Hey All!
This is going out a little earlier than usual because there are two August 1st happenings to let you know/remind you about (see below).
How’s your summer going? Mine’s a mix of research deep dives, crazy heat day after day, and…well, weirdly enough, movie stuff. Yeah, a couple of potentially great things have kind of come out of nowhere. One is an adaptation of one of my short stories by some incredible filmmakers who I had a great meeting with; one is a possible consulting gig on a major feature; and one is the possible resurrection of something old of mine. Right now that’s all I’m going to say about any of these because nothing’s firm yet, but it’s nice to have multiple fun possibilities swirling around in the ether.
I’ve also been strategizing with my agent about the next book. Yes, here I am racing to make the October 1 deadline on My Name is Legion: The Strange and Terrifying History of Demonic Possession, and already planning what comes after. I’d actually hoped to take a break after delivering this book, but my agent got so excited about the next book that I agreed to try to get her at least part of it by the end of the year.
And then there’s the plethora of smaller pieces I owe various and sundry editors…
Well, hey, I like staying busy. Good thing, that.
Hope you’re all well, cool, and staying relatively sane.
Lisa
"The Change is everything we could have hoped for from a new John Skipp novel: creepy, hilarious, smart, beautiful, wild, and weird AF. Just don't be surprised if it turns your consciousness into a column of blinding light."
That’s the blurb I gave my longtime pal Skipp for his incredible new novel. When you agree to read a novel for a friend, you always go in hoping it’ll be great…and this one more than lived up to it.
I want to mention one aspect of Skipp’s writing that he does spectacularly well: characters. He’s always had a gift for mixing realistically-eccentric characters into his barreling-forward plots. I am totally jealous of his skill at allowing the reader to intimately know a character without slowing down the action. I mean, you gotta love the hitman who hugs his friend, or the tough female doctors who can stand up to authority but are compassionate with their patients.
It’s a great book, and I hope it does well for Skipp. He’s earned it.
I guess I’ve become enough of a Halloween influencer (okay, I’m making myself laugh right now) that I’m on the official advance press release list for both Home Depot and Spirit Halloween, so let’s share some news:
First off, Home Depot is bringing back their Halloween bucket this year (how did I totally miss this last year?), and it’s adorable - a seasonal makeover of their usual big orange bucket:
Here’s their official blurbage: “Back by popular demand, this year’s 2-gallon Halloween Bucket features an all-new collectible design. Overwhelming consumer demand and social media buzz instantly turned this simple bucket into a viral, must-have collectible.
The buckets will retail for just $2.98 and begin rolling out in stores now and throughout August while supplies last. They will be sold online for the first time starting end of August.”
Meanwhile, Spirit Halloween is opening their flagship store in Egg Harbor Township, NJ, this Saturday. Obviously I won’t be there (since I live a mere 3,000 or so miles away), but if you live in the area and want to go…you can! Here’s their official info:
I’m sure you agree, the first sign of Halloween nearing is a Spirit Halloween store appearing! We’d love to invite you to a giant celebration and access to the flagship store in Egg Harbor Township, NJ, on August 1st as Spirit Halloween celebrates its official grand opening!
At the event, we’d offer you:
Exclusive Store Tour: A walkthrough of brand new and beloved costumes, home goods & decor, and animatronics
Chat with Spirit Halloween Representative: Learn more about the season’s latest and greatest straight from the source!
Festive Fun: A chance to enjoy the festivities, which include food from local vendors, games, and more
Viewers who missed pre-registration can arrive on-site starting at 8:00 AM to join the General Admission lanyard line to have guaranteed store access.
You can find a full run of show below:
8:00 AM: General Admission check-in & outdoor festivities begin
10:00 AM: Official ribbon-cutting ceremony and store opening
12:00 PM: Outdoor festivities conclude
8:00 PM: Store closes
I recently recorded the debut episode of a new podcast on ghosts found along highways, and the topic of conversation got onto Resurrection Mary, which was one I didn’t know much about, so let’s unpack this fascinating ghost together.
Resurrection Mary comes from Chicago, and is a classic example of the hitchhiking ghost. Her name derives from the fact that she’s said to be buried at Resurrection Cemetery, in Justice, Illinois, about a 30-minute drive southwest of Chicago. She’s mainly reported along Archer Avenue, where witnesses describe as being a young blonde woman dressed in a white dress, styled like something from the 1920s or ‘30s.
She’s got a couple of different origin stories, but probably the most common one says that, back in the Roaring Twenties, she went out with her boyfriend to the Oh Henry Ballroom, but she walked out after they had a fight. As she was striding along Archer Avenue, she was the victim of a hit-and-run. Her parents found the body, and, heartbroken, buried her in Resurrection Cemetery in her best dancing gown. Now she may show up outside the Willowbrook Ballroom – formerly the Oh Henry - ask for a ride, climb into the back seat, give the driver directions…and then vanish as the car passes the cemetery.
Researchers, including one who says he’s collected reports of no less than three-dozen encounters with Mary, have tried to establish her identity, but nothing has so far matched.
Mary may be known as Chicago’s most famous ghost, but over the years she has become quite the celebrity, with her fame spreading beyond the Chicago area: she’s been featured in songs, and on television shows like Unsolved Mysteries.
The interview was with my friend Jimmy Mac for a new podcast he’ll be launching soon, so follow his Substack to stay tuned!
Blurb for John Skipp’s The Change (see above)
I thought it might be fun to talk a little about crafting blurbs. I know some authors love doing it, some don’t, and some feel like they don’t know how.
I fall into the first group…provided I have the time to read what I’m being asked to blurb, because I take blurbing seriously. I’ve heard there are authors who just have pre-made generic blurbs they pass out like Halloween candy, but (if that’s true - I hope it’s not) that ain’t me. If I ever turn down your blurb request (or don’t make a deadline), know that it’s likely only because I didn’t have time to read your book.
I should also add that I don’t supply blurbs to books I don’t like. I may also decline a blurb request if the book’s a sequel and I haven’t already read whatever came before it, because I sure don’t have time to read more books for one blurb.
Here’s how it works: I read the book and then spend a few days thinking about what I want to say. With John Skipp’s new novel The Change, I figured most people reading the book will already have some sense of his reputation, and may wonder how this book lives up to that. I also wanted to play on a central visual motif in the book - people who transform into columns of light. Lastly, of course, I always want to load a blurb with superlatives, and with The Change in particular I wanted those adjectives to give a sense of how the book hops across genres.
If it sounds like just writing a blurb is actually work…it is, at least for me!
I was recently hard at work on this new book when I started to wonder why it wasn’t going faster. I stepped away from it for a day, just thought about it from all angles, and found the answer:
I’d fallen down the dreaded research rabbit hold.
That’s a thing that’s an easy trap when you’re doing a lot of research: you read one small, interesting fact that you want to know more about, even if it doesn’t directly relate to what you’re working on, so you dig into that…and then that leads you to some other little factoid, and you dig into that…and on…and on…
And before you know it, you’ve spent hours or days or even weeks to amass a relatively small amount of information.
It took me a day to realize that was what had happened to me. At that point I sat down and just started organizing what I’d collected and actually writing, and ouila! The words started to flow, the word count went up, and the book started to look like a real book.
The moral of this story is: research is good, but too much research can stop your momentum dead, so beware the research trap.
This Saturday, I’ll be part of Christopher Golden’s Carry Me to Your Book Shelf Tour event at The Village Well in Culver City. Check out this line-up and schedule:
5:30-6:10 Darkness Bleeds – Horror, Crime, Thriller and Other Dark Fictions: Fruit of the Same Tree, with Caroline Kepnes, Rachel Howzell Hall, Kasey Lansdale, Keith Rosson, and Christopher Golden (moderator)
6:10 – 6:40 panelists sign
6:40 – 7:20 The New Golden Age of Horror, with Liz Kerin, Chuck Tingle, Monika Kim, Philip Fracassi, Catriona Ward, and Lisa Morton (moderator)
7:20 – 8pm panelists sign
How great is this guest list?! You do need to RSVP in advance, so just click the button (it’s free):
More interview news coming soon… ‘tis the season, after all.
And you know what I’m working on (“What an excellent day for an exorcism"), so that’s all the news for now!
August 1st, 5:30 pm to 8 pm: I’ll be part of CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN’S CARRY ME TO YOUR BOOKSHELF TOUR LOS ANGELES at Village Well Books & Coffee, along with Christopher Golden, Caroline Kepnes, Monika Kim, Philip Fracassi, Liz Kerin, Keith Rosson, Chuck Tingle, Rachel Howzell Hall, Kasey Lansdale, and Catriona Ward
August 9th, 11 am to 12 pm: I’ll be at the HWA’s booth at Midsummer Scream, signing Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween and In the Shadow of Halloween
November 1, 3 pm: I’ll be signing JACKsploitation: The Films of Jack Hill as part of a Dark Delicacies pop-up event at Emerald Knights in Burbank
June 10 - June 13, 2027: I’ll be haunting StokerCon 2027 in Pittsburgh
My paid subscribers are getting sneak peeks at My Name is Legion: The Strange and Terrifying History of Demonic Possession, and will get a few other fun posts soon.
Spirit Halloween gifted me with some great Summerween stuff, but I don’t have a pool so I’ll pass this on to someone else! Just click the button below to enter (it’s an email link), at the end of the month I’ll randomly choose a winner to ship this to, and good luck!
(Sorry, this is only open to residents of the U.S. because our postal system has so thoroughly effed up international shipping.)
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