Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Capes and Tights podcast right here on Capesandtights.com I'm your host, Justin Soderbergh. This episode is once again brought to you by our friends at Galactic Comics and Collectibles. At collected comics and collectibles.com we welcomed Paul Tremblay to the Poetic podcast. He is a best selling Bram Stoker and British fantasy award winning author of books such as Survivor, Song, Cabinets into the World, Head Full of Ghosts, Horror Movie and the upcoming middle grade novel Another.
But before you listen to this episode, check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, bluesky, threads, all those places you can subscribe, rate, review over on Apple or Spotify as well as anywhere you find your podcasts. You can also Find us on YouTube for a video portion of this podcast as well as capesandtights.com for all kinds of reviews and more podcasts and things like that. But this is Paul Tremblay, best selling author of books such as Horror Movie and the upcoming another right here on the Capes and Tights podcast. Enjoy everyone.
Welcome to the podcast. Paul, how are you today?
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Thank you, Justin. Good. Yeah. Sitting out in the beautiful weather in New England.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: It changes everywhere. You know, I live in Maine. You're, you're in Massachusetts, right?
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: Yeah. And so it was funny because last week it was like 98 degrees on like Tuesday. And then like Sunday came about and it was like. Or Saturday came about, it was like 57 or something like that. And I was just like, you can't get anything in New England here. It's like changes in a heartbeat. But yeah, but it's someone's birthday today, isn't it?
[00:01:32] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, it is my birthday. Another, another year added to style.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: Which is funny because our buddy Paul Eaton, who owns Galactic Comics and Collectibles, also named Paul, is also his birthdays today. Okay, so happy birthday to Paul there. It's a special Paul day for the people out there. Yeah, exactly.
But yeah, welcome to the podcast. I really appreciate you taking the time out to chat it with us and so on. But yeah, so let's just start off a little bit, Paul, like, what made you decide you wanted to become an author?
[00:02:02] Speaker B: No, I very much just sort of like fell into.
Was not like. Well, it wasn't like I was a kid and I dreamed of writing stories and you have, if people are not watching on YouTube or something, you have a Celtics jersey, Nate Archibald in the background.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:16] Speaker B: Now when I was a kid, I dreamed of being Larry Bird. You know, I didn't do much toward that other than just spend hours in my backyard by myself shooting baskets.
So, yeah, but in my late. I'll try to make this quicker.
When I actually, my last year of college, because I was a weird math humanities major and humanities, just the hodgepodge of stuff.
One of the last classes I ever took, second semester, senior year, was like an English 101 or lit 101. But the stories you read in that class, like, oh, I didn't. You know, like, Joyce Carol Oates is, where have you going? Where have you been?
And there was greasy lake by T.C. boyle, too.
Anyway, I'll never forget because when I read those, I was like, oh, I didn't know people wrote things like this. And, yeah, I really hit it off. The professor, he was cool. He was big into punk. So he let me write my papers comparing it to music. Like, I still remember. I don't remember the paper, but I remember, I think, the paper I wrote for where are you going and where you where have you been? I compared it to Jane's addictions. Ted just admitted, like, the use of violence, blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, so when I went off to grad school, I fell in love with reading because it was like, right after that. And then after a couple years, I just had this weird itch to try writing a story. I was also trying to learn how to play guitar. So it was both. For much of the mid to late 90s. I was messing around with both. Both very much a hobbyist. But then I figured I was a better writer, unfortunately, so then I just stuck with it. It was just like a long, slow. I was patient with it sort of process.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Absolutely. You got a book to me, a book coming out this. This summer. But you also. You're about a year now. We're just over a year right now since Horro hit the shelves.
The paperback version of it comes out this summer, so that's really kind of cool. And you had the independent bookstore day version of it, which was green, which was really cool. And for all of us, people who are obsessed with collecting books and things like that had to buy that, too. So it was a whole. It was a whole thing. I was like, I got to my house and I'm like, why did I do. I know why I did this, but why did I do this? No. And so it was pretty cool, but, yeah. So how's it been? Like, so you're a year into this horror movie book. Obviously it takes you a while to get these things on the shelf, and then they're out for a year and people buying it, bestseller, things like that. How has it been now? Now we're a year later after this book's been out.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's funny because I mean now like at this point, I've written two full novels since that book has come out and I'm about to start a third. So in a lot of ways it feels very far away and joking. Not joking, but like you mentioned the different types of horror movies. I think my publisher is trying to take advantage of my readers. Thank you. My readers. But like, even the, even like the trade paperback is going to be really cool. It's going to have like film strip sprayed edges.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Stuff. So anyway, sorry if anyone else feels like you're forced to buy another one, you don't have to.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. It's cool though because it does add that whole aspect to it is like there are. To me, it was, you know, I have one displayed like I have one on the shelf that's like, like leaning up and that's the green one. Then you have one on the shelf. You know, it's one of those things. I mean, I'm a comic book collector as well, so it's like you have the covers that make the difference and so on and so forth. But it also gives people the opportunity who didn't purchase the book in the first place. There's an incentive to maybe like, oh, it's the reason why I waited because this, this, this, you know, sprayed edges on this paperback is actually way cooler than, than the, you know, hardcover or whatever it may be.
You know, at least it didn't Blood on her tongue came out with the blood on the, on the spray on the edges and the regular version. So like you had to pick between the two. And I know that there's the hardcover had like for your book, our horror movie had red sprayed, right?
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Yeah, the first printing.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: Yeah, first printing them. Yeah, exactly. So I mean, it's really cool. I think it's cool to have that. Different options out there. But yeah, for the, for the, for the 30 bucks a book, it does get a little expensive. At least, at least the paperback's cheaper. How about that? There you go.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: No, I mean, I mean, so like a year later, I don't know, I'm in a weird place that I never dreamed I would be and like that I've written like a whole bunch of novels. I'm up to like 10 or 11, I don't know because like, you know, when you fall in love with reading. It's like, oh, I have like, you know, Stephen King has written all these books and you have favorites and not favorites. And it's weird to think that there are people out there who have favorites and non favorites of mine. Mostly non favorites probably.
But I'm very proud of Horror Movie. Like it felt like, I don't know, like when you feel like you've written a good book, like in, you know, with, with the passage of time. So like, you know, obviously I feel really good about headphilgos in the cabinet at the end of the world. You know, I feel good about all my books, but I was like, oh, you know, I felt like with horror Movie, it's like, you know, just trying to prove that I could do it again kind of thing.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: You know, and I'm not necessarily the best judge of my own work, but you know, that book felt good. It felt like, okay, I proved I could do it again. So, you know, it starts all over again with the next book, obviously.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. And it's one of those. And it's a, it's a thing with publishing where you have to like obviously promote. You heavily promoted horror movie when it came out last summer. And then you kind of like not take a break from it, but like you just sit back a little bit and you work on your next novels and things like that. Then you're starting to promote the next book, which is not another. And then you also have to promoting this, the paperback version of Horror Movie, but there's also the audiobook. So I read the advanced copy of Horror Movie last year before that was published. And then I was like, oh yeah, well then I get closer to talking to you and I was like, you know what, I want to read it again, but listen to audiobook this time. And I'll tell you right now, that's a complete. Like normally audiobooks to me and written books are similar. Like they're just okay. It's a different way of intaking the novel.
When it's a cast of characters doing a thing like horror movie on audiobook, it's an entirely different experience. Which is highly recommended to people. Honestly, right now it was so cool to just take it in a different. It was like reading a whole nother book again. It was really cool.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Nice. No, thank you. And yeah, they really knocked it out of the park. And you know, none of that was my idea, you know.
No, no, my, my only suggestion was like, yeah, you probably should have like, you know, a male narrator for the Thin Kid and a woman narrator. Female narrator For.
For Cleo's screenplay, right? Or yeah, Cleo. I always switch back and forth in my head because Valentina and CLE are named after my daughter's friends, but their names are slightly different, so sometimes I slip out the real name. Not that it's a big deal, but anyway, yeah, no, like I normally don't listen to my audiobooks from start to finish. I might dip in just to hear what it sounds like. But I did listen to this one because it was a lot of fun. I felt like, you know, as you described, like it felt like something different and I don't like. So it's funny when it first came out, like I was getting messages from randos being like, ah, they, they put out an audiobook with mistakes on it. Like no, it's purposeful, like, you know, because someone flubs a line like when they're. Because they're doing like a live table reading for the screenplay. Yeah, I'm like, no, it's purposeful, don't worry about it.
[00:08:55] Speaker A: Well, it's different things. And I do read about, you know, even, even books that are reading right now. I read kind of hybrid. I have the physical print copy and I listen to the audiobook because my son goes to school about a half an hour away and so I drive him to school, drive home. So it's a chunk of time there that I feel like I'm wasting and so listening to an audiobook and so on and so forth. But like there's something to be said about it done right like this, like this. It's a different, like I said, it's a different experience. It's a different way of intaking something. And I listened to a lot of them. So it's kind of funny how you mentioned that the mess ups it took me. I'm like, wait, did they just say that line over again? I'm surprised. And then it reminded me of when I listened to Kevin Smith's audiobook, his biography, and there was moments where he stopped in the middle of the book. I just made comments on the thing that he was reading, which was not in the book. But again you get this whole other experience of like it was. It didn't happen all the time. Like everyone, like maybe like five times throughout the entire book he said a comment, a quick sentence about what he just said and I was like, a different way. It's not only just a different way of reading the book, but it's also a different experience. And I think that a horror movie Having all those different people talking made for, you know, I guess, a new experience. And again, you got me again. Because I did buy the audiobook.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Well, thank you. Yeah, I appreciate.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: So I'm gonna be sending you the bill in the mail. Yeah. No, no, it's true. It's a different way of doing it. There's people who obviously think it's not the same or can't pay attention or whatever it may be.
But this. I think even if you can't pay attention to an audiobook, this might force you to, because there's more going on. There's some sound effects. There's. There's, again, the special features of flubbing the line and things like that. It's really cool.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I get it. I mean, I listen to audiobooks, too. I usually have a hard time with fiction just because, you know, if I space out, I feel like I've lost something. Whereas if I do a lot of nonfiction that way, I feel like if I space out for a second, you know, I'm not losing as much as I did in fiction. But there are some.
There are some books that do work in fiction, like Caroline Kepnes's U Books just because of the voice. And it's this weird, fun first person. I think those are so fun to listen to, and I don't space out on those.
But something that's really dense, like, this needs to be like, for me, it needs to be read as a book.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: Yeah. And there's also the way that you go about it. And so I recently had a conversation with Christopher golden when he was up here visiting about how I listened to his audiobook for Nightbirds. And I said I loved it, enjoyed it very much. But I was like. My one thing was there was a selection of a female character and a male character that read for two female roles and two male roles or multiple of each. And so the only thing I would say is anybody listening to or reading the book for the first time, read the book. Because that, to me, kind of took me like, wait. Wait a second. Who are they talking to? You kind of lost because they were having the same voice. And so it was like. It kind of like the females were talking the female, you know, and so on and so forth. So to me, it was, like, a little confusing, but I was like, read the novel, first of all, because it's phenomenal. But other than that, I said, read the physical copy, print copy, because I think you're getting more out of it. You can. You can keep track of things in your mind unless you're really good. Like I said, I don't know. Some people are really better at listening to audiobooks than others. I don't know. But this was done well. That's, that's what my whole point to that whole long winded conversation here was that the audiobook for horror movie was done well. Thank you. And it's really cool. It's a whole, like I said, a whole nother experience.
But you've written, you know, Cabin into the World. We got, you know, Horror Movie, Paul Bears, Club Head Full of Ghosts, all these different books you've written. Now you're jumping into a different age range.
But what was the, you know, impetus to, to writing another in this middle grade age range? Again, it's, it's middle grade, but really for everybody.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, a part of it like was because of the filming of Knock at the Cabin, I got to take a year sabbatical from school and I finished horror movie like four months before my deadline because I had all this extra time. And then I, you know, I just happen to have the idea for another. Like it was a scene that just got stuck in my head where, you know, an old man shows up to this lonely boy's house and has a burlap sack and inside the sack he opens it and this is like weird clay mannequin looking kid, you know, that can move but has no facial features but like will sculpt stuff on his face. I was like, oh, that's really weird, you know.
You know, and it kept, kept nagging me. And that's usually the sign that, oh, I do want to write. I want to write it, you know, because I'm sure like, you know, most writers will get all sorts of crazy ideas, but me, the test is it, does it continue to stick with me? Because I think everyone's excited. Initially it's like, oh, this is new, what's this? But if I find myself thinking about it, you know, weeks and weeks later and at random moments it's like, okay, that means, I think, you know, I can spend a year writing this.
Yeah. So we grew up from there. And just because it was a 12 year old protagonist writing it from his point, not first person, but from his point of view, I thought, oh, maybe this is a younger person's book. I wasn't 100% sure. I'm certainly no expert.
But a friend did send me Kenneth Oppel's the Nest, which is a wonderful middle grade novel. Very scary and just beautifully written. So that was like Okay.
I didn't know you could do it that way. So, honestly, I feel like I didn't really approach the writing of this book any other.
Differently than my other books.
Maybe I dialed back the vocabulary. Whatever my vocabulary happens to be. I mean, certainly swearing, that's part of the vocabulary. So I dialed that back. But honestly, it's a question I get asked a lot, and I feel like I'm disappointing people by saying I don't feel like I really approached it differently. It was just, this is what the story needed. So I tried to give the story what it needed.
[00:14:17] Speaker A: I think it's great having this middle grade tag to it because you can give it to the middle grade audience, but that doesn't mean that it's just for middle. I mean, it was creepy to me. Like, I'm almost 40 here, and just like, to me I was like, this is nice. You know, same thing I've always mentioned to Adam Caesar about his books. Clown of the Cornfield and Influencer. Things. Like, he's like, they're like young adult. But it's like the end, you know, I mean, like, it's like the. Like one more swear word in it or one more thing when it pushed it over into an adult novel. And it's a similar thing. I feel like with this, it's like it's in that middle grade age range, but it's like it might be towards the end of that middle grade, if you think about it, because again, like I said, it creeped me out. And I don't know.
This is freaking. This is. But so did half of R.L. stine's books still creep me out. So it's like one of those things that, like, just because, you know, maybe there's some themes or there's not sexuality or there's not, you know, those things that are not in this book. So that makes it that middle grade. But it's still creepy. It's still a horror story. It's still one of those ones that, like, I mean, if they made it into a movie, I would want it to be more. A little bit more adult, I'll tell you that much. But, like, other than that, it was like, I said, it was a creepy read. It was eerie, you know, and it did make me think of R.L. stine books. I don't know if you want to be compared to R.L. stine, but it had that goosebumps aspect to it, that creepiness of a young person and something weird happening in their lives. And so it was really cool to See that? Read this. And Chuck Wendig just did that, too, with Horror Movie. Is it horror movie? No.
[00:15:42] Speaker B: Monster movie.
[00:15:43] Speaker A: Yes, Monster movie.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: Thank you. I was just putting the book away on the shelf a second ago. I was trying to put these books away on a shelf, and I'm like, oh, this is a cool book. I forgot about this book.
But, yeah, same idea where it's like, Chuck's obviously written a bunch of great books that are made for adults, but then grab that middle grade age range and. Same thing with you with this other book. It's really cool to see that. But. Yeah. So was it just you wrote the book and ended up being this age range, or did you have to cut some things out that were like, okay, this is maybe for an adult?
[00:16:09] Speaker B: No, I didn't cut a thing out. I wrote it, sent it to my agent. It's like, yeah, it's probably middle by the time I finish. I was like, I guess this is middle grade then, because it features a sixth grader, essentially.
I didn't know. I thought, oh, because of Chuck and, you know, for a few other people, Ali Mellon. I'm gonna butcher her last name.
[00:16:29] Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: I was like, oh, middle grade horror must be doing well. And then everyone's like, no, middle grade's bad. Like, it's not doing well. I'm like, oh, okay, then why are people doing this?
I have this. Let's see if we can sell it.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: No, really, it's fine. When was being pitched? The only. The first. We pitched it to Within.
So William Morrow is my adult publisher, and that's an imprint of HarperCollins. And, you know, I kind of wanted to stay in house.
And so my adult editor suggested this amazing editor, Rosemary, you know, from Quiltry Press.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: And, you know, the. The initial pushback with the sales folks was like, oh, does it. You know, we want you to take the pandemic stuff out of it.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:12] Speaker B: And I was like, no. Like, I'm not doing that. Like, the whole book is. I mean, it's very much in the background, but thematically, it's about what it felt like. You know, the loneliness, the isolation is like. It's. You know, I'm not taking that out.
You know, so luckily, you know, they. They still made an offer for it because I wasn't going to take it out. I would have gone elsewhere.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:33] Speaker B: But, I mean, the publishing experience with Coltry and Rosemary has been amazing. She was so helpful, you know, in making this a better book. And, you know, we got, you know, Sam Wolf Connolly to do illustrations that are just absolutely gorgeous, you know, especially in the hardcover. I think they're printed at like, a higher resolution than the arc. Not trying to force you to buy the hardcover, which is only $20, by the way.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: Well, that's the other benefit. Like I said, young adult and below age range is usually their cheaper books too, which is nice.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a smaller length for me. It's like 47,000 words.
Yeah.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: Anyway, yeah, it was easy. And it's one of those things that mean, is it one of those, like, not to say you probably should have done this, but like, you. If you were to write something different, just talk to Philip Frikasse about third rule of time travel. And they almost wanted him to put a different name on it. They wanted him to write under a ghost name or a different name pseudonym. Because we write horror books like people. This is a sci fi book. It's not going to the same audience. He's like, no, that's my name. I want to write under my name. It's like, I had this thing my entire life. I want to use this name. And so the same thing, your Paul Tremblay is written right at the top of it. And so, like, it does say to people who are fans of yours to go see, hey, that's a Paul book. I want to read that book. But does it scare away people potentially that are like, know what your books are about and how they can be, you know, you know, be darker and more adult to see that this book will be on the shelf. I mean, I know it'll be in a different section in the bookstore, but. But seeing your name so big at the top, does it, like, scare people away, you think?
[00:19:02] Speaker B: Probably, maybe, like. Yeah, it's hard to say. I mean.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: Yeah, well, obviously they come out. Yeah.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: There are plenty of people who don't like my books. Don't get me wrong.
Yeah. But no, like, I'm definitely with Phil. I mean, I think, Frank, you know, some of that is just, you know, the bad side of publishing and, you know, the frankly dumb part of publishing.
But, you know, realistically, you know, in the back of your head you're like, well, if this just suddenly starts going into the tank, then maybe, you know, I try with the pseudonym, you know, there's no shame in that.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: But like, Phil, at the same time, I want to write what I want to write and then try to figure out how to publish it afterwards. So, you know, I've been very sort of lucky and fortunate so far.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's one of those things that, you know, it's, it's.
I've seen publisher or authors who write young adult, middle grade sometimes take the book, like a copy of the book in the bookstore and then walk to the adult section and slide it in next to their name on purpose so that, those, those. Because like I said, a lot of these books are for middle grade. Like they go, go as low as middle grade. But really, you know, if you're 65 years old, you could read another and understand it and have a good time and experience with it. So sometimes they're like, oh, just throw it in there. Because, you know, it's both, it's, it's middle grade, but it's also for the people, you know, older, older people as well. But yeah, I'm glad you touched on the pandemic of it all. And I'm seeing this more reading books and obviously now that we're like, you know, not separated, but we're separated enough now from the initial 2020.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: From the initial.
[00:20:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. That people are starting to use it as a theme. Stephen King's done it a couple times recently and so on.
I like how you used it, but you didn't. It's not one of those books. It's not like the book is a pandemic book.
And that's what I think is really cool about this book is it has a theme in it. It's a plot device to help move the story along and it set the story up, but it's not like a focus on it.
Is this the amount of the pandemic you wanted to put in this book from the first place or was this, you know, they didn't want you to really have it in the first place. Did you tone it down at all or.
[00:20:52] Speaker B: No, I did not. Yeah, no, did not. No. I mean, so like when I mentioned that the scene that started the book, you know, I had to figure it's like, well, why would this 12 year old kid even consider having like this weird clay playmate, you know, in a somewhat realistic way. I knew obviously we're dealing with the supernatural and stuff like that.
And almost right away I was like, oh, like he's feeling isolated and lonely. And that was just so ratcheted up obviously with. During the first couple of years of the pandemic, you know, so for me it was about discovering who Casey was, you know, so here's this boy who was cyberbullied while he was hybrid learning they called it. Remember, like half the kids were in half the Kids were out. Yeah. That fun time.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:21:34] Speaker B: Yeah. So, no, in a lot of ways, the book became the book I didn't know I needed to write. Just dealing with the emotional stuff of having been a teacher and a parent and around so many students who struggled during those first two years.
So, again, it's very hopeful. It's definitely not didactic. I can't tell you if it's successful or not.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: But, yeah.
[00:21:55] Speaker B: It'S maybe mentioned in like 5% of the book. Maybe less. I mean, the bulk of the book takes place in Casey's house during a school vacation.
But, yeah, I mean, so that's why I said no, because, like, no, there is no story without this. I mean, publishing has this weird thing where they're afraid of, like, quote unquote, aging stories or aging books. I don't know if. If it's. I think it might even be more intense with young adult readers, which I get because maybe, like, middle grade readers now don't have this, you know, four or five years ago for them. Yeah, it's different than, you know, our memory of it. But I don't know. I think you. I think it's absurd. I think you just drive yourself crazy. Like, what is. What is timeless fiction? Someone described that to me. Is it. Where's the cutoff? Was it pre cell phone?
I mean, one of the funny parts of this book is, you know, I had. One of the challenges was I had to describe for middle readers, for young readers, what the hell a rotary phone was. Because a rotary phone ends up playing an important part. Like, the mom buys an antique rotary phone, and I watch actually a lot of fun YouTube videos of parents, like, just putting a rotary phone and seeing how long it took their kid to figure out how to use it.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: It's a funny thing. It's. It's. And actually they use that in the Adam Caesar's Clown in the Cornfield movie adaptation. They use that. They're in a room and they're trying to. Something's happening and they're trying to. There's like these two young teenagers try to use a phone, and it's a rotary phone. They're like, how the hell do we use this thing? Yeah, I just laughed and like. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, I didn't. I don't. Maybe I used one. I'm 39, so I probably had used. I don't have used one. And I probably. I don't think we ever had one in my house. I think we probably already had. Always had, like a Dial phone. But yeah, it's pretty funny. I need to explain what it is to someone because, yeah, a middle grade person right now definitely isn't gonna know off the top of their head or not every one of them what a rotary phone is. It's pretty sure.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: Yeah. But you know, again, like, the whole idea is like, if you do a good enough job with your story.
[00:23:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: First off, I'm not worried about what, what weird lobster humans are going to be reading 50 years from now.
I'm worried about, like people reading it now, you know, and if you're lucky enough that people are reading it in the future, great. And if they are reading it in the future and if you did your job, they will understand what's going on because it's all a part of where that book was set. So I think worrying about timeless fiction is.
I'll be polite and just say dumb.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it's true. It's also the invention of most of us. If I'm reading this book, if I'm reading Cowboy the End of the World and I'm reading and I get to a point where I'm like, oh, I don't understand what that is. I have this thing that I just google it and I figure out what that is. So if I'm reading opening up another 50 years from now, I'm like, what's this pandemic they were talking about? I could just google it and find out what it was about and then have my answer for me. Also, hopefully not by 50 years from now there'll be another pandemic. So it might be like one of those things. Which pandemic you talking about? No, but yeah, timeless. It doesn't make.
There are certain things, like if you talk to, you know, if I were to bring up my son's only four, but like, if I bring up my son, like, hey, nine, 11, he's going to be like, what is that? And so there is this thing. But there are also some pinnacle, big key points on our history timeline that like. And I feel like the pandemic, you know, justifies a point on that timeline. Like, this is a humongous thing that happened. So I can understand talking about, like, I don't know who won the World Series that year or something like that might be like timing or dating your book in a weird way. But like, this was a pretty big thing to happen.
[00:25:17] Speaker B: Yeah, no, yeah, Dumb is probably too mean. But we'll say misguided. How's that?
[00:25:24] Speaker A: There you go. Taking it back. There you go. Dumb. No I'm gonna say. And put that on the quotes there.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:25:29] Speaker A: Paul Trimble thinks this is dumb. No. Yeah, it made sense and it put the. It made the book make sense, too. Yeah. You feel for. You feel for him at the very beginning of the book. Like, obviously, we all live through this. I was older than someone who's in school and doing this whole hybrid learning and using it. I did use Zoom. I mean, we wouldn't be talking right now if it wasn't for the invention of something like video conferencing and things like Zoom. But I didn't obviously have this hybrid learning. I. Hybrid worked and things like that. We had meetings via Zoom and things like that. So you understood it, but I didn't have that. So you feel for the loneliness that he feels at the beginning of this book, but then by the end of the book, I was not going to spoil it. But, like, you also feel for him in a completely different reason, a different way. You feel for, like, what happens throughout this book. You go through kind of an emotional rollercoaster in this, and you feel for the kid a long ways. I'm pretty sure that someone who's younger than me is going to feel even more because they're going to be like, oh, this is me. I can see myself in this book. But yeah, so. So now that you've done this, you've done another. You've done this middle grade. Is this something that you. You feel like. I've now obviously hasn't released yet, so sales will. Will figure into this. But do you feel like you have this itch to want to do it again? Or is this like, I did my middle grade. I'm moving on unless it sells, unless it's a New York Times bestseller. Obviously, that's a different story because you might be forced into it.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: I. I have no plans, at least in the near future. I mean, never say never, obviously. But now I have another adult. I just finished an adult novel. I'm waiting on edits, so I'll have to work on that. And I have another adult novel due in May, so all energies will be devoted to those two books.
[00:26:58] Speaker A: Middle grade, obviously, is a different age range We've talked about multiple times on this podcast. But you did stops and you do reads and things like that for horror movie. You've done it for previous books where you did a book tour. Are you doing anything for this book? Or is it one of those things that the age range doesn't really fit for that thing?
[00:27:14] Speaker B: Yeah, no, we're doing a Little tour.
Like the first week, it's like Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago and Minneapolis and Brooklyn. It's Books are magic. So some of the events are a little earlier.
And I'm doing the in conversation thing with other young adults, middle grade writers, which is really cool. The thing near Chicago, I think is that a school. So I mean, it's called Lip Palooza. So I think it's just a whole bunch of. There'll be kids there, I assume.
I'll try not to scare them too much.
Yeah. So I mean, that part of it's going to be fun. It's going to be different.
Even though I've been a teacher my whole professional life, it'll be kind of fun being the writer in front of hearing people. Instead of the scary math teacher, I'll be the scary writer.
[00:27:57] Speaker A: Yeah, you're both. That's fine.
Yeah, it's cool that it makes sense. And I do remember seeing that now, I think on your social media there's a post about the dates that you're doing a book tour on it. I just didn't realize, like, it makes sense that some people might bring their parents. And that's another thing that's kind of cool is to me is like, I just feel like at the right age I could see myself reading this with my son, which is really cool, or my daughter, she's 15 months, so it's a little bit longer for her.
My son's 4, so it's like getting up there. But it'd be kind of cool to see that thing where obviously if I couldn't read horror movie or A Head Full of Ghosts with my son for a long time, at least this one gives me the opportunity that I'd enjoy this book as well as my son would enjoy this reading this book at some point, which is kind of cool. And it's one of the things is I obviously got introduced to your books, not middle grade, and so be able to have that, share that experience was something similar I've been able to experience with other people. Philip for Cossey was one of them. My wife doesn't read horror books, but she was able to read Third Rule of Time Travel. So it was like kind of a cool being able to share my passions or my favorite authors with other people. And this would be an opportunity for parents of middle grade students or kids to. To read this book. If you're a fan of horror books as well as like have your kid read along or read to them, I don't know. And be kind of cool.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: Yeah, no, thank you. That's the plan.
I need younger readers.
No, I mean, some of my favorite memories as a parent is reading to my kids.
You know, unfortunately now, given you know, who the, the author is, but, you know, reading Coraline to my daughter.
[00:29:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Yes.
[00:29:27] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, other things like that. You know, we read all sorts of stuff to the point where Diary of Wimpy Kid, of course, or my daughter, she was always drawing on her leg. She's 20 now, but she had.
Have you read those to your kid?
[00:29:39] Speaker A: Yeah, not yet.
[00:29:42] Speaker B: I can't remember the quote unquote character's name.
Anyway, one of the characters, not the smartest, not the smartest one, she had drawn on her ankle when she was 13, 14 maybe, but I noticed, I was like, oh, it's always there. She keeps redrawing it. And then recently she just admitted to me, it's like, dad, that was a stick and poke. It's like, great.
[00:30:07] Speaker A: She really likes it that much. She keeps drawing on herself. No, he's seen the movies, animated movies that they had recently. And that's one of those things where we'd like put on TV and it comes up and so on and so forth. And he, he has too many books in that first place. But at some point, yeah, they are fun.
[00:30:23] Speaker B: I mean, I read like the earliest ones and they're definitely fun.
[00:30:25] Speaker A: Yeah, they're fun. They're. It's cool. And again, that's the experience that I've always done. It's the things I've talked to other people about too, is about sharing passions with your kids. And I'm obviously a fairly new parent. Having a 4 year old and a 15 month old is that some of the passions I have nowadays are not easily shared. You know, I could say I like to read books and I like to read comics, but the type of books and comics I'm reading, I can't really share my, my son. So just the experience of reading with them will be fun at some point. I do read like, you know, here and there and I've. I've tried to like buy like the Little Golden Books and some of this, some of those are really hard to read, man. Like, some of them were not like they did not pay attention very well when they were actually writing. Some of these, you gotta get.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: There was a monster at the end of this book by Grover.
[00:31:05] Speaker A: We have that one. They made a movie of it. And there's another. There's a sequel to it or something.
[00:31:09] Speaker B: Just the original is all you need.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. But actually, as a Comic book writer or an editor, Steve Fox, who wrote a Super Mario Bros.
Golden book. And so I bought that being like, oh, I want to support, you know, writers.
He's like, dude, I don't know, man. I pumped that thing out because I didn't like. It was one of those things that didn't really matter what was going on. He goes. And they cut pages out. They did this, that, the other thing. I'm like, okay, I understand.
At least in this book it's a professionally made, you know. Well, people want to read another. But yeah, so you've done another now or it's going to come out July 22nd.
Bookstores everywhere. People should pre order it and I'm guessing it's going to come. Is it in that smaller format? Do you know, do you have a copy of it right there.
[00:31:51] Speaker B: It's hard to show the scale, but I mean, vertically it's probably the same.
[00:31:56] Speaker A: Size, but you know, it is thinner.
[00:31:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a smaller book but with some really groovy illustration.
[00:32:02] Speaker A: Our work's awesome. On the front too. The COVID Oh, look at that. See that's beautiful. Heart in there. And so it's. That's really fun to do that because too. Because I think that there's a. When I was younger I had a problem with attention and reading. And so like I get to a point in the book. I read the same. I've read numerous books, the first like three chapters and then never finished the book as a kid because I get to a point where I don't want to read this anymore and I move on to something else or read the next book. I was like, I'm done with this book. Having something like the illustrations in these books and things like that helps with like cutting the book up a little bit too and looking at something different. I think that's a pretty cool feature. Not that that's exactly the reason why you did it, but like to me it was breaking it up a little bit to have those illustrations and books. Some. Some books when I was a kid that did it for me. So that's pretty cool that that's in this book too.
[00:32:42] Speaker B: No, for sure. I thought it was important. I was actually part of the negotiation for us, you know, I. I'd asked that we'd have some illustrations, you know, and they were. They didn't balk at it, which is great.
[00:32:53] Speaker A: No, Paul, you cannot do that. I'm sorry. Illustrations do not belong in books now. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
I think that have a writer who's Writing for the website now to Anna Rose reads. And so there's a few books that I've read and reviewed a little while back. And then since she's joined on contributing to the website, she's actually gotten to the point now she's reading it, too. So we have double reviews on our website of another.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: Oh, cool. I read hers. Hers was super kind. I really appreciate it, actually. She talked about how, like, adults could hopefully enjoy the book, too. So, I mean, no, I was very pleased.
[00:33:31] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:33:31] Speaker B: You know, it's always gratifying. You know, I don't read.
I try not to read all my reviews. I certainly don't read, like, you know, Goodreads or Amazon, but if it's in a newspaper or something or, you know, or a website that a lot of people go to, then I'll dip in. But, yeah, thank you, Anna. She just actually posted a really cool drawing that she just did of a wolf.
[00:33:50] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's. She's great. And it was kind of funny. I was like, oh, yeah. There's certain books where I'm like, oh, it's great. There's just sometimes you have two different points of view on it, but the same. Like, we had two different points of view, in a sense, and two different reviews, but both the same outcome, which was. It's really for anybody. Anybody can read this book and get the same. A similar experience. I think you might have a different experience depending on how old you are, but it's. It's a gratifying story in an eerie and kind of creepy story, but middle grade can read it. And again, if you're, like, you know, in a nursing home and you want to read this book, I think you could read it pretty well. Like, some of the things you might not understand. The same reason why someone even younger than middle grade might understand.
But, like, there's. There's a. There's something to it. And I don't think that it skips a beat for your, you know, bibliography of books, you know, as out there. The next one's gonna be an adult book, though, right? Like, we're talking full on. And it's a. It's a. It's a typical Paul Tremblay book. Or is this NC17?
[00:34:43] Speaker B: Yeah, no, no, I mean, just. Just R for swearing and.
[00:34:49] Speaker A: Yes, there you go. Yeah.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Stuff. Yeah.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: That's really cool. I guess that's. It's a cool experience to have that. You had a stack of books here. What's funn?
Wife was at work and she texted me this is a couple months ago. And she's like, have you heard of or read A Head Full of Ghosts? And I was like, oh, that's Paul. I mean, she's. Red cabinet at the End of the World. So you know Paul Trumbull. And she's like, oh, I just read the description of it. Someone told me about it, and it seemed like a book you'd like. It's like, my wife knows me. Well, it's pretty good.
No, I've read it. It's fine. It's great. Don't worry about it then. But, yeah, sometimes I'm always like, did you buy the book? Please don't buy the book. I already have it. Don't. Because sometimes you're looking at my library. She's like, I don't know.
[00:35:25] Speaker B: Buy the book. Buy it again.
Buy it on paperback.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: Buy a hardcover.
No, but it's one of those things. It was kind of funny how people can understand other people. I'm like, yeah, you know who I am. This is definitely a Paul. Truly. And I meant to. I was gonna meet you. I was actually gonna see you in Bangor when you're up in Bangor was a little while ago now.
[00:35:45] Speaker B: Yeah, Last October.
[00:35:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
But. Same reason why I didn't go to Massachusetts. The Christopher Golden's Halloween thing was my son got sick at the same time. I was like, both two different. Three different. Two different events were like. You know, and it was funny because I think Joe Hill and Keith Rosin came around the time where it was like, at the beginning.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: It was the next day.
[00:36:05] Speaker A: It was the next day.
[00:36:06] Speaker B: The very next day.
[00:36:06] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what it was. Was that the. The night before, I was like, hon, let me just please go to this thing tonight. And I went to see Joe Hill and Keith Rosin. And then the next day was when he, like, I couldn't go to school and all this other stuff. So it was like that night was the next night that I was like, man Gibran from. From Briar Patch was like, do you need me? Do you want me to get any?
Like, no, no, no. I'm gonna go see him when he's down in Massachusetts in a couple weeks. I'll be fine. And I wasn't able to go to that because I was like, oh, gosh.
So crazy. But, yeah, it was pretty cool to be having you up here in Bangor. I now have lived in Newport. I moved to Newport, which is the home of our draft pick, Cooper Flagg.
[00:36:44] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: For the Dallas Mavericks. Grew up two blocks from me. Here. So it's pretty cool to be that. Used to be down the street from Stephen King.
[00:36:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: Now I'm down the street from Cooper Flag.
But yeah, it was pretty sad that I wasn't able to get to meet you. So I was like, oh, looking forward to this conversation to talk books and things like that with you because. Big fan. Thank you. And you know, it's always.
[00:37:04] Speaker B: Has anyone else talked about the weirdness of, you know, Randall Flagg, Cooper Flag King? I mean, so close. I don't know.
[00:37:09] Speaker A: That should be an evil person.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: Secretly an evil person. I don't know.
[00:37:13] Speaker A: Well, his brother is going to be going to umaine Ace Flag and I work for Orono Brewing Company in Orono. And so it's kind of cool to have that ability to actually have all these different connections, things like that. They actually. Someone on Fate on. On Google actually put Cooper Flag's childhood home as a historical place. Like they actually added it. It's like the family moved away. Like, come on, man. Yeah, when he moved to do. When he went to Florida, they moved to Florida to go to Mount Verde. And then I think they ended up in North Carolina because of Duke and stuff like that. So they don't even live up here anymore. But I was just laughing. That was like, people, people. Whoever lives in that house is going to have like people driving by, taking pictures. Not the same as Stephen King.
[00:37:49] Speaker B: Now there's like, yeah, probably not.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: Luckily, Stephen King lives on West Broadway. Lived on West Broadway, which is a wide street, so people can park on the side of the road, do what they want, it doesn't interfere. It's a small little town. Please stay away from their house.
But yeah, so Stephen King's home. It's pretty cool to be in. And as a horror fan and all that stuff. And then you came up and visited and you were at the Penobscott Theater, I believe, right?
[00:38:09] Speaker B: Yeah, it was really cool.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: It was like, we have to talk about horror and all that stuff, which is really cool. We don't get that many people up here in northern Maine.
[00:38:16] Speaker B: Yeah, it's my first time. I really enjoyed Bangor. I love the downtown area. It was very cool.
Yeah, I stayed in this totally haunted, like bed and breakfast. Yeah, it was. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, nothing happened, but stuff happens that you know, I can tell.
[00:38:32] Speaker A: Yeah, stuff happens there. Exactly. But I mean, you're in New England, so it's described as, like I said, we know the.
The area and we get a lot of Boston in that area, gets a lot of authors and creators and things like that coming down, too. But every once in a while, they decide to trek north.
And when Christopher came up to my brewery, did a beer for Nightbirds, and.
[00:38:51] Speaker B: Oh, that's your. I didn't realize. Yeah, I was very jealous.
[00:38:55] Speaker A: Well, it was funny, so I was listening. That's actually funny how you mentioned that. So I was going through. So we've done two beers with Daniel Krause. Daniel's a good friend. And we did one for Whale Fall. And we did one Pay the Piper. And then I originally was going to do the third literary beer, and I was like, you know what? Let's pick someone from New England that we reach out to, because at least that opportunity is, like, we sell beer in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts. So, like, we have the opportunity to potentially get beer in the shelves and stores and things like that, as well as the possibility of the author coming up to the Bangor area to a signing and whatever it may be. And so I was looking, and the first thing was your name was the first name on the list. No offense, Christopher, but your name was the first name on the list. And then I realized your book coming out this summer was middle grade. Do not think that the publisher or you or anybody would have been right.
[00:39:38] Speaker B: That probably would not be appropriate.
[00:39:39] Speaker A: Yeah, we could talk about it. It's not an issue there.
[00:39:42] Speaker B: Yeah, screw Chris. I actually drink beer. Chris does not. Actually, I have. I had one. We did. Chris and I did an event in Plainville in the Diary of the Wimpy Kids Bookstore.
The guy who wrote the book owns a bookstore in Plainville, Mass. An unlikely story. So we're tying everything together here at the end.
Yeah. So I had the ipa. I actually still have one in the fridge.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: There you go. See? Yeah, I got plenty of them somewhere around here. I got a label over here.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: Yeah. So the label. Well, for next summer, my book is titled Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep. So there you go. That's a mouthful. That's a mouthful.
[00:40:15] Speaker A: That's a great name for beer. It's a great name for a beer, but it was fun, and it's one of those things. And Daniel also drank beer, so it was nice to have that. That. That connection. And the original one started because Whale Fall was. We have a lot of whales in New England. And so Whale Fall, Beery. And he was on the podcast and was talking and so on and so forth. The second one was I was really selfish, and I wanted to do a beer with. With the name Georgia Romero. That was. That was. So Daniel took a backseat on that one. I'm sorry, Daniel, but. But no. And then I'm like, I can't. But he's from Chicago. People are like, why you keep doing these beers with Daniel Grouse? You're from Maine. And so I was like. And then I was like, let's do New England and see what we can do. And so Christopher, he was thankful he came up here with Clay. Clay McLeod Chapman came up as well. And they did an event, a couple events up here and did it. But it was fun. Yeah, it was a cool way of doing it. Obviously the book cover worked well. So. Yeah.
[00:41:04] Speaker B: Your name was first.
[00:41:05] Speaker A: Yeah, your name was first. I won't. Like I said, no offense, Christopher, but your name was first on the list. And I was like, ah, another being a middle grade book, I don't think that will go over well.
[00:41:15] Speaker B: Very well. Ginger beer? No. Is that alcoholic? Yeah. I don't know.
[00:41:18] Speaker A: We do a hop water. We could have done like an alcoholic hop water on it. But no, I was kind of funny on that. So we'll have a discussion about that in the future. But yeah, it's a fun. It's a fun thing. I was actually at Christopher's the night before we did a tasting in New Hampshire of that and I was actually at that. At Gibson's and then with Eric Donnelly. And then I was going to come down for the other one, but that was buying my house that actually that morning. So I spent. I spent a lot more money.
[00:41:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: Than going to see you.
I was gonna. Multiple times. I've missed you. One of these days we'll get. We'll get to meet in person these days. But yeah. And I didn't get a chance to again. I just had. Just moved, so I wasn't able to go to Stoker Con, even though it was in New England. I was really disappointed with that. So it's going to Pennsylvania next year. So at least it's close enough. Maybe that. Maybe it's in the cards for next year. But. Yeah.
But another comes out July 22nd at bookstores everywhere. There's also an audiobook.
Those of you who are interested in the audiobook and I highly recommend you buy that at Libro fm. It helps independent bookstores and so on and so forth. If you buy it through our website, we get a little cut too. So that's really nice to help promote it. But also if you buy it on there, pick your local bookstore. If you're in the Bangor area, we support Briar Patch Books in downtown Bangor.
And you can Pick your bookstore and things like that. It helps. Bookshop.org is a great place to buy the physical print copy of another as well. And they have PDF or ePub now too, which is really cool too. So if you're like a E reader kind of person, you can buy them on bookshop.org now. Cool. If you can't, my biggest thing is buy the book. I love the book. It was great. My whole thing was like, if it's. If it's. If it's choosing between not buying it on Amazon because you don't want to support Amazon or buying it on Amazon, buy it on Amazon because at least the book gets sold, the publisher sees that it worked and so on and so forth. So if you're choosing between not buying and buying it and the only place you want to buy it is Amazon, just do that.
But try to buy local if you can. That's my whole point. You know, get the book, it's worth it. Pre ordering it still is worth it. I know we're only a couple weeks away, but still go on and pre order it because it does help with, you know, sales and number of copies each independent bookstore gets and so on and so forth. But yeah, and then Obviously the paperback, August 5th, I think it's in August. Yeah, August for horror movie.
[00:43:25] Speaker B: Yes, Horror movie.
[00:43:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Of horror movie. If you're interested in that book. I got the. There we go. It's the red cover.
[00:43:31] Speaker B: Yeah. And I'm hoping that at some point this summer, I'm not quite sure when, but. But there'll be.
We're asking for an announcement of what's going on film wise with horror movie.
[00:43:41] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:43:42] Speaker B: Because it's very exciting. It's really hard to sort of keep that secret.
I mean, it's still a long ways to go for it's a movie but like the people who are involved, it's a dream, it's a dream sort of lineup. So.
[00:43:53] Speaker A: Yeah, that's really cool. I can't wait to hear more about it. And it'll also be nice to be able to see like, you know, you know, it's always nice to have your book adapted into a film. Like it's. But it'd be nice to be able to say like it's more than just knock at the cat. It's more than just cabinet into the world. Like it's more going on. And I think I'm excited for this horror movie because it's another way to experience.
[00:44:11] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:44:14] Speaker A: I have to go buy tickets to go see it. In the theater, then I'll have to buy the movie and all that stuff. It's pretty great. So, yeah, I'm excited. So July 22nd is another. Again, it's a middle grade book, middle grade horror book. But it's really for anybody. If you were an adult and you're listening to this, which most likely is not a middle grade reader listening to this. But if you're in Dalton, you want to read this, it's really fun. It's an enjoyable experience. It's easy. If you're looking for, like I said, not a light hearted book, but like a not as dense, quicker read.
[00:44:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:38] Speaker A: Yes. It's not as dense as some other books can be. And this might be a nice filler if you're like reading a lot of big books and things like that. It'd be good. And if you have a middle grade child, you know, maybe reading it together or something like that, it's pretty cool. Buy two copies though. One for you, one for your kid.
Yeah, I said that, Paul, not you. Don't worry, I try to force you to buy two copies, but no, it's really cool. So I'm excited for it to come out. July 22nd. And again, horror movie was excellent too. So you want the paperback version of that. August 5th. And then obviously more news coming about the movie in the near future. I appreciate you taking the time out to chat with us, your books and so much more here. We'll definitely get you back on in the future talking about your next novel. Maybe a beer collaboration or something else in the future. A lot of fun and maybe one day I'll get to meet you in person.
[00:45:19] Speaker B: Yeah. No, well, if you're going to go to Haverhill, I'll be there in October doing that Haver thing.
[00:45:23] Speaker A: So, yep, I'll be there for that shoot this year, hopefully, barring sickness. You know what it is, it's always people are like, what are you gonna do in a couple months? I' I don't know, man. As long as my kid's not sick, maybe I'll come. It's just, you know, where it is. October is before the cold season, so maybe it's, it's, it'll be fine by then. But. Yeah, but I do appreciate you coming on and chatting with us. We'll talk to you soon. Okay, Paul?
[00:45:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you, Justin.
[00:45:43] Speaker A: Thank you.
