News & Blog

One of my favorite book websites on the Internet is All Things Urban Fantasy. I even did a Top 10 list for them back when Dying Is My Business was released. Every week they run a feature called Cover Art Coverage, in which they examine the covers of forthcoming urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and occasionally horror novels and weigh in with their opinions. (I’ll admit to loving the terrible covers as much as — or sometimes even more than — the good ones!) (I’ll also admit to hoping that one day they will invite me to be a guest Cover Art Coverage judge!)

Last year, All Things Urban Fantasy, or ATUF to the cool kids, gave unanimous thumbs up to Dying Is My Business‘s cover art. (You can see here.) So how did they rate the cover art for the sequel, Die and Stay Dead, in their most recent Cover Art Coverage? Well, one of the judges, Julia, calls the art “gorgeous,” but the other two, Libbie and Kristina, seem to feel a bit more meh about it. Although Libbie does say it has “a nice creepy feel to it,” which is cool. Click through to read the whole thing.

So what do you think of Die and Stay Dead‘s cover art, which you can see if you click over? Do you agree with the good folks at ATUF, or do you have your own opinion? (Imagine that, someone on the Internet with opinions!) Sound off, folks!

Locke & Key, Vol. 6: Alpha & Omega by Joe Hill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The creature that calls itself Dodge has gotten ahold of the Omega key and plans to open the black door at the same time that the high school after-prom party is scheduled to take place in the caves. No longer trying to hide his presence, Dodge launches an all-out attack on Keyhouse, its denizens, and their friends. When all is said and done, not everyone will get out alive. Joe Hill’s LOCKE & KEY has been an amazing series from issue one — a single, cohesive novel in sequential art form. (And Gabriel Rodriguez’s incredible and evocative art has done it all kinds of justice.) Hill writes his characters so authentically I couldn’t help but care about them, and when some of them don’t make it to the end I was legitimately saddened by their loss. But still, this is a very satisfying end to a gripping and compelling story. I’ll miss hanging out with the Locke family.

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Here’s something cool. Author Fraser Sherman has a feature on his blog called “Is Our Writers Learning?” (cheeky!) in which he reads books and then writes about what he, as a writer, learned from them.

Last night, he posted about reading Dying Is My Business and the things he learned from it.

Click on through to see what he has to say. I know I sure learned a lot from writing Dying Is My Business. It’s cool to think other writers might learn a few things from reading it. Good things, anyway. I hope no one is reading it with an eye toward what not to do — though I suspect that’s inevitable, too. *shakes fist at universe*

As I sit here writing the third Trent book, Only the Dead Sleep, I find stuff like this very helpful as a reminder of what works for these books and what doesn’t, and also as a reminder that there are people out there actually reading and enjoying my work, which believe me is extremely helpful during those existential crises of confidence every writer goes through, oh, pretty much daily.

The popular Canadian video game review site Toronto Thumbs is dipping its toes into book reviews now, too, with their Novel Ideas series. First up is my novel Dying Is My Business. And to misquote Sally Field, they like it, they really like it! Here’s a snippet:

Dying Is My Business is dark and action-packed, with great (and surprisingly believable) dialogue. Kaufmann does a great job incorporating everyday humour into the mix with some flair….If you like Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels with an urban twist, then Dying Is My Business should be right up your alley.

You can click through the read the whole review. It’s quite detailed, though without any spoilers.

It’s crowded field out there and it’s pretty rare for a book to still be getting reviews five months after its release, so I’m very happy Dying Is My Business is continuing to get some attention!