BEA

Aw, cute group photo!

Table was not in the best location, and I'd definitely make time to attend two days next year, so I could actually meet editors and agents, 'cause that place is HUGE!

So, a learning experience, but since it's a local con, not an expensive lesson.

Edited to add:

Ellen's blurted comment upon seeing me (she'd met me a couple years ago and didn't remember the encounter too vividly): "I thought you were taller!" - Been watching Escape from LA, Ellen?!

And the do? Google Del Howison (also at the desk, but not in the picture). If I can get my hair like his, only not white (for now), I'll keep it long!

Interview at HFR!

And a really nice one!

http://www.freewebs.com/hfrzine/hfrinterviewkimpaffe.htm

Thanks, Christine and Nick!!

BEA

I'll be at Book Expo America on Sunday, at the Javits Center in NYC. I will be easy to find from noon till one on Sunday, as I'll be at the HWA table. I will have a very limited number of FREE books to give away.

Concert Tix!

I've shelled out some clams in the last couple weeks for some awesome ones!

AC/DC
DEF LEPPARD
POISON
CHEAP TRICK
JUDAS PRIEST
MOTLEY CRUE
METALLICA

I mean, WOW!

Great Reviews from Michele Lee!!

One of Thin Them Out:

http://www.michelelee.net/booklove/2009/05/thin-them-out-by-kim-paffenroth-julia-sevin-rj-sevin/

And one of Dying to Live: Life Sentence:

http://www.michelelee.net/booklove/2009/05/dying-to-live-life-sentence-by-kim-paffenroth/

Thanks!!

Interview on Zombos Closet!!

And a great one!

http://www.zomboscloset.com/zombos_closet_of_horror_b/2009/05/dante-in-the-valley-of-the-dead.html

He's even read the story and asks about the text, which is so incredibly cool, to be able to discuss what went into the writing of certain characters. But no spoilers!!

Dante on Tour

Good for this guy!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/theater/23dant.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Sounds like fun!!

A New Winner!

For the wall of shame!

http://community.livejournal.com/50bookchallenge/10789349.html

I love it! I didn't have one yet for D2L! Now I have one that's way more scathing than for the other books - "crap," "sucks," etc.

Keeps me humble!

Second Half of Interview

Second Half! And updated to show availabiliy of VALLEY! Thanks!

Here it is!

New Interview

It'll even be in two parts!

Here it is!

Signed!

I remembered to stop by the Borders in Scarsdale, NY, and sign all their copies of my books! So if you want a signed copy - they can be found there!

$500 Worth of Concert Tickets!

Though not too bad, considering!

2 in Section 118, Giants Stadium, for AC/DC, JULY 31

2 in Section 201, Madison Square Garden, for METALLICA, NOV 15

OH YEAH!!

Can He Do It?!

I'm driving home, and I think of the prospective death scene of a major character I'll write this summer. Very vivid - last words, death rattle, the whole bit. And I'm driving along - crying! Getting all sniffly from killing off a character! Geez!

Fear Zone Interview!

Thanks to Gabrielle and Greg for letting me take the time to talk about my new stuff!!

http://www.fearzone.com/blog/kim-valley

Zombie Moby-Dick

Or, tentatively, Pale God: The Hunt for the White Devil. It will be the zombie version of Moby-Dick! I thoroughly outlined that (not difficult, since I had an outline to work from), taking the original 135 chapters plus epilogue down to 40 chapters plus epilogue. I think it's going to rock!

Plus I got the epigrams for this one too!

“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”
Revelation 6:8 (KJV)

“No: but here thou beholdest even in a dumb brute, the instinct of the knowledge of the demonism in the world…. Though in many of its aspects this visible world seems formed in love, the invisible sphere were formed in fright…. Wonder ye then at the fiery hunt?” Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Chapter 42

D2L3

Or, tentatively, Dying to Live: Love and Death

I have the epigrams for the front:

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
John 10:13 (KJV)

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Plato, Apology 38a

And this time I'm finally gonna do it! I'll kill off a major character, I swear! I can do it w/o crying, even!

Well, ok, that last part isn't anywhere near plausible - but I can still do it!

Maybe I should just write the death scene first, and get it over with, so I don't get all poopy and depressed for weeks leading up to it.

Geez, how many scenes of mass cannibalism and dismemberment have I written, and I'm still such a softy.

Dante's Inferno

The buzz continues about the video game and it's tied-in movie!



Dante with some bone-scythe? Looks way too much like the God of War game, but as I've said before - anything that gets the infernal Florentine in the news is okay with me!!

Star Trek

Judging from the blogs and message boards, I'm probably the last person in the USA to see this, so my review can have no effect, but here goes.

The bullet review: Honor. Duty. Sacrifice.

The Greek review: Thumos!

The Latin review: Virtus! (heavy emphasis on the "vir"!)

The Star Trek Standard Tropes Review:

fisticuffs
Kirk getting a serious smack down laid on him
main characters marooned on frozen planet
time anomalies
interracial kissing (several times! Yay!)
Enterprise sucked into some Bad Thing as Scotty runs around saying "She can' take an'more!"
raised eyebrows

'Nuff said.

Now, there were some problems with adapting it to movie format. I thought the most notable was that in the series, each minor character (Uhura, Chekhov, Sulu, Scotty) gets his own 60 minute episode. In the movie, they each get their own 10 minute segment to be the hero. But then they kind of just stand around during the other people's segments, or during the main plot. It was kind of clunky.

But, I was thoroughly pleased with it. Nice start to the summer.

Amazon Impulse Purchase of the Week

You can tell it's summer, as I'm lining up my lit crit reading for warm afternoons in the shade!!

The Boss!

Got back early this a.m. from seeing the Boss in concert in Albany. That's a great show, and what a marathon (2 1/2 hours or so) for a performer. I never followed the band much, so I think I heard many of the songs for the first time. "The Ghost of Tom Joad" was the most interesting to me.

New Poll!

Just for fun! Try it out! Influence the course of zombie literature!

 Which classic should Kim next redo with zombies in it?

• 
  
  William Shakespeare's King Lear


• 
  
  Wolfgang Goethe's Faust


• 
  
  Herman Melville's Moby-Dick


• 
  
  Miguel Cervantes' Don Quixote

view results
Free vote poll

In Case Deep Blue Sea Wasn't Stoopid Enuf for Ya!

I think they've way outdone that, in fact, though with decent looking production values!

Thanks!

To everyone who bought a copy of VALLEY OF THE DEAD yesterday! Apparently it had quite the opening day of sales. I'm thrilled and grateful to have such great fans and friends!

Valley of the Dead - Now Available!!

They put it up at Horror-Mall.com a little early!

The artist is Alex McVey. Check out his super creepy artwork for much more famous horror authors like Stephen King.With Alex’s art and the high quality of the production, the book should be quite a striking, beautiful collector’s item.

And here's the nifty book trailer!



Valley of the Dead has just been put up for preorder at Horror Mall. It will be for sale for 90 days, during which no more than 150 signed and 26 lettered will be sold. The actual books will ship on about August 30, 2009.

Thanks! I hope everyone orders and enjoys this book. It's about my most favorite thing I've written so far!

Dante and Pop Culture Website

Neat stuff from a fellow professor!

http://learn.bowdoin.edu/italian/dante/

Writing Update

I haven't given one lately, so I thought I should share all the news in one update.

Valley of the Dead will be available for purchase as a signed, numbered, limited edition from Cargo Cult Press, starting on JUNE 1. (Official publication and release date = AUGUST 31 - the book is on sale for 90 days before its release and that's all). The artist is Alex McVey. I've seen the penultimate version of the main frontispiece art and it's very striking. Not a scene from the book, but it conveys the themes of death and rebirth that are central to this story. I think anyone who buys this will be very happy and have a really beautiful work of art on his or her shelf, something visually stunning and intellectually compelling - something uniquely valuable, in other words.

Everything's done with the anthology The World Is Dead, in terms of editing, proofreading, and typesetting. We're waiting on cover art and blurbs and we should see the final product for sale from Permuted sometime in the fall. Fantastic stories by veterans and newcomers. You'll be surprised and thrilled with all the new takes on the undead.

My first non-zombie novel, tentatively entitled Closes at Dusk, is finished and is being shopped. It's a modern day ghost story and is more about loss and lies and how we hurt the people closest to us, rather than the violence and gore of a zombie infestation. It was very emotional and tiring to write, but I think you'll be happy with the outcome when you see it.

The D2L3 sequel is started, hopefully to be finished by the end of the summer. More smart zombies and bad people, as that's my favorite combination for zombie mayhem.

Stay tuned, and thanks for your support!!

Amazon Impulse Purchase of the Week

Melville's Bibles, by Ilana Pardes.

It looks really cool! I did something similar in my book, In Praise of Wisdom, but I think about two people read it.

New Wolverine Movie

Meh. I wouldn't ask for my money back. Action sequences were surprisingly blah. Too many fights between Wolverine and Sabertooth, all the same: they'd charge across an empty space, slam into each other, a couple punches, then they'd have to break up to go kill someone else. The Deadpool fight was a little more adrenalin filled.

Maybe the concept of a genesis movie is flawed. Everytime I've seen the Batman or Superman or Spiderman genesis story, it's been introduced as flashbacks during the "real" story. A clunky device, to be sure, but maybe it works better - to see how the hero's genesis fits into a present day story, rather than having to grind through all the unlikely twists and coincidences to get him to where he "starts," all in one long, pretty ridiculous stretch.

Now, you can ignore me, really, because I liked the 2004 Punisher, which was all genesis story and pretty universally loathed. But now THERE were some fights!

Hard at Work!

Not me. I've been sluggish all week. But

Alex McVey


Hard at work on my novel! That is just too cool!

Please Carve My Epitaph Now!

"Paffenroth is someone I trust when it comes to the undead"

[from an Amazon review of History Is Dead]

How awesome would that be, on your tombstone?!

Apparently...

All my emails, whether sent to professors or editors or whomever, have in the subject line "Reply Purely Optional - Only If You Have Nothing Better to Do!"

At least, so it seems, from the percentage of my emails that go unanswered.

I'll never understand that. I don't care if the answer is "No" or even "Fuck Off!"

But you got to hit reply. It's just expected. I think.

Nearly Good Enough for New Author Photo

Maybe for when I write a children's book!!

Back from Texas Frightmare!

What a great show! Can't guarantee how many times I'll go, but it was a very successful trip. Thanks to Gabrielle for her help, and Chris for inviting me!