Years ago, I used to regularly take trips to New York City for events, including some book signing events back in the 2000's and 2010's. Sometimes, my son even came along, like with for Jimmy Carter, Buzz Aldrin and Julian Lennon. Possibly some others whom are not immediately coming to mind. Those were fun.
However, I am growing older. My energy, as well as my enthusiasm, has gone down for such trips. It requires a significant part of the day, and often can cost some decent money, as well. Not sure when these trips dried up. But it seemed like I had not gone to any similar events in years. Probably since before the pandemic shutdown.
Earlier this year, I found out about two such events which definitely were quite appealing. The first was last month, when Sarah McLachlan was signing copies of her new album. I went to that and posted a blog entry reviewing it, as well. Here are the links:
Sarah McLachlan Signing at Barnes & Noble in Union Square, New York City - September 19, 2025 (published on Saturday, September 20, 2025):
https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2025/09/sarah-mclachlan-signing-at-barnes-noble.html
Album Review: Better Broken by Sarah McLachlan (published on Monday, September 22, 2025):
https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2025/09/album-review-better-broken-by-sarah.html
The other event was for horror writer Joe Hill.
Now, I had seen Hill a couple of times before. Both of those times had been in New York City, as well. Thought I had posted reviews, complete with pictures, for both of those events. Alas, my memory was faulty. I only found a couple of pictures from the first signing (which was not exclusively Joe Hill) at Forbidden Planet, and nothing at all from the second event the next year at Strand bookstore. In fact, I only remember the specific date because he actually wrote it when he signed my copy of "The Fireman."
Anyway, it seemed like a good idea to attend both. I had trouble acquiring the Sarah McLachlan tickets, at least at first. Later, they released more tickets, and I was able to go as a result of that. But those early problems prompted me to act a little more quickly in obtaining tickets to the Joe Hill event, even though that was a couple of months away.
Well, it seemed far off at the time. But we all know by now how time rushes at you, often taking you by surprise. So suddenly, it was here. Late October, and the Hill signing event was upon me.
Fortunately, I managed to take off for the day from my part-time weekend job. The arrangements included working another shift later on, which was annoying. But we're allowed to take off from work every now and then, right? Plus, I had worked from home for my main job the night before, which allowed me to shower and have a fairly normal morning before this little escapade to New York City. And so I went.
It was a crisp, beautiful autumn day in New York City. A little on the chilly side, although not so cold that it struck me as odd how many people walking around looked like they were bundled up for a cold winter's day. By late morning, the sun was out and it had warmed up considerably. It was enjoyable, although I cut it a bit short to make sure to get to Barnes & Noble in order to get to the event early.
And who should I run into on the escalator?
Joe Hill himself.
Now, I came to terms long ago to being socially awkward. It took me well until my thirties before I could outright admit it and recognize it as reality. But I'm at peace with it now. Sometimes, it can even have it's charms.
Then there are moments like this. It took me a few seconds to realize that this was Joe Hill. He and I had arrived more or less at the same time at the escalator, and so I encouraged him to go. He was maybe three feet in front of me when it dawned on me that, yes, this must be who I thought it was.
"Are you Joe Hill?" I heard myself ask him.
"Yes," he responded, realizing why I was here. "Are you going to the event?"
"Yeah."
And that was it. I tried to figure out something to say beyond that, but couldn't. It was not nervousness. Just sometimes go blank whenever I think about what people might expect from me, or from my response, at any given moment. Small talk was not an option, since I've never really been any good at that. Also, his books were, for whatever the reason eluding me. I had read them, but for the moment, was drawing a blank.
We parted ways. He seemed almost to expect more from a fan, and I couldn't blame him. Again, my social awkwardness was getting the better of me.
Then I went to the information desk and found the line. It was about an hour and a half or so before the event was set to begin. I was among the first to arrive. Later that proved valuable, as I got front row seats and also was among the first to get my book personalized.
"King Sorrow" is a horror novel out jus tin time for Halloween. It is a big book at almost 900 pages. That seems almost in the tradition of his famous father, who has had numerous books of 900 pages or more published. Hill made a point of urging people not to be intimidated by the size of the book, however. He explained that it's his job not to make it feel like homework.
He did a reading from the book. I recorded about one minute of his reading from the book. However, I always seem to have difficulty...well, simply paying attention. When I read a book, it is at my own pace, and with a certain tone. Even audiobooks feel different. If you miss something, you can always go back, return to what you missed. But at author events, it seems I always miss key portions of the readings. But this does not feel like a big deal because, again, my best reading tends to be on my own, in a quiet and generally private atmosphere.
One of the first things that he said about it is that he sometimes felt like it was an extra season of the "Friends" sitcom. Only this time, it is horror, not comedy. That said, he also feels that horror and humor tend to be different sides of the same coin. He used jump scares in movies as an example, as people will often jump and let out a scream, then laugh at their own reaction. Neither of those are exactly controlled by the person, but involuntary.
He wanted his characters to have a wide range of political beliefs. To that end, there is a character who is on the extreme right, as well as one on the extreme left. Then, there are others who fall in between these extremes to varying degrees.
That said, however, Hill summed up the political situation in the United States presently as "not well," feeling that this likely should be fairly obvious to everyone. No one in the audience seemed to be in disagreement.
Poured Over Cohost, Jenna Seery, interviewing Hill, said that she could identify with the characters in the book. There were times when she was rooting for them, but other times when she was horrified by them, or by decisions that they made or actions which they took.
Hill thanked her. Then he stated that the characters are more than just a reflection of himself, or some part of him. Some authors, he said, claim that every character is, in some respects, a mirror of themselves. But he wanted to go beyond that and create characters that go beyond a mere mirror reflection of himself.
He then went on to describe how he was at a party and talking to George R. R. Martin, who, told him that there are two types of writers: architects and gardeners. Writers would likely understand what that means. As an aside, Hill joked that if he had known how much money he could make by adding a lot of sex in a story about a dragon, he would have made more of an effort on this score. That said, he did concede that there is a fair amount of sex in this novel. However, he made clear that it is mostly bad sex.
Every now and then, he did mention his famous father. Joking about how prolific Stephen King is, Hill joked that his father could sneeze and produce a book idea. Hill also mentioned that he had dropped his last name in order to be able to get published under his own merit, and not just because he was the son of a very famous author.
There were unique challenges, he said, to having come from a family of writers. One of them was having his mom be the first one to read a new manuscript. He told one funny story about one of his books, NOS4A2. Originally, it was going to have a much darker ending. Hill was determined to keep it like this, feeling that it was about making a stand for artistic integrity. Nobody, not even his editor, would be able to change his mind or persuade him to alter the ending. But then, once his mom read the manuscript, she said that it was great, except for the ending. She insisted that it could not have such a dark ending.
Hill joked that his resistance ended right there, as he quietly responded, "Yes, mom."
Yet, his mom - who herself is noted author Tabitha King - was even more merciless with her famous husband. Hill said that she would write makeshift negative reviews of King books before they were released to the public to prepare for possible negative reactions, before anyone else has a chance to attack King's works. To that end, he shared two of the more brutal reviews which Tabitha left for two King books in particular. When IT was released, Tabitha stated in her review that perhaps two letters were missing from the title of the book. While Hill did not explicitly share what those two letters were, my guess is that the first letter would begin with the letter S. She also took a swipe at yet another title of a King book in another of her makeshift reviews, suggesting that the cure for real-life insomnia would be to read Stephen King's Insomnia.
Pretty brutal.
Hill also shared a humorous story about his own first public reading, which happened way back in 2007. It had been a hometown kind of thing, so families came for the event. Hill had never done a reading before, and had not been particularly discriminating about which selection to read from. He chose a reading with quite a few swears and salty language. The little kids in the audience were fascinated and felt like they had been privy to something that perhaps they normally would not have been exposed to. However, this also earned him the angry glares from parents. So he had learned to be more careful as a result.
Now in his fifties, he said that his goals were different now. While comics have been a fairly prominent part of his past, he felt that they likely would remain part of his past. there had been some personnel changes at those publishers, and so there is no longer much of a comfort zone. He really does not know anybody there anymore. Instead, he wants to focus on novels, and hopes to be have a new book published each year. With this book for this year, and two more for each of the next couple of years, he feels that he might be off to a decent start in that regard.
Hill then took a moment to express his wonder that a large book such as his could still generate an audience. We could be doing anything, he said. There are so many potentially enticing distractions, such as surfing social media or checking out what is streaming on Netflix. So it felt to him almost a wonder that as many people still choose to read a 900-page book over those kinds of easy distractions.
Below are some pictures, as well as a couple of admittedly brief videos from the Joe Hill event at the Barnes & Noble at Union Square in New York City this past weekend:
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