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Hi Gang!
Well, this summer feels...ummmm...rather different from this time last year. California is now mostly vaccinated and maskless; we're proceeding cautiously but optimistically as we start to open up again. I just did my first signing and my first television taping in over a year, and both were strange and wonderful.
Most of June went to creating a massive nonfiction book proposal, which was turned in yesterday. If you've got a spare pair of digits, please cross them for me! This book would be a dream come true.
I also finally signed a podcasting deal that's been in negotiation for months. Apparently it's going to get a big splashy rollout soon...I look forward to sharing news about it here.
Until then, stay cool, stay healthy, and have a wonderful Fourth of July. I don't know about you, but I feel a LOT more like celebrating this year.
Lisa
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Still Life
In which I rhapsodize about favorite movie photos from my collection
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Yesterday I was chatting about childhood favorite television shows with friends, and it got me to thinking about The Million Dollar Movie.
When I was a kid growing up in the SoCal area, The Million Dollar Movie came on every day at 3 p.m. (on channel 5 or 9). Keep in mind this was back not just before streaming or DVDs, but even before VCRs. Yep, the only way to see something was to wait for it to show up on television.
The Million Dollar Movie would run the same movie every day for a week (or, at least, Monday through Friday). If it was a movie I loved and it was summer and I was out of school, this was great because I could watch it five times in a single week, HURRAH!
One of my favorite movies that I'd watch every time it came on was Journey to the Center of the Earth, with James Mason, Arlene Dahl, Pat Boone, and a lot of reptiles dressed up as dinosaurs (and I'll argue that Journey is one of the few films to do this well). Jules Verne's novel was the first adult novel I read, and even though the movie veers away from it in some major ways, it's a fine adaptation.
Fortunately, Journey to the Center of the Earth isn't one of those movies you love as a kid and then you watch it decades later and roll your eyes. I still love Journey's sense of discovery, its magnificent sets and locations, the cast, Gertrude the duck, and of course that brilliant Bernard Herrmann score.
And now I can watch it whenever I want!
About the Still: this is an original British lobby card from my files. You can tell it's British 'cause "Center" is spelled funny. ;)
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The Halloween Spirit
Tips for keeping it going all year 'round
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Like most of the rest of the planet, I spend too much time on social media.
But oh, how I do love some of the Facebook groups I belong to. There are writing groups. There are native plant gardening groups. And of course there are Halloween groups...as in, LOTS of Halloween groups.
There are groups dedicated to the history of Halloween, to haunters, and to Halloween movies and books, but my favorites are the ones devoted to Halloween collectibles. The joy sometimes shared on these pages is palpable; you can feel the excitement as someone describes coming away with a rare find from a garage sale or Grandma's attic. One person recently told a story about spotting an unusual jack-o'-lantern on the side of the freeway, and pulling over to retrieve it.
Like the holiday itself, I find these groups just a constant delight.
Here a couple you might enjoy...you know, just in case you need one more reason to waste time on social media:
Halloween Antiques Buy/Sell/Trade
Halloween Antiques
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Strange Doings
The weirdest thing I've recently uncovered in my research
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Werewolves? In the 21st century?
Yes, really.
I know, I was shocked to discover how many reported modern sightings there are of werewolves or "dogmen". There are little pockets, like northwestern Pennsylvania, where there seem to be lots of encounters, but there are even reports from places like Reseda, located in the middle of the San Fernando Valley (and about ten minutes from me!). The Reseda sighting came with an odd twist: the creature clawed trees in a public park, which then died and had to be removed.
There's even a group called the NADP, or North American Dogman Project. Their website has an archive of newspaper articles, an interactive map of sightings across the U.S., and - creepiest of all - some seriously bizarre audio clips (I don't ever want to meet whatever made that howl in Cincinnati).
Maybe it's time to invest in that silver-headed cane...
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"Night Terrors"
(from my collection Night Terrors & Other Tales)
Way back in 2019, I woke up one morning only to be told that I'd screamed in my sleep. I had no memory whatsoever of anything disturbing in the night, neither a bad dream nor my own horrible sound.
That experience left me disturbed (how could I not know I'd done that? and why did I feel great the next morning?), and when a writer is disturbed...well, you can guess what we do. Yeah...we write about it.
I imagined a world where everyone started doing this, all with no memory of it. What if it spread, like a virus? What if a walk along a nighttime suburban street was punctuated with screams? And, worst of all: what if those who unburdened themselves with this at night became happier and happier, even as the world became worse and worse?
I wanted the lead character to be someone who was concerned about the world already, who was in a new-ish relationship that this shrieking plague would threaten to upset. All of these factors combined to give me a way to build the dread and the tension within the story.
Here's the weirdest part: as I mentioned above, I wrote the story in 2019, as the one new story that would crown my collection (the just-released Night Terrors & Other Tales). I didn't think much about it again until earlier this year, when I decided to perform a reading of the story for StokerCon. When I re-read the story, I was struck by how much like our real pandemic it was. I was sure everyone would think I wrote it during lockdown, that it was really about Covid.
I suppose it's okay if it's read that way, but...well, it kind of gave me chills for a different reason.
You can hear my reading of the story in the video below. |
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Reading the title story from my collection Night Terrors & Other Tales, followed by a Q&A
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Let's talk about those pesky little word counts.
Sometimes non-writing friends ask me how many pages something of mine runs, and I just stare at them blankly. In the wild world of writing, we count the number of words, not pages. Why? Because the number of pages will change dramatically from manuscript to final layout, but the word count will stay the same. Writers (at least for short fiction) are paid by the number of words, not the amount of pages (although some markets pay flat fees).
If you've dipped your toe into the marketing waters yet, you know that most submission guidelines come with preferred word counts - short stories will usually want somewhere from 3,500 to 6,000 words. But how long should a novella be? What's a novelette?
Here's how Wikipedia defines the forms:
- Novel - 40,000 words or over
- Novella - 17,500 to 39,999 words
- Novelette - 7,500 to 17,499 words
- Short Story - 20 to 7,500 words
Here's where things can get confusing, though: most markets combine novella and novelette, some markets call either or both of these "long fiction", and some markets want flash fiction (usually under 1,000 words, although it can be even less). Most publishers want novels that are more than twice the length indicated here, although that can vary depending on genre (young adult, for example, can be shorter).
The rule of thumb is simple: when in doubt, check the guidelines. And for the love of all the writing gods, FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES. If the guidelines say a market isn't accepting things under 3,500 words, don't send them a 2,000 word story (for that matter, don't send them a 3,499 word story - heck, just add an adjective or two!). I'm hearing from more and more editors these days that they are immediately rejecting stories that don't match the guidelines, and word count is one of the easiest things to check.
A final note: I just heard the old conflict arise once again about whether to use an exact word count or indicate your count as "Approx. <X> words." Personally, I don't see any reason to use the "Approx" thing, which dates back to those days of yore before computers when writers had to use a formula (250 words per double-spaced page) to guess at their word count. Nowadays, when word processing programs automatically give you accurate word counts, there's no reason not to use the exact count. |
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WIP It
My current works-in-progress
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Right now there's not much I can tell you about, although good things are happening!
I shot an interview for a documentary coming to The Travel Channel this October, but it's really unusual and I'm sworn to secrecy!
I finally signed a contract for a podcast I've been negotiating since last year.
And I finished a proposal for what I hope will be the biggest book I've ever done. Wish me luck!
Oh, and here's a new website promoting me as a supernatural expert: thesupernatural.guru
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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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I've got an extra copy of the Haunted Library of Horror Classics' forthcoming release of Robert W. Chambers's classic collection The King in Yellow, with a new introduction by Nic Pizzolatto, creator of True Detective. Just click the blue button below to enter for your chance to win!
(Sorry, the Queen in Yellow - er, I mean my cat Pinky - is not included in the giveaway.)
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