George R.R. Martin’s FEVRE DREAM
Why, you might ask yourself, am I talking about a decades-old novel by a writer with more riches than Croeses when I, a writer whose last big purchase was a Wii for my children (including the MarioKart Fun Pack!®), have my own second novel set to be released in five days?
Because I’m an idiot? Perhaps.
Or maybe it’s because George R.R. Martin deserves it.
Dark Brilliance
When Mark Sieber at the Horror Drive-In stated that Fevre Dream should’ve won the Best Vampire Novel of the Century Award at this year’s Stokers, I simply frowned at my monitor. Not only did I not agree with him—how the heck can you place any book above Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend?!—I hadn’t even heard of the novel.
Now I’m seriously considering turning in my “Well Read for My Age” badge. I mean, how the heck did I not hear of this amazing novel before?
Here’s why you should read this book if you haven’t.
1. Abner Marsh
I’m Abner Marsh, and today I’m here to talk about Dr. Scholl’s Freeze Away Wart Medication
I’ve never met a protagonist like Abner Marsh. I suspect that’s because no one else has written one quite like him. He’s gruff and profane and shockingly unattractive.
And I loved him. I loved his warts, I loved his obesity, I love the fact that he became an abolitionist gradually and didn’t leap into the cause the way most writers would have forced him to. But I suppose I just gave a little of the book away, and I promise I’ll try not to do that anymore. Believe me, you’ll want to savor this novel’s little surprises completely unspoiled.
Abner March is one of the novel’s major surprises. I’ll be honest. During the novel’s early stages, I kept waiting for the real protagonist to show up. I thought I’d briefly found him when we were introduced to a character named Sour Billy (which is really the book’s only other third person point-of-view), but a couple paragraphs of his wretched world view disabused me of that notion. No, it became apparent that Abner Marsh was the character on which the book would sink or swim (hardy-har), and man, does Abner swim beautifully! It’s not hyperbole to state that he became one of my favorite characters in all of fiction. That’s right. He’s up there with Stephen King’s Stu Redman and Ray Bradbury‘s Guy Montag.
Abner Marsh is amazing. And largely because of him (hardy-har-har), the novel is amazing too.
2. It’s immersive.
If you’ve ever gotten completely lost inside the world of a book, you’ll know what I mean. That’s the kind of yarn
Family Portrait
this is. The details are so well-chosen and the atmosphere so rich that you’ll find yourself daydreaming about the Mississippi River, about steam boating and stopping by woodyards to barter for more fuel. During idle moments you’ll smell the dank, dark waters. Late at night, after you’ve extinguished the lights, you’ll wonder about Joshua York’s vampire history and how plausible it feels. Could such things exist?
And that leads me to the last reason you should delay all other reads (except for House of Skin and The Sorrows, of course!) to make room for this fine novel…
3. It’s scary.
Did I mention that this is a horror novel? I might not have, because that’s not all it is. Sure, it features vampires and shocking brutality (including a scene that made me put the book down, walk away from it, and gather myself to finish the episode; those of you who’ve read it will likely know the scene to which I’m referring…the only hint I’ll give you is that the paternal urge in me was ten steps beyond horrified at something that takes place in the main ballroom, something so hideous that I had nightmares about it); yet it’s also an incredible slice of history, a deeply moving tale of an unlikely friendship, and a testament to the power of loyalty between two individuals.
This is Damon Julian. He’s a ruthless, frightening bastard. He does unspeakable things in this novel. He’s also responsible for my nightmares. Let’s move along now, shall we?
Now, for the purposes of full disclosure, I’ll give you my own five favorite vampire novels of the twentieth century:
1. Salem’s Lot, by Stephen King
2. Fevre Dream, by George R.R. Martin
3. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
4. The Keep, by F. Paul Wilson
5. (tie) Some of Your Blood, by Theodore Sturgeon
(tie) Live Girls, by Ray Garton
What would a vampire be without a character like this one?
Oh, and one more thing. Who am I kidding—the Wii was for me too! And don’t even think about challenging me on Shy Guy Beach. I’m a banana-droppin’, crab-avoidin’, wheely-poppin’ daddy!
Me in my glory
HOUSE OF SKIN launches in eleven days (and I geek out about Joe R. Lansdale)…
Hey, friends. Lots of big stuff happening lately. The Sorrows continues to kick butt (including a new and awesome review from the very cool Gef Fox at the Wag the Fox blog). I booked a spot on an Indianapolis radio show in June. And thanks to Mark Justice I’ll be appearing on the next Pod of Horror episode along with Joe R. Lansdale.
Yep, that was a name drop. An unadulterated, shameless name drop.
My Pod of Horror Partner
But can you blame me? Joe R. Lansdale, people. JOE R. LANSDALE. His Ownself. The man responsible for too many of my favorite books to count. The East Texas guru of fiction who wrote The Bottoms (which deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as To Kill a Mockingbird). The genius behind The Nightrunners, Act of Love, and Hap and Leonard.
HAP AND FREAKING LEONARD!!!
Okay, I’ll stop now.
Because there’s something else huge on the horizon.
It’s called HOUSE OF SKIN. It’s my second novel, and it’s going to drop in ten days. You know, I always wanted to announce that something was about to drop. I figured it would feel pretty cool to say. However, having now said it, I feel like I’ve debased myself. Let’s move on, please, before I feel any worse…
Here’s the gorgeous Angela Waters cover:
And here’s the short synopsis:
“Myles Carver is dead. But his estate, Watermere, lives on, waiting for a new Carver to move in. Myles’s wife, Annabel, is dead too, but she is also waiting, lying in her grave in the woods. For nearly half a century she was responsible for a nightmarish reign of terror, and she’s not prepared to stop now. She is hungry to live again…and her unsuspecting nephew, Paul, will be the key.
Julia Merrow has a secret almost as dark as Watermere’s. But when she and Paul fall in love they think their problems might be over. How can they know what Fate—and Annabel—have in store for them? Who could imagine that what was once a moldering corpse in a forest grave is growing stronger every day, eager to take her rightful place amongst the horrors of Watermere?”
HOUSE OF SKIN will be available on June 5th. You can pre-order here, here, or here. Or anywhere else with good literary taste. And after you buy that one, why not pick up Joe R. Lansdale’s new novel, Edge of Dark Water? It’s my next read, so if you buy it we can have our own little book club. I promise not to talk about anything dropping (except my jaw dropping at being on the same show as, well, you know).
(Addendum: I’ll be on the same show as Joe R. Lansdale—not in the same segment. If I actually sat in the same booth with Joe R. Lansdale, I’d be too awestruck to talk.)
Unveiling THE DARKEST LULLABY Cover Art…
Hey, all! How’s the gang? Great? ME TOO!
Okay, now that I’ve gotten the false enthusiasm out of the way—the work is piled about shoulder-high right now; papers to grade, my fourth novel to finish and edit, taking care of my children, who I last saw playing near that abandoned toxic waste site—I’ll stop sounding like a corporate manager trying to drum up employee enthusiasm on a Monday morning.
However, I do have something pretty cool to show you.
There’s a cover artist over at Samhain Publishing named Angela Waters. She designs covers. Really awesome covers. Sure, some of her covers feature scantily clad people (after all, Samhain does publish a bunch of romance). But her horror covers include no smoldering gazes or swooning housewives sandwiched between power lifters. Her horror covers…well, they look something like this:
I don’t know your opinion on the above artwork, but I can tell you mine. When I first received this cover—which by the way is for my third novel THE DARKEST LULLABY, due out in early 2013 from Samhain Horror—my first reaction was a rapid intake of breath. Then I said, “Whoa.”
Yep, pretty eloquent.
Then my lips formed a goofy half-grin that I held for a good seven minutes. Then I scurried to the bedroom (where my wife was watching Weeds) and showed my wife the cover. “Wow,” was her response. She obviously liked it, which was made even clearer when she stared at it for a full twelve seconds before turning back to Elizabeth Perkins and Kevin Nealon.
This cover, by the way, is the third one Angela has done for my novels. The first was for THE SORROWS:
The second was for HOUSE OF SKIN, which I’ll start talking about a lot next week (ebook launching on June 5th!!!!!):
So, thank you Angela Waters. You’re three-for-three! Thank you also to Don D’Auria for acquiring this novel. And thank you to my agent Louise Fury for selling it.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to gaze at the old-fashioned stroller and the eerie woods surrounding it some more.
Photo of me just after opening the cover art email for THE DARKEST LULLABY
New Review and My Daughter
Yeah, yeah, I know the order of those title topics should’ve been switched, but I figured I’d get the business out of the way before I got all gushy on ya. So the business…
You. Complete. Me.
The above daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe—and I’m not gonna lie; I selected that portrait not only because I hadn’t seen it as much as the others, but because it allowed me to use the word daguerreotype—captures the man as I want to remember him: intense, brilliant. Slightly mad. Not as the poor substance abuser who married his neighbor’s goat, or whatever it is people say about him. That’s the problem with Poe—you write stuff that weird and that amazing and people figure they can make up whatever they want about you. Folks will simply lap it up.
But I bring up Poe because Erin El-Mehairi (mastermind of the “Oh, for the Hook of a Book” blog) brought up Poe when she was talking about me.
Yeah, I’ll take that.
To read her full review, you can click right here. I really enjoyed it. And if you read The Sorrows and think I’m a psychopath, feel free to make up all sorts of untrue tales about me and my neighbor’s livestock. Like I said, any utterance of my name in the same sentence as Poe’s makes me a happy man!
Now for the most jarring and bizarre subject change of all time…
Rapunzel and Eugene
I don’t know if Poe would’ve liked Tangled or not, but my four-year-old daughter sure does.
I do too. No, I really do. In fact, I love it. It’s one of my favorite movies, and if you just lost respect for me and my movie tastes, you and your cold cynic’s attitude can go here for a heart transplant:
Snapshot from an early Gwar concert
Back to Tangled. Or more specifically, back to my daughter.
I’m very thankful for her. That’s all I really wanted to say.
Of course, I’m thankful for all three of my kids, as well as my wife, but tonight I’m especially happy about my little Sparkle (and if you think that’s a nauseating nickname, you should hear the thirty-seven other things I call her).
Watching Tangled (for the one-hundred-and-sixteenth time) was a blessing. Holding her in my lap and laughing with her at the funny parts and covering her eyes at the scary parts and letting a couple tears soak into her hair during the moving parts…all of it was a blessing.
That’s all.
Go read the review of The Sorrows. And re-read some Poe. And then watch Tangled. And if you got nauseated during this post, don’t feel too bad. I probably would have too if it were somebody else being all mushy about his kid.
Double-Shot of Good News (NEW AGENT AND NOVEL #3!)
From Publishers Marketplace:
“Jonathan Janz’s THE DARKEST LULLABY, in which a young couple moves into an isolated country estate to raise a family, but the monstrous cult leaders who owned the land before them are hungry to return from the grave, and need one thing to make their resurrection complete: the couple’s baby, to Don D’Auria at Samhain Publishing, for publication in early 2013, by Louise Fury at L. Perkins Agency (World English).”
The two most important bits of information you no doubt noticed from the announcement were a) my third novel sold (!) and b) I have an agent (! again). I’ll be posting much more about this soon, but for tonight this’ll have to do. I’ve got some editing to do on Novel #4 and then some reading in George R.R. Martin‘s Fevre Dream.
I have a lot to tell you about my new agent, the awesome Louise Fury, and my third novel with Don D’Auria and Samhain Publishing. But for now I’ll just say that THE DARKEST LULLABY is very different than anything I’ve done so far, and that I really love the novel. It’s got a weird Paranormal Activity-meets-The Shining-meets-Rosemary’s Baby vibe that—
Enough. More later.
And by the way, the picture above reminds me of the forest in THE DARKEST LULLABY.
*cue evil laughter*
Thank You Captain America: A Guest Blog by Hunter Shea
Today I’d like to welcome an excellent writer and an extremely cool person to my blog. Hunter Shea seized everyone’s attention last October when Samhain Horror published his debut novel Forest of Shadows. Dreadful Tales called it “an amazing haunted house story,” and I completely concur. Hunter was kind enough to stop by to share the origins of (and an excerpt from) his new novel Evil Eternal.
Take it away, Hunter!
♦
You don’t always know when the seeds for a book are planted. We writers like to think they’re hand delivered by a beautiful muse in the night, but I’ve yet to see the nymph come waltzing through my door.
Captain America in an intimate art house film opening this weekend
About a month ago, I was going through my old comic book collection that I store at my parent’s house and thumbed through my Captain America box (Cap being my all time fave…I even have his shield tattooed on my arm). I found my two favorite issues from 1981 and took them home to re-read them for the first time in decades.
It was a mind blowing experience. In these issues (#253 & 254 for you comic fans), Cap is summoned to England to help an old friend from his days in WWII as one of the Invaders. It appears that a vampire is on the loose, and only Captain America can stop the bloodshed.
Holy crap! Right there, in the faded color panels of my favorite comics, were the beginnings of my fascination with horror in comic books. And right there is where my book, Evil Eternal, was born, even though it would be well over 20 years before I would actually write it. My heart raced while I read those comics. It’s not very often where you get to see behind the curtain of your own subconscious.
So, this is why I love over-the-top action mixed with larger than life characters, all dancing to the tune of a demented horror maestro (me being that maestro). I’ve always wondered where the characters and cadence of Evil Eternal really came from, aside from an overactive, fractured imagination.
Thanks to Captain America, I know.
Here is an excerpt from Evil Eternal. I think you’ll see the comic book influence…
Outside, it was starting to feel like yet another snowstorm was about to burst from the skies. Father Michael, hearing Aimee’s name mentioned inside, turned to Shane and growled, “Hold on to my shoulders, now!”
Shane checked to make sure his earplugs were in place and grabbed hold of the priest’s rock-hard shoulders. “It’s about…”
He was cut off as Father Michael jumped straight into the air, soaring across the street and above the Javits Center. His stomach flipped several times over as cold air bit into his face.
“You can fly?” Shane shouted. His hair blew out, stiff in the rushing wind.
“Only jump,” Father Michael surprisingly answered. “Very far.”
Two snipers stationed on the roof watched their approach. They were too shocked to even consider taking aim and pulling the trigger. Nothing in their training had prepared them for taking down flying people. Father Michael’s black overcoat billowed out behind him like great bat wings as they descended through the reinforced glass roof, shattering a section to pebbled bits. It was a long way down to the center of the main convention floor and Shane was sure they would be crushed from the impact. They landed with a loud thud, smack in the center of the main aisle, not far from the stage. Father Michael didn’t even grunt as his feet slammed into the concrete.
People around them jumped back, slamming into their neighbors in a blind panic. Those seated around them thrust their hands over their heads as the crushed glass rained down on them like hail.
♦
*Pick up your ebook copy of Evil Eternal today. You won’t be disappointed.
New Interview, First Author Photo, and Some Updates
Quick post tonight, which is sad and ironic. Okay, maybe just sad, since I haven’t posted in a couple weeks. Why haven’t I posted? Well, the obvious and boring reason is that I’ve been too dang busy to post. The better answer, which also happens to be true, is that I’ve been extraordinarily busy with authorly things.
I’ll have some good news soon. Nay, great news. But since I just used the word nay the way I just did, I don’t deserve to share any good news. In fact, stop reading now. I’m serious. That was one of the dorkiest moments I’ve ever had as a blogger. And I just called myself a blogger, which is another reason to leave now. Please, before the dork quotient rises into six digits.
Man, I hate myself right now.
Still there?
Okay, so some updates:
The decidedly un-dorky Meli over at Dreadful Tales interviewed me yesterday. In it I talk quite a bit about my upcoming June release, the above-pictured House of Skin. And if any of you are interested in seeing what I look like, you can check out the interview link and see me. Sort of.
She also talked about The Sorrows the day before. Here’s that.
Oh, and for those of you wondering if I ever got sick (you know, the last part of my previous blog post?)…
I did.
Oh, did I ever.
Future poets will write odes to the depths of sickness to which I sank. Sculptors will carve statues out of vomit-colored marble. Painters will conjure horrid canvases by mixing pinks and browns and what look like oak leaves.
So yeah, I got pretty sick.
Until next time, Faithful Readers. Some very big news is on the horizon…
My Bedroom Floor after the Recent Illness
FEARnet loves THE SORROWS (and I await my fate…)
Last week I got the exciting, elating, add-any-adjective-that-begins-with-an-e-unless-it’s-exasperating-or-erratic news that FEARnet (an awesome cable network and horror website) went wild for my debut novel The Sorrows.
The review (by Blu Gilliand) is right here. And here. And here. It’s the same link, but I enjoyed the review so much that I wanted you to have multiple opportunities to click it.
A couple of highlights:
“Jonathan Janz makes an impressive debut with The Sorrows, a gruesome confection that blends beloved elements of B-movies and pulp novels in a wickedly fun read. Reviews of the book, which came out in December of 2011 from Samhain Publishing, have drawn comparisons to Richard Laymon, comparisons which proved to be dead-on.”
And…
“The Sorrows is what paperback (or, these days, eBook) horror novels are all about – an engaging premise, a spooky location, lots of blood, a terrifying creature, and, ultimately, a satisfying read. Janz has set the bar high with his debut, but I have a feeling he’s got a lot more tricks up his sleeve.”
So there you go.
And as happy as that review made me, I’m plagued with an ominous feeling tonight. You see, a family we’re friends with got violently sick a few days ago, and members of my family happened to be around them the day after, and…
My family just before last night's explosion...
Yeah. My son got incredibly ill last night (I sound like a Facebook post, don’t I? I SWORE I’d never talk about my vomiting children. BAD daddy! BAD DADDY!). One of my daughters then did her best Linda Blair impression (about seventeen times, the final eruption occurring just after four a.m.—Did I mention I’m the designated nausea nurse and regurgitated-mess-cleaner-upper in our house?). My youngest (fifteen-months-old) seems to be okay thus far, but my wife took her turn feeling like sweating death earlier this evening.
Which leaves me.
So here I sit, blithely typing a blog post, but deep down knowing that my time very well might be coming.
Wish me well. I’m going to read some Jack Ketchum. Let’s hope that’s as disturbing as my night gets.
*takes deep breath, hits Publish, and steps tremblingly away from keyboard*
HorrorHound Weekend (or How Angry My Nineteen-Year-Old Self Would Be at Me for Not Meeting Sherilyn Fenn)
I got back from HorrorHound Weekend (Columbus, OH) the same day I left. I couldn’t bear being away from my family longer than about eighteen hours (yeah, I’m a loser), so I only took in the Saturday portion of the convention.
But boy, what a Saturday it was.
I’ve been thinking all week—when I’ve had time to think, that is—about how to summarize my day at HorrorHound, but I’ve failed to come up with any kind of unifying theme. So you’ll have to go without.
What I will share is a list of observations. Starting with…
If I wasn’t already excited about being a part of the Samhain Horror stable of authors—and believe me, I was—I felt even more grateful after Saturday. Not only did Samhain sponsor the HorrorHound Weekend event, they set up a nifty booth with hourly raffles, free prizes, awesome-looking posters, and a book-signing studio for yours truly. I could go on at length about how wonderful Mackenzie and Amanda were and how incredible Dawn and the other Amanda were, but to save time, I’ll just say this:
If you’ve ever written a novel, you know what a solitary, thankless endeavor that can sometimes be. People respond to your declaration of novel-writing with a mixture of apathy, pity, or barely-concealed derision.
This was the opposite of that. The Samhain crew made me feel special, wanted, and important, even if I’m none of those things (okay, I am pretty special, but that’s beside the point). So before I go any further…THANK YOU TO SAMHAIN!
See the dude up there? Yep, Norman Reedus. I guess he’s on some show called The Walking Dead. I wouldn’t know because the guy was too busy fleeing a slavering armada of female fans that was twice as frightening as any group of zombies could hope to be. I’m betting he brings his crossbow to the next convention.
Formative Gaze
Those of you familiar with Sherlilyn Fenn (smoldering at you from above) won’t be surprised to learn that I had a fairly sizable crush on her in my teens and early twenties. She was at HorrorHound, but I didn’t see her. Maybe she was fleeing, too (no, not from me!).
But I did meet…
Lynn Lowry Reacts to the Basement Scene in The Sorrows
The above actress looked very familiar to me (her booth was stationed across from mine). When I finally got the time to go over to her, I was delighted to learn her name was Lynn Lowry and that I’d seen her in such cool films as The Crazies and Cat People (from which the screen cap above is taken). She was kind, gracious, and even more importantly, she got a copy of my debut novel. No word yet on whether or not The Sorrows has given her nightmares…
I saw Pam Grier at the convention (pointing a gun at you below)…
…but I didn’t see Tippi Hedren.
At the Bodega Bay Aviary
I got to meet an extremely cool (and even more talented) writer named Sheri Holman. If you don’t know that name yet, you soon will. Just check out this New York Times Editors’ Choice review of her fantastic fourth novel. The wackiest part was, she signed and gifted me a copy of her book and bought a signed copy of mine! This despite the fact that an unsigned copy of The Sorrows is worth a fortune (thanks to Hugh Grant and the screenwriters of Notting Hill for that joke).
She Got Game
My booth was caddy-cornered from Doug Bradley, who is better known as Hellraiser‘s Pinhead. I didn’t talk to him. Didn’t make eye contact either.
Reliving my fourteen-year-old nightmares
On that unsettling note, I’ll say this: HorrorHound rocked. The atmosphere was genial, the people good-natured. I found the staff to be polite and organized. I found the fans to be outstanding and quite wise in their choice of reading material. I sold and signed books steadily through the day, and I even got my first fan picture taken.
So this blog post is dedicated to Adam and his very cool wife. You two and all the rest made my first convention as a “guest” a memorable one.
“A Splendid, Creepy Read”
Is there anything more exciting than waking up to a great review?
Wait a minute—please don’t answer that. Jeesh, people!
Now that you’ve gotten your minds off of Angelina Jolie and Ryan Gosling, I’d like to share a brand-spankin’ new review of my debut novel THE SORROWS. Literal Remains had this to say…
“This is top quality midnight movie stuff.”
And…
“The Sorrows is a splendid, creepy read, and a good start to what I hope is a long and fruitful career for Mr. Janz.”
The full review: http://www.literalremains.com/the-sorrows/
Folks, I’ll take that over napalm in the morning, a hot cup of java, or a leather-clad Lara Croft every day of the week. Although I do enjoy my coffee…
So have you read The Sorrows yet? If not, you can get it right here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Sorrows-ebook/dp/B00699SD5A/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1330993416&sr=1-1
Now turn off that old VHS copy of Tomb Raider and discover the world of Castle Blackwood!
Don't go in the basement...
