What am I gonna do in 2012?

I didn't post anything about the best books or films of 2011, since I didn't read enough new books or see enough new films (not to mention anything about the best albums). Instead I'm going to do a post about my 2012 and my projects. So, here goes, are you buckled up:

- the book that ties together Finnish politician Paavo Väyrynen and Cthulhu, On Suurten Muinaisten aika/The Time of the Great Old Ones will be published tomorrow, on Monday, ninth of January (see photo)
- the anthology of old Finnish horror stories, called Hallusinatsioneja/Hallucinations I compiled will be out in some time (I don't know when)
- my Actual First Novel Jumalten tuho/The Twilight of the Gods will be out before March ("actual" meaning that it's the first published by someone else than me, since I've already published three novels [they are very short, so someone might say they are not novels per se])
- the architectural guide to Turku (the city where I live) will be published sometime during this Spring (at least I hope so, it's been a hell of a project, almost too daunting, though my part on the job is done)
- I just received a 3,000 euro grant for a book on the history of the animated cinema, so I'll start working on it this Spring
- I'll translate H. P. Lovecraft's essay The Supernatural Horror in Literature in Finnish for the Savukeidas publishers, and it will be the first time this essay will be available in Finnish
- I'm going to write two short novels, one being the third part in my sleaze quartet and one being a short alternate-history novel set in the Hollywood in the early fourties; I'll self-publish both
- I've been going through a sword-and-sorcery novel I've published in five parts in one of my own magazines and self-publish it as a paperback
- I'm editing two small collections of old hate speech for Savukeidas: both from Left and Right, mostly from the early decades of the 20th century, mainly stuff that relates to the Finnish Civil War and the right-wing movement of the 1920's and 1930's (we had plenty of that in Finland)
- I'm editing some other anthologies for Turbator: one being about the famous Finnish soldier, officer, spy, explorer, photographer and finally the President of Finland, Carl Gustaf Mannerheim (this is still a bit of a secret, so I won't let you know more about it), and one being about old Christmas stories (there have been talks about other anthologies, but as you can see, I can't easily fit them in)

Okay, is that all? I'm thinking I keep forgetting something. I don't actually know how I'm going to do all that. Now you can see why I ceased the publications of my crime fiction zines? Oh, that was it: I've got still one issue of Seikkailukertomuksia/Adventure Stories coming out, and I've got stories and spectacular illustrations for an old-time aviation magazine!

But now I'm gonna start doing something else than making books: I'll start reading one!

I'm gonna be a real pulp fiction writer tomorrow

Something I've wanted to do for a very, very long time: I'm going to write a novel tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow. I'll start after I've had breakfast and stop only for eating and showering. My goal is to write a novel (or rather a novella) of 15,000 to 20,000 words, so it's something Harry Whittington might've done to be published as an other side of an Ace Double. (Or perhaps a bit shorter.)

I remember I tried to do this already in the eighties, when I was a teenager. I'd read how Chandler had written the screenplay for The Blue Dahlia and I dreamed of a hotel room with only me and my typewriter. Nothing came out of it. I tried again in the nineties. I bought a bottle of whiskey, but that certainly didn't help my writing. I don't think I got anywhere with that.

But now I know more about writing and all that comes along with it. At least I know better not to touch alcohol during the process. And I'll be at home alone, since Elina and Kauto left just now to visit Elina's parents. It's a great benefit.

What will the book be about? It will be a Joe Novak novel, about my private eye hero, whose sometimes pathetic adventures I've been chronicating for almost 20 years. He appears in my self-published novel Outoa huminaa, Joe Novak and in a dozen short stories. (One of these days I'll do a collection.) The story will be based around this unused cover Jukka Murtosaari did for a magazine I never got around to doing - I guess one of those guys is Joe Novak. I'll take the lettering out and smack the illo on the book cover. As for the actual plot, I've been carrying an idea with me for some time now and I think this is the best time to use it.

So, wish me good luck! I'll be on Facebook giving away the word counts during the day.

PS. Don't forget Barry Malzberg's 60,000-word novel written in one day! And he didn't have to resort to self-publishing!

My dream with Duane Swierczynski

I had a strangest dream last night: it was about a graphic novel, written by Duane Swierczynski, that had this really weird structure with metafictional story in which the hero of the actual story imagined The Lord of the Rings as a black-and-white crime graphic novel that looked really neat. And it was set in the present time, with Glocks and all. (Meanwhile I was being tried to assassinate in the "real" life, but more on that later.) I can't draw shit, but I can imagine the best-looking cartoon ever?