Where Stories Come From: Essays - A CELEBRATION OF SLASHERS

(Revised 03/09/2024)

So you're probably thinking...."Gee, Gordon, why are you involved with a Celebration of Slashers? After all, just because you wrote a short story about lady vampires doesn't make you a horror dude."

Well, no...and technically, I cheated. Sort of.

(And although I enjoy horror films, my only major horror achievement was conning my parents into taking a teenage me to see a triple bill of Cat People, American Werewolf in London, and Halloween 2).

I've spoken about my involvement with Paul Booth and DePaul's Pop Culture Conferences in a previous post. Last year, I opted not to participate in DePaul's Celebration of Harry Potter because 1) I'm not really a Harry Potter fan and 2) Mom was  sick...so when I saw this year's topic, I was...not impressed.

However, I was impressed with the keynote speaker - Rachel Talalay, who directed Doctor Who and was involved with the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. So I wanted to find an excuse to attend (and yes, I love seeing my name in print...I'm still gobsmacked over the reaction to my C2E2 Doctor Who panel)

So I suggested two topics, both of which appear in the A Celebration of Slashers book of essays/presentations.

My first presentation - since the Celebration was marking the 40th anniversary of Halloween - was a retrospective of John Carpenter's film career. And yes, I have seen every film Carpenter's made except The Ward.

The other essay I wrote concerned the "death" of Gothic horror in pop culture (or "How did we get from Hammer and Roger Corman's Poe adaptations to Halloween and Friday the 13th?")

Well, the answer involves Doctor Who, Richard Matheson, Dark Shadows, and a concept noted in this YouTube Video:



I won't go into too much detail, but suffice it to say...it was a gradual overuse of tropes.

This was a little different than my usual pop culture stalking grounds, and I'll be gobsmacked if I can think of something for next year's celebration (aka A Celebration of Disney), but for one shining moment...I was able to stretch my wings.

Be sure to purchase a copy of A Celebration of Slashers via my Amazon Author page. All proceeds go to Good Girl Media, and quite honestly - there's some really good reading in it.

Where Stories Come From: LES VAMPS

(Revised 03/09/2024)http://

It's only recently that I realized that I've written Where Stories Come From posts for my other previously released stories....but never wrote one for Les Vamps (which is currently unavailable for download...although I might consider making it a perk for my Patreon subscribers). It's ironic because it was this publication that kicked off my "new" writing career. And it all started with a contest.

About three-ish years ago, artist Mark Wheatley (whose work on First Comics' Mars had impressed me) sponsored a contest on Facebook: write a story inspired by a particular piece of art (which became the cover of Les Vamps). If I remember correctly (and I'm not sure if I do), the main prize was publication.

Around this time, I was also working with someone who ran a web development organization for particular nonprofits. (I won't name him outright, because he stiffed me on work). This particular individual had outsourced his web development to India, meaning that he was spending late nights conversing with his team about client work.

That got me thinking, "Gee, telecommuting has made it easy to be a vampire. You can stay up late, not have to do anything during the day, and maintain a slightly healthy lifestyle."

(Yes, I know how ridiculous it sounds now...which is why, after an abortive attempt to make the vampire the lead, I made the thrall the main character of the story)

At the same time, I was going through some slight adjustments to living in Chicago...I missed several things about St. Louis. But what struck me was the idea that St. Louis, in many ways, is a backwards city: its focus on high school as a social determinant; the fact that people "stayed" rather than "lived" in the city...and it also made for a more realistic city for my story to take place.

So after a very haphazard, first-word-best-word draft, I submitted the story. (I cribbed the title from this relatively little-known song by The Only Ones, better known for Another Girl Another Planet. Yes, there's a shout-out to the former within the story). When a friend of mine was named as judge, I was concerned, but I found out later he chose to recuse himself from judging my story. After a period of waiting, I received a good news/bad news e-mail.

Bad news: I didn't win the contest. Good news: they liked my story enough to consider publishing it.

So in preparation, I rewrote the story (because that first draft, upon review, was awful), and then submitted it for several months of editing, pruning, and revising...

And the editing was good. Many authors will advise with great pride (and often, great smugness) that writers should "kill their darlings" in the revision process. Get rid of those moments of brilliance and tell the story.

Thanks to this particular editor, I adopted a different philosophy - writers should get rid of anything that doesn't make the story work. Many parts of that first draft were awkward, and embarrassed me....but getting rid of those and refining them gave me a stronger sense of how stories "work". I felt better because every time I chipped away an awkward phrase or streamlined a paragraph, my story became much sharper, much clearer, and much more alive. Focusing on character rather than the awkward moments of "building atmosphere".

So much so that when I read one of the first reviews of Les Vamps, I was flattered by the fact that I had written a story in the "lesbian vampire" genre. I never realized that there was a genre called "lesbian vampire", and had I known, I would have worked harder to make it an atypical "lesbian vampire" story.

(And of course, as a result, this post will trend high on Google for both Les Vamps and lesbian vampires)

Writing has been a significant part of my adult life - from columns for the Loyola Phoenix to various professional reports (including a policy white paper for Metropolis St. Louis) - so Out There in the Night from Les Vamps is a huge milestone. The first time that I saw my name in print.

And that is an incredibly big deal.

Christopher Lee: The Blog THIS, Pal! Retrospective

Growing up, I consumed a lot of media...but especially movies.

Yes, I was one of those stay-up-until-the-crack-of-dawn types who sought out any kind of films of interest....but thankfully, my introduction to the work of Christopher Lee came with Svengoolie on Saturday afternoons.

Lee was - let's face it - the last of a breed of actor we're not going to see anymore. Charming, urbane, well-versed, and lively without seeming self-conscious.

Many have written better tributes than I could....so in memory of Mr. Lee, some of his film work via YouTube.

Watch these before they're pulled.

Your Halloween Documentary: FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN

For your Halloween entertainment - here's a little documentary I found via YouTube. It's a great exploration of the life and work of HP Lovecraft, much of which is in the public domain and available via Gutenberg and Librivox. Enjoy!



(And if you thought that was scary....wait until tomorrow!)

LES VAMPS: Now I Am A Published Author

Just in time for Halloween - last week, I was fortunate enough to receive news that Les Vamps has been released! That's right - my publishing debut, "Out There In the Night" in Mark Wheatley's anthology, has made its official debut....

....and the book is free! That's right - I'll have more formal ordering information at some point, but please feel free to download it in PDF, EPUB (Nook) or MOBI (Kindle) format throughout the month of October. You're even welcome to join Ron Fortier and Derrick Ferguson in reviewing my work. (All I ask is that if you review it, please e-mail me the link - I'll show it some social media love, and also make sure you get kudos as well).

Special thanks to Derrick and Ron for sharing their thoughts. And speaking of Mr. Fortier....

Ron was kind enough to ask me to edit an upcoming Airship 27 piece entitled Jim Anthony, Super-Detective Volume 4. Although it would be very tempting to call this a Doc Savage pastiche, that would we....well, very inaccurate. These are some pretty cool tales - mostly, it's superscience meets hardboiled crime, and are definitely worth purchasing  (Note: I receive a complimentary electronic copy for my efforts; the authors receive royalties, so please buy plenty of copies to keep them awash in printer toner). For more information (including appropriate Amazon links), please visit the Airship 27 blog.

This is all a prelude to announce that I just received my latest contract for a fiction piece. (That's why I've been away from the blog - my writing's been focused elsewhere). It's a great alternative history piece, and...well, hopefully, I should have more formal announcements about my burgeoning writing career soon. Thanks for your patience!

In October, I'm Gonna Be An Author

Remember how I disappeared from the blog for awhile in April and May?

Besides other things in my life, I had found out that a story I had submitted for a contest had been accepted....for publication, and was busy rewriting/shaping the story)

(The contest in question encouraged people to write stories inspired by the painting on the left, created by artist Mark Wheatley).

Although I didn't "win", my story - entitled Out There In the Night - is going to be included in the Les Vamps anthology due later this year.

Will provide ordering details when they're available, but wanted to provide this as some good news...and to show that my time away from the blog was rather productive.

Clap For The Wolfman

Wolfman Mac Photo Via Flickr

One aspect of Chicago life that I absolutely love...is watching Svengoolie. Yes, there is the slightly nostalgic aspect to it, but there's also the fact that Sven is proof that local pop culture can be just as influential - and enjoyable - as its more corporate, global cousins.

Thankfully, a random Google search some time ago led me to discover another practitioner in the art of horror hosts....I'm talking, of course, about Wolfman Mac, host of Chiller Drive-In out of Novi, Michigan (about 30 minutes from Detroit). Much like Sven, Chiller Drive-In (thankfully available via online streaming video as well as a fledgling digital channel) shows classic/vintage horror/science fiction movies (mostly B-movies) interspersed with comedic sketches and interludes.

And much like Sven, the humor is very much in a tongue-in-cheek loving tone. Although Wolfman Mac and his co-stars (including a cheeky skeleton) create a more 1950s/hipster vibe, they serve to complement the movie that they're showing. (Thankfully, the show never stoops to mocking its films openly, carefully balancing irreverence with a love of lesser-known material). It's also very family friendly, and quite honestly - if you're going to procrastinate, I can't think of any better way to do so.

For the longest time, I felt fortunate enough to have my own local classically-inspired horror host. Now, I'm fortunate enough to have two of them.

Living in A Nightmare World

Your moment of full disclosure - originally, I had received electronic copies of Nightmare World for a recent episode of Zone 4. However, I'm glad that I had received complimentary electronic copies (including one for Volume 3, to be released on 10/25), because quite simply - this is one of the better comics that I have read in awhile.

Nightmare World is, first and foremost, an online web comic, but Dirk Manning takes a really unique approach - short stories (usually about eight pages) that usually take on a horror-theme. They also provide part of an overarching arc which....well, some may have you think that the particulars involved may be a little too "nerd cliche", but the strength is that  the overall arc is rarely telegraphed (even in the text pieces that occur at the end of volumes 1 and 2). Each of these stories is self-contained, short, and thankfully, are of varying quality. Fortunately, there are no out-and-out stinkers in each volume, but with anthology books, your mileage may vary.

In short, there's a little something for everyone - even though this is a "horror" book, the stories range in tone and type, from Twilight Zone-style science fiction to slasher-style shocks, from superheroic heights to supernatural creepiness. Volumes 1 and 2 are great, stand-alone volumes that provide you with the bulk of pieces to the puzzle that effortlessly void creating gaps to be filled in.

But Volume 3? That's where it begins to come together - and Manning, with various artists, manages to pull these disparate threads together without putting on an "I'm-so-clever" air. (I think someone should arrange for Mr. Manning and Steven Moffatt to meet - just sayin'). In fact, the strength of Nightmare World is that Manning trusts and respects the reader's intelligence enough to allow them to see the connections, to put the pieces together...and that makes these anthologies all the richer and a much more enjoyable read.

(My personal favorite from Volume 3 - an event told from two different perspectives; one told in comic form, the other a text piece. I am being deliberately vague, but only because I don't want to spoil these volumes for everyone. My only caveat - read these anthologies in order. Volume 3 helps make a lot of sense of volumes 1 and 2).

If you're looking for appropriately themed reading for Halloween, or you just want to give a great indie comic a try (and yes, I do find it ironic that I'm calling Image an "indie"), you would do well to give this a shot. You can click on the link above for the online version, and once you like that strip, buy all three volumes.

This time, believe the hype - Nightmare World is that good.