Let's Talk About Horror Fiction and Film

[Spaceman Spiff]

Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

I've gone through the issue, and the Harryhausen features are really well done. There's an interview, followed by a brief history of stop-motion animation, and a review of a book about Harryhausen.

There's lots of other good stuff, including an article on the new Nazi zombie movie Dead Snow, as well as a review of similar movies. And you know you want the Cryptozoological Figure Set.

[Spaceman Spiff]

To take it back to books, right now I'm reading The Book of Lists: Horror, which is very interesting and fun. It's got contributions from all sorts of people working in or studying the genre, from Ray Bradbury to Eli Roth.

Some of the lists are pretty entertaining, like:

• James Gunn's "My Nineteen Favorite Reasons Why God Made Humans so Squishy"
• Vince Churchill's "Top Ten List of Films in Which, Wow, the Black Guy Lived"
• Professor Leo Braudy's "Eleven Favorite Moments of Horror vs. Terror in Film"
• Tony Timpone's "Ten Films I Wish I Never Put on the Cover of Fangoria"

The film section takes up roughly the first half of the book. I just started on the horror fiction section last night. I've barely cracked into it, but there's already been some interesting stuff, such as "The Fifty-Six Bestselling Horror Books Since 1900."

[RJDiogenes]

That's cool. I love books with assortments of arcane facts and trivia. That definitely goes in the Shopping Cart. Too bad there's not one for Sci Fi....

[Spaceman Spiff]

I finished it up a couple of days ago; it was a pretty quick read. The only real criticism I have is that there are parts that can get repetitive. That is, certain movies/novels/scenes show up in a number of lists.

I guess it's not that surprising. Still, the book was a lot of fun.

Right now I'm re-reading portions of On Writing Horror: A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association and a couple of other books on writing, to sharpen myself up for diving into writing a horror novel.

I've always wanted to, but here's added reason for our aspiring horror writers to get typing:

LEISURE BOOKS PUTS OUT CALL FOR "FRESH BLOOD"

Leisure Books, the company “leading the way in publishing paperback horror,”* is partnering with Rue Morgue magazine in association with horror fiction web site ChiZine, to present “Fresh Blood,” a new writing contest specifically for unpublished horror authors. The winner will receive a contract for publication in Leisure’s 2011 lineup, as well as a contract from ChiZine Publications for a limited-edition hardcover release, also in 2011.

Leisure is looking for finished horror novel manuscripts, either supernatural or non-supernatural, of 80,000 – 90,000 words. A panel of experts, including Leisure Executive Editor Don D’Auria and editors at ChiZine, will judge entries. The finalists will be announced in November 2009.

[snip]

For full entry details, visit www.dorchesterpub.com or http://chizine.com. Leisure Books is an imprint of Dorchester Publishing and publishes two horror titles every month by authors such as Richard Laymon, Jack Ketchum, Brian Keene, and Sarah Pinborough.
*CNN.com

The deadline is September 30th, so it's time to get cracking!

[Pingfah]

^ Interesting, it was always my childhood intention to become a professional writer (or a stuntman ) but 3 years of studying Journalism beat me into submission and I ended up avoiding writing anything ever again.

I'd like to give it a shot again, have seen a few of my friends tear their hair out trying to so something like this though.

[RJDiogenes]

Too bad I don't have anything that long. I wish they'd accept short stories as samples. I do like the name "Dorchester Publishing," though.

I picked up that Rue Morgue at Borders yesterday afternoon. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to read the Harryhausen article today.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Dorchester Publishing puts out the Leisure Books horror line. If you can get your foot in the door with them, well, it's a good spot to be if you want to be a horror writer. They publish two new horror novels per month. They don't really do much in the way of short stories, though.

If you look at past and present Stoker nominations, you see Leisure Books there a few times. They publish Brian Keene, Jack Ketchum, Richard Laymon--some pretty big names in modern horror.

I'd always planned on submitting something to them "one of these days," but with this contest and a promise of a contract, I've decided to stop putting it off. I have an unusual amount of free time these days, thanks to the economy. I might as well make use of it.

Go for it, Pingfah!

[RJDiogenes]

I don't even have enough short stories in the Horror category to make up an anthology. Most of my fiction is... er... 'unclassifiable.'

I'll have to go through my notebooks and see if anything jumps out at me. I doubt if I could have anything ready by September 30th. I'm not a fast writer. I have a tendency to dwell on details....

[Spaceman Spiff]

If it helps any, a common suggestion in a lot of these fiction writing books is to first get it all out, then go back and dwell on what needs to be changed.

I know what you mean, though. I get hung up on weird things like opening lines, character names, etc. Too much hemming and hawing. I'm trying to get over that in both my writing and in cartooning.

The faster I try to do both, the better they come out. A quick sketch to throw it onto the page, then going back and fixing things like anatomy, etc. That's what I need to do with my writing.

Since we've linked to ChiZine already, here are their submission guidelines. For fiction, they want fewer than 4,000 words, which is right up your alley. They pay 7 cents per word. The only drawback is that they're not taking any new submissions until September 1st.

[Pingfah]

I haven't written anything for a decade or more, I suppose my worry would be that I could not get something up to the standard I require in 3 months when I am so out of practice.

On the other hand, this would make good practice in its own right.

I can't even quantify what 80-90,000 words is any more, i'll have to count a page of a novel later and work out how many words some other novels have.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Everything I check puts it at somewhere between 320 and 360 pages for a mass market edition, which is all Leisure really publishes.

If you can get out 3-4 pages a day, you can get there.

Edit: Heh, I just checked their FAQ:

How do you calculate your word count?
If the manuscript is written in a standard font, our word count requirement generally means it will run about 340-400 pages. Your computer can help give you a rough estimate of what constitutes 80,000-90,000 words.

[barnaclelapse]

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

---

To take it back to books, right now I'm reading The Book of Lists: Horror, which is very interesting and fun. It's got contributions from all sorts of people working in or studying the genre, from Ray Bradbury to Eli Roth.

Some of the lists are pretty entertaining, like:

• James Gunn's "My Nineteen Favorite Reasons Why God Made Humans so Squishy"
• Vince Churchill's "Top Ten List of Films in Which, Wow, the Black Guy Lived"
• Professor Leo Braudy's "Eleven Favorite Moments of Horror vs. Terror in Film"
• Tony Timpone's "Ten Films I Wish I Never Put on the Cover of Fangoria"

The film section takes up roughly the first half of the book. I just started on the horror fiction section last night. I've barely cracked into it, but there's already been some interesting stuff, such as "The Fifty-Six Bestselling Horror Books Since 1900."

I've been meaning to get that book.

I think you just sold me on finally getting off my ass and doing just that.

[RJDiogenes]

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

---

If it helps any, a common suggestion in a lot of these fiction writing books is to first get it all out, then go back and dwell on what needs to be changed.

I tried to do that with NaNoWriMo last year. I managed to turn out about twenty-two pages off the top of my head. I have a ways to go with this issue.

I know what you mean, though. I get hung up on weird things like opening lines, character names, etc.

Man, that's me all over. Also, finding just the right word and playing with sentence structure....

Since we've linked to ChiZine already, here are their submission guidelines. For fiction, they want fewer than 4,000 words, which is right up your alley. They pay 7 cents per word. The only drawback is that they're not taking any new submissions until September 1st.

Sweet! Thank you. Weird Tales just lifted their moratorium after Memorial Day (allegedly), so I submitted my Coyote story.

Pingfah wrote:

---

I can't even quantify what 80-90,000 words is any more, i'll have to count a page of a novel later and work out how many words some other novels have.

Just quickly checking some of my manuscripts shows that a single-spaced 8.5x11 page with one-inch margins in WordPerfect holds an average of about five hundred words. So 80,000 words would be about 160 pages. Which agrees with Spiff's findings because they're probably using double-spacing.

[Spaceman Spiff]

For a laugh, here's the website for The Book of Zombie.

A small, sleepy Utah town gets an undead wake-up call when all of the townspeople of Mormon faith suddenly transform into flesh-eating ghouls!

Now, a group of "non-believers" unaffected by the mysterious epidemic must band together to survive the night and answer the burning question: How do you kill a Mormon zombie?

It's super low-budget, but it looks like it might be fun.

Also, I had a leftover Borders gift card from Christmas, so I picked up Monstrous: 20 Tales of Giant Creature Terror because, hey, 20 tales of giant creature terror.

I also grabbed My Work is Not Yet Done, a novella by Thomas Ligotti.

[RJDiogenes]

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

---

For a laugh, here's the website for The Book of Zombie.

Hmm. I wonder if the creators have some sort of axe to grind.

Also, I had a leftover Borders gift card from Christmas, so I picked up Monstrous: 20 Tales of Giant Creature Terror because, hey, 20 tales of giant creature terror.

Now that looks... er... awesome.