No person in small press horror has got people talking these days than Joe Hill. He is the author of a multi-award-winning short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts, and the forthcoming novel Heart-Shaped Box.
So, why is everyone talking?
Simple: the guy is a freakin’ talented writer.
Oh, and he’s also the son of Stephen King.
Yeah, that’s right, Stephen King’s son is writing and publishing.
As if I didn’t need any more pressure, right?
Actually, it’s okay. There’s plenty of room for all of us in the publishing game, and Hill really is a great writer. I just finished reading 20th Century Ghosts, and I’m very much looking forward to reading his first novel when it comes out in February.
Having said that, I thought I’d weigh in on the “talk” (which is a much nicer word than “controversy”) about whether or not Hill is getting a fair shake in the oh-so-glorious and oh-so-important world of small press horror.
It all started earlier this year, just before Hill started winning, well, just about every award in the industry for 20th Century Ghosts. On one of the Usenet newsgroups, which are populated by many a belligerent asshole who in person probably wouldn’t say shit if he had a mouthful, some wag came out saying, essentially, that Joe Hill is only getting the attention, the awards, the story acceptances, because he is Stephen King’s son.
This kicked off a whole brouhaha, because that’s what people do best on the web, with people taking sides over whether or not there was any nepotism involved in any part of poor Mr. Hill’s career. Pretty stupid stuff, but to give them credit, most people realized this was nothing more than a text-book case of sour grapes and sided with Hill.
Hell, even I was jealous when I first heard about the guy. Stephen King’s son is writing and publishing and winning awards and he sold his book? All this over the course of one year? Well then, he must be getting special treatment!
But I didn’t really believe that — or rather, I wasn’t going to believe that without actually checking the guy out (this is where I differ from the trolls out there: I look stuff up and find out for myself before developing an opinion). I wasn’t going to judge the guy based on the nattering of a bunch of twits in the small press. I never listened to their prattle before, I sure wasn’t going to listen to it now.
But I was curious.
Even if the guy wasn’t actively swinging his weight, mayyyybe he was getting some special treatment by those impressionable editors and reviewers who thought that by doing so they’d be getting in good with his old man.
So I started seeking out his work. After all, that was the only way I’d be able to tell if he was any good or not. (Strange how it’s that easy, eh?) I picked up 20th Century Ghosts, I threw on a copy of his chapbook Better Than Home on an order I was making to Clarkesworld Books, and I happened upon one of his other stories in an issue of Postscripts that I already owned. I had everything I needed. And the verdict:
Yes, he’s really that good.
He’s actually pretty damned good.
A few short notes on my favourites in his collection:
The kickoff story, “Best New Horror,” nails perfectly the world of small press horror and the freakish world that is the horror/sf convention circuit.
“You Will Hear The Locust Sing” is a nice homage to the big bug films of the 1950s that I love so dearly.
“My Father’s Mask” is… well, some seriously fucked up shit, and I loved it!
After reading his stories, I began researching the man, and I think that’s where some people are encountering the big green-eye monster. Joe Hill, talent aside, is definitely getting a lot of attention. He’s getting a lot of articles and interviews, more than anyone else I can think of in years. Not even Kelly Link, one of the other biggies in the small press, gets this kind of attention. Bev Vincent recently reviewed 20th Century Ghosts in CD, and that is the only thing in this whole silly tale that I think should not have happened. Letting the most popular Stephen King scholar review a book written by the man’s son — he loved it, of course — probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, and it certainly gave more ammunition to the idiots who think Hill is getting a free ride. I completely agree with Vincent’s review, but I don’t think he should have been the one to write it.
But the final judgement on Joe Hill really comes down to two questions.
1. Is he getting special treatment?
Definitely not. Hill shopped his collection around to every major publisher in the U.S. and they all turned him down. That’s why he had to go with PS Publishing, a U.K. company.
Also, even though it’s now public knowledge that Hill is Stephen King’s son (thanks to an article in Variety), he tried to avoid this for as long as he could. Why else is he publishing under a pseudonym if not to make it on his own steam? (In the Variety article, the people who bought the rights to Hill’s book stated they didn’t know he was King’s son when they made the deal, and I believe them.)
Although it appears as if Joe Hill came out of the ether, he’s actually been publishing since 1996, in many of the same small and obscure magazines that you see me talking about on this website. He worked hard for his success and it didn’t happen over night.
2. Is he getting extra attention?
Probably. But he can’t be blamed for that. Journalists and reporters write stories based on angles, and you have to admit, Joe Hill gives them one hell of an angle. So, yes, he is probably going to get more interviews and more articles written about him than most writers. But I’m not bitter about this either (God, this post is starting to sound like one big love-note). I would probably feel otherwise if Hill wasn’t such a great writer. He deserves the attention, and frankly, what’s good for him is good for horror fiction, which in turn is good for me. Stephen King helped propel the interest in horror novels throughout the seventies and eighties. Maybe Hill will do the same for the genre today. It wouldn’t surprise me if he did, and I certainly wouldn’t feel jealous about it. Well, maybe a bit.
Kathryn always manages to provide a refreshingly impartial opinion at times like this. She cares not one iota about the publishing world, big or small, and her distance from it all helps to keep me grounded. I told her about Mr. Hill and the swirl of talk around him, and she said: “Well, he’ll probably get special treatment by some people. But he can’t really be blamed for that. He can’t help being Stephen King’s son, right?”
I managed to dig up only one article, in Publishers Weekly, in which Hill actually comments on all of this.
This would be a much easier argument if Hill’s writing sucked. Then it would be quite obvious that these editors and reviewers are simply sucking up to his daddy by proxy. But that’s not the case. Hill is a good writer, and I strongly recommend you pick up a copy of 20th Century Ghosts, and keep your eyes peel for Heart-Shaped Box next year.
I think this guy’s going to be big.
- Currently reading: "Magic Carpet," T.E.D. Klein