Lois H. Gresh's Blog, page 5

NecronomiCon 2015

The people running NecronomiCon 2015 have kindly invited me to be a Special Guest of Honor.

What a wonderful honor, and I’m so grateful!

Why did they choose me? I think it’s because I’m the Old Crone of Weird Fiction – i.e., a female who has been in the field for a very long time. I was the token female on the HPL panel at WFC way back in 1996.

Anyway, whatever the reason, I’m happy for it, so thank you to NecronomiCon!

I’m not sure if I should be the one to announce the other Special Guests of Honor, so I’ll leave that to Niels.

 

DRAGONCON – schedule

I’ll be a Guest at this year’s DRAGONCON in Atlanta, GA. Many of my books will be at the Missing Volumes table in the Dealers’ Room. You’ll be able to get DARK FUSIONS and ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS, as well as THE DIVERGENT COMPANION, THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS COMPANION, THE SCIENCE OF SUPERHEROES, THE SCIENCE OF SUPERVILLAINS, THE SCIENCE OF JAMES BOND, THE TERMINATION NODE thriller, and many more.

Here’s my DRAGONCON schedule:

Fri 4-5 pm, Horror: State of the Union panel

Fri 7-8 pm, Cthulhu Mythos, the Innsmouth Cycle panel

Sat 11:30am-12:30, DragonCon autograph session

Sun 11:30am-noon, SFWA autograph session

Sun 2- 3 pm: HWA autograph session

Sun 8:30-9:30pm, TITAN Presents panel

Mon 10-11am, Urban Fantasy or Horror? What’s the Difference panel

 

Ellen Datlow Reviews DARK FUSIONS

DARK FUSIONS: Where Monsters Lurk!

(editor, PS Publishing, Nov. 2013

“Dark Fusions: Where Monsters Lurk!, edited by Lois H. Gresh (PS Publishing) is an entertaining all-original anthology of eighteen supernatural, sf/horror, dark fantasy, and horror stories, many containing monsters. The most interesting are by Cody Goodfellow, Nicholas Kaufmann, Nancy Kilpatrick, Lisa Morton, Norman Prentiss, David Sakmyster, Darrell Schweitzer, and Ann K. Schwader.”

–Ellen Datlow in BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR 2013

Welcome to DARK FUSIONS: Where Monsters Lurk!, a smorgasbord of weird fiction, dark science fiction and fantasy, and horror written by, among others, finalists and winners of the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Arthur Ellis Award. Within these pages you’ll find stories that fuse all the elements of dark fiction.

AMAZON – available here

PS PUBLISHING – available here

 

Ellen Datlow Reviews ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS

I’m so bad at self-promotion that I never posted this wonderful review by Ellen Datlow, an editor I admire as much as any editor in the business. To receive kind words from Ellen helps me forge ahead as a writer. So here’s a heartfelt THANK YOU, Ellen.

“Eldritch Evolutions by Lois H. Gresh is the author’s first collection and it brings together twenty-six stories published between 1993 and 2011, nine of which appear for the first time. Although best known for writing Lovecraftian pastiches, Gresh also writes science fiction and weird westerns and her best work is very good indeed, particularly the dark fairy tale, ‘Wee Sweet Girlies.’”

- Ellen Datlow in THE BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR 2011

ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS

(26 Weird Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror Stories)

BookViewCafe e-book

Amazon e-book

Amazon print

Barnes & Noble print

(Chaosium, 2011)

*Preliminary Ballot for HWA Best Collection of 2011

*Wee Sweet Girlies short-listed for 2011 Year’s Best Horror

*4 stories received Honorable Mentions, 2011 Year’s Best Horror

(ed., Ellen Datlow)

 

DragonCon 2014 Schedule

Fri 4-5 pm, Horror: State of the Union panel

Fri 7-8 pm, Cthulhu Mythos, the Innsmouth Cycle panel

Sat 11:30 am-12:30, DragonCon autograph session

Sun 11:30 am-noon, SFWA autograph session

Sun 8:30-9:30 pm, TITAN Presents panel

Mon 10-11 am, Urban Fantasy or Horror? What’s the Difference panel

You can find my books for sale at MISSING VOLUMES in the Dealers’ Room. They’ll have a lot of my titles, from companion guides to fiction. I have two autograph sessions, one on Saturday and the other on Sunday, so please look for me and say hello.

See you at DragonCon!

Publishing News: Short Update

Here’s is a short update to cover things for now. I hope to get around to updating my overall website soon.

In addition to what you see below, my current “in progress” queue contains a bunch of stories with  tight deadlines. A bunch of additional stories await entry into queue, but I’m not worrying about them yet.

While writing the above, I’m developing another weird-SFish novel. As soon as I finish the tight-deadline stories, I’ll turn my attention full force to the new novel.

In the meantime, my lovely agent submitted a weird-SFish novel to an editor, so we’ll see what happens there. Wish me luck.

Finally, I’m editing a new invitation-only (closed already) anthology for PS Publishing. I have an amazing line-up of top-rate weird fiction authors, so I’m extremely excited about this book.

RECENTLY PUBLISHED & AVAILABLE NOW:

Necrotic Cove, BLACK WINGS III (PS Publishing, 2014)

Willie the Protector, SEARCHERS AFTER HORROR (Fedogan & Bremer, 2014)

Mandelbrot Moldrot (reprint), MAD SCIENCE CAFE (BookViewCafe, 2014)

Dreams of Death, ELDRITCH CHROME (Chaosium, 2014) 

(editor), DARK FUSIONS: WHERE MONSTERS LURK! (PS Publishing, 2014)

THE DIVERGENT COMPANION (St. Martin’s Press, 2014)

SOLD & AVAILABLE SOON:

Devil’s Bathtub, MADNESS OF CTHULHU (Titan Books, 2014)

Cult of the Dead, BLACK WINGS IV (PS Publishing, 2014)
Old Enough to Drink, DARK FANTASTIQUE (Cycatrix Press, 2014)
Death Doll, EXPIRATION DATE (Edge SFF Publishing, 2014)
Of Queens and Pawns, THAT IS NOT DEAD (PS Publishing, 2014)
Mandelbrot Moldrot (reprint), MOUNTAIN WALKED (Centipede Press, 2014)
Nameless and Shameless, JEWS VS. ALIENS (Jurassic London, 2014)
Werewolf Root Canal, MARK OF THE BEAST (Chaosium, 2014)
Night Trippers, SUMMER OF LOVECRAFT (Chaosium, 2015)

World Horror Convention 2014

I just received my World Horror Convention 2014 schedule. The con is almost upon us, which means (a) I have a lot of writing to finish – immediately, and (b) I must prepare for the con. See you all in Portland!

Friday, 2-3 pm, Writer’s Workshop, in which Paul Dale Anderson and I critique a 50-page partial & synopsis for someone

Friday, 6-8 pm, Mass Signing. If for some insane reason, you want my autograph, please bring books. I will have very few (if any) with me.

Saturday, 11 am-noon, Research for Horror Writing. Horror writers talk about how they research the dark and mysterious past to use in their fiction writing. Christine Morgan, Lois Gresh, Lisa Manetti, Alan M. Clark, James Chambers, Rocky Wood

Saturday, 2-3 pm, You’ll Never Get Out Alive! Advice to New Writers. Professional authors with decades of combined field experience tell the audience everything they wish they could tell their younger selves when they were starting out as writers. Brian Keene, Jack Ketchum, Weston Ochse, Lois Gresh, F. Paul Wilson

Saturday, 6:30-9:30 pm. Stoker Award Ceremony & Banquet, in which I not only have fun but this year, have the honor of presenting the Non-Fiction Award along with Les Klinger. I suppose that we must concoct some appropriate babbling (in polite terms, known as banter).

Sunday, 11 am-noon, Between Two Worlds, Finding Time to Write. How do we as writers carve out a big enough chunk from our other lives to sit down, clear our minds, and practice our craft? Lois Gresh, Minerva Zimmerman, Cameron Pierce, Sally Bosco, Sunni Brock

 

DARK FUSIONS: WHERE MONSTERS LURK!

DARK FUSIONS: WHERE MONSTERS LURK!

AVAILABLE NOW!

Welcome to Dark Fusions: Where Monsters Lurk!, a smorgasbord of stories by, among others, finalists and winners of the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Arthur Ellis Award. Within these pages you’ll find stories that fuse all the elements of dark fiction.

Sometimes, darkness is internal, generated by our minds or bodies. Sometimes, it’s due to external devices, such as monsters, shadows, or lurking dangers. A dark fantasy story requires an otherworld, an imaginary realm, a supernatural story requires a creature or event that exists beyond our natural universe, and a dark science fiction story revolves around science gone bad.

Weird fiction lies on the boundaries of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. It creates a mood. At its best, it features dark, bizarre, and unexplained phenomena. Here, the monsters aren’t vampires, werewolves, or splatterpunk killers. Instead, something has violated the natural laws of reality, and the strange events of the story could happen. Darkness driven by the weird is particularly potent.

Included in Dark Fusions: Where Monsters Lurk! are intensely weird stories, as well as traditional weird tales, dark science fiction, dark fantasy, and pure horror. Some of these stories will blow your mind. Others will just scare the hell out of you.

DARK FUSIONS Book Launch Party – World Fantasy Convention

A smorgasbord of weird fiction, dark science fiction, dark fantasy, and pure horror. Some of these stories will blow your mind. Others will just the scare the hell out of you.

(PS Publishing, Nov 2013)

At World Fantasy Convention on Friday, Nov 1 from 4-6 pm, please join us at the PS Publishing Book Launch Party for DARK FUSIONS. I’ll be there as editor, along with a few of the contributors.

Here’s the front cover and inside flap:

Here’s the back cover and inside flap:

Also launching (and yes, we are in GREAT company!): THE PRETENCE by Ramsey Campbell; VIOLENT CENTURY by Lavie Tidhar; DARKNESS, MIST AND SHADOW by Stephen Jones, Kim Newman, Randy Broecker, Les Edwards, and Bob Eggleton; THE REPERATEUR OF STRASBOURG by Ian R. MacLeod, THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN by Christopher Golden; and SUNBURNT FACES by Shimon Adaf.

 

NecronomiCon

This is a brief post about NecronomiCon with a few choice photos. Overall, it was a fantastic convention, bringing together all who love weird fiction and H.P. Lovecraft’s work for one grand weekend in Providence, Rhode Island. Many thanks to Niels Hobbs, the organizer of the convention, and to the many volunteers who helped him.

I was on a variety of panels:

HPL’s Phobias
Sex, Gender, and Identity in HPL’s Life and Work
Writing Mythos Fiction
The New Weird

I also read Willie the Protector from S.T. Joshi’s forthcoming magnificent anthology, SEARCHERS AFTER HORROR (Fedogan & Bremer, 2014).

My final official activity was to appear as the rabbi at the Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast on Sunday morning. Officiating (of course!) was the ever-erudite Minister Robert Price along with the ever-hilarious Deacon Cody Goodfellow. The choir was led by the ever-harmonious Darrell Schweitzer.

I had endless fun and wonderful conversations with many people (far too many to list here). It was also a thrill to see S.T. Joshi honored as keynote speaker and recipient of a special Robert Bloch award.

I could go on and on at great length about the con, but I have absurd amounts of writing to do, so I’ll simply show you some photos and bid you adieu — until next time.

In no particular order:

During S.T.’s keynote speech, I showed up via another spacetime dimension and landed next to Sunni Brock.

HPL’s Phobias panel on Friday (photo courtesy of Asylum House) – with Robert M. Price, Lois Gresh, Rory Raven (moderator), Scott Connors and Peter Cannon (not in this photo)

New Weird panel (photo courtesy of Sunni Brock) – left to right, Pete Rawlik, Lois Gresh, Jonathan Thomas, Jason Brock (moderator), Joe Pulver, Richard Gavin, Laird Barron

Sex, Identity, and Gender in HPL’s Life and Work (photo courtesy of Sunni Brock) – with Wilum Pugmire, Lois Gresh, S.T. Joshi (moderator), Caitlin Kiernan, Selena Chambers

Sex, Identity, and Gender in HPL’s Life and Work (photo courtesy of Sunni Brock) – with Wilum Pugmire, Lois Gresh, S.T. Joshi

Writing Mythos Fiction (photo courtesy of Asylum House) – with Vincent O’Neil, Lois Gresh (moderator), Jonathan Thomas, Richard Gavin, Simon Strantzas

Reading (photo courtesy of Matthew Carpenter) – with me was Jonathan Thomas

And now for the SILVER SCREEN SPOOKSHOW EYEBALL photos, courtesy of Anya Martin!

Lois, the eyeball, and Niels Hobbs

The eyeball attacks Jason Brock.

Diane O’Bannon wants to eat the eyeball…

…but one lick and she already knows it’s made of something we cannot fathom.

The eyeball amuses Leslie Klinger.

CAUGHT with the eyeball – Wilum Pugmire and S.T. Joshi

Here are a few choice photos from the Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast, courtesy of Matthew Carpenter.

Finally, a photo of the beautiful and delightful Sunni and Anya –