Gregory Lamberson's Blog, page 3

RIP Charlie the Cat

We lost a member of our family yesterday, our gray tabby Charlie.  He was 17 years old, almost 18, and he was the best cat I ever had (and I've had many).  My sister got him from a shelter and gave him to my mother, who loved him.  When my mother was hospitalized with terminal cancer, she worried about that cat more than anything.  When I took care of my mother during her hospice at home, I bonded with Charlie.  When mom was on her deathbed, Charlie jumped onto her and sniffed her, and he and I both kew he was my cat from that point on.  After she died, I stayed in her house for a summer, getting it ready for sale.  Tamar and I were married, and she spent as many weekends with me as she could, so she got to know him as well.  Charlie had unique and annoying methods of waking us when he was ready for breakfast: he would bat our faces (nice way of saying he would slap us), or turn his paw palm up, extend one claw, and hook one of my nostrils...



My friend Nelson (who's allergic to cats) drove all the way from NYC to Fredonia to drive me back with Charlie, who yowled all the way.  In the bathroom of our Manhattan studio apartment, Charlie climbed up the shower curtain onto the rod, then sprang on an unsuspecting Nelson...  Tamar and I moved to a one bedroom apartment in Queens, which Charlie loved.  We got a second cat, Tango, to keep him company, but Charlie did not love Tango.  Tango had a neurological disease which caused him to lose the use of rear legs, and when the disease spread to his lungs we had to put him to sleep.  That was 13 years ago; we still have his ashes.

Everyone would comment that Charlie was a handsome cat; he was one of those animals who carried himself well ands seemed conceited.  Tamar's nephews used to carry him around the apartment, holding him under his front arms so his body hung.  Because my mother had operated a daycare out of her home, he was used to kids and permitted it - with a humiliated look on his face.

After he developed plaque on his teeth, and had to have his teeth cleaned, I switched hime to a dry food called Dental Diet, which he loved.  When we moved to our house in Buffalo, I used to take Charlie outside on a leash, and he was really happy.  He loved to chew on grass.  Sometimes the stores would run out of Dental Diet, and he wouldn't eat anything else, and I'd drive all over until I found some.   He was a little spoiled.  Evenbtually the food was discontinued, and he had to adapt.

After Tamar's brother died, I brought home another kitten, Starbuck...who looked a lot like Tango.  Charlie didn't like Starbuck, either.  As a kitten Starbuck kicked Charlie's ass.  Over the years, they developed an odd relationship: they woukd play with each other, especially at night, but never showed affection to each other.  I think the event that brought them together was the birth of my daughter Kaelin: neither one of them wanted a baby in the house, and Charlie had a panicked look on his face the instant we brought her home - he knew what this meant.  But he got used to her, and eventually he loved her.  Until he got old, he would sleep in bed with us at night.  When one cat was upstairs and the other was downstairs, they would call to each other, and eventually they took turns trying to wake me up.

Charlie had another weird habit: he preferred to drink warm water, I suppose because he'd been an outdoors cat and a hunter before the move to NYC.  He would jump into the bathtunb after we got out to drink the dirty bath water... and thenlater  he would jump in while we were bathing or showering.

He wasn't just a house cat, he was a set cat: we shot DRY BONES, GAVE UP THE GHOST and KILLER RACK in my house, and the crewsd got used to him.  The "making of" DRY BOINES on the DVD featured outtakes of both cats wandering into the shots, and me throwing them upstairs...with love.  The casts and crews of these films, and my friends, got used to both cats, who were so friendly; Charlie especially used to home in on people who were allergic to cats.

During KILLER RACK last year, Charlie became emaciated.  When I noticed, after the shoot, I tried every variation of cat food I could think of, and eventually I started blending his meals, three times a day.  He bounced back and put on weight, but never reached his "fighting weight" again.  He stayed well for a good eight months, until about a month ago, when he became emaciated again.  We gave him table scraps, whatever we could.  I took him to the vet two weeks ago, because I noticed hewas having some trouble with his hind legs, and was surprised to learn his teeth were fine.  The vet found a tumor in his stomach,a nd told me all we could do was make him comfortable.  He gave us some high calorie prescription food, and Charlie LOVED it.  Until the end, he would spend every waking hour begging me for more food (he was only supposed to have half a can a day, but I gave him more).  I thought he would bounce back again, and we'd have him around for the summer.  Every morning, both cas would wait for me in the upstairs hall.  But Charlie started havinbg trouble jumping onto the bed, and then the love seat.  Then he stopped going upstairs, and waited for me to come downstairs before he'd beg me to feed him.

After a week, even though he loved his food, he failed to pout on any weight, and he was eating a lot.  He started peeing and pooping around the house, and he was a clean cat, so I knew the end was coming, and I brought his litter box upstairs from the basement to make things easier for him.  All of him babied him when we could.  I realized he wasn't going to make it through the entire summer, but still thought we'd have a few weeks with him.  Saturday night, he was stable.   Sunday morning, the same...for a couple of hours.  After he ate, he went to sleep.  Tamar said there was something wrong with, bu I'd already noticed the deterioration.  Then he tried to stand up, and fell right over, and I knew it was over.  Kaelin started crying.  I carried him into the kitchen, but he didn't want to eat.  Kaelin held him.  I called the emergency vet clinic and made the cal l'd been dreading.  Then I took him ouside, in light drizzle, and carried him around the deck, and we had our moment - I saw in his eyes he knew the end had come, and he was ready to go.  Back inside, I set him on a towel, and let Tamar and Kaelin spend time with him.  Kaelin said "I can't live without him" over and over, and I told her just to love him while she could, and she settled down.  We tried to give him food and water, but he wasn't having it.  He started shaking, so I cut our gioodbye time short, and drove him to the vet's alone.  I didn't think he was going to make it to the clinic, and pulled over once to make sure he was still breathing.  He whined a little when I took him out of the car.  The office manager at the clinic thought he was dead, but I saw him breathing, so they put the tube in his arm.  He went peacefully - not even a cough.  Everyone at thecinic was nice.  I spent a couple of minutes with his body, getting myself together, then went home.

Tamar told me that when I drove away, Starbuick went to the window, then ran upstairs.  He was clearly dstraught the rest of the day; cats are such interesting creatures.  It is very weird now, having just one cat.  Weird going into the kitchen and not having Charlie bother me for food, weird to sit at the desk in my office and see him sitting behind me wenbever I turn around.  He was a special cat; until he went deaf, and started meowing incessantly, I honestly believe he thought he was a human being.  For me, he was a special connectionb to my mother, whio died in 2001.  She had him for three years, and we had him for 15, and we will truly miss him.  Our house will not be the same without him, and it will be interesting to see how Starbuck changes now that he's our sole pet.

How I Spent My Almost Summer Vacation

The seasons blur together sometimes, don't they?  Summer isn't even here, but MAD MAX FURY ROAD has come and gone, and for me the vacation is over.  I found myself in the unusual position of finishing a novel - BLACK CREEK - and a movie - KILLER RACK - at the same time.  The novel was six months late, which will impact my summer finances for sure.  Not only that, but I turned in my manuscript on a Sunday, and that Monday I started a two-week gig as a PA (production assistant) on TEENAGE MUTANT NINJAS 2: HALF SHELL. And then we wrapped that on a Sunday, and that night I co-hosted the cast and crew screening of KILLER RACK.

Ordinarily, I would not take a job as a PA, but 1) I really needed the money; and 2) this was arguably the biggest shoot in Buffalo history, so I wanted to have some small role in it.  This was a second unit action shoot:  car crashes, road stunts, and helicopter action - and for two weeks, from 6 pm - 6:30 am, I was one of 27 PAs assigned to stand on Humboldt Avenue, shooing the crowd away from the railings of Route 33, aka the Kenisington Expressway, a sunken highway which allows people in my town of Cheektowaga to shoot straight to downtown Buffalo in minutes.  On the second week, I was a "team leader," which meant I had my own crew, like a capo.  That was when we increased our numbers for the chopper action and had to keep people 500 feet away from the activity. On those nights,  I found myself stationed in a ghetto surrounded by skunks.  We were told the gangs had called a truce for the shoot.  After those four nights, I was just a soldier again for the remainder of the shoot.   I met some great new people, both local and from out of town, and ate two great meals a day (although we had to hike a quarter of a mile to get our food, then walk back a quarter of a mile to wolf it down in ten minutes).  I will not lie, my body suffered for 10 days instead of the usual five, so I am definitely getting too old for this particular position.  It was nice to have a film gig 10 mins from home though, and I had a good time interacting with the residents whose routines we inconvenienced.

Anyway, those two paychecks are already spent, and I have a sick cat who will need to be put to sleep soon and a family wedding in NYC to worry about.  BLACK CREEK will be published next March, andafter 12 novels, I need to figure out a new path regarding the publishing portion of my career.  I already know what my next project is - an extremely commercial trilogy - but my regular publisher passed on it, so for the first time in eight years I'm writing something on spec.  Do I get an agent?  Approach piblishers myself?  Self publish?  Right now, I'm not going to worry about it.  I figure I'll finish the first volume by the end of summer, and I can start the second while I send out queries,  It's possible the entire trilogy will be finished by the time the first one is published.

You may recall I have a few of book-to-film projects floating around.  Getting one of them off the ground myself will be my primnary focus this summer.  Another is out of my hands; and a third is about to be assumed by the director of a classic horror film.  As always, nothin' is nothin' until it's something.

After a successful crowd founding campaign to cover preliminary expenses, I'ms tartuing to submit KILLER RACK to film festivals, and I'm already anxious about hearing back from one of them.

Kaelin has school until late June, and then she's in a summer school program mid-July to August, so I'm not sure about activities for her.  We will be returning to Toronto for FanExpo Canada in September, where I'll be Medallion Press' guest on Sunday, Sept.  6th.  I have my fingers crossed for a trip to Montreal as well.

Back to work.

For Immediate Release: SLIME CITY Original Motion Picture Soundtrack now available for Preorder

Slime City is the debut film by cult horror director and author Gregory Lamberson. The story follows Alex, who after moving into his new apartment is seduced by his neighbor and soon turns into a melting ghoul who is forced to kill innocent victims in order to maintain a normal human physique.

Slime City debuted in 1988 and spent months in the NY midnight movie circuit, at the tail end of the grindhouse era. Lamberson creatively made a great film with intense special effects with very limited money and a small crew of dedicated movie fans.

A huge part of what makes Slime City so fantastic is it's wildly creative score, which was composed by the now PHD, and current Music Director of the Beloit Janesville Symphony, Robert Tomaro. Rob's score is unlike any horror soundtrack past or present. In the artist's own words, "(the music is) perhaps what you might get if you locked Igor Stravinsky, Johnny Rotten and Bernard Hermann in a hotel room and didn't let them out until they wrote something together." The score is most certainly slimy as the film's title would leave you hoping for. Very much classically written, but with a serious mix of punk guitar work and weirdo avant-garde synth. A truly unique composition.

Strange Disc Records presents the Slime City Original Motion Picture Soundtrack for the first time ever on vinyl. This limited run will offer a "Slime Splat" color vinyl variant (opaque slime green over clear vinyl) which is strictly limited to 200 copies. All other copies for this run will be on black vinyl. Slime City will be housed in deluxe heavy weight Stoughton tip-on sleeves with extensive liner notes by both Robert Tomaro and Gregory Lamberson included.

Preorders for Slime City are now live at www.strangedisc.com and www.lightintheattic.net, or www.onewaystatic.com for European customers.

Listen to three tracks from Slime City at www.soundcloud.com/strangedisc

20,000 Trailer Views for KILLER RACK in Nine Days!

The headline says it all. :)  It was a lot of hard work, but my press release was picked up by a lot of great sites, and most of our cast and crew were really supportive.

Shame on whatever "fellow" indie filmmaker flagged the video so YouTube removed it from their search engine for 24 hours; didn't hurt us, though.

Our IndieGoGo campaign is still live, we need to raise $364 in four days to make our ultimate goal.  And then, my friends, I am never crowdfunding again!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/killer-rack-ultimate-indiegogo/x/78828

The Trailer for KILLER RACK

Here is the trailer for KILLER RACK, my latest feature, for your viewing pleasure.  I had a well formulated plan for its release, and botched several key aspects of the plan.  Fuck it, here it is, and it's funny:

KILLER RACK Character Posters

Six days into my IndieGoGo campaign, we met and surpassed our minimum goal of $1,000.  Our ultimate goal is $3,000.  RIght now we're at $1,608. so we're 161% funded, or 53% there.  Here are character posters.  Trailer next week.  IndieGoGo link:  https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/killer-rack-ultimate-indiegogo/x/78828

The Killer, the Rack & the Ultimate IndieGoGo

Crowdfunding.



For the last month, while pushing the KILLER RACK T-Shirt campaign to raise funds to submit our film to festivals, I toiled on prepping another IndieGoGo campaign.  We ended up selling 60 shirts, pretty good, but we won't know how much we raised until Monday or Tuesday.  Festival/screening expenses are going to run us $3,000, and our investors are tapped out, and I'm personally so far into Negative Income that I can't possibly charge these costs to my credit cards, so doing another crowd funding campaign was inevitable.  "Cyber pan handling," as a friend of mine calls it, is a drag: it's so much work, and I can't generate any personal income while I'm doing it, and begging for dollars for a film project while my family is so destitute is just not fun.

But something funny happened on the way to the forums: his campaign became fun.  First, we released our new poster, and it's a doozy:


Next, Chris Cosgrave (ouir visual effects artist/graphic designer) and myself created this pitch video, which includes footage from the movie - the first footage shown.



Then we raised $500 on our first day, which is awesome.  And now we've started posting character portraits.



After 10 months of nonstop work, we're finally able to show some of what we've been doing, and that's exciting.  Soon we'll release our trailer, and people will finally get a sense of the tone we've created for this film.  And then we start actually submitting the film to these festivals.  We're on our way, baby!

Please check out our campaign, we'd like to keep the momentum going: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/killer-rack-ultimate-indiegogo/x/78828

We've got some fantastic perks this time around, and you'll really be helping us out.

Some of This, Some of That

My novel HUMAN MONSTERS, Book 6 of The Jake Helman Files, is now available in trade paperback and as an e-book.  So far it's received two reviews, both positive, in Publishers Weekly and The Horror Fiction Review.  I know of a couple more likely reviews, but the fact that there are so few is as indicative of why the series is ending as my actual sales, whch are nothing to write home about.  Still, I was able to write the six books I originally envisioned, and if the winds of fate blow in my direction, maybe I'll get to write the seventh one, which developed in my imagination while writing the others, some day (or maybe I'll write my own fan fiction...).  I'm currently writing a novel called BLACK CREEK, which I suspect will be my last horror novel, but who knows?  Twelve novels, two novellas, one nonfiction book, not a bad body of work by any means.  Helman remains my favorite creation, and it's a weird not being able to look forward to writing the next one.

My screenplay for CARNAGE ROAD, optioned by Craig Sheffer, is now being considered by a action movie producer.  Anything could happen.

KILLER RACK, the mostrecent film I directed, is almost finished,  I've worked on this project as hard as I've worked on anything in my life.  Brooke Lewis just recorded her vocals as the Voice of the Boobs in LA, and the final visual effects are being added, which really just laves the score.  We're pushing to finish it late April so we can make some festival deadlies.  I love this movie, and it will be the last micro-budget flick I make.  I do have another movie in development, one with a larger budget, but I've been two busy with KILLER RACK and my current novel to work on it.

I am a producer on Sam Qualiana's LAKE EFFECT, a micro-budget mnonster movie, and helped out on set a couple of days last week, when the monster was involved.  I enjoy working on Sam's films because it's a no pressure deal for me: I make suggestions, he uses some and discards others.  This will be his best film so far.

SFFWorld recently published an interview with me: http://www.sffworld.com/2015/03/gregory-lamberson-interview/

The new issue of Buffalo Spree, a print magazine here in the Nickel City, also has an interview with me.

Teaser Trailers for MODEL HUNGER and LAKE EFFECT

While post production on KILLER RACK continues, the teaser trailers for two features I'm involved with have been released to the webz,  First up is MODEL HUNGER, the directorial debut of my friend Debbie Rochon, which stars Lynn Lowry, Tiffany Shepis, Brian Fortune, Michael Thurber, Carmine Capobianco, Voltaire and an army of local actors.  This is what I call an "out of town" production, meaning the key players came to Buffalo from other cities (and countries).  I was the Line Producer and 1st AD.  Listen carefully, and you'll hear the score by Harry Manfredini.  MODEL HUNGER had a long post production schedule, but it will be playing at film festivals soon.  FANGORIA hosts this exclusive preview:

http://www.fangoria.com/new/exclusive-teaser-stills-debbie-rochons-directorial-debut-model-hunger/

Next up is the teaser for LAKE EFFECT, the next film from my friend Sam Qualiana, who wrote and directed SNOW SHARK: ANCIENT SNOW BEAST and THE LEGEND OF SIX FINGERS, both of which I produced.  Sam has worked as 1st AD and 2nd AD on a number of film, and is ready to stretch himself as a filmmaker.  I was impressed with his screenplay, which is more sophisticated than his previous work, and aims to be something different for us both... scary.  I'm co-producing this with Kyle Haner, executive producer RIchard Chizmar, and associate producers Mick O'Keefe and Andrew Elias.  The lead actress is Tia Maurice, who I cast in DRY BONES, then pushed for THE LEGEND OF SIX FINGERS, then cast again in KILLER RACK.  Sam's brther Simeon is the male lead, and his father CJ, who was excellent in SNOW SHARK and SIX FINGERS, has a role here as well.  Other cast members include Erika Frase, Daniel James and Bill Kennedy.  The story is set during a snowstorm, and Sam shot plenty of B-roll over the last couple of months.  The teaser looks damned good, and hes barely started shooting:



In other news, my novel HUMAN MONSTERS, the last book in The Jake Helman Files, will be in bookstores (those that carry it) this week or next, and if you order it from Amazon, you'll get it ASAP.

GAVE UP THE GHOST Scores a Rondo Nomination

I was pleasantly surprised to discover yesterday that GAVE UP THE GHOST, the short film I produced and directed for the CREEPERS anthology, from a script and story by Jeff Strand, was nominated for a Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award in the category of (you gessed it!) Best Short Film.  The Rondos are a fan based award named after the classic B-movie actor with the same name, and I know of them primarily because of the "Vote for me!" campaigns waged by nominees each year.  As far as I know, none of my books or films have been nominated before, and I only found out about this one because I checked the list of nominees to see if any of my friends were nominated.  Low and behold, there it was!  And on a morning when my ego needed a little stroking.  Anyway, I'm happy and honored with the nomination, and don't expect it to go any farther than that.  These awards tend to be a reflection of who campaigns the hardest, and begs the most friends to email a ballot.  A lot of people voting for a project may be totally unfamiliar with that project.  But it's fun to see films, books, magazines, collectibles, etc. all one one ballot, and the Rando statue is damn cool.

Here is the trailer for GAVE UP THE GHOST:


 And here is the link to the Rondo ballot, which you must copy and paste into the body of an email, with your name in the subject line.  You do not have to vote in every category.

http://rondoaward.com/rondoaward.com/blog/?p=168

Congratulationsto all of the nominees!