Tag Archives: Frankenstein

May 25, 2021 · 1:54 pm

The 2021 StokerCon Horror Writing Convention

Merry meet all,

I’m writing this post to share my experience at StokerCon with my dear readers. It was the most inspiring, badass, and educational event of my life. It was so cool to sit there ( and I had to, as it was virtual and I seriously hurt my back) with other like minded people. The organizers, panelists and attendees were so nice! 

The event began on May 20th to May 23rd. The Horror Writers Association used Hopin for a virtual platform. Over four hundred and sixty people attended the convention. Hopin was a very interactive platform. There was a live chat which I just loved. Breakout sessions, live discussions, and the Ann Radcliffe conferences which was several live videos and discussions of themes related to horror were also offered. I watched almost every single Breakout session. There were so many to choose from.   Someone could pitch to an agent/ editor and participate in the Bram Stoker hangout bars or the Mary Shelley hangout bar, the Shirley Jackson hangout bar or the Edgar Allan Poe hangout bar. 

The Breakout sessions are discussions shared by panelists online. I was able to watch them in the discussion. Live chats made it easier to partake in the session. I watched the following sessions: The Current State of Publishing, A Genre by any other Name, Professional Etiquette: The Business Side of Publishing, The Appeal of a Good Scare, Tone and Setting, Thrilling Communities with Chilling Experiences, How Dialogue can Make or Break a story, the Guest of Honour Reading: Joe Lansdale, Totally Bloodless Horror Promotion, The Scary Truth about Horror reviews, Nightfire Fall Spotlight, How to Make a Career of Writing, Interview with Joe Lansdale, the Interview with Steve Tem, Mentorship in the HWA, What makes a book cover Good, History of the Gothic Horror Folklore, the Bram Stoker Awards Ceremony and the Sixth Annual Final Frame Short Horror Film Competition. But I loved the most the Breakout sessions!! I also viewed the American Female: Gothic, Classic Horror’s Timeless Appeal, the Panel on The Author-Editor relationship in The Horror Genre Author Newsletter as well as a few author readings. 

I also watched the Bathing Beauty: Violence and Vulnerability in the Showers of Horror, Blood Milk and Teeth, It’s Still Alive, Alive!, Real Vampires: The Reflection of Otherness in the lBloody Mirror, “That so wicked mouth”: Rabies, Nymphomania, and the Monstrous New Woman in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Why is this Possession Different Than All Other Possessions: Jewish Exorcism Films. Those videos were fascinating. So many people let themselves believe that a dybbuk box is actually possessed by a demon or even that Annabelle doll. I don’t believe they are. The Possession video proved it. 

A few more highlights of the convention were the Film Competition and the Bram Stoker Awards. On Saturday night I watched the Final Frame 6th Annual Short Horror Film Competition. The videos were all scary and amazing! The sound and audio quality were amazing!! I voted for the best film I watched. 

The Horror Writers Association is proud to announce the winners of our Final Frame Film Festival that took place during our first virtual StokerCon.

The Final Frame Film Festival is chaired by Jonathan Lees, Final Frame Director and our Director of Film Programming, StokerCon.

This year our judges were ALEJANDRO BRUGUES, GRADY HENDRIX, BECK KITSIS, CARLEN MAY-MANN, LISA MORTON, and ED POLGARDY. 

The GRAND PRIZE goes to Tony Morales for Abracitos

1st Runner-Up to Brian Sacca for Joanne Is Dead

2nd Runner-Up is to Trish Harnetiaux for You Wouldn’t Understand

Best Writing in a Short Film is a tie!

Brian Sacca for Joanne Is Dead

and Trish Harnetiaux & Jacob A. Ware for You Wouldn’t Understand

Audience Award goes to Tony Morales for Abracitos

You can read more about Final Frame here:

http://stokercon2021.com/?p=141

Abracitos used almost no music. That made the fear of the actors in the movie far more real. In fact, the lack of sound was extremely effective at making the fear unbearable and real to viewers because all you could hear was their breathing. Wow. Amazing film. 

Here are the winners of the Bram Stoker Awards: 

Announcing the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards® Winners

Los Angeles, May 22, 2021

The Horror Writers Association (HWA), the premier organization of writers and publishers of horror and dark fantasy, announces this year’s Bram Stoker Awards® winners at a virtual ceremony during StokerCon™ 2021. “This year’s winners reflect a deep range of works from a competitive field,” said John Palisano, HWA President. “The winners and finalists truly represent a broad spectrum of titles in horror and dark fantasy. HWA members and awards juries have shown dedication and objectivity to the selection process for outstanding works of literature, cinema, non-fiction, and poetry.”

We proudly provide the list of talented winners along with the finalist nominees. 

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Winner: Stephen Graham Jones – The Only Good Indians (Gallery/Saga Press)

Also nominated:

Alma Katsu – The Deep (G.P. Putnum’s Sons)

Todd Keisling – Devil’s Creek (Silver Shamrock Publishing)

Josh Malerman – Malorie (Del Ray)

Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Mexican Gothic (Del Rey)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Winner: EV Knight – The Fourth Whore (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Also nominated:

Polly Hall – The Taxidermist’s Lover (CamCat Publishing, LLC)

Rachel Harrison – The Return (Berkley)

Ross Jeffery – Tome (The Writing Collective)

Kate Reed Petty – True Story (Viking)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Winner: Adam Cesare – Clown in a Cornfield (HarperTeen)

Also nominated:

Daniel Kraus – Bent Heavens (Henry Holt and Company/Macmillan)

Monique Snyman – The Bone Carver (Vesuvian Books)

Aiden Thomas – Cemetery Boys (Swoon Reads/Macmillan)

Erica Waters – Ghost Wood Song (HarperTeen)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Winner: Nancy Holder, Chiara Di Francia, and Amelia Woo – Mary Shelley Presents Tales of the Supernatural (Kymera Press)

Also nominated:

Steven Archer – The Masque of the Red Death (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Jennifer Brody and Jules Rivera – Spectre Deep 6 (Turner)

Rich Douek and Alex Cormack – Road of Bones (IDW Publishing)

Alessandro Manzetti and Stephano Cardoselli – Her Life Matters: (Or Brooklyn Frankenstein)Independent Legions Publishing)

Steve Niles, Salvatore Simeone, and Syzmon Kudranski – Lonesome Days, Savage Nights(TKO Studios)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Winner: Stephen Graham Jones – “Night of the Mannequins” (Tor.com)

Also nominated:

Gabino Iglasias – “Beyond the Reef”(Lullabies for Suffering: Tales of Addiction Horror)(Wicked Run Press)

Gwendolyn Kiste – “The Invention of Ghosts” (Nightscape Press)

Jess Landry – “I Will Find You, Even in the Dark” (Dim Shores Presents Vol. I)(Dim Shores)

Sarah Pinsker – “Two Truths and a Lie” (Tor.com)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

Winner: Josh Malerman – “One Last Transformation”(Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors)(Written Backwards)

Also nominated:

Meghan Arcuri – “Am I Missing the Sunshine?” (Borderlands 7) (Borderlands Press)

Kurt Fawver – “Introduction to the Horror Story: Day 1” (Nightmare Magazine Nov. 2020, Issue 98)

Cindy O’Quinn – “The Thing I Found Along a Dirt Patch Road” (Shotgun Honey Presents, Vol. 4: Recoil) (Down and Out Books)

Kyla Lee Ward – “Should Fire Remember the Fuel?”(Oz is Burning) (B Cubed Press)

  

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Winner: Lee Murray – Grotesque: Monster Stories (Things in the Well)

Also nominated:

Kathe Koja – Velocities: Stories (Meerkat Press)

John Langan – Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies (Word Horde)

Patricia Lillie – The Cuckoo Girls (Trepidatio Publishing)

Anna Taborska – Bloody Britain (Shadow Publishing)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

Winner: Leigh Whannell – The Invisible Man (Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Goalpost Pictures, Nervous Tick Productions)

Also nominated:

Scarlett Amaris and Richard Stanley – Color Out of Space (SpectreVision)

Misha Green – Lovecraft Country, Season 1, Episode 1: “Sundown” (Affeme, Monkeypaw Productions, Bad Robot Productions, Warner Bros. Television Studios)

Misha Green and Ihuoma Ofordire – Lovecraft Country, Season 1, Episode 8: “Jig-a-Bobo” (Affeme, Monkeypaw Productions, Bad Robot Productions, Warner Bros. Television Studios)

Angela LaManna – The Haunting of Bly Manor, Season 1, Episode 5: “The Altar of the Dead” (Intrepid Pictures, Amblin Television, Paramount Television Studios)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

Winner: Lee Murray and Geneve Flynn – Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women(Omnium Gatherum Media)

Also nominated:

Michael Bailey and Doug Murano – Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors(Written Backwards)

Samantha Kolesnik – Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror (Grindhouse Press)

Sara Tantlinger – Not All Monsters: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women of Horror (Rooster Republic Press)

Mercedes M. Yardley – Arterial Bloom (Crystal Lake Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

Winner: Tim Waggoner – Writing in the Dark (Guide Dog Books/Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Also nominated:

Florence Kelly and Meg Hafdahl – The Science of Women in Horror: The Special Effects, Stunts, and True Stories Behind Your Favorite Fright Films (Skyhorse)

Alexandra Heller-Nicholas – 1000 Women in Horror (BearManor Media)

Brian Keene – End of the Road(Cemetery Dance Publications)

Alison Peirse – Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre (Rutgers University Press)

Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. – The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on the Haunting Netflix Adaption(McFarland)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-FictionWinner: Tim Waggoner – “Speaking of Horror” (The Writer)

Also nominated:

Rhonda Jackson Joseph – “The Beloved Haunting of Hill House: An Examination of Monstrous Motherhood” (The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on the Haunting Netflix Adaptation)(McFarland)

Cynthia Pelayo – “I Need to Believe” (Southwest Review Vol. 105.3) 

Kelly Robinson – “Lost, Found, and Finally Unbound: The Strange History of the 1910 Edison Frankenstein” (Rue Morgue Magazine, June 2020)

Christina Sng – “Final Girl: A Life in Horror” (Interstellar Flight Magazine, October 2020)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

Winner: Christina Sng – A Collection of Dreamscapes (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Also nominated:

Alessandro Manzetti – Whitechapel Rhapsody: Dark Poems (Independent Legions Publishing)

Jessica McHugh – A Complex Accident of Life (Apokrupha)

Cynthia Pelayo – Into the Forest and All the Way Through (Burial Day Books)

Sara Tantlinger – Cradleland of Parasites (Rooster Republic Press)

Named in honor of the author of the seminal horror novel Dracula, the Bram Stoker Awards® are presented annually for superior writing in eleven categories including traditional fiction of various lengths, poetry, screenplays and non-fiction. Previous winners include Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, George R. R. Martin, Joyce Carol Oates and Neil Gaiman. 

So, as you can see from the above, StokerCon was a smashing success!!! Four hundred eighty five people attended the virtual convention with a ninety percent turn out!! Two thousand eight hundred people have subscribed to the Horror Writers Association Quick Bites newsletter. The Bram Stoker Awards Ceremony had a grand total of twelve hundred views with over four hundred people who watched!! There were 18,000 views and chats during the whole convention. There were a total of one hundred forty votes for the Film Competition. These shy high statistics reveal a growing enthusiasm for horror in all its ravenous blood thirsty forms. Horror has not died! The beast is alive and well and tugging at its’ Damascus steel chains!

I hope this continues into the future, however horrifying that may be!!

Horror was never meant to be compartmentalized, confined, or stamped, shipped and packeged into one solid predefined shape. I now know that like the fanged vampire, a convulsing werewolf or mummy in shreds it changes form, breaks out of its cage and along iwth the changing times, it changes. It pulses and breathes, drinks blood and yet invites us along as it keeps changing with the times.

Blessings, Spiderwitch

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October 12, 2020 · 12:43 pm

Writing Modern Horror

Merry meet all,

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Here is my blog post that I wrote for the Horror Writers Association annual Halloween Haunts blog post event. 

Enjoy.

Horror has a seductive hold on us. Horror is like a tentacle crawling from the crypts of our darkest dreams to suck us into horrific nightmares. If done properly, it casts a dark magic, sending chills down readers’ spines.

Now is the time, now is the hour. In my opinion, horror movies such as Insidious 1-2, The Possession of Hannah Grace, and Sinister aren’t scary to me. I am an avid writer of horror fiction and I am well read. In order to give readers or viewers the fright royale, readers should be too afraid to not leave the lights on all night and hide under the covers. And curse the writer because they can’t put the book down.

The writer must make extra effort to horrify jaded readers. There is a difference between horrifying and terrifying. One of the two you experience more deeply. Terror is more potent. I won’t watch The Exorcist which deals with similar themes as the movies mentioned above. The Exorcist doesn’t turn away from the revolting horror, it stares it in the eye. It makes you look too, when you don’t want to. -and doesn’t let go. The same is true for Silence of the Lambs. But it doesn’t need to gross readers necessarily just to be scary.

Novels such as Dracula and Frankenstein reflected the time or era in which they were written. In Victorian times, darkly romantic fanged noblemen were scary because the society had different fears and beliefs about death than now. Those fears wouldn’t faze us today. Anne Rice made vampires intimidating and sexy. That is why the novels were successful. Today, writers like Suzanne Collins draw from what they view in the world today. We are more sophisticated now yet desensitized at the same time.

If you are interested in penning a horror story, I suggest the following tips: Get out of your own comfort zone. Change the environment where you write. Bring your writing pad, coffee, and lurk in a cemetery, visit a haunted location or a morgue, or research the folklore of your hometown. You might create something original, which can be helpful. Go on a trip to a quiet seaside town that has a paranormal history. Be safe as you explore new eerie cemeteries or towns. Getting out of your comfort zone breathes new life into your writing. Buy a tarot deck to inspire you, read dark poetry of a poet you never heard of.

Trust in yourself. If you’re fearful while writing the story, there’s a good chance your reader will be too. Pay attention to your dreams. Often dreams reflect our daily lives and what is hidden in our subconscious. Heed your insights and flashes of inspiration. I penned a dark novel based on a flash of inspiration that I would never have dreamed up otherwise. Learn all you can and be open minded. Then when you have created your villainous monster, you can make him or her or it the main character. Be true to your creation, your own monster. Your readers will recognize the true effort you put in.

We have global communication today. We can see the world events on the Internet. The Internet opened a window into the savage truth that we could be in the grip of an almost impending apocalyptic doom. Now that is scary.

The following books are helpful such as On Writing by Stephen King, On Writing Horror- the collection of essays by the Horror Writers Association, The Horror Writer by HellBound Books, Writing Monsters by Phillip Athans, and writing the Paranormal Novel- Techniques and Exercises by Steven Harper. These books go into real detail about writing about the paranormal. Within this genre, there is more freedom to create what you want whether that be a sparkly vampire, toothy werewolf, or chain rattling ghost.

After you read these books, highlight the advice, and incorporate the advice into your writing. For a good story about a ghoul of choice to be believed, it must be believable and written well. All stories benefit from good writing. Be consistent about the traits, superpowers, or awesome abilities your monster has. We all know vampires hate garlic and sleep in coffins, but maybe a coffin-shaped bookcase could be their nesting spot during the daytime.

Clean your writing/ office space. Light some sage and clean the energy to allow for the creative energies to flow unimpeded. Light a candle or incense. Play music that inspires you as you create your ghoul or axe-wielding maniac. Create a special playlist and soundtrack. Buy a new set of highlighters, pens, white out, a binder, paper, and a fresh bag of coffee. Do what it takes to make you commit to the writing for the long haul.

Keep a routine when you sit down to work on your story. Reach into the deepest darkest part of your imagination. Free write a scene of confrontation between your protagonist and your monster. Or the monster is the protagonist? These days your demon or ghoul needs to be ORIGINAL. Everything in the paranormal novel realm has been done … or has it? That part is up to you. Know your monster! Make it consistent and believable. It must be original. If you are seeking more inspiration, clip and keep newspaper articles. Read widely in your chosen genre. That will let you know what has already been written by other authors.

Allow yourself to imagine, you may invent something that no one has done before. That is a huge advantage in the field of writing and publishing. Being original and true to your monster is extremely important. The world wants to read a story that has never been written before. They do not want thirty knockoffs of It or The Babaduk. For example, I published a short story about pumpkins that can eat people. The vines can extend themselves and the pumpkins were toothy and bloodthirsty. Talk about a real twist on our favorite squashes!

The Horror Writers Association has helped me as a writer. There are many others out in this crazy world who crave a good horror story as much as I do and I don’t feel so alone. They prove readers still want to be scared.

Audiences and readers today have seen everything. A novel can be successful still, but writers must be unabashedly original to truly terrify their readers. Look at what is happening in society. The monsters of yesterday are not the monsters of today. It worked for Stephen King and Thomas Harris and with luck, it can work for you too. I hope you have enjoyed reading this. It might spark an idea or two and you would then be on your way to writing a Gothic novel like Northanger Abbey or something like the Pit and the Pendulum by Poe.

My writing has appeared in Ghosts, Spirits and Specters Volume 2, Samhain Secrets, Wax and Wane: A Gathering of Witchy Tales, One Night in Salem, Untimely Frost; Poetry Unthawed, One Hellacious Halloween Volume 1 by Horror Novel Reviews, The Dark Ones: Tales and Poems of the Shadow Gods, The Queen of the Sky who Rules over All the Gods: A Devotional Anthology in honor of Bast, Crone Newsletter Ezine, Eternal Haunted Summer Ezine, Witches and Pagans Magazine, Essential Herbal magazine, Circle Magazine, Naming the Goddess and Paganism 101. 

My blog can be found at: https://theparanormalquill.wordpress.com.

My Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ghosts.spiritsandapparitions

BB Spiderwitch

Links of interest: 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1482843348577084

https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/best-vampire-movies-all-time/

 

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