Robert McCammon

Robert R. McCammon (born 1952) is the author of several best-selling horror novels. He has won five "Bram Stoker" awards from the Horror Writers Association (which he helped found) and one "World Fantasy" award. He has also won the Alabama Library Association Author Award (1985), the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire (1992), and the Independent Publisher Book Award (2003). His recent novels have moved beyond the horror genre with two well-received works set in Colonial America.

McCammon grew up in East Lake, reading Poe and Lovecraft and watching horror movie previews through his fingers at Roebuck's College Theater. He graduated Banks High School with the idea that he could be a writer and went on pursue degree in journalism at the University of Alabama. He left the university in 1975, 12 credit hours shy of fulfilling the requirements and started taking odd jobs. He tried to crash the set of Stay Hungry posing as a Rolling Stone reporter, but was bounced out. After stints as a B. Dalton's clerk at Brookwood Village and in Loveman's advertising department, he got a job as a copy editor for the Birmingham Post-Herald. He was working on a headline for a story about Boston's "Milk Festival" when he got a call telling him his first novel, Baal would be published. Baal, a straightforward demon-possession story was successfully marketed as a mass paperback in the wake of the hit film The Exorcist.

McCammon found early success with genre novels and published several in quick succession through the 1980s. He collaborated with editor Bob Wyatt in his early books for Avon and then published two hardcover novels for Holt, Rhinehart and Winston. His next novels were published by Pocket Books, with the epic Swan Song edited by Sydney Miner and the remainder by Sally Peters. In addition to numerous favorable reviews and awards and appearances on bestseller lists, he sold film rights to several works. Two of his short stories have been adapted for television, "Makeup" was aired as an episode of "Darkroom" on ABC and "Nightcrawlers" appeared on CBS's revival of "The Twilight Zone". "Nightcrawlers", which features a tormented Viet Nam veteran whose flashbacks are terrifyingly real, stood out as the best-received episode of the series. It was directed by William Friedkin, who also directed The Exorcist.

After the release of Gone South in 1992, McCammon shied away from publishing. His writing interests started to come into conflict with the big publishers who insisted on pigeonholing his work. His next novel, Speaks the Nightbird was more of a historical-fiction/mystery than fantasy/horror book. Potential publishers soured the writer by insisting on substantial changes to support their marketing efforts. McCammon refused to sign a contract and entered into a long phase of semi-retirement.

Speaks the Nightbird was eventually published to critical acclaim in 2002 by River City Publishing in Montgomery. And, though he initially insisted he did not plan to write again, McCammon has begun a series of sequels, the first of which The Queen of Bedlam, will be published by Simon & Schuster in October 2007.

Two movies based on McCammon stories are currently in preproduction. Frontsight Productions plans to begin filming Blue World in Spring 2007, and Rainstorm Entertainment is developing Night Calls the Green Falcon.

McCammon lives in Vestavia Hills with his wife, Sally (a former teacher at Leeds Elementary School), and daughter Skye.

Books

• Baal (1978) New York: Avon Books
• Bethany's Sin (1980) New York: Avon Books
• The Night Boat (1980) New York: Avon Books
• They Thirst (1980) New York: Avon Books
• Mystery Walk (1983) New York: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston
• Usher's Passing (1984) New York: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston
• Swan Song (1987) New York: Pocket Books
• Stinger (1988) New York: Pocket Books
• The Wolf's Hour (1989) New York: Pocket Books
• Blue World (1989) London: Grafton
• MINE (1990) New York: Pocket Books
• Boy's Life (1991) New York: Pocket Books
• Gone South (1992) New York: Pocket Books
• Speaks the Nightbird (2002) Montgomery: River City Publishing
• The Queen of Bedlam (October 2007) New York: Simon & Schuster

References

• Carter, Carl (June 9, 1983) "Come Midnight McCammon Is Scaring the Tar Out of Himself" . Birmingham News.
• Taylor, J. R. (October 1987) "Robert R. McCammon". I Cover the War.
• Ryan, Shawn (March 13, 1988) "Who knows what evil lurks in the shadows of our minds? Writer Rick McCammon does." Birmingham News.
• Ryan, Shawn (October 7, 2002) "McCammon vows writing days are over." Birmingham Post-Herald.
• Taylor, J. R. (October 1988) "Available in Supermarkets Now!". I Cover the War.
• Skaggs, Sam (August 2, 1991) "Robert R. McCammon". Publisher's Weekly.

External links

Robert McCammon Web Site