Scott Hawkins On Mount Char: Library Science And Angelology

  ‘The Closest Thing…To His Usual Loin Cloth’ When Julian Pavia at Random House/Crown tells me he’s got something I might look at, I pay attention. He’s Andy Weir’s editor and sent me Weir’s The Martian during the run-up to its release. I recommend you read it before the October release of the film. You’ll… Read More

Josh Malerman's ‘Bird Box’ Named Horror Novel Of The Year

Also: Finalist For A Bram Stoker Award You write because you love reading, and you write horror because you believe in the monsters, you believe in the imagination, you believe in the dark. I BELIEVE IN THE DARK. Josh Malerman Josh Malerman has won This Is Horror’s Novel of the Year award blindfolded. Don’t take it… Read More

Goodreads Choice Awards: Women Authors Win Two-To-One

When 3.3 Million People Vote On Their Faves  Aside from reading — we have to hope — nothing seems to entertain Goodreads more than surveying its vast self, and this is good news for the rest of us because we get some interesting insight into reading habits. The newest round of “Goodreads Choice Awards” —… Read More

Josh Malerman’s Tricks Are Treats: ‘Ghastle And Yule’

‘We Were…Making a Horror Movie’ No, there’s no film called Curate Your Own Death (1960). Yet. But there is one called Choose Your Own Death: The Babysitter(2009). And no, there’s no Bicameral Island (1961). Yet. But there are Shutter Island (2010), Gilligan’s Island (1964) and more Islands —Dinosaur (2014), Spike (2012), Fantasy (1977), Harper’s (2009),… Read More

Writer's Digest's Conference in LA: You Are So On

My address is 2025 Avenue of the Stars.  This is as it should be, of course. 90067. With my sunglasses so firmly in place that I can barely read anything on the screen, I’m writing to you on the eve of Phil Sexton’s Writer’s Digest Novel Writing Conference in Los Angeles. It’s at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza… Read More

Don't Let Publishing Intimidate You

Messing With The Mystique You have the right to ask questions. You have the right to get answers. You have the right not to like the answers. To see your own publisher’s jaw drop? Phil Sexton recommends you ask him or her to let you review your book’s metadata. Then, with smelling salts ready for your… Read More

At London Book Fair: Blindsided By “Bird Box”

In Josh Malerman’s debut, Bird Box, the role of Malorie brings to new literature a distinctively male recognition of strong women. Like Hugh Howey’s Vic in Sand and Jules in Wool and Montana in Peace in Amber, Malerman writes a rational intelligence that women may too easily take for granted in themselves and each other. Read More