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Hi Gang!
So imagine it's a typical summer day, you're doing chores and thinking about what you need to work on next...and suddenly you get told that a project you've been working on for a year is launching NOW.
CRAAAAASH! Slam on the brakes, stop the presses, hold that tiger, and here it is:
My podcast Spine Tinglers is debuting TODAY as part of the brand new My Paranormal Network! From tomorrow on, you'll be able to tune in each week to hear a new story by me read by a celebrity reader! We launch with "The Basement" as read by Richard Grove (Army of Darkness). And check out some of the other podcasts at My Paranormal Network - I mean, is there one on that that DOESN'T sound awesome?
I'm so happy to finally be able to share this project that I wanted to get the newsletter out a few days early, so it might seem a little more terse than usual.
There's other good news to share with you, too (see the "WIP It" section below), but the podcast is the big one.
Thanks as always for coming along on this journey with me, and I hope your summer is healthy and (relatively) cool.
Lisa
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Still Life
In which I rhapsodize about favorite movie photos from my collection
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I love Mexican horror movies.
There've been some incredible horror movies coming out of Mexico over the last few years (I especially liked Tigers Are Not Afraid), but what I'm talking about here is a cycle of Gothic horror films produced in Mexico from 1957 to 1963. For those few brief years, Mexican cinema was filled with lush, moody, wonderfully lurid movies that were as atmospheric as the Universal horror classics of the 1930s and '40s, but were also nearly as graphic as the Hammer horror flicks happening concurrently in the U.K.
This cycle of movies included both Mexican takes on classics (the movie that inaugurated the cycle, 1957's El Vampiro, is obviously a Latin Dracula) and stories that were almost entirely about Mexican myths and legends.
My personal favorite from this cycle is 1961's La Maldicion de la Llorona, known in English as Curse of the Crying Woman (most of these Mexican movies were released in the U.S. in dubbed versions). What's remarkable to me about this movie is not just how it uses the backstory of La Llorona, one of the world's great ghost stories, but how both the protagonist and antagonist are women. The only other horror movie from the 1960s I can think of that centered on the relationship between two women is probably Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, and this one preceded that by a year.
The story is about a young woman, Amelia (beautifully portrayed by Rosita Arenas, who starred in a number of the films from this cycle), who has been called back to her childhood home by her sinister aunt Selma (the magnificent Rita Macedo). Turns out there's a curse on the family (La Llorona was their ancestor), but Selma hopes to turn that curse to her advantage...by using the innocent Amelia.
I don't want to tell you more right now because...well, I've got an article coming out soon in Rue Morgue Magazine about these incredible and overlooked films. Suffice to say that Curse of the Crying Woman has recently blown away a few of my friends who watched it on my recommendation; if you can see it in the restored and subtitled Casa Negra DVD release, do it.
About the Still: This is actually a frame grab from the movie. I have some original stills, but I don't like those as much as this haunting image of Amelia caught in the thrall of the familial curse.
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The Halloween Spirit
Tips for keeping it going all year 'round
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The annual Halloween shopping extravaganza has started!
I know, some of you are thinking, "THIS early?"
My answer, of course: IT'S NEVER TOO EARLY.
The first one out of the gate this year seems to be Home Goods. I picked up this adorable metal lantern for my garden and the Dia de los Muertos towels for the kitchen. I haven't seen stuff out in other stores yet...but SOON.
And let the countdown to the opening of the Spirit Halloween stores begin!
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Strange Doings
The weirdest thing I've recently uncovered in my research
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Is it just me, or does the woman in the portrait above not have a little sly look in her eyes?
She is a writer named Dinah Craik, nee Mulock. I'll be shocked if you've heard of her, because I hadn't until about a week ago.
Here's why she's interesting: in March of 1855, Charles Dickens was editing the magazine Household Words. One day he pulled a story out of the slush pile, read it, and pronounced it "the best ghost story that ever was written." He published the story in his magazine two weeks later. The story, called simply "A Ghost Story", was written by Dinah Mulock (who would later marry and become Dinah Craik).
Now, I dare you: go search everything online for Dinah Mulock and find a reference to "A Ghost Story". Go ahead, I'll wait.
Spoiler alert: you won't find anything. Okay, it's true that I'm cheating a little bit because Mulock did later retitle this story (and rewrite it slightly), and it has been reprinted a few times under the new title, "M. Anastasius".
Was Dickens right?
Yes. It's one of the best ghost stories I've ever read. How did I find it? I'm working on a new book (to be announced soon!) and was digging through the history of Dickens's magazines, hoping to hit paydirt and find a great, nearly unknown story. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
And yes, I will be using this story in the upcoming book. My co-editor on that book was as impressed by the story as I was. We can't wait to share it with new readers.
It makes you wonder how many other little masterpieces are languishing in the mists of history, doesn't it?
I like to imagine that Dinah looks a little pleased with herself in that portrait because she knows.
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"The Serpent's Tale"
(poem from the upcoming HWA Poetry Showcase Volume 8)
Let me start this by saying that I absolutely do NOT consider myself a poet. I have friends like Linda Addison and Marge Simon who are insanely gifted poets, and I stand in awe of their mad talents.
However, over the last few years I have discovered - somewhat to my surprise, in fact - that I occasionally like writing poetry. I like telling a story in as few words as possible, mainly by mood, created by language.
Years ago - probably something like fifteen - I was visiting the Los Angeles Public Library's website when I noticed something strange buried therein (and it's not there anymore): a mention of an urban legend about a secret doorway in the basement of the downtown L.A. library that led to an underground world of lizard people. Yes, this REALLY was right there on the library's website.
I of course was immediately obsessed. I dug into the history of this legend, and uncovered an astonishing tale of fraud and myth, much of it centered around a man named G. Warren Shufelt who claimed to be able to detect the location of hidden masses of gold stored up by these lizard or serpent people. Shufelt actually bilked the City of L.A. out of a bunch of money in a mad scheme to dig for the gold, then he vanished...but the legend of the serpent or lizard people did not.
I've always loved that idea, so I wrote a poem in which I tried to imagine the sleeping serpent people awakening beneath Los Angeles. I guess it wasn't terrible, because it was accepted for the 8th volume of HWA's Poetry Showcase series. The final book should be available sometime in the fall.
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What's your most valuable tool as a writer? Time.
I keep hearing from people who think I'm insanely prolific. I think of myself as someone who just loves what they do, but...okay, yeah, I guess I put out a lot of stuff.
People seem to be especially impressed by the fact that I have a full-time job (to say nothing of managing the care of an elderly relative), so I'm often asked where I find the time. Here are a few simple rules I live by that might help you manage your time as well:
LISA'S TOP FIVE RULES FOR FINDING TIME TO WRITE
- TV - This one's easy, and is always my #1 question to people who ask how I find the time to write: How much TV do you watch? Most Americans watch hours a day; I watch maybe three hours in a week, and often not even that. Do you have a ton of pay channels? I've got Netflix and Amazon Prime, and that's it. Sure, I'd love to see some of the great shows I keep hearing about on all the other channels...but I'd rather write.
- Social media - how much time a day do you spend cruising TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or whatever? Sure, watching your last post rack up likes is fun...but is it really a better use of your time than writing, especially if you're spending hours on it?
- Harness the power of the micro-session - do you sometimes find yourself with fifteen minutes during breaks or between chores or whatever? Okay, maybe that's not enough time to really write (or maybe it is), but you should be able to use that time to do something writing-related, whether it's research or jotting notes or whatever.
- Set deadlines for yourself - I'm at that point in my career where editors and publishers and producers are usually assigning me deadlines...but I also find it helpful to set deadlines for myself. It's amazing how motivating it can be to glance at a whiteboard on your desk or a calendar on your phone and see fast-approaching deadlines, even if they're just dates you set yourself.
- Gift yourself with a daily time for writing - In my case, my day job starts late and ends late, so I know my best time for getting stuff done is in the mornings. I try to finish other chores every morning as early as possible to guarantee that I have one uninterrupted hour to write. If you have just one hour a day dedicated solely to writing - one hour when you don't check social media, when you close your door and tell your family to avoid disturbing you - you might be amazed at how much you'll be able to accomplish.
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WIP It
My current works-in-progress
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What I'm working on now: a new short story for an anthology I was invited into with a most intriguing theme; reading classic stories for a new anthology; a new interview for Nightmare Magazine; and still waiting with bated breath on editorial feedback for a project that would be the biggest book I've ever done.
Weird Women Volume 2 just got a fabulous review in Publisher's Weekly: "Editors Morton and Klinger deliver another strong installment to their Weird Women anthology series...Weird fiction fans won’t want to miss this excellent survey of the genre’s female pioneers." (Weird Women Volume 2 will be out in September.)
My story from Speculative Los Angeles was one of Locus Magazine's "Recommended" picks!
Attack from the '80s, featuring my story "The Garden of Dr. Moreau", is now up for pre-order.
Check out this incredible video the publisher put together for my collection Night Terrors and Other Tales!
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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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Do me a favor this month and go check out my TOTALLY FREE podcast of brand spankin' new fiction! That's right, there'll be a new story every week...and did I mention they're FREE?
Here are some of the other stories and readers you'll be hearing over the next few months:
- "The Investigation" read by Bridget Marquardt (Ghost Magnet With Bridget Marquardt, The Girls Next Door)
- "Bruno" read by Rob Zabrecky (Penn and Teller: Fool Us, lead singer of Possum Dixon)
- "The Gargoyle" read by Naomi Grossman (American Horror Story)
- "Incident in a Drugstore Parking Lot" read by Dean Haglund (The X-Files)
- "Double Vision" read by Fiona Horne (author of Witch: A Magickal Journey, lead singer of DEF FX)
- "Renfield's Revenge" read by Del Howison (The Erotic Rites of Countess Dracula, co-owner of Dark Delicacies)
- "Toil and Trouble" read by Patti Negri (Ghost Adventures, The Witching Hour With Patti Negri)
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