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Hi Gang!
Happy 2019! I can't say that I'm sorry to see 2018 in the rearview mirror; while it wasn't a terrible year for me, it also was far from great.
For some reason, I feel absurdly optimistic about '19. I've got a lot of good stuff percolating (see below), and I hope you do, too.
Thanks for sticking around as we slide into another year. I'm very grateful to those of you who continue to read this newsletter and my other works.
Lisa
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Still Life
In which I rhapsodize about favorite movie photos from my collection
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Why aren't there more New Year's movies?
Seriously, name three. I couldn't. I can name Halloween movies and Christmas movies galore; heck, I can even name St. Patrick's Day movies and Easter movies and at least one Samhain movie. But New Year's movies? It seems like a time just ripe with dramatic possibilities, doesn't it?
So I went and dug around online. At first I came up with a lot of movies I'd never heard of, mainly romantic comedies (it should surprise no one that I'm not a huge fan of that genre).
And then somebody mentioned Boogie Nights and I had to slap my head, because Boogie Nights is one of my favorite movies.
In case you need a reminder: there's a crucial scene in Boogie Nights, which deals with the San Fernando Valley porn industry in the late '70s/early '80s, involving New Year's Eve, 1979; as the '80s loom, there's a sense that everything is about to change, and not for the better.
Boogie Nights blew me away when I first saw it, and I still watch it at least once a year. I love the virtuoso filmmaking (a long tracking shot that ends when the camera follows a woman into a swimming pool - WHUUUUTTTT?!), I love the idea of the family that forms around these outcasts, and I love those actors, especially Julianne Moore as adult film queen Amber Waves.
And, for the purposes of this particular column, I love the scene when a new year ushers in both excitement and trepidation.
About the Still: Okay, I cheated this month because I don't actually own any stills from Boogie Nights, so I found this one online.
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The Halloween Spirit
Tips for keeping it going all year 'round
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So I've been known to use certain Halloween-themed items (mugs and socks, mainly) all year 'round, but I also take a certain joy in repurposing some Halloween-themed objects.
As someone who enjoys gardening, I've turned everything from ceramic jack-o'-lanterns to Dia de los Muertos skulls into planters.
Friends gifted me with this lovely Frankenstein mug for Christmas. Meanwhile, I've been studying succulent propagation lately (did you know that tiny new plants are called "pups"?), and needed something smaller to plant my first cutting in. Ouila! Meet my Frankenstein head planter.
I'm hoping that as the succulent grows, it will give the monster a rather startling new look. Talk about Abby Normal.
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Strange Fruit
The weirdest thing I've recently uncovered in my research
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I recently received a lovely note from a reader who had greatly enjoyed my novel Netherworld, and it reminded me of one of my favorite research adventures:
I was first thinking about writing this story in the early 2000s, when Google Books and Archive.org were just starting to take baby steps. My research involved several trips to the huge and beautiful downtown L.A. public library. Since I wanted to research life in China in the 1880s, I pawed through the shelves on Chinese history.
One spectacular book I found was called The Treaty Ports of China and Japan. It was published in 1867, and the library's copy still had the original maps bound in. The book had a large section on Canton (now Guangzhou), where my story would take place, and it was an absolute treasure-trove of information, much of it written in a chatty, entertaining way.
I checked the book out, brought it home, and decided that I liked it so much I wanted to have my own copy, so I started digging around used book sites online.
No copies turned up for sale. Further digging revealed that this book was considered a key volume in the history of China, and one had recently sold at auction...for over $4,000. And that recently-sold copy didn't even have the maps.
I went to the library's online catalogue, and discovered that they actually had TWO of these (the other one was in the special research area, not the shelves accessible by the public).
I don't mind admitting that for a split second I imagined conveniently...ahem...losing the book.
In the end, though, I took a print-out of the auction record back to the library with the book and suggested that they might not want to have this out in the public area. They looked bored at my suggestion until I produced that auction record, at which point the librarian's eyes nearly popped out of his skull and he thanked me profusely.
Now, many years later, the book can be found in digital form at Archive.org, and I see there is a rebound copy on sale at a used book site for the bargain price of $2,250.
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"Cool Air” from The Lovecraft Squad: Dreaming
Last month I talked about the first of two chapters ("Dreams in the White House") that I wrote for this "mosaic novel", so this month I'll discuss the second ("Cool Air").
Editor Steve Jones told me this chapter needed to be set in the 1970s, and I knew immediately that there were a couple of things I wanted to deal with: the non-passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, and Squeaky Fromme's attempt to assassinate President Gerald Ford.
Steve wanted this piece to be action-filled, so I had to research things like what guns the FBI would have been using in 1975. The chapter also had to incorporate references to a number of Lovecraft stories, so I dug out my Lovecraft volumes and re-read several key stories.
Researching the ERA was especially melancholy. In the '70s, I was a teenager being raised by a single mom; we knew my mom (who managed a college bookstore) wasn't being paid as much as her male peers, and so the ERA would have been an important step forward for us. I wanted to mirror the defeat we felt as it became apparent that it wouldn't be ratified; since the chapter was set in 1975 - not long after the first women were admitted to the FBI after the passing of Hoover - it was easy to create a female agent who experienced harassment and who pinned her hopes on the passage of the ERA.
In the end, I had to cut some of that to make the chapter work within the context of the overall series (this chapter closes the Dreaming volume and had to end with a punchy surprise revelation, not my protagonist mourning the failure of the passing of the ERA), but I'm still happy with how it turned out.
And hey, I got to write a lot of action, so what's not to love?
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Rejection.
It can be one of the hardest parts of any creative pursuit that involves offering your work to the public. Sure, people will tell you that you can learn from it, and that's sometimes true...but it can also hurt.
I've recently seen a few of my newer writer friends sharing heavy rejections online. I'm not talking here about the occasional bizarre bad Amazon customer review; no, I'm talking about private feedback from editors or slush-pile readers (don't even get me started on the completely unprofessional behavior of trying to argue with editors).
Look, I get that you want a little solace, that you want to hear your friends saying, "That's so wrong!" But seriously: think about it carefully before you post these things.
First off, sharing any private correspondence online is questionable. While it may not be strictly illegal to share a private message, it's at best unethical and at worst, should you additionally comment on the message, could open you up to charges of libel or slander.
Now, let's say I'm a reader who has been wondering if your book is worth picking up. Guess what? You may have just decided for me - in the wrong direction.
Or how about if I'm editor who is considering your work for inclusion in my next project? Do you really think posting severe criticism (that was offered in private correspondence) screams, "I'm a working professional"?
It doesn't.
And please, don't think that your gifts are such that you will never have to endure a bad review or a scathing rejection, because you will.
Writers need thick skins. If you don't have one but are serious about pursuing the craft, you need to start growing one NOW. I don't mean to harsh your writing mellow, but it's true. Take what you can use from the negative comments, and just chalk the rest up to, "Well, that's not the right person for my work," or, "They must have been having a bad day." Put it aside and move on.
And reconsider the next time you feel the urge to let us all in on the bad news.
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WIP It
My current works-in-progress
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I like year-end wrap-ups, so here's mine for 2018. I'm not going to list every individual piece, but here's what I think came out:
6 new short stories
1 reprint short story
1 reprint novellas
1 reprint collection
2 chapters in a mosaic novel
8 non-fiction articles
1 interview with an author
Here's what's thus far forthcoming in 2019:
1 anthology (as co-editor)
4 new short stories
1 reprint short story
3 reprint novellas
1 chapter in a mosaic novel
1 non-fiction article
2 interviews
At least 3 forewords/introductions
And...there's one innovative writing job involving new technologies that I'm very excited about, but can't discuss yet. As soon as the deal is finalized, you'll all hear about it!
Happy 2019.
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The Samhanach and Other Halloween Treats
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The Samhanach and Other Halloween Treats is now available in e-book and print from JournalStone. It collects four novellas, ten short stories, a new introduction by Nancy Holder, and new notes about the stories from me.
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The Lovecraft Squad: Dreaming
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I've written two chapters of this second volume in Stephen Jones's "mosaic novel" trilogy.
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18 Wheels of Science Fiction
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Includes my story "Job No. 34264".
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Includes my story “Dr. Morbismo’s InsaniTERRORium Horror Show”.
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This anthology of all-new Halloween (and Dia de los Muertos/Devil's Night/All Souls' Eve) fiction features sixteen stories by some of the genre's hottest authors. The anthology received a starred and boxed review in Publishers Weekly, as well as raves from Rue Morgue, Locus, and many others.
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The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories
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Includes my story "The Ultimate Halloween Party App".
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Birthing Monsters: Frankenstein's Cabinet of Curiosities and Cruelties is an extraordinary tribute to Mary Shelley's classic, in honor of its 200th birthday. Illustrated by Robert Payne Cabeen, my contribution is a non-fiction piece about Fantamasgoriana, the collection of ghost stories that inspired Frankenstein.
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Includes my essay "When It’s Their World: Writing for the Themed Anthology".
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This month's lucky winner will win a hard copy of the brand new "mosaic novel" The Lovecraft Squad: Dreaming.
Just click the button to enter!
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