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Hi Gang!
I sooooo wanted 2023 to start off better than 2022...and instead it's been an insane roller coaster, both one of the best months of my life and one of the worst. First, the worst: on January 8th I tested positive for Covid, and one day later I was told that my mother, who lived in a memory care residence, had taken a sudden sharp decline. Although my symptoms were thankfully very mild, it took 13 days for me to produce a negative test result and be able to go visit with her. By that time she had declined further. She passed in her sleep on Sunday night, January 29, at the age of 90. She suffered from dementia for the last 15 years; her form of this terrible disease came with confusion, terror, and anger, so I am relieved that she will no longer suffer. She was also my best friend and my number one all-time personal hero.
Meanwhile...I signed with a new agent who I couldn't be more excited about. I'm now represented by Lane Heymont of The Tobias Literary Agency, and I have great hopes for what Lane and the coming year will bring.
Life is all about those ups and downs, the crazy balances. All you can do is try to keep up. I hope you're managing.
Love,
Lisa
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Still Life
In which I rhapsodize about favorite movie photos from my collection
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Normally I don't pay much attention to the Oscars, but this year I'm pretty stoked by 'em.
Two of my favorite actresses have been nominated, for the first time (how is that possible?): Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis, both of course up for their beautiful work in Everything Everywhere All at Once. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that somebody who is widely considered an expert in all things Halloween would love Curtis, so that one's a given...and a lot of you probably also know that I'm a Hong Kong movie buff from way back (my first full-length book, after all, was a non-fiction critical study of the mad genius Hong Kong auteur Tsui Hark).
I've loved Michelle Yeoh for thirty years. I think the first thing I saw her in was probably Jackie Chan's Supercop (1992), which she stole effortlessly from Jackie. I was just gobsmacked by her grace, strength, charisma, humor, and confidence. The Heroic Trio followed in 1993 (a superhero movie in which all three of the leads are women!), and then along came Wing Chun in '94, in which she played the real-life Chinese folk hero of the title - in that movie's best scene, she kicks ass with a block of tofu.
I was thrilled when she was cast as a Bond girl in Tomorrow Never Dies (another movie she stole from everyone else in the cast), and thought she was robbed of an Oscar nomination for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon...so I couldn't be happier to see her immense talents finally receive the international recognition she has so long deserved.
ABOUT THE STILL: I stole it from the Everything Everywhere All at Once website.
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The Halloween Spirit
Tips for keeping it going all year 'round
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Do other people keep their pumpkins until February (and beyond)?
Yeah, I know...I should probably have disposed of these some time back. But...well, first off: I think it's fun to watch them change over time - just look at the crazy colors on that big one in front! And yes, I have a sentimental attachment to these since I grew all of them. And...sure, I just like looking at 'em.
I'll probably get rid of them as the weather warms up, but for right now - they're staying!
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Strange Doings
The weirdest thing I've recently uncovered in my research
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When you think of a county morgue, do you picture it looking like that photo above?
I've researched the L.A. County Morgue a few times for different stories, most recently for one I'm writing that's set in 1972. And I'm always surprised by what I find...
First, take a look at the front of the building: that is just not something that should either be a morgue or located in downtown Los Angeles. And then there's that interior, with the tiled floor, elegant trim, and Mission-style furniture.
The main working area of the morgue looks pretty much like what you'd expect: long, industrial hallways with lots of side doors leading off to various labs and storage rooms.
Up until Covid hit, the Morgue had its own gift shop. Yes, you heard that right: the Morgue had a gift shop. It was even called Skeletons in the Closet. I'm still bummed I never went.
The morgue doesn't offer tours, but I once had the opportunity to talk to a homicide detective who of course had been there often. When I asked him what was one aspect of the L.A. County Morgue that he thought would surprise a lot of people, he immediately brought up the smell. He noted it was particularly bad during the summer, when both temperatures and deaths soared, and he mentioned that getting that smell out of his hair after summer visits was nearly impossible.
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"The H-Word: When the Final Girl Grows Up"
(Originally published in the October 2021 issue of Nightmare Magazine)
Back in 2020 (I think), the Horror Writers Association called for nominations (as it does every year) for recipients of the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. The LAA, as it's commonly known, is given each year by the HWA to anywhere from one to three winners. The winners are chosen by a committee. The LAA is considered the highest award given within the horror genre.
I put in a recommendation to the Committee that year: I presented Carol J. Clover. I don't know if I was the only one who submitted her; I suspect I might have been the first. I felt she was worthy of consideration by the LAA Committee for two reasons: first, her work is so substantial that it has shaped not just several generations of horror academics and scholars, but also spilled into popular culture; and secondly, the award had never been presented to a scholar or academic before, and I thought such recognition was long overdue.
In case you don't know, Clover created the term "Final Girl" and explored gender in horror at length in her indispensable Men, Women and Chainsaws.
I was, of course, thrilled when Clover was named one of the three recipients of the LAA for 2020 (the other two were author Jewelle Gomez and poet Marge Simon). I wanted to honor her choice by writing about how important her work had been to me personally, so I penned an essay, "When the Final Girl Grows Up," which I sold to Nightmare Magazine for their column "The H-Word."
I received wonderful feedback on the piece from other women who recognized their reaction to Clover's work in the essay; I couldn't ask for a better response. |
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There are always plenty of reasons to write...but are there reasons NOT to write?
We've reached that time of year when awards are in the air and a lot of folks are stumping for their work, and it got me to thinking about awards in general, which I've always (idealistically, I know) believed should exist to promote the best work in a genre, not be a popularity contest or a race. The purpose of most literary awards is to say to the world, "Look, here's stuff you should be reading that we think is really good."
Eventually, that got me to thinking about reasons not to write, and here's a list of five. By now you can probably guess what #1 is...
FIVE REASONS NOT TO WRITE:
- To win awards. Hey, it's fine if your work is good enough to garner some trophies, but if you try to write to win awards you are almost guaranteed to fail. Why? Because you are trying to second-guess what you think other people will like, not what moves or inspires or terrifies or entertains you.
- To sound like some other writer. This is kind of the flip side of #1, where you're competing against other writers. Sure, we'd all like to be Stephen King or Anne Rice, but you can NEVER try to emulate another writer's style. That's an ironclad rule. If your own unique voice happens to sound a little like Clive Barker or Shirley Jackson, great; but if you consciously try to copy them, you are doomed from the start.
- You think you have to. Okay, I know lots of people are going to say, "But the writing gurus say I HAVE to get in my 500 or 1,000 words a day or I'll never finish my novel!" Well, maybe you've just had a crap day - the crappiest crap day ever. Y'know what? It's okay not to write on that day. If you feel like you just have to do something for your novel or story or screenplay, then research or edit; but chances are if you try to write in that kind of bad mood you'll produce crappiest crap day writing you'll just have to jettison anyway.
- You're not really excited by the idea. This might be acceptable if you're on a deadline and you have to get something out, but otherwise...if the idea doesn't make you mentally jump up and down and itch to get typing, it probably won't do much for your readers, either.
- Because you're drunk/high/half-asleep and it seems like a great idea. By the time you get sober/wake up, it's probably going to look silly as hell. Do it to entertain yourself if you must, but for the love of God don't actually try to submit it.
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WIP It
My current works-in-progress
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You already saw my big news up top: Signing with Lane Heymont at The Tobias Literary Agency.
While I was down with Covid, the timing was right and I scored a rush job feature article for Rue Morgue (fortunately I didn't have the brain fog thing with the virus). Get ready to dig into the world of Russian horror movies!
We're in the final stages of work on The Art of the Zombie Movie. My cover is beautiful (I can't wait to share it!), and the book now has an incredible foreword and afterword, the former by a true legend and the latter by a contemporary giant.
I may know by the end of this week if I'll be doing another illustrated book for the fine folks behind The Art of the Zombie Movie, although this one would be on quite a different subject!
I'm also trying to finish up three short stories and a non-fiction essay I've promised to various editors.
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Halloween Beyond: Piercing the Veil
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Includes my brand-spankin'-new novella Halloween Beyond - The Talking-board. Pre-ordering is now ALIVE!
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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 (mystery!) story "Murder in Xanadu."
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Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween
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My award-winning history of Halloween, now available in an affordable "compact edition."
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Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances
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Now in a second printing (and coming in paperback in December): 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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The Feminine Macabre Vol. IV
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I'm proud to have provided the foreword for this wonderful collection of nonfiction works by women writers.
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Video by Ricky Grove!
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I just found a stash of paperback copies of Halloween Beyond: Piercing the Veil that I'd forgotten about, so let's give one away! Just click the blue button below to enter, and good luck!
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