Lois H. Gresh's Blog, page 10

Zombies, Ramsey Campbell, & Luther BBC Show

This is a potpourri post, in which I babble about what I'm working on, what I'm reading, and what I'm watching on tv. Yes, this is the exciting life of a pulp-hack working writer! Oo la la!
           
The zombie book and movie binge is now over. I'm shifting into the phase where I transcribe all my notes, organize them, and create an outline. Then I shift directly into the interview phase. Then I bang out the draft.
             
While working on this particular book, I'm working on a few other books and short stories. I also wrote another book proposal last week.
           
At night, I relax by reading Ramsey Campbell books, which probably accounts for the insomnia - you think?  

The current Ramsey Campbell novel is The Face That Must Die, and if you haven't read it (or anything by this amazing author), you should do so.

However, don't expect to get any sleep.
 
I've also been watching a BBC program called "Luther," which adds a nice twist to the old mystery-detective tropes. Sure, Luther's troubled, he can't be in a solid relationship, he's obsessed with solving crimes that nobody else can solve, he's always at risk of being canned by the bosses, etc.

However, he also has a bizarre relationship with a mass-murdering genius named Alice, a character that I find especially interesting. She toys with him and manipulates events in his private and professional life, and he goes to her for advice while handling other murder cases.


Idris Elba (above right) plays the character of Luther, and Ruth Wilson (below right) plays the character of mass murderer Alice.
       

   

New York State Balloon Festival

I didn't know what to expect when attending the New York State Balloon Festival for the first time. I figured hot air balloons would be part of the Festival, but I had no idea how many to expect or what they might look like.

Approximately two dozen balloons were on the ground, ready to fill and billow into the sky. Some never made it off the ground, and sadly, my favorite - a purple dinosaur balloon - was in that category. Balloons filled, tottered for fifteen minutes, then collapsed. Others filled and simply rose. In the end, almost twenty balloons filled the sky - all at once!

Aside from the purple dinosaur, these two balloons were my next favorites:



The sun was right behind the launch field, so it was tough to take clear photos.

As the day bled into evening, a translucent green balloon passed over the sun, creating a beautiful eclipse effect.



Here are a few photos of the balloons on the ground.

 

And here are a few more of them in the sky.

 

Mark of the Beast - werewolf tales

Thanks to Scott David Aniolowski and Tom Lynch, Miskatonic River Press will dish up a cool new horror anthology in 2013. Werewolves! Not kissy-kissy werewolves. Not Larry Talbot werewolves. And definitely not hunky romantic werewolves. No sir, not from Scott and Tom. 
Oh, this is gonna be good!
My tale for this one is Werewolf Root Canal. Don't read it before getting your teeth cleaned. 
As always, in no particular order, here's the preliminary table of contents:

The Wolves Outside the Cage by Abraham Kawa
Thirteen by Alyne de Winter
The Hunting of Philip Ackroyd by Josh Reynolds
Adjustment by Paul L. Bates
Against a Sea of Brilliant White by Michael Matheson
Arcadia by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt
Best Left Buried by Evan Dicken
WolfGang by Glynn Barrass
Happy? by Daryl Wayne
Hellhound by Aurelio Rico Lopez III
Her Mother’s Fur by Rebecca L. Brown
Into the Moonlight by Donald R. Burleson
Last Night... by Eric J. Guignard
At Long Last by Mollie L. Burleson
Lucy Still Eats Meat by Michael Penkas
Malediction of the Moon by T. Fox Dunham
Moonburn by Robert M. Price
Werewolf Root Canal by Lois Gresh
Over Exposure by Jonathan Templar
Teenage Werewolf by Catharine Clark-Sayles
The Shrieking Shack by Richard L. Tierney
Wolf by Ernest Walwyn
The Better to Type With, My Dear by Megan Engelhardt
The Blood of the Moon by Caitlin Walsh
The Bone Cruncher by Karen Gillard
The Clothes Maketh by Juliet Boyd
The Vestals by Ann K. Schwader
The Wolfgirl in the Cupboard by Gitte Christensen
Mr. Lupus by T.E. Grau

I can't wait to read this huge volume of werewolf tales!

FOLLOW BUTTON - how to get one back on your blog

You probably remember the good old FOLLOW button that was on everybody's blog. Sadly, Google got rid of it. Yes, it's long gone.

So nobody can follow your blog anymore. And if you want to follow somebody else's blog, well, good luck without that FOLLOW button.

What are the possible remedies?

1. You can display the giant photo grid of blog followers on the sidebar. Yes, I think that's still available, though I wouldn't swear to it.

2. You can monkey around a little, and as described below, FORCE A FOLLOW BUTTON BACK ONTO YOUR BLOG.

Here's what you do.

Go to Dashboard-->Layout.

Choose Add a Gadget.

Choose Add HTML/Javascript.

In the Title box of the Configure HTML/Javascript window, type something like FOLLOW THIS BLOG.

Copy your numerical blogID from the URL, as in
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blog...    (etc)

In the Content box, type:

1234567890123456789
Paste your own blogID in place of the one shown above in red.

Click Save in the Configure HTML/Javascript window.

Voila!

For an example, take a look at the upper right corner of my blog. It actually works!

Get ready to be zombified!

I'm coming armed with zombie fan questions both to RocCon Rochester and Roc-Con Harrisburg, so get ready! This is your chance to be in a whacko zombie book!
               
I already mentioned that I'll be Guest of Honor Writer at RocCon Rochester.
(Sept 21-23 in Rochester, NY)

I'll also be Guest of Honor Writer at the Central PA Comic Book, Sci Fi, Anime Con.
(Oct 28 in Harrisburg, PA)

Zombie Cupcakes & James Bond?

Zombie Cupcakes, a recipe book by Zilly Rosen. This is a "must have" cookbook for a lot of people I know. 
From the Book Description: "Recipes range from Zombie Flesh to Zombie Brain, from Gravestones to Night of the Living Cupcake."
A Zombie Ate My Cupcake, a recipe book by Lily Vanilli (great name). 
From the Book Description: "…revoltingly realistic Marzipan Beetles, or add a crunch to your desserts with Morbid Meringue Bones dipped in raspberry blood sauce….If Ozzy Osbourne made cupcakes, these are the ones he'd want to eat."
Amazon reports that "people who bought A Zombie Ate My Cupcake also bought The Enlightened Bracketologist."  
I wrote a James Bond chapter for this book. 
As they say, it's a small world.

Steampunk Cthulhu - weird tales

Cool artwork by Daniele Serra for the Steampunk Cthulhu anthology cover!

I had a lot of fun writing my story for this collection. The editors, Brian Sammons and Glynn Owen Barrass, constantly amaze me with the wild themes they concoct for their weird anthologies.

In no particular order, here's the preliminary table of contents:
   
Those Above - Jeffrey Thomas
Blackwold Horror - Adam Bolivar
No Hand to Turn the Key - Carrie Cuinn
The Reverend Mr. Goodworks and the Yeggs of Yig - Ed Erdelac
Carnacki – The Island of D. Munroe - William Meikle
Pain Wears No Mask - John Goodrich
Before the Least of These Stars - Lee Clark Zumpe
The Promised Messiah - DJ Tyrer
Unfathomable - Christine Morgan
The Flower - Chris Geeson
Tentacular Spectacular - Thana Niveau
Fall of an Empire - Glynn Owen Barrass and Brian M. Sammons
The Baying of the Hounds - Leigh Kimmel
Mr Brass and the City of Devils - Josh Reynolds
The Source - DL Snell
Happy Birthday, Dear Cthulhu - Robert Neilson
The Strange Company - Peter Rawlik
Steel and Bones - Lois Gresh
         
I suspect we're looking at a 2013 release from Chaosium. I'll post more news here when I have it.

Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey

This is going to be a fascinating book. I was delighted when Lori Perkins asked me to contribute an essay to Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey, a collection of essays about the New York Times Best-Selling trilogy by E.L. James.

My essay focuses on feminism and sexual politics, and I'll be interested to see what other writers say about these subjects.
           
For those of you who are interested in why Fifty Shades is so popular, here's the Amazon link:
           
http://amzn.to/OJ9QmQ
         
Available for pre-order with a release date of Nov 20, 2012

Here's the book description from Smart Pop Books at BenBella:

Can’t get enough of Fifty Shades of Grey?

Fifty Shades of Grey has gone from underground e-book sensation to runaway mainstream bestseller—it’s the book everyone is talking about.

Now, Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey extends the conversation women (and men!) are having across the country. The perfect panel of insiders—from the editor who first “discovered” Fifty Shades of Grey, to BDSM experts, to erotic fiction authors, romance authors, and a whole lot more—takes you deeper into the trilogy that has captured the imaginations of so many.

From the books’ sexual politics and its fanfiction origins to what sets it apart from other erotic fiction and romance (and what doesn’t), everything you ever wanted to know about Fifty Shades of Grey is right here.

Blog updates at last

I finally updated the book and story list here:

http://loisgresh.blogspot.com/p/books.html

I also updated the Guest of Honor appearances. Hopefully, I remembered everything, but I doubt it. I wonder if I'll ever get around to updating my old website. Yeah, maybe in 2020.

CURRENT PROJECTS:
Untitled Pop Culture Book, 2013Untitled Horror Novel, 2013Editor, DARK FUSIONS, 2013PLUS several weird fiction and horror storiesSHORT STORIES IN FORTHCOMING ANTHOLOGIES:
Dreams of Death, ELDRITCH CTHULHU, Chaosium, 2013Werewolf Root Canal, MARK OF THE BEAST, Miskatonic River Press, 2013Mandelbrot Moldrot (reprint), MOUNTAIN WALKED, Centipede Press, 2013Steel and Bones, STEAMPUNK CTHULHU, Chaosium, 2013Sea of No Return, DARK FUSIONS, PS Publishing, 2013

Book View Cafe Giveaway

Book View Café is celebrating the opening of our new, completely-redesigned bookstore by giving our readers a chance to win the book of their choice free.  


Just take a look around the store anytime up until midnight, June 8, and choose the book you’d like--all the books that are eligible for the giveaway are marked with a gold star. Then come back here and leave a comment with the name and author of the book and why you want it (we may use that comment for publicity purposes). When the promotion ends, if you’re the winner, I’ll send you a coupon for the book of your choice.