E.M. Markoff 11/4/19 E.M. Markoff 11/4/19

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?

By Loren Rhoads (https://lorenrhoads.com/)

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)

E.M. Markoff 10/28/19 E.M. Markoff 10/28/19

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.”

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”

E.M. Markoff 10/21/19 E.M. Markoff 10/21/19

Scary Stories for a Good Cause: Crystal M. Romero on "The Relic"

Tell us a little about your story, “The Relic.”

The Relic was originally written for an LGBTQ anthology of flash fiction. This was my first encounter with the concept of writing a story with as few words as possible. I quickly discovered that it’s not as easy as I originally thought it would be. Hopefully I pulled it off.

By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)

During her childhood, Crystal M. Romero fell in love with the horror genre. In addition to two novels, The Veil of Sorrow and Valley of the Dead, Crystal had five stories published in the LGBT 2008 flash-fiction anthology Chilling Tales of Terror and the Supernatural. Follow her onTwitter @Crstl_M_Romero or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Crystal.1a.

Tell us a little about your story, “The Relic.”

Even with its title, “The Relic” evokes ideas of artifacts and the cultures that created them. Was there a specific culture or mythology that inspired the story?

I wrote the story when I was a university student studying Meso-American history and culture. When I came across the myth of the Jaguar Goddess, which existed in both the Aztec and Mayan pantheons, I found myself intrigued by her many attributes. In both cultures the Jaguar Goddess is the protector of women, especially during childbirth. In addition to being a protector she is also considered both an earth and moon goddess.

What is your relationship to California, and does California influence your work?

Although I wasn’t born in California, I’ve lived in the Golden State since I was a year old. Owing to this I consider myself a Californian. My early years were spent in Chico, Redding and Oroville, respectively. My high school years were spent at Las Plumas High in Oroville. Oroville is a small town that sits below Table Mountain and in the shadow of Paradise. After graduation I relocated to the Bay Area at the time when it was first becoming known as Silicon Valley. Although my first novel did not take place in California, my second novel, Valley of the Dead, takes place almost exclusively in both Silicon Valley and smaller areas in northern California.

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?

For me California has always been a beacon of hope for anyone looking for a place to belong regardless of ethnicity, religion or ideology. Even in the most dystopian vision of the world, I always envision California as a state that will always come through adversity with a positive outlook for our future.

Where can readers find more of your work?

Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Crystal-M-Romero/e/B004FVP4LK

NEXT POST ON MONDAY 10/28/19, SCARY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Dana Fredsti on “You’ll Never Be Lunch in This Town Again

E.M. Markoff 10/16/19 E.M. Markoff 10/16/19

Scary Stories for a Good Cause: John Claude Smith on "My True Name"

Tell us a little about your story, “My True Name.”

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”

E.M. Markoff 10/7/19 E.M. Markoff 10/7/19

Scary Stories for a Good Cause: Ross E. Lockhart on "Folie à Deux"

Tell us a little about your story, “Folie à Deux.”

By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.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.