Author Discussions

[Dan Hocker]

Hi Guys,

I used the forum upgrade as an opportunity to move the author discussions around. Now they're sub sections of this "Author Discussion" forum. You can also start new threads in here for any authors you want to talk about. Or if there's any existing threads somewhere else you think belong here, just let me know and I'll move them. Thanks!

[Martin]

Hi Guys,

I used the forum upgrade as an opportunity to move the author discussions around. Now they're sub sections of this "Author Discussion" forum. You can also start new threads in here for any authors you want to talk about. Or if there's any existing threads somewhere else you think belong here, just let me know and I'll move them. Thanks!

Thank You!

[Knightmare]

Not sure this is what is usual on a board like this, but I'll share about Joe Lansdale and just how cool a person he is.

I grew up in Nacogdoches, TX. It's a deep east texas, mostly redneck but regional college town. It has everything from a confederate flag waving practically open KKK groups to super hippy peace and love movement clans. My dad would certainly fall toward the latter of the two and being extremely outgoing and large party thrower, I met many characters growing up.

We had a grey haired flamboyantly gay & daisy duke wearing twirler who would roam the town (great person, passed away a few years ago), we had the people from that church that has signs that say "Gods hates fags" layer themselves across our main thoroughfare, and we even had a guy known as 70s Peter because this man truly thought it was still the 1970s. Combine these people with a strong poetry crowd and fun when not truly impressive music scene and it could make sense that Joe Lansdale wouldn't stick out even if wanted to. And he doesn't want to.

He has a dojo there and that was basically all I knew about his personal life. He was always at the art parties, incredible affairs where artists of all types would flock to one location (for about a decade they were at our house) around the holidays and bring something they were proud of that year. It was everything from wood work to paintings to things like Joe's Horny Frankenstein story that was printed with art onto a board. Everyone would put a number on and in the end everyone would grab numbers from a hat and it was pretty magical as a young person to see all this creativity being both presented to world, given away, and being received. Joe's work has been hanging up in my original home for years, and I never had a clue who he was.

I suppose I had a slight clue that Joe was a fairly big writer. My dad tossed me Writer of the Purple Rage when I was in my early teens and I remember thinking it reminded me of Stephen King only instead in East Texas and often more vile...which I liked. The man never once brought it up, though. He was and is a very good friend of my dad. They even go to movies together, and I never once heard him speak about his success. It took me moving away and start reading and collecting to realize how far his writing spread and how much people really dig what he has done. It's kind of surreal to be in search of lettered editions now of a guy who my dad would toss me books of for free, and who goes by the downtown book store and just signs everything when he's there.

Lansdale is truly a class act, as are many of the friends of my parents. It's always nice to realize about someone that their sensibilities and personality aren't affected by success and I wanted to share the story.

Also, The Bottoms, all the Hap and Leonard stuff, and the Thicket are my favorites but having a private showing of Bubba Ho-tep with Bruce Campbell was damn epic.

[jeffingoff]

Blake Crouch question:

For those who have read both, what's better Recursion or Dark Matter?

[RonClinton]

Blake Crouch question:

For those who have read both, what's better Recursion or Dark Matter?

DARK MATTER.

RECURSION is good, but the repetition that’s part and parcel of the story and the way it’s told can get a little wearying.

[jeffingoff]

DARK MATTER.

RECURSION is good, but the repetition that’s part and parcel of the story and the way it’s told can get a little wearying.

Thanks Ron. I'm thinking of getting a book from VJ Books and I loved PINES. So I'm thinking it'll be a Crouch book.

[RonClinton]

Thanks Ron. I'm thinking of getting a book from VJ Books and I loved PINES. So I'm thinking it'll be a Crouch book.

It’s hard to go wrong with either, but DARK MATTER was my favorite of the two. Hope you enjoy whichever you pick, and I look forward to the unboxing. :-)

[TacomaDiver]

The Googles reminded me that last year was the epic Joe Hill Meetup with Internet Strangers (well, Brian861 isn't a stranger to us on the internet!)

IMG_0061.jpgIMG_0073.jpg

[TacomaDiver]

Not sure if if this is the right forum, but hey, there aren't any rules here, right?

Anyways, yesterday I discovered that Steve Rasnic Tem is a local author (just like Stephen Graham Jones is local!) and one of our independent website posted a pretty good article about him yesterday - https://www.westword.com/arts/this-c...orror-20773703

I even sent this to Jerad at Centipede since the only reason I was aware of SRT is from CP's books. I own a handful but still haven't ever read anything by him (or his wife.) Jerad said they used to be neighbors awhile back which is kind of fun.

[Sock Monkey]

Not sure if if this is the right forum, but hey, there aren't any rules here, right?

Anyways, yesterday I discovered that Steve Rasnic Tem is a local author (just like Stephen Graham Jones is local!) and one of our independent website posted a pretty good article about him yesterday - https://www.westword.com/arts/this-c...orror-20773703

I even sent this to Jerad at Centipede since the only reason I was aware of SRT is from CP's books. I own a handful but still haven't ever read anything by him (or his wife.) Jerad said they used to be neighbors awhile back which is kind of fun.

Thanks for this post. I had no idea that he was receiving a lifetime achievement award this year from the HWA. I'm a BIG fan of Rasnic Tem's work and was just contemplating pulling one of his Centipede collections down for my next read. I think my first encounter with him was in one of the Hot Blood anthologies (anybody remember those?) and I've been a fan ever since. It seems like he's hardly ever brought up in discussions, so I'm glad he's getting some time in the spotlight with this award.

[TacomaDiver]

Awesome! Glad someone got something from it!

[RonClinton]

Thanks for this post. I had no idea that he was receiving a lifetime achievement award this year from the HWA. I'm a BIG fan of Rasnic Tem's work and was just contemplating pulling one of his Centipede collections down for my next read. I think my first encounter with him was in one of the Hot Blood anthologies (anybody remember those?) and I've been a fan ever since. It seems like he's hardly ever brought up in discussions, so I'm glad he's getting some time in the spotlight with this award.

Sure, those HOT BLOOD anthologies ed. by Jeff Gelb were consistently the best of the "erotic horror" anthos that were so popular for a time. I remember there were quite a few before they pulled the plug on the series...had to be close to ten, yes? Had them all but ditched them at some point when I got burnt out on extreme horror and the erotic horror stuff just got lumped in on the purge.

I enjoy Tem's work, too...nice to see him get the recognition he deserves.