Monthly Archives: October 2012
Happy Halloween! Mail for Dead Men
My father has been dead almost five years, but I still get his junk mail. Recently, I got an odd ancient coin that will ensure my father reaps the benefits of God’s blessings if he uses their medical care certificates (or something) and a letter noting he’s been pre-approved for a policy from Physician’s Life Insurance (seriously?). There’s no real point to this blog post, I just thought that getting that type of mail for a dead man was creepy, and since today’s Halloween, I thought I’d share. Here’s to egging the mailbox!
Hurricanes, Horror, H.P. and Hiram Grange on Scary Scribes—listen here!
If you missed this past Sunday’s live broadcast of the October Episode of Scary Scribes with Kevin Lucia, here’s where you can listen in:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/paranormaleh/2012/10/28/scary-scribes
or directly from this website here:
A Year Ago Today: Snowpocalypse
It was a year ago today that we here in the Northeast had a huge storm and thousands in our area lost power (for a ridiculous number of days). The big bummer was that there was really no Halloween—our favorite holiday around here—because of it.
While the being-out-of-power thing got old pretty quickly, for the first few hours (because it was still warm in the house), it was fun. Here’s some photos from that night in the hopes this won’t happen again anytime soon—but we might, this winter, be in luck with that; I’ve been seeing tree trimmers working non-stop for the past couple of months.
Video: The report on the weather radio gave the darkened house a creepy air; I could only think, ‘zombie apocalypse.’

This is my mini DVD player, which, when charged, has two hours of battery life. We used it to play music during dinner so things would feel more normal.
Video: We have music!
Video: No Reason to Complain
Creative? Creativity Coach’s blog offers tips, hosts interview this week
Nancy Norbeck, a Certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach, SoulCollage® Facilitator, and tutor in New Jersey, is featuring an interview with me in honor of Halloween. You can check out what I have to say about unsupportive parents, defeating procrastination, and sunken towns in polluted lakes over at her blog at http://www.nancynorbeck.com/2012/10/26/interview-kristi-petersen-schoonover/.
DARK DISCUSSIONS Opens THE CHERNOBYL DIARIES
Make your housework, drive to work or long car trip more interesting! The Chernobyl Diaries hit DVD and Blu-Ray this past Tuesday, and to mark the occasion Dark Discussions co-hosts Mike and Phil invited me to come on their show and discuss the film. Listen to the episode or download it to your device here: http://www.darkdiscussions.com/Pages/podcast_076.html
From the Dark Discussions website:
“On April 26th, 1986, near Pripyat, Ukraine, a human error occurred which caused the Chernobyl nuclear power plant #4 to explode and release radiation into the atmosphere. At the time it was classified as the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history. The area was afterwards considered uninhabitable. Today, years later, nature has reclaimed the area where plants and animals now live as if it were the wilderness.
Oren Peli, the creator of the Paranormal Activity film franchise, wrote and produced the 2012 film entitled Chernobyl Diaries. The film includes such up-and-coming stars as Olivia Taylor Dudley and Devin Kelley as well as being directed by visual effects expert Bradley Parker who has worked on such films as Fight Club and Let Me In. In the film Chernobyl Diaries, a group of six foreign tourists are taken to Pripyat on what the tour guide calls an extreme tour to see the site firsthand decades later and learn the history about the disaster. However, our guide and group of six tourists are suddenly left stranded when their vehicle appears sabotaged.
The film was just released for home theaters. Dark Discussions co-hosts Mike and Phil are joined by special guest Kristi Petersen Schoonover to discuss this horror film and the history behind Chernobyl and the Cold War. Other topics include the use of tragedy as a backdrop for both historical and exploitation film; radiation and nuclear power; the failure of the film at the box office; and how remarkably the film portrays atmosphere.”
We Rocked and Shocked the weekend…
The New England Horror Writers were up at Rock and Shock in Worcester, MA, last weekend. We met new friends and old, sat on panels, had a great time, and, of course, sold some books. Here’s pix from the weekend — just click on any photo for a larger view and to flip through the gallery.
- …because the weekend can’t begin without it…
- These NEHW members are really cool cats. They’re getting married Friday the 13th in September, 2013 and then they’re honeymooning in Disney World.
- Scott Goudsward, writer of several short stories in various anthologies, brought the candy.
- TJ photo bombs my pic with a fan.
- Me and TJ May, author of Ill Conceived (now in e-form from NECON E-books).
- From left, TJ May, me, and Matt Bechtel, of NECON E-books, on Friday Night’s “Breaking into the Biz” and Marketing panel.
- Jason Harris, Director of Publicity and Webmaster for the NEHW and co-owner of Books and Boos, a book and novelty shop opening in Colchester, CT, and Tracy L. Carbone, author of The Soul Collector and Restitution, on Friday Night’s “Breaking into the Biz” and Marketing panel.
- Friday Night’s “Breaking into the Biz” and Marketing Panel. All of the Rock & Shock panels are coordinated by Fangoria Magazine.
- Me with Allison Smith and Temperance Damora, whom I met at last year’s Rock and Shock. They’re big fans of Howe Caverns, too!
- Trisha Wooldridge, editor and anthologist, on Friday Night’s Women in Horror panel.
- Lisa Marie (Vampira in Ed Wood, among other things) on Friday Night’s Women in Horror panel.
- Friday Night’s Women in Horror Panel. From left, Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Tracy L. Carbone, Stacey Longo Harris (writer and co-owner of Books and Boos bookstore, opening later this year in Colchester, CT), Trisha Woodridge, and Lisa Marie on Friday Night’s Women in Horror panel.
- Stacey Longo Harris on Friday Night’s Women in Horror panel.
- Heather Langenkamp on Friday Night’s Women in Horror panel.
- Tracy L. Carbone on Friday Night’s Women in Horror panel.
- K. Allen Wood, editor of Shock Totem, and writer Scott Goudsward watch over the NEHW booth.
- Pizza time!
- Late-night meal.
- Stacey loves these Skeleton shot glasses. I do, too!
- Jack Haringa in deep thought. Jack is a writer and editor whose short stories have been included in the Year’s Best Horror and Fantasy anthologies.
- Me and SciFi Saturday Night’s The Dome.
- SciFi Saturday Night’s Dome interviews Rob Watts, author of Huldufolk.
- I love Cons. Such great cosplay!
- The Dome and Stacey Longo Harris on Saturday afternoon.
- Me and Philip Perron of the Dark Discussions podcast. I have written a couple of articles for him and been on the Chernobyl Diaries episode. If you like horror movies, then definitely check it out at http://www.darkdiscussions.com. I was so excited to finally meet him in person!
- I know. Don’t even ask me what I was doing, here, because I have no idea.
- Me and L.L. Soares of Cinema Knife Fight.
- A bird-eating tarantula who took up residence at the booth in back of ours.
- Trisha J. Wooldridge in Victorian finery.
- Shootin’ the breeze: from left, K. Allen Wood, Jason Harris, Sara Gomes and L.L. Soares.
- Rock and Shock Saturday Night Dinner is a tradition.
- Trisha, Jason, and Stacey following Saturday Night’s dinner.
- Me and Matt Bechtel of NECON E-books.
- Trisha Wooldridge.
- From front left: Kelli B. Jones of NECON E-books, TJ May, Trisha Woodridge, Jason and Stacey Harris, and Matt Bechtel.
- Sunday’s Horror in the Movies panel. From left, Jason Harris, Rob Watts, Bracken MacLeod, author of several short stories in many anthologies, and Stacey Longo Harris.
- Rob Watts on Sunday’s Horror in the Movies panel.
- Bracken MacLeod on Sunday’s Horror in the Movies panel.
- Jason Harris on Sunday’s Horror in the Movies panel.
- Stacey Longo Harris moderated Sunday’s Horror in the Movies panel. Topics discussed ranged from best and worst horror movies and best and worst franchises of all time, favorite scream queens and most memorable terrifying moments.
- Jack Haringa asks a question of Sunday’s Horror in the Movies panel.
- The Fangoria panel schedule for the weekend.
- Winding down: Sunday afternoon, writers Bracken MacLeod, TJ May, Scott Goudsward and Jack Haringa talk shop with Erric, a friend of Bracken’s.
- I HAVE MY OWN TARDIS!!
- Me and Rob Watts.
Kevin Lucia on Horror and Post-Modernism
Earlier in the year, a fantastic horror writer named Kevin Lucia was finishing grad school and, on his blog, presented a fascinating 9-part series on the nature of horror. I fell in love with this series, and Kevin has very graciously allowed me to reprint it here so others can enjoy it, too. Here’s the last installment, and next week, October 25, some of his fiction—free—as a Halloween treat! Still not enough? He’ll be appearing on my podcast, Scary Scribes, on Sunday, October 28. Watch the next post for details on where to tune in!
Kevin Lucia is a Contributing Editor for Shroud Magazine, and a blogger for The Midnight Diner. His short fiction has appeared in several anthologies. He’s currently finishing his Creative Writing Masters Degree at Binghamton University, he teaches high school English and lives in Castle Creek, New York with his wife and children. He is the author of Hiram Grange & The Chosen One, Book Four of The Hiram Grange Chronicles, and he’s currently working on his first novel. Visit him on the web at www.kevinlucia.com.
~
So these are going to be my final thoughts on Noel Carroll’s The Philosophy of Horror, because this is dragging out a little longer than I’d initially thought it would. So, here we go:
Horror and Post-Modernism
postmodernism – a way of approaching traditional ideas and practices in non-traditional ways that deviate from pre-established superstructural modes. (Wikipedia)
So, because I’ve got this idea I want to write for my paper about horror today and what that says about our current culture, when I saw this snippet at the very end of Carroll’s work, I perked up:
“…I would like to suggest is that the contemporary horror genre is the exoteric expression of the same feelings that are expressed in the esoteric discussions of the intelligentsia with respect to postmodernism.”
Some definitions:
exoteric: refers to knowledge that is outside of and independent from anyone’s experience and can be ascertained by anyone; cf. common sense.
esoteric: ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest
intelligentsia: a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them.
In basic terms, according to Carroll, postmodernism states that our beliefs of the world, and our way of looking at and understanding the world are arbitrary. They can be deconstructed, pulled apart, and don’t actually refer to the real world. Carroll makes the point that he himself is not convinced of post-modernism’s claims, but also says its effect on our culture – and horror – can’t be denied.
Here’s where he struck me. Because I don’t consider myself a postmodernist. And I don’t know enough about postmodern art to know if Carroll’s next point is valid, but this Wiki definition of it seems to correspond:
post-modern art: the recycling of past styles and themes in a modern-day context
as Carroll says this:
“…whether for purposes of political criticism or for nostalgia, postmodern art lives off its inheritance….it proceeds by recombining acknowledged elements of the past in a way that suggests that the root of creativity is to be found in looking backward (emphasis mine)” pg. 211
And then, the coup de grace, connecting this to horror:
“…the contemporary horror genre….differs from previous cycles (of horror) in certain respects that also bear comparison with the themes of postmodernism. First, works of contemporary horror often refer to the history of the genre quite explicitly. King’s IT reanimates a gallery of classic monsters; the movie Creepshow by King and Romero is a homage to EC horror comics of the fifties; horror movies nowadays frequently make allusions to other horror films while Fright Night (the original, thanks) includes a fictional horror show host as a character; horror writers freely refer to other writers and to other examples of the genre; they especially make reference to classic horror movies and characters.” (pg. 211)
and this…
“…the creators and the consumers of horror fictions are aware they are operating within a shared tradition, and this is acknowledged openly, with great frequency and gusto (emphasis mine) pg. 211
Okay.
Now, I’m going to admit, this totally throws me. Not the bit on horror writers referencing its history, knowing we’re part of a shared tradition. I blogged last year about the THUNDERING revelation of how WEAK my knowledge of genre history was, when I blogged about the evening I spent with Tom Monteleone, F. Paul Wilson, and Stuart David Schiff. That started me on a mission to educate myself, and I’ve spent most the last year reading horror from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
Also, there’s Brian Keene’s Keynote Address from AnthoCon 2011, “Roots”, about how important it is for young readers and writers of horror to be well-versed in the history of the genre. That alone reaffirmed my mission to educate myself in the history of the genre.
But….post-modernist?
I’m a post-modern….artist?
It’s a strange label to assume. Now, granted….it seems one can labor in their chosen art from a post-modern perspective, without viewing the world as a post-modernist. I suppose. I hope, because that seems to be where I’m at. Because of my faith and the way I’ve been raised, I don’t really view the world as a post-modernist – I’ve got pretty traditional views about things (but they’re for me and my family), and I think they’re important enough not to deviate from, to pass on.
But as a horror-writer…I guess I’d say I am post-modern, because the definition for post-modern art is a little different than the definition of a post-modern world perspective. As I’ve just become aware in the last year or so, as a horror writer, I’m part of a shared tradition; a tradition I need to be intimately knowledgeable of if I ever hope to take old and time-honored stories and tropes and twist them, mold them and shape them into my own creations for new readers who – also intimately aware of the horror tradition – will find resonance in them because of those classic threads, but who will also want to read them (and, of course, publish them) because I’ve made those stories and tropes mine, and therefore new and fresh.
Huh.
I guess that just adds another layer of complexity upon the walking contradiction that I already am. As a father, husband, teacher – I’m not post-modernist at all. Pretty traditional, if conservative in how I talk about and share my beliefs (ergo, I don’t shove them on anyone else). However, as a horror writer, not only do I NEED to be post-modern in hopes of gathering an audience and getting published, I sorta….STRIVE to be…because I don’t want to re-write the same old thing. I want to use those same, classic themes and tropes…but make them mine.
Wow. Guess we never stop learning about ourselves, as we continue to perfect our craft….
Kevin Lucia is a Contributing Editor for Shroud Magazine, and a blogger for The Midnight Diner. His short fiction has appeared in several anthologies. He’s currently finishing his Creative Writing Masters Degree at Binghamton University, he teaches high school English and lives in Castle Creek, New York with his wife and children. He is the author of Hiram Grange & The Chosen One, Book Four of The Hiram Grange Chronicles, and he’s currently working on his first novel. Visit him on the web at www.kevinlucia.com.