You know what I like about this PS Publishing lark . . .

(in fact, I like EVERYTHING but you know what I mean), is how things keep on moving—‘chooglin’ as Creedence main man John Fogerty would say. Cos, nothing truly goes out of date—and that’s the way it should be. So while, for instance, cult movie-fans are getting hot-under-the-collar with the latest Midnight Movie Monograph title (about which, more in just a few lines), somebody else is discovering one of our older titles and then having a full-blown hootenanny wanting to tell everyone in earshot what a gem they’ve discovered.

The case in point? Timothy Brown’s POLARIS from 2014 which received a head-over-heels thumbs up from one of our readers, Peter Jackson. (And the answer is, I don’t know. But big cheese director or not, Peter loves Tim’s book just as much as we did those years ago. Go for it, Peter.)

"I loved this book. A unique and ultimately poignant perspective on the responsibility of AI with human existence and mortality. Some genuinely moving scenes, interspersed with moments of humour as the AI comes to terms with its programmed responsibility to Robert. The dream sequences beautifully tie the story together. Would have liked to have been immersed in this world a little longer, but perhaps that would have detracted from the perfect ending. Would make a great movie."

Of course, we’re all of us in this screwball nutty biz peachy keen on movies and nobody more than the Neil Snowdon, Electric Dreamhouse’s mogul and the man responsible for our Midnight Movie Monographs series. Well, kids, he’s going crazy over the next title. So without further ado, over to you, Neil.

Electric Dreamhouse ‘MIDNIGHT MOVIE MONOGRAPHS’ NEW TITLE announcement!

I’m intensely proud of what we’re doing with Electric Dreamhouse, immensely pleased that readers and critics seem to get what we’re aiming for and appreciate what we do. But I still have to pinch myself sometimes that it’s actually happening. That the people I work with actually WANT to work with me . . .

Case in point: about a year and a half ago . . .

Stephen Laws and I hosted an ‘Evening With John Connolly’ in Newcastle as part of the Novocastria Macabre genre events we do up here. John was touring with  the 10th Anniversary edition of his wonderful novel THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS. Afterwards, we went for pizza and nattered about books and movies and what we all were up to, and I told John about Electric Dreamhouse and the Midnight Movie Monograph series we’re doing. Somewhere in the conversation, John said he’d be up for writing one.

I honestly can’t remember if I was bold enough to ask him if he would—I’d had a drink, so it’s possible—or whether John just volunteered based on what I’d told him about the books and what it was we’re trying to do . . .

I emailed him the next day to make sure I hadn’t dreamt it . . .

I hadn’t.

Was he sure? He must be a very busy man . . .

Yes. He was sure, but he’d need to think about what film he’d like to write about.

Over the next few months we kept in touch . . .

. . . me figuring it would happen when it happens, and we’d work around his schedule (best selling author and all that, y’know . . .he really is a very busy man). Somewhere in there, he told me he thought he’d like to write about a not-all-that-well-known Spanish/UK co-production from 1972 called HORROR EXPRESS.

At that point, I hadn’t seen it, but knew the film by name and mentioned it to Stephen Laws. “Oh, it’s wonderful! You have to see it!” And he dug me out a dvd for the next time that I saw him.

I watched it.

He was right. It was SO much fun.

By this point John was pretty sure this was going to be the film he’d write about. There was nothing else that he was really interested in, even though he’d seen the movie only once, when he was a kid. Still, it had made such an impression at the time, it was all that he could imagine spending thirty thousand words exploring.

That was fine by me.

Are you sure? It’s not exactly a classic . . .

I was sure.

I mean, it’s not even all that well known . . .

I was sure.

And so John went to it.

And oh my did he deliver . . .

The book that John has written is one in which we accompany him as he explores Why?  Why this film? Why has it stayed with him? Why does it so draw him now? And will it stand up to youthful remembrance?

If you know John Connolly’s writing, you perhaps might know what to expect, it is warm, it is funny, it is thoughtful, and it is surprising.

What John delivers in this book, is something I found quite moving. In looking back at this seemingly insignificant little exploitation film that found it’s cast and crew by quite the strangest ripples of the butterfly effect, he manages to touch on something universal, something that lies at the very heart of why Electric Dreamhouse, and the Midnight Movie Monographs, came to be: the way small strange movies find their way in to our hearts; mark us in ways their makers could never possibly foresee. The way these small strange movies can change our lives... because they’re Art.

HORROR EXPRESS (Panico en el Transiberio) by John Connolly will launch as part of the Irish Film Institute’s annual Horrorthon in Dublin, on Saturday October 26th, where John will introduce a screening of the film and be signing books.

In other Electric Dreamhouse News . . .

For all those waiting for Stephen R. Bissette’s monster tome on David Cronenberg’s THE BROOD . . . it’s coming.

But like those giant irradiated ants in the New mexico desert, you’ve no idea the size of this thing! (I’ve recast Mike as James Whitmore in this analogy and I’m sticking with it).

 

In the meantime, LES VAMPIRES in which Tim Major explores the dreamlike underworld of Louis Feuillade, the original femme fatale, Musidora, and her gang ‘The Vampires’, is undergoing its final proof stage before being sent to print.

 

Already with the printers is SPIRITS OF THE DEAD, in which Tim Lucas returns to the wellspring of a life dedicated to the fantastique on film, and dives deep into ‘a parade of anachronism, eroticism, sadism, and kaleidoscopic delirium’ and which, by his own admission, 'took the top of his head clean off’.

And last but not least . . .

This might also be the first place to mention another forthcoming title in the Midnight Movie Monograph series, the mighty Kit Power is writing about Ken Russell’s movie of TOMMY, and having seen an early draft it has me bouncing in my chair with glee, just like the film.

Keep your eyes peeled!

You better believe it, Neil. Keep those titles coming.

Meanwhile, go sample that early autumn chill. Have a fab weekend, look after each other, and happy reading.

Pete

PS Publishing

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