As the Rigveda from Hindu scriptures states, a person can achieve everything by being simple and humble. For an author on the brink of rock star status in the literary world, Joe Hill is still a simple, humble person. His latest collection of short stories, “20th Century Ghosts,” released earlier this month, had a mammoth printing and is now available on iTunes in audio form. His last novel, “Heart-Shaped Box,” achieved phenomenal success, with a film version now in the works. Yet, Hill seems to maintain a quiet existence here in New England, working on his writing and being a “homebody.” Currently in the middle of promoting “Ghosts” and checking out Red Sox play-off games, Hill took a moment this week to talk to The Wire, via email, about writing, comics and eating his own liver.


How are things going with the recent release of “20th Century Ghosts?”
Really well. “20th Century Ghosts” came out as a hardcover with a small print run in the UK two years ago, after I was initially unable to sell it here in America. And it’s a book I’ve always been emotionally attached to, so it’s been a long-time aim of mine to see it get a wider release. William Morrow was good to bring it out, so soon after “Heart-Shaped Box,”and they produced a beautiful looking book.

Do you have any mixed feelings about the release? You may have hoped it would have received more attention the first time around.
It’s really tough to sell a book of short fiction, and there are plenty of collections, much better than mine, that have never captured any kind of mainstream audience. A lot of great writing drops through the cracks. I’ve been fortunate, from the day PS Publishing agreed to publish “20th Century Ghosts,” right through to what’s happening now. It’s true, when the book first came out, it was this kind of fringe release, very hard to track down. But it wound up getting reasonably well-reviewed and won some prizes and earned some readers. Now Morrow is going with a print run of something like 50,000 copies, which is kind of staggering to me. The last couple years have been a hell of a ride.

Do you feel better prepared for the attention since the monumental success of “Heart-Shaped Box?”
Errr, no. I’m still mentally adjusting somewhat to the idea I have a couple books people can actually find in stores. I’ve had a lot more practice at failing gracefully. I wrote four novels I was never able to sell and racked up a few hundred rejections with short stories that no one wanted. I adapted to that. I’m still working on adapting to this.

Have you found that your success has changed your writing at all? Is there more pressure, like, “All eyes are on me now”?
I had a tough stretch of time when I started and quit a lot of projects, trying to settle into something that felt right. Eventually, though, I got bored with feeling angsty and locked into a few projects that excited me. I wrote a short story about Iraq, called “Thumbprint.” I’m writing a comic book, a fantasy, “Locke & Key.” I revised a children’s novel. And now I’m a couple weeks from finishing the first draft of a new weird thriller. Not a supernatural thriller, but a thriller with some surreal elements.

You keep a blog on JoeHillFiction.com. Do you find that making yourself known to your readers in such a personal manner is beneficial?
I’m torn about keeping a blog. There’s something a little masturbatory about them. They’re self-obsessed by nature. It’s like the Bette Midler line: “Well, I’ve talked enough about me. What do you think of me?” At the same time, they’re a good way to connect directly with readers, and occasionally you can find a way to entertain yourself and others with one. Tell the truth, some days I think I’d like to tear the whole Web page down. Is it possible that writers become less interesting the more you know about them? The one thing that keeps me from wiping joehillfiction off the Web is the game. I created a game with Vincent Chong, the digital artist who did the original cover for “20th Century Ghosts,” based on one of my stories, “Last Breath.” I love the game. The game is a good reason to keep the Web page active.

Can you picture yourself doing anything other than writing?
I think at some point, back in college, I had a realization that I would never be as good at anything as I am at writing. Which is not to say I’m anything all that special, just that this seems to be my particular strength. So I think I’m stuck with writing as a profession. That said, I love to experiment with other forms. I’d like to do more journalism. I’d like to try my hand at writing for TV at some point. I’m glad I’ve had the chance to script a comic—that’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was 12. My first ever professional fiction submission was a comic script I sent to Marvel, a Spider-Man story. I was in eighth grade. They didn’t buy it.

I think it’s great how you’ve brought to light some lesser known bands lately. Any authors out there you feel deserve more readers that you’d like to share with us?
The short story writer Jim Shepard has a new book out. I think most people who care passionately about short stories find their way to Shepard eventually. I know a lot of writing students read him, to find out what the best looks like. He’s as good as Raymond Carver was in his prime. Or better. Probably better. There’s an author named Kelly Link who writes stories of the strange and supernatural, and who’s so good I can’t read her without wanting to eat my own liver out of sheer envy. And speaking of comic books, probably the best American writer of my generation is also one of the most unknown, primarily because he writes in comics: Brian K. Vaughan. His stories, “Y: Last Man” and “Ex Machina” are instantly among the best long-running comic book series ever written, right there with Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” and Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman.”

Anything else exciting in your world we should be watching out for in the near future?
One thing that’s going on that I’m pretty excited about is this experiment my publishers and I worked out with the iTunes music store. I like to pretend to myself that “20th Century Ghosts” is an album, not a book. So, when William Morrow decided to do an audio book, I had this idea that we should sell all of the stories through the iTunes store individually. That way, readers can pick and choose which stories they want, in the same way they pick and choose from the singles off of any other album. And that’s what we’re doing. It’ll be interesting to see if people respond to it.

I hear there’s a movie version of “HSB” in the works. Do you have an image in your head of who you’d like to play Jude Coyne, or would you prefer to learn from Anne Rice’s mistakes and keep it to yourself?
Yeah, I’m going to keep my casting ideas to myself. My involvement with the picture begins and ends when I buy a ticket to sit down and see it. This is assuming the movie even gets made. I wouldn’t assume anything until there’s actors saying lines in front of cameras. Funny you should mention Anne Rice, since the same person who directed “Interview with a Vampire” is in charge of H-SB: Neil Jordan. He’s a smart, literate guy, and I think he builds his movies around the right elements—the inner emotional workings of his characters, their relationships with each other. Films like “The Crying Game” and “End of the Affair” show a storyteller who has a knack for exploring lust and regret, and the kind of horrifying moral choices people make in a moment of panic. So, I think he could pull off a good adaptation. At the very least, I don’t think the story will get lost in a muddle of gore FX and CGI.

Plan on dressing up for Halloween?
I’m going as hot dog man. Got a hot dog costume. Very comfortable.

Joe Hill will appear on Sunday, Oct. 28 at 6pm, at RiverRun Bookstore, 20 Congress St., Portsmouth, 603-431-2100. You can check him out now at www.joehillfiction.com. Jim Shepard, one of Hill’s picks for authors we should read, will be at RiverRun on Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 7pm, reading from his book, “Like You’d Understand Anyway,” recently nominated for the 2007 National Book Award.