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Hi Gang!
Well, this is a big month for me: after four-and-a-half years as President of the Horror Writers Association, I'm finally moving on. My wonderful Vice President John Palisano admitted to me a short time back that he thought he was ready to step into the position, and I'm more than ready to step out. I've so enjoyed my time as HWA's head and I feel like I've accomplished some good things for writers, but I'd like to put those hours back into my own career now. Plus, John will be great for HWA!
The official handover is going to happen on May 11th, at HWA's yearly gathering StokerCon™ . If you'll be there, please say hi! I've got a pretty hectic schedule, with lots of panels and speechifying, but I'd still love to meet-and-greet.
Otherwise, there is a lot of good stuff happening lately. By next month I hope to announce a new book and a bunch of short stories (see below for some hints about all of this).
Have a great Memorial Day, and we'll talk again in a month.
Lisa
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Still Life
In which I rhapsodize about favorite movie photos from my collection
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I know I've covered Alien before, but that movie seems to be everywhere right now.
Whether it's because we're celebrating the original movie's 40th anniversary, or because some wit dubbed April 26 "Alien Day" (after the name of the moon - LV-426 - in Aliens), or because a high school put on a stage production that went viral, our favorite xenomorph is back in the news in a big way.
I recently had the pleasure of attending an amazing exhibition at USC here in Los Angeles; the exhibition was in celebration of that aforementioned anniversary, and included props, costumes, art, posters, and toys from all of the Alien films (my favorite, jaw-dropping, "OMG, I can't believe this is IT" piece was the actual alien head and chest from the first film, complete with the slime tubes and hydraulics).
Seeing this gorgeous exhibition reminded me that I've been visiting and photographing Alien exhibits for 40 years. I've attended three major ones: first was the opening day display at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, where the actual "space jockey" and part of a Nostromo corridor were on display outside the theater, while inside were models and props from the film. The second one took place at one of the L.A. area museums, and included the Nostromo model itself, the Narcissus model, and the full set of the "Mother" interior. The third was this recent USC exhibit.
Certainly, Alien remains one of my favorite movies (it is easily in my top five), and I consider myself so lucky to have attended these amazing exhibitions. I hope the photos will convey a little of how impressive they all were.
About the Still: This is one of my shots of the original 1979 alien from the USC exhibition.
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The Halloween Spirit
Tips for keeping it going all year 'round
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I can't claim to be a big podcast consumer. In fact, until quite recently I wasn't even entirely clear on what podcasts were.
I'm still not a big listener (I don't have the time - see below!), but I do enjoy appearing on podcasts. My paternal grandmother was an actress, and I've inherited a bit of her theatricality.
And nowadays there seem to be podcasts on everything, so I recently did a search for Halloween podcasts.
Um, yeah, there a few out there. Some are about the holiday; others are about horror movies; some are about specific haunted attractions; at least one is dedicated to John Carpenter's iconic film.
I still don't have time to listen to them, but if you've heard one that was good, let me know and I will make the time!
(The below photo shows me with the delightful Bridget Marquardt, who hosts the "Ghost Magnet" podcast that I provide weekly "Ghost Reports" for. I'm in the one in the "Ghosts are OK" shirt!)
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Strange Fruit
The weirdest thing I've recently uncovered in my research
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We've all heard the old notion that Ouija boards are evil, that they somehow constitute a portal to demonic forces. We've screamed at the horror movies in which the planchette suddenly acts entirely on its own as a terrifying entity is released.
For an upcoming project I can't talk about quite yet, I've been researching the history of seances and Ouija boards, and I wondered how this idea first came about. And yes, apparently it has a clear-cut origin.
In 1919, Spiritualism - which had been largely debunked a quarter-century earlier - was making a comeback, thanks in part to the devastating number of lives lost in World War I and the surviving loved ones who were desperate to contact their missing soldiers. The Spiritualists claimed the Ouija board - first introduced in 1890 as a parlor game - as a useful tool in achieving communication with the dead.
At this point, the Catholic Church became concerned, both about the Ouija Board and the number of members they were losing to Spiritualism. J. Godfrey Raupert had already written books that were severely critical of Spiritualism, and so he was commissioned by the Church to write a treatise on the Ouija board.
Here's the important part, from page 211 of his The New Black Magic and the Truth About the Ouija-Board:
"...a door is gradually opened through which it is possible for an external intelligence or spirit to invade the mind..." (The italics are Raupert's.)
Was Raupert honestly reporting something real...or did he create that idea because of his own dislike of Spiritualism? What do you think?
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By Insanity of Reason
(originally published in print and e-book by Bad Moon Books; just reprinted in e-book form by Cemetery Dance)
I don't collaborate very often, but when a writer (and good friend) you admire as much as John R. Little brings up the possibility, you say "yes."
When we first started talking about working together, we didn't even have a story idea. I think the first things we talked about were playing with structure and voice: I'd write chapters from a woman's point-of-view, and John would provide the man's viewpoint in the alternating chapters.
We started talking about a story idea, and then a plot. At some point we realized we wanted a story that was told backwards, meaning it moved back through time, revealing clues from the past that explained where it started.
If this sounds hard, it was!
We'd exchange chapters, and then realize they'd impacted something we'd already written, so we'd have to go back and change that. One of us would get an urgent writing gig and have to put everything else on hold for a while. We'd get a great idea that would involve fixing other things.
It took years.
One day it was done. We both read it and re-read it, satisfied that at long last it worked.
One of the best things to come out of By Insanity of Reason was that it garnered me some new fans who became friends, and who have continued to follow and support my career, and of course I'm incredibly grateful for that.
Now it's just been reprinted in e-book form with an utterly gorgeous cover by the amazing Lynne Hansen, and I'm very proud to have it back out there at a price ($2.99!) that I hope will garner a few more readers.
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What's the number one question I'm asked as a writer?
No, it's not, "Where do you get your ideas?" That's probably number two, though.
It's not even the dreaded, "What scares you?" That shows up far too often in interviews.
No, I'd have to say it's this: "How do you find the time?"
That's a hard one to answer.
I recently read a report that concluded that the average American has 4 hours and 26 minutes of free time per week. That's 38 minutes per day.
I have absolutely no problem believing this is true. From 2015 to 2017, I was the live-in caregiver to an elderly parent with dementia, while I was also working a hectic day job and running a major writers organization. The only "me time" I had was at the end of the day, when I'd gotten Mom settled into bed for the night. At that point I knew I had thirty, maybe forty minutes left before I'd pass out from exhaustion. Those precious moments went to writing.
Most of us have jobs, family obligations, other duties. We have kids to take care of, spouses, elderly parents, pets. We have bills to pay and houses to keep in repair. We have our health to consider. If we get any "me time", we may end up being too exhausted to do anything with it other than just chill.
That's why it's a hard question, because the answer really boils down to, "How badly do you want to write? What are you willing to give up for it? Will you stop watching television in the evening? Will you tell a family member or friend that you'd rather stay in to write than go out with them? If you have only 38 minutes a day to yourself, will you put those moments toward writing?"
I don't have an easy answer because I don't know how to tell you to carve out more time. It's a tough world. Finding time for anything can be rough. I guess the real question is: how passionate are you about writing?
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WIP It
My current works-in-progress
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Wow, it's been a busy last month! Not only have I been working like crazy on StokerCon, but I've also been putting together new articles for Shudder TV's newsletter "The Bite", weekly "Ghost Reports" for "Ghost Magnet", trying to meet some short story deadlines, doing some book signings, and putting together a book proposal for what will probably be my next book (there might be a hint about the subject in one of the sections above!).
A few other things have just come out or been announced:
- Ghost Stories is now officially out! My co-editor Les Klinger and I have done signings, radio appearances (on "Coast to Coast"), and podcasts, and the reviews continue to be amazing. You can read the introduction here.
- Shivers VIII, out now from Cemetery Dance, has my story "The Gorgon".
- Odd Partners, out from Ballantine Books, with my story "What Ever Happened to Lorna Winters?" (and I can't tell you how much I enjoyed meeting and signing with editor Anne Perry at the L.A. Times Festival of Books!).
- A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Gods is a fun YA-themed anthology, including my story "Holding Back".
- Sisterhood is finally coming out from Chaosium. This one's been in the works for a couple of years, but is now scheduled for a May release. Includes my story "Etain and the Unholy Ghosts".
- Terrifying Tales to Tell at Night was announced by Skyhorse Publishing. Includes my story "The Chemistry of Ghosts", and stories by Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and a few other writers you might have heard of!
- Forbidden Futures #4 is an all-female issue and includes my introductory essay on the history of women writers in weird fiction (sorry - this is already sold out).
- The PS Book of Fantastic Fictioneers is a massive 2-volume set edited and illustrated by the uber-talented Pete Von Sholly. I was honored to be asked to write about Gahan Wilson, my favorite cartoonist. Now taking pre-orders.
As I write this, there are ten more stories (!) awaiting publication.
What I'm currently working on: when I'm not answering frantic StokerCon e-mails, I'm racing to meet a deadline on a short story (it's almost done), a new interview for Nightmare Magazine, and some proposals for new anthologies co-edited with Les Klinger.
I thought the photo below was cool because how often do you get to see a painting for an upcoming cover still in progress? The painting is for The Lovecraft Squad: Rising, coming this fall; the man on the left is editor Stephen Jones; on the right is artist Douglas Klauba. I have a chapter called "The Outsider and Others" in this, the third volume of Steve's epic "mosaic novel".
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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, M. R. James, and more!
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Includes my historical dark fantasy story "Etain and the Unholy Ghosts".
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Includes my story “The Gorgon".
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Terrifying Tales to Tell at Night
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Includes my story “The Chemistry of Ghosts".
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My novella, co-written with John R. Little, originally released in 2014, now available in an affordable e-book from Cemetery Dance.
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Has my story "What Ever Happened to Lorna Winters?"
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A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Gods
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Includes my story "Holding Back".
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The P.S. Book of Fantastic Fictioneers
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Includes my piece on the great cartoonist Gahan Wilson.
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This month I'm giving away three ePub copies of the novella By Insanity of Reason (ePub can be easily read on nearly any device).
Just click the blue button below to enter, and good luck!
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