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Hi Gang!
You may notice that this issue has kind of a theme: Dark Delicacies. I trust you're all familiar with the landmark horror store in Burbank run by Del and Sue Howison, and some of you may even know that the store is moving this May. Why would you know that? Because it's been talked about a lot by Guillermo del Toro and reported in venues as far away as The Guardian in the UK!
A huge rent hike is forcing the store to leave its current location on Magnolia Boulevard, but it will be moving only a short distance, to nearby Hollywood Way. Even though the new digs are close, moving is always expensive, especially for a small business, and so Sue and Del launched a GoFundMe to cover moving expenses. That campaign met its goals almost instantly, but they can still use help, so please consider checking out their auction listings and special items for sale. Hey, you'll get something cool, and you'll be helping one of the coolest stores on the planet to stay in business.
Otherwise, I hope your year has so far been healthy, productive, and warm. See you next month!
Lisa
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Still Life
In which I rhapsodize about favorite movie photos from my collection
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This month we're going to talk about a tv series that almost was...
If you read my opening letter above, you know this month is themed around Dark Delicacies. But Dark Delicacies hasn't always been just a store; it's also been a graphic novel, an award-winning anthology series, and almost a tv series.
Yep, just over ten years ago Del Howison, co-owner of the store and co-editor of the anthologies, started getting interest in an anthology television series. Del is an old friend, so I started hearing about this...and of course I wanted in!
The series was envisioned as something similar to The Night Gallery, with each hour being made up of a single long episode or two (or more) shorter episodes. The scripts would be drawn from a mix of original teleplays and teleplays adapted from short stories in the Dark Delicacies books,
I immediately went home and adapted my story "Black Mill Cove" (which appeared in the first volume of Dark Delicacies) into a half-hour screenplay. I added a beginning to expand the story, but the whole last half of the script sticks pretty closely to the story.
Well, you all know that the Dark Delicacies television series didn't happen. *sigh* But it was fun to adapt the story into screenplay format, at least.
About the Still: "Black Mill Cove", which is about a solitary abalone hunter who has a terrifying encounter in a tide pool, is based on trips I used to make with my dad. In other words...yes, people really do this. The photo above is one I shot during one of those trips; that's my dad in wet suit, digging around under rocks for abalone.
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The Halloween Spirit
Tips for keeping it going all year 'round
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What better way to keep the good Halloween mojo going than to pay a visit to America's only all-horror-all-the-time bookstore, the venerable Dark Delicacies?
If you're visiting the SoCal area, it's a must-see. You'll find not just books, clothing, DVDs, toys, jewelry, and collectibles there, you'll also find people who love dark things as much as you do! The store does signings almost every weekend, and of course there's nobody who knows the genre better than Del and Sue.
The photo above is from a signing I did there recently for Eric Guignard's new anthology Pop the Clutch: that's (left to right) David J. Schow, Kasey Lansdale, Duane Swierczynski, Gary Phillips, Eric, me, and Jonathan Maberry (who is not in Pop the Clutch, but was also signing that day).
If you can't visit the shop in person, you can always check 'em out online at www.darkdel.com , where you can order signed items (even personalized) from most of their events.
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Strange Fruit
The weirdest thing I've recently uncovered in my research
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I just recorded a paranormal podcast wherein I was asked to comment on the haunted history of the Playboy Mansion.
Uhhhhhh...WHUUUT?
So I did some quick research, and found out that this remarkable building is...well, let's just say that if it's not haunted, it should be.
Get the history: the land it occupies was originally known as Wolfskill Ranch. I mean...Wolfskill? How much better can it get? (Wolfskill was actually the name of the man who is credited with introducing Valencia oranges to California; at one point he owned a great deal of property in the state).
In 1926, a wealthy industrialist named Arthur Letts Jr. (his family had owned the chain of Broadway department stores) began construction of his dream home on the land, (wisely) renamed Holmby Hills. Construction was completed in 1927, and Letts' 29-room Gothic Revival mansion included its own pipe organ, pet cemetery, and secret room (this was during Prohibition, so the secret room was a bar).
In 1963, Letts sold the property to Louis Statham and his wife Anne. The Stathams loved to throw huge parties; unfortunately, Anne died unexpectedly in 1965. Louis, however, buried his grief in even bigger parties, until 1971, when he sold the house to Playboy and Hugh Hefner.
Hefner, of course, must surely rank as one of the great partiers of all time, and he occupied the house (usually with a number of girlfriends) until his death in 2017.
But even before Hef passed away, the house was gaining a reputation for being haunted. Guests claimed to see the spirit of a man in a tuxedo and top hat (Mr. Letts, perhaps?); one visitor even said he glimpsed the ghost of the famed (and tragic) playmate Dorothy Stratten. No doubt future visitors will start spotting the bathrobe-wearing specter of Hugh Hefner.
(I hope to have a link to the finished podcast in the next newsletter.)
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"Black Mill Cove” from Dark Delicacies
I've known Sue and Del Howison, the owners of Dark Delicacies, for a quarter-century now. I've run websites for them, I ran a writers group with Del for many years, and we've collaborated on lots of other stuff. So when I found out fifteen years ago that Del was going to be co-editing (with Jeff Gelb) an anthology, I started working on something.
Just in case you're thinking that my friendship with the co-editor guaranteed I'd be in the book, let me tell you that "Black Mill Cove" was not the first story I submitted to them; they'd already passed on at least one other.
As I mentioned above, "Black Mill Cove" was based on a crazy abalone-hunting trip I took with my dad, who was (to put it mildly) an avid hunter and fisher. It's always been a little hard for me to understand Dad's obsession with killing things, although he never killed anything he couldn't eat. He was also a kind man who cried when his dog died.
Because that hunter mindset has always perplexed me - and because the abalone-hunting trip was too crazy NOT to use! - I set about to write something that would explore real violence versus what a hunter does.
This story garnered me the most acclaim for any piece at that point in my career, and it remains a personal favorite. Thanks, Dad.
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Endings.
How many times have you read a story or novel that you loved...until the end?
Endings can be really hard. They're also a pivotal arguing point in the eternal "plotters vs. pantsers" (are you someone who starts to write only after you've worked out everything in advance, or do you make it all up as you go along?).
Personally, I'm a hard-core plotter, and I never write anything without knowing the ending first. I don't know how you can write a story if you don't know where it's going.
Whether you're a pantser or a plotter, though, you might find one of my favorite writing games useful: when I've decided what the ending of my story is going to be (and quite often it's the first thing I come up with), when I've rolled it around in my head and feel sure that it will provide an ideal, satisfying conclusion, I ask myself: Okay, so what happens next?
Sometimes the answer is, "Nothing - it's the real ending." But sometimes I realize that what I first thought was the ending is really only the penultimate happening in the story. Sometimes it's even the halfway point.
Try it next time you think you've finished something, because you might find that you haven't.
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WIP It
My current works-in-progress
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I've been writing a lot of fun little short feature articles for Shudder TV's newsletter "The Bite" (right now, for example, I'm putting together a Valentine's Day piece on how the Lugosi Dracula was sold as a love story). The newsletter is free, and you can sign up here.
And...it looks like plans for a new novel this year may go onto the back burner for just a little longer, since my next book now looks likely to be a film book for a wonderful series of film books that I really enjoy. I can't say more yet, but this will be a tremendously fun project, writing about a movie I adore.
There are also the usual short stories in the mix, and the eternal wait on various proposals that are out in the world.
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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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Includes my story “Dr. Morbismo’s InsaniTERRORium Horror Show”.
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Ghost Stories: Classic Tales of Horror and Suspense
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Co-edited with acclaimed anthologist and genre expert Leslie Klinger, this anthology gathers classic ghost stories from Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Wharton, Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, M. R. James, and more! Coming April 2.
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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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Includes my essay "When It’s Their World: Writing for the Themed Anthology".
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Everybody's a winner this month!
If you'd like to read both my acclaimed short story "Black Mill Cove" and the half-hour screenplay adaptation, just click the button below to drop me a line, and I'll send you a PDF e-book that includes both.
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