I can now announce that my story, "Technicolor," which first appeared this past January in Ellen Datlow's Poe anthology, has been selected by Ellen for inclusion in the second volume of her Best Horror of the Year series. I believe the word I want is, "w00t!"

Current Mood: ecstatic

Yesterday, Fiona and I went to meet David's first grade teacher for a chat. One of the things his teacher showed us is the passport she's made for each kid. This is a little booklet with the kid's photo inside it in which a country sticker is placed each time an adult comes in to tell the kids about a different country. So far, the kids have "visited" Italy, and Israel, Egypt, and England are on the horizon. The teacher encouraged Fiona, who, as most of you know, is from Scotland, to come in to talk about Scotland. Last night, as we were sitting around the dinner table, I was talking to David about the passport, looking ahead to everyone who would be visiting. "And Mommy," I said, "will be coming in to talk about Scotland."

Without missing a beat, David said, "And you'll be coming in to talk about the graveyard!"

Needless to say, my kid knows his old man.

Current Mood: amused

By some estimates, Wilkie Collins's 1859 novel, The Woman in White, was the best-selling English novel of the nineteenth century. (Don't ask me in any way to source and/or back up that statement. It's merely for purposes of grabbing your attention.) When I taught it a few summers ago, as part of a summer class on Collins, it seemed to have lost none of its power; the majority of my students were completely enthralled by it, and by Collins in general. To mark the 150th anniversary of its publicaiton, here's an appreciaiton from The Guardian.

Current Mood: chipper

So House of Windows has been included as part of a discussion on recent haunted house novels and their relation to the housing collapse at the website io9. You can read the article here.

Current Mood: chipper

Some weeks ago, before we read together at the KGB Bar, Michael Cisco and I were interviewed for something called Genreville, Publisher's Weekly's fantastika-related site. If you'd like to see me doing a lot of hand-talking while Cisco looks on bemusedly, click here.

Current Mood: amused

Actually, this isn't exactly news, since it's been the case for a couple of weeks, now, but copies of my first novel, House of Windows, are available on Amazon.com and the like. You have been warned.

Current Mood: chipper

While I've never been that regular a poster here on LJ, I've been even more absent this past couple of months. I'm happy to be able to say that the reason is because my wife and I have been engaged in the process of buying our first house, a process which, as of about noon today, came to a close! We are now owners of a seventeen hundred square foot Cape situated at one end of three and a half acres. It's been a long and sometimes stressful affair, and there's still the move to make over the next week or so, but as of tonight, we're quite happy.

Current Mood: happy

I'm pleased to see that Paul Tremblay's very disturbing novella, The Harlequin and the Train, has been nominated for Dark Scribe magazine's third annual Black Quill Awards in the "Best Small Press Chill" category. There are a number of nominees I'm happy to see on the list, including Sarah (no relation) Langan and Brian Evenson, but I'm especially happy to see Paul receive this recognition. I'd like to write about it at length at some point in the future; for the moment, I'll content myself with saying that this book more than bears out the promise of Paul's first novel, The Little Sleep, even as it foretells great things to come. I gather that the Black Quill Award is one you can sign up (for free!) to vote for, and I'd certainly encourage you to do so, but I'd urge to go order a copy of The Harlequin and the Train first.

Current Mood: cheerful

"Less is not more. Less is less." John Irving

Current Mood: amused

I'm very sorry to learn that Robert Holdstock has died. His Mythago Wood is a fine, fine novel. All condolences to his family and friends.

Current Mood: gloomy