{"id":2674,"date":"2019-05-29T19:54:39","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T19:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joehill.nl\/TheCollection\/?page_id=2674"},"modified":"2019-06-18T23:52:50","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T23:52:50","slug":"escapehatch001","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/joehill.nl\/TheCollection\/nonfiction\/escapehatch\/escapehatch001\/","title":{"rendered":"Escape\u00a0Hatch\u00a0001"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Hill’s\u00a0Escape<\/span>\u00a0Hatch<\/span>\u00a0001<\/h1>\n

Happy Halloween and welcome to the first ever issue of\u00a0Escape\u00a0Hatch<\/span><\/strong>. Thanks for signing up. I’ve never had a newsletter before and will probably spend a little while fumbling around, trying to figure out what I’m doing here.\u00a0I promise to try and\u00a0make it worth your time. And who knows, if I run out of stuff to talk about, maybe I’ll just use this space to write a serialized novella or something.<\/p>\n

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Speaking of novellas,\u00a0this is available now<\/a>, and it includes a new 20,000 word story, “Snapshot, 1988.” “Snapshot” is one of four novella length pieces due to appear in my next book, a collection titled\u00a0Strange Weather<\/em>, tentatively scheduled for late fall of 2017. But I’m slow, so don’t be shocked if it gets pushed to early ’18. The other titles are: “Aloft,” “Rain,” and “Loaded.”<\/p>\n

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\nI stole the idea for this newsletter from Warren Ellis, who possesses one of the most dangerous minds in pulp fiction. I’m always glad when his\u00a0Orbital Operations<\/a>\u00a0pings into my in-box, because I enjoy hearing about his creative process, but also, weirdly, because I like the way he writes about life on the cold, pebbly estuary where the Thames meets the sea. I’ll be learning more about the way he thinks, writes, and imagines when I interview him for\u00a0Brookline Booksmith on November 30th<\/a>; he’ll be there to promote his new machine-tooled, chrome-plated thriller,\u00a0NORMAL<\/em>. If you find yourself in the Boston area at the end of November, I hope you’ll come see us. Please, do not pet Warren’s beard.<\/p>\n

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HALLOWEEN MOVIE HELPER:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not sure what to watch during our national night of heart-stopping terror? Sorry, I can’t help you with movie tips for Election Day — but I can offer some advice for your Halloween viewing! Select your choice from the following menu:<\/p>\n

FOR THE CLASSICIST:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Curse of the Demon<\/em>, from 1957, was based on an M.R. James classic, “Casting the Runes.” I also shamelessly raided it for inspiration when I was writing\u00a0Heart-Shaped Box<\/em>. The demon FX are hilarious, but this oldie sneaks in some satisfying shudders before it’s done, and is just the thing if you prefer your scares in black-and-white.<\/p>\n

FOR THE FEAR-PHOBIC:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If last year’s\u00a0What We Do in the Shadows<\/em>\u00a0slipped past you, now is the time to circle back and see what you missed. And if you watched it last year… come on, admit it, you’re probably going to watch it again. The funniest riff on horror tropes since\u00a0Young Frankenstein<\/em>? A bold claim, I know, but I think maybe this film merits it.<\/p>\n

FOR THE HARDCORE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If you demand blood on the walls for your Halloween, you can’t do much better than\u00a0Green Room<\/em>, an unapologetic slaughter-fest with a punk rock heart and a scrungy indie film aesthetic. Anton Yelchin is especially remarkable as a thrash-loving shy-boy with a deep reservoir of courage and a tremendous capacity for absorbing a beating. What a heart-breaker to have lost Yelchin in a silly, stupid, tragic accident this year… I have no doubt there was a lot more where that came from.<\/p>\n

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This December will see the release of\u00a0Locke & Key: Small World<\/em>… the first newLocke & Key<\/em>\u00a0story in 3 years. The whole crew is back: it ain’t\u00a0Locke & Key<\/em>without the original team of Chris Ryall, Robbie Robbins, Jay Fotos, and of course Gabriel Rodriguez, who is using\u00a0Small World<\/em>\u00a0to go\u00a0BIG<\/strong>, as you can see below. Personally I think it’s the cat’s meow.<\/p>\n

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As it happens, I recently moved back into Keyhouse to stay for a while. IDW Comics has branched out into television, and are two for two with their first pair of shows:\u00a0Wynonna Earp<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency<\/em>\u00a0(which I’ve seen described as the stoner\u00a0Doctor Who<\/em>). They’re aiming for the hat trick when they bring\u00a0Locke & Key<\/em>\u00a0into your living room in the (hopefully) not too distant future. We came close to getting on TV back in 2011, when FOX produced a pilot, written with zip and style by Josh Friedman, and directed with chilly grace by Mark Romanek. It looked great and everyone liked it, but we didn’t make it on the air. That happens. Probably the only thing harder than launching a new television show is opening a successful musical (Hamilton<\/em>\u00a0is the cultural equivalent of a meteor strike).<\/p>\n

We’re damn lucky to be getting this second shot at it and this time I was asked if I’d write the pilot myself. So:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\nThinking about\u00a0Locke & Key<\/em>\u00a0reminds me — the gents who recorded\u00a0Locke & Key<\/em>\u00a0as\u00a0a fully dramatized audio play for Audible<\/a>\u00a0are at it again. They’ve launched a new horror anthology podcast titled\u00a0The Dark Tome<\/a>\u00a0and the first story in their line-up is an adaptation of my short “The Devil on the Staircase.” I haven’t had a chance to listen to it – give it a try, let me know over on Twitter what you thought.<\/p>\n

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Oh, yeah, Twitter! I asked people to post me some questions for the newsletter, and a few folks obliged.<\/p>\n

@daniel_nivy<\/a>\u00a0asks “What’s the best movie you’ve seen so far this year?”<\/p>\n

Well, I saw\u00a0The Revenant\u00a0<\/em>on the 9th of January, and haven’t seen anything better since. But I assume we’re really talking about 2016 releases. Best of this year’s crop would probably be\u00a0Hell or High Water<\/em>.<\/p>\n

@seebach_sean<\/a>\u00a0asks: “Ever consider writing an episode for\u00a0Black Mirror<\/em>? After reading TFTD comics, such a match seems made for sci-fi heaven.”<\/p>\n

I love\u00a0Black Mirror<\/em>, but it’s Charlie Brooker’s gig, and they only do three episodes a season. So I think I’ll just be enjoying that one as part of\u00a0Mirror’s<\/em>addicted audience.<\/p>\n

Gotta question? Ask me over on Twitter using the hashtag #joesescapehatch. Maybe I’ll get to it in a future newsletter.<\/p>\n

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And wow, that was a lot of\u00a0me<\/em>\u00a0for one email. Okay, I’m wrapping this up. Enjoy Halloween, the best holiday of the year (Thanksgiving – family arguments; Christmas – too much pressure to enjoy). Hope you’re curling up with a good scary movie and someone to cuddle. Don’t eat too much candy corn.<\/p>\n

Joe Hill, NH
\n31 October 2016<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Hill’s\u00a0Escape\u00a0Hatch\u00a0001 Happy Halloween and welcome to the first ever issue of\u00a0Escape\u00a0Hatch. Thanks for signing up. I’ve never had a newsletter before and will probably spend a little while fumbling around, trying to figure out what I’m doing here.\u00a0I promise to try and\u00a0make it worth your time. And who knows, if I run out of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2677,"parent":2664,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2674","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joehill.nl\/TheCollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joehill.nl\/TheCollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joehill.nl\/TheCollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joehill.nl\/TheCollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joehill.nl\/TheCollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2674"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/joehill.nl\/TheCollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2900,"href":"https:\/\/joehill.nl\/TheCollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2674\/revisions\/2900"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joehill.nl\/TheCollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joehill.nl\/TheCollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joehill.nl\/TheCollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}