6/17/26
Lunch meet-up with comic artist Mike Hawthorne today, in which we will talk shop and complain about the lot of you.
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Lot of movie-related stuff happening yesterday:
The first draft screenplay for a big budget adaptation of one of my books got turned in yesterday afternoon. I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say about it and what I’m not, so that’s all I’m going to say for now, until either the producers or the screenwriter says more.
I got invited to a movie premiere in NYC for this Thursday night. Red carpet and the whole shebang. It would be good for me to attend, as far as networking goes, as I continue to dive more into the producer role on things, but I simply don’t have the bandwidth. Any other month, I could pull it off, but this month I am simply drowning in stuff. Mary, who is always up for a fancy affair, is a little disappointed, but she’s also super supportive and understanding, as she knows all too well the workload and pressure weighing on me right now. Plus, she’s got deadlines of her own, as well. (We do plan on a quick trip to New Jersey this weekend to visit her parents, but even that is going to be abbreviated).
Post-production continues on DEAD FORMAT. We have a composer attached now, so look for an announcement on that soon. Lombardo and I are going to view the rough cut weekend after next, and then go scouting for a theater for our cast and crew premiere. (We need seating for over 100+ and most of the movie theaters around here have transformed into those ones with the broad reclining seats that seat 30 to 60 max). And the final (to my knowledge) backer Walking Tour takes place next Tuesday.
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The latest small press to begin a slow implosion due to their own nonsense is Atthis Arts, a sci-fi publisher based in Detroit. (Because yes, that tale as old as time isn’t limited to just horror. It happens in other genres, too). One of the impacted authors is Emma Burnett, who as I understand it, just had her first novel released by them this month. I have not read the book, but I have read some of her short fiction, and enjoyed it. She’s very much worth checking out. She has a Patreon here. Always good to support authors, but especially good to support them when their publisher is flaming out.
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Women In Horror Year: Day 60
Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest
Although she was orphaned at birth, Eden Moore is never alone. Three dead women watch from the shadows, bound to protect her from harm. But outside her aunt's house a gunman waits, convinced that Eden is destined to follow her wicked great-grandfather, an African magician with the power to curse the living and raise the dead.
Now Eden must decipher the ghostly trio's secret before a new enemy more dangerous than the fanatical assassin destroys what is left of her family. She will sift through lies in a Georgian ante-bellum mansion and climb through the haunted ruins of an abandoned hospital, desperately seeking the truth that will save her beloved aunt from the curse that threatens her life . . .
THE RISING wasn’t the only big debut novel in 2003 to make a splash as a small press edition and then get rereleased a year later in mass market format. Originally released by Marietta Publishing, Four and Twenty Blackbirds quickly garnered much-deserved buzz among fans of ghost stories and southern gothics. It was heavily expanded and released in mass market paperback by Tor in 2005. (I have a copy of each — the original in a nice protective Mylar sleeve and the paperback well-read and dogeared).
The first of a trilogy, Four and Twenty Blackbirds earned praise from a mind-boggling cross-genre spectrum of writers, including Joe R. Lansdale, Ramsey Campbell, LA Banks, Cory Doctorow, and Heather Graham. A lushly rendered dark fantasy, the novel is a slow burn of quiet, atmospheric creepiness that ups the scare factor with each subsequent chapter (something I’ve always felt is the key to a successful ghost story) and doesn’t shy away from the truly horrific. There’s also a (at the time of its publication) surpising sense of humor in the book, which makes the scary scenes all the more effective. All in all, it was a powerhouse of a debut from a powerhouse of a writer. If you are a new reader, or new to the genre, this is a seminal work from the early 2000s that you really should have on your TBR pile.
Four and Twenty Blackbirds is available in paperback and Kindle from Tor Books.
