The new book, Strange Weather, is out in U.S. bookstores, everywhere, on October 24th, but that’s too long for me to wait… my tour starts a week earlier!

• You can catch me online on the night of the 18th, when I’ll be signing books, answering questions, and hanging out with the amazing Paul Tremblay, author of Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil Rock. It’s all courtesy of Premiere Collectables and livesigning.com. We’re going to have fun and I hope you’ll be part of it.

• Next up I’ll be at the 3rd Annual Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival at the Haverhill Public Library, on the 21st. Horror greatChristopher Golden, the novelist behind Ararat, will be interviewing me about Strange Weather at 1:30PM. The bookselling heroes from the Andover Bookstore will have advance copies of Strange Weather on hand, which I’d be delighted to sign for you.

• On October 23rd, the eve of the book’s release, I’ll be at Brookline Booksmith, at 7PM, to read, talk, and sign. They’ll have copies there for you, one day before the official drop. Contrary to some early reports, this is not a ticketed event and no one will tackle you if you try to walk in (I, however, will tackle you if you try to walk out without buying the book, hahaha, just kidding, maybe).

• Gibson’s Books in Concord, New Hampshire, is next. I’m excited to get up there on the 24th for the 7PM reading & signing… it’s been a few years since I’ve been back, and it’s a lovely shop.

• Then it’s Maine’s turn to endure my questionable pleasures, when I turn up at the Books-a-Million in Portland on the 25th for a 6PM blabathon and the scribble-session after. Thanks, Books-A-Million for having me in again. It’s always great.

• I’ll be getting STRANGE on Facebook — urgh, that doesn’t sound right, does it? — on the 26th of October, when I’ll be broadcasting live from William Morrow’s offices in NYC… straight from their headquarters to your computer! That’s at 4PM. If you’re working, just turn the volume down low and keep an eye out for your supervisor. Don’t let a silly thing like employment ruin your good time.

• Later that same evening, I’m at the Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side, for a crazyass collaborative reading and talk with C. Robert Cargill. If you don’t know all ready — and you really should — Cargill wrote Sea of Rust, a post-apocalyptic SF novel that blasts along harder than a War Boy after Max Rockatansky. Won’t you come ride shiny and chrome with us? We’re on at 7PM for a conversation to be moderated by Dennis Boutsikaris (who also happens to be one of the four readers to lend their voices to the Strange Weather audiobook!).

• On October 27th, you’ll be able to find me at Joseph-Beth’s Books in Lexington, Kentucky, at 7PM. The forecast is for awesome.

I’m already ashamed of writing that.

• And the U.S. tour winds up on the 28th, at the West Virginia Book Festival in Charleston. I’ve got a panel at 11:30. I imagine a signing will follow after. R.L. Stine is there! And so is Henry Winkler, who, oddly, I have crossed paths with before, at other book festivals. This looks like a good time.

There’s an upcoming U.K. tour too, which will include my first ever stop in Ireland. You can catch the bare bones on my Instagram page, but I’ll flesh out the details soon in an upcoming newsletter.
Should we do a letters column, like they have in the back of comic books? I SAY WE SHOULD.

Send your thoughts, questions, and paranoid conspiracy theories to response@joehillfiction.com. Who knows, it’s always possible I’ll run a portion of your email and a reply of some sort in a future issue of Escape Hatch.

Emails with attachments — photos, word files, etc. — will be deleted without being opened. I can’t read your unpublished manuscripts, and while I’m sure you’re excited about your naked stuff, I feel like it would be healthier for us both if you kept it to yourself.

Also, I probably won’t reply by email; if there’s a response, you’ll see it here.

Speaking of comic books I haven’t forgotten I sort of half promised that I might begin to run a strip in the newsletter. Still thinking on it. Probably in early 2018 if I don’t completely suck (evidence suggests sometimes I do). If I do something like that, I want it to be worth everyone’s time.
Rock and roll is pornography for people with bigger-than-average imaginations. If you got that, you don’t need dirty pictures — a filthy guitar will do just as well. Not that I’m knocking dirty pictures.
I’m just back from a couple days in Canada, where — as of today — filming has begun on the pilot episode of Locke & Key, starring Frances O’Connor and Danny Glover, and directed by Andy Muschietti, the absurdly gifted filmmaker behind one of this year’s biggest hITs. No sooner had I got home then I saw that Subterranean Press has just released the limited edition of Keys to the Kingdom, featuring the full scripts for every issue. Big thanks to them and IDW for doing these tremendously lovely editions of our comic. And I’ll keep you updated about the show here in the newsletter, as best as I can and to the degree that Hulu will allow.
Water Street Books will continue to take orders for signed copies of Strange Weather— but today, October 17th, is the last day you can order from them, and still get your personalized copy on the day of release (or thereabouts… they’ll do their best). Anyone ordering after the 17th may wind up waiting a while to get their copy, as I’ll be on the road.
Hey, someone made a really cool Strange Weather inspired list, for those of us who like lean and mean stories of fright that can be read in a single sitting. It’s very cool to be mentioned in any context with these great writers — and if you’re looking for All Hallows’ Eve reading recommendations, look no further.

Is that everything? I think that’s everything. I’ll look for you on the road. Yes, YOU. Who did you think I was talking to?