|
|
|
|
Hi Gang!
Hope you had a fantastic Halloween. Our yard haunt was very enjoyable, we watched some great classic horror movies, and I did my usual round of interviews (although I'm getting tired of talking about sexy costumes!). I'm still tired!
I'm currently participating in a fantastic book giveaway that's running through November 5th - click the graphic below for a chance to win a bundle of horror e-books, including my Cemetery Dance collection CD Select: Lisa Morton.
And hey, on November 2nd, consider celebrating Dia de los Muertos by thinking about your loved ones and ancestors who've passed on.
Thank you, as always, for being a part of my reading family.
Lisa
|
|
Still Life
In which I rhapsodize about favorite movie photos from my collection
|
|
|
Digital collecting.
Is it a thing? Back in the old days, I used to love to own little pieces of my favorite movies in the form of posters and stills. When streaming and even DVDs were still unknown, movie stills and posters were the only way to easily revisit favorite scenes.
A few weeks ago I visited a movieplex in Hollywood where they had moving posters. It was kind of weird to see a frame that was the size and shape of the posters I know so well, but it was actually a screen and the poster images moved slightly.
It made me wonder if it was still possible to enjoy collecting in an age when any movie can be viewed almost instantly. I suspect that printed posters and stills are about to be permanently a quaint thing of the past.
Now, I don't actually collect digital images, but I occasionally see some I like very much. My favorite movie of 2018 (so far) is The Endless, so I decided to check out their online images. They have some very beautiful posters (like the above). I might even make this my desktop background. Is that how collecting works now?
If any of you out there save digital images, I'd love to hear from you.
|
|
The Halloween Spirit
Tips for keeping it going all year 'round
|
|
|
Trick or Treat!
If you're anything like me, part of your joy in Halloween is giving out both candy and thrills to little monsters.
So, what better way to keep the spirit of Halloween going throughout the year than to give?
Horror lovers tend to be a generous bunch, and there are many ways to give. If you already have a favorite charity, please donate! Meanwhile, allow me to add a few more suggestions:
HORROR WRITERS ASSOCIATION (HWA): This one's easy: HWA is registered with Amazon's Smile program, so if you choose HWA as your Smile Program charity, HWA will get a small piece of every purchase you make at Amazon. Amazon is also running a special Smile promotion through November 2, with 10X donations.
SCARES THAT CARE is a charity organization that raises funds for organizations like the Make-a-Wish Foundation and the Kennedy Krieger Institute. They hold a yearly convention and have an online store with cool stuff.
BUY A BOOK: There are some wonderful anthologies out there that donate proceeds to worthy organizations. Get some great reading and make a difference when you pick up Scales and Tales or Midnight Walk - both of these books donate proceeds to animal shelters.
|
|
Strange Fruit
The weirdest thing I've recently uncovered in my research
|
|
|
It's rare for me to discover a Halloween tradition I've never heard of.
But that's exactly what happened when I was recently contacted by a reporter from the Chicago Tribune who was investigating a local happening that was part of Halloweens past: burning witches in effigy.
This practice was still going on as late as 1994. Note this article from that year: "In the Parkview neighborhood on the Southwest Side, children will parade down the streets in their costumes Monday night, then watch as a witch made of rags is burned at the stake."
The new article makes it sound even crazier, with a grave dug to hold the ashes and mobs of torch-bearing revelers. Count me in among those who were, as the article's author Christopher Borrelli notes,"repulsed and dumbfounded"!
|
|
"Dr. Morbismo’s InsaniTERRORium Horror Show” from Pop the Clutch: Thrilling Tales of Rockabilly, Monsters, and Hot Rod Horror
When editor Eric J. Guignard approached me about doing a story for this anthology, it was interesting timing because ghost shows (which I've discussed before in this newsletter) were still on my mind since I'd recently pulled out some old ghost show manuals to loan to friends for their own ghost show production. Given that, it made the choice of subject matter easy.
I loved the idea of writing about a touring ghost show in the 1950s, a time when the ghost shows were still around but starting to wane in popularity. My ghostmaster would be an aging and skeptical magician, with two young assistants. From there, it was easy to speculate: what if a touring ghostmaster encountered the real thing?
The last ingredient I threw into the pot was a dash of racism, which is an element of the 1950s that tends to get swept under the carpet in the nostalgia that often arises for that decade.
Pop the Clutch will be out in January 2019.
|
|
If you are serious about pursuing a writing career, there are four things I'd suggest you get right from the start (aside from, say, time and talent!). When you see this list, you may look at one or more of the four and think, But I'm just starting out and haven't even made my first sale yet, so why do I need this stuff?
Because when you start to make sales, you absolutely WILL need this stuff. The more sales you make, the more you'll need it. Sure, you can wait until you start to sell your work to gather all of this, but at least you'll know to expect it.
- Own Your Name as a Website - this is something you should do NOW, if you haven't already done it. You'll need a website as your career progresses, and you'll need a site that your fans will be able to find quickly, which usually means your name. If you're like me and you have a very common name, you may have to get something like yourname.net or yournamewrites.com (and keep an eye on registrations - I got lisamorton.com when another Lisa Morton let it lapse!). You can easily register your name through most website hosting services (I've used both Lunarpages and GoDaddy), and you might as well throw in a Wordpress site, too. Wordpress sites are very easy to set up and manage and are cheap, and I'd suggest you start blogging right away to get some content going on your new site. You might also consider adding a customized e-mail address to the package, so that instead of yourname590@gmail.com you have something easier like name@yournamewrites.com .
- Build Your Social Media Presence - Yes, it can be a lot to manage various social media identities, but you'll need to as you progress in your career. I'd suggest Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to start with, and if you're interested/up to it, consider also Pinterest, YouTube, whatever.
- Bio - This is something that probably every single editor/publisher you sell something to will ask for. Bios are usually 50-100 words long; if you want something longer, put it on your website. If you're just starting out and don't have a lot of sales to talk about in your bio, never fear - you can still make it interesting by talking about your family, your education, and/or your hobbies.
- Photo - In case you're thinking, Hey, I'll just use that great photo that my BFF took when we were drunk at that party or I'll grab a selfie, you need to seriously rethink that. You want your photo to make a statement to your readers - do you really want it to say, The author looks like a drunkenass fool? Also, there's a technical consideration: most venues, whether print or web, will ask for a high-resolution photo of at least 300 dpi. Consider hiring a professional photographer in your area to give you a great portrait. Trust me, you'll need it!
|
|
WIP It
My current works-in-progress
|
|
|
I'm still waiting to hear on multiple book projects, all coffee-table books or anthologies. One took a major step forward (let's hope for multiple offers!), one took a major step backward (the publisher who was most interested decided, after a long holding period, to pass), and one took a small step forward (the editor I'm working with asked for an expanded proposal).
I have a new Halloween story ("The Ultimate Halloween Dream Machine") being offered as part of a five-author mini-anthology in this Kickstarter campaign for Dark Regions. Take a look and consider funding it!
In the meantime, my story in Eric Guignard's wonderful anthology Pop the Clutch got a shout-out in Publishers' Weekly.
And here are links to some of the interviews I did/articles I'm quoted in for the Halloween season:
|
|
|
|
The Samhanach and Other Halloween Treats
|
|
|
The Samhanach and Other Halloween Treats is now available in e-book and print from JournalStone. It collects four novellas, ten short stories, a new introduction by Nancy Holder, and new notes about the stories from me.
|
|
|
The Lovecraft Squad: Dreaming
|
|
|
I've written two chapters of this second volume in Stephen Jones's "mosaic novel" trilogy.
|
|
|
18 Wheels of Science Fiction
|
|
|
Includes my story "Job No. 34264".
|
|
|
|
|
This anthology of all-new Halloween (and Dia de los Muertos/Devil's Night/All Souls' Eve) fiction features sixteen stories by some of the genre's hottest authors. The anthology received a starred and boxed review in Publishers Weekly, as well as raves from Rue Morgue, Locus, and many others.
|
|
|
The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories
|
|
|
Includes my story "The Ultimate Halloween Party App".
|
|
|
Birthing Monsters: Frankenstein's Cabinet of Curiosities and Cruelties is an extraordinary tribute to Mary Shelley's classic, in honor of its 200th birthday. Illustrated by Robert Payne Cabeen, my contribution is a non-fiction piece about Fantamasgoriana, the collection of ghost stories that inspired Frankenstein.
|
|
|
|
|
I was recently gifted with a fistful of these incredible USB drives by USB Memory Direct. Each business-card sized drive is imprinted with my Halloween logo on one side and my website address on the other...but best of all, these little sweethearts pop open to become an 8 GB flash drive! I've tested these, and the drives are really fast and efficient.
Since I've got a bunch of 'em, I'm going to give away five. All you have to do to enter is click the blue button below, and good luck!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
