GIVEAWAY: International Thriller Writers 1000 Thrillers

GIVEAWAYS

International Thriller Writers is holding the biggest book giveaway ever! You could win a brand new thriller every week for a whole year. Just sign up to receive The Big Thrill, and get thriller news, reviews, and interviews in your inbox once a month. You might even hit the 1000 thriller jackpot!

Here's a link to enter: http://www.thebigthrill.org/1000-thrillers/

Tweet them: @thrillerwriters

World Fantasy 2014!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2014!

Trick or treat--here's my virtual Halloween costume for 2014! Now I'm off to get a few Cuba Libres.

Click the link and scroll down to see last year's Virtual Halloween Costume: http://www.jasonjackmiller.com/p/wreck-net.html

Reading at World Fantasy 2014!

The World Fantasy Convention is an annual convention of professionals, collectors, and others interested in the field of fantasy. It places emphasis on literature and art, while de-emphasizing dramatic presentation, gaming, masquerade, and the like. 

1914 was a time of transition, and the 40th World Fantasy Convention will focus on this with our commemoration of the births of the artist Virgil Finlay and the author Robert Aickman, as well as the beginning of World War I. We welcome you to join us in exploring the many facets, both light and dark, of these forces that shaped the future.

Last night I received word that my reading slot is Saturday, November 8 from 12:30pm-1pm in Arlington. (Right after Mr. Jonathan Maberry.)

I'm very excited to be a part of this, especially I've been knee deep in WWI research for ALL SAINTS--everything from Jacques Tardi to John Baxter. (Picked up three of Tardi's Putain de guerre! graphic novels in St-Germain des Pres this summer.) If I can polish up the WWI section from ALL SAINTS I may even read a little of that. Either way, I'm very happy to be a participant. (Thanks, Colleen!)

And I will be participating in the Mass Autograph Session, to be held Friday evening, November 7, in the Independence Center at 8pm. Bring your own books or purchase at the con! 

This is a little something I wrote for the program which was distributed at the inaugural Pennsylvania Literary Festival, held this spring in Uniontown.

My words were rooted in these hills, carried on the backs of the Irish farmers who followed the Potomac southwest instead of crossing the spruce-covered ridges of the Allegheny Front. My muscles formed from climbing white oaks and boulders, from hauling firewood. The mountain rivers that flashed through narrow canyon walls, over boulders and under high railroad bridges flowed through my veins. Laurel brakes that nestled beneath Pottsville sandstone ledges were my nursery. Sad fiddle tunes, played by old-timers beside a dying fire, were my genetic code.
 
These words from the epilogue of my second novel, Hellbender, came from the point of view of my main character, Henry Collins. But as the author, I had specific experiences from my

own corner of Appalachia in mind as I wrote them. Growing up among the ridges and mines of Fayette County—a place long written off by people who don’t get it, or don’t try to—has inspired almost a million words of my published fiction and nonfiction, and has left me with enough gas in the tank for at least a million more. From the Youghiogheny River’s Dimple Rock rapid to an abandoned coal mine called Crow’s Works, just outside of Fairchance, the locales of my home live on in the minds of readers, many of whom have never set foot in these hills, but now want to because of my books. The Currence farm from The Devil and Preston Black is based on my Great-grandmother Muchnok’s, near Dunbar. And Mick’s guitar shop? It’s where I bought my first guitar. And it’s still there, on Morgantown Street in Uniontown.
        

I ended Hellbender with the line Blood is not thicker than water. Family isn’t who you are born to, but with whom you choose to spend your life. And maybe I’m one of the lucky ones, because my wife Heidi and I chose to move back here after a stint in Florida. We chose to be close to our families and friends, to live in a place we’d call home no matter how far we wandered.

And this is why I’m so happy that the Pennsylvania Literary Festival’s journey starts here in Uniontown. Right where my very own literary journey did. It’s a place that fosters strong, deep roots.