction and amble on over to a supermarket and a strip mall. My city has factories, on-ramps to major highways, old mills, cemeteries, history, and fast food chains. Lots of fast food chains.
Also animals. So many cool animals I sometimes feel like a character in one of the Thorton Burgess stories I read by the bushel when I was younger.

My wife called the kids and I to the window this morning because there was a fox loping across the neighbors' yard, a beautiful orangey-amber colored animal, a bit larger than our dog Bonny. We always get a little nervous when we see animals in the yard because we live on a very busy street. Sureenough, the critter wanted to cross--and this was just before school, where a seemingly endless parade of buses comes barreling down our hill to distribute children throughout the city's school system. We held our collective breath as the fox ran across just as a large furniture truck zoomed past. I'm happy to report it made it to the other side safely, and hopefully is ignoring the neighborhood cats along its way to the woods beyond.

A note about our dog Bonny before I go on: she is fourteen years old. She was an abused dog that my wife adopted from an animal shelter as a Valentine's Day gift to ourselves. We've had her thirteen of those fourteen years and we love her even though she's a little cranky as a senior canine than she was as a young dog. I invariably compare the size of any animal I see to Bonny, so from here on out I will use a new standard of measurement: the bonny. The fox was approximately one and a quarter bonnys. To help illustrate just how big a bonny is, here's a picture of Bonny:



Other critters I have seen in recent weeks in my yard include a woodchuck (one bonny, but fatter), a six-point deer, his wife and their fawn(nine bonnys, six bonnys and three bonnys, respectively), and the neighbors' cat Lucky (3/4 of a bonny). The woodchuck was around a lot in October, when our two apple trees were laden with fruit. He was a pretty regular customer, and I'd see him running along the hedge with a big apple in his mouth. The deer came because they apparently like the buffet we prepared just for them with our garden. I didn't mind losing the vegetables as much as I did the morning glories, the buds of which the deer seem to love the way I love Chinese food. I literally chased them out of the yard at midnight a couple times, waving my arms and hooting like the gorilla I'm said to resemble, trying to save my favorite flowers.

Lucky just comes because she likes to tease Bonny.

I also saw a ring-necked pheasant earlier this week, a few days after the holiday. I made a joke about it to a friend of mine who hunts, saying I was glad he hadn't been around lately. He told me that ring-necked pheasants don't inhibit our state. When I presented photographic evidence (seen below), he theorized that the bird was an escapee from a "stocking" program, wherein a buch of pheasants and turkeys are released prior to Thanksgiving for hunters. The one I saw must have been the wiliest of birds, because he'd survived past turkey day and he hauled tail ( a long, beautifully feathered tail, by the way) when I tried to shoot him with my camera.

Here he is, fleeing down Woodchuck Row:

I wish you well, friend pheasant. I wanted you to know you can hide out in my garage until the trouble blows over, if you want.

I love working at home.

How Cool Is This?

A big shout out of thanks to everyone at Hyperion, who sent me a box of shirts (pictured at right) that they created for their sales conference. Thank you! Your enthusiasm and support for Generation Dead are greatly, greatly appreciated!

I'm wearing mine for the fifth day in a row, but my family are telling me that actually smelling like a zombie is taking the enthusiasm bit a little too far.

May Day

Generation Dead is now available for preorder on Amazon.com in anticipation of a May 6th release. I think it would make the perfect Mother's Day gift.

World Fantasy Convention

I attended the World Fantasy Convention for the first time last weekend, which was held in Saratoga, New York. I had a wonderful time, most of which I spent with my good friend, the writer and artist Matthew Dow Smith. Matt recently completed his work on the Supernatural Origins comic series, and the sixth and final issue should be hitting the stands just about now and you should buy it. Matt and I are hoping to do some comic book projects together soon, and the ideas were flying fast and furious between us.

Also flying fast and furious: the money out of my wallet in the dealers' room. Man, I love books, and this convention had all of the beautiful rare and out of print stuff right alongside the newest and noteworthiest releases--and the cool thing is that many of the authors and artists that created those works are right there at the convention.

Two of my major weaknesses are gently used paperbacks from the sixties and seventies and art books. The paperbacks are cool because you can usually get them on the cheap; I loaded up a number of great fantasy and horror paperbacks at the show (Fritz Leiber novels with the Jeffrey Jones covers!)and at a great local bookstore called The Lyrical Ballad. Not so economical are the art books, which unfortunately have the tendency to become Must Haves upon sight. The 2 volume Barry Windsor-Smith collection Opus was one such Must Have. I could have bought a lot o' paperbacks for what I paid for the set, but it is gorgeous beyond belief and what is money anyhow but a less attractive form of paper?

Buying books to get signed is always cool too, even though I am still prone to geeking up around people's work I admire. I totally geeked up when talking to Kelly Link, for example, who I think has one of the most unique and wonderful voices in fiction today, and also around Peter Straub, who consistently produces some of the best supernatural fiction ever written. I may be a professional writer, but I think I'll always be a fan first.

The panels were wonderful--I'm always amazed at how many story ideas I get from listening to creative people talk about subjects they are passionate about. Sometimes all it takes is an offhand comment to get the synapses firing.

I think they are firing now, in fact. Either that or I put too much sugar in my coffee again

Generation Dead Across the Pond

More good news for Gen Dead, as we've accepted an offer for publication in the U.K. I couldn't be happier.

I'll post more details when everything is finalized.

Generation Dead News

There was a big box on my doorstep this afternoon from Hyperion Books. The box was filled with advance reading copies, or "arcs", of my forthcoming novel Generation Dead. The books are beautiful, thanks to the stunning design by Elizabeth H. Clark and the beautiful cover photo shot by Ali Smith. You can click on the above image to see every nuance and detail of their work, as well as read a description of the book and all the whiz-bang promotion Hyperion and I will be doing as we approach the books' release.

I love the blue sky. Some of my favorite books feature blue sky on their covers--Infinite Jest and The Illustrated West With the Night come to mind. Really green grass is nice, too.  My book has lots of words, and I'm happy to report they are easily readable, thanks to the twelve-point Griffo Classico font. By odd coincidence, Griffo Classico is also my favorite brand of spaghetti sauce.

I kid. I would never eat store bought tomato sauce.

But if I did, it would definitely be Griffo Classico!

The arc is slick and cool against my cheek, and has the most interesting aroma, with undertones of oak, sandalwood and sage beneath the more bookish scents of newsprint and ink. A marvel of book design, really.

IToday, October 1, 2007. I'm a little excited.

Conventional Wisdon

A quick update on the NECON fun--I did not repeat in the Hi Lo Jack tournament, being handed a first round defeat. I'll be kicking myself all year for a hand I misplayed.

I did, however, get to appear on a panel called "Selling That First Novel", which was hosted by F. Paul Wilson. Mr. Wilson's newest novel BLOODLINE was published this week and should be purchased by you, today if at all possible. I got to share a table with Sarah Langan, Mary Sangiovanni, Rhodi Hawk and Nate Kenyon (you should buy their books as well), and we all discussed our experiences breaking into the field.

We talked about some of the things we did to get our work "out there", and I got a few laffs when I related a true story about a conversation I had with Paul prior to me selling anything. I attended the first Borderlands workshop where Paul was an instructor, and as an instructor he had to read a section of my work prior to the class. When it came time for Paul to offer me a critique and advice on the work, he looked me square in the eye and said, "I can't help you."

Only later did I realize that it was a compliment.

I think.

(Maybe you had to be there...)

The conference was fun, I enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and making some new ones. The absolute highlight was when Gahan Wilson drew a portrait of me in a book I asked him to sign. I wonder if Hyperion will let me use the portrait in place of my author photo for Generation Dead? As promised, I ran amok in the dealers room, buying stacks of yellowing paperbacks from the seventies. Other than the Gahan Wilson books (I bought two) my favorite scores were a book called Summer Sketches, by one of my favorite authors, Dan Simmons, and Kiddology, a fascinating book of art and biography from artist guest-of-honor Tom Kidd.

I'll be heading to my first ever World Fantasy Convention in early November, which I'm looking forward to as a number of my literary heroes are scheduled to be in attendence. And I might even have some promotional material for GENERATION DEAD which I can scatter around the conference center. You should go, too. Just don't buy any of the mouldering paperbacks from the sixties and seventies until I get to check them out, okay?