Getting Town & Train

Behind the scenes, I am still working on a number of public appearances and events. Stay tuned - more to come! 

In the meantime, if you like a good story, interesting characters and some good scares, all wrapped in a heatwave summer in 1990, please order Town & Train, my first horror novel, at amazon.ca or amazon.com. 

In Ottawa, Town & Train is available at After Stonewall, Perfect Books and Black Squirrel Books. However, if you don't see my book at your local bookstore, either in Ottawa or elsewhere, please feel free to ask the store to order it for you. 

But, if you cannot buy the book right now, please request Town & Train at your local library. I appreciate the support in either fashion! And, of course, there is no greater honour than to find your own book on a library shelf.

Town & Train reviewed again

A review from the biggayhorrofan blog about Town & Train:

"Taking place in a small, financially strapped Canadian town in the early 90s, Moran captures the wanderlust of both his teen and adult characters while simultaneously adding elements of Peter Straub and Stephen King into the mix."

Ottawa Book launch for Town & Train on March 13

Here is the official listing for my book launch in Ottawa.

A train is coming Friday, March 13^th!  Please join Ottawa’s James K. Moran as he launches his debut horror novel, Town & Train (Lethe Press, 2014), at Black Squirrel Books.

About Town & Train

Seventeen-year-old John Daniel wakes by the railroad tracks with no recollection of how he got there. Soon, he and police officer David Forester suspect a pervasive and menacing collusion in their small Ontario border town when an antique steam train arrives late in the night.

Event Details

Friday, March 13. Doors already open at 7 p.m. Reading at 7:30 p.m.
Wine and socializing to follow.
Black Squirrel Books,1073 Bank Street, Ottawa.
For info.: 613-600-3405.

What they’re saying about Town & Train

“A ticket to ride an antique train, mysterious dream visions and vanishing towns—these are the things that will set your heart racing in James K Moran's very welcome addition to small-town horror stories. Wondrously weird and eerily compelling, it is a knockout.”

—Jeffrey Round, Lambda Award-winning author of Lake on the Mountain and The Honey Locust

“Moran does an excellent job of conveying the desperation that drives people to seek salvation in the supernatural...”

—Publishers Weekly

About James K. Moran

Ottawa writer James K. Moran’s fiction and poetry have appeared in various Canadian, American and British publications, including Bywords, Glitterwolf: Halloween, Empty Mirror Magazine. Icarus, On Spec, Postscripts to Darkness 3, The Peter F. Yacht Club and The Rolling Darkness Revue. A longtime Daily Xtra contributor, Moran’s articles have also appeared via CBC Radio and Rue Morgue. He blogs at jameskmoran.blogspot.ca. Town & Train is his first novel.

Jeremy Willard column about Wonder Woman creator

Kudos go to author Jill Lepore for revealing

Wonder Woman's real-life origins.

Journalist Jeremy Willard, who talked to me about Town & Train, also pens a very compelling History Boys column for Daily Xtra (along with Michael Lyons). I particularly liked Willard's fairly recent analysis of Jill Lepore's new book, The Secret History of Wonder Woman. Lepore uncovered a startling discovery—William Moulton Marston created Wonder Woman along with the two women with whom he was having a polygamous, three-way, relationship. 

 

I have a copy of Secret History and it's high on my reading list.

Willard's article, Fetish, feminism and Wonder Woman: Creator William Marston had a very kinky side, is here.

Daily Xtra interviews me about Town & Train

In some fantastic media coverage, Daily Xtra recently interviewed me about my horror novel, Town & Train. 

 

I have been freelance writing for Daily Xtra since 1999, when it was then called Capital Xtra! Having covered a gamut of beats, including news, book reviews and arts, I know all about being the interviewer. So, being on the other side of the interview was a little surreal. However, I thought that reporter Jeremy Willard did a lovely summation of my writing process. He also did some thoughtful follow-up tweets regarding Town & Train. Thank you, Jeremy.

 

You can find the Jan. 29 article, The phantasmal engine: James K Moran’s horror novel features queer heroes and an ominous train, here.

Best Documentaries Viewed in 2014

I like good documentaries that expand my worldview or explain the worldviews of others to me. With a voracious—or, as Jeffrey Round would put it, infinite—curiosity, I want to learn all I can about all that I can. All of these docs expanded my perspective in 2014. 

Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown

Wyrd Studios, 2008

For a long view on H. P. Lovecraft’s writing and life, this informative Wyrd Studio production delivers. Talking heads abound, as prominent horror creators Caitlin R. Kiernan, John Carpenter, Neil Gaiman, Guillermo Del Toro and Stuart Gordon (among others) expound on Lovecraft’s ascending genius, as well as his foibles. Gordon is the director who has been arguably the most successful at adapting Lovecraft’s works (Take his unnerving dark film, Dagon, for example). The interviews are interspersed with archival footage and beautiful, often stunning, renderings by a variety of artists, including paintings, comic book imagery, and sometimes depictions of Lovecraft himself. Fear of the Unknown is enlightening and honest, acknowledging and contextualizing Lovecraft’s xenophobia. They raise the question of whether Lovecraft intended to construct a Cthulu mythos from the start of his career or whether this was a delightful accident. However, the luminaries don't have an answer. This is an understandable quandary since this debate about Lovecraft's intentions still persists among his aficionados. However, Lovecraft’s resultant admirable body of work and genius is undeniable—as well as his pervasive influence on modern horror.

 

Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope

Directed by Morgan Spurlock, 2012

Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock does it again, explaining why aspiring comic book artists, costume designers and fans flock to San Diego’s Comic-Con. Many celebrities have their say in this feature, some of dubious importance. However, it is always fun to hear Stan Lee reminisce or, better yet, to hear Seth Green describe meeting his future wife at a convention. Spurlock also mixes in many transitional scenes featuring cosplayers (costume players) and fans flocking to the convention. The documentary’s “characters” are among them, such as one hopeful fan planning to propose to his fiancée during a talk by Kevin Smith. By the end, Spurlock pulls of a neat trick. You care for these convention-goers’ dreams and hopes.

 

Small Town Gay Bar

Directed by Malcolm Ingram

View Askew Productions, 2006

How did two gay bars in the middle of Deep South, Texas, give people of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Queer (LGBTQ) community somewhere to be themselves and galvanize some of them in the face of homophobia? Watch this documentary, in awe, and find out. Director Malcolm Ingram examines two small-town gay bars in Mississippi. Ingram also looks at the lives of the locals who come out to drink and play. And they're only human. Patrons want a watering hole and simply want to be themselves—openly gay or trans—without fearing mockery or reprisals. Ironically, the owner of one of the establishments, although quite out of the closet at work, is not out to his parents for fear of their negative reaction. Ingram documents how one bar went through a death and rebirth like that of a Phoenix. The film also looks at the hate murder of gay 18-year-old Scotty Weaver, adding a layer of tragic immediacy to the work. The human interest element in this feature is utterly compelling. Impressively, director Kevin Smith served as executive producer for this affecting documentary.