The Lowdown with... Paul Tremblay

Yup - after a looong hiatus, The Lowdown has returned! And our first subject is the award-winning novelist Paul Tremblay.

Paul Tremblay is the author of the novels The Cabin at the End of the World, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock and A Head Full of Ghosts. His other novels include The Little Sleep, No Sleep till Wonderland, Swallowing a Donkey’s Eye, and Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn’t Fly (co-written with Stephen Graham Jones).

His fiction and essays have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Supernatural Noir, and numerous Year’s Best anthologies. He is the author of the short speculative fiction collections In the Mean Time and Compositions for the Young and Old and the hard-boiled/dark fantasy novella City Pier: Above and Below. He served as fiction editor of CHIZINE and as co-editor of Fantasy Magazine, and was also the co-editor the Creatures anthology (with John Langan). Paul is currently on the board of directors for the Shirley Jackson Awards as well.

Paul is very truthful and declarative in his bios. He once gained three inches of height in a single twelve hour period, and he does not have a uvula. His second toe is longer than his big toe, and yes, on both feet. He has a master’s degree in mathematics, teaches AP Calculus, and once made twenty-seven three pointers in a row. He enjoys reading The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher aloud in a faux-British accent to children. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts.

1. Tell us three things about yourself.

I'm an excellent three-point shooter (basketball). I suck at gift wrapping. When I listen to music I still imagine myself as the performer.  

2. What was the first thing you had published?

A short story called "God of Roads." It wasn't very good. 

3. Which piece of writing are you proudest of?
A Head Full of Ghosts. It remains the story that came closest to matching what was in my head before I wrote it.

4. …and which makes you cringe?
A whole slew of short stories written during the years 1996 to 2003.

5. What’s a normal writing day like?
Procrastinating, self-flagellation, then maybe and hour or two or 500 words, whichever comes first.

6. Which piece of writing should someone who’s never read you before pick up first?
A Head Full of Ghosts, again. For my horror work, it's my statement of purpose.

7. What are you working on now?
Finishing a few short stories I owe and a novel with the working title Survivor Song.