Author name: SGJ

Incunabula

That sounds like some secret cousin to the incubus, yeah? If I’m even spelling it right. Anyway, was digging through some old stuff yesterday and found this sheet of paper from 1997, when I was finishing Fast Red Road, trying to make it all straight in my head (somewhat). Think the only other novel I’ve […]

The Least of My Scars

One of my better memories is working for this seed research company fifteen years or so ago. Way out north of Lubbock, TX. There was this guy called Rooster who ran a lot of cotton and sorghum out there, fields which were all on the way to the plots we worked every day. Rooster was

Hindsight: Appaloosa

The western may be one of the few if not only genres where character development is actually at crosspurposes with audience expectations. We don’t want the passing-through cowpoke/gunhand/lawman/whatever to actually change, do we? Isn’t it all better if they stay the same? Granted, maybe a more intense version of themselves, of the self they’re trying

Beautiful line

It’s by Roger Ebert, in his review for Nights in Rodanthe: “Paul doesn’t evacuate because of some dialogue he is made to say.” I don’t see how I could love anything more than that. It’s even better in context, too. And, as for why I was reading about Nights in Rodanthe. No idea. I was

Lost in the Funhouse (with a television set)

So, the LOST writers claim not to be lost at all. They’re not just reeling the episodes out from nothing. It’s all going somewhere, somehow, some perfect way. Moreover (first time I’m using that word. cool, yeah?), they also guarantee that this crazy upside-down inside-out unfantasy island, it’s not some form of limbo or purgatory,

T-minus 24: Brown U.

I’m there tomorrow night, Family Guy* territory. Reading stuff aloud. Maybe eating a cookie or two, answering questions. Here for more specific type of info. Too, thanks to my students, I’m now hooked into Salad Fingers. Better late than never, I figure. ____________________________________________ * which I’ve still yet to ever see an episode of —

My New Favorite Hour of Television.

FRINGE, yep. Best series opener I think I’ve seen. And that’s including the white bears in LOST, the aliens in X-FILES, the space jellyfish in STAR TREK NEXT GENERATION, the plummeting cheerleader in HEROES, the (if I’m remembering correctly) sewn-up mouths in MILLENIUM, the look on Tom Vail’s face when Alyson denies knowing him in

Seven Things I Learned Today

from trying on just a whole lot of women’s clothes: 1) While I can wiggle into 9/10 pants or slacks, 11/12 is a lot more comfortable. 2) Extra-large in a blouse isn’t even a large in men’s sizes. 3) People will watch you, if you carry enough blouses and pants suits into the dressing room.

The Missing Image

From Ledfeather. Was digging through an old box today and came across it, but now can’t find it on my hard-drive. Anyway, it’s the one I talk about in the author’s note at the end — the one that pretty much started the whole novel. It was supposed to get included in the book, too,

Demon Theory afterward Afterword

If only I could. But this would definitely be in there, right along with the TOTALL RECALL/2001 saga: “The ‘Road to Perdition’ novelization was a nightmare, frankly,” Collins says. “I went after it for obvious reasons — I didn’t want a ‘Perdition’ novel written by someone else out there. I proceeded to write the best

Around the Net in 8o Seconds

Though, to be honest, I don’t even think there’s links yet for just all of this: Right before Valentine’s Day 2009, I’m in Chicago for the AWP Conference. The panel I’m on: “Digi-Analog: Bringing Together Print, Online, and Alternative Delivery Methods for Literary Journals, led by JW Wang. You may know him from Juked.” Don’t

There Comes a Point

I’m usually all in support of an artist making money doing whatever. Sure, I respect Springsteen and the U2 guys for not hawking anybody else’s wares, but I hardly begrudge Dylan pushing lingerie or BB King selling Whoppers1. And it’s not the ‘wares,’ the inherent goodness of lingerie or Whoppers, that makes what they’re doing

Demon Theory Review

Over at Internet Review of Science Fiction. A close read by JG Stinson. Very cool. So glad that book’s still reaching people. Too, The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti‘s not only slipping through Amazon early. It’s over at Small Press Distribution as well. And, and: Joe Lansdale‘s got a new one, Leather Maiden. He’s a

Where the Camopede Roam

Though The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti‘s not officially released until early September, it looks to be slipping through Amazon already. And that seems to me to be a good time to explain it a bit. Or, not explain it, but explain around it. And not like this, but with this running journal-thing (my first

The Postman Rings Twice

What’s showing up on my porch any day: author copies for Ledfeather and The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti. Each now up at Amazon, if not quite orderable yet. As for official release dates, I think Ledfeather‘s going to be first, though Nolan Dugatti‘ll be available right around Ledfeather‘s official day (early/mid-August). Very excited about

As I Lay Mostly Dying

A new essaything I have up over at the Cult. Click here to get there. So far, too, this is getting the award (derision?) for shortest post ever. Anyway, lost in the surf of Duma Key right now, and looking forward to snagging The Plague of Doves afterwards. Writing this novel too all the while,

Hell on the Homefront Too

A TG Sheppard line*, yeah. That and Elvis’s “Kentucky Rain“** make up a whole eight or ten month block of my . . . not childhood, but that’s when I listened to them most. ‘Life,’ I guess. Which is pretty much the complete opposite of the story just out here: An interview and a Demon

State of the Slasher Address

Man, came home Friday after watching Prom Night, just all conflicted and twitchy from it, and then the next morning woke early, slammed down an essay-thing about it, and then of course hit the wrong button, lost it all, so, when I finally had time (that night), I re-did what of it I could, and

Stay Off the Grass Deadly Ruins

Man, I got the year right for The Ruins anyway, back when. And this is another non-review, yeah. Specifically, one with spoilers. Anyway, yeah, Scott Smith pretty much proves that it’s not always a bad idea to let the author be the one to make that book-to-screen jump. He nails it, I mean. I guess

Demon Theory Audio

Who knew, yeah? Looks like it’s out loud now, anyway, here, and here, etc. And no, no clue how or if the footnotes were handled, or if, when they were or weren’t handled, it was as endnotes that they were or weren’t handled (that is, if the audio’s working off the paperback or cloth version).

Three Things

1. Just got a story, “Lonegan’s Luck,” accepted by New Genre. Like most stories if you peel them back far enough, this one, too, is a zombie western. Nearly forty pages of it. 2. Doomsday opens tomorrow. Very excited. Looks like all the elements I look for in high-calibre, life-altering cinema, they’re here. Which is

Happiness is a Book

Specifically, The Ones That Almost Got Away: A Collection. Even more specific, The Ones That Almost Got Away: A Collection of fifteen horror stories. By me, I mean. From Sean Wallace at Prime Books. Fall 2009. One more Halloween I’ll hardly be able to wait for.

Getting (more) (and more) Depraved

Another interview, this one over at Depraved Press, with Jesse Wichterman, who asks some good questions. Mostly we just talk about politics and the climate and religion, and what role Dee Snyder could play in all of them, in a just-slightly different reality. Or even in this one. Then of course, when Snyder isn’t the

Cyberlycanthropy

Or, ‘cyber’ with maybe some ‘lycanthropy,’ anyway. Chocolate and peanut butter, man. Conan and Red Sonja. Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie. Or, well. All I mean is that my story “Deviants,” bam, it’s now in Red Fez 13.

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