Loren Rhoads's Blog, page 34

Behind “The Shattered Rose”

[image error]When I first moved to San Francisco, I lived in between the Castro neighborhood and Haight-Ashbury. The house, an old Victorian that survived the 1906 earthquake, became a focal point for a large group of friends.

Quite often we’d go wandering on weekend nights. Sometimes we’d hike over to Corona Heights, a former quarry turned into a park that had a spectacular view of the city. Other times we’d go to Buena Vista Park, where the rain gutters are lined with broken tombstones. When we were up for a longer hike, we’d walk over to Golden Gate Park.

In the late 1980s, the Haight was no safer than it is now. Men would stroll the street, chanting, “Doses, doses” or “Kind bud” or “What do you need?” When the Dead were in town, kids slept in doorways or on the neighbors’ porches or under any friendly bush in the park. People were constantly going off their meds or arguing with trees or simply ranting in the middle of the street.

So roaming around in a pack of eight or ten fine young punks was very liberating for a sheltered farmgirl trying to settle into the big city. Mostly we went to Golden Gate Park to drink beer and play on the swings in the Children’s Playground, but sometimes we’d climb above the manmade waterfall on Strawberry Hill to look at the city lights and commune with the quiet darkness.

“The Shattered Rose” was inspired by those nocturnal ramblings. I adored the way the fog moved in the streetlights as if it was alive. I loved the salty flavor of the fog on my lips and the way it tingled on my face. I marveled at the way sounds could be so muted, edges so softened, as the ocean breathed over the land.

I really did see a rose thrown down on the sidewalk one night. It had been dashed to the ground so hard that its petals flew off like broken crockery. I knew the image would appear in a story someday.

In addition to wandering San Francisco at night, the story was inspired by Dracula. When I read the novel the first time, I was deeply impressed by the baptism of blood, when Dracula opens a vein in his chest and forces Mina to drink his blood. For me, vampire stories—however sexy—are all about the blood.

I’d been reading the Blood Kiss and Love in Vein anthologies and I decided that the thing they lacked was that they weren’t bloody enough. I wanted my vampire erotica to be sticky and crimson.

If you’re curious, you can hear me read a bit of the story on YouTube: .

[image error]“The Shattered Rose” appeared originally in The Paramental Appreciation Society chapbook, alongside a hardboiled magical detective story by Seth Lindberg, a gritty Tenderloin fairy tale by Lilah Wild, and a series of amazing phantasmagoric vignettes by Claudius Reich.

The story is reprinted now in Alondra’s Experiments, a chapbook collecting three of my Alondra stories, for the kindle. You can get your own copy here.

5 Questions for Gemma Files

[image error]I am in awe of Gemma Files.  I met her more years ago than I can remember at one of the World Horror Conventions.  Gemma invited people up to her room to hear her read her short story “The Emperor’s Old Bones,” which won the International Horror Guild Award for Best Short Story of 1999. To say I was blown away is an understatement. And she has only gotten better.

Award-winning horror author Gemma Files has also been a film critic, teacher, and screenwriter. She is probably best-known for her Weird Western Hexslinger series: A Book of Tongues, A Rope of Thorns, and A Tree of Bones, and has published two collections of short fiction, Kissing Carrion and The Worm in Every Heart, as well as two chapbooks of poetry. Her book We Will All Go Down Together: Stories About the Five-Family Coven was published in 2014. Her most recent novel is Experimental Film, which won the 2015 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel and the 2015 Sunburst Award for Best Novel (Adult). Her current collection, Spectral Evidence, is available directly from Trepidatio/JournalStone or through Amazon. Trepidatio will also be releasing another collection of her work, Drawn Up From Deep Places, this November. Invocabulary, a new collection of her poetry, will be released through Aqueduct Press.

Did something in the real world inspire any of the stories in Spectral Evidence?

A lot of my stories here don’t so much take inspiration from my life as borrow various details which hopefully root them in a kind of consistent internal reality (except in the case of Experimental Film, of course, which is basically my life in supernatural drag). With the stories in Spectral Evidence, what I’ve often done is spin whatever I was reading or watching or thinking about at the time until it wasn’t really that particular thing anymore, then tried to make the result as “realistic” as possible. A lot of the time, I’m taking dynamics I really enjoy in male characters, then flipping them around and trying to figure out what people like that would be like as female characters: see the Cornish sisters from “Crossing the River,” who (hopefully) aren’t exactly the Winchesters from Supernatural mashed up with the brothers from Prison Break, any more than A-Cat Chatwin is that same series’s Theodore Bagwell run through a Justified/Manly Wade Wellman’s Silver John stories filter.

Or take “When I’m Armoring My Belly,” which is essentially me transposing the things I liked about the movie version of Steve Niles’s 30 Days of Night to a meditation on Renfields in general: what it is to be a vampire’s enabler, always chasing the vague promise of eternity but knowing you’re nothing more than a pet or tool, or both. The titular club from “The Speed of Pain” has elements of a bunch of different clubs I’ve gone to over the years here in Toronto, but it’s definitely not mainly one of them, if you know what I mean. This is pulp fiction, not autobiography.

[image error]What is your favorite scene in the book?

Hmmm, good question. I’m really happy to see “Imaginary Beauties” getting released into the wild, because it’s one of the most weird, sexual pieces I’ve written since Kissing Carrion: a lurid melodrama about two female mad scientists, one an introvert lesbian, the other a pansexual sociopath, who collide and accidentally create a formula for zombies. I’ve always been fascinated by toxic relationships, that Leopold and Loeb/Heavenly Creatures vibe, people who fit each other like lock and key but then explode all over everybody else within range. So probably the scene where Ms. Sociopath—already basically zombified, but in a semi-glamorous way—manages to talk their resident straight thug into letting her peg him, maybe.

What was your writing process like?

Oh, hammering away in my underwear at home while laughing gleefully or clocking words in a local coffee shop while blasting inappropriate music on repeat, mainly, just like usual. But to elaborate: I begin with an idea, often one that comes to me while I’m doing something else, compelling me to either jot down notes in my handy notebook or tap them in on my phone and email them to myself. I then input these notes, which are usually blocks of text taken up with lots of dialogue, and map out where the holes are—the spaces I have to fill, how to get from here to there, from A to G to P to Z. Most times, I immediately know who the perspective character of a piece is, and that person’s POV—their internal voice, their narration—carries me along.

Sometimes I have to stop and do research, either physical (from my own library) or by consulting the Oracle of Google. Once I’ve got my rhythm, I go ’til it’s done, then send it to friends for commentary, tweak it a bit, and send it off. These days, thankfully, I usually have a market in mind when I start and they take it or they don’t, but sometimes I have to hunt around. I’m pleased to say that all of these stories have been published and/or republished, some multiple times.

What do you have planned next?

I’ve got a bunch of pending deadlines, as ever, and I’m also working on a new novel—Nightcrawling—that has to bear the burden of Experimental Film‘s genuinely surprising success. At the moment, I’m wrestling with the problem of voice—I don’t want the narrator character(s) to seem “too much like” Lois Cairns, even though a lot of this is also based on my own history and experiences. I’ve been calling it my Gillian Flynn book, or my Barbara Vine book; it’s all about mystery and identity, current crimes mimicking earlier crimes, people repeating themselves over and over while helplessly hoping to get different results. You know, but with portal fantasy and hauntings.

Meanwhile, I have another collection coming out from Trepidatio/JournalStone in November called Drawn Up From Deep Places, and a third collection I don’t have a release date on yet. I’m turning fifty this year, but I have to say, I really like this phase in my life: there’s always something new going on.

The description of Spectral Evidence:

For almost thirty years, Shirley Jackson Award-winning horror author Gemma Files has consistently served up tale after tale celebrating monstrosity in all its forms: the imperfect, the broken, the beautifully alien, and the sadly familiar. Her characters make their own choices and take their own chances, slipping from darkness into deeper darkness yet never losing their humanity–not even when they’re anything but. An embittered blood-servant plots revenge against the vampires who own him; a little girl’s best friend seeks to draw her into an ancient, forbidden realm; two monster-hunting sisters cross paths with an amoral holler-witch again and again, battling both mortal authorities and immortal predators. From the forgotten angels who built the cosmos to the reckless geniuses whose party drug unleashes a plague: madness, monsters, and murder await at every turn. And in “The Speed of Pain,” sequel to the International Horror Guild award-winning story “The Emperor’s Old Bones,” we find that even those who can live forever can’t outrun their own crimes…. Following in the footsteps of her critically praised Kissing Carrion, The Worm in Every Heart and We Will All Go Down Together, this is the first of two new Gemma Files collections from Trepidatio Publishing, bringing together nine of her best stories from the past ten years. So whether you’re returning to Files’s dark dreamlands or visiting for the first time, we advise you to get ready to review the Spectral Evidence.

How to follow Gemma:

Her Amazon author page: https://amzn.to/2IMaHC1

Facebook: Gemma Files

Twitter: @gemmafiles

Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/handful-ofdust

Blog: http://musicatmidnight-gfiles.blogspot.ca/

Behind the story “Valentine”

[image error]One of the central experiences of my life was when a friend’s brother, who taught gross anatomy, allowed me to visit his university’s cadaver lab. He allowed me to hold a human heart in my hand, an experience I will never forget. I started this story with the image of Alondra holding Simon’s heart in her hand and the title Valentine. One of those pieces got lost in the writing of the story, but I’m still very pleased with how everything turned out.

“Valentine” is not the first story I wrote about Simon Lebranche. He appeared much earlier in “Last-Born,” which was published in 2005 in The Ghostbreakers: New Horrors. Simon was inspired by my friend Brian Thomas’s Renaissance Festival character, an immortal cavalier in too-tight pants who had traveled the world, fighting for the underdogs, often on history’s losing side. Brian suggested the list of battles Alondra knows about in this story.

Brian’s trip to Oslo also inspired the setting of this story. He brought me a brochure about Vigeland Park and the towering monumental sculptures there. I knew I wanted Alondra to see them.

Because I hadn’t been to Oslo, I did a huge amount of research for the story, things referenced only briefly in the text: the sculpture park outside the Museum of Contemporary Art, the rose-painted furniture in Alondra’s room, the flavor of aquavit. I’m pleased with how the story turned out, but it’s definitely easier and more fun to set stories in places I’ve seen with my own eyes.

Alondra’s wolf fur coat was inspired by coats I saw in Toronto in the 1980s. I’m not sure if there was a fashion for wolf at the time or what, but I was deeply struck by the deep fur coats worn in the shopping malls at the time. The fur looked pure white from a distance, but was threaded with silver and gray up close. I expect Alondra’s coat once belonged to a werewolf, as Simon teases her, but I haven’t written that story yet. (Note to self.)

This story was originally published by Wily Writers in September 2010. I listened to the podcast for the first time while at the first Haunted Mansion Writers Retreat. (The story of Alondra facing down the ghosts of the mansion, inspired by that retreat, was published in The Haunted Mansion Project: Year One, edited by E. S. Magill. It will appear in the chapbook coming out in April.)

“Valentine” was the first time I’d ever heard one of my stories read by someone else. I loved everything about the experience, except for the way the narrator pronounced sigil. For the record, I—and Alondra—pronounce it sid-jill.

The Alondra’s Experiments collection is available for the kindle from Amazon.

5 Questions for Wendy Van Camp

[image error]Wendy Van Camp and I met at the World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane a couple of years ago. We are both members of Broad Universe, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting, encouraging, honoring, and celebrating women writers and editors in science fiction, fantasy, horror and other speculative genres.  We’ve read together several times.

Wendy  writes science fiction, regency romance, and poetry. Her writing blog “No Wasted Ink” features articles about the craft of writing, poetry, flash fiction, science fiction book reviews, and author interviews. She is the author of the regency romance novelette, The Curate’s Brother, with more novels in the pipeline. Wendy’s short stories and poems have appeared in science fiction magazines such as Quantum Visions, Altered Reality Magazine, Scifaikuest, and Far Horizons. She won an Honorable Mention for one of her short stories at the Writers of the Future Contest in 2017. Wendy collects fountain pens, inks, and notebooks like other women collect shoes. She has been an artisan jeweler for over twenty years.

Did something in the real world inspire The Curate’s Brother?

In many ways, The Curate’s Brother and its forthcoming sequels were inspired by a vacation I took in London over a decade ago. Memories of the beautiful mosaics on Lord Nelson’s grave, the scents and sights of Hyde Park from an afternoon stroll, the cluster of royal graves in Westminster Abbey–and more–brought home to me how much British history has influenced my culture. This combined with my reading of Jane Austen’s novel around that time. Persuasion was not only the first book of hers that I read, but the first romance novel I ever read. I fell in love with this story about second chances, the characters, and the idea of romance as a part of the story. While I consider myself a science fiction and fantasy author, the call to write an Austen-inspired historical became overwhelming.

[image error]

What is your favorite scene in The Curate’s Brother?

One of the reasons that I love to write is the joy of pairing two distinctly different personalities and watching how they come together. Many times, this has romantic elements, but in The Curate’s Brother, the main pairing is two brothers who come back to an understanding of each other after a long separation caused by war.

One brother is Commander Frederick Wentworth, who has come home to England while he awaits his next assignment. Frederick is declared the “Hero of San Domingo.” He suffers from PTSD, but his risk-taking and bolder personality have not been vanquished. He is ambitious and eager to find his first command.

Frederick arrives on the doorstep of brother number two, Anglican curate Edward Wentworth. Edward is a quiet, educated man. He likes his world to be orderly and peaceful. His calling in life is to help the poor and needy. Edward understands the undercurrents of social convention and works within that system.

So here we have the bold commander who likes to take risks and break the rules and the quiet curate who has trouble overcoming his shyness. Edward remembers his brother as a tween hothead being sent off to become a midshipman in the Navy and is not quite certain of the man that now stands before him. All Frederick wants is to flirt and dance with the ladies until he is recalled to sea.

What was your writing process like as you wrote your book?

Originally, The Curate’s Brother was a single chapter in a novel called Letters From The Sea, a Nanowrimo project from 2011. I struggled with Letters From The Sea, because I did not realize the amount of research needed to properly write a historical novel. I spent the next two years studying the romance genre, Regency England, and the details of battles and events the characters might have experienced as real people.

When I felt that I was ready to tackle the project again, I wanted to write a smaller work as a test of my knowledge. The first chapter of Letters From The Sea was the only one written in Edward Wentworth’s point of view. I removed the chapter from the book and transformed it into a short story.

When I submitted the story to my critique group, they all hated it. A few of the men refused to read my story outright because it was a romance. The others, being science fiction writers, did not enjoy the romantic and historic elements. They wanted spaceships and aliens. However, one of the members told me that she could see a clear plot in the disaster I had submitted. She wrote an outline of the plot she saw and told me, “You are around 10K words short. You need to find those words.” This writer inspired me to continue.

I developed new characters and a romantic plot for Edward. The short story became a novelette. Two weeks later, I brought the extended version to a new critique group, composed of writers of all genres. Everyone loved it. Several people said they thought the story was ready to be published. I was told that I had hit the tone of the Regency genre on the spot. One month later, the novelette was available on Amazon as my first ebook. I was a first-time author, but quickly gained several four and five star reviews that helped to propel my early sales.

Letters From The Sea is still on my to-do list. It will become the third and fourth book of my four-part Regency series.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

I discovered a small science fiction and fantasy author group that pooled their promotional clout. Although my book is a Regency romance, I have enough short stories and book reviews in the science fiction genre that they allowed me to join them. Much to my surprise, five or six members offered to interview me as an author or review The Curate’s Brother, although it was not in their genre. This created a mini-book tour that, along with my scheduled appearances at conventions and art shows, bolstered the sales of my first novel. I still belong to the Fantasy and Science Fiction Network to this day.

What do you have planned next?

Book two of my Regency series–the sequel to my first book–is Christmas in Kellynch. The novel is near completion and should be out by the summer of 2018. Anne Elliot ends her engagement to Commander Frederick Wentworth and he storms out of England and her life. She must face the consequence of bowing to persuasion. Can the gentle attention of Charles Musgrove give her new hope or will her heart remain steadfast to her lost sailor?

Next, I’ll begin work on a new novel based on my original short story, Martian Dancer. In the grand tradition of Robert A Heinlein’s juvenile novels, this coming-of-age story is about a Martian girl who goes to the big city to find fame and fortune but instead discovers something even bigger to dance for.

Would you summarize The Curate’s Brother?

The Curate’s Brother is a novelette about the relationship between the two Wentworth brothers as seen through the eyes of Edward Wentworth. It follows their romantic antics over one summer in 1806. This novelette could be seen as a prequel to Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

Edward Wentworth lives a quiet, structured life as a curate in the Regency-era village of Monkford. He spends his days ministering to the sick and downhearted, which he considers his life’s calling. His comfortable life is shaken when his elder brother, Commander Frederick Wentworth arrives on his doorstep for a visit. Frederick has returned to England after seeing action and commanding his first vessel, a prize ship won in the West Indies. He is awaiting orders and has the hope of commanding a ship of his own by the end of summer. His only goal is to pass the time with the only family he has left in England until his next assignment.

At first Edward is glad to see his brother. They have not spent time with each other for years, due to his brother’s naval service. Frederick is bold and likes to take risks. Edward is shy and over-aware of social implications. When his brother flirts with Sally Marshall, an outgoing beauty that Edward is used to viewing as a child, the young curate becomes aware that his viewpoint of Sally is sorely outdated. His peaceful life is full of turmoil as he observes Sally flirting with men at public assemblies and realizes that he does not like it.

Meanwhile, Frederick finds himself a celebrity in Monkford. Word from the London papers paint him as “the Hero of San Domingo,” where he won a commendation for his quick thinking in action. The men want to hear the story of his exploits, but Frederick would rather dance with the ladies. The Commander takes an interest in shy wallflower, Anne Elliot. He pays no heed to Edward’s warnings that the girl is the daughter of a baronet and well above his station. Edward fears that no good will come of a union between his brother and the girl due to her family connections.

At the end of summer, a letter and a package arrive that will change everything for the two brothers. Which way will prevail, the bold action of the commander or the quiet manners of the curate?

It’s available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.

Please follow Wendy:

Her blog No Wasted Ink: http://nowastedink.com

Her Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/author/wendyvancamp

Medium:  https://medium.com/@wvancamp

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nowastedink

Twitter:  @wvancamp

Fantasy & Science Fiction Network: http://fsfnet.com/

 

Behind the story “Catalyst”

[image error]My husband Mason offered to take me to Prague for my birthday one year. I didn’t know much about the city beforehand, except that absinthe was legal there and could be drunk in bars, rather than smuggled back from Spain and shared with friends in my living room. You could say I was on a mission.

As I researched in advance of our trip, I became fascinated with the history of alchemy in Prague. Once we arrived in the city, we discovered that one of the rooms in Prague Castle was full of dusty beakers and copper tubing and a stout furnace said to have been used by John Dee to try to transmute lead into gold. John Dee is a special fascination of mine: a multilingual spy for Queen Elizabeth I who was considered the most learned man of his age and who believed he could communicate with angels through special crystal balls.

[image error]After we explored the Old Jewish Cemetery in the Prague Ghetto, our guidebook encouraged us to visit the grave of Franz Kafka in the New Jewish Cemetery. We visited on a glorious October day, when birch leaves collected in golden drifts in front of the dramatic black granite gravestones. Kafka’s monument is pink granite, standing near the cenotaphs to his sisters, who disappeared in the Holocaust.

The New Jewish Cemetery really did have a crotchety Czech caretaker who shouted at us in words we couldn’t understand. In our case, he wanted Mason to put a yarmulke on before we came into the cemetery.

We really did drink one night in the Shot-Out Eye and the story of the monkey and mule who became highwaymen came from our guidebook. That was the first night we drank Hill’s Absinth (no e, although Alondra doesn’t mention that in the story). Like her, we tried to drink it in the French way. No one corrected us until the afternoon I had a glass in the Globe Bookstore Bar, near the art museum. Then a British ex-pat showed me how to manage the matches and spoon. Alondra’s vision of herself as an elephant on spindly legs, like Dali’s Temptation of Saint Anthony, came from one of my absinthe adventures in Prague, as did the headache like a guillotine blade she suffers the next morning.

Traveling in Prague was the first time I realized that I could combine my love of traveling, my enjoyment of traveling writing, and the kind of fantasy stories I loved. I spent an afternoon sitting at a sunny table in the Mala Strana jotting down notes for Alondra’s adventure there. I even picked out the building where her lab would take up the whole upper floor, its mansard roof pierced by skylights where the moon could peep in.

When I started to write, I didn’t know how Alondra was going to solve the Philosopher’s Stone when so many learned gentlemen had not. Her inversion of the dominant paradigm struck me as so audacious that I had to write it down and see if I could get away with it.

“Catalyst” first appeared in issue #44 of the magazine Not One of Us in October 2010. It’s republished in Alondra’s Experiments, now available as an ebook on Amazon.

5 Questions for Laurel Anne Hill

[image error] I met local author Laurel Anne Hill at the first Horror Addicts reading I went to. Since then, we keep running into each other at our local cons.  I’ve been fascinated by her award-winning steampunk novel, The Engine Woman’s Light.

Laurel’s description of it:

Spirits watch over Juanita, but who is she? A mystic in love who holds life sacred? Or a ghost-possessed railroad saboteur?

A mystical vision of an airship appears to fifteen-year-old Juanita. The long-dead captain commands her to prevent California’s thrown-away people—including young children—from boarding trains to an asylum. That institution’s director plots murder to reduce the inmate population. Yet to save innocent lives Juanita must take lives of the corrupt. How can she reconcile her assignment with her belief in the sacredness of all human life? And will she survive to marry her betrothed?

Juanita sets out despite inner trepidation to sabotage the railroad. Her ancestor Billy, the ghost of a steam locomotive engineer, guides her. Bit by bit, she discovers the gut-wrenching truths her ancestors neglected to reveal.

Come visit Juanita’s world—an alternate nineteenth-century California—where spirits meet steampunk, where both love and anger emanate from beyond the grave.

[image error]

Did something in the real world inspire The Engine Woman’s Light?

A dream in the early 1990s provided my initial inspiration. In that dream, an elderly woman—condemned to euthanasia—escaped from a death train with an abandoned infant girl in her arms. She walked at night toward a distant light and safety. The resulting short story I wrote never worked. Subplots burdened its structure, all of them failing to address the destiny of the rescued child. I had a novel on my hands, a book that would take me twenty years to complete. The fictional world I created in the process reflects a number of my personal experiences.

For example, The Engine Woman’s Light contains two scenes where spirits hide inside of clocks. I own an old wind-up alarm clock that used to belong to my grandmother. I bought Gran a new Baby Ben—which was easier to wind—around 1988 and kept the old one for myself. The old Baby Ben stopped working about the time Gran died in 1989. Regardless, I continued to keep the timepiece on the shelf of my bed’s headboard. A terrible and unknown illness hit me a couple of years later. My back muscles went into non-stop spasm for six weeks. The pain was excruciating. I didn’t know how I was going to cope. Would I spend the rest of my life as an invalid? At my rock-bottom mental low point, the broken Baby Ben started ticking. The minute hand advanced. Encouragement from Gran’s spirit? Several minutes later, the clock stopped, never to run again.

What is your favorite scene in the book—and why?

Probably the second half of Chapter 23, the violent and gritty confrontation between my hero, Juanita, and my antagonist, Antonio. Writing the scene drained me emotionally, but the end product is exactly what I strove to achieve. I’m also particularly pleased with the opening scene in Chapter 20, where a naïve Juanita—guided by a spirit—tries to seduce her current love. Again, I achieved what I wanted to advance the story. That’s all I can reveal without shouting “spoiler alert.”

[image error]

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

All wrong. I’d never written a novel, couldn’t tell a story arc from Noah’s ark. When I finally completed the initial draft, the first third of the manuscript felt disjointed, as if I’d written a series of short stories instead of a novel. In fact, throughout the manuscript, chapters didn’t flow from one to the next. I had too much backstory and an overabundance of point-of-view characters. Plus I failed to keep the fire of purpose lit inside of Juanita’s belly. Juanita had become a secondary character. After twenty-plus drafts, the input of several writing groups, five professional edits, a stack of rejection slips, and the death of the agent I finally procured, I was the not-so-proud owner of a “Frankendraft.” I set the book aside.

Over the ensuing five years I saw my novel Heroes Arise published, along with more short stories. I won some writing awards, as well. But the clock of my husband’s life was ticking toward its finish line. We’d done so much research for the The Engine Woman’s Light together, even learned how to run a steam locomotive! I didn’t want David to die without being able to hold my book. And I didn’t want to die with my literary music still inside of me. I went through the manuscript and brought it up to my current level of craft. I found a fantasy story editor with decent credits to his name—Derek Prior—and shelled out the bucks. Then, months later, when we’d completed the first round, I made a big realization. My protagonist, Juanita, needed to narrate in first person. Any other POV character needed to be in third person close.

By then, I was also in contact with Sand Hill Review Press, who suggested changing the order of a couple of my chapters. The total result was amazing. I ran the result though Derek again, to tidy up odds and ends. Sand Hill Review Press accepted my revised manuscript. Did some more editing. My husband David held my book before he passed. And I read it to him. 

The Engine Woman’s Light has won four awards and has been nominated for two more. Never, ever, throw away a failed manuscript.

What is the best thing that happened during the promotion of your book?

I held the launch at the amazing Borderlands Books in San Francisco on February 4, 2017. My beloved husband, David, was able to attend via FaceTime. Nothing, even the subsequent book awards, could ever beat that.

What do you have planned next?

In 2005, I started work on the first draft of a fantasy/magical realism novel set in 1846 in California. After all this time, I’m only 40,000 words into the story, currently titled Plague of Flies. The story is a good one. It’s time to get serious.

Laurel Anne Hill’s Bio

Laurel Anne Hill grew up in San Francisco, California, with more dreams of adventure than good sense or money. Her close brushes with death, love of family, respect for honor and belief in a higher power continue to influence her writing and her life. She has authored two award-winning novels: Heroes Arise (Komenar Publishing, 2007) and The Engine Woman’s Light (Sand Hill Review Press, 2017), a gripping spirits-meet-steampunk tale. The Engine Woman’s Light received the 2017 Independent Press Award (steampunk category) and a Kirkus star. Kirkus has included the novel on its list of the best 100 indie books in 2017 and top six indie teen books. Chanticleer Reviews has shortlisted The Engine Woman’s Light for its Ozma and Dante Rossetti Book Awards.

Laurel’s published short stories and nonfiction pieces total over forty and have appeared in a variety of anthologies and journalistic media. The fans of HorrorAddicts.net elected her “Most Wicked” in 2011 for her steampunk-horror podcast: Flight of Destiny. She is the Literary Stage Manager for the annual San Mateo County Fair in California, a speaker, writing contest judge, and editor. And, by the way, she’s a former underground storage tank operator and has run a steam locomotive. For more about her go to http://www.laurelannehill.com.

FogCon recap

My home life is still…complicated. My kid’s headaches are still out of control and the weeklong treatment at UCSF in January only seems to have made things worse. Getting away to FogCon last weekend was the first break I’ve had in months.

[image error]The Horror Writers Association event that I hosted went pretty well.  Most of our audience were writers, so I talked about StokerCon, the promotions the HWA has done, the upcoming anthology, and the weird truth that horror writers are among the nicest people I’ve ever met.

Then E. M. Markoff read from her prequel to The Deadbringer.  I followed her by reading two of the ghost stories from 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die. She read a lovely, atmospheric bit of The Deadbringer. I read the bloody bit of “Valentine,” one of the Alondra stories in my Alondra’s Experiments chapbook.

I’d prepared a bit of The Dangerous Type, too, but it seemed like too much, so we ended the event early.

[image error]Directly afterward was the Broad Universe RFR, hosted by Rebecca Gomez Farrell. Each of us read a 5-minute excerpt in two rounds, so the evening moved along quickly.  Becca read a short called Hobgoblin, followed by a taste of her novel Wings Unseen. Liz Green read two pieces from her novel 11/11. Sarah Grey read from her story “The Ballard of Marisol Brook,” which was published in Lightspeed. (You can read it here.) L.S. Johnson read from her collection Vacui Magia (I think — I forgot to write it down!).

I read the initial seduction from Lost Angels, which was fun.  I haven’t read enough of that book live. In the second round, I read the beginning of “Catalyst,” another Alondra story from Alondra’s Experiments.

We adjourned to the bar, but one glass of pinot noir chased me off to bed at midnight.

I spent the morning lazing luxuriantly around the hotel room, editing interviews for this blog, working on my next HWA column (I’m swapping with Rena Mason for the April issue, so I want it to be good), and picking at a new Alondra story.  Mostly, I enjoyed a selfish morning where I didn’t need to nurse or worry.

After a great lunchtime conversation with James Beach, I ran down to the Dealers Room.  Jude from Borderlands asked me to sign the copies of 199 Cemeteries she had on hand, which is always a great feeling.

Then it was time for the Strange California reading.  I didn’t get the initial invitation to it, so I asked at the last minute if I could join.  I’m so glad I was able to!  Co-editor J. Daniel Batt outlined the Kickstarter process, talked about the editing, and threw out some fascinating questions.

[image error]

Juliette Wade read her charming children’s story, “If It Were Meant to Last.” Laura Blackwell rocked a segment of “The One Thing I Can Never Tell Julie.” Marion Deeds read a taste of “Magpie’s Curse,” a Russia-flavored fairy tale that was my favorite story in the book. K. A. Rochnik read the start of “The Panther Lady’s Incredible True Tale of Horror,” which I love because it captures the flavor of the Bela Lugosi version of The Island of Dr. Moreau. I read, then Marion read the beginning of Ezzy Languzzi’s “Naranjas Immortales,” a story about migrant workers and blood-thirsty elder gods. Then Chaz Brenchley came up out of the audience to perform the beginning of his story, “Uncanny Valley.”

I was glad I didn’t go last. I read the necromancy scene from “Guardian of the Golden Gate,” which isn’t the grimmest in my attempt to grapple with all the suicides off the Golden Gate Bridge, but still was the darkest moment of the reading. People laughed at Clement and his Ninja motorcycle, so that was good.  And I remembered to put a trigger warning in my introduction, so that was good, too.  I didn’t notice anyone leaving, but I would have totally understood it.

[image error]After the reading, I was relieved that someone else suggested we sign each other’s books, because I really wanted to ask that, but was too shy.

I really hope we get together again to read at Borderlands or WorldCon.

After the reading broke up, I was feeling guilty, so I headed home.  Still, getting 24 hours away recharged me.  It was great to catch up with my friends and meet people whose work I am deeply inspired by. I was really grateful to be able to share some of Alondra’s stories with audiences that seemed to enjoy them. Those stories have been living in my head for so very long.

5 Questions with E. M. Markoff

[image error]I’m not sure when Eileen and I first met in person.  Was it at the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley last summer? I know for certain she came to the SFinSF reading I did with Dana Fredsti and Erica Mailman and I remember being highly impressed by the skull hanging from Eileen’s throat. Some people you just know are kindred spirits.

E.M. Markoff is a Latinx writer who was raised on a steady diet of Mexican folklore, anime, Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe films, and unrestricted access to comics and books. Growing up, she spent many days exploring her hometown cemetery, where her love of all things dark began.

Upon coming of age, she decided to pursue a career as a microbiologist, where she spent a few years channeling her inner mad scientist. Her debut novel, The Deadbringer, is the first book in The Ellderet Series and won a Finalist medal in the Fantasy category in the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

She is a member of the Horror Writers Association.

I got to hear Eileen read for the first time this weekend at the Horror Writers Association event at FogCon.  She read a taste of The Deadbringer and its prequel, To Nurture and Kill. I can’t wait to have her tell you about them.

IN THE WORLD OF THE ELLDERET, NO ONE IS INNOCENT AND NO ONE IS SAFE.

The ashes of the Purging lie cold, and the next dance is about to begin in the Land of Moenda. Kira Vidal, a Deadbringer boy of fifteen, has escaped the fate of the rest of his kind, living peacefully with his uncle in the northern city of Opulancae. But then a strange man knocks on their door and a band of the Ascendancy’s fearsome Sanctifiers appears, hunting for Kira, and nothing will ever be the same.

The Deadbringer, the first book in The Ellderet Series, is a story of damaged heroes and imperfect villains, of a land scarred by ancient wounds that never truly healed. As Kira and the Sanctifiers approach their final confrontation, hunter and hunted alike must confront dark forces that threaten to overwhelm them all . . .

E.M. Markoff weaves together epic fantasy, surrealism, and elements of horror to spin an intricate web of darkness.

The Deadbringer won a Finalist Medal in Fantasy from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards in 2017.

[image error]Did something in the real world inspire The Deadbringer?

Life, mostly, though I have always enjoyed writing short stories. (I have X-Men fanfic that will never see the light of day!) There was a lot going on in my life when I started writing The Deadbringer, but the biggest influence came toward the end of my mom’s life—the decisions that you have to make are painful. There’s a sense of loss that certain characters experience and their loss became my loss, their words my words.

Another factor that inspired me was that feeling of not knowing whether you belong, not being able to be close to people. E’sinea, one of the Sanctifiers in in The Deadbringer, suffers from this. But there is also hope in the real world, through friends or a partner. I wanted to show that as well.

And to not end this question on a doom-and-gloom note: my mom was a huge fan of older horror movies and shared that love with me. She also had the most amazing Mexican folktales to tell, which to her bordered on real. That most definitely had a positive influence in my life by showing me that the dark can be beautiful. It can have much to show and offer.

What is your favorite scene in the book—and why?

My favorite scene is toward the end, when things start to fall apart. Bad decisions come back to haunt certain characters, and it’s interesting to see how everyone reacts. The repercussions have carried over into the sequel to The Deadbringer, so I’m looking forward to further exploring them.

What was your writing process like as you wrote The Deadbringer?

There are two things I need to write: coffee and music. Music is such an inspiration for me. As long as I have those two things, I can write pretty much anywhere.

What was the best thing that happened during the promotion of the book?

The best thing that happened was when I got a few emails from readers asking what life was like for Eutau when he had to care for the infant Kira. How did he manage to care for an infant whose touch rots and who could recall souls? It blew my mind that people cared enough about my characters to email me. I remember getting crazy excited. Even now, the memory makes me smile. Those readers made To Nurture & Kill happen.

The other amazing thing that happened—and I attribute this specifically to the book—is that I made friends with a few of the book bloggers who read and enjoyed it. Having them in my life has made it fuller.

Oh, and there was that favorable Booklist review that picked up and pointed out the Mexican influence I injected into The Deadbringer. I think that was the first time I saw a review that explicitly stated that. That means a lot to me because, yes, The Deadbringer is fictional, but it was and is important to me to include my culture in the narrative.

What do you have planned next?

I’m currently working on the sequel to The Deadbringer, with expected publication later this year. After that’s published, I want to switch gears to another Ellderet Tale—this one focusing on Lyse and Daemeon. I also have a fairy tale in mind. As certain characters in my book are fond of saying, “Only Fortune knows what the future holds.”

You can buy a copy of The Deadbringer from Amazon.

Follow E. M. Markoff:

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/tomesandcoffee/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/tomesandcoffee/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/tomesandcoffee
Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15272482.E_M_Markoff
Ellderet/Author website:  www.ellderet.com
Newsletter of the Cursed:  http://www.ellderet.com/contact-emmarkoff/
Pink Pigeon Studio (cover artist):  http://www.gabriellaquiroz.com

 

FogCon: 2018

This weekend is my first convention of the year.  I’m looking forward to going back to FogCon in Walnut Creek, California. My schedule is light this year, but high quality.

Friday night at 8 pm, E. M. Markoff and I will represent the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Horror Writers Association for an event called The Spectrum of Horror.  Here’s my description of it:

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein combined horror with science fiction. Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde blended social commentary with the horrors of addiction. Members of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Horror Writers Association will read from their own works to illustrate all the genres included under the mantle of horror.

My plan is to read the opening of The Dangerous Type, one or two of the ghost stories from 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die, and parts of “Valentine,” from the new Alondra’s Experiences chapbook.

Directly following that will be the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading. Broad Universe is an international non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, encouraging, honoring, and celebrating women writers and editors in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other speculative genres. Members will read selections from their works.

[image error]

I expect to read a snippet of “Catalyst” from the new Alondra’s Experiments chapbook and a scene or two from Lost Angels, the first succubus novel.

Finally, at 1:30 on Saturday afternoon, I’ll join some of the contributors to the Strange California anthology to discuss…well, let me quote the description: “Strange California, released Aug 2017, is filled with fresh and imaginative stories that go beyond the expected collection of an anthology—these stories explore, reflect, and reveal the state, its history, its secret history, its legends, and its many mythologies. California inspires and invites the imaginative, both weird and wonderful. This anthology celebrates that inspirational quality—the state and its people as muse—through 26 distinct stories. This panel will explore the genesis of those tales and reflect on a cultural consciousness inclined to the speculative–a physical and geographical region fueled by the commerce of story. From the point of conception through the Kickstarter process, this panel will explore the unique creation of Strange California and the State it highlights.”

The other panelists are Laura Blackwell, Marion Deeds, Karen Rochnik, and Juliette Wade.

I hope to read a little taste of “Guardian of the Golden Gate.” It will be the first time I read that story in public.

Borderlands will have my books in the Dealers Room.

I’ll be wandering around, so please say hi.

 

5 Questions for Denise Tapscott

[image error]I met Denise Tapscott last year on the Queen Mary during StokerCon. She had just published her first novel, a sweeping story that begins as a Romeo and Juliet story and swells into an examination of power, responsibility, and family.

Denise has a gift for creating characters that you care about and she’s not afraid to kill them off as soon as you get attached. Grandmother Zenobia is a fascinating creation: ancient, implacable, and no one you would want to cross. I look forward to reading more of her adventures in the sequel to Gypsy Kisses and Voodoo Wishes, due out later this year.

Denise was born and raised in California. She left her heart in San Francisco, but somehow managed to leave her soul in New Orleans. When she’s not creating and cultivating her characters, she enjoys dining on spicy tuna rolls, sharing a bottle of red wine with friends, and watching the latest flick (especially scary films). From time to time, this radiant left-handed pirate will even challenge others to a fencing match or two. Watch out. This Gemini is determined to win!

Denise’s favorite motto is by Hans Christian Andersen: “Just living is not enough…one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”

[image error]

The description of Gypsy Kisses and Voodoo Wishes:

Can any good transpire when Gypsy magic collides with Voodoo Magic? For Voodoo High-priestess Grandmother Zenobia, the answer is unclear. Opening in 1890 in Louisiana’s Carrefour Parish, Grandmother Zenobia — a self-proclaimed Voodoo high-priestess with a mysterious past — conceals her magical powers from her teenage grandson Will. She wants to live a “normal” family life, including savory downhome Southern dinners and festive church gatherings. When Will reveals he’s fallen head-over-heels in love for Syeira, Grandmother is overjoyed. In her overzealous excitement over the possibility of a future wedding, Grandmother fails to find out a crucial piece of information. Syeira is not a New Orleans local, she’s a gypsy from the Camlo tribe.

On the other side of the bayou, Queen Patia Camlo, Syeira’s mother, is furious when Syeira reveals her relationship with Will. To the Camlo tribe, the Gypsy way is the only way. Desperate to put an end to their romance, Patia casts a spell so effective that even the great Grandmother Zenobia can’t fix the damage it creates.

Grandmother Zenobia is forced to decide how much of a sacrifice she’s willing to make to retaliate against Patia, as well as avenge her family without losing her own soul.

 

Did something in the real world inspire Gypsy Kisses and Voodoo Wishes?

My overall love for New Orleans inspired my book.  Mouth watering meals, passionate music and the colorful history that city offers, all seem to call to me.  It’s a little hard to understand unless you’ve been there.

With that said, the opening chapter of Gypsy Kisses and Voodoo Wishes is loosely based in an incident that happened in real life.  A few years ago, a young woman in my apartment building (or a condo close enough for me to hear sounds from) was very distressed.  Around 3 am, I woke up to her crying.  It sounded like she was surrounded by friends that didn’t seem to take her mood seriously.  She was so upset that she jumped off her balcony.  Her friends tried to stop her, but didn’t react in time.

I had nightmares for many months after that horrible accident.  What disturbed me the most was how dejected she was and how not one of her so-called “friends” tried to help her until it was too late.  I never found out what happened to the young woman.  It broke my heart so much that I took that despair and created a character that was very close to one of the main characters.

What is your favorite scene in the book — and why?

That’s a tough question!  I’m torn between when Queen Patia casts her first spell and when Grandmother Zenobia secretly meets King Dorian in the woods.  For both scenes I wanted to reveal a different side of the characters.  I hope the readers can see past the strong, sometimes negative facades the Queen Patia and King Dorian have and experience their softer, vulnerable sides too.   

What was your writing process like as you wrote Gypsy Kisses?

In the beginning, I had written most of the novel in a journal. It feels a little more organic to write with a nice blue pen on freshly lined paper.  As I plodded through the story, I wrote little notes of things and places to research. I have tons of notes on scrap paper everywhere!  Presenting interesting characters was a big challenge in my first few drafts, so I created a separate notebook filled with personality questions (and answers) for every character in the book. Some of the questions for my literary characters are the same questions I use for characters I develop when acting. Learning that being specific makes the story come alive inspired me to do research in New Orleans, too. Reading a recipe on how to Grandmother Zenobia might make her gumbo is very different than actually standing in a kitchen making Gumbo myself (Thanks to the New Orleans School of Cooking).

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

Hearing from people who said they were inspired to read, after not picking up a book in years, was the best thing to happen to me.  I’m honored that they went out of their comfort zone to read my story.  A few people posted photos of where they read my book; one included Australia by the Opera House.  

What do you have planned next?

I’m working on a few short stories.  There’s one in particular about bullying that I love so much that I’m also gonna convert into a screenplay.  Plugging away at the sequel to Gypsy Kisses and Voodoo Wishes is always a daily treat, too.  I recently attended Stokercon 2018 in Providence, Rhode Island, and learned a few more things to sharpen up my writing skills. It’s always great to learn more about what you love to do. So if all goes well, ENLIGHTENING OF THE DAMNED will be done before the end of the year.

You can pick up a copy of Gypsy Kisses and Voodoo Wishes from Amazon.

Friend her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedenisetapscott

Check out her website: www.denisetapscott.com

Denise’s Amazon Author Central page