Check out this nice, lengthy review of Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone, which gets into the weird, disorienting atmosphere of the book. There’s a print review on his blog and a video review as well, with some overlap between the two.
BLOG:
VIDEO:
Thanks, Jason!
It’s been a while since I’ve done a general update about what’s happening with my writing and publishing.
So then, January 2018. What’s been happening lately?
On the publishing side, in February 2017, my first novel Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone came out as the first release on the new Trepidatio imprint of Journalstone. Of course, the release of my first novel certainly counts as my publishing event of 2017.
In the summer, my stories appeared in several anthologies, Looming Low, Walk on the Weird Side, and Darker Companions (the Ramsey Campbell tribute). At the very end of the year, Journalstone surprised me by releasing The Demons of King Solomon a little early.
That covers it, as far as publishing. Back to writing, then.
I finished and submitted a few short stories that were accepted for anthologies that haven’t been announced yet (so I can’t talk about them yet), then I spent a few months starting a new novel. I finished 30,000 words of rough scene sketches, notes and outlines until the shape of it had begun to come together, then had to set aside the novel to work on two more short stories for invitations.
Later in the year, I started a new story intended to be the final, exclusive/unpublished piece for my second collection. That story grew into novella territory (15,000 words and still not nearly finished), so while I still considered the story viable and compelling, I had to set it aside. It’s simply too long to fit in the book, so I’ll return to it later.
That meant starting another new story for the collection. That effort resulted in “The Only Way Out is Down,” which will appear for the first time in The Human Alchemy… speaking of which, my second collection will be my big publishing event of 2018. I’ll be making some kind of more official announcement about that soon.
Since the collection manuscript is complete and in the hands of the publisher and the writer who is doing the introduction for me, I’m back to the previously mentioned novel. I’m having a lot of fun, gaining momentum, and starting to see how the characters and settings will play together. I look forward to working toward a complete rough draft by mid-year, at which time I’ll need to take a break to push and promote The Human Alchemy. I’m sure the release of that book will be my publishing event of 2018.
I was recently very pleased to discover, in the latest Locus Magazine, and extensive review by John Langan of my novel Hieroglyphs of Blood & Bone. Here’s a little taste:
It’s a lengthy review that goes into some detail conveying what the book is like, and the full review is now available on the Locus web site.
My thanks to John Langan for giving the book his attention!
Shane Douglas Keene’s new review of Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone just appeared on Horrortalk.com. The review is a great one, and begins:
I had my first experience with Michael Griffin’s words last summer when I read his collection of novellas and short stories, The Lure of Devouring Light. It made an instant fan of me and I was something approaching ecstatic when I found out his newest work, Hieroglyphs of Blood & Bone, from Trepidatio Publishing, was headed to my mailbox. Griffin has a uniquely captivating style and a voice all his own, and every story he writes is different from the last. Even when taking on familiar themes, he approaches his subject in a singularly original way, making the familiar seem new and the new seem somehow familiar.
My thanks to Shane and to HorrorTalk.com for the boost.
BUY:
A while back I posted a link to my video reading of chapter 1 of Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone.
I’ve now posted a video reading of chapter 2 as well.
I’ll embed the two videos below, followed by links for those of you unable to see the embeds here.
Chapter 3 should be available soon, probably this weekend.
I’ve been preparing videos of myself reading from chapters of Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone. Here’s the first chapter:
I intend to post one every week for a while, to give people a sample of the early part of the novel. If it’s something people enjoy, I may try video readings of other stories as well. The book can be had for purchase through Amazon and Journalstone.
John Linwood Grant posted our interview on greydogtales.com yesterday. We went in some interesting directions with this set of questions and answers, discussing a number of angles I hadn’t previously addressed about my work.
Mystery and confusion are aspects I enjoy generally, and particularly in this story, I felt they were important, maybe even central.
I really enjoyed thinking about and responding the interview questions, and hope you’ll take a look. We spent a fair amount of time on both THE LURE OF DEVOURING LIGHT and HIEROGLYPHS OF BLOOD AND BONE.
LINK:
My thanks to John Linwood Grant for the interesting approach to interview questions, and the opportunity to spread the word about my work in general, and the new novel in particular.
The Horror Review has just posted Michael R. Colling’s new review of Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone. As usual, you’ll have to follow the link to read the whole thing, but here’s a sample:
Although the word is often applied to stories of horror and terror, few weird tales can legitimately claim to be phantasmagorical—composed of real or imaginary images resembling those experienced in dreams. Michael Griffin’s Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone is among the few… Hieroglyphs of Bone and Blood is ambitious in conception and scope. Its language is Hemingwayesque in its seemingly disarming simplicity while at the same time the perfect vehicle for telling Guy’s story.
LINK:
My thanks to Michael R. Collings and The Horror Review for giving their time and attention to Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone!
Des Lewis finished his real-time review of Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone, in case you were waiting to read the whole thing at once. Thanks, Des!
Here’s a teaser:
“A truly remarkable novel that both frustrates and inspires, and I feel increasingly confident that the deliberate-seeming balance between frustration and inspiration is perfectly poised.
Here’s a link to the full real-time review:
I recently completed an interview with Gwendolyn Kiste, which has just been posted to Gwendolyn’s blog.
We talk a lot about the new novel Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone, about my collection The Lure of Devouring Light, and various other things past and present, such as the difference in my approach, writing short stories versus novels. Here’s the link:
I’d like to thank Gwendolyn for the opportunity, and the great questions!
GriffinWords 