Scary Stories for a Good Cause: L.S. Johnson on "Ada, Awake"
Tell us a little about your story, “Ada, Awake.”
In 18th-century France, a young widow travels to sell an artifact, only to find the purchaser has more sinister plans.
What particular affinity for the history of France do you have that brings the setting in “Ada, Awake” to life?
Many years ago I had an idea for a novel, and I wanted to set it in a time and place where I could talk about current issues important to me, but without being overt (and preferably pre-telegraph, for plot reasons). I settled on a slightly alternative Ancient Regime France as the primary setting …
By Loren Rhoads (https://lorenrhoads.com/)
Tomes & Coffee Press
Tell us a little about your story, “Ada, Awake.”
In 18th-century France, a young widow travels to sell an artifact, only to find the purchaser has more sinister plans.
What particular affinity for the history of France do you have that brings the setting in “Ada, Awake” to life?
Many years ago I had an idea for a novel, and I wanted to set it in a time and place where I could talk about current issues important to me, but without being overt (and preferably pre-telegraph, for plot reasons). I settled on a slightly alternative Ancient Regime France as the primary setting, which lets me write about vast economic inequality, racism, misogyny, and the various flavors of power people wield … all in a landscape studded with gallows, heads on spikes, branded criminals, and many other touches dear to a horror writer’s heart. All that research stayed in my head and spilled over into other stories, including “Ada, Awake,” which is among other things a nod to the powerful noblewomen that dotted the French landscape throughout that century—there weren’t many of them, but they were there, and they weren’t shy about wielding what power they had.
What is your relationship to California, and does California influence your work?
I moved to California as a young twenty-something looking for a change; I didn’t plan to stay more than five years. That was over twenty years ago now. At this point in my life I feel equally shaped by California and my hometown of New York, but I’m only now starting to write stories set in the latter. I think, for me, a place has to become mythical? malleable? in my head before I can write about it; by that logic I won’t write about California until some time after I leave, if ever.
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California? What might that future look like?
California’s potential is tremendous, both economically and as a progressive beacon in the U.S. What is desperately needed is a clear-eyed look at our own greed, and to learn how to think communally again, rather than individually. We all need to give—some more than others—to ensure a better future for all.
Where can readers find more of your work?
My website is traversingz.com, where you can find links to my books and individual stories, and sign up for my mostly-monthly newsletter to get sneak peeks, ARCs, and more! I also have an author page on Amazon.
Publisher’s Note:
And with this post, this series exploring the concepts behind the stories in Tales for the Camp Fire and their authors’ relationships with California comes to an end. This all-volunteer charity anthology has come this far thanks to people donating their time and labor to put in the work necessary to bring this project to life.
If you would like to help out and get a great collection of horror stories, you can find the anthology in print and ebook on Amazon, or at future comic and book conventions (2020 dates TBA). You can also keep up to date on Facebook. All profits from the sale of this anthology will be donated to Camp Fire relief and recovery efforts administered by the North Valley Community Foundation.
My deepest thanks to everyone who has supported this book and given Tales for the Camp Fire the chance to accomplish its goal of giving back to the community.
Thank you,
E.M. Markoff (Tomes & Coffee Press)
Scary Stories for a Good Cause: Dana Fredsti on "You'll Never Be Lunch in this Town Again"
Tell us a little about your story, “You’ll Never Be Lunch in this Town Again.”
Back in the day (‘the day’ being the late ‘80s) I read Book of the Dead, an anthology of zombie stories edited by John Skipp and Craig Spector. I was, and still am, a huge fan of zombie movies and was delighted to find that this book existed. I know it’s hard to imagine a time when there weren’t a lot of movies or books to choose from in that genre, but we lived in a time before the remake of Dawn of the Dead …
By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)
Dana Fredsti is the author of the Ashley Parker series, Spawn of Lilith series, and co-author of the Time Shards series. When she originally wrote “You’ll Never Be Lunch in This Town Again,” Melanie Griffith was still hot in Hollywood and cell phones had yet to become smart.
Tell us a little about your story, “You’ll Never Be Lunch in this Town Again.”
Back in the day (‘the day’ being the late ‘80s) I read Book of the Dead, an anthology of zombie stories edited by John Skipp and Craig Spector. I was, and still am, a huge fan of zombie movies and was delighted to find that this book existed. I know it’s hard to imagine a time when there weren’t a lot of movies or books to choose from in that genre, but we lived in a time before the remake of Dawn of the Dead. T’were barren years for those of us what loved flesh-eating ghouls…
After I read Book of the Dead and found out a sequel was planned, I became obsessed with the idea of writing a story for it. Well, I missed the boat for the sequel, but heard the happy news that a third Book of the Dead edited by John Skipp was in the works and submitted a story for it. That story, A Man’s Gotta Eat What a Man’s Gotta Eat (featuring Chuck T-Bone, a zombie detective that finds missing people), was not what Skipp was looking for, but he liked my writing enough to encourage me to write and submit another story. So I did, and that story is You’ll Never Be Lunch in this Town Again, which is my take on what would happen if a first-time director had to finish his or her film during a zombie outbreak. This Amazon review says it best: “Dana Fredsti’s ‘You'll Never Be Lunch In This Town Again’ is Hollywood satire at its best, as a young director reassesses his real priorities as tinsel town collapses around him and his dwindling cast and crew.”
Your depiction of Hollywood feels like an inside perspective. Have you worked in the film industry before?
I did, as an actress in some bad low-budget movies, a specialty stunt player (sword fighting being my specialty), and also as a production assistant and a Second AD (assistant director). I have no patience with actors who treat the crew with disrespect, and no patience with cast or crew that can’t figure out how to throw their own damn soda cans in the trash.
What is your relationship to California?
This is my home. I’m a California native, born in Torrance (a coastal town in Los Angeles), and raised in San Diego. I moved to Los Angeles (Venice Beach and Glendale) for over ten years, and then moved to San Francisco fourteen years ago. While there are other states I’ve visited that I love, I would not want to live anywhere but California. We have pretty much everything here, including awesome wine and breweries!
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California? What might that future look like?
See above for awesome wine and breweries. Plus, if we ever seceded, I think we’d be okay. And despite political differences, when we have disasters—such as the horrible fire that destroyed Paradise—people join together and do what they can to help the survivors rebuild and recover.
Where can readers find more of your work?
My website www.danafredsti.com pretty much lists it all!
NEXT POST ON MONDAY 11/04/19, SCARY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE: L.S. Johnson ON “Ada, Awake”
Scary Stories for a Good Cause: John Claude Smith on "My True Name"
Tell us a little about your story, “My True Name.”
Two key elements helped in the creation of this story. The first was I had a passing thought about Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, wanting to write something that relates—two drifters roaming the countryside—though I kind of twisted that idea into this horrific vision. The second element deals with names …
By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)
John Claude Smith has published two collections (The Dark Is Light Enough for Me and Autumn in the Abyss), four chapbooks (Dandelions, Vox Terrae, The Anti-Everything, and The Wrath of Concrete and Steel), and two novels (the Bram Stoker Awards finalist Riding the Centipede and The Wilderness Within). Occasional Beasts: Tales, his third collection, has just been published and includes fourteen tales of weird horror.
Tell us a little about your story, “My True Name.”
Two key elements helped in the creation of this story. The first was I had a passing thought about Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, wanting to write something that relates—two drifters roaming the countryside—though I kind of twisted that idea into this horrific vision. The second element deals with names, so I’ll touch on it in the second question. The tale was originally published in an anthology put out by an online writer’s group I was in around twelve years ago … and which I was informed months later that perhaps four people had bought the anthology. I expect more will get to read it in this anthology.
As the title suggests, names play an important role in the world of your story. Was there a specific inspiration for this concept of a “true name”?
The names idea came to me in an email with an artist/musician friend. I had brought up Alex Lifeson from the band Rush, and he sent back a quirky response referencing, you guessed it, Bill DeathDaughter. I took that and ran with it. The names in the tale, as the reader will find out, deal in grim truths. They are statements dipped in blood and pain and, with the final revelation, well, something much bleaker than imagined …
What is your relationship to California, and does California influence your work?
From the dark alleys and avenues of Oakland and San Francisco, to the vast forests filled with mystery in northern California, inspiration abounds. My novel, The Wilderness Within, even takes place up north in a fictional town based on Old Station, California, where my best friend used to live. These elements could be anywhere in the world … or could they? I know California better than any other place, so I am sure the darkness in many of my tales has roots here.
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California?
Without hope, what do we have? These are harrowing times, but I’ve got to believe something better is on the horizon. I only hope we don’t have to go through too much more of the overt negativity, fear mongering and such, before we get there.
Where can readers find more of your work?
Here’s my Amazon author’s page, so you can see my books and other anthologies I’ve had stories in … and pick up a few to investigate further.
https://www.amazon.com/John-Claude-Smith/e/B0065PB94K/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
For those inclined to avoid the Big A, here’s links for Omnium Gatherum and Journalstone/Trepidatio.
OG: http://www.omniumgatherumedia.com/john-claude-smith
J/T: http://journalstone.com/bookstore/the-wilderness-within/
NEXT POST ON MONDAY 10/21/19, SCARY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Crystal M. Romero ON “The Relic”
10/16 - Publisher’s note: Apologies for the post delay!!
10/21 - Publisher’s note: Updated “Next post on … ” from Jean Claude Smith to Crystal M. Romero.
Scary Stories for a Good Cause: Ross E. Lockhart on "Folie à Deux"
Tell us a little about your story, “Folie à Deux.”
“Folie à Deux” grew out of the desire to tell a fractured story, built from a series of found documents, by unreliable narrators. I wanted to write something that built on Lovecraft and Machen and their cosmicism and supernaturalism …
By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)
Photo by Raymond Lawrason | https://www.haresrocklots.com/
Ross E. Lockhart is a veteran of small-press publishing, having edited scores of well-regarded novels of horror, fantasy, and science fiction, and anthologies including The Book of Cthulhu, Tales of Jack the Ripper, The Children of Old Leech, Giallo Fantastique, Eternal Frankenstein, Tales from a Talking Board, and Cthulhu Fhtagn! He is the author of Chick Bassist. Lockhart lives in Petaluma, California, with his wife Jennifer, hundreds of books, and Elinor Phantom, a Shih Tzu working as his editorial assistant.
Tell us a little about your story, “Folie à Deux.”
“Folie à Deux” grew out of the desire to tell a fractured story, built from a series of found documents, by unreliable narrators. I wanted to write something that built on Lovecraft and Machen and their cosmicism and supernaturalism, but also felt like there was something rational, yet ultimately ungraspable, at its heart. And a good bit of the mythic heart of storytelling. The term folie à deux comes out of 19th century psychology and refers to a shared delusion, literally meaning the madness of two. On the one hand, the title is about Cass and Hel, the twins at the core of the story. But it also expresses a dichotomous split, the Lovecraftian notion of the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.
You know, I had a couple things for this question, but I really just want to know: what led to the decision to bring together Lovecraftian mythos and Siamese twins?
I view Lovecraft as a sort of difficult uncle. I find myself fascinated by his imagination, particularly his Dunsanian Dreamlands, even as I am aghast at the racism that so permeates his work. Having edited multiple volumes of Lovecraft-inspired horror, I wrestle with this juxtaposition quite a bit, and in this story I try to deconstruct and decontextualize Lovecraft even as I try to understand him and his work.
But the twins? There’s a lot of Violet and Daisy Hilton in Cass and Hel. I’m a big fan of Tod Browning’s film Freaks, and while their role in the movie is small, it made a big impression on me, as did their semi-biographical film Chained for Life.
What is your relationship to California, and does California influence your work?
I’m a first-generation Californian. I grew up in San Diego as a bit of a surf rat, played in punk rock bands as a teen and into my twenties, ran record stores, and slowly worked my way north. These days I publish horror fiction. California is big and grand and golden, it is people from everywhere (and nowhere) mixing together and making it work in spite of earthquakes and fires and fascism and fear. It is perseverance and perversity and perception. And ultimately it is a place where you can sit and watch the sun sink into the ocean. California is a big part of my identity, and I can’t imagine living anywhere else.
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California? What might that future look like?
I’m not particularly a futurist. I want to be hopeful, but I am often disappointed by people who think from a point of fear rather than compassion, or those that put prejudices ahead of people. There’s a saying that where California goes, so goes the nation. We need to embrace that, to lean in to that, to lead actively and by example. And maybe then, the future will be what we need it to be.
Where can readers find more of your work?
I’m primarily an anthologist and editor. Recent anthologies include Tales from a Talking Board and Eternal Frankenstein. I’ve also got a short novel about California and rock and roll called Chick Bassist.
NEXT POST ON MONDAY 10/14/19, SCARY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE: John Claude Smith ON “My True Name”
Scary Stories for a Good Cause: E.M. Markoff on "Leaving the #9"
Tell us a little about your story, “Leaving the #9.”
The story follows Adelia, a working class cook who has worked long and hard for a better life and is finally able to take that next step. With her are her brother, Miguel, and a client turned best friend turned “the grandma I never had.” Her sense of reality is shaken when strange occurrences begin to disrupt her attempts to achieve her dream. The setting was inspired by the ongoing gentrification and displacement of the Mission, San Francisco’s historically Latinx neighborhood. A reader described it as “[a] wonderful ghost story …
By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)
www.ellderet.com
Latinx author and publisher E.M. Markoff writes about damaged heroes and imperfect villains. 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 and spent a few years channeling her inner mad scientist. Her works include The Deadbringer, To Nurture & Kill, and her recent short story “Leaving the #9.” She recently published the charity anthology Tales for the Camp Fire under her imprint, Tomes & Coffee Press, to raise money for California wildfire recovery and relief efforts. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association and is mostly made up of coffee, cat hair, and whiskey.
Tell us a little about your story, “Leaving the #9.”
The story follows Adelia, a working class cook who has worked long and hard for a better life and is finally able to take that next step. With her are her brother, Miguel, and a client turned best friend turned “the grandma I never had.” Her sense of reality is shaken when strange occurrences begin to disrupt her attempts to achieve her dream. The setting was inspired by the ongoing gentrification and displacement of the Mission, San Francisco’s historically Latinx neighborhood. A reader described it as “[a] wonderful ghost story with some excellent unexpected tidbits.” To me, the story is about friendship and chosen family, and the ways that we discover whom in our lives we are truly important to.
Your story includes both Spanish and Nahuatl words. For readers unfamiliar with the latter, can you tell us more about Nahuatl, and why you wove it into your story?
I am fluent in Spanish since my mom never learned English, but I only recently began learning Nahuatl. Nahuatl is one of the many native languages of Mexico, and is still spoken today by 1.5 million people. I wove it into the narrative because I wanted to see all aspects of my culture represented in the story. All my works are like this, including the books in my main dark fantasy series, though the references there are not as overt.
Mind you, I’m not fluent in Nahuatl, but that’s my own fault. I’m a horrible student, but I’m working toward learning more about it. UC Berkeley, through their Program for the Study and Practice of Indigenous Cultures and Languages, offers Nahuatl courses in the fall. Another wonderful resource is David Bowles’s online Nahuatl course.
What is your relationship to California, and does California influence your work?
Just this May was Carnival San Francisco, and earlier in the year was Mexica New Year. The Mission Cultural Center had an exhibit dedicated to rebozos, and they offer classes such as Danza Azteca. My point is that California, and for me specifically San Francisco, influences my work because of how rich the Latinx community is. I live in a city where I have direct access to a part of my culture (Mexica) that I thought I could only ever experience through books or museums. I’m very privileged to be able to live here and I hope it remains so.
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California? What might that future look like?
I can imagine a hopeful future for California because we live in a time where injustices are being challenged on a national, state, and local level by communities of color. What might that future look like? Diverse.
Where can readers find more of your work?
My main body of work includes The Deadbringer, the first book in The Ellderet Series, and its standalone prequel To Nurture & Kill. The first book was described by Booklist as “An amazing action-adventure, tinged with Mexican folklore, that will appeal to fans of A Game of Thrones.” You can learn more about the world of the Ellderet by visiting www.ellderet.com or signing up for my Newsletter of the Cursed. You can also follow me @tomesandcoffee on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. As for my work as a publisher, visit the Camp Fire website at www.ellderet.com/campfire, where you’ll find interviews (such as these) by other contributing authors. There’s also a Facebook page where I post T4tCF events and updates. You can also catch me, editor Loren Rhoads, and contributing author and interviewer extraordinaire L.S. Johnson at Silicon Valley Comic Con on August 16-18 at Booth 21a. I’ll have my own works available as well as Tales for the Camp Fire. If you’re attending, please stop on by and say hello!
NEXT POST ON MONDAY 7/29/19, SCARY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Sumiko Saulson ON “Unheard Music in the Dank Underground”
Scary Stories for a Good Cause: Ken Hueler on "River Twice"
Tell us a little about your story, “River Twice.”
A friend of mine once told me he would take a bullet in the knees for his daughters. Having observed him with his family for years, I truly believe he would have (though I never tested it). But one of the horrors of life is betrayal by people you should trust—friends, lovers, family—which is matched only by the horror they feel when you betray them. So I decided to write about that …
By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)
Tomes & Coffee Press
Ken Hueler teaches kung fu in the San Francisco Bay Area and, with fellow members of the Horror Writers Association’s local chapter, gets up to all sorts of adventures (only some involving margaritas). His work has appeared in Weirdbook, Stupefying Stories, Black Petals, and Strangely Funny III.
Tell us a little about your story, “River Twice.”
A friend of mine once told me he would take a bullet in the knees for his daughters. Having observed him with his family for years, I truly believe he would have (though I never tested it). But one of the horrors of life is betrayal by people you should trust—friends, lovers, family—which is matched only by the horror they feel when you betray them. So I decided to write about that.
Kame begins the story by gently testing the sincerity of her boyfriend, and then she discovers that her father has a secret from her childhood. Investigating it puts her in a similar jeopardy to the one that endangered her so long ago. Will she be rescued this second time? Will either man come through for her?
Your story draws upon Japanese folklore, especially tales of kappas. What inspired you to choose the kappa specifically for your story?
Cunning. I saw a posting for an anthology of cryptid stories, and since only one story on each cryptid would be included, I narrowed my competition by picking an unusual one. I like anime and Japanese movies, so I knew about yokai, and I decided on kappas because they are wonderfully odd. I discovered a lot more interesting facts researching them, some of which are only alluded to in the story (look up how kappa get shirikodma to find out how one character actually died).
The anthology had a deadline, and knowing the speed at which I write, I decided against researching much about Japan and just moved the kappa to the US. Isn’t that inspirationally lazy? Still, I submitted the story in two minutes to midnight on the deadline, so I was right. And no one complained about the transplant.
What is your relationship to California, and does California influence your work?
I’ve lived in San Francisco for 25 years, and I find the variety of cultures and people and ideas inspiring. So many unusual and delightful things just seem to appear, and I think that adds a sense of anything-can-happen wonder to how I write.
Geographically, it doesn’t show up much. My locations are almost never specific, and for the same reason writers aren’t supposed to base characters on actual people (besides the lawsuits): it limits me. I like story and setting to blend.
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California? What might that future look like?
The people of California are very aware and innovative, and the culture encourages that. I believe we will be a part of the needed solutions.
Where can readers find more of your work?
I have a list of where I’ve been published on my website: kenhueler.wordpress.com. You will also find a link to stories under my humor pseudonym, Nathan Cromwell, the most recent of which, “The Very Last Time I Will Ever Have Sex with a Tree”, appears in Stupefying Stories magazine. Go ahead—who doesn’t like a rollicking tale of consensual arboreal canoodling? No one will judge you.
NEXT POST ON MONDAY 7/22/19, SCARY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE: E.M. Markoff ON “Leaving the #9”
Scary Stories for a Good Cause: Clifford Brooks on John Wilson
Tell us a little about your story, “John Wilson.”
John Wilson came about by accident. The un-named narrator was a character in a novella I was working on. She only had a couple of lines, but I figured I needed to know more about her, so I wrote a character background. When I was done, I realized that what I’d basically done was write a short story about her …
By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)
When not writing about ghosts and improbable Siamese twins, Clifford Brooks is a devoted cat daddy. On any given Sunday, you can find him walking one of his cats through the Bay Area’s many parks.
Tell us a little about your story, “John Wilson.”
John Wilson came about by accident. The un-named narrator was a character in a novella I was working on. She only had a couple of lines, but I figured I needed to know more about her, so I wrote a character background. When I was done, I realized that what I’d basically done was write a short story about her.
The style of “John Wilson” is unusual—some might call it poetic, or experimental. What inspired the focus on voice?
It wasn’t a conscious decision … it just came out like that. Ironically, the novella that spawned it has yet to be sold.
What is your relationship to California?
I grew up a small-town Midwest boy. I thought that’s who I was until I left the Midwest for California. And then, on a trip to Manhattan, it sealed the deal. I’d been mistaken. Horribly so. California is such a big place that there really isn’t just one California. San Francisco and Union City are worlds apart. More like galaxies apart.
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California? What might that future look like?
Because this is the technology center of the world, I see California, and especially the Bay Area, morphing into something totally unrecognizable in the next 20 to 30 years. Robot companions? Check. Self-driving clean vehicles? Check check. Empty office parks and traffic-free highways as employees work in virtual offices from the comfort of their beds? Hell yes.
Where can readers find more of your work?
I’m not nearly as prolific as I’d like to be, but one can find more on what I’m all about from the safety of my website: www.cliffordbrooks.com.
Anything you’d like to add that we haven’t asked?
Just that I’m an extroverted introvert. I know, it’s trendy for writers to call themselves introverts, but I’m an extreme case. Really. That being said, in small to smallish groups, I can be very extroverted. It’s a total response to my discomfort … the more uncomfortable I become, the harder it is to shut me up.
NEXT POST ON MONDAY 7/1/19, SCARY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Ken Hueler on “River Twice”
Scary Stories for a Good Cause: Gene O'Neill on "Graffiti Sonata"
Tell us a little about your story, “Graffiti Sonata.”
An artist is under stress; he’s lost his ability to make art, and his wife and child are leaving him. Incidentally he notices some strange freeway graffiti that moves. The two events overlap.
Was there any specific inspiration for the graffiti in your story?
I was looking at some Freeway graffiti and thought what if graffiti moved? The story is built around that what if …
By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)
Tomes & Coffee Press
Gene O’Neill has seen 150 of his short stories, novelettes, and novellas published, as well as seven short story collections and seven novels. Twelve of this group were Stoker finalists, two claiming the haunted house—Taste of Tenderloin (collection) and The Blue Heron (novella). Two novels and a novella collaboration will be out sometime in 2019.
Tell us a little about your story, “Graffiti Sonata.”
An artist is under stress; he’s lost his ability to make art, and his wife and child are leaving him. Incidentally he notices some strange freeway graffiti that moves. The two events overlap.
Was there any specific inspiration for the graffiti in your story?
I was looking at some Freeway graffiti and thought what if graffiti moved? The story is built around that what if. There is art and music in the story, and the title is a play on this: movement of graffiti and movements in a sonata …
What is your relationship to California?
I live in Napa. We lost a family home in the 2017 fire in the Napa Valley fire.
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California? What might that future look like?
California’s economy is doing well. If we can control fires, and we do something about global warming, everything will be fine in the future.
Where can readers find more of your work?
Readers can Google my name or check my name on Amazon.Com. I list upcoming books on my Facebook page.
NEXT POST ON MONDAY 6/24/19, SCARY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Clifford Brooks ON “John Wilson”
Scary Stories for a Good Cause: Eric Esser on "Fable of the Box"
Tell us a little about your story, “Fable of the Box.”
It’s a story about wanting to be more than you think you are, and how that takes you places you would not expect, and maybe shouldn’t go. There are a lot of other influences packed in there too. I’ve always been fascinated by the Sumerians’ idea of the underworld, where instead of receiving a reward for your actions in life you become a shadow of what you once were …
By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)
Eric Esser lives in San Francisco with his wife Courtney. He is a graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Workshop and a member of the Codex Writers’ Group. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Schoolbooks & Sorcery, Pseudopod, and Fictionvale, among others.
Tell us a little about your story, “Fable of the Box.”
It’s a story about wanting to be more than you think you are, and how that takes you places you would not expect, and maybe shouldn’t go. There are a lot of other influences packed in there too. I’ve always been fascinated by the Sumerians’ idea of the underworld, where instead of receiving a reward for your actions in life you become a shadow of what you once were. This piece is also part of a series of stories I wrote inspired by southwestern Shropshire, a place I find interesting because it’s on the edge between England and Wales, where mythologies and cultures mixed, and where, back in the day, people were far enough removed from major population centers that they had a greater sense of the unknown and therefore of possibility.
As the title suggests, your story reads like a fable, or a fairy tale … what inspired you to choose that form?
I was writing a series of stories that played with telling over showing. I think there can be something almost hypnotic about a story that’s mostly told rather than shown, and I was working on that here. It also let me experiment with wide arcs over short page counts, which let me see more clearly how certain structures play out, and how turns of plot can be reminiscent of turns in poetry.
What is your relationship to California, and does California influence your work?
I was born and raised in California, so the short answer is that it influences me down to my bones. I see California as what America as a whole used to be: diverse, vibrant, looking toward the future instead of longing for the past, defining ourselves by whom we embrace rather than who we vilify. Maybe this is part of why I write speculative fiction, which is always trying to see the world from previously unimagined perspectives, and making us better for it through aspiration or critique.
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California? What might that future look like?
A hopeful future is one that people embrace and shape rather than run from. This often involves giving as much respect to the needs of others as to our own. For example, with respect to the housing crisis, you have to accept there will be more people here in the future than in the past and then figure out ways that are both realistic and just to deal with that. It’s not always easy because in our world people often have to fight so hard for what they have that when any change comes their self-defense instincts kick in. But I think California has a better chance of getting it right than most, in the end.
Where can readers find more of your work?
I have links to some of my stories on my website ericesser.net. I have a young adult urban fantasy story coming out later this year in the Schoolbooks and Sorcery anthology, a collection of queer-friendly stories from Circlet Press’ Ultra Violet Library imprint. Another story in the series I wrote working with Shropshire and forms of telling is “Thing in the Bucket,” available in print in Flame Tree Publishing’s Chilling Horror Short Stories anthology and in audio in Pseudopod Episode #430.
NEXT POST ON MONDAY 6/17/19, SCARY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Gene O’Neill ON “Graffiti Sonata”
Scary Stories for a Good Cause: Loren Rhoads on "Still Life with Shattered Glass"
Tell us a little about your story, “Still Life with Shattered Glass.”
“Still Life” was directly inspired by taking MFA Creative Writing classes at the University of Michigan. My classmates’ more literary stories were grounded in theories of art, when I just wanted to explore as many genres as possible. This was back in the day, when students were strongly encouraged to write what they knew. A lot of them (me included) only knew living with our childhood families or trying to adjust to roommates at college. None of us had much life experience to draw on. We read an awful lot of roommate stories.
I set out to write a story about a bad roommate.
By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)
lorenrhoads.com
Loren Rhoads served as editor for Bram Stoker Award-nominated Morbid Curiosity magazine as well as the books The Haunted Mansion Project: Year Two, Death’s Garden: Relationship with Cemeteries, and Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues: True Tales of the Unsavory, Unwise, Unorthodox, and Unusual. Her short stories have appeared in Best New Horror #27, Strange California, Sins of the Sirens: Fourteen Tales of Dark Desire, Fright Mare: Women Write Horror, and most recently in Weirdbook, Occult Detective Quarterly, and Space & Time.
Tell us a little about your story, “Still Life with Shattered Glass.”
“Still Life” was directly inspired by taking MFA Creative Writing classes at the University of Michigan. My classmates’ more literary stories were grounded in theories of art, when I just wanted to explore as many genres as possible. This was back in the day, when students were strongly encouraged to write what they knew. A lot of them (me included) only knew living with our childhood families or trying to adjust to roommates at college. None of us had much life experience to draw on. We read an awful lot of roommate stories.
I set out to write a story about a bad roommate. Hopefully it's not clear until the end of the story which roommate is the worst.
I wanted to snark about artistic pretenses, too.
You mention that the story was inspired by photographers Joel-Peter Witkin and David Wojnarowicz. For readers unfamiliar with their work, can you describe their photography and how it inspired you?
The photograph of Joel-Peter Witkin’s that struck a chord with me is called “The Kiss,” in which he posed two severed heads mouth to mouth. It’s not a photographic manipulation. The men are clearly dead: their cheeks are sunken, their noses are beaks, one’s mouth is actually gaping open. The image is horrific and intimate and disrespectful and lovely, too, in its way. I wanted the photographer in my story to display the same sort of disrespect for the dead. To her, cadavers are simply props, even if she doesn’t rearrange bodies the way Witkin did.
On the other hand, David Wojnarowicz took a series of photos of his lover Peter Hujar, after Peter died of AIDS. The first photo shows Peter with his head on a hospital pillow. His open eyes are unfocused and sunken deep into their sockets. His mouth hangs open. The skin of his chest has collapsed around his collarbone. Consecutive photos focus on his hand atop a thin hospital sheet and his vulnerable bare feet. There’s something sculptural about the focus on his hands and feet, something Christlike. It’s a gut-punch to see this profound record of a love suddenly, brutally ended.
I wanted to write about a woman who looked at death as unflinchingly as these two men.
What is your relationship to California, and does California influence your work?
I moved from Michigan to California 30 years ago and hope never to leave. As much as I loved Ann Arbor, I can’t imagine ever leaving San Francisco for Michigan again. I fell in love as soon as I watched the sun set into the Pacific the first time. Although this particular story predates my coming to California, it wasn’t published until after I’d lived here for a number of years.
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California? What might that future look like?
I hope we can expand on the progress we’ve made, in terms of accepting people for who they truly are. Marriage equality was a huge first step, one I am thrilled to have seen in my lifetime. I hope we can get to a point where people can define themselves and their relationships freely and no one bats an eye.
Where can readers find more of your work?
My home on the web is lorenrhoads.com. I spend too much time hanging out on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/loren.rhoads.5 or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/morbidloren. For people in Northern California, I’ll be at the Silicon Valley Comic Con in San Jose in August and then up at Sinister Creature Con in Sacramento in October. Come pick up a copy of the Camp Fire book in person!
NEXT POST ON MONDAY 6/10/19, SCARY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Eric Esser ON “Fable of the Box”
Scary Stories for a Good Cause: Erika Mailman on "Seven Seconds"
Tell us a little about your story, “Seven Seconds.”
I got interested in the guillotine and read several nonfiction books about it. I learned that some people believe there are seven seconds that elapse from the time of beheading to the moment of death. I was scared and intrigued by what you might see in your seven seconds …
By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)
Photo by Petra Hoette | www.erikamailman.com
“Seven Seconds” arose out of Erika Mailman’s fascination with the French Revolution. Similar shades of this history are found in Betrayed, her young adult novel under the pen name Lynn Carthage. She has written two other novels under that name and three under her real name, including The Witch’s Trinity, which was a Bram Stoker finalist and a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book. She holds an MFA in poetry, has been a Yaddo fellow, and is co-director of the Gold Rush Writer’s Conference.
Tell us a little about your story, “Seven Seconds.”
I got interested in the guillotine and read several nonfiction books about it. I learned that some people believe there are seven seconds that elapse from the time of beheading to the moment of death. I was scared and intrigued by what you might see in your seven seconds.
In “Seven Seconds”, your narrator travels to Paris and visits some of the city’s more gruesome locations. What kind of research went into crafting the story?
Hearing the horrible statistics about the French Revolution guillotine usage fascinated me. As my story says, at Place de la Nation, one of several guillotine sites, legend has it that in one 24-minute period, a headsman killed 54 people. What a desperate circumstance, that the ending of one’s life does not even require a full minute’s attention.
I wondered, what happened to the bodies? Did the families bury them? Unlikely, since usually an entire family perished together. And ... were the heads collected up separately? These kinds of questions drove me to research, and to at least an answer for those killed at Nation. I was able to therefore visit the cemetery at Picpus, where two mass pit graves hold 1,307 people: heads and bodies together, although not necessarily placed together. (I blogged about it over at Loren Rhoads’s site:
https://cemeterytravel.com/2017/10/13/deaths-garden-pariss-secret-cemetery/)
I revisited Picpus this April and I’ll be posting some photos on social media. In the meantime, my piece on watching Notre Dame burn is here: http://bit.ly/NotreDamefeu
Anyone who loves horror and/or history: you must visit Paris someday if you haven’t already. It is a city built for us.
What is your relationship to California, and does California influence your work?
I moved to California in Fall 1991, just in time for the Oakland hills fire. I remember the terror of watching the news, watching the smoke in the sky, and wondering if we were going to have to evacuate. At the time, I lived not too far from the Claremont Hotel, an historic structure whose fate was threatened, and whose placement on the hillside was considered the fireline that must not be crossed.
My roommate—with whom I’d driven cross-country from the east coast—and I decided we would voluntarily evacuate to stay with friends in San Francisco. I remember thinking whatever I left in the apartment might be destroyed. I had a Kaypro PC (remember these? With two floppy disk drives, and amber Fixedsys font?) and knew I couldn’t bring it on the BART. Yet it was the most valuable thing I owned. It held all my short stories and poems. My roommate convinced me to put the word processor in the bathtub, without water, of course, as the best line of defense against fire. And off we went. Upon return, all was fine for us ... but not for many people in the hills.
I will always remember the hills fire with a sickening sense of fear in my stomach. I feel so sad for those who lost so much, and I’m grateful to be part of this anthology helping people who experienced tragedy in the November 2018 Camp Fire. And thank you to you, the reader, for supporting efforts to ease their burden.
On a far lighter note, California captured my imagination and fueled my first novel Woman of Ill Fame, which is about a Gold Rush prostitute who gets caught up in a serial killer’s targeting of women of her profession. And Oakland’s Pardee Home Museum provides the fictional setting for House of Bellaver, a literary ghost story.
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California? What might that future look like?
I will always find California to be a hopeful state. It was founded by optimism (well, and greed) and is a truly diverse and welcoming place to call home. I hope to see more people developing empathy for others—and I believe one of the easiest ways to develop that skill is to have kids read for pleasure from an early age. When we read, we are imagining the lives of others, which gives us great practice at doing that for people in real life.
Where can readers find more of your work?
At www.erikamailman.com, people can see “extras” about my four historical novels, including The Witch’s Trinity, which was a Bram Stoker finalist, set in medieval Germany during the era of witchcraft persecutions. It’s about a woman accused of witchcraft by her own daughter-in-law, which was actually a frequent happenstance from that time period.
At www.lynncarthage.com, I feature the Arnaud Legacy trilogy. It’s easy to pop into the trilogy with Books One (Haunted) or Two (Betrayed), but less straightforward to start with Three (Avenged). The second book, Betrayed, is set in Paris and provides a deeper amplification of some of the history I touch on in “Seven Seconds.”
NEXT POST ON MONDAY 5/27/19, SCARY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Gerry Griffiths ON “The White Stuff”
Scary Stories for a Good Cause: Ben Monroe on "The Quarry"
Tell us a little about your story, “The Quarry.”
Sure! “The Quarry” is a short story about a bunch of kids out messing around in the height of summer—and then things go south for them. It was inspired by memories of goofing around with my best friends when we were kids, swimming in Lake Anza in the Berkeley hills, as well as a camping trip I took with my family a few years ago on the Eel River.
By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)
Ben Monroe grew up in Northern California and has spent most of his life there. He lives in the East Bay area with his wife and two children. His most recent published works are In the Belly of the Beast and Other Tales of Cthulhu Wars and the graphic novel Planet Apocalypse.
Tell us a little about your story, “The Quarry.”
Sure! “The Quarry” is a short story about a bunch of kids out messing around in the height of summer—and then things go south for them. It was inspired by memories of goofing around with my best friends when we were kids, swimming in Lake Anza in the Berkeley hills, as well as a camping trip I took with my family a few years ago on the Eel River.
Strangely enough (and of course it’s part of the fun of writing) I didn’t really consciously go into those memories when I began writing it. I had an image in my head of the titular quarry, and of something that might be lurking in the depths of it. And as I started writing, it all came together.
Reading “The Quarry,” I was reminded of many classic kids/teen movies from the ‘80s—The Goonies and The Lost Boys, for instance, as well as the recent Stranger Things. Was that a conscious association on your part when writing the story?
Not at first. When I started, it was just a story about kids going out on an adventure. And then the more I worked on it, the more I realized it would be fun to set it in the ‘80s. I guess primarily because back in the ‘80s I was the age these kids are in the story. After making that decision, I went back and reinforced the time a little with a few pop culture references.
But at the same time, ‘80s horror is my jam. I grew up in Berkeley in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and was a horror, sci-fi, and fantasy nut. The Lost Boys is one of my all-time favorite movies, and I’ve watched The Goonies countless times as an adult and a teen (it’s one of my kids’ favorite movies, too!). I don’t think writing it like those types of stories was really a conscious effort on my part, but there’s no way I can say they weren’t influential.
Another ‘80s story I had to keep in mind when I wrote “The Quarry” was Stephen King’s “The Raft,” which I first experienced as part of the film Creepshow 2. When I was writing my story, I was constantly thinking about King’s piece, making sure I wasn’t treading the same waters.
What is your relationship to California, and does California influence your work?
I’ve lived in California almost my entire life. Shortly after I was born my family moved to San Diego, where we lived for a while before we moved to the UK for another year or so. When I was three, we moved back to Berkeley, and I’ve been living in the East Bay Area ever since.
Northern California has been my stomping grounds for nearly fifty years and has both consciously and probably unconsciously influenced my stories. My novel In the Belly of the Beast takes place in the Sierras, with flashback moments to events taking place in San Francisco, Oakland, and Folsom. My forthcoming story “A Hell of a View” starts off in Oakland, and strolls down the coast to Santa Cruz.
“The Quarry” is set in Alcosta, a fictitious city I’ve been fiddling with for a while now. Call it the “Arkham” or “Castle Rock” of Northern California, if you will. It’s inspired by many of my favorite places in NorCal, including some Berkeley weirdness, the urban, industrial areas of Oakland, and a smattering of Central Coast wilderness.
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California? What might that future look like?
Absolutely. California is a land of dreamers, and innovators. We had the Gold Rush of the 1800s, created the Hollywood entertainment industry in the early 1900s, and at the end of the century we started the tech boom. We’re the people that keep changing the world, and everyone’s waiting to see what we do next.
I find it interesting that when Spanish settlers first came to the Ohlone territories back in the 1600s they found it so amazingly beautiful, they named it after a fairy tale land from a fantasy/romance novel of the time (Amadis De Gaul – https://www.californiafrontier.net/name-california/). Are we the only place in the world named for a work of literature? Beats me. But I think it’s astoundingly fitting.
Where can readers find more of your work?
My website www.benmonroe.com has links to my Amazon author page, as well as my blog which I update semi-occasionally. I’m also pretty active on Twitter @_BenMonroe_.
NEXT POST ON MONDAY 5/20/19, SCARY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Erika Mailman ON “SEVEN SECONDS”
Scary Stories for a Good Cause: Nancy Etchemendy on "Cooking with Rodents"
Tell us a little about your story, “Cooking with Rodents.”
There are a few life forms on our planet that almost universally elicit a response of horror in humans. Some people can keep their cool in the presence of spiders, scorpions, and snakes, though it takes an effort. Rats, though—I’ve seen even exterminators shiver at the prospect of entering a dark crawlspace that smells like rats. It’s an unsurprising fact about horror writers that we sometimes sit around thinking about the most disgusting things imaginable, and often stories come out of this process. Eating a rat is about the most disgusting thing I can think of doing. I wrote this story 25 years ago …
By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)
www.etchemendy.com
Nancy Etchemendy’s novels, short fiction, and poetry have appeared regularly for the past 40 years, both in the US and abroad. Her work has earned a number of awards, including three Bram Stoker Awards and an International Horror Guild Award. Cat in Glass and Other Tales of the Unnatural, her collection of short dark fantasy, was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults.
Tell us a little about your story, “Cooking with Rodents.”
There are a few life forms on our planet that almost universally elicit a response of horror in humans. Some people can keep their cool in the presence of spiders, scorpions, and snakes, though it takes an effort. Rats, though—I’ve seen even exterminators shiver at the prospect of entering a dark crawlspace that smells like rats. It’s an unsurprising fact about horror writers that we sometimes sit around thinking about the most disgusting things imaginable, and often stories come out of this process. Eating a rat is about the most disgusting thing I can think of doing. I wrote this story 25 years ago, and it still makes me feel like throwing up (in a good way) every time I read it. Heh heh ... maybe that means it’s a classic.
Even for a horror story, the premise is unusual. What inspired you to write the story?
I can’t take much credit for inspiration on this one, because I wrote it on assignment for an obscure anthology, “Rat Tales,” edited by Jon Gustafson, rest his soul. Each story in the anthology had to begin with the sentence, “There were rats in the soufflé again.” A story that starts with a line like that could go in a lot of different directions. But it seemed to me that anyone who’s using rat meat in a soufflé must be trying hard to keep up appearances in a pretty desperate situation. I decided on the Julia Child approach because ... well, people use French cuisine to keep up appearances even in normal circumstances. Plus, I like to cook, and I wanted to see if I could make a rat soufflé sound delicious. I got permission from Jon to change the first sentence to present tense because the story is a recipe, and recipes are traditionally written in present tense. And off I went.
What is your relationship to California, and does California influence your work?
In 1976, when my husband and I were still in our twenties, we moved to California from our hometown (Reno, Nevada) so he could do graduate work at Stanford. I wasn’t happy about the move; I had a lot of preconceived ideas about California and Californians, most of them negative. But before the first winter was over, I was in love with my new life. I remember driving down Highway 1 in a convertible with the top down on a February day (with a goat and a three-legged dog in the backseat, but that’s another story). We stopped for artichoke soup in Pescadero, then headed to the beach, where we went tidepooling and got sunburned. All the while, I knew that back in Reno there was a foot of snow on the ground. I was sure I must be dreaming or had died and gone to heaven.
All of the places where I’ve spent time influence my work, including California, where I’ve now spent most of my life. For me, setting is one of the most powerful elements of any story. It molds the characters and the nature of their lives. It dictates what you can and can’t do with the plot, and it heavily influences the tone and voice of a piece. Painting a setting with authenticity and confidence is all about getting the details right. So the most convincing fiction is set in places the writer knows well. Given this, it’s unsurprising that a good many of my stories are set in Northern California, where the details come naturally to me from long experience. Because the geography and even the weather of Northern California is so rich and varied, it’s a large and flexible sandbox for a writer to work in. It doesn’t matter what kind of story I want to write. There’s a California setting that will suit it.
The location for “Cooking with Rodents” is unnamed. We know only that it’s a place where there is (and probably has been for some time) broad economic inequality and a tacit class system. It’s a place where there are rats and the vestiges of a farm-to-table culture. It’s set in a near future transformed by climate change and social upheaval, where the vestigial wealthy cling desperately to remnants of their old way of life. I was living in and thinking of California when I wrote it.
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California? What might that future look like?
I’ve just finished reading The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, a slim but terrifying piece of nonfiction by David Wallace-Wells, a respected American journalist. He has compiled and analyzed an enormous amount of scientific work and extrapolative analyses by various corporations, non-profits, and government agencies from local to federal. Wallace-Wells does the best job so far of making a compelling case for immediate action. The book spells out clearly the ways in which climate change is already affecting our lives and the increasingly disruptive ways in which it will affect us going forward. I’ve had trouble sleeping since I first picked up the book.
The best science predicts that we are on the cusp of a time in which “weather patterns” will be an oxymoron. If we do nothing to cut the amount of greenhouse gas we are dumping into the atmosphere, we can throw the old term “normal” out the window. In California, each new year will bring higher tides, more flooding, and more wildfires like the Camp Fire. With each slight increase in the temperature, more species will go extinct, and those that survive will move further north. This includes humans, and it goes a long way toward explaining the number of refugees we’re seeing almost everywhere on the planet.
So, can I imagine a hopeful future for California? Yes, I can. In fact, I can imagine a pleasing future for California. Even Wallace-Wells thinks we can still pull ourselves out of the fire. The catch is that we have to start immediately. “We have all the tools we need, today, to stop it all,” he says. “A carbon tax and the political apparatus to aggressively phase out dirty energy, a new approach to agricultural practices and a shift away from beef and dairy in the global diet; and public investment in green energy and carbon capture.” In other words, a hopeful future for California—and the world—hinges on our ability to change the way we’ve been doing things. All we have to do is pull together, reach consensus about what needs to be done, and then find leaders who can help us make it happen. That may be hard to imagine (which might be why we see so many people writing dystopias). But stranger acts of public will have come to pass, especially when people have felt their lives and their children’s lives are at stake, as is now the case.
Where can readers find more of your work?
A complete list of my publications is available at www.etchemendy.com.
Next post on Monday 5/6/19, Scary Stories for a Good Cause: John McCallum Swain on “The Wolf Who Never Was”
Stay in Touch
Upcoming Events
Many thanks to everyone who supported T4tCF in 2019. SEE YOU AGAIN IN 2020! -Tomes & Coffee Press
