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Hi Gang!
Hurrah - the Halloween season has officially arrived! My local Spirit Halloween store has opened (you can check their Store Locator here to see if yours has yet), Big Lots once again has the weirdest Halloween stuff around, the Pumpkin Spice Latte is back at Starbucks, and I just ordered limited edition Halloween tops for my glasses.
It hasn't all been fun and games lately, though. I pitched a new non-fiction book to a fabulous publisher I'd love to work with, and now we wait to see if the proposal can climb all the way to the top of the editorial/acquisitions ladder. Meanwhile, work continues on the big 2022 book project. And I even got some good health news, with my doctor thinking I'm on the path to a future free of kidney stones.
I hope your late summer has been equally fun and productive!
Lisa
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Still Life
In which I rhapsodize about favorite movie photos from my collection
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The original 1978 classic Dawn of the Dead in 3D? WHUUUTT?!
Yep, it was just announced: for four days only this October (the 28th through the 31st), Regal Theaters will be running a newly-converted 3D version of George A. Romero's masterpiece.
I've talked about Dawn of the Dead here before (it's one of my favorite movies), so I'll try not to repeat myself.
I have mixed feelings about this release. On the one hand, will converting a 44-year-old movie to 3D really work, or add to the experience of it? On the other hand...it's DAWN OF THE FREAKING DEAD! Any excuse to see it again is good by me. Unfortunately those are four of my busiest days of the year, so I don't know that I'll be able to make a screening...but that doesn't mean the rest of you can't go and tell me if it worked or not.
ABOUT THE STILL: This is a German lobby card. Note the European title of Zombie...which led to considerable confusion when both George Romero and Lucio Fulci released follow-up films (Romero did Day of the Dead in 1985 and Fulci released Zombi 2 in 1979).
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The Halloween Spirit
Tips for keeping it going all year 'round
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I collect Halloween Tarot decks.
I'll bet some of you are simultaneously thinking, "Well of course you do!" and "Wait - decks, as in, there are more than one?" Weirdly enough, yes - there are quite a few Halloween-themed Tarot decks out there.
I'm not a skilled Tarot card reader, nor do I really believe that any form of cards can accurately predict the future. I do, however, go along with the notion that Tarot decks employ archetypes that can assist a good reader in contemplating the present.
And then there's the design of the 78 cards. I love artistic decks; it's like having 78 separate but themed art prints.
My most recent acquisition is the Trick or Treat Tarot, which I received an advance copy of (it will be officially released on September 8). This is a whole Tarot set, which includes a complete deck and a book presented in a custom box. Truthfully...I am knocked out by this whole presentation! The art by Jonathan Hunt is lovely - colorful, whimsical, and full of nods to classic characters (Frankenstein's monster, Baron Samedi, the Sanderson sisters and The Cat in the Hat are all here). Barbara Moore's text is thoughtful and informative - I love the notion that this, being a trick or treat deck, might align use of the tarot with explorations of identity. Even the box is gorgeous, with a ribbon pull inside and a magnetic closure.
I've definitely got a new favorite Halloween deck!
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Strange Doings
The weirdest thing I've recently uncovered in my research
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The Estes Method.
It sounds like some kind of medical procedure or something, doesn't it? Instead, it's a method of using a spirit box in paranormal investigations.
I'm assuming you all know what spirit boxes are (that's one I'm holding in the photo above) - just in case, they're devices that rapidly scan radio frequencies, creating a wash of white noise which words occasionally break through. Are those words just the scanner stumbling on a regular radio show...or are they spirits using the electromagnetic radiation to form words?
Spirit boxes are particularly prone to pareidolia, that phenomenon by which the human brain seeks to find sense in nonsense. This means that if you are holding a spirit box and ask if there are any spirits present who would like to talk, the spirit box might blurt out something indecipherable that you'll hear as a "yes."
To get around this, three investigators who were working at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado (hence this method's name) in 2016 came up with the following: one person would be designated the operator, and would ask the questions, while a second team member - the receiver - would be blindfolded and wear noise-canceling headphones connected directly to the spirit box. This would theoretically rule out pareidolia since the receiver wouldn't know what question had just been asked.
Investigators have been using this method - which is sometimes said to yield "stunning" results - since. Is it actually stunning? Well, you can check out the plethora of YouTube and TikTok videos out there labeled "Estes Method" to judge for yourself.
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"M. Anastasius"
(by Dinah Mulock, annotated by me and Leslie S. Klinger for inclusion in our book Haunted Tales)
Usually in this space I talk about a story I've written, but this month I'm going to talk instead about a story by another author - Dinah Mulock - that appears in my new book Haunted Tales.
There are a number of reasons I'm excited to talk about this incredible story. First off, it has an amazing history: in 1855, Charles Dickens pulled it out of a slushpile of submissions to his magazine Household Words, and called it the best ghost story ever written...and yet it's now almost completely unknown.
So how did we find it for Haunted Tales? I knew that some of the best ghost stories of the 19th century had appeared in the Christmas annuals of the magazines edited by Dickens, so I started digging to see if there were some we'd missed. In a book of Dickens's correspondence I stumbled across his letter mentioning this remarkable story, which did not appear in one of his Christmas issues but was instead found in a March 1855 Household Words, under the simple title "A Ghost Story." Two years later the author republished it in her own collection (Nothing New) under the title "M. Anastasius" (she also made a few other minor changes to the story). To further add to the confusion, Mulock got married in 1865 and so is now also known as Dinah Craik.
I read the story and immediately said to Les, "WE ARE USING THIS!" (fortunately he agreed). The story is not just great but still feels amazingly relevant: it's about a woman who has grown up under the care of a domineering guardian (the title character) who continues to exercise influence on her even after his death. It's all about how men try to dominate women - in a thousand small ways and some very big ways - and it's also eerie and tragic. I loved it right away and it's one of my favorite recent discoveries.
If it's so good (it is!), why isn't it better known? My theory on why many of these 19th-century tales aren't more widely read these days is that the authors wrote in such a variety of genres. Genre labels didn't exist 150 years ago, and authors usually wrote all kinds of stories. What this means is that somebody like Mulock produced one ghost story; she never published a collection themed entirely around supernatural or ghost stories. I suspect the reputation of someone like M. R. James rests on the fact that his collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary makes it easy to find his horror fiction.
I hope the appearance of "M. Anastasius" in Haunted Tales will help more readers discover Dinah Mulock's neglected gem.
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Marketing and publicity...
I recently handed a book proposal over to a pretty big publisher, and they came back with a couple of things they wanted me to add:
- Marketing - what could be done to spread the word to consumers? (Newsletters, social media, etc)
- Publicity - Why you would be considered a subject matter expert, your media contacts and social media influencers who could help promote.
I'm lucky enough to have been at this game long enough that I was able to give them three pages of material here...but it started me thinking about how I'd go about this if I was a new author.
If you are just starting out and get asked to supply this kind of stuff, don't despair! If you've planned a little bit ahead, you can still offer very solid material that will tell the publisher you're serious. A few tips:
- Hopefully you've already been working on your social media presence. What's important here is not just your own posts, but how you've interacted with others. If you've been a consistent presence - a GOOD presence - in the accounts of other authors, they've probably noticed...and will be likelier to help you out if you ever need to ask for a blurb or sharing.
- Do you have a newsletter (like this one)? Contrary to what you might be thinking, it's never too early in your career to start one. You can grow subscribers via giveaways, swaps with other authors, sign-ups on your website and social media accounts, and in-person events like festivals and conventions.
- Do you have a real interest in something that might relate to your writing - something paranormal, maybe, or true crime-related? If so, cultivate that! Blog about it. Post free documents to Scribd. Share news about information you uncover. Put together a podcast. All of those things will create searchable tracks for you that a publisher will appreciate seeing.
For a lot of us, marketing and publicity are not skills that come naturally, but if you want to succeed as a writer - meaning that you want to garner readers and make some money in the process - you'll have to acquire these skills. If you do it creatively and amiably, you might even discover you enjoy it!
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WIP It
My current works-in-progress
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Haunted Tales is officially loose in the world now! It recently got some nice love at LitHub, who listed it as "21 New Books to Take Home and Love" and who also shared the included story "A Haunted House" by Virginia Woolf.
So happy to have both Ghost Stories and my Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel The Castle of Los Angeles available now in audiobook form!
Look for a forthcoming announcement from Crystal Lake's Dark Tide series about my next novella.
The first trailer for Halloween Obsessed Haunted Attractions (in which I appear) is now available and you can see it just below.
My story "Murder in Xanadu" will appear in the Sisters in Crime L.A. anthology Entertainment to Die For.
I guested on an episode of the Do You Like Scary Movies? podcast.
I had such a great time at the Midsummer Scream Halloween Convention! It was a pleasure to deliver a presentation on the history of trick or treat to a packed ballroom, and I loved what Ted Dougherty had to say about the history of haunted attractions. Here's a recording of our presentation: Recording of the MSS panel. Also, Rue Morgue did a lovely write-up on the event here, complete with a nice pic of Ted and me.
Speaking of Rue Morgue...have I mentioned that I'm now doing film reviews for them? I just completed my sixth one, and I'm loving this gig!
I'll be part of the 2022 Green Ink Writers' Gym project to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.
I was quoted in this article on Vintage Halloween decorations at Today.com.
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Input caption text here. Use the block's Settings tab to change the caption position and set other styles.
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I recently acquired a large lot of my own books - these were all copies I sent my dad, but his old digs are being cleared out and these got returned to me. I've got nowhere to store them, so I'm making them available for purchase.
I've tried to price these books at or below what the cheapest copies are going for at major secondhand sites. I've also tried to describe them as accurately as possible, but feel free to e-mail for more info or photos.
Of course I'll be happy to personally inscribe anything. Thanks for taking a look!
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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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Now available! 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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A new volume of Weird Women, with stories by George Eliot, Edith Wharton, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and more!
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Here's the second in the Wily Writers series of anthologies, this one edited by the estimable Loren Rhoads and with my story "La Japonesa."
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Includes my ghostly tale "Halloween at the Babylon".
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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 and the World Fantasy Award.
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It's a hardback of the just released Haunted Tales: Classic Stories of Ghosts and the Supernatural signed by both editors! Just click the blue button below to enter and good luck!
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October 2, 2022, 3 pm: Reading and signing at The Village Well in Culver City.
June 15-18, 2023: I will be attending StokerCon 2023 in Pittsburgh, PA.
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