Boo-yah, baby!

Well, I gotta say, while I'm sure the rug will soon be yanked out from under me, I'm really enjoying the reviews for Husk thus far.

I've already listed a few (here), but there's a few more I'd like to draw your attention to:

First, the venerable American publication BookList (which many libraries and such consult for ideas on orders), gave me this sterling nugget of awesome:

Redekop follows up his 2007 debut, the very funky Shelf Monkey, with the story of Sheldon Funk, a struggling actor, who wakes up during his own autopsy. Undead but still functional, Funk looks for a way to keep himself out of the wrong people’s hands, land a plum acting job, and (eventually) weather the storm of zombie superstardom before decomposition inevitably gets the best of him. Featuring Funk’s ambitious agent and an unsavory doctor who finds gruesomely clever ways to keep Sheldon’s body from falling apart too quickly, the story is a lesson in practical zombieing: what to do when you become a member of the walking dead, how to pass yourself off as (relatively) normal, how to learn to speak and walk again, and how to deal with your new meatcentric dietary requirements. Very funny and full of nifty surprises, the story has a big heart, too, presenting Sheldon as an ordinary fella trying to come to terms with his extraordinary new situation. The ending is appropriate and packs a serious emotional wallop. Highly recommendable—perhaps to more than zombie geeks.

And now, on the eve of actual publication (October 1!), The Toronto Star, which had already labelled Husk as one of their Top 20 Fall Reads of 2012, weighs in with a full review that completely and utterly gets me:

There's a point near the end of Husk where the narrator, long dead and without much of a body left to drag around, decides to embrace his "pop culture heritage" and start acting more like a traditional zombie...That heritage isn't essential to enjoying Corey Redekop’s book, his second novel, but some background helps...Redekop tosses so much into this zombie stew that instead of wearing out his premise quickly it almost seems as though he needs a bigger pot. By the time we get to the end, which involves a reclusive billionaire's bid for immortality and an apocalypse that stirs together pages torn from Philip K. Dick and H. P. Lovecraft, one feels there's no more ground to cover. Zombiedom's entire pop culture heritage has been thrown against the wall in bleeding chunks, where much of it sticks.

Feeling pretty warm in the belly right now. Hmmmm. Warm.

Some early reviews of HUSK

The book is still warm from the printers, and bookshelf appearances are weeks away. Nevertheless, Husk has already garnered a few remarkably positive reviews (I say remarkably because I have some issues with self-loathing which cloud my judgement on such things).

From Quill & Quire:

• “Despite all the violence and jokes about viscera, what gradually emerges is a tender portrait of a profoundly lonely man who finds love and acceptance only after his body has betrayed him . . . an enormously funny book that has real emotional heft underneath all the blood.”

Now that's a review, no? I slept very well after reading this, quite content with my place in the cosmos. Then, as the days crept by, my good vibes began to curdle in the lime juice of my low self-esteem. "Must have been a fluke," I thought.

Then, the Toronto Star saw fit to include my crazy ramblings as one of their Top 20 Reads of the Fall. Please check out the list, it's very likely the only time you'll ever see 'Corey Redekop' on the same honoured list as Alice Munro, Rawi Hage, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, and Orhan Pamuk.

And then, there's these wonderful blurbs that'll appear on the final cover, accolades from some of my favourite authors who were way too kind in their praise.

• “A superb blood-splattered comedy. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll puke!” — Andrew Kaufman, author of All My Friends Are Superheroes and The Waterproof Bible
• “A wild vicious romp through pop culture, Husk rips the heart out of the rotting zombie genre and shoves it down your throat. Infection never hurt so good.” — Peter Darbyshire, author of The Warhol Gang and Please
• “Camus meets Palahniuk in a darkly comic, but surprisingly light-hearted, mind-meld in Corey Redekop’s Husk. Sure, the protagonist is a zombie, but this is 2012, and as Redekop rightly observes, we’re all zombies now.” — Andrew Pyper, author of The Killing Circle and The Guardians

I gotta say, I'm feelin' pretty fine right now. I'm sure it'll pass, so I'm going to do my best to enjoy the moment.

Posted with Blogsy

Husk - The pictures! They're coming...ALIVE!

In addition to being a stunningly successful author in my own mind, did you know I'm also a talented screenwriter/director?

Yet what I have in obvious greatness, I lack in resources. So instead of an AVID editing suite (oh, those were the days!), I have iMovie software on my laptop. Instead of John Williams to compose a score, I have Creative Commons.

BUT...I have a secret weapon at my disposal. Or rather, seven secret weapons; a volleyball team's (plus one alternate) worth of nieces and nephews who are willing to work for...well, not peanuts, one has an allergy. But they work for far below scale, needing only words and hugs to get the job done right.

And so, without further rambling preamble, I present for your entertainment the next best thing to owing my  book itself (out October 1, check your nearest independent bookseller for your orders) -

Husk: The Book Trailer!

Please enjoy!

Thank you, nieces DeGroot and niece and nephews Redekop, your weeks of toil have not gone in vain. Expect a nice new lolly in your stockings come xmas.

If you've enjoyed this trailer, you may do two things to repay me: 1) purchase the book, and 2) share it with friends via the usual social networks (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, MySpace [does that still exist?]). Please do not share via the unusual social networks. Those places are creepy!

Time for the publicity juggernaut to start up again

Well, it's been awhile, but after much, much, much laziness on my part (catching up on Lost turned out to be a real timesuck), I have finally got the second novel done somewhat to my liking. Which is fairly lucky, since it comes out in less than two months.

Husk final cover, designed by David Gee

Yes, Husk (click the link for description) is on its way to terrorize bookstores with its ridiculous tale of a zombie with glimmers of morality. Meaning that yes, he does eat a fair amount of people (a zombie novel without cannibalism is like a vegetarian who still eats fish; completely wrongheaded on the concept), but at least he feels conflicted about it.

I've decided to branch out and start an official author page, which you can find here. Already I've posted a few entries on my thoughts concerning zombies, and I'll continue to focus most of my energies on keeping the site filled with current information. Expect it to fill quite rapidly with reviews and events, and I'll be using it to promote further writings and projects down the road. I've also begun a public Facebook page for the novel, which I do hope you'll all check out and join (with the possibility of a free copy up for grabs to all members). I'll keep up my reviews here from time to time, but very likely in a reduced capacity for the foreseeable future.

Already, the buzz is building. Husk has been noted as a hot Fall release by Quill & Quire, and Russell Smith gave it a muted mention in one of his Globe and Mail columns (the title's not there, but I'm fairly certain I'm the only CanLit author with a zombie novel on the horizon, unless Alice Munro has decided to finally publish her long-awaited Lives of Undead Girls and Decomposing Women). I've also been lucky enough to cajole remarkable blurbs from some of my favourite authors (Andrew Pyper, Andrew Kaufman, and Peter Darbyshire, a trio that proves CanLit ain't all about  prairie winters and hardscrabble lives), which you can find on my author website.

I've been contacting bloggers and websites with a bent for the horrifically unusual or the unusually horrific to get some early review coverage. If you know of any that get a fairly wide readership, don't hesitate to contact me with the details. I've also been working on the launch in my current habitat in Fredericton, NB, and will get those details finalized ASAP.

Best of all, I've been accepted to two prestigious Canadian literary festivals for autumn 2012. In late September, I'll be travelling to Manitoba to participate in two events at the Thin Air Winnipeg International Writers Festival. One will be in Winnipeg proper (date and time TBA), and the other (on the evening of Sept. 21) will be a special event in Brandon, MB, where I'll be having a reading of Husk followed by the local premiere of the new Canadian horror comedy A Little Bit Zombie. This film was actually financed in large part through crowdsourcing, and has garnered a fair amount of good reviews as it travels the festival circuit. Needless to say, I'm quite stoked about pairing up my novel with this by-all-accounts very silly and very gory little slice of Canucksploitation. Should be a great evening, and a great overall time back in the prairies.

The highlight for me, however, is having two events (TBA) at the International Festival of Authors in Toronto, ON, near the end of October. I don't yet know who is on the bill with me (I'm not so deluded as to think I have a huge amount of drawing power), but just getting in the festival is a huge career highlight for me. Looking at the full list of participants, I can only assume I'll be paired up with Michael Chabon, Rohinton Mistry, and Gordon Pinsent. Only makes sense.

Finally, next week I shall be unveiling the spanking new book trailer, created and edited by yours truly, with invaluable help from a gaggle of nieces and a murder of nephews. I shall place it up on this site eventually, but I shall showcase it first on my author website and the Husk Facebook page. If you like the trailer, please distribute it on your own pages, tweets, and blogs accordingly.

It has been quite a ride for me so far, and there's still two months until I see it sitting atop the shelves. I hope you'll all enjoy my strange little monster, and perhaps we'll get a chance to meet when I'm on the road.

The Husk Chronicles, Episode One - ACCEPTANCE

My, Corey, what an intriguing post title.

And what a nauseating image (courtesy of Rob Sachetto's Zombie Daily blog).

What's it all about?

Well, you may have noticed a marked decline in the posting of posts on this here website. Frankly, I've been rather busy. The new job as publicist for Goose Lane Editions keeps my brain a'popping, leaving me with scant energy at the end of the workday. I do what I can, but I am at heart a lazy man who needs serious downtime.

And now, the posts may be coming with even less regularity, although I will do my best to update, review, and whine. Another element has been added to the mix, one which will definitely eat away at my time, time usually spent watching House or 30 Rock. You see, after years (no hyperbole here, folks, bloody years) of wait, and work, and false starts and restarts, the almost unthinkable has occurred. Corey Redekop, your one and only favourite writer of novels and blogs entitled Shelf Monkey, has had his sophomore novel accepted for publication.

Now, now, put away your wallet, stop searching online for the best price. It will be some time before Husk (that's the title) reaches shelves. We're talking 2012 here, so you have plenty of time to start putting away the pennies. Why, just saving a dime a day will put you so far ahead you'll be able to afford two copies. Good for you, good for me.

But this will mean much time and effort be placed into editing, which goes on and on and on, and as a result, less reviews. I will desperately try to keep all three of you still reading this sentence entertained and informed, but no guarantees.

And the image? Suffice to say, Husk is not (despite some pleas from earnest fans) a sequel to Shelf Monkey. It is, rather, what I refer to as the Great Canadian Zombie Novel (hence the image). I feel I'm on pretty solid ground with that claim; there simply haven't been that many Canadian zombie novels, certainly not written from the zombie's POV. There was a small segment of Max Brooks' World War Z set in Canada, and Joey Comeau's One Bloody Thing After Another had its fair share of undead mayhem, but that might be it. Except for Tony Burgess' Pontypool Changes Everything, a gutbusting masterpiece, but really so much, much more that a 'zombie novel.'

So, prep yourselves for the 2012 release of Husk. I'll be blogging updates on my progress, as well as other things that entertain/infuriate me.

And if you can't wait until 2012, consider voting for Shelf Monkey at the CBC Reads nomination page, on until October 26. It'll help pass the time.