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Hi Gang!
June...uhhhh...a dark month for American history, to be sure. 'Nuff said.
On the good side was the explosive popularity of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill," blasting back from the past of 1985 thanks to its use in Stranger Things. For those of you who don't know, I'm an absolute Kate Bush fanatic going waaaay back, so it's been incredibly exciting to see her classic song take over charts all around the world and introduce her to millions of new fans. If you'd like read about the time I flew to London to see her in concert, click here.
I'll be doing a couple of cool appearances in July, at both ComicCon and Midsummer Scream. Meanwhile, work continues on the Big Book Project of 2022, as well as the usual amount of smaller projects.
I hope you're surviving the summer heat, wherever you are. Here in Southern California the three-digit temperatures set in earlier every year - and go on longer - thanks to climate change. Stay cool!
Lisa
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Still Life
In which I rhapsodize about favorite movie photos from my collection
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For my friend Greg...
Back in the summer of 1979, I was in my third year of college studying filmmaking and screenwriting...and feeling increasingly irritated with what I was - or was not - learning. Here I was three years into this major and we were still making movies with cheapass 8 mm. cameras. At the end of that semester I went to the dean of the filmmaking department and asked, "When are we going to learn techniques we could actually use to get a job in Hollywood?"
The Dean responded, "Don't worry about it - none of you will ever get a job in Hollywood anyway."
I walked away from that meeting knowing I was done with college.
I was a movie-loving kid (still not a legal adult yet) who'd been hanging out at west coast sci-fi conventions for about five years at that point, collecting movie posters and meeting people. One of the people I met was a guy named Greg Jein. Greg was a friendly, funny collector who ended up inviting a few of us to work for him sometime. Greg, as it happened, was one of the world's greatest modelmakers, already legendary in 1979 for stuff like Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
I took Greg up on his offer, and mere days after I was told by a college dean that I'd never work in the film biz, I was working for Greg on Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
I knew I wasn't destined to be a modelmaker forever - I didn't begin to have the mad skills that somebody like my friend Bill George had - but I wanted any job I could get in the business so I could become a screenwriter. I learned so much from Greg, probably more than he realized. I got to work for him again on Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Special Edition, and for the next four decades we ran into each other a lot, at events around Hollywood. I always loved seeing him, and we always had wonderful chats.
Those early jobs paved the way for EVERYTHING: they led to my screenwriting gigs in the late '80s and early '90s, which led to my prose writing in the '90s, which led to...here, today.
I always loved this photo of Greg, pulling another all-nighter on Close Encounters, buried in the half-finished Mothership. RIP, Greg. I have no idea why you offered a barely-twentysomething girl a job on a big movie, but I'm incredibly grateful that you did, just as I know a lot of other people are equally thankful for your generous spirit.
About the Photo: Shot by me, with one of my old Canon SLR's, very late one night in 1980. If you'd like to see more of my photos from CE3K:TSE, click here.
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The Halloween Spirit
Tips for keeping it going all year 'round
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Is there any better way to represent the Halloween spirit than creative presents?
This is one that I recently received and I absolutely adore it! It was made by artist Rae Davis, and presented to me by filmmaker Linda Palmer-Cardone, who recently interviewed me for her "Halloween Obsessed" series. The piece celebrates my (very small!) yard haunt, the Septo Cemetery, and incorporates pieces from the haunt.
Huge thanks to both Linda and Rae for this beautiful piece that really captures some of my favorite things about Halloween.
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Strange Doings
The weirdest thing I've recently uncovered in my research
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Did you know that Southern California has a historic - and supposedly haunted - structure that is colloquially called "the Suicide Bridge"?
You may have noticed it if you've ever driven east along the 134/210 freeway, just to the south of the freeway. Its proper name is the Colorado Street Bridge, and it crosses the Arroyo Seco. Built in 1912, the bridge spans 1,468 feet and its maximum height is 150 feet. Almost right from its opening, its been used by people to end their lives; even though tall fences now line the bridge, it still serves this tragic purpose from time to time. Hence its nickname.
It's also supposed to be haunted; visitors have claimed to see figures leaping from the bridge but never landing. I've heard of paranormal investigations that have resulted in some crazy recordings and EMF readings.
I recently visited the bridge with K-2 meters, cameras, a spirit (or ghost) box, my partner Ricky and friend Kate Maruyama. We arrived at dusk, first heading to the Desiderio Park beneath the bridge, then going up at full night to walk the bridge itself.
The park is lovely, the bridge magnificent, and towering over it all is the Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals, another historic building that was part of the inspiration for my novel The Castle of Los Angeles. The site dates back to 1882, has been added onto and remodeled over the decades, and has served as a resort hotel, a World War II military hospital, and now a courthouse. One source told me that it was a secret dry-out hideaway for celebrities in the 1920s and '30s, and that it housed many dead servicemen during World War II.
Did we experience anything during our visit? Not on the bridge...but the lovely house that sits just to the east of the bridge set off the K-2 meters like crazy. Old wiring? Maybe...although the meters didn't react to a plainly-labeled electrical access. Hmmm....
Even without ghosts, this area is well worth a visit. With the ghost stories, though, it's like a trip through living folklore.
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"Hollywood Dirt"
(originally published in the Green Ink donation book, reprinted in Tales of Dread)
Last year I was invited to participate in a lovely fundraiser called Green Ink Sponsored Write, to support Macmillan Cancer Support. The idea was unique: a group of writers would all be given a single word and a specified time; at the time, they would log onto a livestream and write a story using the word. At the end of the event, the stories would be gathered together and placed into an anthology that would be given to donors.
I was unable to make the specified time, but the organizers were kind enough to let me write the story instead at a time of my choosing. I tried to follow the same time constraints the other authors were working under, using the same word.
The word was "shoot."
I figured most authors would use the word's association to guns to pen an action or mystery piece, so I decided to avoid that. I briefly considered doing a story involving gardening - you know, as in a new shoot of a plant - but I ended up realizing, Heck, I live in L.A. and I've worked in the film business - I need to do a movie shoot story.
So I thought about the various jobs I've held in Hollywood - I've been everything from a modelmaker (see the " Still Life" column above) to an associate producer - and settled on doing something involving being an extra. Extras are the most thankless job on a movie shoot; they get paid little and are frequently treated like cattle. Many extras still hope for an acting career, even as they age out of roles for younger actors.
"Hollywood Dirt," then, is about an actress on the verge of desperation who lands work as an extra for a famous director. As the shoot begins to decay into something that the actress realizes is not a normal movie shoot, she goes along with it...until she realizes it's all gone too far and she won't be coming home from this job.
Fortunately that last part is NOT autobiographical! |
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A while back in this newsletter, I talked about things that every new writer should have, whether they think they need them or not. Two of those things were a bio and a headshot.
I decided to revisit that because of how often I am involved with books where I seem to be the only contributor who has actually sent in their bio and headshot. Really, I have seen publication times held up because not one, not two, but many contributors hadn't sent in their bio.
THIS. SHOULDN'T. BE. HARD.
You should ALWAYS have a current bio set up on your computer/phone/cloud storage; if you've got a website (and you should have one!), your bio should be posted there (and kept up to date). In fact, you should have two bios: one that's 150 words or less (the preferred length for most books and magazines), and one that lists more of your accomplishments. My short bio is prominently placed right on the front page of my website; my longer bio and headshot are on the "About Lisa" page. In case you don't feel like clicking, here's my short bio (which is 131 words long):
Lisa Morton is a screenwriter, author of non-fiction books, and prose writer whose work was described by the American Library Association’s Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror as “consistently dark, unsettling, and frightening.” She is a six-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award®, the author of four novels and over 150 short stories, and a world-class Halloween and paranormal expert. Her latest releases include Night Terrors & Other Tales, Weird Women 2 (co-edited with Leslie S. Klinger), and Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances; recent short stories appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2020, Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles, and Classic Monsters Unleashed. Forthcoming in August 2022 is Haunted Tales: Classic Stories of Ghosts and the Supernatural. Lisa lives in Los Angeles and online at www.lisamorton.com.
In case you're just starting out and thinking you'll have a hard time filling out 150 words - let alone anything longer - hey, you don't need a lot of sales to make a bio interesting. Include fun tidbits about your hobbies, your family, your goals...you can make your bio intriguing enough that someone reading it might want to seek out more of your work, even if there isn't much more.
You should also have a good headshot ready to go. As noted above, I keep mine right on the "About Lisa" page; I've also linked it to a high-res version that's suitable for printing purposes (meaning it's at least 300 DPI in quality). In case someone doesn't like my chosen headshot, I've got a "Gallery" of other images they can pull from.
Remember, your headshot might be the first time a reader sees you in the flesh, so take the time (and, if needed, expense of hiring a good photographer) to get a great photo. Do you really want to use that selfie you shot at the party, or that blurry thing your friend took of you at a convention? No, and it's possible that editors/publishers will tell you they can't use that anyway.
Don't be that writer who holds up publication because you don't have a bio and/or headshot available!
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WIP It
My current works-in-progress
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The big news this month is the release of the anthology Tales of Dread, which I edited, published, and contributed a story to. This is the debut volume in a line of anthologies created by members of the Wily Writers group, so be sure to check out all of the upcoming releases.
The Halloween season is starting early this year! Here I am discussing the holiday's history at The Today Show's website.
Here I am chatting with Hilary Wilson about seances for The Folklore Podcast.
The upcoming anthology Shakespeare Unleashed (which will include my short story based on Titus Andronicus) funded in less than a day but is still going strong!
Meanwhile, the non-fiction anthology Subversive Sci-fi successfully completed its Kickstarter campaign, so you'll soon be able to read my essay on Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind in that book. You can see me on an episode of The Ghost Show talking about the essay.
I appeared live on the cool radio show Pop Culture Kaboom, but you can still hear it here.
My short story "Halloween at the Babylon" will be appearing in the forthcoming anthology Literally Dead: 13 Tales of Halloween Hauntings, edited by Gaby Triana.
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Haunted Tales: Classic Stories of Ghosts and the Supernatural
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My Ghost Stories partner Les Klinger and I have re-teamed for a new anthology of more classic horror tales. Coming in August 2022.
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Working with members of the Wily Writers writing group, I created this small anthology that marks the first in a series of Wily Writers Presents books, all with different editors and stories. Includes my story "Hollywood Dirt." Available in print or e-book.
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Classic Monsters Unleashed
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Coming in 2022...includes my Headless Horseman tale, "Hacking the Horseman's Code".
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Includes my (science fiction!) story "Touch Has a Memory".
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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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This Bram Stoker Award-nominated anthology includes my story "The Garden of Dr. Moreau".
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Professor Charlatan Bardot's Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World
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Includes my short story "The Gulch". The book was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award.
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I've got a signed print copy of my new anthology Tales of Dread for one lucky winner this month, so click the blue button below to enter and good luck!
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