Dispatches from the Flying M

Westward Weird, Coming Soon

The anthology Westward Weird, edited by Kerrie Hughes and the late Marty Greenberg, goes on sale Feb. 7 at better bookstores across the US (I have no idea what its international rights situation is, but I'm hoping it'll be on sale everywhere).

It's discussed briefly in this article on Tor.com, which also describes several other genre-bending books coming out next month. Give it a read! And be sure you get your copy of Westward Weird right away, and let me know what you think of my story "Black Train."

 

Deadlands: Black Water Reviews

As I mentioned recently, my latest comic book to hit the stands is the one-shot Deadlands: Black Water, based on the popular Wester/horror/steampunk RPG.

Some reviews have shown up online, some positive and some negative. I've never heard of any of the reviewers, but here they are (with brief excerpts--click the links for the whole things):

"First taste of Deadlands and it tasted real good!

I like the one shots to get a bit of a feel for what a series is about.  I really liked this one and the character of Lyle Crumbfine.  A cowpoke guide who knows his way around the Maze.  The Maze is a place of wild and danger.  Lots of folks go in and never come out. Weird things like Maze dragons and whirlpools make travel hard but those are just a start."

http://www.comicbooknewbie.com/index.php/deadlands-black-water-shot-review/

"When I saw that Jeff Mariotte was doing a supernatural western I had to check it out. I loved Desperadoes, and miss it. I don’t know anything about Deadlands, except it’s a supernatural themed western RPG. So this was something had to check out.

I’m not disapointed.

But I am."

http://www.kittyspryde.com/?p=33419

"Then there are those times I read comics like Deadlands: Black Water and opine the sad fate often befalling the One Shot: not enough space to tell the story fully, no followup issues to spell out the obtuse into clarity."

http://www.zomboscloset.com/zombos_closet_of_horror_b/2012/01/deadlands-black-water.html

And finally, the inexplicable:

"Its no surprise that this book was created. The weird western genre, boosted by recent steampunk influences, has made a minor comeback in comics. It’s also no surprise that, as a licensed product, it mostly falls short. Licenses that start their lives as tabletop games rarely make a splash in other media.

Image’s site calls the creative teams behind these Deadlands books “comics superstars.” It’s clear from reading the books that, while these talented writers and artists know how to get paid to create licensed property tie-ins, superstars they are not. Even Mariotte’s Wikipedia page states he “is best known for writing novels and comic books based on licensed properties.'"

http://rationsmag.com/2012/01/12/deadlands-black-water/

 

The Devil's Bait--News and Reviews

There's a brand-new review of The Devil's Bait online today. The reviewer, Jennifer, calls the book "a fast paced, exciting, funny, suspenseful read," and concludes, "The Devil’s Bait is a thriller that will not disappoint.  I can’t wait to read this novel again, I enjoyed it that much!!"

The full review is here. Give it a read.

And soon, news about the print edition of The Devil's Bait--coming this spring, with some travel in the works to promote it!

NPR Visits THE SLAB

Every now and then, some other reporter discovers Slab City and brings it up. Those of us who love the place never tire of the stories, but we wish that every now and then they'd also dig deeply enough into the subject to report that it's been featured in  books (like The Slab) and movies and TV shows. Now it's NPR's turn.

Jesse Kelly: Stupid Is As Stupid Duhs

In 2010, in the heat of the Tea Party wave that swept such world-class geniuses as Rand Paul and Alan West into Washington, there were a few politicians who were just too extreme or too mentally incompetent to win election. One of those, running against Gabrielle Giffords, here in southeastern Arizona, was a guy named Jesse Kelly.

Now, I would never say that Jesse Kelly is too dumb to hold political office. The Texas Governor's mansion has some incredibly low intellectual standards, for instance. But Jesse Kelly is, by far, the dumbest politician I've ever seen open his mouth in person.

If he ever had a chance of winning national office, that Tea Party wave was it. But Jesse couldn't cut it, even then. Now that Gabby is leaving Congress to focus on her recovery, he has announced his intention to run again.

For those not "fortunate" enough to have seen Jesse in action, I can only give you some examples, and maybe a metaphor or two. Jesse's intellectual role model is Moose, from the Archie comics--and I don't mean if Moose was a real guy. I mean some lines and blobs of color on a piece of paper.

I saw Jesse in a debate with Gabrielle Giffords, though "debate" isn't really the right word for an event at which one person was talking about the real world and one about a world that never existed outside his imagination. On the stage of a public high school in a military town, Jesse delivered his best zinger--and you could see how proud he was of getting the words in the right order: "The government has never created a single job!"

Now, this was in a city called Sierra Vista, home to Fort Huachuca. Fifteen thousand people iin this city of 50-60,000 are employed directly by the fort. Those who aren't are largely employed by the various local and state schools, county government, or Border Patrol, or they're employed in industries that serve those government employees. 99% of the households in the city contain someone in them who works for the government directly or indirectly, and of the other 1%, the households on each side of them do.

And Jesse himself has never, as an adult, collected a paycheck that didn't come from the government. He was a US Marine (and an Iraq War vet, and I salute his government-employed service there), and then he came home and went to work for the family business, which is a construction company that builds and repairs sewer lines. You know who buys sewer lines, don't you? Jesse doesn't.

But he's not just stupid, he's also hateful. Jesse warned us, as election day neared, that the Democrats were planning to bus people in from Mexico to vote. Now, where he got that idea, nobody knows, because the Democrats certainly hadn't thought of it. In fact, it would be impossible for a Mexican to just walk up to a polling place and vote, and even more impossible for him to step off a bus of other Mexicans and vote. Now, it is possible that Jesse was too stupid to understand the realities, but it's more likely that he just  wanted to stir up distrust of any American citizens of Hispanic descent (of whom there are many in southern Arizona) who might have showed up at the polls.

So Jesse is barely intellectually capable of tying a shoe, but he's going to run for Congress again. In a year that definitely will NOT see a Tea Party wave. That might just be his worst decision yet.

In the meantime, Gabby and her friend, Republican congressman Jeff Flake, have just introduced what will be Gabby's final bill, to increase penalties on drug smugglers who use small aircraft to bring drugs across the border. Like the one that dropped a load on the property next to mine, a couple of years ago. Because Gabby and Mr. Flake know what kinds of vehicles bring what kinds of objects across borders--unlike Mr. Kelly.

If you know Jesse, tell him to give up his pipe dream and stay home. His moment came, he wasn't up to it, and he lost. Going out in public again will only embarrass the teachers who allowed him to pass second grade.

 

 

The Slab is Free

For a limited time only, you can pick up The Slab as a free e-book.

As I mentioned a few days ago, I enrolled The Slab in the Kindle Select program, so people can check it out, as in a library. Part of the deal is that Amazon allows you to offer any Kindle Select book for free, for five days during the 90-day window. My five days start now.

I've always been up front with my readers, so I have to say this. Giving away multiple copies of a book that I worked on for a long time, writing and rewriting and revising and polishing, sweating and giving myself finger cramps, is not an easy thing to do. I'm a professional writer, and part of that deal is that the writer should be paid for the work. And The Slab is a big book, a little over 123,000 words.

But the idea, as I understand it, is that by giving the book away for free for a limited time, lots more people will give it a try than otherwise might have. Some of them will like it, will write reviews, will tell friends. So, ideally, at the end of the five days, the book will be in greater demand than it was at the beginning. I hope that's the case.

Since its initial publication in the illustrated trade paperback, it has received a great deal of praise from many different sources. It has inspired people to go check out Slab City and the Salton Sea for themselves (and in at least one case, inspired another book--my pal Weston Ochse set his horror novel Empire of Salt there after he visited).

Here are some other excerpts from reviews, in case you're not yet convinced:

"If you lived through the aftermath of 9/11, you'll recognize the tense confusion of the period immediately following. If you've loved someone with Alzheimer's, you'll appreciate the full-fledged characterization of someone dealing with its limitations on a day-to-day basis. If you've ever lost a loved one and grieved deeply, and if you've ever had a change of heart about what's right and what's wrong, this book will hit you where you live--and take you on a thrill ride through space and time (and a cave filled with man-eating mushrooms), each in good time." -- Red Tash

"This is a must read for all horror/thriller lovers" -- Brittany Carrigan

"I found The Slab to be an entertaining, thought-provoking and gripping read." -- Paul Dail

Note: there's also a brand new, Slab-Centric interview with me at Paul's blog. Give it a read.

"If you have ever read and enjoyed those epic horror novels from the 70's and 80's (think Dan Simmons work) where you were immersed in a sprawling world of rich characterization, smart plotting, and enough sub plotting where the horror was deliberately episodic and horrifying, The Slab will be the perfect read for you." -- TT Zuma at HorrorWorld.org

"The Slab is one of those books that transports back to a time when you first started to fall in love the genre. It reminds of some of the great horror novels of the '80's. That's not to say the novel feels dated, not by any means. What I'm trying to say, remember those books that had a a roller-coaster fun heart, with a huge cast of characters, that kept you turning each page undr the covers long after your parents told you to go to sleep." -- Ginger Nuts of Horror blog

"Mariotte manages both thought-provoking juxtaposition and lizard-brain satisfaction as he plays out the large cast of characters across this hard and relentless landscape. His serial killers are just original enough to catch readers by surprise and he neatly ties together the threads of random magic, post-traumatic stress syndrome, a subtle supernatural invasion and an upper-class attack on a lower class landscape." -- Rick Kleffel

And, not reviews but blurbs upon the original publication:

"In The Slab, Mariotte grabs the reader's mind bare-handed and drags you through the unraveling of human interactions. It's insightful, potent, powerful--and downright creepy. Not only is The Slab a microcosm of the dark side of human nature, it's also a ripping good thriller." -- Kevin J. Anderson, bestselling author of Terra Incognita, The Saga of Seven Suns, and the Dune books.

"Mariotte is an author with vision. His prose is striking, his plots involving, his characters identifiable. He knows how to move an audience--and how to strike absolute terror in their hearts. If you're not reading his work, you should be. I highly recommend The Slab."
--Scott Ciencin, bestselling author of The Vampire Odyssey

So if for some reason you haven't yet read this classic of contemporary horror, there'll never be a better (cheaper) time.

And, as they say on TV:

But wait, there's more!

If you want to take advantage of the offer but you don't have a Kindle or the free Kindle-for-PC software, forward your Amazon receipt to me at jmariotte@aol.com and tell me how you'd like it. I can supply it in ePub or PDF. And one person who sends me their receipt, chosen by me at random, will receive a free signed copy of the original illustrated trade paperback.

Tell a friend. Spread the word.

And thanks.

It's the Math, Stupid

Long-time political junkies will remember the sign up in the Bill Clinton campaign's "war room": It's the Economy, Stupid. The idea was to keep the campaign focused on the economy instead of social issues. Obviously, it worked.

2012's presidential campaign will be focused on the economy as well. But the Republican candidates are having some issues with--to bring back another phrase from those days--fuzzy math. A few examples:

Yes, I do pay a higher tax rate than Mitt Romney does. I bet you do, too. Here's a handy chart. Of course, Mitt's paying legal taxes, taking advantage of laws that allow people investing other people's money to pay capital gains taxes instead of income taxes on their paychecks, stashing funds in the Caymans (just like in my thriller The Devil's Bait), etc. But his tax plan, should he accidentally become president, would result in yet lower taxes for him and his millionaire pals, and higher taxes on the poor. This makes sense how? Do the math, Mitt--the rich need to pay a little more. The poor can't afford to.

Newt Gingrich has some math trouble of his own. He keeps claiming, in debates and ads, that "more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history." Except that's another lie, since in fact, more Americans went on food stamps under the George W. Bush administration than any other. Under Obama, though the numbers went up for a while (and those that happened before his programs took effect should really be counted toward Bush's totals), but now they're going down.

Of course, in every Republican debate and stump speech this season, we hear about how President Obama is destroying the economy, how his stimulus was a failure, etc.  More bad math there, since in fact the stimulus demonstrably stopped the economy's downhill slide and led to 22 straight months of job growth. The latest figures show job unemployment claims at their lowest level since April 2008, which was about when the policies of the Bush years (slash regulations and cut taxes--you know, the same policies being offered up by the current Republican candidates) resulted in our most calamitous economic decline since the Great Depression.

This chart, courtesy of the Washington Monthly's Steve Benen, shows the reversal that came about when the stimulus spending began. The difference is unmistakable, but the Republicans keep lying about it.

Steve Benen points out another HUGE Mitt Romney lie--more of Romney's bad math, since apparently he doesn't know the difference between 0 and 1. Romney said, “We’ve got a president in office three years, and he does not have a jobs plan yet. I’ve got one out there already and I’m not even president, yet.”

Yeah, Mitt, only if you had been paying attention, you might have heard about this: http://www.whitehouse.gov/economy/jobsact.  The rest of America has. The president has even put parts of it into action despite total opposition from Republicans in Congress.

Oh, wait--you did hear about it, because you have even talked about it--see the video at the Mitt Romney lie link above. The presiden't jobs plan is comprehensive and workable. The one Romney mentioned is.. guess what... slash regulations and cut taxes. Because that worked so well last time.

The Republican candidates are more focused on seeking out the biggest pockets of hate-voters in the country (hence Gingrich's surge in South Carolina--he'll soon run out of states that fly the Confederate flag over the statehouse, though) than in getting the numbers (or facts) right. But this tells you all you need to know--none of them deserve to be president. They won't accept the truth about yesterday, and that makes their ideas about tomorrow entirely fraudulent.

THE SLAB Goes Exclusive...

...at least, for a while.

This whole e-book self-publishing thing remains an experiment for me, an effort to find out how--if at all--releasing my own e-books can fit into my overall writing career. So far, I can't say that it's been a hugely successful experiment. I have not, as Joe Konrath has, made $100,000 in three weeks (or at all) on my self-published e-books.

And those who know me know that in general, I'm not fan of exclusive deals. Or, particularly, of Amazon.com. I'm still primarily a print book-oriented, indie bookstore kind of guy (and, of course, one of the owners of Mysterious Galaxy).

But it seems like the nature of an experiment is to...well, experiment. So I've decided to enroll my horror epic The Slab into Amazon's Kindle Select program. What this means is that for the next 90 days, it won't be available at Barnes & Noble or Smashwords or DriveThruFiction or anywhere else. But if you're a member of Amazon's Prime program, you can borrow it, like a library book, for free.

Will this result in more people reading the book? I hope so. Will more people then buy it? That's the goal.

This much I know--when people read The Slab, they tend to like it. Particularly if they're fans of horror fiction to begin with, but sometimes when they're not--in addition to its horror aspects, it has relatable characters and page-turning suspense, so there's something there even for folks who don't lean toward the supernatural.

If you've been on the fence, but you're a member, now would be a good time to check it out.

On Hugo and the Magic of Méliès

When I was in high school, I wrote short stories, but I also made movies. When I could, instead of writing papers for classes, I turned in movies on the topic (my teachers pretty much knew I could write by then). I took a film class offered by a drama teacher, but I had already read the book he was using as a text--and learning as he went--so I did as much teaching as learning.

When I went to college, my original major was advertising, but after a trip to Hollywood and Universal Studios, I changed it to Radio/TV/Film (only because that was the major--I was interested in TV and film, not so much in radio). I wrote scripts, made movies, directed TV productions, etc.

As it turns out I never worked in any of those fields directly, but as VP of Marketing for WildStorm Productions I wrote a lot of ads, dealt with buying ad space, worked with designers and artists, etc., so the advertising education came in handy. I've written books, nonfiction as well as fiction and comics, based on many TV shows and a couple of movies. I've spent time on sets, I've gone to pitch meetings, I did publicity for an animated TV series and an animated feature film.

I love writing fiction, but I still love movies (and TV, when it's good). We're lucky enough to have been--and to continue to be--in a kind of golden age of TV dramas, with people like David Simon and Aaron Sorkin stretching the boundaries of what great TV can be. But we're in an era of some truly awful movie-making, in which the movies that get all the attention are more about how many explosions and special effects shots can be squeezed into the budget than about the real craft of filmmaking.

Put it this way--yesterday, I discovered that 2001: A Space Odyssey is still riveting cinema, despite the fact that nothing blows up, that the dialogue is minimal and largely banal, that character development is nonexistent. But you can't look away from the screen. That's a movie that could never be made today. And although 1968 was hardly the best year for movies ever, it did include Bullitt, Charly, Barbarella, Funny Girl, Rosemary's Baby, The Love Bug, The Producers, Planet of the Apes, The Thomas Crown Affair, Romeo and Juliet (the hot one), Night of the Living Dead, Yellow Submarine, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Head, No Way to Treat a Lady, Once Upon a Time in the West, and The Lion in Winter. Some are dated, but most of them still stand up today. Will today's movies stand up 40+ years from now?

One will, at least. We saw Hugo last night. Hugo is based on the illustrated novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick, and the movie is brilliant. From the very beginning--a beautiful aerial shot of the world's most beautiful city, Paris, which turns into a long tracking shot through the busy Montparnasse train station (a shot that demonstrates that in a master's hands, there is a reason for 3-D filmmaking--it's not just a gimmick but an authentic addition to a director's toolbox) that leads up to the face of a boy (the wonderful Asa Butterfield) behind a grate--you know you are in the hands of a director at the top of his game, working on material that has a very personal meaning to him.

By the end, you discover that the movie is really about movies, and stories, and magic, and imagination, and love, and the genius of Georges Méliès, who made more than 500 movies around the turn of the last century, and invented a lot of the tricks that filmmakers have used ever since. Much of his output has been lost, but a couple hundred still exist, and Hugo shows us clips from some, as well as taking us behind the scenes to show how Méliès did what he did.

If you love movies... if you love any or all of those things I mentioned in the paragraph above... then rush to the nearest theater showing Hugo in 3-D. Don't wait for the DVD, but see it in a theater. Do it today. This is a film that film buffs can't overlook, that can be enjoyed by the whole family, and that will remind you of what movies can do.

Horror Novel The Slab Picks Up Another Great Review

Horror writer Paul Dail reviewed The Slab on his blog today. His conclusion: "I found The Slab to be an entertaining, thought-provoking and gripping read." Read the whole thing here.

Then...you know, go buy one. Because you know you want to. And I really, really want you to. The e-book is only $2.99, and available for any reader you have. Mysterious Galaxy will soon have somew new signed paperbacks, if you're one of those people (like me) who still likes books with pages--place an order and they'll get it in for you.