Yesterday I took my mom to have cataract surgery on her left eye (the right eye was done awhile back). While I was in the waiting room, reading the excellent new Steve Erickson novel Zeroville, I heard "...my new novel..." coming from the TV that had previously been showing radar images of the approaching snow. I looked up to see this commercial featuring Dean Koontz and his dogs.
Wow, I thought, Bantam must've shelled out some serious cash for a TV commercial for a novel. Sure, you've seen commercials for novels before, but they're usually 10-15 second spots with some girl (usually in heels) running down the streets of some city at night with a maniac's shadow closing in. "Buy the new novel from Dipp Stick, available wherever the usual garbage is sold."
But the Koontz commercial was longer and way more professionally done. I wondered how much of Koontz's advance was eaten up by that commercial? It must've cost a boatload of $$$. Wouldn't it be cool to see a commercial with Jeff Ford knocking back a few, promoting The Shadow Year? Wouldn't that be cool?
Speaking of new books, here are a few that I'm looking forward to checking out in the months ahead:
RIGHT NOW
Red Spikes (collection) - Margo Langan
DECEMBER 2007
Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural - Ellen Datlow, ed.
JANUARY 2008
Love & Sleep (reprint) - John Crowley
FEBRUARY 2008
Pump Six and Other Stories - Paolo Bacigalupi
Tides from the New Worlds (collection) - Tobias S. Buckell
The New Weird (anthology) - Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer, eds.
MARCH 2008
The Shadow Year - Jeffrey Ford
The Man on the Ceiling - Steve Rasnic Tem (w/Melanie Tem)
APRIL 2008
Wit's End (YA?) - Karen Joy Fowler
The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories - John Kessel
MAY 2008
The Del Rey Anthology of Speculative Fiction - Ellen Datlow, ed.
Nano Comes to Clifford Falls and Other Stories - Nancy Kress
The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy (NF) - David Pringle
JUNE 2008
Not a thing, at least so far.
JULY 2008
Dogs - Nancy Kress
Philip K. Dick: Five Novels of the 1960's and 70's (second volume from Library of America)
Best American Fantasy 2 - Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer, eds.
AUGUST 2008
Wreck of the Godspeed and Other Stories - James Patrick Kelly
The Ant King and Other Stories - Benjamin Rosenbaum
SEPTEMBER 2008
The Night Whiskey (collection) - Jeffrey Ford
The Wrong Grave and Other Stories (YA) - Kelly Link
SOMETIME IN 2008
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom of the Waves (YA) - M.T. Anderson
2 comments:
I know what I'll be doing for most of September.
You and me both.
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