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Hi Gang!
Virtual StokerCon was great! I was pleasantly surprised by how much the platform (Hopin) chosen by the organizers recreated the whole convention experience. There were live (and recorded) panels and readings, there were academic presentations and the Final Frame Film Competition, and even four "bars" that held up to twenty people at a time, all with full video and audio. I had a wonderful time, although - just as with in-person events - I left feeling like there's never enough time to see everyone and everything. I'd like to offer a final note of thanks to the con chairs, Brian Matthews and James Chambers. These guys really hit this one out of the park.
Now it's onto the rest of the year. As I write this, I've just gotten some potential good news that would lead to the biggest (on all levels) book I've ever done; it's a dream project that just took a giant step forward, so with any luck it'll pass the rest of the deal hurdles and become my big 2021 project.
I'm also so thrilled to finally have my big collection Night Terrors & Other Tales out in the world. Just below my works-in-progress block you can find the video of me reading the title story at StokerCon. I'm really proud of this collection, which represents a quarter-century of my short fiction work.
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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Let's talk about short films. Specifically, let's talk about the short films in StokerCon's Final Frame Film Competition.
The Final Frame Short Horror Film Competition has become one of my favorite elements of the annual StokerCon. Inaugurated with the convention in 2016 (although that first year it was the "Lucky Th1rt3en Film Festival"), each year the Final Frame's director Jonathan Lees oversees the selection of 12-14 short horror films which are voted on by a panel of judges, and viewed in an exclusive presentation Friday night of the convention. The screenings are tremendous fun - no one enjoys short scary movies like an audience of horror writers!
I've been fortunate enough to have served as a judge each year of Final Frame, which means I've seen dozens of incredible short movies from all over the world.
This year's winner, "Abracitos" (it's the photo above), came from Spain, Directed by Tony Morales, it's a taut little gem about two sisters dealing with the unthinkable on multiple levels. It won both the judges' Grand Prize and the Audience Award. The other award winners from this year were "You Wouldn't Understand", a hybrid combining black comedy and science fiction, and "Joanne is Dead", about an elderly patient in a memory care facility whose memories may be shockingly accurate.
I do have one stand-out favorite from the six years of Final Frame: Michael Shlain's "In a Foreign Town", adapted from the works of Thomas Ligotti. Yeah, okay - I've got strange tastes, and this one did not win the Grand Prize, but I found it gorgeous and haunting. You can see it below.
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"In a Foreign Town"
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The Halloween Spirit
Tips for keeping it going all year 'round
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It's time to start planning for Halloween!
I know - most of you are thinking, "But it's almost half-a-year away!" Well, for me it's never too early to start Halloween plans, but it can be fun for anyone.
This year in particular we hope to see a return to a more "normal" Halloween, with the pandemic receding into the background and neighborhoods coming together again, as well as large scale events. I've already begun scheduling media interviews for October, but here are some other fun things I'm setting up:
- A trip to Irving, Texas, to be a Guest at the first Preserve Halloween Festival
- Shopping sales to add fun stuff to my yard haunt
- Re-designing the yard haunt a bit because we liked some of what we did last year, despite making the haunt accessible only for street viewing
- I'm (of course!) already growing my 2021 pumpkins (this year I planted earlier and I'm trying a special fertilizer, so we'll hope for good results by fall).
Give yourself a touch of that Halloween spirit and start thinking about your holiday now. Hey - the Spirit Halloween stores will be open before you know it!
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Strange Doings
The weirdest thing I've recently uncovered in my research
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There are a lot of haunted lighthouses, but none is more intriguing than California's Battery Point Lighthouse.
I recently did some research into haunted lighthouses for a "Ghost Report", and the story of Crescent City's Battery Point Lighthouse was both the strangest and most tragic one I discovered.
Originally built in 1856, this lighthouse sits atop an islet that is only accessible when the tide is out; the isthmus leading to it is completely submerged when the water comes back in. The name Battery Point derives from three cannons that were rescued from a ship sunk in the harbor in 1855 and mounted on the point; the cannons are long gone now, but the name remains.
Although the lighthouse was automated in 1953, a museum was set up at the location and live-in curators were acquired. In 1964, the curators, Clarence and Peggy Coons, awoke in the middle of the night to witness a terrifying tsunami rush in to batter Crescent City. Here's Peggy's description of watching the water recede before the tsunami struck:
"The water withdrew as if someone had pulled the plug. It receded a distance of three-quarters of a mile from the shore. We were looking down, as though from a high mountain, into a black abyss. It was a mystical labyrinth of caves, canyons, basins, and pits, undreamed of in the wildest of fantasies."
Eleven people died in the resulting tsunami, although Peggy and Clarence were unharmed.
Given its incredible history, it's no surprise that the Battery Point Lighthouse is said to be haunted. Curators and visitors have reported the sound of footsteps on the lighthouse stairs and the scent of cigar smoke; one paranormal team claimed to have detected the spirits of two adults and one child.
Whether you believe in the paranormal or not, the Battery Point Lighthouse has a fascinating history, and I look forward to visiting it the next time I'm at the northern end of California.
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Interview with Adam Hart and Benjamin T. Rubin
(for Nightmare Magazine May 2021 issue)
I've never talked about the interviews I do for Nightmare Magazine, so I thought it might be of interest to learn a little more about what goes into these interviews.
They usually start with Nightmare's editor Wendy Wagner reaching out to me to ask if I'm available to do one for an upcoming issue. If I am, we'll throw around some names until we hit one we both think would make for a wonderful interview.
One of the fun things about Nightmare is that the interviews are not confined only to horror writers; in the past I've interviewed graphic novelists, filmmakers, and even the proprietors of a horror prop rental house.
When Wendy last approached me about an interview, I'd recently done a panel with Adam Hart and Ben Rubin, the two gentlemen who are the heart of the University of Pittsburgh's George A. Romero Archives. I knew they were interested in using the Romero material as the foundation for assembling a significant horror collection (they hope to make it the world's largest), so I thought they'd be fun to talk to. Wendy agreed.
I started by reading Adam's book on horror media, Monstrous Forms: Moving Image Horror Across Media, and I read everything I could find online with either of them. I thought about how to frame the questions to garner the most interesting responses; when I was happy with the questions, I e-mailed them to Ben and Adam. Upon receiving their answers, I edited and re-ordered things a bit until I was happy with the final product.
The interview can now be read here, and I hope you'll agree that these are two fascinating men involved in some amazing work.
By the way, if you'd like to know more about how to conduct interviews, I'll have an essay about this very subject in the forthcoming Writers Workshop of Horror 2, edited by Michael Knost. |
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I recently saw someone on Facebook complaining that they wanted to write but couldn't afford Microsoft Word.
Now, look - I know how hard things are right now for a lot of folks. I know how lucky and privileged I am to have a job, a roof over my head, food and companionship.
But I also know that I worked and sacrificed to reach this point. If there was an essential tool I needed for my writing to progress, I saved or owed to get it, or figured out a workable alternative.
Let's look at that person's excuse again: first off, since they posted a message to social media about this, we know they have an electronic device they can type on, so that part's taken care of.
What about alternatives to Microsoft Word? I've written on Word Pad (which comes free with Windows) and Open Office, an excellent suite of programs that's very close to Microsoft Office and is also free. I have friends who love Google Docs, another one that's free. Sorry, I'm all PC so I can't speak to Mac users.
Here's where you have to be careful: while any of those programs are good for basic writing and will create a document file that you can submit, you might encounter issues after you sell the story.
Huh? I hear you saying. How could that be a problem? Because your editor may give you back a file that makes use of Microsoft Word's ability to track changes.
I frequently go through editors' suggested changes on my stories. Word's comments and track changes functions are second nature to me by now, but they really are useful and, if you plan on pursuing writing seriously, you'll need to know how to use those features. Once you have Word, you'll catch on pretty quickly.
Word Pad can't track changes. I don't know how well Google Docs interfaces with that. Open Office seems to handle it pretty well.
But if you want to be 100% safe, you need Microsoft Word. If money's an issue, fine - buy a used copy. You don't need the most recent release. Heck, I'm running Microsoft Word 2007 (gasp!) on the machine I'm typing on right now. I just glanced at ebay and saw used copies of Word 2007 for under twenty bucks (although you'll need to have a machine with a DVD drive to install that).
The point is: you need the right tools for the right job, and writing is no exception.
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WIP It
My current works-in-progress
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My essay "When the Final Girl Grows Up" will be "The H-Word" entry in the October issue of Nightmare.
Two anthologies featuring my work - Sisterhood and Under Twin Suns - are now available.
My StokerCon reading is now live for all to see! I chose to read the title story from Night Terrors & Other Tales; the reading is followed by a Q&A moderated by Carina Bissett. You can watch just below or on YouTube.
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Reading the title story from my collection Night Terrors & Other Tales, followed by a Q&A
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Night Terrors & Other Tales
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This, my first major non-themed collection, is now available. Includes twenty reprints plus one new story, "Night Terrors", written for the collection.
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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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The Halloween Encyclopedia (Japanese edition)
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Click the link below to order a signed (and inscribed, if you'd like!) Japanese edition of The Halloween Encyclopedia.
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Includes my story "Antonia and the Stranger Who Came to Los Feliz".
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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 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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My story "Robert Chambers Reads The King in Yellow" appears in this wonderful new anthology.
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Includes my short story "Etain and the Holy Ghosts."
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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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You KNOW we gotta celebrate the release of the collection by giving away a signed one! Just click the blue button below to enter for your chance at winning.
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