This Wednesday I’ll be returning to the virtual stage at the Second Life Book Club. If you’ve been dying to see me talk about The Destroyer of Worlds while cloaked in a Li’l Cthulhu avatar, this is your chance.
The event will be livestreamed on YouTube, and the video will be available on YouTube afterwards. You are also welcome to (virtually) attend the event—no VR goggles are required, just a (free) Second Life account. Click the “Join Now” button on the Book Club page to get started. (N.B., you’ll want to do this in advance, as it takes some time to create your avatar and get used to moving around the world.)
Tomorrow night at 6:30 PM I’ll be appearing at Brick and Mortar Books in Redmond, WA, to chat with author Alexandra Oliva about writing scary stories. If you’re in the area, we’d love to see you in the audience.
In related news, last week’s Reddit AMA was a blast. You can check that out here. Although the AMA is officially over now, I’m still keeping an eye on the thread, so if you’ve got a question that hasn’t already been covered, go ahead and post it and I’ll either answer it there or on the upcoming reader Q&A episode of the Destroyer of Worlds podcast.
And speaking of the podcast… I was in the middle of the Reddit AMA when I discovered that the WordPress podcast plugin I’d been using had stopped working. After some troubleshooting, I figured out that this was caused by an irresolvable conflict between the plugin and the software used by my web host’s servers. I managed to restore the podcast feed by switching to a different plugin, but that led to a new problem where the feed URL is now slightly different, and when I tried to update the URL on various podcast directories, a couple of them—looking at you, Spotify—stubbornly refused to accept the change. All of which is to say I’ve still got a few kinks to work out, but for now you can listen to the podcast here, on Apple Podcasts, on Amazon Music. or on Google Podcasts.
Tomorrow, starting at noon Eastern/9 AM Pacific, I’ll be answering questions on the r/books subreddit. If there’s anything you want to ask about my novels, my writing process, or pretty much anything else, please stop by.
You can also check out my previous Reddit AMA sessions from 2020 and 2017.
Just a reminder that tomorrow night I’ll be at Powell’s City of Books in Portland, OR, reading from The Destroyer of Worlds, taking questions, and signing books. The event starts at 7 PM. Hope to see some of you there!
And coming up next: on Wednesday, April 26 I’ll be doing an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit. Then, on May 4 at 6:30 PM, I’ll be at Brick and Mortar Books in Redmond, WA for “Word Craft with Alexandra Oliva,” a discussion about writing (RSVP here).
FYI: On Wednesday, April 26, I’ll be hanging out on the r/books subreddit, doing an Ask Me Anything session. The event will begin at noon Eastern/9AM Pacific and continue throughout the day. This will be my third Reddit AMA—see my previous appearances here and here—and it’s always a fun time.
And as mentioned yesterday, if you have a question you’d like to hear addressed on the Destroyer of Worlds podcast, you can leave it in comments here on the blog or post it using the Ask the Author feature over on my Goodreads profile page.
Also, I’m still collecting reader questions for the final episode of the Destroyer of Worlds podcast. Feel free to leave them in comments here or over at Goodreads using the Ask the Author feature of my profile page.
Episode 3 of the Destroyer of Worlds podcast dropped this morning. I think it’s a particularly good one: we talk about the Lovecraft Country HBO series and contrast it with the novel, which gives me an opportunity to talk in-depth about storytelling choices, so if you’re at all interested in my thoughts on that, I’d recommend checking it out.
As we mention at the end of the podcast, our next and final episode will be devoted to listener questions. Please feel free to add yours in the comments below. While our main focus will be on Lovecraft Country and The Destroyer of Worlds, I’m happy to answer queries about my other books, my writing process, or pretty much anything else. My wife, Lisa, may join us for a bonus round, so if you’ve got any questions about research, feel free to add those as well.
In case you missed it, we dropped a new episode of The Destroyer of Worlds podcast on Tuesday.
I’ve also added a couple new events to my schedule. On April 18, I’ll be going back to Portland for my rescheduled appearance at Powell’s City of Books. And on May 4, I’ll be at Brick and Mortar Books in Redmond, WA. But my next in-person event will be just two weeks from now, on March 24 at 7:15 PM, when I read and answer questions at Pulpfiction Books in Vancouver, BC.
Last week’s reading at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park was great, with a big, friendly crowd. On Saturday, my wife and I headed to Bellevue for the Literary Lions Gala, where Isabel Wilkerson was the keynote speaker; I also got to say hi to Nancy Pearl, who I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic.
Sunday was a busy day at Emerald City Comic Con, where I had back-to-back panels and signing sessions from 11 AM to 4 PM. This, too, was a first since the pandemic, and it was both wonderful and disorienting to be around so many people in such a big space.
A packed room at the “Writing Systems of Magic” panel
While I was busy making new friends at my signing station, Lisa made the rounds, checking out the tables where the real celebrities were selling autographs and photos. I had my own brush with stardom when James Marsters finished his own signing session and walked past me on the way back to his suite.
Though I enjoyed the people, I was less impressed with the venue. Seattle’s new convention center seems poorly laid out, and there’s not enough seating in the public areas. Folks were sitting on the floor everywhere, which is fine when you’re twenty but not so fun when you’re pushing sixty. I also couldn’t help noticing that they decorated the fifth-floor ceiling with these rows of wooden spikes, which is just what you want hanging over your head in an earthquake zone.
We made it out alive, this time. Then on Tuesday I had a Zoom session with a writing class at Rutgers University. It was a nice group of students and I really enjoyed talking to them, but what I will remember most is being “Zoom bombed” for the first time in my life—I was in the middle of answering a question when the screen suddenly filled up with a video of two horses fucking. My host for the event was embarrassed, but I thought it was hilarious, not to mention efficient: back in my day when you wanted to pull that prank, you needed to get two actual horses and coax them up on stage before security stopped you. Living in the future never ceases to amaze me.
Last but not least: just this morning, Bookreporter dropped this review of The Destroyer of Worlds, calling it “[an] enthralling sequel” and “a wonder to behold.” A great note to end the week on.
As previously mentioned, my February 22 appearance at Powell’s City of Books had to be canceled due to snow. I’m happy to report that I will be returning to Portland, Oregon on April 18 to try again. Hopefully this time the temperature will stay above freezing!
