I cleared out my mailbox this morning and discovered one of the awesomest Christmas presents of all time… a print of “The Day The Saucers Came,” a very funny and clever Neil Gaiman poem, set alongside a series of colorful and iconic illustrations from the pen of Jouni Koponen. I should add that this lifelong fan of apocalyptic scifi and fantasy also found “Saucers” touching in an enigmatic sort of way as well; don’t ask me to explain why, because I can’t. Just that it really flew for me.

If YOU didn’t get the Christmas gift you were hoping for, you can run right over to neverwear.net (get it, neverwear? NeverWEAR? ****** Oh nevermind) where there are still some available, and make it a present to yourself. Did I mention your money is also going to a good cause? 20% of the sticker price is passed on to the CBLDF, who do important work defending my first-amendment rights to make comics full of dirty words and your first amendment right to read them, or make dirty-word filled comics of your own.

It just so happens I’m picking up a second one of these myself. I know someone this is perfect for.

This is what it looks like:

Someone stop me before I do anymore social networking.

Still, if Twitter is your thing, my profile name is joe_hill.

Nearly everyone who writes modern fantasy and horror wishes they could write stories like Kelly Link writes stories. She’ll be at the Public Library in Portsmouth, NH, in the Levinson Room on Wednesday the 7th. RiverRun Books will be co-hosting the event. If you’re in the area, and you haven’t read her, here’s your chance to discover one of the most exciting voices in American fiction (genre or mainstream). If you have read her, then you already know it’ll be worth making the trip to see her.

At 6 PM she’ll be answering questions for the RiverRun “book club” - no formal membership required, however, you can just come right in. And at 7 she’ll read from Pretty Monsters, which collects some old stories with some new ones.

It’ll be fun, you should go.

Happy New Year everyone.

You’ll be able to find the first issue of Locke & Key: Head Games in your local comic store, as of the 14th of January. But if you don’t have a local comic book store, or you don’t like to go outside BECAUSE THEY MIGHT BE OUT THERE WATCHING WAITING WATCHING WAITING WITH THEIR FLASHY KNIVES AND THEIR RADIOSCOPIC GRINS… well then you can always subscribe, and the postman will deliver it right to you. That’s really, when you think about it, the safest way to go (except the postman is ONE OF THEM! And his knifey grin will go SLASHY SLASH if you open the door so don’t open the door NEVER open the door pretend you aren’t home and wait wait wait for him to go away). You can order your subscription here from the IDW webstore. I’m sure a gift subscription would be just the thing to give to a friend for Chirstmas as well, if you could trust any of your friends, which you can’t, because beneath their rubber faces… you know. Spying on you. Keeping notes. Be careful.

And if you’d like to see what you’re getting into, well, here’s a seven page preview of issue #1. Page one below, the rest after the jump. And now I’m going to lock myself in my room and put tinfoil in the windows and cut things out of the newspaper.

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Just in time for Saturday evening, here’s a Friday Five.

When I’m not working, I make playlists. At the moment, I’ve got around 150 playlists in my iTunes library. Here are five.

Appetite for Noise. If it’s loud and abrasive it goes here. Representative songs: Everything off “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” everything off “Appetite for Destruction,” a big chunk of “The Eminem Show.” Very recent additions include most of “Black Butterfly” and most of “Chinese Democracy.”

Dreaming Bright. For concentrated daydreaming. Great to listen to while reading comic books by Jordan Crane. Representative songs include: “It’s a Motherfucker” - The Eels; “Over The Rainbow” - Judy Garland; “She Wakes When She Dreams” - Lucero; “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” - Flaming Lips. Very recent addition: “My Freeze Ray” - Neil Patrick Harris.

Nashville Asylum. For shitkicking good times. Representative songs: “Dick in Dixie” - Hank III; “A Perfect Day To Chase Tornadoes” - Jim White; “Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame” - Sunny Sweeney. Most recent addition: “Me & Joe Drove Out To California”- Drag the River.

New Wave Wonderland. Just the thing to listen to on a rainy day while I paint my toenails black. Okay, I’ve never painted my toenails back. But, y’know. “Helena” - My Chemical Romance; “More than This” - Cure; “Love and Memories” - O.A.R.. Recent add: “Take A Bow” - Muse.

And the playlist I listen to and mess around with the most: Radio Joe. Some current songs: “Too Drunk…” - Buckcherry; “Now My Feet Won’t Touch The Ground” - Coldplay; “Shout” - The Isley Brothers. Latest add: “Let it Rain” - Living Things.

Those are some of my playlists, now it’s your turn. Leave a current playlist or mix tape lineup in the comments thread. Bonus points if it means something, i.e., is not just a list of tunes you like. You should also let me know if you think there are any important additions I need to make to the above playlists (of course, I’ve only given a loose sketch of the kind of stuff that’s on each list, but suggestions are always welcome…)

is shipping from PS Publishing. The slipcased and jacketed versions of the book are sold out, but they’re still taking orders on the hardcover.

Gunpowder is a standalone novella, in what might be a series of connected novellas. Just lately, I’ve noticed a lot of my stories seem to want to stack; the Locke & Key stories, for example, are enclosed narratives that are stacking up into a much larger story.

Also… Gunpowder is an old school science fiction story. Like, spaceships and people on faraway planets. You were warned.

If you’re in the mood for a preview, the first page of the story follows after the jump.

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After the jump you’ll find about 1000 words of think on the subject of American Wife and American Widow. My comments include some big spoilers; if you haven’t read the books and you don’t want things ruined for you, go no further.

I tried not to prattle on too long, because I think epic blog entries can be a drag to read. This isn’t, like, a full book review… just some opening thoughts, which hopefully will lead to more conversation.

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A few comic-ky notices and links I’ve been meaning to post…

Ain’t it Cool News recently wrote a mash note to Locke & Key and followed up by placing both Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft and 20th Century Ghosts on their annual list of Christmas gift suggestions. Hey, you won’t catch me arguing with them.

Chris Bolton at Powell’s books wrote a very positive review of Welcome to Lovecraft. Worth a look if you’re curious about Locke & Key, but not sure you want to take a chance on a comic book.

The first issue of the next Locke & Key storyline will be out in early January, but you can read the opening 7 pages right now in the latest issue of Wizard magazine (that would be the January ‘09 issue, but nevermind the date, it’s already in stores). This is a particularly cool issue, since it has an Alan Moore interview, a preview of the upcoming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and a long piece about Lost writers Brian Vaughan and Damon Lindelof. And, tho’ I blush to write it, in Wizard’s annual best-of issue (December), they were kind enough to vote me Best Horror Writer.

There’s a chance I might be posting more than usual on the blog, here in the last week before Christmas. During the time I was offline, waiting for power to come back on after the ice storm, I wound up roughing out several posts (we had a generator, so I could noodle on the computer, even if it was usually in the dark). Whether or not anyone will want to read them is another question. I explain why after the jump.

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Just cleared a bunch of legit comments out of the SPAM filter (including one of my own… is it a bad sign that my own blog has so little respect for me that it frequently blocks my comments?)

While it’s true I can be an absolute slob when it comes to the housekeeping around here, this time I have an excuse - we were among the million or so New Englanders to get blasted but good by the ice storm, and we only just got the power back last night. But now I have returned to the internet to chew bubblegum and kick ass and I am all out of bubblegum.

Speaking of music, I guess for me anyway, “Geraldine,” by Glasvegas is the single of the year; I’ve listened to it again and again and I’m not tired of it yet. It shines for many reasons, but in particular because of its point-of-view. It’s as raw, and intense, and emotionally direct as any great love song - it is a love song - but “Geraldine” isn’t about running off with your baby to make smoochy face; it’s about the love a social worker feels for a particularly desperate case. I admire lyricist’s James Allan’s ability to get outside of his own head and imagine his way so deeply into the experience of someone different than himself. (Tangent: The great lyricists are often part method actors. It doesn’t surprise me that Martin Scorsese is so fascinated with the Stones… Mick Jagger is, after all, the DeNiro of rock, playing a wastrel trophy husband in one song and Satan in another)

Anyway, “Geraldine” was my favorite song of the year. Love to know yours.