The New Dead

So, last year, I was approached by Michael Homler, an editor at St. Martin's Press. They had an interest, he said, in publishing an anthology of zombie stories and wanted me to put one together as editor. My initial reaction was hesitant. I enjoy zombie stories as much as the next weird bastard, but I was skeptical about doing something just to capitalize on the current trend. If I were to attempt it, my interest would be in compiling a collection of stories that touched on WHY zombies are so damn popular at the moment. Vampires, of course, remain popular because of their glamour and eroticism and the promise of eternal life. But zombies...um, they eat your brains.

Thus...THE NEW DEAD.

We live in odd times. Strange days, indeed. Times of torture and deceit and celebrity and constant exposure to the worst the world has to offer, thanks to a media that never tires of feeding our hunger for the horrible.

My favorite work of zombie fiction ever is the poem "The March of the Dead" by Robert Service. In a way, it set the tone for this new anthology, though it was published long, long ago. Service wrote of the glorious homecoming of victorious soldiers, celebrated by the townspeople as they parade through the streets...only to be followed by the ravaged, horrible, lumbering dead, the soldiers who did not survive the war.

This isn't to say that the stories in THE NEW DEAD are all focused on such modern concerns (hah...modern...tell that to Robert Service). But each has its own unique perspective on the zombie story, and many are certainly informed by the cultural concerns unique to our era. On the other hand, some are about love. And, of course, they're all about Hunger, in one form or another.

Aside from taking a different slant on the zombie story--or, I should say, because of it--my other goal was to assemble a very eclectic array of contributors, a zombie anthology version of Forrest Gump's box of chocolates. Fantasy writers. Mainstream literary writers. Horror writers. Mystery and thriller writers. I can only hope you'll be as pleased with the results as I am.

Without further ado...the Table of Contents for THE NEW DEAD, shipping in February, 2010 from St. Martin's/Griffin:

Table of Contents

"Lazarus" by John Connolly
"What Maisie Knew" by David Liss
"Copper" by Stephen R. Bissette
"In the Dust" by Tim Lebbon
"Life Sentence" by Kelley Armstrong
"Delice" by Holly Newstein
"Closure, LTD" by Max Brooks
"The Wind Cries Mary" by Brian Keene
"Family Business" by Jonathan Maberry
"The Zombie Who Fell From the Sky" by M.B. Homler
"My Dolly" by Derek Nikitas
"Second Wind" by Mike Carey
"Among Us" by Aimee Bender
"Ghost Trap" by Rick Hautala
"The Storm Door" by Tad Williams
"Kids and Their Toys" by James A. Moore
"Shooting Pool" by Joe R. Lansdale
"Weaponized" by David Wellington
"Twittering from the Circus of the Dead" by Joe Hill

Want a Free Copy of the Next Hidden Cities Book?

Check out the sexy alternate, unpublished cover to THE MAP OF MOMENTS. Sweet, isn't it?

Psst, hey!

How'd you like a free book?

Tim Lebbon and I are working hard on our third novel together, an urban fantasy called TELL MY SORROWS TO THE STONES. It's a new Hidden Cities book, this time set in Venice.

So how do you get one for free?

The first 50 (fifty) people to review the current Hidden Cities book, THE MAP OF MOMENTS and post the review at both their blog (or website) *AND* at Amazon will get a free signed copy of TELL MY SORROWS TO THE STONES when it is released in 2010.

Once you've posted your review, send your link(s) to citieshidden@yahoo.com The reviews must be at least one paragraph of at least five sentences. This contest is open to residents of the United States, Canada, and Europe. Must be at least 15 years old to enter.

Read an exclusive excerpt from The Map of Moments. Click here to download the PDF.

If you'd like to spread the word of this contest, please feel free! Download the Word .DOC

For more information about the novels, visit http://www.thehiddencities.com/For more information about the authors, visit http://www.christophergolden.com/ and http://www.timlebbon.net/

Things That Make Me Happy

Well, there are a lot of things, yes. (Get your minds out of the gutter.) Way too often, days fly by and I don't take time to properly appreciate those things, but here are a few of them.

The ALA has made POISON INK one of its Quick Picks, putting it on the list of Best Books for Reluctant Readers for 2009. It's not the first time I've made the list, but it always makes me smile. There's nothing that pleases me more than hearing from someone, kid or adult, who "doesn't like to read" that they enjoyed something I wrote. It always feels like a win. So, yay! :)

Eksmo, my Russian publisher, has sent me copies of the beautiful hardcover edition they've done of ANGEL SOULS AND DEVIL HEARTS. (This is the fourth book of mine they've done, after STRANGEWOOD, WILDWOOD ROAD, and OF SAINTS AND SHADOWS.) Next up is THE MYTH HUNTERS, and she tells me they intend to publish the entire Veil trilogy, as well as the other two Shadow Saga novels. I'm taking that as a good sign.

The lovely (and slightly goofy) Amber Benson has actually started blogging. I thought the day would never come, and now I suppose I'll have to blog more. Bad enough Tim Lebbon blogs all the damn time. And both Amber and Tim are on freakin' Twitter, which I just don't understand. What would mine say? Working. Working. Working. Working. Hmm, maybe that should worry me. All work and no play...you know how it goes. Ah, well, going out to dinner tomorrow night with my wife and some friends (you'd be surprised how good some of the restaurants in Haverhill, MA are), so I do have SOME tiny social life.

Anyway, Amber's blog... http://amberbensonwrotethis.blogspot.com/ Her first solo novel, DEATH'S DAUGHTER, hits shelves next month. Buy. Read. Smile.

Just bought the new CD from the Derek Trucks Band, and it makes me very happy. It's been a long, cold, shitty winter, and playing the CD creates a little bubble of summer in my office.

Comics people, and horror people, make sure to check out the new DEAD OF NIGHT: WEREWOLF BY NIGHT miniseries from Marvel. Always loved the character, and hard boiled Duane Swierczynski has started the thing off with a bang.

So there you go. Must go write, now. Am about to do some very horrible things to Cait McCandless...things for which she will never forgive me. And, perhaps unsettlingly for you, that makes me happiest of all.

Maps and more Things To Come

So, I'm long past the point of making promises about being a better blogger. I've seen where that gets me. Let's forge ahead, shall we? And if I happen to manage this a bit more often, all the better. :)

It's going to be a very interesting year, I have a feeling...in lots of different ways. For me, as always, it's going to involve lots of writing. There's also some fairly interesting travel this summer, taking me from London to St. Petersburg and back. As for conventions...more on that in a bit.

THE MAP OF MOMENTS hits bookstores this week. My collaborator on that novel, the devilishly handsome Tim Lebbon, and I are anxiously awaiting reader feedback. We're pretty damned thrilled with the book and the reviews it's been receiving, so we hope you like it.

What else is up for this year? I've been hearing rumors about an upcoming YA supernatural trilogy that's supposedly written by me, under the name Thomas Randall. I'm curious about that. But for now, some quick updates...

**Tim Lebbon and I will soon begin the third Hidden Cities book, TELL MY SORROWS TO THE STONES, and there will definitely be a fourth one, at least.

**No word yet on release date for THE SECRET JOURNEYS OF JACK LONDON, but I'll keep you posted.

**I've done a short story, "Quiet Bullets," for Joe R. Lansdale's upcoming SON OF RETRO PULP TALES anthology for Subterranean Press.

**Mike Mignola and I just finished a short story, "Mechanisms," for a new anthology of HELLRAISER stories, though Mike's still working on illustrations.

**It appears I'll be returning to comics late in 2009.

**I've delivered the new version of the BALTIMORE script to the producers. I'm sure there will be changes before it goes on to the studio.

**My co-writer on the CW pilot (Stephanie K. Smith) and I await the network's decisions.

**BRITISH INVASION, the anthology I edited with Tim Lebbon and James A. Moore, has finally been published by Cemetery Dance. Hopefully the Cemetery Dance editions of PRINCE OF STORIES and MIND THE GAP will follow quickly, especially since there's another book of mine in the works at CD which is going to be the coolest limited edition I've ever had.

**Rich Horton has chosen my story "The Hiss of Escaping Air" for his FANTASY: THE BEST OF THE YEAR anthology. It's the first time any of my short fiction has been selected for one of these collections, and I'm honored. Note: the original chapbook is still available from PS Publishing's site, and with the way the pound has dropped against the dollar, it's MUCH cheaper for US readers than it was upon publication back in the fall.

I'm sure there are other things I should be reporting, but I've been under the weather this weekend and my head's all muddled. So, moving on...

Right now, I'm planning to attend three conventions this year--Necon, World Fantasy (it's in San Jose, California!), and I'll be Horror Guest of Honor at Context in Columbus, OH, August 28th-30th, 2009. I find it interesting that I'm the horror guest, since so little of what I've written seems to actually qualify as horror, but as I've said in the past, the horror people are my people, which makes it a double honor as far as I'm concerned.

Thanks for reading.

The Map of Moments gets its star

The past few months have gone by in a blur, and now Christmas is nearly here. I'm working on a new draft of the BALTIMORE movie script, just finished the first draft of a pilot script for the CW, and Lebbon and I are just days away from completing the first book in our new YA series THE SECRET JOURNEYS OF JACK LONDON. But this morning, I'm taking a few minutes to celebrate the wonderful review that Tim and I received from Publishers Weekly on our second collaboration, the adult fantasy novel THE MAP OF MOMENTS. Here's a bit of what they had to say...

Starred Review. "Urban realism meets dark fantasy in this spine-tingling second collaboration between Golden and Lebbon as they merge the repercussions of Hurricane Katrina with New Orleans' terrifying ghostly past. Golden and Lebbon have far outstripped their past efforts with this wonderfully creepy thriller of a ghost story."
--Publishers Weekly

A New Dawn

I am jubilant this morning, my friends. Filled with a kind of hope and vigor that I have not felt in a very long time. Hope prevailed over hate and ignorance last night, and my sons stayed up to watch it. Nicholas is 14 and has an Obama poster hanging on his wall, and he and I were both near tears during the speech. He had to get up at 6am, but he wasn't going to bed until Obama spoke, and I let him stay up. Daniel, who is 12, had to get up at 7am, but likewise did not want to go to bed. I let him stay up so that he could see it live, and have this piece of history to remember for the rest of his life. After the speech he looked up at me and said "Barack Obama is now officially my hero."

We've elected someone our children can look up to, who can be a guiding light in so many ways. I feared those days were behind us, and though I know there are hard years to come, I also know, now, that there are better days ahead.

America has sent the world a signal. We've been derelict in our duties, to use the power of ideas for the greater good, but we've remembered, now, what it was all for.

We're back, and we're ready to work again.

How's Tricks? (and a Halloween Treat)

So, I had a little medical procedure today that required them doping me silly, making it hard to focus on writing. Instead, I thought I'd do a little update on all the news, cool and crazy, happening now.

First, the biggest news...but with only slim details, as I can't say more about it right now. One of my book series has just been optioned by a TV network and I'm soon to begin work co-writing the pilot. The central character is very dear to me, and I can't tell you how thrilled I am by this development, and with the group of people who have come together to make it happen. More on that later.

I wish I had concrete news on some of the other film and TV projects in various stages of development--BALTIMORE, TALENT, OUTCAST, THE SISTERHOOD, THE HOLLOW, and GHOSTS OF ALBION--but though there is definitely action, there's nothing to report at the moment. Hopefully that will change soon.

Tim Lebbon and I are hard at work on our first YA collaboration, THE SECRET JOURNEYS OF JACK LONDON, and it's turning out to be very cool and, I believe, unique. It's a very creatively rewarding partnership, I think. In fact, in addition to those, Tim and I have also made a deal with Bantam for the next two novels in our HIDDEN CITIES series (though "series" is such a strange word for books that are so UNconnected).

The next Hidden Cities book, THE MAP OF MOMENTS, will be out at the end of January. Every book in the series stands on its own, without any need to have read or even know about the others. They are only thematically connected. Tim and I both feel MAP is one of the best things either of us has ever done.

SOULLESS and PRINCE OF STORIES: THE MANY WORLDS OF NEIL GAIMAN, both hit stores this month. I haven't heard whether or not Neil has seen the book or what he thinks of it, but it's important to us all that he like it, so fingers tightly crossed.

Speaking of new deals (as I was just a bit above), I've also signed on with MTV Books (publishers of SOULLESS) for a new book with them. It's modern dark fantasy with a classical twist, but it's too early to say more about it.

There you are. That's probably all the update my drug-addled brain can manage at the moment. I should add, though, that on November 16th, both Joe Hill (Heart-Shaped Box) and I will be signing at the Portsmouth Comic Book Show (in Portsmouth, NH). If you're not too far away, come by and visit.

And now, as promised, a Halloween treat...an essay I wrote a number of years back for a big fat Cemetery Dance anthology. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

HALLOWEEN MEMORIES
by Christopher Golden

Was I eleven?

I don’t think so. At least not quite. Let’s say nine, then, though perhaps I’m erring on the side of vanity, not wanting to admit just how long I held on to the more gleefully childish parts of Halloween.

So, yes, nine.

Before I begin, though, you need to know about my mother’s hand. Or, rather, her lack of one. The left. From birth she has been forced to manage with what one might call a truncated version of a left hand, dealing both with the practical impact of that loss as well as the emotional. She’s done very well, thank you. Though an attorney now, in her youth she was a singer and performer whose efforts took her to Off-Broadway shows in New York.

In order to prevent audiences from being distracted by her handicap, she had one made for her. It was plastic and felt not unlike a turkey baster to the touch.

By the time I was nine—we all agreed on nine, did we not?—my mother had long since abandoned the stage. But the hand remained in my basement for me to discover it one early fall. It was a fascinating piece of equipment, particularly to one of my darkly mischievous mind set. Thus, that Halloween, when I put on my father’s torn black jacket that hung to my knees and pulled my Frankenstein’s Monster mask over my head, I also slipped that hand over my own . . .
Poor Mrs. Nye.

I lived in a suburban Massachusetts town twenty miles west of Boston, on a quiet, dead-end street with plenty of kids. My road was part of a warren of them that comprised a single, enormous middle-class neighborhood called Pheasant Hill.

Halloween on Pheasant Hill was truly something to behold. My brother and I took huge white pillowcases out before dark and began our rounds, filling up once, twice, even three times before finally settling down to fish through our booty and trade what we didn’t like for things we did. If I close my eyes now I can remember the bustle of garishly costumed children roving up and down the streets in small packs.

Cabbage Night, what we called the local night of mischief and misdemeanors the evening before Halloween, had just passed. And yet we had the unmitigated gall to approach the front doors of homes we had egged or soaped the windows of or toilet-papered the trees of not twenty four hours earlier.

One house, on the far end of Briarwood Road, offered cold sodas instead of candy, and at least one Halloween was hot enough for us to be sweating in our masks and costumes. I had a devil’s mask as well, but I think that came later, after the Frankenstein.

Of course there were sinister elements as well. The LaVolley mansion—which wasn’t much of a mansion at all, to be honest—had shattered windows and an overgrown lot and that was our haunted house, the one we all sprinted by when we had to pass it. If we dared go down that way at all on Halloween night.

The whispers of razor-blades in apples and poison in candy. But we were foolish enough to think a wrapper that wasn’t ripped meant the candy was safe to eat. We were children. And children in a time when parents thought most of those stories were just urban myths.

It didn’t matter. Halloween was a glorious night. The best night of the year. When cable television came in, I could go home from trick-or-treating and watch Halloween or Magic on HBO. Conveniently, one or the other always seemed to be on that night. There were others, of course, but those are the ones I remember.

I got older, of course. Old enough, eventually, to bitterly accept that the solicitation of candy was reserved for younger children. And then older still.

But I never stopped loving Halloween. I usually take my children out trick-or-treating because I’m too dangerous to leave at home on Halloween night with my gore-drenched ghoul mask and lots of gullible little garishly-dressed neighbor kids to frighten.

Which brings me back to Mrs. Nye. What a sweet old woman she was.

I rang the bell, a group of other kids behind me. She came to the door and I was the one who yelled “trick or treat” the loudest. With a kindly smile she dropped a Zagnut and a Reese’s cup in my bag. I thanked her and thrust out my hand for her to shake.

My left hand.

She shook it, of course. It came off in her hand and I shouted as if I’d been injured and she shrieked in shock and terror and dropped it on the ground.

Mrs. Nye stared at me in horror.

And I liked it.

A lot.