Jared Sandman

Here’s a great article from Shock Till You Drop about would-be horror movies that never made it into production.  Some of these sound great — The Van Helsing Chronicles, an adaptation of McCammon’s Stinger, Vertigo’s House of Secrets — while others sound downright dreadful.  (Who wants to see Ice Cube fight werewolves in the film Stray Dawgz?  Nobody.  The answer is nobody.)

And for advice about good movies, listen to William Goldman (multi-Oscar-winning screenwriter).

Couple bits of interest this time around:

A good article from Huffington Post about creativity.  If you’re a writer, this will all sound very familiar.

Go Into the Story, one of the top screenwriting sites on the ‘net, has released a plethora of movie scripts, many of which recently swept Hollywood’s award season.  From dramas to comedies to animated fare, there’s something for everyone.

And finally a short movie that’s made the rounds online, creepy enough for only being three minutes long.  Sleep tight.

Flashback will go on sale by the end of this month, available in print and as an ebook.  Anyone who wants to preorder a copy can check out the special 20% discount I’m running through THE SHOP.  All preorders will be signed, of course.

This is the first mystery novel I’ve written, what I call a why-dunnit (otherwise known as an inverted detective story).  If you’re a regular reader of my supernatural work, you’ll probably get a kick out of this one too.  The main character is a B-movie star, so there are enough genre references and in-jokes to hold any horror fan’s attention.

LIGHTS!

In the annals of Hollywood cinema, the name Gregory Kincaid is as synonymous with Jack the Ripper as Bela Lugosi to Dracula.  He portrayed the infamous serial murderer in half a dozen films, spanning a five-decade career filled with monster movies and sci-fi schlock.  Twenty years ago, weary of celebrity’s harsh spotlight, he withdrew from public life, never to be seen again — until now.

CAMERA!

After a wartime accident seriously injures journalist Jenny Pearce, she turns her attention to reporting entertainment news.  More comfortable on frontlines than the red carpet, she jumps at the opportunity to track down the notoriously reclusive Kincaid.

ACTION!

The damaged pair forges an unlikely friendship, working together to write the actor’s memoir.  Except someone doesn’t want Kincaid’s tell-all all told, somebody who aims to protect secrets best left buried.  Fighting for their lives, Kincaid and Pearce are forced to unravel a murder mystery gone unsolved for over seventy years.

Although I’ve never been to Dark Delicacies, I have met owner Del Howison on several occasions and know he runs a wonderful store in Burbank, CA.  Here’s an article about Del and his wife Sue that appeared recently from LA Weekly.

And here’s a video interview with Robert McCammon, possibly my favorite living writer, conducted at the World Horror Convention a couple years back.  He talks about writing, abandoned manuscripts, the reasons why he walked away from the publishing business and more.  Well worth an hour of your time.

The DGA published a wide-ranging interview with horror filmmaker Guillermo del Toro in the most recent issue.

And I got a kick out of this infographic by Zachary Petit.  It’s funny because it’s true.

These both caught my eye because they share a horrific fairy-tale feel to them.  I hope you dig ’em too.

(List taken from the Horror Writers Association)

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Joe Hill – NOS4A2
Stephen King – Doctor Sleep
Lisa Morton – Malediction
Sarah Pinborough and F. Paul Wilson – A Necessary End
Christopher Rice – The Heavens Rise

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Kate Jonez – Candy House
John Mantooth – The Year of the Storm
Rena Mason – The Evolutionist
Jonathan Moore – Redheads
Royce Prouty – Stoker’s Manuscript

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Patrick Freivald – Special Dead
Kami Garcia – Unbreakable
Geoffrey Girard – Project Cain
Joe McKinney – Dog Days
Cat Winters – In the Shadow of Blackbirds

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Ed Brubaker – Fatale Book Three: West of Hell
Caitlin R. Kiernan – Alabaster: Wolves
Brandon Seifert – Witch Doctor, Vol. 2: Mal Practice
Cameron Stewart – Sin Titulo
Paul Tobin – Colder

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Dale Bailey – “The Bluehole”
Gary Braunbeck – “The Great Pity”
Benjamin K. Ethridge – “The Slaughter Man”
Gregory Frost – “No Others Are Genuine”
Greg F. Gifune – House of Rain
Rena Mason – East End Girls

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

Michael Bailey – “Primal Tongue”
Patrick Freivald – “Snapshot”
David Gerrold – “Night Train to Paris”
Lisa Mannetti – “The Hunger Artist”
John Palisano – “The Geminis”
Michael Reaves – “Code 666”

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

Fabien Adda and Fabrice Gobert – The Returned: “The Horde”
Brad Falchuk – American Horror Story: Asylum: “Spilt Milk”
Bryan Fuller – Hannibal: “Apéritif”
Daniel Knauf – Dracula: “A Whiff of Sulfur”
Glen Mazzara – The Walking Dead: “Welcome to the Tombs”

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

R.J. Cavender and Boyd E. Harris (ed.) – Horror Library: Volume 5
Eric J. Guignard (ed.) – After Death…
Michael Knost and Nancy Eden Siegel (ed.) – Barbers & Beauties
Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (ed.) – The Grimscribe’s Puppets
Anthony Rivera and Sharon Lawson (ed.) – Dark Visions: A Collection of Modern Horror, Volume One

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Nathan Ballingrud – North American Lake Monsters: Stories
Laird Barron – The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and Other Stories
James Dorr – The Tears of Isis
Caitlin R. Kiernan – The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories
Gene O’Neill – Dance of the Blue Lady
S. P. Somtow – Bible Stories for Secular Humanists

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

Barbara Brodman and James E. Doan (ed.) – Images of the Modern Vampire: The Hip and the Atavistic
Gary William Crawford (ed.) – Ramsey Campbell: Critical Essays on the Modern Master of Horror
William F. Nolan – Nolan on Bradbury: Sixty Years of Writing about the Master of Science Fiction
Jarkko Toikkanen – The Intermedial Experience of Horror: Suspended Failures
Robert H. Waugh (ed.) – Lovecraft and Influence: His Predecessors and Successors

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

Bruce Boston – Dark Roads: Selected Long Poems 1971-2012
Helen Marshall – The Sex Lives of Monsters
Marge Simon and Sandy DeLuca – Dangerous Dreams
Marge Simon, Rain Graves, Charlee Jacob, and Linda Addison – Four Elements
Stephanie M. Wytovich – Hysteria: A Collection of Madness

The Lifetime Achievement Awards this year are being bestowed to R.L. Stine and editor Stephen Jones, both worthy choices.  Congratulations to all the nominees.  The Bram Stoker Awards are being held in conjunction with the World Horror Convention (in Portland, OR) on May 10, 2014.

I did this for my last book, Blackstone, listed some of the random tidbits I had to research during the editing process.  Flashback is no different, so here’s another list.  Some of these subjects are vital to the plot, while others are throwaway lines.

1 – Various types of surgical saws

2 – Which year Steamboat Willie premiered (1928)

3 – The history of the Hollywood blacklist

4 – Primate rescue sanctuaries in California

5 – The steps involved with creating a waxwork figure

6 – Which celebrities are buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery

7 – Fonda Theatre through the decades

8 – Sci-fi schlock films on IMDB

9 – Amenities at Griffith Observatory

10 – British Inspector in charge of the Jack the Ripper case

Here are a few links that recently caught my eye:

Isaac Asimov predicted at the 1964 World’s Fair what the world would be like fifty years hence.  Read his original article from The New York Times here.  Some things he really nailed; on others he’s way off base.

And here’s a creepy short film, somehow made creepier by stop-motion animation.

If you’re not reading Aeon Magazine, rectify that immediately.  I came across this site a few months back and gorged myself on their backlist of essays.  They’ve recently added short documentaries as well.

I wanted to share one Aeon piece in particular, published in the past couple of weeks, about creepypasta.

And finally another video about one of the best:  Richard Matheson being interviewed by the Writers Guild.  This was conducted (I’m guessing) a few months before Matheson passed away.  I’ve linked to a lengthier interview with him in the past; this one hits the same highlights, but it’s still worth a look if you’re a Matheson fan like me.