Chuck Wendig's Blog, page 23

What To Do About Twitter?

The troll has taken over the bridge, which is to say, Elon Musk now owns Twitter. Is this bad? Probably. Is this good? I don’t know, maybe there will be a good side to it, though it’s hard at this point to see what, precisely, that would be. Some of it depends on your feelings about Musk, and about Twitter, and about the ownership of media (social and mass and niche media) in total.

The picture isn’t rosy wherever you look. Most of our avenues of information — again, The Media, writ large — are gripped tightly by the hands of right-wing capitalist assholes who view and treat media less like it’s a vehicle for truth and more like it’s a vehicle ultimately for money. Yes, also a vehicle to further agenda, but ultimately, that agenda is to cycle more money. It’s always money. Making it. Laundering it. Occasionally setting it on fire.

Twitter now in the hands of Elon Musk means the so-called “town square” is in the hands of an increasingly erratic, trolly billionaire who began life being revered as Real Life Tony Stark and has since countered that image at every turn, revealing himself to be a third-tier Batman villain, desperate for Bruce Wayne’s attention, shitposting his way to infamy and winnowing stock prices.

So, what to do about that? Does it matter? Does it not?

Y’know, I dunno. Like I said, it’s not as if social media has long been a bastion of Good Ownership. It’s never really been in the hands of safe stewards, though sometimes you could at least catch a whiff of Twitter pretending to care. At the same time, you could make a very real argument that the shit-pit we have been slowly sinking into since, ohh, around 2016 or so, has been in part because of Twitter. Hell, before that — remember Gamer-gate? Yeah, me too.

Massive misinformation and disinformation and harassment have long run rampant, though it also feels like maybe, maybe that foul tide had started to recede a little bit. Twitter at least occasionally used mechanisms to ban accounts working to undermine the health and safety of people and democracy — though, while also occasionally leaving them hanging around long past a laundry list of flagrant violations (Libs of Tik Tok, f’rex). The tide may have been going out, but it was still gurgling around our ankles.

Now, though? I’m guessing it’ll be high tide again soon. It seems like it’s already starting. Even without going to look for it, I’m seeing some folks celebrating their newfound, um, free bird, with a fusillade of slurs and harassment. Whether the site will really become largely unmoderated, a true Hell-realm, a veritible tweetchan or tweety farms, I’ve no idea. Maybe all that is just bluff and bluster from Musk, given that you can trust what he says less than half the time (and that’s, I suspect, being charitable). And there has been chatter (some apocryphal, some purely made-up) that he’s going to open the gates of Arkham and let all the baddies pour back onto the streets of Gotham, and when that happens, no amount of moderation will push back the blooming red tide.

What will I personally do?

Y’know, I’m not sure. Twitter was a place I loved for a long time, then liked, then hated, and now I’m kind of outside space and time on it, where my feelings about it are mostly nostalgia and not anything present. I’ve made genuine friends there. I have built some of my career there. I’ve found excellent books there, learned neat things, and gotten to, well, fuck around and have fun with fun people, and that’s not nothing. It really matters. I have good memories there. But the opposite is also true, and Twitter has given me some of my worst days. I’ve long said it started out as a water-cooler, then it became a stage where we were all performing, and then one day it was a fight club. And you had to fight.

I think Twitter made me a better communicator while also making me a much worse communicator. I think it made me a better person in a lot of directions, and worse in others. I think it made me tougher for a while, and more frangible over time: calluses forming over brittle crystal. I don’t think it was ever good to sell books. And I think for a lot of creators the juice stopped being worth the squeeze — it is now, if I’m being honest, more of a liability than a value-add.

But I think it was a good place to meet your people. The micro-communities there are great. The friend groups are great. It’s harder and harder to access them, though, because any smaller community is by its nature a pond inside an ocean: you’re always connected to the larger body of water. There are, of course, Circles and Communities, and maybe those will become more the future of the platform. But maybe Musk will throttle those or kill them outright if they’re not providing quote-unquote value. Or maybe just for the fun of it. Who knows?

I’m not particularly excited to be providing value for Elon Musk, as it were. And yes, I guess I’m arguably giving value to someone like Zuckerberg, too, given that I’m on Instagram, ahem, ahem. Though there, Instagram (also a dying platform in its own ways, in part because it’s deeply desperate to be a social media platform that it never was) is a pleasing, dull space — it’s pictures of dogs and books and friends and food, rarely anything else, fairly well-moderated, largely easy for me to control my experience there. Twitter has controls, too, but I turn them on and miss 50% or more of my mentions, and people can still QT and still harass and find ways around the moderation. I’m not on TikTok, because ew, fuck, nobody wants that. Counter-dot-social is whatever, it’s fine. Facebook is barely there, a walled garden where I ask advice for like, “hey what’s this lump.” Is Tumblr still a thing? MySpace? Friendcircuit? Circleface? Do I start an OnlyFans page? Geocities? I dunno.

As yet I’m not leaving Twitter. Certainly I’ll be active through the midterms and my book tour. But after that, it’s a wait and see. I don’t expect to delete my account, and will likely segue it to becoming more broadcast only — talking about my books, and signal boosting books by other authors. Which isn’t too far from how I use it now, honestly. I pulled Twitter off my phone some months back, cutting my usage down considerably, and it immediately improved my general outlook on life, the universe, and everything. I don’t know that it’s super-healthy to be plugged into the Collective Twitter Brain for too long. It’s like VR; eventually, you start to accept this digital simulacrum as reality and accept reality as just artifice. Madness ensues.

What should you do? Well, I dunno, I’m not you. I admire not wanting to bail on it, as Twitter is (despite what I just said) a kind of real life thing. There are genuine people there. Real communities. It is sane to not want to abandon them. Though I’ve seen some rhetoric acting like staying behind is some kind of revolution, an act of resistance where you will, I dunno, damage Musk’s Empire from the inside, but that’s to my mind a bit misguided. You know how when you find out a horrible person controls Home Depot or Martin’s Potato Bread or something, and you choose to not buy from them anymore? That’s this situation. You can’t keep eating at Chik-Fil-A as a form of resistance. “I’ll tank their stock prices and combat homophobia by eating their delicious chicken sandwiches” isn’t really a thing. If your goal is to be against Musk, then you have to use Twitter less, or leave the platform. You provide value by being there. You’re not a stock-holder, you’re a product to be bought and sold. Your account and your tweets cumulatively add value to it. Full-stop. Because like I said, it’s about money. (And for Musk, about ego. And you being there is also about his ego.)

Again, I think it’s fine to stay! Just don’t couch as it an act of rebellion. You stay because you need to or want to, and that’s fine.

So, you do you.

I’ll be around, but less and less, and maybe one day not at all (and that’s true of life, one supposes, as well). Twitter isn’t dead, and declarations of its demise will be surely premature. But that doesn’t mean it’s healthy, either. It’s dying slowly, maybe even starting to smell a little. The rot could be cut out. It could be cured and brought back. But all too often these trips are one-way. Just like in life.

Long live Twitter. Rest in peace, Twitter. May it provide Musk little comfort.

A Shimmery Sprinkling Of News Glitter Raining Upon Your Tender Head

HELLO GOOD FRIENDS, IT IS I, CHNURK MANDOG WITH A NEWS UPDATE FROM THE WORLD OF CHNURK MANDOG.

Ahem.

So some quick updates, right here–

First up, this is the last week for the Dust & Grim October monthly pick promo at Barnes & Noble. Go online or head to a store and nab a paperback copy for just $6.99, where there’s also a buy-one-get-another-at-50% off deal going. Thanks to all who have picked up the book. I hope you enjoy it! Or, at the very least, that you enjoy FLORG. Everyone seems to like FLORG. FLORG 4 EVA.

Second, if you saw my tour dates (right here), you’ll note I’m going to Malaprops in Asheville, NC. And you can now use their pre-order page to pre-order signed and personalized copies through them, and they’ll ship right to you (or you can, y’know, go to the event). Note too that this includes backlist titles of mine, as well. I have never been to the store and am super excited to have an event there. It’s also been way waaaaaay too long since I’ve been to Asheville, honestly. I hear there are good cocktails there? Mmmm.

Third, hey, my new writing book has a COVER — ! Huzzah and hooray and yippie-ki-yay. GENTLE WRITING ADVICE comes out June 2023. The cover copy for the book, first:

Finally–a book of writing advice that accounts for all of the messy, perverse, practical, and inexplicable parts of being a human who writes

The truth is that all of the “writing rules” you’ve learned are bullshit. Sure, they work for some people, but the likelihood that they’ll work for you–unique butterfly of a person that you are–is slim. 
 
That doesn’t mean you’re out of luck! There is meaningful advice to be had in the writing world, and Chuck Wendig is here to deliver it. In this hilarious guide, Wendig will help you discover more about yourself as a writer, parse through your quirks and foibles, and help you figure out the best way for you to get words on the page–without destroying yourself along the way.
 
With behind-the-scenes stories of Wendig’s own writing struggles, sections on debunking popular advice, self-care tips, and more footnotes than are strictly necessary (or legally recommended by scientists), Gentle Writing Advice will give the unvarnished truth about the writing process and remind you of what’s actually important–taking care of the writer. (That’s you, by the way.)

And then, the cover!

It features a soul-bird bursting free from your head-cage! Which is a metaphor for writing! Probably! I don’t know!

Uhhh, what else?

Oh!

Wayward made the list of Most Anticipated Horror for the rest of 2022.

The Book of Accidents lands on a list of the 53 Best Horror Books of All Time, at Men’s Health, alongside some legends and heavy-hitters, and I’m honored.

I think that’s it!

More as I have it!

OKAY YOU CAN GO HOME NOW

Where’s Wendig? Wayward Wanderings, A Wendig-in-the-Wild Book Tour!

Hey! You asked if I was going out into the world on book tour for Wayward? Why yes, I am, to these places right here:

For those who can’t see the graphic:

11/12, 3pm: Doylestown Bookshop, Doylestown, PA

11/15, 7pm: Eagle Eye Bookshop, Atlanta, GA, with Delilah S. Dawson

11/16, 6pm: Malaprops, Asheville, NC

11/17, 7pm, Queens University, Charlotte, NC (link to come)

11/19, 2pm, Fountain Bookstore, Richmond, VA (link to come)

11/20, 2pm, B&N, Potomac, VA (Alexandria)

And then there are two additional dates in December —

12/4, 3pm, Let’s Play Books, Emmaus, PA talking to Bo Koltnow of WFMZ, takes place at Nowhere Coffee Co – South Mountain.

12/10, 1pm, B&N Bethlehem (which is actually in Easton, PA?)

So! There you have it! The Doylestown event is a pre-release — they will have the book, so no worries there.

Q&A —

Where can you get signed, personalized copies?

Well, any of these should be able to furnish that if you’re coming to the event. As for if they’ll ship to you, I suspect you can through Eagle Eye, Malaprops, Fountain, Let’s Play. I can also guarantee that Doylestown Bookshop will, because they’re my local store and I’m going there on 11/10 to sign the books that they’re sending out! Link here, just put in the notes you want it signed/personalized, and how. Or call them to order.

Who is doing the book sales for the Queens University event?

Park Road Books!

Why aren’t you coming to my town specifically?!

BECAUSE I HATE YOU okay wait no that’s not it.

So! I don’t set this tour up. My publisher does. And in that setup they contact bookstores, find out what stores are interested, what stores think they can run the event and run it well, where I have readers and where I can make new readers and so on and so forth. Then they do calculus based on how I can get to each of these easily. The tour is in November, where weather might start getting hinky in parts of the country. And air travel is janky as fuck right now. Here, the goal was to manage a tour that was predominantly driving. And doing a Southern tour in this case made sense — the weather should be better, I haven’t done a tour down there before, and there are a number of stores I’ve wanted to get to (Fountain and Malaprops in particular!). And it’s configured in a way to maximize that first week of visits.

All of this is predicated too on the worry that book events aren’t all the way “back,” so to speak, in the not-quite-post-pandemic-but-we’re-pretending-it’s-post-pandemic era. It’s not that they’re not happening, but they do seem erratic. (Which is why it’s important if you can show up, if possible! Support stores! Support events! Bring me candy and whiskey I mean what!)

If your town isn’t listed, I apologize, I might get there in the future. Unless you’re a jerk. Then I will never come to your town ever! Ha ha ha! Jerk!

Not really, I love you all.

Are these events masked?

Well, it’s not required, I don’t think.

But! It’d also be nice? As in, I’d very much like you to mask. Me. I’m asking. I do not know if the bookstores will ask — but my goal is to be unmasked during the talks so you can hear me and such. I am BIVALENT BOOSTED and such, but given that I’m going to be Out On The Road, if COVID pings me and I rock a positive test… it will fuck up the tour, most likely, and I have no idea what I’ll even do. Further, that means the events will be more comfortable for immunocompromised readers and will also be safer for the staff —

So, y’know, maybe don’t give me COVID! Please mask? It’d be cool of you.

Do I have to buy a book to… show up?

Generally, that’s the idea, and I think some of these make it a requirement of the event, but you need to check with the store first.

Can I bring books I didn’t buy there?

Sure, just… y’know, support the bookstore to by buying books there also!

Will you sign a baby / body part / Satanic pact?

I’ll sign anything you care to put in front of me.

What will you… do at this so-called “book signing?”

Well, I’ll sign books, but also, I’ll give a little talk, I’ll do a little dance*, I’ll do a big-ass Q&A (so bring your QUERIES). We’ll also all perform a sinister ritual together and it’ll be great for TikTok.

In cases where I have a conversation partner, it’s like, the same, mostly. We’ll talk. We’ll answer questions. Sinister ritual, blah blah, etc.

*no dances

OK THAT’S IT

COME TO MY EVENTS

OR I’LL REMEMBER HOW YOU SPURNED ME

YOUR NAME WILL GO ON A LIST

A LIST INKED ON ANCIENT PARCHMENT

THE CURSE WILL BE WRIT

DO NOT INVOKE THE CURSE

also hey Wayward’s out 11/15, so that’s cool

byeeeee

Elijah Kinch Spector: Five Things I Learned Writing Kalyna the Soothsayer

Kalyna’s family has the Gift: the ability to see the future. For generations, they traveled the four kingdoms of the Tetrarchia selling their services as soothsayers. Every child of their family is born with this Gift—everyone except Kalyna.

So far, Kalyna has used informants and trickery to falsify prophecies for coin, scrounging together a living for her deteriorating father and cruel grandmother. But Kalyna’s reputation for prophecy precedes her, and poverty turns to danger when she is pressed into service by the spymaster to Rotfelsen.

Kalyna is to use her “Gift” to uncover threats against Rotfelsen’s king, her family held hostage to ensure her good behavior. But politics are devious; the king’s enemies abound, and Kalyna’s skills for investigation and deception are tested to the limit. Worse, the conspiracy she uncovers points to a larger threat, not only to Rotfelsen but to the Tetrarchia itself. 

Kalyna is determined to protect her family and newfound friends, but as she is drawn deeper into palace intrigue, she can no longer tell if her manipulations are helping prevent the Tetrarchia’s destruction—or if her lies will bring about its prophesized downfall.

That the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Existed

U.S. public schools aren’t known for their historical accuracy or thoroughness, so I was around 30 when I read Henryk Sienkiewicz’s classic historical novel With Fire and Sword (the Kuniczak translation) and learned that, for a few hundred years, there was a country called the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was, as you might guess from the name, a combination of Poland and Lithuania into one state, but it was also a lot more than that.

The Commonwealth was huge, and sandwiched between some of the most aggressive empires of its era, yet it wasn’t despotic or centralized at all. It was almost, sort of, kind of, maybe a democracy, if you squinted. The king, who would rule both Poland and Lithuania, was elected. Elected by the nobles, specifically, who were certainly evil tyrants that owned serfs, but it was still a wildly different method of government than anything else in the world at the time. This London Review of Books article from a few months ago does a great job of showing just how wild and chaotic that election process was.

Without learning about the Commonwealth, I doubt I would have ever come up with the Tetrarchia[ES1] , the four-in-one country where Soothsayer takes place. Like its real life inspiration, the Tetrarchia is an experiment, unlike anything that’s come before it, mashing together existing ethnic and social groups into one lumpy hodgepodge of a nation.

Just How Long a Debut Can Take to Be Out in the World

I wrote a version of the opening scene of Soothsayer in late 2012. I think I finished the first draft in early 2014. I spent 2015 on revisions, and then on querying agents. Querying many, many, many agents. Hannah Bowman was interested, but the manuscript needed more work, so I did even more revisions and sent it back to her. She still passed.

Then it was the end of 2016 and for some reason I was very depressed and unable to write for two years.

In 2018 I got back in touch with Hannah, regarding a different project, and she became my agent. This was amazing: the closest I’d yet come to being published. Cue more revisions on Soothsayer, but now with Hannah’s notes. She did some merciless (and entirely correct) cutting, and also suggested a whole new character and subplot that improved the book’s plot and thematic cohesion immensely.

In 2020, Hannah sent it to editors. Sarah Guan at Erewhon bought it. More revisions. Sometimes, Sarah would have a note asking what I meant by a certain phrase or idea, and I would have to respond: “I don’t know! I wrote that eight years ago. Let’s cut it!”

There’s a strange, out-of-body experience to reading something you wrote when you were an entirely different organism. Sometimes it provides delightful surprises; sometimes it’s deeply cringey. But, when there’s a decade’s worth of revisions piling up on the page, you mostly get a disconcerting palimpsest that exposes a hundred different people you used to be, or almost were.

That I Like Writing First Drafts by Hand

I used to be the sort of person who’d spend all day on a paragraph, endlessly tweaking and rearranging. Unable to move forward until it was perfect. (I learned, less than a year ago, that this was actually ADHD, but that’s a whole other story.)

As a workaround, I began writing my first drafts by hand. Moment to moment, longhand writing is much slower than typing (and I used to do transcription as a full-time job), but it forced me to blunder forward, bad phrases be damned. A pen and paper not only helped me get the book done faster, but allowed me to access parts of my brain that were hampered by the ability to fine-tune every word forever.

Also, you can bring a paper notebook to cafés and bars that have “NO LAPTOPS” signs, and you never lose a day’s work because goddamn motherfucking Microsoft OneNote doesn’t sync.

That I’m Bisexual

When I began the book (again, a decade ago), I made my main character bisexual because I thought, “Obviously being bisexual is just the best: everyone knows that. I wish I was bi! It’s too bad I’m definitely straight.”

To be clear: if you ever see me in person, you will immediately know that I’m not straight.

Writing how Kalyna, my sort-of hero, reacted to people that she found attractive unlocked something in me. But it wasn’t the book’s queer attractions (of which there are plenty) that taught me about myself, it was the straight ones: when she admired handsome and pretty men.

This forced me think: What makes an AMAB person attractive? What attraction in them can I latch onto to make Kalyna’s internal monologue feel believable? And, most importantly, why is the friendly curmudgeon who’s just in charge of the royal palace’s fruit so very hot?

That There Really Were Medieval Weapon Treatises for Sickles

When she absolutely must fight, Kalyna does so with a sickle. In the back matter of the book, I wrote that there really were sickle-fighting treatises, but that I could no longer find where I’d learned that. Well, in writing this piece, I found where!

Paulus Hector Mair, a fencing master in 16th century Augsberg, wrote a combat treatise on a number of different weapons, one of which was a small, simple farmer’s sickle. Yes, there are pictures. It’s good to know, so many years later, that I didn’t just make up the stances that Kalyna uses.

Sickle-fighting appealed to me immediately because it’s rarely seen in fiction; because it forces  the reader to imagine particularly ghastly and uneven wounds; and because, being a farm implement, it’s inherently proletarian. (Although I’ll admit the book was long finished when a friend pointed out the obvious communist iconography. Oh well. I’ll take it.)

***

Elijah Kinch Spector is a writer, dandy, and rootless cosmopolitan from the Bay Area who now lives in Brooklyn. 

Elijah Kinch Spector: Website

Kalyna the Soothsayer: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N

Why I Don’t Talk (As Much) About Writing Anymore

So, I got a nice comment at this very blog a week or so ago, from visitor Delon O’Donnell, and I was going to answer with a comment but thought, y’know, this could be worth a post all its precious own.

Delon’s comment:

A potentially annoying aside: I really miss your blog posts on writing.

I guess writing those was part of your process in the past when you were moving towards your current level of skill, and now it’s not that necessary for you to consciously think about such things? Or maybe the traumatic hectic-ness of the past bunch of years have made it hard to get into the free-wheeling sort of mindset in which you wrote those posts? Or writing three books at once makes idly noodling away at a zero-profit-generating blog post flat-out untenable? Look at me processing here. I just know I got a lot out of those posts, including a kind of ongoing emotional support and humorous brightening of days through the writing process, and I don’t think there’s anybody else out there writing for writers the way you can.

Not that any of that is a reason for you to continue to do so. You do you and go be a superstar bestselling author. I have nothing but gratitude for all the benefit I’ve derived from the good things you’ve given us. Thanks a squillion, Chuck. ^_^

And Delon is right. I don’t really do many posts about writing anymore when once upon a time, that was probably at least half the content you’d find on this here WEB LOG. These days, ennh, not so much. And why is that, exactly?

Well, it is, as Delon notes, due to a handful of reasons and not just one.

First and foremost is, I don’t post here as often. I’d like to, though it’s a bit harder to get traction with BLOGPOSTS these days — I think we should return to that time, as it allows for more nuanced takes than you get on, say, Twitter, where nuance goes to not only die, but be incinerated in the fires of a thousand hot takes. But also, at a certain point, I need to write books, not blog posts. And those come first because it is for them I sacrifice other writers to the Old Apple Tree in the woods uhh, I mean, it’s books that pay my mortgage.

Second, I know very little about writing. In fact, the longer I go as a writer, the less I actually know about it. What I do becomes more mysterious, not less. Which is, all in all, not a bad thing, really, strange as it may sound — I think it’s good to find that my relationship to WORDS and STORIES has evolved to a point of sheer who-the-fuck-knowsery. All is permitted, everything works, nothing is forbidden, as long as what you do is good and necessary, and what’s “good and necessary” is a set of teleporting bullseyes. So, life is short, go write. That’s not to say I don’t still have opinions and thoughts on things — I do, as after all, I am a WHITE MAN IN AMERICA, of course I have opinions. I just know they don’t matter that much and I also don’t want anyone to take my opinions to be gospel.

Which leads me to —

Third, some people take or took my writing advice far too seriously. And that’s in both directions. I’ve had some folks really treat it like gospel, as if they should be following my “instructions” to the letter (even though I like to think I never framed them as instructions). I’ve also had years of “fisking” and YouTube “takedowns” of my “bad advice,” as if I’m out on the street in the village of writers, tooting my hypnotic panpipes, leading all the moon-eyed authors toward the river with my songs of bad advice, where I promptly drown them in the current. (Now I want artwork of me flute-tooting other writers to their watery graves.) I’ve always tried to write my advice in a way that was super-not-serious while also staple-gunning a thousand caveats up about how writing advice is bullshit (but bullshit can still fertilize). But some people were really hidebound to address the advice as if I’m inking a new bible instead of just barfing into the void with half-digested opinions. I certainly don’t want to be a leading voice in this. As Delon hints at, talking about writing was, for me, quite selfish. It was me yelling at me about things that were bothering me — the fact anybody ever listened or gleaned value from it shocked me from the get-go. So, I became a little more gun-shy about stomping around with my Big Writer Boots, telling people how to Write Their Words, even though that’s not what I intended to do.

I never want my writing advice to be taken too seriously. Even the act of writing itself shouldn’t be taken too seriously. You climb way far up your ass and you’ll never find your way back out.

That being said, I’m also not entirely shutting the fuck up. If there’s something pertinent, it might come up here. Furthermore, I have a new shiny writing book coming out in… don’t quote me on this, but I think June 2023, called Gentle Writing Advice. It’s a book that in many ways grapples with the very idea of writing advice, and attempts to counter a lot of the more aggressive writing advice out there (which is advice I’ve given!), particularly in this time of area-of-effect trauma and ambient turmoil.

ANYWAY.

So there you go! An answer. Maybe a satisfying one, maybe not.

Best advice I’m gonna give you is, go write. Write a little, write a lot, write when you’re able, but not when you’re not, and just try to find a time and a place to call your own and to make the words happen.

The Pixel Project: Five Win-Win Reasons to Give to the Read For Pixels Campaign this Domestic Violence Awareness Month

*Steps onto the world stage of Chuck’s Terrible Minds blog. Chuck gives the thumbs up to get started* Thank you, Chuck! *waves awkwardly* Hello, everybody! Can y’all hear me? Yes? Okay – let’s get this started:

The Pixel Project, a 501(c)3 anti-violence against women nonprofit, has been running our Read For Pixels program since September 2014 when Chuck himself, Joe Hill, Sarah J. Maas, and nine other award-winning bestselling SF/F, Horror, and YA authors helped us reach out to their readers and fandoms about violence against women (VAW) and raise funds to keep our anti-VAW work alive.

That inaugural Read For Pixels livestream author interview series and fundraiser was a resounding success and over 200 authors, 18 campaigns, and 9 years later, we are continuing to build what is probably the world’s largest archive of recorded livestream interviews and panels with authors speaking out about VAW. These are easily accessible on our YouTube channel to parents, teachers, kids, readers, writers, and fandoms worldwide who can either watch the videos to learn more about VAW while fanning over their favorite authors or use the videos to start conversations about VAW in their communities. Authors, editors, publishers, and agents have also helped us raise approximately $10,000 per year by providing exclusive goodies as giveaways for readers, fans, and book collectors who donate to support our work.

You’re probably thinking: “Cool! I’ll go check it out. So why the guest post on Chuck’s blog?”

The short answer: 2022 aka “Twenty [insert expletive of your choice] twenty-two”.

Like many small nonprofits, we are continuing to fight the good fight while navigating the continuing fallout from the pandemic and spiralling global inflation in 2022. Women’s organizations have experienced decades of scarce funding for the overall women’s rights movement and women’s human rights are often one of the first casualties in turbulent times such as these. So, with our current Read For Pixels fundraiser grinding to a halt like Artax sinking into the Swamp of Sadness in The Neverending Story (it’s been over a month and we’re stuck at $2,280, which is only 45% of the way to our modest $5,000 goal), you can imagine our growing, um, concern. While we are 100% volunteer-staffed, we do have certain bills to pay so we can keep our campaigns, programs, and services running.

Chuck being the mensch that he is, received our SOS and basically paraphrased “Mi casa es su casa”, then kindly published this blog post to boost the signal for our fundraiser.

So here I am, as Domestic Violence Awareness Month 2022 kicks off, presenting five win-win reasons why you should consider giving to our fundraiser to help get us to our $5,000 finish line by our extended deadline of October 31st 2022:

Win-Win Reason to Give #1: Support accessible information for victims and survivors of VAW… while slaying your holiday gift list

One of the key services that The Pixel Project provides is to bridge the information gap that victims and survivors encounter when trying to get help.  Programs such as our daily helpline retweet session on Twitter which tweets out domestic violence and rape/sexual assault helplines for women in 205 countries worldwide from 8.00PM to midnight Eastern Time, 24/7, 365 days a year.  We also create specific lists to address current major VAW events – this year, the team pulled together a starter list of organizations and groups specializing in assisting Ukrainian women and girls who are casualties of wartime sexual violence and human trafficking.  

THE WIN-WIN FACTOR: When you donate to us, you can also tackle your holiday season gift list at the same time. From signed rare editions to goodie bundles stuffed with books and swag to tuckerisations galore, we have treats for every donation level. And while you’re appreciating the joy of squaring away some of your holiday gifts, also appreciate the fact that your donation will be going towards keeping our programs and initiatives that connect victims and survivors of VAW with the help that they need.

Win-Win Reason to Give #2: Support resources for educating folks about VAW… while getting your WIP workshopped

We have built an ever-growing archive of over 190 resource articles to date about everything from how to stop street harassment to lists of organizations tackling everything from child marriage to MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women). Additionally, our website has plenty of beginner-level primers about VAW and our Facebook page and Twitter account are excellent just-in-time sources for the latest headlines and articles about VAW.

THE WIN-WIN FACTOR: If you are a budding author who is thinking of making a donation, we have a stellar line-up of Read For Pixels authors who are offering critique bundles for WIPs (works-in-progress), including Alastair Reynolds (Science Fiction), Daniel H. Wilson (Science Fiction), Kathryn Purdie (YA Fantasy), Marshall Ryan Maresca (Fantasy), Pintip Dunn (YA Romance), and Romina Garber (YA Fantasy in English or Spanish). Some have a post-critique video chat bundled in; some welcome writing pairs; others allow for up to five questions via email from the donor about the critique. Enjoy knowing that while you are getting expert help for your WIP, you’re also supporting the creation and growth of online resources for educating folks around the world about VAW.

Win-Win Reason to Give #3: Support digital platforms for people to speak up about VAW… while chatting away with your favorite author

A key pillar of our activism and advocacy work is providing digital platforms which are safe spaces for people from different walks of life to speak up about VAW. In April, we hosted the Giving The Devil His Due blog tour featuring book bloggers using our first charity anthology to speak up about VAW during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. In June, numerous dads got on board our Fathers For Pixels program (including blog interviews, panel sessions etc) to share ideas with other dads about engaging with their peers and communities about sexism, misogyny, and VAW.

THE WIN-WIN FACTOR: While your donation keeps our platforms available for folks to speak up about VAW, it could also snag you a chat with your favorite author in the name of supporting a good cause. For this fundraiser, Jeffe Kennedy (Fantasy and Romance), Meg Gardiner (Crime/Thriller), Namina Forna (YA Fantasy), Roseanne A. Brown (YA Fantasy), and Sue Ann Jaffarian (Mystery/Crime) are all happy to have a video chat with donors to natter about everything from books and writing, to RV life, furbabies, and geeky hobbies. These video chats are open to individual donors and groups – fan friends, book clubs or library groups are also welcome to pool together the donation to get one or more of these chat sessions. 

Win-Win Reason to Give #4: Support shining a light on anti-VAW activists and advocates worldwide… while surprising your loved ones with cool treats

Part of our work involves shining a spotlight on how anti-VAW advocates, activists, and organizations worldwide are changing the world for women and girls, as well as their ideas about what people can do to help stop VAW in their communities and countries. Our Inspirational Interviews series has been running for a decade and counting. We also run topical sessions with anti-VAW advocates and activists speaking about their work and educating people about VAW such as our panel of domestic violence experts discussing the negative repercussions of the Depp/Heard case on the movement to end domestic violence and what can be done about it.

THE WIN-WIN FACTOR: If you have a geeky friend or family member with a birthday coming up and you see a Read For Pixels goodie offered by their favorite author available on our fundraising page, donate to snag that unique treat and delight them while supporting signal boosts for anti-VAW activists and advocates. BONUS: You’ll have an interesting story to tell them about where the gift came from. It might even be a great opener for chatting with them about VAW.

Win-Win Reason to Give #5: Support the right of women and girls to live a life without VAW… while your donation benefits TWO anti-VAW nonprofits

Nearly 1 in 3 women and girls worldwide experience some form of VAW in their lifetime. In terms of domestic violence alone, over 1 in 4 women under 50 have experienced physical or sexual violence from a male partner. So donate to our fundraiser because you believe in supporting efforts to prevent, stop, and end VAW. Whether you can give us $5 or $500 to help us reach our $5,000 goal, every dollar counts.

THE WIN-WIN FACTOR: If you choose Mystery/Thriller author Carol Goodman’s THE NIGHT VISITORS $50/$50 Matching Donation treat, your $50 donation will not just support our work but Carol will make sure your impact is doubled by donating $50 in your name to the domestic violence shelter run by Family of Woodstock in Ulster County, New York, USA where she volunteers.

(And even if you don’t choose Carol’s treat, when you donate to us, please also consider donating either cash or supplies to your local women’s shelter or rape crisis center. Like us, they need all the help they can get.)

It’s time to stop violence against women. Together.

***

Interested in checking out The Pixel Project’s anti-violence against women work? Visit us at https://www.thepixelproject.net/

Interested in checking out our Read For Pixels fundraiser and making a donation to help keep our work alive? Go here .

***

Regina Yau is the founder and president of The Pixel Project, a virtual volunteer-led global 501(c)3 nonprofit organization on a mission to raise awareness, funds and volunteer power for the cause to end violence against women at the intersection of social media, new technologies, and popular culture/the Arts. A Rhodes Scholar with a double Masters in Women’s Studies and Chinese Studies, she has a lifelong commitment to fighting for women’s rights. In addition to running The Pixel Project, Regina also teaches English to middle-schoolers and high-schoolers, writes stories about cheeky little fox spirits and terrorist chickens, and bakes far too many carb-and-sugar-loaded goodies.

Bits And Bobs Of Thread And String

Please behold this vital list of THINGS YE NEEDS TO KNOW, like for instance, where will I be this weekend (spoiler: NYCC), some news about Dust & Grim, a light little tour preview, and more.

First up:

Yes! I’m going to NYCC this weekend. I’m vaguely terrified! It’s probably a bad idea! I really need to figure out how to get a mask to cover my entire beard. Can I wear a hazmat hood? We shall see. My schedule is as follows:

FRIDAY 12:45PM – 1:45PM

PANEL: Authors on the Best Advice They Ever Got

PANELISTS: Peter V. Brett, Terry Brooks, Wes Chu, Delilah S. Dawson, Naomi Novik, Chuck Wendig (moderator: my excellent editor, Tricia Narwani)

Location: Lit Room 1B-02

FRIDAY 2:00PM – 3:00PM

POST-PANEL SIGNING – Authors on the Best Advice They Ever Got

Location: Autograph Area

SATURDAY 12:00PM – 1:00PM 

SIGNING at Penguin Random House booth

Location: Well, duh, the Penguin Random House booth.

So, that’s that.

What else?

WELP, Dust & Grim has been chosen as B&N’s October Monthly pick for young readers — which means the book gets some very nice placement and is in fact deliciously inexpensive at $6.99. You can grab online or in stores!

I will be going on tour for Wayward — it’s not final yet, so dates and times are TBD, but the loose tour, Good Lord Willing and the COVID Don’t Rise, will be PA (Doylestown) to GA (Atlanta, Eagle Eye) to Asheville (Malaprops) to Charlotte (Park Road Books but hosted at Queens University) to Richmond (Fountain) to Alexandria (B&N). Those should be launch week or before (Doylestown is likely the Saturday before launch, I thiiiiink), and then I’ll do a couple local dates in December (Let’s Play Books on 12/4, B&N in Bethlehem/Easton 12/10). I ask that everyone mask at these events if possible. I’m boosted, and you should also get your bivalent booster immediately, as Omicron is still ripping, and new Omicron subvariants are rising, and the bivalent booster protects against Omicron specifically (BA4 and BA5, I believe, in particular). COVID is still a thing!

Also, please note, if I’m not coming to your town, it’s because of personal reasons, as in, I don’t like you personally and have chosen to punish you directly as a result. (This is not true. I do not set my tour dates, but rather, work with the publisher to get those places and dates chosen. This tour is focused largely on the South. Which is exciting as I get to visit some stores I’ve never gone to!)

ANYWAY.

Right now, I’ll be doing signed, personalized copies of WAYWARD through Doylestown, but I also expect that some of these other stores will have their own opportunities for such. Presently, feel free to nab at D-town; they will ship.

Wayward is out 11/15.

Kirkus gave it a starred review.

Hope to see you soon.

LET’S SEE, WHAT ELSE.

I finished my Evil Apple book. Well, first draft, anyway.

I have a new middle grade in mind. We shall see.

Starting to conspire what the next adult horror-ish will be.

Have an introduction to write for a talented horror author, so that’s an honor, and I better get on that ASAFP.

I think that’s it?

More as I have it.

BYE.

Dust & Grim — Now Out In Paperback!

HEY, YOU.

PSST.

PSST!

I got a shiny new paperback book right here. It features *squints at list* a monstrous funeral home, rampant sibling rivalry, a mysterious cemetery, a coupla magical wolves, a bezoar, a vampire named Dave, cosplay, and uhhh *squints harder* something called FLORG.

It’s funny! It’s scary! It’s Florgtastic. Florgariffic. FLORGDERFUL.

If you want a signed, personalized copy, you can look no further and ping Doylestown Bookshop. They can get you sorted.

Otherwise, B&N is doing a wonderful promotion this month on the book, and you can run there and find it, or fetch it from the link. Plus, your local indie bookstore is certainly your friend, and you can go there and grabbit.

Wait, I should probably do the proper descriptions and such…

From a bestselling author: Miss Peregrine meets The Graveyard Book in this middle grade adventure about rival siblings running a monster mortuary.
​
Thirteen-year-old Molly doesn’t know how she got the short end of the stick—being raised by her neglectful father—while Dustin, the older brother she’s never met, got their mother and the keys to the family estate. But now the siblings are both orphaned, she’s come home for her inheritance, and if Dustin won’t welcome her into the family business, then she’ll happily take her half in cash.

There’s just one problem: the family business is a mortuary for monsters, and Molly’s not sure she’s ready to deal with mysterious doors, talking wolves, a rogue devourer of magic, and a secret cemetery. It’s going to take all of Dustin’s stuffy supernatural knowledge and Molly’s most heroic cosplay (plus a little help from non-human friends) for the siblings to figure it out and save the day…if only they can get along for five minutes.

Bestselling author Chuck Wendig’s middle grade debut is equal parts spooky, funny, and heartfelt—perfect for Halloween and year-round reading!

And here are some very fancy blurbs:

An Amazon Best Book of October 2021

“A clever, heartwarming tale of funerary rites, ghosts, and the undying power of family.”—Holly Black, Newbery Honor-winning author of Doll Bones and The Cruel Prince

“Wildly inventive, totally hilarious, and unexpectedly moving.”—Lev Grossman, bestselling author of The Silver Arrow and The Magicians

“A one-of-a-kind delight—mysterious, exciting, inventive, sometimes scary and always funny, Dust & Grim reads like a rollicking ghosts and monsters story, which it is. But just as important, it’s a compelling and tender story about family. Sibling duo Molly and Dustin will find their way into readers’ hearts as surely as they find their way into each other’s.”—Trenton Lee Stewart, bestselling author of The Mysterious Benedict Society

“Sucks you in with a wise-cracking zaniness that soon spirals into a delightful rampaging chaos of swarming vampires, thorny wolves, walking trees, and eldritch horrors. And yet even as the dangers for Molly and Dustin increase and the wise-cracks keep flying, the importance of family both lost and found grounds their story with a profound sense of heart.”—Paolo Bacigalupi, bestselling author of The Windup Girl, Ship Breaker, and Zombie Baseball Beatdown

“Spookily charming, bewitchingly creepy, full of hope, heart, and horror, Dust & Grim is the sort of book you gobble up in one sweet and salty bite.”—Delilah S. Dawson, author of Star Wars: PHASMA and Mine

“Every line of Dust & Grim is packed with a laugh, a sharp observation, or something radically cool, and sometimes all three at once. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Wendig is a welcome new voice in middle-grade fiction, and we are lucky to have him.”—Greg van Eekhout, author of Weird Kid, COG, and Voyage of the Dogs

“Siblings Molly and Dustin Grim are the most unlikely of heroes, and for that reason they are among the greatest. The fact that they must save the world from within a secret monster mortuary is only the first of many surprises that bestselling tale-spinner Chuck Wendig has created for this full-of-heart debut about trust, friendship, and the importance of having the perfect costume for every occasion. A fantastic, spooky adventure!”—Fran Wilde, Nebula Award winning author of Updraft and Riverland

“Playing to strengths demonstrated in his many comics and tales for older audiences, not only is Wendig a dab hand at concocting extremely creepy critters, but here he also pulls together a secondary cast of quarrelsome but supportive allies for the beleaguered teens.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Wendig charges onto the middle-grade scene with a monstrously fun tale of family and funerary arts…. [The] easy writing style is a perfect vehicle for the humor and rapidly paced shenanigans that propel the narrative…. Monstrously fun…. A sure pick for those enamored by Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book and Tahereh Mafi’s Whichwood.”—Booklist

“Wendig thrills, enchants, and amuses in equal measure…. Peppered with nail-biting action scenes, the well-paced storytelling is as heart-felt as it is heart-racing, and readers who appreciate word play will love the snark-filled banter and witty narrative voice…. The ideal read-next for fans of Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, this is also perfect for readers who embrace the weirdness of family.”—BCCB

“A spooky, heartfelt, darkly funny adventure…. The importance of relationships, regardless of blood relation, runs deep and gives an endearing core to this perfect Halloween read.”—Shelf Awareness

“The supernatural realm meets a cosplayer teen in this…blend of horror, spooky, funny, pop culture, cosplay, and sibling rivalry.”—School Library Journal

“Packed with pop-culture references and creepy beings, the novel is written from Molly’s sarcastic-beyond-her-years viewpoint and subtly threaded with life lessons that together create an engaging narrative.”—Publishers Weekly

Best children’s books of 2021: ages 9 to 12—Amazon

Victor Manibo: Five Things I Learned Writing The Sleepless

Journalist Jamie Vega is Sleepless: he can’t sleep, nor does he need to. When his boss dies on the eve of a controversial corporate takeover, Jamie doesn’t buy the too-convenient explanation of suicide, and launches an investigation of his own.

But everything goes awry when Jamie discovers that he was the last person who saw Simon alive. Not only do the police suspect him, Jamie himself has no memory of that night. Alarmingly, his memory loss may have to do with how he became Sleepless: not naturally, like other Sleepless people, but through a risky and illegal biohacking process.

As Jamie delves deeper into Simon’s final days, he tangles with extremist organizations and powerful corporate interests, all while confronting past traumas and unforeseen consequences of his medical experimentation. But Jamie soon faces the most dangerous decision of all as he uncovers a terrifying truth about Sleeplessness that imperils him—and all of humanity.

The entire experience of bringing a debut novel to life is a non-stop learning process, especially so since this book was the first I ever wrote. I could fill up a much longer list, but for now, here are five things I learned writing The Sleepless:

Sleep Evolved Before Brains, and Other Rad Trivia

Creating a science fictional world where some people do not have the need or ability to sleep meant doing a lot of research about sleep science. I learned that “fear naps” are a thing, and that cognitive behavioral therapy is more effective than medication in treating insomnia. I learned about g-suits, which are pressure trousers worn as a part of an astronaut or pilot’s flight suit to prevent g-force induced loss of consciousness. And did you know that sleep deprivation is a public health epidemic, and that about a third of Americans get less than six hours of sleep a night?

One of the more surprising things I learned is that most of our sleep research has been brain-centric, focusing on how it functions in complex creatures; after all, those are the ones with physiologies that you can hook up probes to. Yet newer research has shown that simple organisms like cockroaches, or even brainless ones like hydras and jellyfish, do sleep or engage in sleep-like behavior.

There are a Lot of Hate Groups Out There

One of the more unpleasant parts of my book research for is learning about hate groups. The Sleepless world has created a new class of people, and with it, a new basis for othering. Because of their condition, the Sleepless are treated differently: they are discriminated against, and they suffer threats to and loss of life, liberty and security.

To more realistically depict this, I delved into different kinds of hate groups, reading about their origins, their supposed ideologies, and their modus operandi. I learned their names and histories, how they are structured and funded, where they are located, what their membership looks like and how they recruit. Resources like the Southern Poverty Law Center were invaluable for this purpose–and for my own education. Through their research and databases, I gained a deeper insight into how widespread hate is in this country, and the different forms it takes. Things I thought I already knew. Not to sound alarmist, but things are worse than we think.

Genres are Meant to Be Blended

I’m a wide reader–I have no overwhelming favorites in terms of genre, setting, style or form and I feel that I have an richer reading life because of this tendency for openness. When I decided to become a writer, that translated into the stories I created. The premise of a sleepless world came to me first, so I knew The Sleepless was going to be a sci-fi book, but I also was drawn to the idea of writing a locked-room mystery, so I tried mashing those two together. I also wanted deep character interiority and a slow build, so I also had literary fiction conventions in mind as I was writing.

This made the process both rewarding and complicated: I was playing in several story sandboxes that I love, but I also needed to learn how to write each of them individually, in order to execute them well as a whole. That meant honoring each genre tradition, knowing their tropes and hallmarks, and examining what made me fall in love with them. That also required a willingness to depart from those hallmarks, to break them and bring my own spin on them, all the while finding ways to make everything cohere.

Life Imitates Art Sometimes, And That’s Okay

The world of the Sleepless was brought about by a global pandemic of mysterious origins, which was fun to write back in 2017 when I started, but not as much in 2020. Real-life events had a lot to teach me, learnings that made their way into the book. I saw first-hand the fear and confusion caused by a pandemic, as well as the pain and hatred that misinformation and panic can cause. I also saw how our institutions responded to the threat; the inefficiencies, the incompetence, and the iniquities of world leaders and private entities were, unfortunately, useful fodder for my world building.

In 2020, I was in the middle of revising and pitching it to agents and publishing houses. I received some rejections that responded to that aspect of the book, which taught me a lot about how difficult the industry is in general, and how much more so during an ongoing crisis. Compound that with the fact that I’ve written a pandemic-adjacent book, and it truly felt like an unwinnable uphill battle. Yet I stuck to it, refining the details of the pandemic to be more grounded in reality. I believed in my story and though I sometimes had doubts, I believed that there were readers out there who would too, despite the circumstances. Luckily, that turned out to be true.

Who I Am as a Writer is Ever-Changing

When I started drafting The Sleepless, I did it mostly for myself. I didn’t aspire to publish; I didn’t even know how. As my first book, writing it was largely a process of me discovering the story, and also myself as a writer. I knew what kinds of stories I liked to read, but I didn’t yet know what kind I liked to write, or the kind that I had the skills enough to write. I didn’t know process either: would I create better stories if I plotted or if I made things up as I went along? What’s the best way to motivate myself to keep working on a project?

And there were deeper personal questions too. How much of myself do I want to infuse in my work: as a brown person, as an immigrant, as a queer man, as someone raised in a religious and lower class background, etc. Even more, do I have to? What part of my personal values and beliefs do I want to examine, or to challenge, in coming up with my stories? I didn’t have ready answers to these questions when I first put words to paper; for the most part, I now do, but they are always shifting. My knowledge increases, my interests grow and expand, and with that my view of myself and the author’s life becomes clearer and more refined. On several levels, writing is constant exploration and investigation; it’s a journey of self-discovery, one that I’m glad I set out on.

***

Victor Manibo is a Filipino speculative fiction writer living in New York. As a queer immigrant and a person of color, he writes about people who live these identities and how they navigate imaginary worlds. Aside from fiction, he also spins fantastical tales in his career as a lawyer. He lives in Queens with his husband, their dog, and their two cats. He is a 2022 Lambda Literary Emerging Voices Fellow, and his debut science fiction noir novel, THE SLEEPLESS, is out August 2022 from Erewhon Books.

Victor Manibo: Twitter | Website

The Sleepless: Bookshop.org | Indiebound | B&N | Amazon

Clay McLeod Chapman: Just So We’re Clear (The Terror of Clear Plastic Tarps)

From the acclaimed author of The Remaking and Whisper Down the Lane, this terrifying supernatural page-turner will make you think twice about opening doors to the unknown.

Erin hasn’t been able to set a single boundary with her charismatic but reckless college ex-boyfriend, Silas. When he asks her to bail him out of rehab—again—she knows she needs to cut him off. But days after he gets out, Silas turns up dead of an overdose in their hometown of Richmond, Virginia, and Erin’s world falls apart.
 
Then a friend tells her about Ghost, a new drug that allows users to see the dead. Wanna get haunted? he asks. Grieving and desperate for closure with Silas, Erin agrees to a pill-popping “séance.” But the drug has unfathomable side effects—and once you take it, you can never go back.

***

Let’s talk about tarps.

Clear plastic tarps in particular. I’m going to go on record as saying there is nothing more frightening than a simple strip of transparent polyethylene. You can buy rolls of the stuff at your local hardware store, over a hundred feet long. Four hundred feet. The sheeting shields your furniture from dust during construction demos. It prevents soil erosion, creating a protective barrier for asbestos abatement. Winter insulation. Leaky roofs. You name it.

I find them terrifying. Why? Wes Craven. That’s why.

Let’s go back to 1984. A Nightmare On Elm Street is out and disrupting our sleep cycles. I’m far too young to be watching this film, but of course that’s not stopping me from sneaking a peak at Freddy Krueger invading the dreams of Nancy and her circle of friends.

Everybody’s got their favorite moment from this film. Watching Johnny Depp get sucked into his bed and then regurgitated in a geyser of blood, or Freddy’s tongue slipping out from the telephone, or perhaps his gloved hand rising up from the bathtub as Nancy drifts off to sleep…

For me, though, there’s one scene in particular that has seared its way into my subconsciousness. It’s the moment when Nancy dozes off in class, quickly slipping into dreamland, only to discover the corpse of her closest pal Tina standing in the hallway.

She’s in a body bag.

Not just any kind of body bag, though… For some perverse reason, Craven crams Tina’s corpse into a carrier made from some kind of transparent plastic material better suited for a construction site… not the removal of a dead body. In my horror film/true crime mind, body bags are always an industrial black. In any other movie, the camera catches one last glimpse of the deceased before the coroner zzzzzzips up the bag, concealing the corpse for the rest of the film. Not this one. Tina’s body bag isn’t opaque at all. Nancy—and therefor the audience—can see right through to Tina, dead, eviscerated and bleeding, shrink-wrapped within her own cellophane container. The plastic is frosted just enough that her features are blurred. Her breath—how can she still be breathing?!—fogs over the other side of her Saran Wrap sarcophagus, along with all her dribbling bodily fluids.

Tina reaches her bloodied hand out to her friend, but it’s trapped behind this plastic barrier. She calls out for Nancy before her body bag is dragged down the hall by her feet…

And years’ worth of childhood trauma was born.

Every time I see a clear plastic tarp these days, I can’t help but think of the barrier between me and whatever rests on the other side. It’s so thin. You can see through it—and yet, no oxygen can pass. No dust particles. Nothing is breaking through that sheeting.

In the strangest of ways, these transparent tarpaulins remind me of the barrier between the living and dead. The veil seems so exceedingly slim, there and somehow not there at the same time. All you have to do is poke your finger and… break on through to the other side. 

When I was writing my new novel GHOST EATERS, which is all about a haunted drug slowly insinuating itself through a small group of friends, I found myself focusing on my favorite ghost story tropes and seeing if there was a new spin to put on them. How could I recalibrate the gothic sensibilities of our favorite haunted housers and come up with something different, if not entirely new? When it came to ghosts—actual spooooky ghosts—I kept obsessing over the essentials: a bedsheet with two holes cut out for the eyes. It’s so simple and yet has so much supernatural tonnage to it. The sheet is what gives definition to the apparition. Without it, the ghost itself is invisible. You need the sheet to see the spirit… but even then, you’re not looking at the ghost, but the receptacle that encases it. Cloaks it. It’s all gift wrap and no gift.

So… what if the sheet were transparent? What if we could see behind the paranormal curtain? Is there a chance to peer beyond the veil by simply changing the outer covering?

My book has so many ghosts in it. Like, too many. In my afterlife, I posit that what ghosts want most is definition. Parameters to cozy up in. That means a house to haunt.

That means a sheet.

Without these quaint containers, these spirits are untethered. Unmoored. They wander. All they’re after is a roof over their head, a house to haunt. They just want a sheet to wrap themselves up in and define themselves by. How else are we going to see them? But in lieu of bedsheets, I gave my ghosts tarps. Clear plastic tarps. This simple shift permits my protagonist to see directly through the veil and peer into what’s waiting for us all on the other side…

It’s not pretty. But it suggests that we’re so focused on the surface of these spirits and not, you know, what’s on the inside. All we see is the sheet. Not the ghost itself.

Clear plastic changes all that. It allows us to look even further.

Who knows? Maybe clear plastic tarps will be all the rage for ghosts this season. Don’t be so surprised if the next apparition you encounter is sporting their own polyethylene sheet…

***

Clay McLeod Chapman writes books, comic books, children’s books, and for film/TV. His most recent horror novels include Ghost Eaters, Whisper Down the Lane, and The Remaking. You can find him at www.claymcleodchapman.com.