Joe Hill @ Powell’s City of Books – Portland, Oregon - 17 May 2013
Joe was introduced to a huge fanfare. There were probably 150+ fans.
Joe began by walking up to the podium. He was going to take his jacket off, but one of the pins he was wearing on his jacket was actually pinned through his t-shirt as well. He saw what the problem was and simply gave up on taking the jacket off. Underneath, he wore a t-shirt that said Hemingway across the top and Old Man and the Sea at the bottom.
Powell’s has a nice reading area where there are dozens of caricatures drawings of authors. Hemingway, Lovecraft, Poe, Rand, Salinger, Fitzgerald, and many others. Of course, Stephen King was there as well which prompted Joe at some point to say “how is it to feel that your father is always looking over your shoulder,” and then sheepishly looking back onto the picture on the wall.
He began by setting the stage for his reading from NOS4A2. The scene took place when the heroine of the book, a teenager named Victoria, was coming upon a secluded cabin. “Imagine a place where no one would hear you scream” is how Joe described the scene. He then read of her approaching the barn, seeing the Rolls Royce with the boy in it. He continued the reading up until the garage door opened with Manx standing outside.
He then proceeded to do a Q and A session. All in all, the reading and QA took about 60 minutes. During the QA, he was asked about several things:
• What were his favorite horror movies?
He mentioned The Changeling as a favorite. He likes the slasher movies from the 80s and the porn torture movies of the 90s, but none of those are considered “horror” in his mind since the characters are not developed as well as the bad guys are, so you never really feel the fear for the good guys.
• How do you collaborate with your father?
Joe went back in time and explained how collaboration was easy due to his upbringing. First, as a child, most of the stories he read were read as a family. They would literally pass a book around the group, taking turns and reading it together. He also mentioned his mom’s red typewriter. Someone would roll a clean sheet of paper in and write a paragraph. Whoever came along next would write the next paragraph with the intent of leaving off in the most awkward way to challenge the next. He also mentioned that scrabble was a family favorite (a clear nod to some of the inspiration to NOS4A2).
• What do you think about movie adaptations?
He didn’t say too much other than to plug his upcoming movie Horns. He likes what he has seen so far and is stoked that Daniel Radcliff is in the lead role. Joe is a Potter fan and can’t wait to see how he “battles his inner Valdemort” in the movie Horns.
• Advice on getting into the biz…
Just keep at it. Don’t cheat yourself by trying to self-publish. Joe talked about how he tried and failed many times to get stories and a fantasy novel into the business. He is thankful of the process, though, as it made him a better writer and is glad he dropped King from his name so as to build his success on his own, instead of some publisher deciding to take anything and make a buck of the name.
• Advice on the writing process….
Don’t sit down and think about writing a whole novel. Just sit and write one good scene. Put that in the pile and the next time you sit down, write another good scene. When you have a stack of good scenes, you have a novel.
• Are you working on a new novel?
Yes
• Locke and Key pilot…
The TV pilot will probably never see the light of day. Fox thought the story was too dark. However, the collaborators on the pilot have been cleared by Fox and may work on a feature film.
• Will there be future collaboration with Rodriguez?
L&K will come to an end soon. He and Rodriguez will work on some superhero stuff for one of the “Big 2” comic publishers.
• Will he consider doing a series of novels?
He feels that his novels all will play off of each other in some ways and at this point considers, L&K as his “series.”
• How he felt using SK references in NOS4A2?
He is a big fan of his dad, so it was fun to goof on his works throughout the book. He is at a point in his career where he can’t hide from being the son of Stephen King, so he is not afraid to embrace it in his works.
He then went on to sign books. Up to 3 per person, but you could then get back in line. We decided to stay to the minimum since the line was probably going to take hours to get through. He signed my HSB and 20th Century Advance Reader Editions as well as NOS4A2. These were first printings.
He finally dealt with the rogue pin and managed to get his jacket off for the QA portion.
Welcome to 21st Century authors. Twitter was a priority!!!
All in all, he was a very classy guy!!!! What an amazing evening!!!!
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Originally Posted by Randall Flagg
