David Lee Summers's Blog, page 11

Aliens in Costumes

On our trip to California a little over a month ago, our friends in Big Bear decided to pull out the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. If you haven’t encountered the film or one of its remakes, it tells the story of doctor in a small town in California’s Bay Area who starts receiving reports of relatives and friends who somehow aren’t “right.” They go through all the motions of their daily lives, but their emotions somehow seem muted. They might l...

A Wicked Novel

Today finds me at MileHiCon in Denver, Colorado. If you’re in town and attending the convention, I hope I get to see you in person. Catch me at a panel or during my autographing session and say “hello.”

A week ago, I mentioned that I had a renewed interest in the Oz novels after seeing the trailer for the film Wicked, which is due for release next month. The idea behind Gregory Maguire’s novel has interested me for a while. It tells the story of the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard...

MileHiCon 56

This coming weekend, I’ll be a participant at MileHiCon in Denver, Colorado. For science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction lovers, it’s a weekend not to be missed. The convention will feature authors, artists, speakers and programming on every aspect of the science fiction and fantasy genres. The convention will be held from October 25-27 at the Denver Mariott Tech Center. Annalee Newitz, Charlie Jane Anders, Steven Barnes, and Tananarive Due are all author guests of honor. Jason Henr...

The Royal Book of Oz

Last month, when my wife and I went to see the film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, they showed a trailer for the forthcoming film adaptation of the musical Wicked, which is, in turn, based on Gregory Maguire’s novel of the same name. I’ve long been curious about Maguire’s novel, so I decided to read it – more about that in a future post – but while reading it, I began to long for the Oz of the novels. So, I decided to pick up the original novel series where I left off back in 2021.

Now, where I ...

Bad Penny

For the last three years, I’ve had the pleasure of participating in the Snack Writes panel at Bubonicon in Albuquerque. In the panel, Josh Gentry gives everyone a writing prompt, then we have five minutes to write what comes to our mind. The panelists at the front of the room are professional writers and we’re required to read what we write. Audience members are invited to participate as well and may read what they wrote if they choose. This year, the panel was so popular and so many audience me...

Suicide Squad Isekai

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that many of my favorite fictional heroes have something of a dark side. A classic example is Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films. Yes, he’s a good guy, but his anger makes him susceptible to being turned to the dark side of the Force. Likewise, in comic books, Batman fights for the innocent, but he’s a vigilante and there’s always the danger that he might go too far in his pursuit of justice. It adds to the drama because there’s always a chance the dark si...

Carmilla Updated

My story “Fountains of Blood” from the anthology Straight Outta Tombstone is set in 1896, the year Albert Jennings Fountain disappeared. Although he was a lieutenant governor of Texas, he’s probably best known as Billy the Kid’s defense attorney. I was inspired to write the story because there’s a tombstone for Fountain in the cemetery behind my house, but there’s no body buried there because it was never found. The lack of a body made me ask, what if he’d been turned into a vampire? Over the co...

Assembling Monsters

This past summer, in addition to recovering from surgery for prostate cancer, I wrote a story for an anthology called An Assembly of Monsters. Classic tales throughout time pit humanity against creatures of the night, beyond mortal understanding. But what—or who—makes a monster? Folklore has its tale to tell, but might there be a different view? The anthology presents fourteen tales inspired by the masters of the macabre, Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley, paying tribute to their vision of gothic hor...

Cowboy Up

October 1 has long been something of a difficult day for me. It’s the anniversary of my dad’s death. He passed away in 1980 and I miss him to this day. I’m especially sorry I never got to know him through the eyes of an adult. Since he passed away on a day that’s very much leading into the Halloween season and Dia de los Muertos, which is a big deal in my part of the United States, October 1 has become a day when I tend to remember those who have passed before me. So it seems fitting today that ...

California Dreamin’

As the summer started, I went into the hospital to have surgery for prostate cancer. I had an extended recovery through the summer, but it really didn’t feel like a vacation. A lot of the time early on was spent just recovering from surgery. As time went on and I felt better, I could read and do a little work at home on my computer, but it was far from a vacation. As the summer came to an end, My wife and I had an opportunity to make a trip to California to see family and friends, so we leapt at...