Joe Hill Gives Fans a Devil of a Good Time

Joe Hill's tweet Wednesday night: "Wow, Strongville was amazing. Big thanks to everyone who turned out for it. Couldn't have had more fun."

Strongsville's return tweet: "Right back at ya."

Some 200 people jammed the Strongsville Library Wednesday to hear Joe Hill talk about his work, ask him questions and get him to sign his horror books -- Heart-Shaped Box, Twentieth Century Ghosts and Horns, newly released in paperback and headed for the big screen.

Hill walked in wearing light-up red horns on his head, to the delight of his fans.

"You've gotta have your fun where you can get it," he shrugged.

Hill read one of his short stories, then fielded questions about everything from how he deals with writer's block to growing up with a famous dad -- bestselling author Stephen King.

"What kind of weird stories did you get at bedtime?" one fan asked.

"My dad is not the scary guy. We always loved his bedtime stories," Hill replied, noting they typically dealt with superheroes -- with a kid-titillating twist. "He always worked diarrhea into it."

While his family's talent -- his mother, Tabitha, and brother, Owen, are also writers -- may have spurred his career choice, their famous name didn't factor into its success.

When Twentieth Century Ghosts won the coveted Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection in 2005, no one knew Hill was Stephen King's son.

It was a connection he kept even from his first agent, although he acknowledged it wasn't too hard to stay anonymous back then.

"I had a great secret. My secret was failing," he said. "When you can't sell anything, nobody cares who you are."

His fear, he said, was that a publisher would publish mediocre work, hoping to score a quick buck on the famous name. Wanting to make sure his work was good enough to stand on its own, he used his middle name, Hill.

His identity came out when he started making public appearances and people noted his resemblance to his dad.

Hill also talked about his popular comic book series, Locke & Key, which is being turned into a TV series by Dreamworks for Fox, and told the audience his favorite authors are David Mitchell and Kate Atkinson.

Writer's block, he said, "happens for one reason -- there's something you need to write and you're not writing it," probably because you're afraid of what people will think of you. Write it anyway, he said. "Figure out what it is you need to write and you won't have a problem."

Where did the idea for Horns, the story of a nice guy who wakes up sprouting horns and eventually assumes all the powers of the devil, come from? 

Hill isn't sure, other than hearing people say Hurricane Katrina could be "a judgment" on the world. "I started thinking, 'what if the devil was a good guy?'" he recalled.

A line of more than 100 fans stretched around the meeting room, waiting patiently for an autograph from Hill, who cheerfully posed for photos and promised to stay until he'd met everyone.

"You can tell he really appreciates his fans," said Laura Wimberly of Berea, who had no idea Hill was related to Stephen King when she stumbled upon Heart-Shaped Box. "He was funny -- he wasn't afraid to talk."

Hill is on the second draft of a new horror novel,  and fans can expect to find it in the "H" section at the library. He told a fan he doesn't plan to change his pen name now that he's established a career on his own.

"Probably not," he said. "I'm pretty comfortable with my creative identity being Joe Hill."

Horns, Heart-Shaped Box, Twentieth Century Ghosts