On The Nightstand

MYSTERIES OF THE DIOGENES CLUB
by Kim Newman
Monkey Brain Books

It's a working weekend for me, but I wanted to make sure I mentioned the book currently sitting on my nightstand, Kim Newman's MYSTERIES OF THE DIOGENES CLUB. Anyone who knows me know two things about me -- I like Doctor Who and I love Kim Newman's books. This is third collection of Kim's incredible short stories featuring various incarnations of the Diogenes Club.

I first encountered Kim's take on the Diogenes Club in a series of inter-connected stories in Stephen Jones' excellent DARK DETECTIVES anthology, and I've been hooked ever since. Those stories are actually in this collection, which is nice, since I'm a little afraid to touch my DARK DETECTIVES hardcover after getting it signed by both Steve and Kim a few years ago. It holds pride of place in my office, along with my signed HERETICS OF DUNE, SHADOWLAND, and my shelf of random signed F. Paul Wilson novels.

Needless to say, I highly recommend this latest collection, along with the previous Diogenes Club collections, THE MAN FROM THE DIOGENES CLUB, and SECRET FILES OF THE DIOGENES CLUB. These stories hit all the right notes for me, and each time Newman puts out a new collection, I feel a powerful urge to grab people on the street and tell them to go buy a copy.

So, yeah... go buy a copy.

On The Nightstand: The Mostly eBook Edition

A pretty eclectic batch of books on the nightstand right now, and for the first time the majority of them are ebooks. It took me a while to embrace the whole idea of reading on an electronic device, but since I picked up an iPad in order to play with some of the new comic book reading apps, it was only a matter of time before I found myself downloading books onto it as well. What can I say? I'm a book junkie.

And while I have a number of complaints about ebooks -- careless formatting, a ridiculous number of typos in some books -- my main issue has been the limited number of titles available, even from the more widely adopted Kindle store. Most of these issues will work themselves out over time, but in the meantime, I've been reading a few things that ARE available that I never got around to reading in print editions...

First up, RIVERWORLD by Philip Jose Farmer. Never got around to reading it, though I was a big fan of sweeping Science Fiction epics that dealt with metaphysical questions when I was a kid (DUNE being one of my favorite books, after all). And as a Doc Savage junkie, I've read all of Farmer's new Doc books put out by Bantam. I liked those, but never read any of his own work. RIVERWORLD (a new edition that includes the first novels in the RIVERWORLD series) hits a lot of notes that I like and asks some big questions about religion and the afterlife, wrapping them all up in an interesting Sci-Fi package. I enjoyed this one a great deal, though the prose would probably be considered a little wooden by current standards. And I'll probably pick up the other books in the series once I'm caught up with some of my other reading.

And as an Anglophile, I'm surprised I've never read John Wyndham's THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS (which is better known as the basis for the classic film, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED). I've read several Wyndham novels over the years, including the classic DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, and loved the admittedly dated, low-key, but always entertaining feel of them. They're terrifying without hitting you over the head with blood and guts. His books are hard to find over here, and I've never gotten around to ordering a copy of this from the UK, but now it's available (along with DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS) as an ebook in the States. There's an unfortunate recurring typo in this edition (no doubt from a faulty conversion of a printed copy into digital text), but it's a good old-fashioned gripping read despite the annoyance the muddled text.

I've got another 20 or 30 ebooks sitting on my iPad waiting to be read, including Mark Gatiss' Lucifer Box novels and a stack of Arthur Machen books I've always wanted to read but could never find (Machen influenced both Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard so how could I NOT want to read him), but I wanted to mention one of the actual printed books that's on my nightstand, the new collection of Manly Wade Wellman's John the Balladeer stories, WHO FEARS THE DEVIL.

The John the Balladeer stories are legendary in Horror writing circles, but nearly impossible to find. I'd been hearing about these stories for years before I came across a reprint edition of some of them in a used bookstore here in Saratoga. I snatched it up and tore through the stories as soon as I got home, and there's a reason why they're legendary. I'm not sure I've read anything like them before, and in a funny way, they're very similar to my Fade stories. I've tried to hunt down the other John stories that weren't reprinted in that collection, but without much success. Luckily, there's a new collection of them from Planet Stories. I can't honestly say that the mix of backwoods magic and folklore is going to be for everyone, but these stories really take my breath away. Well worth checking out, even if they don't set your mind on fire the way they do for me.

One last thing, I know most people come to this blog to check out glimpses of artwork and news on new projects, so I hope you don't mind indulging me yapping about what I'm reading. Long before I was ever interested in writing or drawing comics, I was a book junkie, so I like to talk about books. I've posted these On The Nightstand pieces pretty sporadically, but I'm going to try and do one every Sunday, schedule permitting, and I'd encourage you all to talk about what's on your own nightstand in the comments section. Consider it a kind of Book Junkies Anonymous, but with more coffee.

And I'd be very curious to hear how many of you are reading books or comics on an electronic device. One of the possibilities for my personal graphic novel project will be to publish it electronically (at least at first), so I'm interested in what people think about the experience of reading on the computer, iPad, Kindle, or whatever device you're reading on.

On The Nightstand: DRACULAS

DRACULAS by Blake Crouch, Jack Kilborn, Jeff Strand, and F. Paul Wilson

It's been a while since I've posted about what books I've been reading, primarily because I've been racing deadlines and working on the FADE novel, but also because I've been busy researching digital publishing and the growing digital comic book market in my remaining downtime.

As a writer and as an artist, I find new formats fascinating, and I tend to look at these things less as a threat than as a new way to reach readers who are less likely to go into bookstores or comic shops. I'm already putting together a couple of digital projects I hope to put out next year either through a pre-existing service like Comixology or Graphic.ly, or on my own.

Of course, not everyone is as enthusiastic as me when it comes to this stuff, and there are a whole new set of issues - including illegal downloads - that have cropped up with the new format, but it's hard to ignore the reality that within a few years or a few generations nearly all new books and comics will be published digitally (though I suspect print will never truly vanish, only become even more of a niche). It's simply the nature of technology and society, and the sooner we figure it out and take advantage of the expanded audience and creative possibilities, the better.

Which brings me to Mystery writer J.A. Konrath. He's been at the forefront of authors embracing the new digital publishing options (even signing a deal with Amazon where his books will now be published on the Kindle first, with a print edition following at some point). Konrath has been talking a lot this year about the promise of digital books, the pricing of his eBooks, and even publicly stating his sales figures to back up his claims. I've been following his journey from traditional publishing to digital closely as I began my own research into it, so I was deeply curious to hear about the new book he was putting out, a vampire novel called DRACULAS co-written with F. Paul Wilson, Blake Crouch, and Jeff Strand.

(And in case you're curious, J.A. Konrath wrote the book under his Jack Kilborn pseudonym, which he seems to use for his non-Mystery novels.)

It's exclusive to the Kindle for now, and I'm not sure if or when it will be available in a print format, but it's well worth reading. My short review -- fast, gory, and fun. It's not my usual sort of thing (I'm more into what you might call Quiet Horror than the gory stuff), but I ended up enjoying it a great deal, no doubt thanks to the high level of writing. Konrath and Wilson are both favorites of mine, and Crouch and Strand are both well-regarded by writers I look up to (including Konrath and Wilson, actually), and they clearly hold their own here.

Creatively, the book is a success, and I'll be watching and waiting to see how it performs. Should be an interesting and public test case for eBooks. For my part, having finally started to read eBooks, I've already accumulated a surprisingly large 'to be read' pile, nearly as large as my print edition 'to be read pile'. And they're a lot easier to carry around. Just saying.

On the Nightstand

JACK: SECRET CIRCLES
by F. Paul Wilson

I've talked a number of times about going through the Borderlands Boot Camp program, but I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned how it changed my reading habits.

As anyone who knows me can tell you, I've always been an avid reader. They can tell you how I'm prone to boring everyone around me with long lectures about the books I love. Not to mention the sheer number of books in my office, and my often mocked need to alphabetize them.

(Can't help it. Spent too many years working in a bookstore.)

I've spent my entire life reading nearly any book I could get my hands on -- Fiction, Non-Fiction, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Horror, you name it. And I enjoyed nearly every one of them in one way or another.

Looking back, I guess I'd have to admit I wasn't a very discriminating reader. I just loved to read. And boy, did I love to read. Ever since I was a kid, I never failed to finish a book that I picked up. Never. No matter what it was about, or how well it was written.

But then I went through my first Borderlands Boot Camp, and suddenly I was putting books down left and right, only half-read. Even new books from authors I'd always liked. They just weren't doing it for me any more.

Learning about the process of writing prose changed the way I read. It made me far more aware of predictable plots, narrative cheats, lazy writing, and in some cases just plain bad writing. And it turns out many of my favorite writers were just as guilty of these transgressions as anyone else.

In fact, there's one writer who used to be on my own personal 'top 3 greatest writers of all time' list, but whose work I can't read anymore without noticing all the passive verbs and the heavy handed narrative voice.

Which brings me to F. Paul Wilson. I was a little nervous when I went back to read one of his books in the wake of my first trip through Boot Camp (where FPW was actually an instructor). Paul was on my personal 'top 3 greatest writers of all time' list, and his novel THE KEEP is one of my favorite books, period. So I was pleased, and even a little surprised, that not only did I still enjoy his books, but if anything, I enjoyed them even more now that I could see the deft way he moved a plot forward, or established a character with only a few well chosen words, or created a creepy atmosphere without hitting you over the head with the words 'dark', 'stormy', or 'night'.

F. Paul Wilson's latest book, JACK: SECRET CIRCLES showcases all of these skills. It's the second in his 'Young Repairman Jack' series, targeted at teenage readers and featuring his classic hero -- Repairman Jack -- as a teenager.

These books have been really engaging so far, fleshing out both Jack's childhood and the mythology that forms the backdrop for nearly all of F. Paul Wilson's stories. As a long time fan of Paul's it's fun to spot all the little threads that link up with other books, but they don't really distract from the story at hand, or the incredibly precise way he tells it.

In a funny way -- and god help me, it sounds like the most over-the-top sucking up ever committed in a blog post -- I envy a teenager who picks one of these books up, gets their first taste for what Paul calls the 'Secret History of the World', and chases it through all of the other F. Paul Wilson books.

When I first read THE KEEP, it was just out in paperback (back in 1983 or so), and Paul hadn't planned on tying everything else who wrote together into one long narrative, and hadn't even conceived of the Adversary Cycle (which forms the backbone of the Secret History), at least not as far as I know, or not as a cohesive whole. But now a reader can burn through all of those books in one go -- much like I burned through JACK: SECRET CIRCLES -- and only have to wait a couple of years for the last few new Repairman Jack books and the revised versions of REPRISAL and NIGHTWORLD. I however have been waiting 27 years.

As for the YA Jack books, my original understanding was that there would only be three of them, but recently Paul mentioned he had an idea for a fourth one. Yes, please. I'll buy that one, as well.

It'll keep me busy while I wait for the Secret History to come to a revised end.

On The Nightstand

THE SHIMMER
by David Morrell

Several years ago, when I first started thinking seriously about learning how to write prose, I tried out for the first of Borderland Press' writing boot camps. At the time, F. Paul Wilson and I were pitching projects to do together (which ended up being his adaptation of THE KEEP for IDW) and I was visiting his website on a fairly regular basis. While digging around in his always entertaining forum, I happened to come across an upcoming appearance thread where FPW mentioned he'd be teaching at a writing workshop, and if anyone wanted to attend, they could try out.

With no idea what I was in for, I wrote the first 30 pages or so of a horror novel that had been kicking around in my head for a while (the first prose I'd ever really written), and sent it off. As anyone who's read this blog before knows, I got in, had an amazing time, met my best friend, and have gone back several more times to learn everything I can about this strange beast called 'writing prose'.

But to be honest, I went that first time to learn everything I could about writing from Paul. He was (and still is) one of my writing heroes, and I thought if I could learn how he did it, then maybe I could do it, too. I'd heard of the other instructors -- Tom Monteleone, Richard Chizmar, and David Morrell -- but I was nowhere near as familiar with their work as I was with FPW's. I was in for a surprise. Not only would I meet Tom -- who has become a kind of writing father figure to me (at least in my head) -- but I also got to hear what David Morrell had to say about writing.

I was more than familiar with David's famous creation, John Rambo (or at least the cultural icon Rambo became once he escaped from the printed page on to the movie screen), but knew nothing about the author or the rest of his work. But on the first night of boot camp, he gave a lecture (which started out with the deceptive question, "Why do want to be a writer?") that knocked my socks off. Much of what he has to say on the subject can be found in his excellent book, LESSONS FROM A LIFETIME OF WRITING. It's one of the few truly useful books on writing that I always recommend, and do so once more. If you want to be writer, go read it. Now.

After the dust settled and I was back home, I went out out and bought as many of David's books as I could find (and quite a few of Tom's, as well). I liked those enough that I've taken to buying his new books as soon as they come out in hardcover. Which brings me to his latest, THE SHIMMER.

As everyone who follows my blog knows, I've been buried under work recently, racing against the clock to get out various issues of the DOCTOR WHO ongoing, and wishing I had more time to read. Still reading a lot. Just not as much as I'd like. But every once and a while, something happens and I either have to step away from the art table to give my brain a rest, or I'm stuck in a brownout or a thunderstorm with nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs, waiting for the lights in my office to come back. On Friday, when the lights dimmed and didn't go back up, I knew I was in for a long, frustrating afternoon.

So, I did what I always do, I grabbed the chance to catch up on some reading, pulled out THE SHIMMER and dove right in. By the time the lights were back, the book was finished, and my socks had been knocked off again.

I'd been expecting one of Morrell's typical thrillers (which aren't really all that typical, but I mean typical for him). Instead I got an interesting mix of genres held together by strong description, well-drawn characters, tight plotting, and his usual smooth prose. It's one part thriller, one part sci-fi mystery, with a dose of technothriller thrown in for good measure. But the best part is the ending. He made a choice about the ending of this book that fits so well with what I like in fiction, but if I told you what it was, and why I like it so much, it would probably ruin the whole story for you. Seriously, though... I loved how he handled the ending.

And again, to be honest, I probably would never have read this book if it hadn't been for that first Borderlands Boot Camp. If I'd come across this book in the store, I probably wouldn't have paid it much attention. At most, I'd have thought, 'hey, isn't that the guy who wrote FIRST BLOOD?' and moved on to something else.

I would have missed out.

On The Nightstand

THE TOUCH
by F. Paul Wilson

Still recovering from my trip to Rhode Island last weekend for the annual Northeastern Writer's Conference (more commonly known as NECON). It's three and a half days of hanging out with writers, artists, editors, and a small group of fans, and one of my favorite events to attend.

Every year, the organizers set aside one night for a mass author signing, where everyone can buy books from their favorite authors and get them signed. I usually come back with a huge stack of books, and this year was no exception. One of the highlights of this year's stash was the new paperback edition of F. Paul Wilson's THE TOUCH.

As everyone who reads this blog knows, I'm a huge fan of F. Paul Wilson. His novel THE KEEP more or less sent me down the path of being a Horror/Dark Fantasy reader (and eventually writer) long before I'd ever even heard of Stephen King and Peter Straub, and his Adversary Cycle books remain personal favorites of mine. THE TOUCH is the third book in the cycle (at least in publishing order... it's actually the fourth in chronological order... but I'm an Adversary Cycle nerd and have to point thngs like that out at every possible opportunity) and while I've read my original paperback copy many times, it's been awhile since I've gone back for yet another go.

I started in on it the same night as the mass author signing, and I've only put it down to work, eat, hang out with the family, and occasionally sleep. I'd almost forgotten just how good this novel is. An interesting mix of Medical Thriller and Supernatural Adventure. And as smooth as Paul's writing is, I'm not sure I've ever seen it smoother than in THE TOUCH. His paragraphs flow so naturally, and the dialogue is particularly sharp in this novel.

As soon as I finished THE TOUCH last night, I was sorely tempted to jump straight into the next book in the cycle, REBORN (well... the next book in the publishing order of the cycle), but REBORN is about to be re-issued in a brand new trade edition just like THE TOUCH, so I think I'm going to wait for the new edition since I'll be buying it anyway. Can't help myself. Nothing like a new slick cover on one of your favorite books. It's a sickness, but one I've learned to enjoy.

Still, I might not be able to wait until September for my next dose of Paul's writing, even if it is something I've read many times before. Maybe it's time for me to dig back into THE KEEP once again.

But all the other books I picked up last weekend are begging to be read, as well. Ah, the choices. The choices.

On The Nightstand

DARK TOWER V: WOLVES OF THE CALLA
by Stephen King

I remember when the first Dark Tower book came out, and I remember reading in the afterword that King wasn't sure he'd ever finish the entire story, and I remember thinking that he HAD to, and that I HAD to be around to read it.

Well, he DID finish the story, and I AM around to read the rest of the books, but for some reason, I never did.

Don't get me wrong, I bought them all, and in hardcover, no less. But somehow, the burning desire to know how the story ended faded over the years. I got about halfway through the fourth book when it came out, set it down, and never picked it up again.

(Though I DID leaf through to look at all of the illustrations by the brilliant Dave McKean. I might have lost some of my need to finish the stories, but I'm not an idiot.)

The seven Dark Tower books have been sitting on the bookshelves in my office for years, gathering dust and mostly forgotten until a few months ago, when I took the 4th book down for another look at the little pen & ink illustrations McKean had done for the start of each section in the book. And suddenly, I realized that I actually needed to know how it all ended. I already a pretty good idea from the parts of DARK TOWER IV: WIZARD & GLASS I'd read years before, but I really wanted to know for sure.

I started with the beginning of book 4, realized I had no idea what was going on, and decided to start over with book 1. It's been long enough that the storytelling subtleties, not to mention large portions of the actual plot, are long gone from my memory, so it was like reading them for the first time.

To be honest, I stalled again in the middle of book 4, but after a long day of drawing, I was lying in bed, awake and worrying about my deadlines and had to do something with my brain other than thinking. So I picked it up, settled in for a few hours of reading, and finished it in one gulp. When it was done, I went into my office and grabbed the fifth book, WOLVES OF THE CALLA, and got it started before I lost momentum.

I don't have a lot of time for reading these days, but I downed WOLVES in a handful of big gulps. And without giving anything away, I'm pretty sure it's heading in the direction I thought it was, but that need to know how it all ends remains. In a strange way, I think I never really wanted it to end. And maybe that's why I avoided reading the last books when they finally came out.

I'm on book 6 now, SONG OF SUSANNAH, with book 7 still waiting for me. I'm not sure it can live up to the expectations of the teenager who first read THE GUNSLINGER, but one way or another, I'm going to find out.

On The Nightstand

BY THE SWORD
by F. Paul Wilson

I've long been a fan of F. Paul Wilson, especially the novels that make up his Adversary Cycle, the first of which -- THE KEEP -- I was lucky enough to work on when FPW adapted it into a graphic novel.

In recent years, FPW has been working on a new series of books featuring his hero Repairman Jack, who first appeared in THE TOMB and plays an important part in the Cycle's final novel, NIGHTWORLD.

These new books bridge the gap between THE TOMB and NIGHTWORLD, forming a very long prequel of sorts to the final showdown, both setting up the events in NIGHTWORLD and charting some new territory for Jack, a 'fix-it-man' who finds himself continuously drawn into a battle with the dark forces waiting in the shadows.

To be honest, the Adversary Cycle has had a profound influence on the development of the Fade stories, and my plans for the Fade novel. I studied Paul's intricate plotting closely, trying to understand how he can balance smaller self-contained stories with the larger narrative unfolding in the background. I'd never try to recreate it, but his technique suggested a few possibilities that I hope to include in my own work.

Having said all that, I get a huge kick out of the Repairman Jack books, purely as a reader. They're thrilling, fun, and highly entertaining. My only complaint is that he only does one a year, an unbearably long period of time between books, especially as he brings this part of the Adversary Cycle to a close. There are only a few new RJ novels in the works, all leading to a heavily rewritten version of NIGHTWORLD.

This latest installment -- BY THE SWORD -- brings another one of FPW's novels (BLACK WIND) under the umbrella of the Adversary Cycle. BLACK WIND is a sprawling historical epic set before, during, and after WWII. It's always been connected to the Cycle in subtle ways, but now in BY THE SWORD, those connections become more obvious and important, as Jack has to deal with the long-simmering after-effects of the events featured in BLACK WIND.

BY THE SWORD is thoroughly enjoyable whether you've read BLACK WIND or not (though I would recommend reading all of the Repairman Jack series in order). But for me, the most impressive thing is that it made me want to go read BLACK WIND again. It would at least give me something to do while I hold my breath, biding time until the next Repairman Jack book comes out.