| APRIL 20, 2007:
FANGLAND HAS COME WEST TO FIND ITS AUDIENCE, AS SO MANY BOOKS BEFORE IT. ON APRIL 28, AT 3 P.M., I WILL BE APPEARING ON A PANEL AT THE LOS ANGELES TIMES FESTIVAL OF BOOKS WITH ESTEEMED FELLOW NOVELISTS ELIZABETH KOSTOVA AND CHRISTOPHER MOORE, A REAL HONOR. AND IT SHOUDL ALSO BE A BLAST, BECAUSE WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE UPDATING OF THE VAMPIRE TALE IN OUR NOVELS. MEANWHILE, FANGLAND HAS JUST BEEN PUBLISHED IN THE UK AND IS RECEIVING RAVE REVIEWS AT THE DAILY MAIL AND MAXIM. FINALLY, I WILL BE DOING A READING AT BOOKSMITH IN SAN FRANCISCO, AT 7 P.M., TUESDAY, APRIL 24. BEFORE THAT, I'LL BE DOING A RADIO INTERVIEW WITH LOCAL NPR HOST RICK KLEFFEL. THANKS FOR TUNING IN. A LAST BIG SHOUT OUT TO PURPLE STATE OF MIND FRIENDS ON THE EAST AND WEST COAST. FANGLAND IS IN GOOD COMPANY. |
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| Posted by John Marks at | | | |
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SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 2007
I called it a novel. I published it as a novel. I thought it was for the best. Who would have believed me had I claimed to be telling the truth? But I've got to come clean, now that I've read Joe Queenan's review of Fangland in the March 4 NY Times Book Review. Queenan's been infected! He's one of Torgu's minions now! God knows, the disease is probably spreading through the Times newsroom as you read these words....Frank Rich, run for your life!! Do you understand? Does anyone understand? Please, someone, save them before it's too late.
P.S. I'm actually quite pleased by the review, doomed and deranged though Queenan may be. It's the best placement and the most column inches I've ever gotten in the Times for one of my books. Thanks guys! And sorry about the wasting disease...
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| THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2007,
Lots of news on the front lines of Fangland penetration. The eerie, timely tale of Ion Torgu and his televised minions is set to appear in several countries over the next year or so. The UK edition will be first, with a very cool cover, appearing in April. Taiwan, Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Russia are soon to follow.
Over here, anyone and everyone is invited to my next reading, 7 P.M., Monday, February 26, At Mo Pitkins, 34 Avenue A in Manhattan.
Finally, check out a very cool website, www.good-girls-kill.com, tomorrow, Friday, February 23, for an interview conducted by Tasha Nixon with me on subjects related to the novel. If you ever wanted to know what would happen in a throw-down between a werewolf and a vampire, this is for you.
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| MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2007,
On Monday, February 12, I'm going to be reading at the Barnes and Noble on Astor Place. The reading starts at 7 p.m. Those whispery voices will rise from the podium. Meanwhile, Harriet Klausner over at Alternative Worlds has given the novel a rave, saying, "The Romanian segment is a stupendous updating of Stoker’s Dracula while the New York portion seems paler than the original London venue. Torgu is a terrific modern day “Count” whose minions are criminals while Evangeline Harker (great name for a character) is a fabulous individual who struggles with the metamorphosis. Overall FANGLAND is a fast-paced horror thriller that fans of vampires will devour in a series of delightful 60 minute bites." Nice way to start the week.
Speaking of that, I'll be spending the week in Boise with Priddy Brothers productions, who gave us the remarkable 51 Birch Street. We're screening a fine cut of our new documentary, Purple State of Mind. My co-producer Craig Detweiler will be out there, too, and we'll be answering questions after the screening. Craig and I were room mates in college, and Purple State is an account of our friendship. I went on to write dark and horrific vampire novels, while Craig became a leading light of the Christian movement in Hollywood. Purple State charts out differences and sympathies in an 80 minute conversation that demonstrates what happens when people give enough of adamn to talk to each other.It should be hitting theaters sometime later this year.
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JANUARY 24,2007,
Over at Living Read Girl, Lady T puts some thoughtful questions, and I try to answer.
http://www.livingreadgirl.blogspot.com/
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| JANUARY 24, 2007,
From Booklist
Professional and personal aspirations collide when Evangeline, an ambitious associate producer of The Hour ("the most successful news show in American television history") accepts Robert's wedding proposal just before jetting off on an assignment she would rather dodge. Her uber-producer dismisses her protestations, so it's off to Transylvania to evaluate a possible story on Romanian reputed crime lord Ion Torgu. Marks' sense of place (a horse and wagon in front of a Coke sign symbolizes the transition from communism) and tone-setting emphasis on blood and bloodlines kick in early as Evangeline mulls over blending her Italian Irish heritage and Robert's mix of Creek Indian and the U.S. marshals who fought them, a union represented for her by the engagement ring she insists on wearing to meet the small, pale Torgu, who proves a kind of terrorist, and who infects her "like a virus" when she is abducted. She resurfaces months later, recuperating in Transylvania and recalling nothing. A scary twenty-first-century take on the stuff of Dracula, worthy of its rightful place among others. Whitney Scott |
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| Rocky Mountain News
Picks of the week, January 19
By Mark Graham and Jennifer Miller, Special to the News
January 19, 2007
HORROR
Fangland
By John Marks. Penguin, $25.95.
In this remarkable book, Marks has brought the epistolary novel into the 21st century. Just as Bram Stoker fabricated dozens of diary entries, articles, letters and other documents to give Dracula an air of authenticity in 1897, Marks has created a vast array of journals and e-mails and used the cast and setting of The Hour, a thinly disguised 60 Minutes television news magazine, to give Fangland a forceful presence in the present day.
When associate producer Evangeline Harker (maybe too obvious a Dracula reference) goes to Transylvania to arrange for the interview of Ion Torgu, Eastern Europe's most notorious crime lord, she has no idea that he is a centuries' old monster who drinks human blood. In order to survive, Evangeline is forced to submit to depraved acts, and, as a result, she returns a changed woman. Not only that, Torgu manages to introduce his infection into the The Hour's Manhattan studios and threatens to destroy the sanity of the world.
Final word: Don't expect your common garden variety vampire novel here. Fangland is a shocking, original and literary masterwork.
Mark Graham
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| January 22, 2007,
It can't have escaped many discerning filmgoers that one of the best movies of 2006 has been completely ignored by awards shows and critics alike. How could it happen?! The Descent has everything. British women spelunking in Kentucky caverns! Catfights that get deadly! A race of pale, sharp-tooth creatures who can't possibly be construed as vegetarian! And in all seriousness, one of the smartest scripts ever to grace the horror genre. I'm not one to conspiracy theorize. I don't think that dark forces war against high quality product--not all the time anyway--but I do suspect that the horror genre in film has lately become so disreputable, what with all the slouchy remakes of much better flicks, that no critic of any standing even considered putting The Descent on a Top Ten list. It belongs there! Still, an Oscar bid seems out of the question, at this late date. Does anyone else feel my pain? |
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| January 22, 2007,
Hey there. Over the last four years, watching HBO's The Wire, I've come to consider Baltimore like a second home. Now I know why. I can only hope that Omar is a fan of my novel.
BALTIMORE SUN
TV bites: Literally, in former 60 Minutes producer John Marks' imaginative and bloody reworking of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Fangland. In a Stephen King-meets-Anderson Cooper cautionary tale, Marks takes his recently engaged and reluctant-to-leave-New York heroine, TV producer Evangeline Harker, to Romania to investigate and hopefully interview Ion Torgu, a Balkan crime king, for her TV news magazine, The Hour. (Not to be confused with 60 Minutes - much.) Along the way, creepy stuff happens, as it tends to do in Transylvania. Harker meets a young missionary who tells Harker some stories that chill her blood. Then comes the real blood when Harker unexpectedly meets up with Vlad - Torgu - the crime lord, who turns out to be far more of a villain than the reporter envisioned. But just when she discovers who Torgu might be, Harker finds herself trapped in a Hotel California situation. Meanwhile, back in New York, months have passed and Harker is officially MIA - causing great distress among her colleagues. But then - a sudden, seeming reappearance and recovery, and little coffins keep turning up at her office and people start getting sick, much as the missionary had described and ... Why spoil the fun? Marks melds the go-for-the-jugular world of TV news, keen knowledge of the Eastern bloc (the scenes in Romania are to die for) and a much-beloved supernatural tale for a nifty and engaging flourish (albeit more Salem's Lot bleak than Dracula moral tale) that provides a crisp 21st-century take on an old favorite. With teeth. |
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January 11, 2007,
Today is publication day for Fangland. The long wait ends. The reviews so far: The Buffalo News calls Fangland ,”the best vampire novel since Ann Rice published Interview with the Vampire”. In November, Publishers Weekly gave the novel a star and called it “highly inventive”. In December, Library Journal gave it a star and said, “more horrifying” than Bram Stoker’s original. Finally, in the new January issue, Bookpage says, “Fangland is a novel that will keep you up late. It’s sad and terrifying and darkly funny.”
From the world of the blogs, in which we find ourselves, Lady T over at Living Read Girl gives Fangland a rave review.
I’ve got readings slated in Northampton, Massachusetts, and New York. On January 31, I’ll be reading at Broadside Books at 247 Main Street in downtown Northampton. On Monday, February 12, at 7 p.m., I’ll be at the Barnes and Noble on Astor Place in Manhattan. On Monday, February 28, also at 7 p.m., I’ll read at the Readers Room in Mo Pitkins, 34 Avenue A, also in Manhattan. Then, a ways off, I’ll be taking part in the Los Angeles Festival of Books on April 28 and 29.
Off to a great start!
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