THE SEVEN: John Shirley

Continuing my interview series called THE SEVEN, in which I invite some of my favorite authors to answer seven questions about their most recent projects, today’s guest is the inimitable John Shirley. John is the author of numerous novels, story collections, screenplays (most notably THE CROW), teleplays and articles. A futurologist and social critic, John was a featured speaker at TED-x in Brussels in 2011. His novels include EVERYTHING IS BROKEN, The A SONG CALLED YOUTH cyberpunk trilogy (omnibus released in 2012), BLEAK HISTORY, DEMONS, CITY COME A-WALKIN’ and THE OTHER END. His short story collection BLACK BUTTERFLIES is one of my all-time favorite collections and quite deservedly won the Bram Stoker Award, and was chosen by PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY as one of the best books of the year. His new story collection is IN EXTREMIS: THE MOST EXTREME SHORT STORIES OF JOHN SHIRLEY. His stories have been included in three Year’s Best anthologies. He is also a songwriter (eg, for BLUE OYSTER CULT), and a singer. Black October records will soon be releasing a compilation of selected songs, BROKEN MIRROR GLASS: RECORDINGS BY JOHN SHIRLEY, 1978-2011. The authorized website is at john-shirley.com.

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Q. What is your most recent release?

A. EVERYTHING IS BROKEN, novel from Prime Books. Almost simultaneously the cyberpunk trilogy, A SONG CALLED YOUTH, re edited, freshened up, came out from the same publisher in one volume, an omnibus…

Q. What inspired the project?

A. Thinking about the near future a lot. It has a lot going on it–it’s a disaster novel, a coming of age novel, a noir novel, a bit of science fiction–but ultimately I wanted to write a political allegory. It’s a sort of LORD OF THE FLIES for the 21st Century but directly aimed at people who are anti-government (I’m not for too much government…but in a world of 7 billion people, we don’t want too little government, either), like tea party types, extreme libertarians.

Q. What is the primary theme you’ve chosen to explore with this project?

A. It’s about a town that has had its resources gutted by libertarian/Reaganomic principles and so when a nightmarish catastrophe happens they’re not prepared for it. It’s also about crazed local characters–it’s rather horrific, really. And it’s an imagining of an enormous American tsunami…what it would be like, for something like that to hit California…But it’s also about a young man coming to terms with the responsibilities life has thrust on him–and he stands in for all humanity, really. We have to accept our responsibility for the community. He has to fight, to protect people he loves–a classic theme, but with contemporary political ramifications…

Q. Of everything you’ve written to date, which project has been the most difficult for you?

A. Whatever’s the most recent. But BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE, my most successful “tie in” novel, was difficult, as the game company who licensed it to the publisher were very hands on–ultimately it made for a better book. Lots of times books that are hard to write turn out to be better for it…My horror novel WETBONES was hard too because it was partly about my personal recovery from addiction, and that penetrated deeply inside me. It was emotionally painful.

Q. Which title would you suggest as a good introduction for newcomers to your work, and why?

A. Kinda depends on what genre they’re looking for. A SONG CALLED YOUTH is three novels in one book, and is bubbling with science fictional ideas, has an intense cyberpunk setting; my novel DEMONS remains in print, and it’s quite horrific, but, I think, meaningful…If they like extreme horror, that would be WETBONES–the new edition has a sequel story included in the same volume. For suspense–EVERYTHING IS BROKEN.

Q. What are your thoughts on the burgeoning digital market?

A. Writers have to adapt to the marketplace, to go where the readership is. I love physical books, but most of my books are in ebook format, and I love that. I do have a Kindle and sometimes order books and I love that the books materialize right out of thin air, in a sense, almost instantaneously…they’re transmitted to your Kindle or Nook or iPad, ziiiiiiip, as if by magic. So that may bring in more readership, ultimately–it’s even faster than ordering from Amazon.

Q. What’s next for you?

A. I’m just finishing a graphic novel, for IDW comics, THE CROW: DEATH IS MY DOJO. I co-wrote the movie THE CROW and this is a new imagining of THE CROW with another character–The Crow as a spirit of vengeance who’s inhabited a young American in Tokyo after tragedy befalls…It’s THE CROW set in Tokyo in a way, but with a lot of science fictional elements, but also with a visit to Buddhist Hell!

I have also just finished writing a television pilot, which my agent is taking out–and so is an interested director–called INTRUDER TOWN. I can’t really say what it’s about yet…

Then–finally–I get to finish my novel FOGG IN THE AFTERLIFE, a kind of urban fantasy…

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Learn more about John Shirley at the author’s official website and blog

Related articles

• John Shirley’s seminal “Song Called Youth” back in print (boingboing.net)
• IDW’s “The Crow” Flies Again (comicbooked.com)
• John Shirley Rights Wrongs in “The Crow” (comicbookresources.com)

Halloween Guest Blog: Lisa Morton

Today’s guest blog comes courtesy of multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author Lisa Morton, who, in addition to her impressive screenwriting and producing work, also penned the wonderful novel The Castle of Los Angeles, which has been getting a fierce amount of buzz around the Internet. Lisa is no stranger to all things Halloween, as evidenced by some of the books she has to her name that explore that very subject: The Halloween Encyclopedia, A Hallowe’en Anthology: Literary & Historical Writings Over the Centuries, and The Samhanach. Most recently, she edited Halloween Spirits: 11 Tales for the Darkest Night.

Here she discusses some of the misconceptions about the season…

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Ahhh, yes, October is here. That wonderful time of year when seasons change, the air cools and fills with the scent of burning leaves, the stores are full of black and orange displays that delight the eye, and the pagans and Christians once again duke it out over Halloween. This year in particular–thanks in part, I suppose, to the ubiquity of Facebook–the battle seems particularly heated. On one hand are the fundamentalists Christians, who say Halloween stems from an ancient Celtic holiday in which wild savages donned costumes and danced around bonfires to commune with spirits from the beyond. And on the other hand are the pagans, who say Halloween stems from an ancient Celtic holiday in which wild savages donned costumes and danced around bonfires to commune with spirits from the beyond.

Uhhh?

Yes, I’ve noticed more and more that the Christian denunciation of the holiday and the pagan defense are couched in virtually the same terms. The only difference ultimately becomes one of intent: The Christians believe the Celts were calling evil spirits, while the pagans will tell you that the Celts were communing with either ancestral or natural spirits.

Both, of course, are completely wrong.

Let’s set the record straight on a few of the more common and frequently quoted Halloween mistakes. Yes, it’s true that our modern autumn holiday owes something to the Irish Celts’ celebration of Samhain, or ‘summer’s end’, but it owes just as much, if not more, to the Catholic observations of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days. Yes, the Celts did believe that Samhain was the one night a year when the veil between worlds was thinnest, but the Celts were hardly noble savages who donned animal skins and grunted a lot. The Celts were advanced in everything from road-making to politics, and the fires they lit on Samhain were used as part of their tax collection system (an ember from the newly-kindled main bonfire was provided to nearby property holders in exchange for taxes paid). The Celts didn’t record their own history or customs, but early Christian missionaries did, and we have a solid amount of both mythological and archaeological evidence on the Celts, and exactly NOWHERE do we have any suggestion that the Celts dressed in costume on Samhain, or carved leering faces into turnips, or went begging from house to house, or danced ecstatically around bonfires.

Samhain was, however, a magical time for the Celts. The ancient tales are full of examples of the sidh, or fairies, crossing over into our realm and wreaking havoc. Some of the Samhain stories focus on great heroes who overcome monsters like the deformed Fomorians, who rampage across the country on Samhain. There are also love stories set on Samhain, like the tale of Angus, who fell in love with a princess who was cursed to transform into a swan at Samhain, so Angus transformed himself and flew away with her.

I’d like to urge both my Christian and Pagan friends to do yourselves a favor and read up a bit more on the true history of the Celts and their folklore before you condemn Halloween or praise it. Not only will you discover that it’s not what you thought it was, but I’m betting you’ll realize that the actual history of Halloween and Samhain is far richer and stranger and more enchanting than what you’d previously thought.

www.lisamorton.com

New Releases

It’s been a crazy couple of months and I haven’t been able to stay on top of the news-as-it-happens as much as I’d like to, so here’s what you should be keeping an eye out for in the “coming soon” or “recently released” department:

MASTER OF THE MOORS

This novel originally started life as an e-serial, delivered a chapter a week to readers via email. The e-serial was a means of forcing myself to write a full-length novel, something I hadn’t been able to do up to that point. And it worked! Over the years as my writing improved, I rewrote and edited sections of the novel until what was left was a tighter, more fluid piece of work. Now you can read the finished result as a gorgeous signed limited edition hardcover from Necessary Evil Press. This marks my second time working with Don Koish at NEP. The first time, we won the Bram Stoker Award (for The Turtle Boy). Steve Gilberts provides some lavish and suitably gruesome artwork for what is best described as a cross between John Carpenter’s The Fog and Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles. Or, perhaps more succintly, and in the words of one faithful reader: “a kickass Hammer horror story!”

You can read some reviews of the book here, here, and here. And once you’re done and your appetite is suitably whetted, head on over to Don’s place and pick up a copy before Master of the Moors becomes another The Turtle Boy (i.e. impossible to find for less than your first-born in trade.) 

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HORROR LIBRARY: VOLUME III

Coming very soon is a new anthology of horror stories from the talented folks at Cutting Block Press. Perhaps their most ambitious gathering yet, this latest volume includes stories by such notable scribes as Bentley Little, Scott Nicholson, and Gary Braunbeck, together with an equally impressive lineup of new- and up-and-comers. Head on over to the site to check out a full-size view of the beautifully eerie cover art, full table of contents, ordering information and a neat little feature where you can sample the first few pages of every story. My offering is a short Columbine-inspired piece entitled “After” and you can sample it here.

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UNSPEAKABLE HORROR: FROM THE SHADOWS OF THE CLOSET

Another excellent anthology nearing release is Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet, edited by Vince Lugiano and Chad Helder, with amazing cover art by Michael Pucciarelli. I’m proud to be a part of this wonderful collection, which features a mixture of stories from the horror and GLBT communities. Here’s the jacket copy:

Something unspeakable is coming out of the closet…

From the ghosts of dead lovers and malevolent queer faeries to devious doppelgangers and twisted psychopaths, an eclectic lineup of award-winning writers from the horror and GLBT literary communities come together in this groundbreaking collection of queer horror stories. These tales will surprise with their universally resonant themes while exploring the deeper aspects of the closet experience – coming out, staying in, and being haunted by. Join Lee Thomas, Sarah Langan, Jameson Currier, Rick R. Reed, Scott Nicholson, Kealan Patrick Burke and others as they throw open their literary closet doors with 23 chilling tales. Be prepared as these master dark scribes reveal what lurks in those shadowy corners at the back of our closets. And the horrors found there promise to be unspeakable.

Be sure to check out the table of contents, contributor interviews, and the aforementioned awesome cover art for the book at the publisher’s page here, then head on over to Amazon.com to order yourself a copy for a paltry $15.

Here’s the nifty book trailer for the anthology…

The Turtle Boy: To Reprint or Not to Reprint?

In 2004, Necessary Evil Press published my first novella, a coming-of-age story called THE TURTLE BOY. The book sold moderately well and snagged some great reviews, but it wasn’t until it won the Bram Stoker Award that the remaining copies flew out the door.

This was, of course, great from both Don (Koish, publisher at NEP) and me. But as a result, interest in TTB was heightened, with no copies available to meet the sudden demand. 

Cut to the present. One of the questions I’m asked most frequently (second only to “Where the f*** is NEMESIS!??!?”) is: “Where can I find a copy of THE TURTLE BOY?”

Now, the majority of readers who ask this question are not hardcore book collectors. By that I mean that they are (ironically enough, like me) more likely to buy a $7.99 paperback or a $22.00 hardcover at Barnes & Noble than a $50.00 signed limited hardcover from a small press publisher. So when I find myself answering this query with: “There’s a copy on eBay right now for $90.00,” or “Have you checked ABEbooks for a copy?” ($100.00+), I know without a shadow of a doubt that it’s not the reply the reader wanted. I also know that there’s no way in hell they’re going to part with that much money for a novella, no matter how much they’d like to read it, and I don’t blame them one bit.

Sometimes I’ll suggest that they try to find a copy in their local library. Occasionally, they’re successful. More often, they’re not. There was even an interesting case where two copies of the book showed up in the catalog of one reader’s local library. When he couldn’t find them on the shelf, he asked at the desk and was informed by the librarian that they’d been stolen. I wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or annoyed. I settled for flattered because the thief obviously had discerning taste;-).

All of which leads us to the question du jour:

As a reader, would you purchase a copy of THE TURTLE BOY if it were made available in a cheaper edition (say, a $15.00 unsigned trade paperback)?

If you already own the hardcover signed limited edition, would you feel cheated if a less expensive edition were made available?

Personally I would love to get THE TURTLE BOY back out there, if only so the people who want to read it (and from the correspondence I’ve collected since 2004, there are quite a few of you) can get an affordable copy. But there are, of course, things to consider.

Just to clarify, this is a thought that’s been bouncing around my brain. I have not discussed it with any publishers. I’m just thinking out loud and curious to see what the reaction among readers/collectors might be.

Your two cents is, as always, appreciated.

Kealan