The creators of the children’s book, Snowpolcalypse, will be signing copies at a New Jersey store.
Author Rob Watts and illustrator Susan Saunders will be on hand from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday night at Bobby’s News & Gifts located at 521 Main Street in Boonton, New Jersey reading and signing Snowpolcalypse. You can find out what happens when Walter wishes for a snow day.
Don’t miss this chance to meet them and to pick up a perfect Christmas gift for your children.
Author Stacey Longo will be at the Douglas Library this coming Wednesday, Dec. 11, to discuss finding the path to becoming a published writer. Some of the topics she will be covering include writing habits, editing, successful query letters, the importance of editing, and recognizing unscrupulous publishers.
Longo is a former humor columnist for the Block Island Times and the author of Secret Things: Twelve Tales to Terrify and Pookie and the Lost & Found Friend. Her stories have appeared in dozens of anthologies and publications including Shroud magazine, Shock Totem, and the Litchfield Literary Review. She has also edited a number of books including the anthology Wicked Seasons: The Journal of New England Horror Writers, Volume II.
Longo’s presentation starts at 6:30 p.m. The library is located at 22 Main Street in Hebron, CT. Any questions, call the library at (860) 228-9312.
For more information on Longo, check out her website here.
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Jason Mewes and Brian O’Halloran to Host Panel & Autograph Session at Rock & Shock Rock & Shock may be less than two weeks away but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still a few surprises in store! And speaking of stores, one of those surprises includes the addition of Clerks stars Jason Mewes and Brian O’Halloran to the convention’s long list of special guests! The actors will not only be signing autographs but will host a panel entitled “I’m Not Even Supposed to Be Here” on Saturday at Worcester’s newly renovated DCU Center. Mewes will also be joining actor/writer/director Kevin Smith on stage at the Worcester Palladium on the convention’s opening night, Friday, October 18. The twosome will bring their famed characters, Jay and Silent Bob, to Rock & Shock with a viewing of their new animated film – Jay and Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie. Having brought the characters to life in several of Smith’s renowned films such as Clerks, Mallrats and Dogma, the legendary best buds from Jersey are back on the big screen to dispense weed and wisdom, this time in cartoon form. Audiences will have the opportunity to watch the new movie with its stars and then participate in rip-roaring Q&A and podcast recording afterwards. A special early screening of Smith’s Westboro Baptist Church-inspired horror flick Red State will precede the featured presentation. |
A.J. O’Connell
Q: Your newest book The Eagle & The Arrow is a sequel to Beware the Hawk. What are they about?
A: Beware the Hawk followed a couple of spectacularly bad days in the life of a young woman who was a courier for a secret organization called The Resistance.
The Eagle & The Arrow takes place about six months afterward, and features the young woman’s boss, a bureaucrat named Helen, who is tasked with cleaning up the mess created in the first book while keeping her decaying agency a secret and keeping her own career afloat.
Q: Did you always envision Beware the Hawk to be part of a trilogy of novellas?
A: I didn’t. Originally, my publisher contacted me about Beware the Hawk, because Vagabondage Press was putting together a series of novellas, and my editor remembered Beware the Hawk from a writers’ group we were both members of in 2003. It was only after Beware the Hawk was released that we decided to go ahead and make the book into a trilogy.
Q: Is the third one planned out already?
A: Well, no. I have some notes and outlines put together, but I haven’t figured out every step of the story.
Q: When did you start the series?
A: I wrote the first draft of Beware the Hawk 10 years ago, although I dreamed up the premise earlier. At the time I was a 25-year-old journalist, in my first writing group ever. When I didn’t have to cover a Tuesday night school board meeting for work, I went to writing group meetings in a local Barnes & Noble. Eventually, I needed some work to share with the group, so I started writing Beware the Hawk down.
Q: Will the series go beyond the three novellas?
A: I don’t know. Right now, the plan is to stick to a trilogy. I’d like the three books to form a neat little unit of storytelling. But you never know – I might revisit some of the characters with stories or books devoted to their character arcs later.
Q: What was the inspiration for the two books?
A: I started thinking up Beware the Hawk in 1999 and 2000. At the time, I was working in Boston and regularly visited friends who lived in New York and Connecticut at the time. I did a lot of traveling by public transit and I had a lot of time to think on those trips. It occurred to me that anyone on the bus could be carrying anything. This was before Sept. 11, and security wasn’t so tight, so I’d spend bus trips thinking about the sort of things a person could get away with.
The Eagle & The Arrow was inspired by recent events as much as by the original novella. I’m intrigued by the phenomenon of WikiLeaks as much as I am horrified by prison camps like Guantanamo Bay. I thought that, when the time came to write the second book, it would be appropriate to look at the first book in terms of terrorism, because although the word “terrorism” never occurred to me when I was writing Beware the Hawk, that’s what it’s about.
Q: When did you start writing?
A: I’ve been writing since childhood. My mother tells a story about me as a toddler, playing with my toys and trying to explain what a plot was, but I don’t remember that. I do remember writing my 
first novel as a freshman in high school. It was awful, but the hours I spent on it were the happiest of my day, and I used to read chapters to my friends over the phone. The fact that they put up with this proves that they were true friends.
Q: Has your occupation as a journalist helped with writing your books or writing fiction in general?
A: Now that I don’t work at a daily, yes, I think my experience helped me. As a reporter you learn to economize your language, and that can only strengthen writing. When I was writing for work every day, however, journalism took away from my fiction. I was too exhausted at the end of a day of writing to write anything creative.
Q: What newspaper do you work at and what have you done there and what do you do there currently?
A: I haven’t worked for a paper for a while, although I freelance when I can and both write and edit for a website. I worked for the Hour Newspapers in Norwalk from 2001 to 2010. I was education reporter, mostly, covering schools in several communities, but I also covered municipal business in Stamford, and I worked for a year or so covering entertainment for the features section. That was fun.
Q: You’re a teacher? What do you teach, where and how long have you taught?
A: I’m an adjunct at Norwalk Community College. I’ve taught journalism there since 2008. I advise the student newspaper, and developed our digital journalism course, which I also teach.
Q: You are an editor at the online magazine, Geek Eccentric. When did you start there and what drew you to the magazine?
A: I started at Geek Eccentric this past spring, after being recruited by John Hattaway, our publisher. John went to grad school with me at the Fairfield University MFA program and knew that I was into science fiction, fantasy and comics, so he asked me to join.
I was drawn to the site because it was a chance to continue work I enjoyed. When I worked for the Hour’s features section, I loved writing about entertainment. Geek Eccentric offered me a chance to write news and opinion blog posts about entertainment that appeal to me, so naturally I jumped at it.
Q: Do you have a writing routine?
A: When I’m not teaching, I try to write at least 500 words a day in the morning. I set writing goals weekly with another writer so that we have some accountability. We send each other our goals for the next week on the weekend, and then check in at the end of the week to see if we’ve made progress. It helps.
Q: You belong to the New England Horror Writers (NEHW) and Sisters in Crime. Do you belong to any other writing organizations? What drew you to these organizations?
A: This might sound odd, but my mother, who used to be a librarian (and who loves her a mystery) is the reason I joined Sisters in Crime. She picked up a pamphlet at an event and then made sure I couldn’t miss it. And of course a conversation I had with you and Stacey [Longo] are the reason I joined the NEHW.
Q: What has been one of the best experiences/conversations since becoming a published author?
A: Running into people who have read my book. On the street. While I was lugging groceries from the car to the house. That was pretty amazing; I felt like a celebrity. Also, hearing from people I don’t know on the Internet that they loved my book.
Q: Any advice for writers who are about to be published? Or just advice to writers in general?
A: Yes, and this is advice I have to take myself sometimes: Make the time to sit down and write. Don’t worry about what you’ll write or if it will be any good or not, just sit down and write as often as you can.
Q: Who are some of your favorite authors?
A: Margaret Atwood, John Steinbeck, Virgina Woolf, Flannery O’Connor and Graham Greene are some of my favorite literary authors, but I also love Terry Pratchett, George R.R. Martin, Frank Herbert and J.R.R. Tolkien. Despite his elvish poetry, I’ve loved Tolkien since I read The Hobbit in the fourth grade.
Q: What are some of your favorite books?
A: Oh, this could turn into a Top 50 list. Let me see if I can pick out a few. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is a favorite of mine. So is The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Graham Greene’s The Quiet American is another favorite. So is the original Dune, and Silence of the Lambs, both of which I’ve read over and over. Right now, however, I am most excited about A Song of Ice and Fire. I read all the books this spring, and George R.R. Martin cannot get The Winds of Winter published quickly enough. There’s an author who knows how to build suspense.
Thanks to A.J. for taking the time to do this interview for Jason Harris Promotions. You can find out more about her on her website here. You can purchase signed copies of her books at Books and Boos or through its website here.
You Gonna Die, Fly was released last month. It was my pleasure to talk to Elizabeth Massie and Barbara Spilman Lawson about their creation. Massie wrote the story while Barbara illustrated this cute book.
JH: When did you come up with the concept/idea of You Gonna Die, Fly? Did you two come up with it together? What inspired it?
Elizabeth: A couple years ago, while at NECON (a great July convention in Rhode Island), I bought a copy of It’s Okay to Be a Zombie by Nathaniel Lambert and Danny Evarts. It’s a total hoot, wild and over-the-top, and is marketed as an “unchildren’s book.” I started thinking about how much I get a kick out of books with bright, insane artwork, especially if they illustrate stories that are equally crude, fun, and crazy. I also was aware that summer of how many flies there seemed to be – buzzing around my car, some of the bushes in the yard, and banging into the windows and into me inside the house. I started jotting down ideas for a short tale featuring a fly and his life. Then I showed it to my sister Barb, whose cartoony artwork I adore. She agreed to create the illustrations. We pretty much forgot about it for almost two years, and then we talked it over again during one of our long road trips together (Barb is a professional storyteller, and I often travel with her to help out.)
Once Barb created the character of Fly, with his one little eye/one big eye and ball-shaped body, the rest flowed like fine wine. Or cheap wine. Or stinky swamp water. Okay, like something wet that pours.
Barbara: After Beth wrote the book, she asked me if I’d like to illustrate it. My art style is bold, colorful and cartoony, so a picture book was the perfect idea. And I loved the idea of a “NOT-for kids” picture book. I write and illustrate my own picture books (actually FOR kids – I was a Kindergarten teacher for over 20 years and a professional storyteller now) but I love the chance to illustrate for a different genre. (Is a totally tacky and rude not-for-kids picture book an actual genre? If not, it should be.)
JH: Was Fly going to be the main character all along or did it start out as something else?
Elizabeth: Fly was always going to be the main character. Flies in real life drive me crazy, all buzzy in my ears and hair and banging around and crawling on stuff, but I do have a bit of sympathy for them with their itty-bitty short lives and being flies and all. So I imagined what it might be like for a fly who wanted to search for the meaning of his life, even though he only had two weeks to make it happen.
JH: Barbara, is this the first book you have been the illustrator for? If not, what else have you illustrated?
Barbara: I wrote a children’s book with Beth (Jambo Watoto: Hello, Children, Creative Arts Press, 1998), which was illustrated by artist, Marsha Heatwole. It’s a beautiful art book for kids. But that’s not what you asked, is it? I am just finishing writing and illustrating my own picture book, How Many Words Does It Take To Write A Book? It will be available in September, but not published under the Fucked Up Folktales Publishing line. ‘Cause you know, since it actually is for kids. Thought that was good move. It will be published under Stories With A Twist Books publishing.
Elizabeth: Barb forgot to mention that she has also written and illustrated a number of entertaining picture books toward the Virginia Standards of Learning for public schools under her Fun Stuff Publications imprint. These books have been a hit with kids and lifesaver for teachers needing clear, fun, practical, and memorable materials to teach the standards.
JH: Elizabeth, you have worked with Cortney [Skinner] before? Why not on this book?
Elizabeth: Cortney has been hired to do the artwork and cover designs for a number of my novels and collections – such as the ones for Afraid, Sineater, The Fear Report, Sundown, Naked On the Edge, Homegrown –and he is incredibly talented! However, I’d wanted to collaborate with my sister Barb for a while, and You Gonna Die, Fly seemed like the perfect project. I knew her light-hearted and sometimes insane illustrative style and was sure she would push it over the edge where it belonged!
JH: How long did it take to write and illustrate You Gonna Die, Fly?
Elizabeth: It took me a little over a week, to write the story. Then I let it sit and went over it again for some tweaking. Then it sat and sat and then Barb got her hands on it.
Barbara: When I finally started working on the pictures (a couple of years after Beth first wrote the story), it took about six weeks to get everything finished and ready for printing. As I completed each picture, I sent it to Beth and she checked it out and gave some input. “I really like this one!” or “Well, that sucks the big one.” You know, helpful, constructive input.
JH: You just started Damn You, Demon. When do you think the public will be able to get their hands on it?
Elizabeth: Barb had drawn a round, red, ball-shaped demon picture for another project we have in the works and we realized that the style would be perfect for a second book in the Fucked Up Folktales line. We just came up with the idea a week or so ago, and we’re working on that as we speak. Or will get back to it after we speak here, in this interview. Anyway, I’m guessing it will be ready to order by early September.
Barbara: What she said.
JH: Is there a timetable for the publishing of your books?
Barbara: There is no set timetable for publishing, but hopefully we’ll get all our books published before we’re dead.
Elizabeth: I like selling things before I’m dead. And yes, we have ideas for books beyond Fly and Demon. Oh, we do indeed ….
JH: I loved the first one. It was informative and funny. I actually looked-up online to see if flies only lived two weeks. I didn’t want the story or Fly’s life to end. Did you do research for the book before writing or illustrating?
Barbara: I looked up pictures of flies to see what they are supposed to look like. Then I drew a ball with wings. I also gathered pictures of stinkbugs, ticks, bowl weevils, beetles and lightning bugs for reference (for the insect orgy page).
Elizabeth: Thanks, Jason! We didn’t want Fly’s life to end, either, but damn it, there ya go. As to flies’ lifespans, we checked to see how long they live. Some live just a couple weeks. Some live a month or a little more. Hey, we want our rude, crude, over-the-top, not-for-kids picture books to be based in facts!
JH: You named your publishing company, Fucked Up Folktales. How long did it take to come up with the name? Is there any significance to the name?
Elizabeth: It took about ten seconds to decide the name. I’d recently been hired to write retellings of folktales for a major educational publisher. I researched a lot of folktales and geez louise, a lot of them are messed up. In one country, about 80% of the folktales end with some dude getting his head cut off. Happy-happy folktales! So anyway, while Barb and I were driving into town for some errand or other (did I tell you we live next door to each other, out in the country, so we run errands together fairly often?) I was telling her about the crazy-ass stories. I blurted out, “Those are some fucked up folktales!” Barb got this look on her face and said, “That the name for our line of not-for-kids picture books! Perfect!” And, you see, since folktales are tales made up by and told by folks, and Barb and I like to think of ourselves as folks, we figure ours could be new folktales. Perhaps our little stories will live on into the future, told and retold, read and re-read, like those lovely ones where dudes get their heads cut off.
Barbara: Once we decided on the publishing company name, we got together with our web designer. She hesitated, angled her head a little and asked, “With that name, what if you get some people looking for porn?” And I asked, “Do they buy books?”
JH: How has the response been for the book?
Barbara: Fantastic! Here are excerpts from a few early reviews: “It’s freakin’ hilarious and adorable.” “I honestly thought it was one of the most clever and funniest things I’ve read in a long time!!!” “This book is the poop!” “I LOVE “You Gonna Die, Fly”!!!!! It’s dark and irreverent and … stinky. Perfect!”
JH: How would you describe it to people. A children’s book for adults?
Elizabeth: We purposely call it a “not-for-kids picture book.” We put the “not-for-kids” first for people who can only read and comprehend a few words at a time. Otherwise, they’ll be giving it away to babies to enjoy, and can you imagine the mayhem when babies start acting likes flies, cussing, smoking, drinking, emulating their favorite character? I shudder at the thought.
Barbara: We don’t want it mistaken in any way for a children’s book. We put a picture of Fly smoking a cigarette on the front cover, we described the book as the “Not-for-Kids” book on the back cover so we hope adults will take a little time to flip through it and see it is NOT a kid’s book. We hope it is very clear. We hope adults are that smart.
JH: Besides the website, are there any other places to purchase the book?
Elizabeth: At the moment, the only place to order them is either through our Fucked Up Folktales website, the You Gonna Die, Fly page (http://fuckedupfolktales.com/you-gonna-die-fly/) or through the You Gonna Die, Fly Facebook page (instructions are on the page.) Eventually, we’ll look into putting it on Amazon. After we figure how to do that.
Barbara: Yep, we’re working on it ….
The Book Shop in Somerville, MA. welcomes Dennis Lehane and several authors of Pink Narcissus Press next week.
On Wednesday, May 15, author Dennis Lehane, who grew up in Boston, will be talking about his books and giving a Q & A at 7 p.m. A book signing will follow.
Since his first novel, A Drink Before the War, won the Shamus Award, Lehane has published eight more novels with William Morrow & Co. that have been translated into more than 30 languages and become international bestsellers: Darkness, Take My Hand, Sacred, Gone, Baby, Gone, Prayers for Rain, Mystic River, Shutter Island, The Given Day, and Moonlight Mile.
Morrow also published Coronado, a collection of five stories and his play of the same name, in 2007. Coronado has received stage productions in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Genoa, Italy. Three of his novels — Mystic River, Gone, Baby, Gone, and Shutter Island — have been adapted into award-winning films.
His tenth novel, Live By Night, which was published last October, has just won an Edgar Award. The store will have tradesize paperback editions available for purchase as well as some of his other books.
On Saturday, May 18, a number of authors of Pink Narcissus Press will be at the bookstore at 3 p.m.
Pink Narcissus Press is a local publisher of quirky fantasy and other speculative fiction and is located in Auburn, Ma. The press is led by Rose Mambert along with the help of Bill Racicot. It’s novels and story collections boast authors from all over the world.
The May 18 event will feature these authors; Mambert from Auburn, Racicot from Medford, J.P. LaFond from Somerville, David Vernaglia from Providence, and Matt MacKenzie from Cambridge.
The Books Shop is located at 694 Broadway in Somerville.
Actor Crispin Hellion Glover (Back to the Future) will be at Real Art Ways this Friday and Saturday.
On Friday at 7 p.m., he will be presenting a film, It is Fine! Everything is Fine, that he co-directed with David Brothers. He will also be performing a one-hour dramatic narration of eight different illustrated books. The images from these books will be projected behind Glover. There will also be a Q&A and booksigning.
On Saturday at 7 p.m., he will be presenting his directorial debut, What Is It? He will also perform another one-hour dramatic narration, but a different one then the one on Friday night. He will also do a Q&A and sign books.
Books will be available on-site for purchasing.
The event costs $18 for RAW members and $20 for everyone else.
For more information, click here.
Real Art Ways is located at 56 Arbor Street in Harford, Connecticut. The phone number is (860) 232 1006.
The Book Shop in Somerville, MA. will be hosting author Chuck Hogan on Feb. 10 at 1 p.m. He will read from one of his novels, which will then be followed by a Q & A. This event is free.
Hogan is the New York Times bestselling author of several acclaimed novels, including The Town, which was previously published as Prince of Thieves and Devils in Exile. He has also co-authored The Strain trilogy (The Strain, The Fall and The Night Eternal) with writer and director Guillermo Del Toro.
The Book Shop is located at 694 Broadway in Somerville.
For more information about this event or upcoming events, check out the bookstore’s website here.
NEHW member Nathan Wrann will be screening his film, Burning Inside, at the Somerville Theater on Wednesday, Jan. 5. The film is part of the theater’s monthly screening series, All Things Horror Presents.
The Somerville Theater is located at 55 Davis Square in Somerville, MA. For more information about the theater, check out the venue’s website, www.somervilletheatreonline.com.
Burning Inside is an exploration of the intertwined nature of revenge and memory.
Burning Inside is the second feature from Wrann and his production company, Dalton Gang Productions. The production company was founded in 2006 by Wrann and his wife, Kimberly Dalton. They started the production company because they were dissatisfied with the caliber of modern independent horror movies and cult thrillers. They set out to create the kind of underground movies they would like to see. They want those movies to be literate and thought provoking in plot, brutal and unrelenting in tension.
Burning Inside is the first film distributed by Channel Midnight Releasing (www.channelmidnight.com), the new distribution label from respected cult filmmaker James Felix McKenney (Canniballistic!, Hypothermia) and producers Lisa Wisely (Automatons, Satan Hates You) and Chase Tyler of The Work Room Productions. The trailer is available at http://youtu.be/n6SLeg1STCU
Wrann is an independent filmmaker out of West Haven, Connecticut. He shot the film entirely in Connecticut. For more information about Wrann and his production company, check out the website www.daltongang-productions.com.
There will be a Q & A with director/producer Nathan Wrann after the showing. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased either at the door or online at http://www.allthingshorroronline.net. Doors open at 7:30 pm. For more information call (617) 869-3690 or email allthingshorroronline@yahoo.com
Jason Harris Promotions 