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Hi Gang!
May is here, which means it's time for (virtual) StokerCon! I've already been recording panels and preparing surprises for it; as a Guest of Honor, I'll also be doing one or two live events, and celebrating the release of my collection Night Terrors & Other Tales. The convention will be taking place May 20-May 23 on a cool platform called Hopin that's probably as close to recreating the convention experience in an online setting as you can get. The other Guests of Honor are all incredible - Maurice Broaddus, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Joe R. Lansdale, Seanan McGuire, and Steve Rasnic Tem - and the convention will include the annual presentation of the Bram Stoker Awards®, so I hope you'll consider going (if you're not already registered). You can sign up here.
In other good news, I got my vaccine (Team J&J!), and I'm currently caught up on writing deadlines (cue incoming flood of new deadlines).
I hope you're all continuing to stay healthy and sane.
Lisa
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Still Life
In which I rhapsodize about favorite movie photos from my collection
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My current favorite filmmakers are Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.
In the past, these two guys (who work as a team) made Spring (2014) and The Endless (2017), two of my favorite movies from the last few years. If you haven't seen them, Spring is about a young American touring Italy who falls in love with a woman who is not entirely human, and The Endless is about a cult out in the middle of the desert that centers on an unseen entity that's causing the cult members to live parts of their lives over and over.
Their latest film, Synchronic, just showed up on Netflix, and it's one more slam-dunk from these mad geniuses. This time around, Jamie Dornan and Anthony Mackie play EMTs who end up investigating a new street drug called Synchronic that seems to be leading to some really strange deaths, but then it turns out to be a really strange drug.
I'm not going to give away anything else here, but suffice to say that Synchronic is about time travel, friendship, addiction, love, sacrifice, and, oh, did I mention time travel? Mackie - who really owns this movie - has a monologue about his hometown that rivals Rutger Hauer's legendary Blade Runner speech, and there's also a glimpse of a truly awesome giant beast.
This might be the best Philip K. Dick movie never written by Philip K. Dick. Check it out.
About the Still: I grabbed it from the online presskit for Synchronic.
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The Halloween Spirit
Tips for keeping it going all year 'round
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Come on, 2021 pumpkins!
In addition to all of the other things that were terrible about 2020, it was my worst year EVER trying to grow pumpkins. Out of seven plants, I got exactly ONE pumpkin, and even that was a scrawny, undersized little thing. Compare to 2015, when I'd have multiple pumpkins on just one vine.
What's changed? Simple: the climate. The change has been incredibly noticeable in just five years. Here in Southern California, we now routinely have 100+-degree days throughout August and September, and that's just too much for pumpkins, especially if they're just in that stage where they're starting to put out blossoms and fruit.
So, my answer: start 'em earlier this year. In the past, I'd plant in June, figuring four months until pumpkins would give me nice Halloween jack-o'-lanterns. But since that doesn't work anymore, I'm starting them in May, figuring that if I can at least get fruit on the vines by the time the heat really kicks in, maybe I'll be okay.
What you see in the photo are my first two pumpkin sprouts of the year; I'm starting them indoors, with five different varieties. The sprout on the left is a Specter, a gleaming white pumpkin; the one on the right is a Gladiator, a slightly bigger than usual classic orange pumpkin. I've also planted Big Max (huge pumpkins), Warty Goblin (bumpy and multi-colored), and a strange large bumpy pumpkin I bought last year at Trader Joe's (don't know the exact variety).
In the meantime...temperatures here this week - the last week of April - are supposed to hit 96. Here's hoping that's not a sign of things to come...
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Strange Doings
The weirdest thing I've recently uncovered in my research
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The Elevator Game is one of the most bizarre urban legends I've encountered.
Here's the short version: you go to an elevator in a building with at least ten floors, and hopefully an elevator that doesn't get used much. You go to a bunch of different floors in a particular sequence. At one point a woman will get on the elevator; no matter what she says or does, you must not interact with her; she'll exit the elevator at the next floor. At one other point, the doors will open to a dark floor where a glowing red cross will be visible. The penultimate floor will open onto...another dimension. If you choose to step out of the elevator there, you run the risk of becoming trapped in that other dimension forever.
Sounds absurd, right? Who would believe this?
Apparently tens of thousands of people would, according to internet searches and discussions at sites like Reddit. The game seems to have started in South Korea (which would explain the "red cross" - during my one trip through the Seoul Airport, I remember being amazed at the number of red crosses visible even from the airport), and has been around for a couple of years.
And yes, if you're familiar with the bizarre footage of Elisa Lam, the tourist who freaked out in an elevator at L.A.'s Hotel Cecil and was later found dead in the rooftop water tank...there is indeed speculation that she was playing the Elevator Game.
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"The Screw Turns Again"
(From the forthcoming anthology Gaslight Ghouls)
I recently caught up with Mike Flanagan's The Haunting of Bly Manor on Netflix, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much resemblance it bore to the source material, Henry James's classic The Turn of the Screw. That short novel is possibly my favorite ghost story so I was prepared to be critical, but I really enjoyed the adaptation.
It reminded me of a story I wrote several years back for an anthology that's been delayed, Gaslight Ghouls. The theme was stories based on classic Victorian horrors; when I was invited into the book, I immediately said, "I want to do The Turn of the Screw." Fortunately, no other author had chosen that work, so it was all mine.
I decided right off the bat that I wanted to set my tale at a Spiritualist seance, and that I wanted to involve several real people: Charles Dickens is mentioned, the seance is held at the home of real-life Spiritualist and philanthropist Lady Angela Burdett-Coutts, and a young American named Henry James is there to witness a fourteen-year-old medium named Solomon Sultan (although the latter is most definitely NOT a real person!).
Well, there are twists and secrets revealed, and far be it from me to reveal them! At this point I don't know exactly when Gaslight Ghouls will finally see the light of day, but I do look forward to sharing my tribute to a beloved book.
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One thing I hear often from editors is that they love how "clean" my manuscripts are.
That doesn't mean that the language is clean (I've...ahem...never shied away from a little cursing); and since this is the digital age, it doesn't mean they're getting sheets of paper lacking stains (although in the past I had that happen - my cat once vomited right onto a manuscript I was supposed to hand-correct and return).
What it means is that my files are as free of grammar, punctuation, spelling, and formatting errors as I can make them.
It's true that I obsess over that stuff a little. Once I've finished a story and I'm happy with the story itself, I do multiple passes to check for all those small details, and hey - it's evidently paying off, considering how often I get that compliment.
In case you're thinking, "Big deal," well...it IS. Why? Because I've just made the editor's job a lot easier; they won't have to spend a lot of their valuable time on boring, basic clean-up of my work. And y'know what? That means that, when that editor needs something in the future, they might come back to me because they know I'm going to give them something clean. Look, I get invited to contribute to a lot of books and magazines (and I get a lot of invites that start with, "We had someone else drop out and we need something really soon"), and I know that one of the reasons for those invites is that I'm going to deliver a clean, quality product.
If you struggle with stuff like grammar and punctuation, consider educating yourself a bit. Buy a copy of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style (and you don't need the latest edition - go to a used bookstore and buy a cheap third or fourth edition). Read it, study it, and refer back to it when necessary. Visit websites that talk about grammar. I know this stuff is boring, but it should be a basic part of any writer's toolkit, just like a carpenter's hammer or a plumber's snake.
You might be surprised at how delivering clean manuscripts will pay off for you.
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WIP It
My current works-in-progress
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I'll have an essay on the intense Hong Kong slasher Dream Home (2010) in the pop culture anthology Transgressive Horror, currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter.
Another current Kickstarter project, Humans Are the Problem, will feature a story from me.
And one last Kickstarter project, Sherlock Holmes of Baking Street, fully funded and the charity anthology will include my story "The Case of Hallowe'en Dumb Cakes".
This review of the anthology Tales of the Lost II had some lovely things to say about my story "The Deals We Make."
My article on feminism in Mexican Gothic horror films made from 1957 to 1962 will appear in the September-October double issue of Rue Morgue magazine.
The Reinvented Heart anthology, which includes my science fiction story "Touch Has a Memory", will be out in February 2022 from Arc Manor.
And lastly...check out this cool portrait of me by Aaron Lovett from the StokerCon 2021 program book!
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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.
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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.
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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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Includes my story "Antonia and the Stranger Who Came to Los Feliz".
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Night Terrors & Other Tales
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This, my first major collection, will launch 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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Weird Women Volume 2: 1840-1925
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Coming September 2021: a new volume of Weird Women, with stories by George Eliot, Edith Wharton, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and more!
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In League With Sherlock Holmes
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My story "A Seance in Liverpool" appears in this anthology edited by Leslie S. Klinger and Laurie King.
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Includes my poem "We Live Through This."
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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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Let's celebrate Halfoween (halfway to Halloween) by giving a way a signed copy of the Japanese edition of my book The Halloween Encyclopedia! I know most of you probably can't read this, but it's a fun collectible with a gorgeous cover. Just click the blue button below to enter.
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May 20-23, 2021: I'll be a Guest of Honor at the virtual StokerCon.
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