The Art of the Zombie Movie, Samhain, and a Giveaway!

Every Day is Halloween #81: The Official Newsletter of Lisa Morton

Oct 01, 2023

Hey Crew!

Whoa, is it really October again? Well, yes, it is, because my schedule is insane. I have so many appearances and interviews scheduled for the month that my calendar looks more like an essay!

The other big news for the month is the release of The Art of the Zombie Movie. It’s been a strange release - Amazon originally set it for September 15, then moved it to October 15, but Barnes and Noble already has it in stores and…well, it’s been confusing, to say the least, but I have seen a copy of it and I couldn’t be happier with the actual book itself. If you plan on picking up a copy, please consider ordering a signed one from Dark Delicacies (they’re happy to ship). Thanks.

I’m beginning to ponder my next big project. I’m still waiting on potential news from my agent, and that could change everything…but in the meantime, could 2024 be the year that sees me return to (gulp) novels?

I hope your October will be full of pumpkin spice and playful spooks.

Lisa

NEW STUFF I LIKE

I caught this one on Hulu, knowing very little about it - all I’d heard was that it had almost no dialogue (which bothers some viewers, but was one of my favorite things about it) and that it was great. I hadn’t even seen a poster for No One Will Save You (see above), so I didn’t know it was an alien invasion movie. That’s not a spoiler, because it’s pretty obvious early on what’s happening.

There’s nothing incredibly original about the movie, which borrows parts of Nope and older ‘50s scifi movies, but the way it’s done is what’s superb. It’s really a one-woman show, and Kaitlyn Dever - who I’ve never seen before but will seek out from now on - is fantastic as Brynn, a young woman who lives alone in an isolated house and is shunned in her town (for reasons that become clear at the end). The more things spin out of control, the more resourceful Brynn turns out to be.

And boy do they spin! Loved the pacing of the film, even though I thought it lost its way slightly in the final quarter, suffering from that “wait - we need ONE MORE ENDING” syndrome. But the first three-quarters is so entertaining it doesn’t matter. If you got Hulu, give this one a watch.

THE HALLOWEEN SPIRIT

Two of the things I most love about Halloween are the creativity surrounding it, and the spirit (no pun intended) of giving. To celebrate the former, my partner Ricky and I will once again be resurrecting our own little yard haunt, the Septo Cemetery (see photo above); we’ve got our 12-foot skeleton now presiding over the macabre festivities, which include a graveyard, a tar pit, and some hungry spiders! For the latter, check below for this month’s giveaway. I hope your Halloween season is also full of creativity and giving.

STRANGE DOINGS

Finn fights Aillen in this illustration from the 1914 book Heroes of the Dawn

Now that we’re officially in fall, if you’re anything like me – which obviously you are, or you wouldn’t be listening to this – you start thinking more about Halloween, and ghost stories, and Samhain, and so I thought: let’s celebrate the arrival of autumn with some spooky Samhain stories!

Although we don’t know a lot about the ancient Celts and how they celebrated Samhain, we do know they told scary stories, like the one about the legendary warrior Finn McCool. One year when Finn was young, he went to stay at the capital city of Tara. While there, he heard about a murderous spirit named Aillen, who, for the past 23 years, had crossed into our world every Samhain, used his enchanted music to put everyone to sleep, and then burned down the palace. Finn decides to take this demon on, and so he’s given an enchanted spear, which he heats in a flame and then presses against his head to stay awake, and he finally kills Aillen with that spear.

My favorite Samhain story, though, has to be “The Adventures of Nera”. It begins on Samhain night, as King Ailill gives his warriors a challenge: whoever can put a loop around the foot of a man who was hanged that afternoon will win the king’s gold sword. Although the other warriors all fail, Nera goes out to the gallows to try. Three times the loop slides off the corpse’s foot. Finally, though, Nera succeeds and the corpse comes to life, telling Nera that it’s thirsty. Nera cuts the corpse down and carries it to a house, where it takes a drink from a tub and then spits the water back in the faces of everyone who is sleeping in the house and they all die. There is a moral to this one, by the way, which is: don’t keep the tub inside the house after you all go to sleep.

By the way, if you want to learn more about Samhain, the Celts, and Halloween, I’ll be teaching a three-session course on Halloween history through Atlas Obscura. Just head over to atlasobscura.com and sign up now!

BEHIND THE SCREAMS

“Second Sight” from The Horror Zine October 2023

When The Horror Zine’s editor Jeani Rector asked me if I might have an older Halloween story she could reprint, I decided it might be fun to write something new instead. I thought about something I hadn’t done in Halloween fiction yet, and settled on the fortune-telling rituals of times past. From there, I decided to essentially do a prose riff on the classic 1785 poem “Hallowe’en” by Robert Burns. I kept the location, names, and specific fortune-telling games from the poem, but added a more contemporary spin on paganism and female empowerment. The story is now a free read at The Horror Zine, so enjoy and Happy Halloween!

Read "Second Sight"

THE WRITE STUFF

Like many writers, I’ve thought about trying an account on Patreon. More recently, I’ve considered offering a paid subscription here on Substack (but don’t worry - if I ever do that, I’ll still have a free newsletter!).

Two things have stopped me from doing it: 1) worry that I’m already so busy I wouldn’t be able to dependably produce new exclusive material for my subscribers; and 2) fearing that no one would subscribe anyway.

Notice what those two things have in common: a certain lack of confidence. Both may be realistic…but they may also NOT be realistic. Since I’m not totally sure about either one, I should probably try it.

I follow some writers who use these platforms very well - one, Nicole Cushing on Patreon, sends subscribers an actual printed postcard every month aside from offering ongoing, excellent writing tips. Others, though, post only rarely. I don’t want to be one of those writers.

I think there’s a way for writers to make these platforms work well for them, but - as with everything else - it requires a high level of commitment. You need to make your content exclusive, and remember that if you post something even for a small group of paid subscribers or patrons, that’s considered to be first publication so you can only sell that piece as a reprint (which generally brings far less money). If you already have an “author platform,” meaning something that you frequently promote (in my case, this could be Halloween or paranormal stuff), you should incorporate that into your paid material.

I’ve been very impressed with Substack as a platform, so if I ever decide to bite the bullet, move past my concerns, and try a paid subscription model, it’ll be here.

NEWS & WORKS IN PROGRESS

Here’s a nice interview Tara Laskowski conducted with me for her “What Scares You” blog series.

My weekly “Ghost Report” podcast now has a dedicated line of actual merch!

You can now watch the fabulous documentary Halloween Obsessed: Haunted Attractions (with me jabbering away) for free at YouTube.

On October 2nd I’ll be recording an episode of Danny Nucci and Jason M. Burns’s “What About…?” podcast.

I’ll be contributing a short story to this year’s Green Ink Sponsored Write in support of Macmillan Cancer Support.

I recorded a brief appearance for Buzz Book Expo 2023 (with Eric Guignard, Jo Kaplan, and Mary Sangiovanni) talking about Eric’s upcoming edition of Phantasmagoriana (for which I did the introduction).

I’m quoted in this USA Today article on Halloween’s history.

I recently updated my website to make it more mobile friendly, so check it out.

What I’ve been doing writing-wise: Not much, with all of this other stuff going on! I did manage to finish an academic paper (yeah, I know - why do I keep doing these when I’m not an academic?), I finished a couple of other short pieces, and I’m waiting on some books being shopped by my agent.

UPCOMING APPEARANCES

October 1, 5 pm - reading and signing for The Art of the Zombie Movie at Village Well Books & Coffee in Culver City (also signing are Kate Maruyama and Eric Guignard)
October 8, 3 pm - signing for The Art of the Zombie Movie at Dark Delicacies in Burbank
October 15, 2 pm - I’ll be doing a presentation on Halloween history, followed by interview and signing, at the Muzeo in Anaheim
October 16/23/30, 7 pm - These are the night I’ll be teaching my three-session live course on the history of Halloween - tickets are now on sale through Atlas Obscura
October 28, 7 am - I’ll be appearing live on the show “Dave Nemo Weekends” to chat about zombies and Halloween with Jimmy Mac, on SiriusXM Channel 146
November 20 - I’ll be recording the podcast Chinwag with Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma
December 2 - I’ll be reading one of my Spine Tingler short stories for Joseph Freeman’s “Winter Tales” reading series.
May 30-June 2, 2024 - I’ll be at StokerCon 2024 in San Diego

WHERE YOU CAN BUY MY BOOKS

GIVEAWAY

One of my favorite Halloween things has been to hold a giveaway every October for a treat bag full of Halloween surprises. The bag might include candy, toys, stickers, even socks…it might even have something signed by me. I always cut this giveaway off at October 15th so the winner will get the bag by Halloween and have it to celebrate the best day of the year with.

To enter, just leave a comment, and on October 15th I’ll randomly select and notify a winner.

Every Day is Halloween