I was shocked and saddened to learn about the passing of “Rowdy” Roddy Piper a couple weeks back. In addition to being one of my favorite wrestlers of all time, Roddy Piper teamed with my favorite director John Carpenter in 1988 for a movie that has had a profound influence on my own work--They Live. At the time They Live came out, both Carpenter and Piper were both still huge in their respective industries. Carpenter had been on a decade-long directorial run of amazing genre movies that included Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York, The Thing, Christin[...]
Monthly Archives
August 2015
0 When I was growing up, the main question on the playground was "What are you afraid of?" I was afraid of the usual things; the dark, werewolves, zombies, ghosts, etc. My friends were afraid of spiders and snakes. I remember thinking that they obviously didn't know what a zombie gnawing on a torn limb looked like, otherwise that'd be on their lists too. I also thought that as I grew up, my list of fears would slowly but surely shrink. Instead, it grew. The thing about fear is that it's unlike any other emotion out there. It doesn't just go away. It g[...]
Before Kim Graff and I ended up here at the The Society, we were blogging over at ya-asylum.com, but tragically as life got busier, The Asylum got pushed put further and further back on the back burner. It wasn't from a lack of desire---we simply felt that we weren't doing anything unique that helped push the genre forward. However, we didn't want to give up on the site either, we just wanted to do something that people couldn't get anywhere else. So we started a biannual e-zine for YA and MG horror short stories, Strange Far Places. Horror has one of the str[...]
Last week's question was: How do you write and why do you think it works for you? I am a total pantster and write very similarly to our very own Kathy Palm (see below). I write all my ideas and thoughts down, then try to connect the dots. This works for me, but I do see the value in having a complete outline. I know the top writers do this...but I just can't. I've tried to outline, but I get frustrated with the confines of what I've sketched out. I do brainstorm and "outline" in my head, if that counts. I mean, I do think about where the story is going and who[...]
Let's just say that the séance to cleanse the house of spirits didn't go exactly as we'd planned... The Midnight Society has claimed another life and we're quite pleased with ourselves...poor girl...She didn't see it coming. Our line-up and blogging team is made up of Amy, Faith, Kim, Timon, Kathy, Brian, Kira, Jennifer, and Jolene. And now, we’ve got one more spooky spirit on our side of the spirit realm. ***** Welcome Jenna Lehne! Jenna Lehne failed to close the circle - to sever the connection, if you will - and died the way most ama[...]
Viewer discretion is advised... Every episode begins this way. And I watch - my guilty pleasure. Real people tell their paranormal stories, ghostly encounters, possessions, and fights with demons all with the help of Hollywood effects to bring the tales to life. It began in 2005 with the TV show 'A Haunting', which played on the Discovery Channel until 2007. This show gave us the episode 'A Haunting in Connecticut', which was later made into a movie. I watched every episode, more than once. I was sad when it vanished. However, it was revived on Destination[...]
Hello, Midnighters! I've mentioned that I'm working on a series of zombie books a few times on here, and today I finally get to tell you about it, AND show you the cover! Lipstick & Zombies is the first book in the Deadly Divas series, and it will be available on August 27th. I've already made progress on books 2 and 3, so they'll be out very soon, too--no worrying about a long wait with the Deadly Divas. If you're excited to check out this series, make sure to check out the link below to get a free sampler of Lipstick & Zombies (as well as my husband's[...]
Welcome to my weekly blog post, Writing Bloody. Last week I posted three AMAZING banners made by our very own Faith, and asked you to vote on which one I should use. Well, the votes are in! The voting was extremely close, but as with everything...there is only one winner. And the winner is... Thanks for all of you who commented and for Jolene and Faith who are the whole reason for this post. I love you gals! How about we get started talking about writing again? It's been a struggle for me to move away from my debut novel, The Bleeding Heart, and wor[...]
Midnight Book Club focuses on recent releases, so we can stay up-to-date on the latest writing in YA horror, but every once in a while, it's nice to shake things up. Last month, I wrote about gothic fiction's legacy. In Danse Macabre, Stephen King cites three texts as formative to the horror genre: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (the monster story), Dracula by Bram Stoker (the vampire story), and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (the shifter story). Because I may be challenging readers who prefer to read contemporary work, let's[...]
Horror and heavy metal--they go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Why do these two great tastes taste so great together? There are some very obvious reasons, and I found myself thinking about them quite a bit when I attended a horror convention and a heavy metal music festival in the same weekend. On Saturday July 18th, I spent the day selling books and hanging out at the Connecticut Horror Fest. My friends over at the Horror News Network put on another great show, and their star-studded guest lineup featured Doug Bradley (Pinhead in Hellraiser), Gunnar[...]