Strange Weather – October 24th

We’re about one month out from the release of my sixth book, Strange Weather, a collection of four very short novels.

The first story, “Snapshot,” is about a boy who runs afoul of a man called The Phoenician who has a camera that can steal memories. It’s followed by “Loaded,” about America’s newest beloved sport: the weekend mass shooting. “Aloft,” the third novella, is a castaway tale… only our hero, Aubrey Griffin, finds himself stranded not on a desert island, but on an inexplicably solid cloud, eight thousand feet above sea level. And the book closes with “Rain,” about an America besieged by stormclouds that have begun to rain nails of silver and gold, slaughtering folks by the hundreds of thousands, and crippling the nation.

I’m awfully proud of Strange Weather, and if any of this sounds interesting to you, I hope you’ll consider buying a copy. I’ll be on tour in the U.S. and the U.K. to support the book, but you don’t have to meet me in the flesh to get a signed hardcover. I’m also doing an electronic Livesigning through Premiere Collectables on October 18th. You can order a book from them and “meet” me online. I’ll be signing, answering questions, and responding to phone calls, until someone mercifully allows me to stop.

I think it’s a good book… but don’t take my word for it! Strange Weather has been picked as one of the ten best books of October by Library Reads (whee! thanks, guys!). And BookPage says: “Literary horror fans know that there are few authors as deft at marrying pulse-pounding action and a sense of inescapable dread than Joe Hill. Fans of his masterful thrillers NOS4A2 and The Fireman will find plenty to love in his new collection of four short novels, Strange Weather.” Meanwhile, Kirkus and Booklist both gave Strange Weather the much yearned for starred review. With praise like that, how can you resist?

My biggest thanks to everyone who picks this thing up. I’m grateful to you.
Gauntlet Press and Borderlands Books have teamed up to print a very limited edition of Neil Gaiman’s perfectly lovely and perfectly chilling Dr. Who novella.

As a guy who replaced the door to his sitting room with a TARDIS, and as the president of the Gaiman Street Irregulars (a club I just invented on the spot), I was only too glad to write an afterword for “Nothing O’Clock”. Brian Keene also perpetrated an introduction. The book is available in a variety of flavors (signed by Neil, signed by Neil and myself, signed by all three of us). Don’t just stand there like you’re a weeping angel — go order your copy while there are still some in stock.
I’m just back from L.A., where I spent a week in the writers’ room, working with the incredibly gifted team that have assembled to break down, block out, and script the first season of LOCKE & KEY for Hulu. I was so honored to be a part of the crew — these guys are the scriptwriting Avengers (in this analogy, I’m Agent Coulson).

I haven’t had so much fun with an act of team storytelling in my entire adult life. It was, honestly, the closest I’ve come to the way I felt playing Call of Cthulhuwith my buddies when I was in high school — only everyone in the writer’s room is a lot better at make-believe, and we were all getting paid. What a trip.

We’re going to try real hard to give you something great to watch. Stay tuned.
FIVE AMAZING COMPLETELY TRUE FACTS:
1. If you love Paul McCartney’s Wings, but always wished they rocked a little harder, the Foo Fighters share your dream and decided to make it come true.
2. Aunt Lydia won an Emmy which proves sometimes the world works the way it’s supposed to. I just wish Samira Wiley could’ve won too. The first season of Handmaid’s Tale is grim as fuck, but also one of the best first seasons of anything ever.
3. Two of my favorite novelists have a book out next week. If you want to live your best life now you will pick up a copy.
4. “shitcircus” has been voted the 2017 Word of the Year by an expert panel of myself and my fourteen year old. So thanks to David Bell of Cracked for introducing that one to us.
5. This is an actual doughnut which really exists in our timeline.
And this is an actual event, which really exists in our universe — specifically in London, at Foyle’s Books, this very fall. And I’ll be there. You should be there too. You can buy your tickets here.
Oh, hey, this is also out. The Best of the Subterranean features some smashingly great fiction and has received the beloved starred reviews from both Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus. One of my stories is in the line up (“Last Breath”). Check it out.
Time to wrap this shitcircus up. Look after each other — you’ve got to. We’re all in the lovers club now. I’ll check back with you in a couple weeks.