Orrin Grey's Blog: Shovel Murders & Monologues, page 61

Planet Comicon Wrap-Up

Planet Comicon was awesome, as usual. I got a lot of good swag and didn't spend too terribly much money, but the best part was getting to meet folks like Francesco Francavilla and Grant Bond, seeing Kyle Strahm again, and hanging out with Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt.

I managed to miss all my local friends who hit the show, and I didn't spend as much time with some people as I would've liked, but all in all I think it clocks as a pretty successful weekend, and I'm already looking forward to next year.

Cons, Books, & Others

As of today, there are five books on my Goodreads author page. I'm really excited about Historical Lovecraft and I can't wait until it's actually out. For now, there's a free preview story here.

And speaking of books coming out, fellow Historical Lovecraft author and monster aficionado Jesse Bullington's second book just hit shelves. I saw a couple of copies at Borders yesterday when I went in to ogle their closing sale, and I've already got mine and am about eight chapters in as of this writing. So far, I love it! Definitely pick it up. If nothing else, there's tons of great necromancer action, even just at the beginning, and if The Bros. G was any indication, it'll only pick up from here.

Things in my regular life have kept me jumping. I talked before about trying to use my space better, and to that end we've recently bought some furniture, which has necessity some (much-needed) rearranging of the living space. So far its going well, if not as fast as I'd like.

Possibly because of that, Planet Comicon has crept up on me a little bit. In that it's tomorrow, holy crap! Looking forward to meeting a bunch of folks there, including Francesco Francavilla, Skottie Young, Brian Hurtt, Cullen Bunn, and a bunch of others. Hopefully I'll get to spend some time hanging out with people, but we'll see how the day goes. If you're gonna be there, feel free to drop me a line or something and maybe we can meet up.

Lesser Demons

A few years ago, Norman Partridge saved my life.

OK, so that's probably putting it a little strongly, but I was going through a rough spot in my writing when I first read The Man with the Barbed Wire Fists, and it did a lot to help rejuvenate me. Partridge has all the energy of the pulps and drive-in movies that inspired him, along with a tight handle on themes and characterization. But what mostly struck me was how in love with everything he seemed. There was enthusiasm dripping off every page, every sentence, every word.

Lesser Demons didn't hit me quite as hard as The Man with the Barbed Wire Fists, but it's still got that same enthusiasm, that same energy. In his afterword, Partridge says that he's the kind of writer who doesn't like writing but likes having written. From reading Lesser Demons (or any of his other work), though, I'll say that you certainly can't see it. Reading Norman Partridge feels like reading somebody who is completely in love with what he's doing, and it always reminds me of why I fell in love with writing--and with this genre (whatever it might happen to be)--in the first place, and I hope that when people read my stuff they find at least a little bit of that same enthusiasm bleeding through.

Lesser Demons

A few years ago, Norman Partridge saved my life.

OK, so that's probably putting it a little strongly, but I was going through a rough spot in my writing when I first read The Man with the Barbed Wire Fists, and it did a lot to help rejuvenate me. Partridge has all the energy of the pulps and drive-in movies that inspired him, along with a tight handle on themes and characterization. But what mostly struck me was how in love with everything he seemed. There was enthusiasm dripping off every page, every sentence, every word.

Lesser Demons didn't hit me quite as hard as The Man with the Barbed Wire Fists, but it's still got that same enthusiasm, that same energy. In his afterword, Partridge says that he's the kind of writer who doesn't like writing but likes having written. From reading Lesser Demons (or any of his other work), though, I'll say that you certainly can't see it. Reading Norman Partridge feels like reading somebody who is completely in love with what he's doing, and it always reminds me of why I fell in love with writing–and with this genre (whatever it might happen to be)–in the first place, and I hope that when people read my stuff they find at least a little bit of that same enthusiasm bleeding through.

An Entry from the Secret Life of Laird Barron

Lately, the Internet has been abuzz with people ousting the scandalous secrets of Laird Barron's sordid life, but there's one story that no one has yet told (at least, not to my knowledge). It's possible that I'm the only person who has figured this out, since it hasn't even shown up on IMDb yet.

You see, sometime before 2006, Laird secretly starred in a low-budget horror film. I can't say why exactly he would cover this up, except maybe out of shame at the final product. It supposedly played a couple of small-time festival circuits under the unfortunate moniker "Ape Women from Venus," in spite of containing neither apes nor women nor Venus. I've never been able to track down anyone who actually remembers seeing it at a festival, just a few people who remember the name on the programming, or who remember talking to people who had seen it at some 2am screening.

The copy I watched was a DVD screener, bearing the less evocative but perhaps more accurate title of "Monster Cabin" affixed to the outside of an otherwise blank box by a post-it note. This was back when I was still working in a video store, and one of my customers, aware of my penchant for unusual horror films, slipped me the screener one evening just before I closed up for the night.

The DVD inside was blank, the kind you buy at office supply stores, and the picture quality when I popped it into my DVD player was as lousy as you might imagine. As near as I could make out past the miserable camera work and out-of-sync soundtrack, the story concerned some hikers (two couples, so I guess there were some women in it after all) who were kidnapped by a crazy hermit and taken to his mountain cabin. There, he read to them from his latest manuscript, while outside the cabin's one window lights flashed first red then green then blue, and some stagehands obviously shook the set from side to side. The screener I got was badly damaged, and began to break down near the end, but as near as I could tell the hikers started to change shape as they listened to the hermit's reading, melting and reforming in claymation-like shapes. My memory tells me that the special effects in this section, while still smacking of stop motion and forced perspectives, were remarkably lifelike and much better than the rest of the film, though they were seen only in shadow and through a shaking camera. But the screener was already beginning to crap out by then, and it's possible that I just imagined it. I tried to watch the film again, but the player said it couldn't read the disc, and shortly thereafter I lost track of it, presumably in a move.

It wasn't until several years later that I met Laird at Readercon and realized that he'd been, unmistakably, the crazy hermit from the mountain cabin. I didn't press him about it at the time, but one night at the bar I did fish with some comments about low-budget horror films and mountain cabins, which caused Laird to clam up and shoot me a hard, cold look, in spite of the number of beverages I had by then seen him imbibe.

To the best of my knowledge, the film has never been released on DVD under any title, and no mention of it is made on IMDb or anywhere else on the Internet that I've been able to find. Clips occasionally surface on YouTube, where they can be found by searching for things like "crazy hermit" or "people turning into claymation," but the clips seldom stay up for long and always disappear as mysteriously as they arrived.

An Entry from the Secret Life of Laird Barron

Lately, the Internet has been abuzz with people ousting the scandalous secrets of Laird Barron's sordid life, but there's one story that no one has yet told (at least, not to my knowledge). It's possible that I'm the only person who has figured this out, since it hasn't even shown up on IMDb yet.

You see, sometime before 2006, Laird secretly starred in a low-budget horror film. I can't say why exactly he would cover this up, except maybe out of shame at the final product. It supposedly played a couple of small-time festival circuits under the unfortunate moniker "Ape Women from Venus," in spite of containing neither apes nor women nor Venus. I've never been able to track down anyone who actually remembers seeing it at a festival, just a few people who remember the name on the programming, or who remember talking to people who had seen it at some 2am screening.

The copy I watched was a DVD screener, bearing the less evocative but perhaps more accurate title of "Monster Cabin" affixed to the outside of an otherwise blank box by a post-it note. This was back when I was still working in a video store, and one of my customers, aware of my penchant for unusual horror films, slipped me the screener one evening just before I closed up for the night.

The DVD inside was blank, the kind you buy at office supply stores, and the picture quality when I popped it into my DVD player was as lousy as you might imagine. As near as I could make out past the miserable camera work and out-of-sync soundtrack, the story concerned some hikers (two couples, so I guess there were some women in it after all) who were kidnapped by a crazy hermit and taken to his mountain cabin. There, he read to them from his latest manuscript, while outside the cabin's one window lights flashed first red then green then blue, and some stagehands obviously shook the set from side to side. The screener I got was badly damaged, and began to break down near the end, but as near as I could tell the hikers started to change shape as they listened to the hermit's reading, melting and reforming in claymation-like shapes. My memory tells me that the special effects in this section, while still smacking of stop motion and forced perspectives, were remarkably lifelike and much better than the rest of the film, though they were seen only in shadow and through a shaking camera. But the screener was already beginning to crap out by then, and it's possible that I just imagined it. I tried to watch the film again, but the player said it couldn't read the disc, and shortly thereafter I lost track of it, presumably in a move.

It wasn't until several years later that I met Laird at Readercon and realized that he'd been, unmistakably, the crazy hermit from the mountain cabin. I didn't press him about it at the time, but one night at the bar I did fish with some comments about low-budget horror films and mountain cabins, which caused Laird to clam up and shoot me a hard, cold look, in spite of the number of beverages I had by then seen him imbibe.

To the best of my knowledge, the film has never been released on DVD under any title, and no mention of it is made on IMDb or anywhere else on the Internet that I've been able to find. Clips occasionally surface on YouTube, where they can be found by searching for things like "crazy hermit" or "people turning into claymation," but the clips seldom stay up for long and always disappear as mysteriously as they arrived.

The Results Are In!

About two weeks ago, I fell on some ice and hurt my shoulder (actually more my neck, it would seem). Ever since then it's been bothering me on and off, and this last weekend it got worse, so I finally went to the doctor. I spent about two hours waiting to be seen, and then got told, basically, "You hurt your arm. You should take it easy." Thanks, guys. I was given some drugs, and later I went to see the chiropractor, who was more helpful. Today I'm doing a bit better, and hopefully this'll be the first step on the road to recovery, rather than whatever road I've been on for the past two weeks.

But I didn't start this post to complain about my injuries or about the vagaries of the medical profession. I started this post because I just learned the other day that my article about monsters and supernatural fiction ("The Condition of a Monster," you may remember it) has won first place in the Strange Horizons readers' poll for articles! Thanks to everyone who voted for it, and congrats to fellow articles winners Molly Tanzer, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Selena Chambers, as well as to Saladin Ahmed, whose story took fourth place in the story section! And, of course, congrats to everyone else who placed, too, these are just the people I actually know.

The Results Are In!

About two weeks ago, I fell on some ice and hurt my shoulder (actually more my neck, it would seem). Ever since then it's been bothering me on and off, and this last weekend it got worse, so I finally went to the doctor. I spent about two hours waiting to be seen, and then got told, basically, "You hurt your arm. You should take it easy." Thanks, guys. I was given some drugs, and later I went to see the chiropractor, who was more helpful. Today I'm doing a bit better, and hopefully this'll be the first step on the road to recovery, rather than whatever road I've been on for the past two weeks.

But I didn't start this post to complain about my injuries or about the vagaries of the medical profession. I started this post because I just learned the other day that my article about monsters and supernatural fiction ("The Condition of a Monster," you may remember it) has won first place in the Strange Horizons readers' poll for articles! Thanks to everyone who voted for it, and congrats to fellow articles winners Molly Tanzer, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Selena Chambers, as well as to Saladin Ahmed, whose story took fourth place in the story section! And, of course, congrats to everyone else who placed, too, these are just the people I actually know.

Repurposing

So, it's been March for like a week now. So far so good. I've written at least a little bit most days, and those days I haven't I'm pretty OK with.

I'm about two months behind any real New Years resolutions, but I've been giving a lot of thought lately, post-February, to stuff like using my space better, both in my real life and online (and maybe in my brain, too). I see a lot of people talk about stuff like being able to write anywhere, anytime. Which I think I manage decently well. But I think there's something to be said for setting up spaces that are conducive to whatever it is you want to be doing with them, when you can.

Anyway, one of the things I'll be doing to that end is changing around how I use my 'blogs and other online presences. I'm not sure how yet, exactly, but I know one thing I'm going to be doing is fiddling with my settings at my actual site, including making the tags a little more functional. (If you're there right now, you'll be able to see them along the right sidebar.)

I've got some other stuff coming up soon, too, but I'm waiting to hear back on a couple of things before I jump. So this is basically just me twiddling my thumbs. Riveting, I know.

Repurposing

So, it's been March for like a week now. So far so good. I've written at least a little bit most days, and those days I haven't I'm pretty OK with.

I'm about two months behind any real New Years resolutions, but I've been giving a lot of thought lately, post-February, to stuff like using my space better, both in my real life and online (and maybe in my brain, too). I see a lot of people talk about stuff like being able to write anywhere, anytime. Which I think I manage decently well. But I think there's something to be said for setting up spaces that are conducive to whatever it is you want to be doing with them, when you can.

Anyway, one of the things I'll be doing to that end is changing around how I use my 'blogs and other online presences. I'm not sure how yet, exactly, but I know one thing I'm going to be doing is fiddling with my settings at my actual site, including making the tags a little more functional. (If you're there right now, you'll be able to see them along the right sidebar.)

I've got some other stuff coming up soon, too, but I'm waiting to hear back on a couple of things before I jump. So this is basically just me twiddling my thumbs. Riveting, I know.