WORDS OF A STORY enjoys Joe R. Lansdale’s HAP AND LEONARD: BLOOD AND LEMONADE. 

This book is collection of short stories, though Lansdale himself describes it as a “mosaic novel”. In summary: Hap and Leonard spend a night driving around town, shooting the shit and doing nothing much in particular. As their conservation drifts along and they pass by places they used to know, memories spark off flashbacks which lead into short stories, mostly about Hap’s childhood, his parents, and particularly his relationship to racism, but also covering the first time Hap and Leonard met and the first time they got into trouble together. (Two of the stories were published previously in another context, but they’re integrated so well into the rest that I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t already read them: “The Boy Who Became Invisible” and “Not Our Kind”.) But despite mostly taking place in the past, I don’t think this would make for a good introduction to the series; a lot of the power of the stories depends on already knowing these characters and having an emotional connection to them and their relationship. On the other hand, if you do know them, this is a wonderful expansion of their history.

Lansdale’s RUSTY PUPPY was one of the PW Picks: Books of the Week, February 20, 2017.

As always, Lansdale spins a wild, rollicking yarn, but behind all the mayhem is a heartfelt tale about friendship, brotherhood, loyalty, and family. Hap and Leonard are complicated, violent men, but they display a basic humanity and decency that carries this remarkable series along.

ECLIPSE MAGAZINE is excited about HAP AND LEONARD: MUCHO MOJO.

Joe R. Lansdale’s southern fried, swamp rock duo of ne’er-do-wells, Hap and Leonard, have staked out a home on SundanceTV.

After a critically-acclaimed first season that ended on a doozy of a cliffhanger (what was that thing doing in Uncle Chester’s basement, anyway?), the duo return – caught in the middle of a murder mystery with more twists and turns than an East Texas highway – in Hap and Leonard: Mucho Mojo on Wednesday, March 15th (10/9C).

Photo: Karen Lansdale

Lansdale is taking a break from his book tour to attend the Nacogdoches Film Festival, for which he serves on the Board of Directors.

The Nacogdoches Art Alliance (NAA) is pleased to announce that the sixth annual Nacogdoches Film Festival will be held this coming February 24-26, 2017. This year’s theme is Exploring the Frontiers of the Imagination.

Headlining this year’s Festival will be two-time Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and director Al Reinert, whose documentary film, For All Mankind, won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for documentary films, in addition to being nominated for an Academy Award. That film led director Ron Howard to hire him several years later to write the screenplay for his blockbuster film, Apollo 13, for which Reinert earned a second Oscar nomination.

This year, the Festival will kick off with the VIP reception on Friday at the Charles Bright Visitor Center in downtown Nacogdoches. The Friday evening films will be shown at the Lamp-Lite playhouse, home of live theater performances for nearly forty years. Saturday and Sunday’s events will be held on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University.

An important element of the Nacogdoches Film Festival experience is the Q&A period following the showing of each film, where attendees are able to ask questions of industry professionals who actually took part in the making of that particular film.

For more info about HAP AND LEONARD: BLOOD AND LEMONADE, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story