Etsy, Titles, and a Giveaway!

Every Day is Halloween #97: The Official Newsletter of Lisa Morton

Hi All!

Well, January was a nightmare…at least for those of us who are Los Angelenos.

Of course you all know about the fires that have ravaged the city. Some of you may have read my interim note about the horrors of watching places you love burn, or seeing friends lose homes and businesses. As if fires weren’t enough, we also suffered damage from windstorms and mudslides. I’m expecting locusts next.

And yet, L.A. came through it all, because we’re a resilient bunch who know how special our community is.

I endured one evacuation warning, which was rescinded a few hours later. I got out suitcases, necessary documents, and (most important) cat and fish carriers. Thankfully I didn’t have to actually use them. I also escaped without wind damage or sliding downhill thanks to badly-needed rain.

I almost feel guilty admitting that there are some good things happening for me right now. This last week, my agent went out to shop my first novel in ten years. Those of you who close-read this newsletter (and THANK YOU) may have caught a few hints of it. I haven’t said much about it, because…well, I’ll blather about it to death if it sells. My wonderful agent is hitting some of the top editors at the major publishers, so now we cross our fingers and hope. The novel is called American Legion (at least right now), and that title might have a biblical reference built in…and if you know your Bible references (okay, it’s Mark 5:9), you may have guessed part of what’s going on in the book.

Beyond that…well, see the “News & Works in Progress” section below.

Stay chill, healthy, and aware.

Lisa

NEW STUFF I LIKE

I guess because I’m female and (ahem) of a certain age, it’s almost obligatory that I like true crime stuff…and I do. I watch a fair amount of it; I don’t read as much as I’d like to (but then again, I don’t read as much of anything as I’d like to), although something like Kathleen Hale’s 2022 Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls was one of my favorite books of the last decade. And yes, I know there are a bunch of fantastic true crime podcasts out there, but here’s a really sad admission: I don’t listen to podcasts. If I have a few precious moments of listening time I’m always going with music*.

Anyway, the three-part Netflix true crime series The Kings of Tupelo is an absolute delight, not just for those of us who appreciate a good real-life mystery (and are just certain we know the solution, ha!), but for anyone who loves one of those “Wha-HUH?” stories. This one’s about (not making any of this up, I swear) an Elvis impersonator (in fact, he’s half of a team of brothers who are both Elvis impersonators - does that make them Elvii?) who was accused of sending ricin-laced letters to President Obama and other elected officials, but who it turned out was being framed by…well, just watch it and let your own jaw drop.

*=Current favorite song: “Monkey System” by Black Flower

THE HALLOWEEN SPIRIT

A wonderful friend gave me an Etsy gift card for Christmas (how did she know that I spend faaaarrr too much time on Etsy?), so I just started poking around the site looking for fun artist-produced ghost and Halloween works that I could fall in love with.

It wasn’t hard to find them. There are wonderful craftsmen on Etsy, which ranks right up there with stupid goofy pet videos as my favorite reasons for the existence of the internet.

I soon spent that card on items like this absolutely gorgeous and adorable suncatcher. Between the ghost, the moon, and the books, it pretty much sums me up.

STRANGE DOINGS

(In honor of recently recording the 300th episode of my Ghost Report podcast, I thought it might be fun to take a look back at Ghost Report #1, from the inaugural episode of Ghost Magnet With Bridget Marquardt, which aired on 3/10/19)

This week we’re talking about the Playboy Mansion, of course, which is located in Holmby Hills in Los Angeles. This area was once home to the Tongva-Gabrielino tribe, Native Americans who had occupied this area for 8,000 years.

When Arthur Letts, Sr. bought it, it was called – get this – Wolfskill Ranch. How perfect a name is that for a haunted area?

Arthur Letts, Jr. built the house, but he wasn’t the only occupant of it before Hugh Hefner. In 1963 he sold the house to this crazy inventor and chess champion named Louis D. Statham. Louis and his wife Anne loved to entertain at the house, but Anne died unexpectedly in 1965. Louis buried his grief in even bigger and wilder parties, but in 1971 he sold the house to Playboy and Hugh Hefner moved in.

But even before Hef died in 2017, there were reports of the Mansion being haunted. There are several Mansion guests who claim to have seen the spirit of an older man in a top hat and a black suit – could that be Arthur Letts, Jr., or Louis Statham? There was even one visitor who claimed to see the spirit of one of the most famous Playmates of all time: we know that there were many people over the years who died who were associated with the Mansion, but none were more tragic and horrifying than Dorothy Stratten. Dorothy was a Playmate of the Year, she was gorgeous, she was talented, she had it all…but in 1980 she was murdered by her husband and manager Paul Snider. One person reported seeing her spirit outside of the Mansion, and maybe this is Dorothy’s way of finding immortality.

BEHIND THE SCREAMS

“Fool on the Hill,” first published in 2016’s Dread State, reprinted in 2023’s Fumptruck

In 2016, a friend wrote me to say he was editing a charity anthology called Dread State. The anthology was a sort of protest against the election of Donald Trump.

Okay, I’m going to get overtly political here because I believe we’ve reached that point in our history where it’s necessary to declare a stance. In 2016, it seemed plain to me that Donald Trump represented a turning point in American history; a majority of voters (although, it must be said again and again, not a popular vote majority) had elected an inexperienced and failed businessman to the highest office in the country.

But Trump was more than just a spectacular failure. It was obvious to me, even in 2016, that he was a wannabee dictator who was more than willing to throw out the rule of law and the United States Constitution to further his own interests. I stood by, aghast, as the nation proceeded to elect the least competent man to ever run for the office of President over the most competent woman.

Because it seemed readily apparent that Trump had zero respect for the United States Constitution and would happily trample all over it to create a dynasty and install his own offspring as kings to continue his corrupt agenda, I decided to write a story, set about 100 years in the future, in which a United States devastated by Trump’s insane policies has been reduced to scavenging to survive. My hero would be a young member of an organized community who stumbles on the White House, unaware of the importance of the overgrown edifice, and encounters the last Trump there, living in denial of the devastation his ancestor’s policies have wrought.

Now, eight years later, the story seems more like non-fiction than ever. Although I’m glad to be a part of the new anthology Fumptruck, I wish there’d been no reason to reprint “The Fool on the Hill.”

THE WRITE STUFF

Titles. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how important they are.

Think of it this way: the title is the first part of your work that anyone will read. A great title can intrigue a reader and get them excited.

Let’s break down a classic title - The Exorcist - and look at why this deceptively simple title works so well.

• It’s simple. I know there’s an argument to be made for long and evocative titles, or non-fiction works that are best served with a sub-title…but readers/audiences really are likelier to remember a simpler title. Two words, that’s it.

• It doesn’t sound like anything else. What if William Peter Blatty had decided to name his book after his antagonist instead of his hero and gone with something like The Possessed? Well, even though titles can’t be copyrighted and can be re-used, do you really want everyone thinking of Dostoevsky when they hear the title of your contemporary horror novel? Okay, what about The Possession? Better, except that there was a book (and resulting movie) that preceded Blatty’s by a few years called The Possession of Joel Delaney, so that would’ve been confusing. Maybe just name it after the little girl at the center of the action and call it Regan? Sure…and offer no clue whatsoever as to what it’s about.

• It tells you the movie is supernatural. Pretty much everyone knows what an exorcist is - someone who gets rid of demons - so you know right from the start what genre the movie belongs to and the basic thrust of the plot.

• It offers a subtle clue as to the deeper meaning of the story. Even if The Possessed was out, Blatty could’ve used something like The Demon or The Demonic, but instead he chose to name his title after his hero, indicating that he’s really interested in the nature of good that combats evil.

• It creates a talking point. Those who’ve already seen the film may end up pondering - who exactly is the title character? Is it the older priest, Father Merrin, the experienced exorcist brought in to oversee the case? Or is it the troubled younger priest, Karras, who recovers his faith in the last moments of his life?

One last thought about titles: a title can even be an actual part of your story. For example: what if you’re working with a limited word count for flash fiction, say, 500 words, or even 100 words? Then you might be able to use your title as an actual part of your story.

All of which is to say: put a lot of thought into your title and choose carefully!

NEWS & WORKS IN PROGRESS

My interview with Hellbender star, co-writer and co-producer Toby Poser (the matriarch of the filmmaking Adams Family) is now live at Nightmare Magazine.

This lovely review of the anthology of Bestiary of Blood (the reviewer especially enjoyed my contribution “Anthill”) appeared recently at HellNotes.

Gamut Magazine has sadly ceased publication, but they have generously opened their archives online for free - you can read my articles on the history of Christmas ghost stories or the Burbank Dead Right horror trivia event, as well as lots of other great articles and fiction.

I will have an article in the upcoming Feminine Macabre Vol. VII on how two films - Ghostbusters and The Stone Tape - influenced paranormal investigations.

What I’ve been working on: a story for a big new YA anthology, an essay on Hellbender for an upcoming anthology of film essays on diabolical mothers, more research for upcoming pieces for The Whole Haunted World, the bare beginnings of a project working alongside the fabulous Kevin Wetmore, Jr., and staying out of the wind/the fires/the mudslides.

Although the date is still being discussed, at some point in the next few months I’ll be teaching a live workshop on writing non-fiction with all proceeds going to the Shirley Jackson Awards. In the meantime, you can (and should!) sign up for the fabulous Kate Maruyama’s live workshop on writing flash fiction, happening on Feb. 20 and Feb. 27.

UPCOMING APPEARANCES

• February 16 - I’ll be at Dark Delicacies signing my section in Videotapes from Hell by Stephen Jones

• March 17 - I’ll be in Glendale signing at the Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Collectors Show

• June 12-15 - I’ll be in Stamford, CT for StokerCon

THE WHOLE HAUNTED WORLD

January was a crazy month, so I didn’t finish the big piece I’m working on…although I did talk a bit about Asian ghost reels and how The Ring seems to have mixed with folklore in place like India. Coming up:

• History’s first great seance: When Odysseus called up the spirits

• More installments of The Skeptic’s Guide to Ghost Hunting

• The history behind Edith Nesbit’s classic ghost story “Man-Size in Marble”

WHERE YOU CAN BUY MY BOOKS

• Amazon

• Barnes & Noble

• Bookshop.org

GIVEAWAY

To celebrate 300 episodes of my weekly Ghost Report, I compiled this e-book with the text for the first 100 episodes. It’s a cool little compendium of ghost lore, both fiction and non-fiction, classical and contemporary. Enjoy!

Thanks as always for reading this far!