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Hi Gang!
HAPPY 2021!!!
If the regular coming of new years tells me anything, it's that I suck at keeping track of all my work. I look at other authors' lovely lists of things they had published throughout the year and realize I'm...well, just not sure.
I can tell you that I had two books out this fall - Weird Women and Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances - that were among my two most successful books, garnering great reviews and press, gratifying sales, and a lot of requests for podcast and radio interviews.
I had out...well, heck, a lot of short stories, in some highly praised anthologies.
I scored my first appearance in a "Year's Best" anthology, with my story "What Ever Happened to Lorna Winters?" chosen for Best American Mystery Stories 2020.
I optioned no less than three properties to film/television.
I announced a forthcoming podcast - Spine Tinglers - that will feature new original short stories by me, read by guest readers.
I got to create a special Christmas edition of Ghost Magnet with Bridget Marquardt that was the most fun I've had in ages.
I was invited to be a Guest of Honor at StokerCon 2021 in Denver.
And I managed to not get sick while living in the heart of Pandemic Central (Los Angeles).
So there's as much of my 2020 wrap-up as I can easily put together. Right now, I feel very lucky indeed.
For 2021, I can tell you that I'll have three new books out. One - my "greatest hits" collection Night Terrors & Other Tales - has already been announced. The other two are still under wraps; one is completed and was turned in to the publisher a while back, and one is my current work-in-progress.
I hope you've completed your own journey through 2020 and are ready to tackle 2021 with renewed vigor. Let's all work together to lift this year up. Be well, be productive, be happy.
Lisa |
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Still Life
In which I rhapsodize about favorite movie photos from my collection
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My Vincent Price fling is still ongoing.
Last month I shared a photo from The Abominable Dr. Phibes. This month it's Vincent as Charles Dexter Ward from The Haunted Palace (1963). Somehow I'd never seen this movie until recently, although as the first filmic adaptation of Lovecraft I'd always wanted to.
It's a strange mess of a movie. On the one hand, it's thrilling to see Price as the evil ancestor Joseph Curwen and then the innocent descendant Ward. There's the Necronomicon, and there's a pit beneath the castle containing an Old One. There's Lon Chaney Jr. in a fine supporting performance, and some superb production design, especially the towering wooden staircase used to reach the pit.
But...the script doesn't seem to have the courage to follow through with Lovecraft. As an adaptation of his novel The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (one of my favorite works by Lovecraft), I wanted horrific resurrections from "essential saltes"...but the film spends a lot of time on Ward's wife trying to keep Curwen from completely possessing her husband.
While the film ultimately disappoints, it's still a fine performance from Price, and I'm glad I finally saw it.
About the Still: This was a Christmas gift from my fellah Ricky. Thanks, baby!
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The Halloween Spirit
Tips for keeping it going all year 'round
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Oddly enough, one of the things I've missed most during the pandemic has been going to art shows.
I say that's odd because I really don't go to that many in an average year - one or two, maybe. I always try to hit the Brewery ArtWalk in the spring, and might show up at the odd gallery event or other art festival. Although I can't afford major pieces of art, one of the great things about big art shows with lots of artists is that you can usually find something to fit both your taste and your wallet, and you've gotten to meet the artist as well.
In lieu of in-person art shows, I've treated myself this year to a couple of original pieces of Halloween art by artists I really like. One is Diana Levin, whose studio is Ghoulish Bunny. Then there's poet and artist K.A. Opperman, who's been exploring some delightful Halloween pin-up art. I even commissioned Kyle to create a piece just for me, with my only requirement being that it had to include a jack-o'-lantern. I think the result (seen above) is adorable!
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Strange Fruit
The weirdest thing I've recently uncovered in my research
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Christmas ghost stories.
Oddly enough, although I was certainly familiar with the Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve, I knew very little about it. When I was invited to discuss the tradition on a recent podcast, I delved into it in preparation and was astonished by some of what I learned.
For example: nearly all of the classic ghost stories published from about 1852 to 1880 were Christmas ghost stories. That's not to say that these are ghost stories about Christmas, but rather that they first appeared in Christmas annuals of popular magazines, intended to continue the British tradition of sharing spooky stories on Christmas. This tradition certainly predates the nineteenth century, and probably (as Washington Irving indicates in the "The Christmas Dinner" chapter of his 1820 The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.) derived from the Christmas telling of local ghost legends. If you think about it, Christmas Eve comes just a few (short) days after the winter solstice, so what better way to celebrate the longest night of the year than with a ghost story?
Below is a list of some of the wonderful stories and recollections I read in my research on Christmas ghost stories, with links to the material so you can read and enjoy as well.
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., "The Christmas Dinner" by Washington Irving - Scroll down to around the middle of this chapter for Irving's description of ghost story-telling and rural ghost folklore.
"Christmas Eve: The Story of a Skull" by Henry Curling - This short story was published exactly 11 months before A Christmas Carol. It's not very good (a skull rolls after the protagonist!), but it's worth reading for its description of Christmas storytelling, and provides a look at the Christmas ghost story before Dickens.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - First published at the end of 1843, this is the classic that took the Christmas ghost story to a whole other dimension. It's still a wonderful read.
"A Christmas Tree" by Charles Dickens - Dickens wrote this in 1850 for the periodical Household Words, which he had just assumed editorship of. The first half is a charming recollection of his Christmases as a child, but the second part is a catalog of the styles of ghost stories at the time, told in Dickens's inimitable style.
"The Old Nurse's Story" by Elizabeth Gaskell - Dickens published this classic story in the 1850 Christmas annual of Household Words, and it's now recognized as one of the greatest ghost stories of all time. Les Klinger and I chose it to lead off Weird Women.
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"A Seance in Liverpool"
(From In League With Sherlock Holmes)
When my good friend (and frequent editorial partner) Les Klinger invited me into this anthology, I was truthfully more than a little scared by the prospect because Les is one of the world's leading Sherlockians, and...well, I hadn't read Sherlock Holmes stories since I was a kid.
Les made it clear that the story didn't have to revolve around Holmes, but just needed to reference him in some way. Some stories were set in the present time, others had only one or two brief mentions. Because I'd just wrapped up Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances, in which I'd written at length about Conan Doyle's involvement with Spiritualism, I proposed a story with the real Conan Doyle attending a seance. Les mentioned that David Morrell had done a story in a previous volume of this series involving Spiritualism, so I read that story to make sure I could avoid any cross-over.
Then the real research began. I already knew Spiritualism inside and out, so I read Daniel Stashower's biographical works on Conan Doyle, I re-read some of the original Sherlock Holmes stories, and I even watched a film of Conan Doyle to study his characteristics and mannerisms.
In the final story, a young Conan Doyle attends his first seance, where a crime is revealed, and the game's afoot! How did I bring in the legendary detective? You'll have to read the story to find out for yourself. |
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Goals.
They're an obvious thing to think about as we enter a new year. We all have things we want to achieve; if we're writers, we have a whole slate of writing goals that's separate from our other goals.
When I did my mad slate of interviews in October, several times I was asked how I stayed productive. I always joked, "Deadlines!"...but, to tell the truth, that wasn't a joke.
Nothing is likelier to keep you more attuned to your goals than having a deadline, knowing that you've promised work to someone who is going to pay you money for it (or who may have already paid you an advance). But what if you don't have anyone on the other end already waiting for your stories?
Simple: set your own deadlines.
Hey, a lot of people do it every year with NaNoWriMo. One of the advantages to involving yourself in a coordinated event like NaNoWriMo is that you'll be part of a community of like-minded writers and that will help spur you on to make your goals.
Can you adopt that mindset to serve yourself? I've done it, and it's proven quite effective.
Make sure you set realistic goals for yourself. Don't, for example, set yourself a goal of 10,000 words a day (heck, I can't even type that fast!). If you need to do research for a writing project, factor that time in. Stick to your self-imposed deadlines; treat them as 100% real, monetary-payoff-style deadlines.
You might be surprised at how your productivity improves.
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WIP It
My current works-in-progress
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There was some nice press in December for both my story from In League With Sherlock Holmes, and my tale in the upcoming anthology Speculative Los Angeles. Michael Dirda gave In League With Sherlock Holmes a nice shout-out in the Washington Post, and the L.A. Times lumped my story from that book in with those by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Joe Hill; Booklist called my story from Speculative Los Angeles one of the stand-outs. In a December gift guide article for the Washington Post, Silvia Moreno-Garcia mentioned Weird Women, Final Cuts, Speculative Los Angeles, and The Art of Pulp Horror.
Weird Women just popped up in a Borneo newspaper!
The Paranormal Rewind Awards nominated both Ghost Magnet With Bridget Marquardt and the Halloween documentary I appeared in this year, This is Halloween. Voting has ended, but we'll see what the results are on January 5!
I'm currently working on...ummmm...something editorial that's due in April, and I'll be following that up with a new non-fiction book (my fourth for Reaktion Books).
And there've been some really nice short fiction sales lately that I look forward to sharing soon.
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If you missed the special Christmas episode of Ghost Magnet with Bridget Marquardt, you can watch it here! Hint: call me Orson Welles with this one.
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Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances
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Now in a second printing: my comprehensive survey of the history of spirit-calling looks at necromancy, Spiritualism, modern ghost-hunting, and more. Illustrated and fully indexed. You can order a signed copy from Iliad Bookshop.
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Best American Mystery Stories 2020
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Includes my story "What Ever Happened to Lorna Winters?"
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My story "Antonia and the Stranger Who Came to Los Feliz" will be in this fabulous new anthology, forthcoming from Akashic Books in February 2021.
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In League With Sherlock Holmes
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My story "A Seance in Liverpool" appears in this forthcoming anthology edited by Leslie S. Klinger and Laurie King.
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Includes my poem "We Live Through This."
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Weird Women: Classic Supernatural Fiction by Groundbreaking Female Writers 1852-1923
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My Ghost Stories partner Les Klinger and I have re-teamed to dive deep for this anthology of amazing, terrifying stories by early female writers. You can order a copy signed by Lisa from the Iliad Bookshop.
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Night Terrors & Other Tales
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This, my first major collection, will launch at StokerCon 2021 in May, but you can pre-order yours now. Includes twenty reprints plus one new story, "Night Terrors", written for the collection.
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My story "Family" is in this fabulous anthology, coming in June.
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Stephen Jones completes his "Art of Horror" trilogy with this beautiful volume, and I'm honored to have been included in all three books.
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Horror in the Eye of the Beholder
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Marta Oliehoek-Samitowska is a gifted artist who created this amazing book that pairs Marta's art of individual horror authors' eyes with extensive interviews with those authors (including me).
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Are you listening to the free Ghost Magnet with Bridget Marquardt podcast? Each week I provide a "Ghost Report" in which I talk about some cool little bit of history. Plus, there are great guests, and Bridget's a wonderful host!
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Since I've been talking a lot about ghost stories, let's make this month's giveaway a great anthology from a few years back that includes my ghost story "The Perfect House". Just click the blue button below to enter, and good luck!
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January 25 at 4 p.m. - Beyond the Bride of Frankenstein: Monsters and Other Fearsome Women panel discussion organized by the University of Pittsburgh George A. Romero Archives
February 21, 4 p.m. - Dark Tides Virtual Livestream
May 20-23, 2021: I'll be a Guest of Honor at StokerCon in Denver, Colorado.
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