FOR YOUR READING…UM…UH…PLEASURE: MY LATEST INTERVIEW
If you’re into genre fiction, be sure to check out J. Scott Coatsworth’s book-lovers website. And the best place to start, from my ego-centric perspective, anyhow, is the Author Spotlight that features none other than…well…ME ME ME! Yup, here I blab about the writing life, the end of the world, and my novels, THE SERIAL KILLER’S SON TAKES A WIFE (WordFire Press) and HOLLYWOOD NORTH: A NOVEL IN SIX REELS (ChiZine and Open Road Media).
SO THERE I WAS, MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS, WHEN…
…this kind and generous review by William “Bill” Shunn popped up. Here’s just an excerpt: “One of my favorite things about Libling’s writing has always been his voice — chummy, wisecracking, cynical — and The Serial Killer’s Son Takes a Wife takes advantage of its marvelous capacity for misdirection. His prose is deceptively simple and smooth. It slips between your ribs like a stiletto. Before you know what’s happening, you’re laughing or bleeding or both.” For the full review, please—yes, PLEASE!—click here.
On a side note (and I do not care if this sounds a tad quid pro quo), William Shunn is the author of one of my favorite memoirs of all time, THE ACCIDENTAL TERRORIST: CONFESSIONS OF A RELUCTANT MISSIONARY. Here’s my 2021 5-star review on Goodreads and Amazon:
“One of the most enjoyable books I’ve read in a long, long time. Fact is, I’d been looking forward to this book for quite awhile, having heard large parts of the story over the years. (There had been a podcast, as well as postings on the author’s website.) My greatest worry was that the finished product might not live up to expectations. I need not have been concerned.
“Thrilling, poignant, laugh-out-loud funny, and remarkably informative, The Accidental Terrorist is everything you want a good memoir to be. It’s a gripping glimpse into the mind-boggling history of the Mormon church intertwined with Shunn’s bizarre and moving true story: At age 19, far from his Utah home, and into his two-year church mission in Calgary, Alberta, Shunn felt compelled to commit a terrorist act—driven by circumstance, fear, and his strict Mormon upbringing. Fast-paced and unforgettable, The Accidental Terrorist will not disappoint. A terrific read, from start to finish.
“Above all, next time a pair of neatly dressed Mormon kids knock on your door to profess their gospel, be kind. Trust me, if their lives are even remotely similar to the 19-year-old Shunn, they deserve your patience and pity.”
Sheesh! I’m almost blushing to be included alongside David Grann, John Grisham, Charlotte Gray, and other prominent names on Stuart Nulman’s list of My Favorite Books of 2023. Book reviewer for both Montreal Times and Peter Anthony Holder’s The Stuph File Program, Stuart’s kind words are more than appreciated, especially in this difficult book-selling market. His concluding thought alone increased my hat-size ten-fold: “This is a highly readable and engrossing sophomore effort from Libling, which if it was fact, would have easily been the subject of a Dateline NBC report or a true crime podcast.” For Nulman’s complete list of year-end favorites, click here!
ARABELLA MAGAZINE REVIEWS “THE SERIAL KILLER’S SON TAKES A WIFE”
Wow! Talk about a welcome review! Click here, then head over to page 25 to read the very generous review by editor Deb Usher. Here’s just part of it: “Welcome to Hell in all its glory. Here is madness and mayhem. The characters in the book are wonderful in their comic insanity. There are gasps and giggles. The book is one of a kind… I couldn’t put it down.”
With head offices in St Andrews by the Sea, New Brunswick, ARABELLA is dedicated to supporting and promoting creative talent and related businesses through specialty print and digital media publishing, special events/destination marketing, and professional development programs. As they state quite clearly, “We believe in the power of arts and culture in building stronger communities, national identity and economic development,” playing a critical role in presenting creative talent, arts organizations, products and services to the widest possible audience.
NORTHERNSTARS.CA FEATURES “THE SERIAL KILLER’S SON TAKES A WIFE” IN YEAR-END REVIEW
Online since 1998 and updated daily, Northernstars.ca is the Canadian Film Database, featuring news, reviews, interviews and more. And I was thrilled to find The Serial Killer’s Son Takes A Wife included on the site’s year-end list of books by Canadian actors. Ok, I might not be an actor, exactly, but I have been known to be…um…sorta actorly on occasion.
CREEPY ATTRACTIONS INTERVIEWS CREEPY ME
CreepyAttractions.com is an ambitious and unique UK-based website that is definitely worth checking out. And that’s not only because the creator of the site, Creepy Helen, recently interviewed me with a clever range of fresh and insightful questions about both me and my latest novel, The Serial Killer’s Son Takes A Wife. But because the site is packed with fun facts about, yes, “creepy attractions” worldwide, covering landmarks, tours events, culture, books, and a spine-tingling lot more in Europe, Canada, the United States, and elsewhere. So, please, check out my interview, and then take your time to explore this hugely entertaining site. Odds are, you’ll discover more than a few creepy attractions you’ll add to your bucket list.
“It is a turn-the-page-if-you-dare first-person narrative from the point of view of a bitter boy-turned-man, the titular serial killer’s son, Bobby Blessing (born Dickens), who was raised in a world where ‘bad things happen to bad people and worse things happen to good people.’
“The Serial Killer’s Son Takes a Wife is as fun as it is titillatingly horrifying, with references to current rock bands, TV shows, and movies, and at least one reference to the “Chinese virus hoax.” The reader is yanked from one chapter to the next, cliff-hanger to cliff-hanger, until reader and protagonist meet in the dark, one as blind as the other as to what happens next.”
REVIEW OF “THE SERIAL KILLER’S SON TAKES A WIFE” BY STUART NULMAN—MONTREAL TIMES AND THE GRAPEVINE
“…Libling gives the reader a chilling reading experience into the world of a serial killer that rates up there with a best selling true crime book or a Dateline NBC special.”
“Filled with plenty of introspection, emotional pain and sarcasm, we sympathize with Bobby’s quest to come to terms with his father’s violent past…”
“…the last quarter of the book makes the Friday the 13th movies look like a Saturday morning cartoon show (circa 1970).”
“So Hannibal Lecter, Leatherface, Norman Bates and Jason, meet your newest contemporary in Henry Taylor Dickens…”
😱 Thanks to screenwriter/author Lawrence C. Connolly for conducting the interview with me and these kind and generous words that prefaced his original post on Facebook: “Just when I thought there was nothing new to be done with the serial-killer genre, along comes THE SERIAL KILLER’S SON TAKES A WIFE. It’s Coen brothers meet Thomas Harris, and you can learn more about it in my interview with author Michael Libling in today’s (Aug. 21, 2023) post at The 21st-Century Scop!” Click here for the full interview, including comments from a teacher that almost turned me off writing for good.
Published by Kevin J. Anderson‘s WordFire Press and edited by the amazing Marie Whitaker, the novel is on sale now wherever you buy books. Special thanks to my agent, Christine Cohen of the Kidd Agency, for making this happen. Meanwhile, to see what early readers are saying, click here
STORY SELECTED FOR YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY, 2020
• Happy to announce that my short story, At the Old Wooden Synagogue on Janower Street (Asimov’s Science Fiction, Sept/Oct 2019) has been selected by editor Rich Horton for The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2020. For more about the story, scroll down here. And, for a very personal companion piece to Janower Street, read here.
SEE! HEAR! IT’S ME READING EXCERPTS FROM HOLLYWOOD NORTH!
🎬 I was supposed to be in New York City for this reading at the legendary KGB Bar, but this pandemic thingamabob you might have heard about forced the event online. You can see and hear the hoarse results here. And be sure to stick around after to hear Elizabeth Hand read from her latest novel, too, along with an interesting Q&A session.
HOLLYWOOD NORTH MAKES MONTREAL TIMES “BEST BOOKS OF 2019”
🎬 Reviewer Stuart Nulman includes HOLLYWOOD NORTH in his year-end review. Thank you, Stuart!
HOLLYWOOD NORTH TOPS ALEX GOOD’S “BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2019” IN FICTION CATEGORY
🎬 Click here for details!!! (← Please note excessive use of exclamation mark.)
🎬 And click here for Alex Good’s full review in The Toronto Star.
SHORT FICTION: LATEST PUBLICATIONS:
• Asimov’s Science Fiction, September/October 2020 issue: ROBYN IN HER SHINY BLUE COFFIN
• The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December 2019 issue: HOW I CAME TO WRITE FANTASY
• Asimov’s Science Fiction, September/October 2019 issue: AT THE OLD WOODEN SYNAGOGUE ON JANOWER STREET
HOLLYWOOD NORTH FEATURED ON BARNES & NOBLE’S “FALL HARVEST OF NEW HORROR BOOKS”
🎬 As reviewer Sam Reader writes in his preamble to the list, “This season offers a suspiciously robust harvest of grim reads; below, we highlight eight of the most terrifying.” Amazed and gratified to find HOLLYWOOD NORTH included.
A GALLERY OF SATISFIED CUSTOMERS
HOLLYWOOD NORTH MAKES HEADLINES (OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT):
🎬 Wow! Nice to find HOLLYWOOD NORTH on this list of “New & Notable Science Fiction and Fantasy Reads” from SF Signal editor John DeNardo and Kirkus Reviews.
🎬Here I am, blabbing on about My Favorite Things in the field of spec fiction at speculativechic.com—comics, movies, books, and more.
🎬And here I am again, blabbing incessantly to interviewer Peter Anthony Holder and his The Stuph File program. Click and listen:
🎬I was recently interviewed by the terrific open-book.ca, one of the best organized, informative, and interesting sites on the topic of books you’re likely to surf across. It’s well worth subscribing to, even if they did feature me. As the headline of my interview screams: “For Me, Voice is Everything” Talking with Michael Libling About Writing, Advice, & His Debut Novel, Hollywood North
🎬Mike Cohen of The Suburban Newspaper turns over a large part of his column to HOLLYWOOD NORTH.
🎬Thanks to Ralph Lucas of Northernstars.ca (The Canadian Movie Database) for his generous introduction of me and my novel with The First Hollywood North... and then for allowing me to tell what it was like Growing Up in Hollywood North Without a Clue.
🎬Pretty cool, huh? HOLLYWOOD NORTH is listed among The Most Anticipated Horror Books of 2019 by Max Booth at litreactor.com. (Unfortunately, you’ll need to take my word for it, since the feature was recently removed from the site.)