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Hi Crew!
Has your summer been as strange as mine? Everything from unexpected rain (we just do NOT get that in summer in L.A.) to being at my first in-person convention for the first time in almost two years has left me reeling, sometimes from happiness (the convention, which was the Halloween-themed Awaken the Spirits) and sometimes not (a painful torn rotator cuff in my left shoulder that is most definitely not healing).
I can now announce that my editing partner Leslie S. Klinger and I will have a fourth volume of classic horror stories out in 2022 from Pegasus Books: Haunted Tales: Classic Stories of Horror and Suspense will collect such well-known authors as Oscar Wilde, H. G. Wells, F. Marion Crawford, Algernon Blackwood, Rudyard Kipling, and Virginia Wolfe alongside neglected talents like Dinah Mulock Craik, who I talked about in the last issue of this newsletter.
I'm also in one of those frustrating "hurry up and wait" periods that are so much a part of the writing gig. I'm waiting on multiple big deals...and waiting...and waiting...there are still a lot of little things popping, but the big projects will determine what becomes my main writing gig for a while, and I'm ready to move forward.
On the positive side, Halloween is coming! The Spirit Halloween stores are slow to open this year (I'm hearing it's a combination of no labor pool to hire from and broken supply chains), but the Halloween stuff is starting to show up now...and my calendar is rapidly filling up with interviews galore over the next ten weeks!
Oh, right - I've got a new book coming out next week! September 7 is the official release date of Weird Women Volume 2! See the Appearances section below for signings and interviews about the book.
BTW, here's something I never do and realize I probably should: I'd like to ask that if you've read one of my books, please consider leaving a review at Amazon or Goodreads or Barnes and Noble or Bookshop.org or wherever. Reviews can help an author at any of these sites, and you'll have my eternal gratitude if you take the time to leave one.
In the meantime, I hope you're all staying well and cool.
Lisa
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Still Life
In which I rhapsodize about favorite movie photos from my collection
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Who else remembers Richard Jordan?
I've been thinking about him lately because of the latest trailer for the upcoming new film version of Dune. This new trailer seems to lean heavily on Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho.
Now, I think that's perfectly fine casting - I like Momoa, although I'm less than enthused about the dude-bro action movie dialogue he's spouting in the trailer - but I loved Richard Jordan in the same part in David Lynch's 1984 Dune. Jordan completely embodied the character's blend of swashbuckling derring-do and complete dedication to the Atreides family.
However, I was already a big Jordan fan before that. I first adored him in Logan's Run; he took a cardboard villain's role and imbued him with humanity, allowing us to see how indoctrination had shaped the character; for me he stole the movie. I tracked down things he'd already down - a Western called Valdez is Coming, a cop thriller called The Friends of Eddie Coyle - and watched everything he did after. Jordan was a classically trained (Harvard) actor who was always fascinating.
There's more, though: when I was 17, I had a friend call me one day and tell me that Jordan was shooting a movie in an open park. I grabbed some stills I'd collected of him, we got in the car, drove to the park...and sure enough we found the production unit. They were about to finish for the day (the production was the t.v. miniseries Captains and the Kings, which Jordan starred in).
We waited until they finished shooting, then hung around within sight of Jordan's trailer. He came out, heading home, and we approached. Fortunately for us, he couldn't have been more gracious. He chatted with us and asked us questions and signed our photos.
Then an extraordinary thing happened: he looked at a photo I had from Valdez is Coming of him playing with a group of children. He stared at the photo and, quietly, began naming each of the children. He mentioned how much he'd loved being on the set around those kids, then looked up and asked if there was any chance I'd be willing to let him have that photo.
Of course I said yes. He was delighted, as was I. I snapped some shots of him with my goofy little Instamatic camera (see below).
Jordan died young, at 56, in 1993, of brain cancer. He never became the star that I thought his extraordinary talent deserved, but at least he left behind some memorable performances...and a memory of his kindness in a park to a teenage me.
About the Still: The above still is from a 1978 television version of Les Miserables that Jordan did with Anthony Perkins (Jordan played the hero, Jean Valjean; Perkins played Javert). A CBS tag on the back identifies the two. I barely remember this adaptation, so I looked up some reviews of it, and it's regarded as being one of the truest to the novel. The still below is one I took of Jordan that day in the park.
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The Halloween Spirit
Tips for keeping it going all year 'round
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I tried my first Halloween crafting this year.
I know, it probably sounds weird that I've never done the crafting thing, but that pesky imp called "time" has always gotten in the way before.
This year, though, I decided to try something. While shopping at the craft supply store Michael's, I saw an entire section of Halloween wreath-making supplies, so I decided to try that.
I loaded up on a basic black wreath, and a lot of the wreath geegaws, intending to supplement with more stuff I already had. I got home, spread it all out, and stared at it in perplexity. I'd never done this. It could only end in disaster, right?
Astonishingly, an hour later I had a Halloween wreath that I love! It turned out it wasn't that hard, and was fun to put together. Hmmmm...what crafting thing should I try next?
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Strange Doings
The weirdest thing I've recently uncovered in my research
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If you need anymore proof that ghost tourism is big, try googling "haunted bed and breakfast inns".
There are hundreds of them, all over the country. One of the most famous ones, though, is located less than two hours from me. It's also, I think, one of the strangest...
Bracken Fern Manor is a Tudor-style mansion located in the mountains around Lake Arrowhead. I spent a lot of time in the San Bernardino Mountains when I was a kid because Dad loved that area; the idea of there being a haunted Tudor-style mansion among all those pine trees and manzanitas seems totally bizarre to me. But then again, check out some of the history of this place:
Bracken Fern Manor is actually two houses, connected by a secret underground tunnel (not currently accessible). The place was either built by or run by famed gangster Bugsy Siegel. The main house is four stories, with the top floor having once housed a brothel Bugsy filled with Hollywood starlets.
The house is now said to be haunted by a number of spirits; the most popular seems to be Ralph, who was once a caretaker there but was killed by Bugsy's thugs when he fell for one of the girls. The mobsters pushed him out of a window, so Ralph is now frequently spotted around that window.
Then there's Violet, one of the prostitutes who is said to have killed herself. There have also been sightings of shadow people, and a Native American woman on the grounds around the buildings.
A stay in Bracken Fern Manor isn't cheap - it runs more than $1,200 for a single night. However, this October you can participate in a "lockdown" there, when you can either get a room for about $400, or for just $80 you can investigate the Manor without actually staying there.
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"Meeting Katie King"
(from the new anthology There is No Death There are No Dead)
When I was invited into a Spiritualism-themed anthology by editors Jess Landry and Aaron French, of course I had to say yes; after all, I'd just finished writing Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances, and my head was stuffed with Spiritualism stories.
I decided right off that I wanted to explore one of the elements of nineteenth-century Spiritualism that had most perplexed me as I'd researched the book: the Spiritualists' unwavering devotion to their beliefs, even when they were repeatedly debunked. They believed their religion could be proven scientifically, and yet it was disproven, over and over and over...but their intense belief persisted. How could they have simply ignored the evidence they were so frequently presented with?
At that point, I started to look at skeptical belief as well, and asked myself: what would it take to convince a true skeptic that the supernatural exists? Would they be just like the Spiritualists, doggedly clinging to their belief no matter what they experience?
One of my favorite mediums from the Victorian era was teenage Florence Cook, who claimed to be able to completely materialize her spirit guide Katie King. During a seance, Florence would be bound and placed in a "spirit cabinet", and after a while the white-robed spirit of Katie would emerge; those attending the seance were told that to break the circle to look into the spirit cabinet could cause the death of the medium, but that wasn't really even needed - they seemed happy to accept that Katie was an actual spirit from the great beyond, not just Florence in a get-up she'd snuck into the spirit cabinet.
From here on, it was easy to create a skeptic protagonist and put him into one of Florence's seances. I hope the theme of the importance of belief comes through; I feel like writing the story maybe made me understand the Spiritualists a little better.
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Writers' fears.
Do you sometimes find yourself stalled because of some fear or other? Maybe you suffer from imposter syndrome, that voice inside that tells you you're not really a writer. Or maybe you see the successes of other writers and feel like you don't stand a chance against them. Maybe you even think you're the only writer who feels this way.
The most important two-word response I can offer is: YOU'RE NOT.
I was recently chatting with a group of writer friends - these are mostly moderately successful writers in their 50s - about our worries. Yes, that's some bad news right there, because it means that these fears never go away. If you're a 25-year-old writer who figures you won't have to worry anymore at 50, think again. Your worries will just change, not vamoose out the door. Instead of wondering if you'll ever sell anything, you'll be concerned about your ability to continue selling. At 25, maybe you wonder if you can compete with the major writers; at 50, you'll wonder if you'll ever break through.
But the good news is this: you keep going. The writers I'm describing above have all kept at it for decades, and they have achieved some level of success; they've published multiple books, have editors and publishers they regularly work with, and readers who look forward to their next release. They've learned over time how to work with their own fears, how to stash them away in a mental corner so they can focus instead on what they love: being writers.
Don't let these fears crush you. Find your own path through their darkness. Talk to other writers. Realize there's nothing unusual about this, and it's only wrong if you let it overwhelm you.
Then go out and write the words that the world is waiting for.
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WIP It
My current works-in-progress
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Because we're now in the Halloween season, I'm spending every day off jabbering away on radio shows, podcasts, and television tapings. I can't wait to share news of one really crazy special coming on The Travel Channel next month!
I'll be a special Guest in Conversation at The Book Fest, happening October 23 and 24.
Here I am at the parenting website Romper helping kids to understand Halloween.
And here I am at MarthaStewart.com gabbing about bobbing for apples.
The academic journal Nova Religio just gave a very kind (and very long!) review to Calling the Spirits. "Calling the Spirits is an engaging read that provides a compelling overview of Spiritualism and its practice of seance-sitting. This work is remarkable in its scope, covering everything from necromancy inthe ancient world to nineteenth-century mediumship and psychical research on both sides of the Atlantic...Morton ends the book with a compelling meditation on why seances are necessary and why consultations with psychics are still, in many ways, as sought after as they were a century and a half ago. Hence, Morton tells the story of Spiritualism, writ large, in a highly readable book that provides a suc cinct, though impressively nuanced, summary of an otherwise sprawling social movement and religion."
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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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There Is No Death There Are No Dead
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Includes my story "Meeting Katie King".
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The DVD supplements include a lengthy conversation with me about Spiritualism, mediums, and seances on film.
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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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In Darkness, Delight: Fear the Future
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Includes my science fiction/horror crossover story "Airborne".
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Rue Morgue September/October 2021 issue
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Includes my article "Wailing Women and Vampire Queens: The Best Feminist Horror Movies from Mexico You’ve Never Seen"
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Be sure to tune in every week to hear a new scary story read by a new celebrity guest reader! And while you're at MyParanormal.net, be sure to check out my "Ghost Reports" on Ghost Magnet With Bridget Marquardt!
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Let's get this Halloween party started, by giving away a copy of the "Compact Edition" of Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween! And y'know what else? I'm gonna throw in a couple of secret, fun Halloween goodies for the lucky winner.
Just click the button to enter the contest!
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September 1: 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM Central Time - Les Klinger and I are interviewed on Culture Buzz for Weird Women 2. Broadcast regionally on KFMG 98.9 FM; Simultaneously streaming globally through www.kfmg.org. We're scheduled to be on at exactly 12:13 PM.
September 12, 3 pm: Les Klinger and I will be signing Weird Women 2 at Dark Delicacies in Burbank.
September 29, 7 pm: Les Klinger and I will be signing Weird Women 2 at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles.
October 23-24: I'll be a special Guest at The Book Fest (virtual)
October 25, 12 PM: I'll be doing a live virtual presentation for Viktor Wynd's Museum called "Every Day is Halloween", in which I'll explore the holiday's explosive growth over the last few decades
November 19-21, 2021: I'll be a Guest of Honor at the Halloween Preservation Festival in Irving, Texas
March 10-13 2022: I'll be visiting ChillerCon UK in Scarborough
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