Jared Sandman

The 25th World Horror Convention takes place next month (May 7-10) in Atlanta.  The annual Bram Stoker Awards are being held in conjunction with WHC this year, and the nominees are listed below.

Additionally, this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award honoree is Jack Ketchum, and the WHC Grandmaster Award goes to William F. Nolan.  Congratulations to all involved.

Taken from the WHC2015 website:

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Craig DiLouie – Suffer the Children
Patrick Freivald – Jade Sky
Chuck Palahniuk – Beautiful You
Christopher Rice – The Vines
Steve Rasnic Tem – Blood Kin

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Maria Alexander – Mr. Wicker
J.D. Barker – Forsaken
David Cronenberg – Consumed
Michael Knost – Return of the Mothman
Josh Malerman – Bird Box

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Jake Bible – Intentional Haunting
John Dixon – Phoenix Island
Kami Garcia – Unmarked (The Legion Series Book 2)
Tonya Hurley – Passionaries
Peter Adam Salomon – All Those Broken Angels

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Emily Carroll – Through the Woods
Joe Hill – Locke and Key, Vol. 6
Joe R. Lansdale and Daniele Serra – I Tell You It’s Love
Jonathan Maberry – Bad Blood
Paul Tobin – The Witcher

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Taylor Grant – “The Infected” (Cemetery Dance #71)
Eric J. Guignard – “Dreams of a Little Suicide” (Hell Comes to Hollywood II: Twenty-Two More Tales of Tinseltown Terror)
Joe R. Lansdale – “Fishing for Dinosaurs” (Limbus, Inc., Book II)
Jonathan Maberry – “Three Guys Walk into a Bar” (Limbus, Inc., Book II)
Joe McKinney – “Lost and Found” (Limbus, Inc., Book II)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

Hal Bodner – “Hot Tub” (Hell Comes to Hollywood II: Twenty-Two More Tales of Tinseltown Terror)
Sydney Leigh – “Baby’s Breath” (Bugs: Tales That Slither, Creep, and Crawl)
Usman T. Malik – “The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family” (Qualia Nous)
Rena Mason – “Ruminations” (Qualia Nous)
John Palisano – “Splinterette” (Widowmakers: A Benefit Anthology of Dark Fiction)
Damien Angelica Walters – “The Floating Girls: A Documentary” (Jamais Vu, Issue Three)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

Scott M. Gimple – The Walking Dead: “The Grove”
Jennifer Kent – The Babadook
John Logan – Penny Dreadful: “Séance”
Steven Moffat – Doctor Who: “Listen”
James Wong – American Horror Story: Coven: “The Magical Delights of Stevie Nicks”

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

Michael Bailey – Qualia Nous
Jason V Brock – A Darke Phantastique
Ellen Datlow – Fearful Symmetries
Chuck Palahniuk, Richard Thomas, and Dennis Widmyer – Burnt Tongues
Brett J. Talley – Limbus, Inc., Book II

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Stephen Graham Jones – After the People Lights Have Gone Off
John R. Little – Little by Little
Helen Marshall – Gifts for the One Who Comes After
Lucy A. Snyder – Soft Apocalypses
John F.D. Taff – The End in All Beginnings

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

Jason V Brock – Disorders of Magnitude
S.T. Joshi – Lovecraft and a World in Transition
Leslie S. Klinger – The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft
Joe Mynhardt and Emma Audsley – Horror 101: The Way Forward
Lucy A. Snyder – Shooting Yourself in the Head For Fun and Profit: A Writer’s Survival Guide

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

Robert Payne Cabeen – Fearworms: Selected Poems
Corrine De Winter and Alessandro Manzetti – Venus Intervention
Tom Piccirilli – Forgiving Judas
Marge Simon and Mary Turzillo – Sweet Poison
Stephanie Wytovich – Mourning Jewelry

Here are a couple of new articles about writers breaking in to movies and television:

The first comes from Matthew Weiner.

The other is an interview with David S. Goyer.

Here are a couple short animated pieces I came across recently that impressed me.

Things have been quiet here on the site for good reason.  I’ve been busy over the past month, having made a cross-country move to trade one coast for another.  Until I get properly settled in, expect minimum updates (I’ll still be tweeting, however).  For now, here are a few goodies I came across recently:

Hard truths about MFA writing programs, from a former teacher of one.

I agree that television needs a spec script market.

And ongoing developments in a lawsuit involving one of the top sci-fi movies from the past few years.

My thanks to Barnes & Noble’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog, which gave my novel Leviathan a shout out in its article “7 Books in Which Giant Monsters Reign Supreme.”  Looks like I’m in good company.

I also came across this cool YouTube video explaining ‘The Psychology of Scary Movies.’

Here’s a new article from W Magazine about Jason Blum and his eponymous production company.  Blumhouse has put out some of the highest-grossing horror movies in the past few years, and has only recently spread out into non-genre material.

In other (sadder) news, someone has purchased Ray Bradbury’s iconic yellow house and razed it for future construction.  Click here to see the process documented.

Couple new articles recently caught my eye:

The first comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which brought together the heads of the major film studios for an engaging roundtable about the state of the filmmaking industry.

I stumbled upon some amazing artwork from a Danish artist named John Kenn that I had to share.  Here’s his website.  He draws only on Post-It notes, which is even more impressive.  His work has clear overtones of Edward Gorey, in both taste and style.  If you’re not familiar with Gorey’s work, see here.

Happy 2015 to everyone who regularly reads this blog.  For anybody who’s stopping by for the first time, I want to do a quick recap.

My name is Jared Sandman.  This is where I muse about sundry things that strike my fancy.  Writing, monster movies and horror books mostly, with frequent forays into Hollywood and the publishing business.

This is my seventeenth year writing, during which time I’ve published half a dozen novels.  Those books are listed along the sidebar for purchase.  I also keep extra copies on hand that I’m happy to sign for anyone who wants to buy direct (see THE SHOP above).

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With that housekeeping out of the way, here’s a couple cool things I found on the Internet.

Hitflix autopsies the weak 2014 crop of horror films.  Here’s hoping there are a few more bright spots in 2015.

The Atlantic sifts through its best author interviews of the year and brings together the biggest gems.  Some great writing advice here.

A few bits from around the Internet:

Grantland wonders if (when?) Hollywood will finally implode under the weight of so many sequels and remakes.

Pandora continues to screw musicians in epic fashion.

Flavorwire writes about how the dearth of creativity in Hollywood has deprived a generation of upcoming filmmakers.

And Chris Rock blasts Hollywood about how African-Americans are treated both in front and behind the cameras.