LOIS GRESH: Author

BIG BANG THEORY TV SHOW SCIENCE: Faster-than-light (FTL) Neutrino Particles

2012-01-27T11:46:00.006-05:00

One of 2011's Biggest Science "Discoveries"?

Big Bang Theory Episode 5.08: The Isolation Permutation

In September 2011, the OPERA neutrino experiment (located in the Gran Sasso tunnel in the Abruzzo region of central Italy) announced that a beam of neutrinos generated at the CERN accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland traveled 450 miles from Geneva to Italy faster than the speed of light. The experimenters claimed that the neutrinos beat a metaphorical beam by 60 nanoseconds. For reference, light travels about 60 feet in 60 nanoseconds.

In the Big Bang Theory TV show called The Isolation Permutation -- episode 5.08, theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper tries to make fun dinner conversation by discussing this topic. He says, "Faster-than-light particles at CERN: paradigm-shifting discovery or another Swiss export as full of holes as their cheese?"

Are theoretical physicists the only ones who are skeptical of this experimental result because they can't imagine that Einstein’s theory of relativity could be wrong?

Despite all the headlines that one of the biggest science discoveries of 2011 centered around faster-than-light neutrino particles, it turns out that experimental physicists are equally skeptical, and not due to theoretical prejudice. In a nutshell, this experimental result contradicts what we learned from other observations in 1987.

In 1987, two experimental groups -- one in Japan and one in the USA -- detected a pulse of neutrinos originating from a supernova explosion. The SN1987A supernova was in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 168,000 light years from Earth, close enough to be visible to the naked eye. Traveling at the speed of light, the neutrinos reached Earth 3 hours before the light did. The neutrinos originated from the core of the supernova.

The light from the supernova was delayed because it had to get through the remnants of the stellar explosion, not because the neutrinos traveled faster than light. According to University of Rochester Physics Professor Arie Bodek, winner of the Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics, "If the neutrinos from SN1987A had the same speed as that reported by the OPERA experiment they would have arrived about 4 years before the light did."

Some would argue that neutrinos from a supernova are at substantially lower energy than the neutrinos from CERN, and that the CERN neutrinos travel at a speed faster than light because they are more energetic. According to Professor Bodek, this "explanation" is difficult to quantify because it implies that neutrinos at low energy, which travel a little slower than the speed of light (since we know that the neutrinos have small mass), can be accelerated to some energy that allows them to break the speed of light barrier. Tachyons, which are hypothetical particles that that can only travel at speeds faster than light, must have an imaginary mass. Although it is not clear what an imaginary mass means, the neutrinos either have a real mass, or an imaginary mass, but not both.

A devil’s advocate would say that we know that the SN1987A neutrinos are electron-type neutrinos, while the neutrinos from CERN are muon-type neutrinos, and therefore, there is no contradiction between the two results. However, the discovery of the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations, in which electron neutrinos oscillate and become muon neutrinos and then return to being electron neutrinos as they travel to earth from the sun, implies that electron-type and muon-type neutrinos are not really different from each other since one can turn into another.

So what should we believe?

A confused student at the University of Rochester asked a theoretical physics professor what he thought about the report that neutrinos travel faster than light. The professor paused for a moment and said, "I think it must have something to do with the European financial crisis."

For more information, please see:

Dennis Overbye, Scientists Report Second Sighting of Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos, The New York Times

OPERA experiment reports anomaly in flight time of neutrinos from CERN to INFN Gran Sasso, LNGS Gran Sasso Laboratory News

OPERA photo credit: Pasquale Migliozzi, INFN Napoli, OPERA Collaboration.

This is the first in a series of BIG BANG THEORY TV SHOW SCIENCE posts for the general public. With two physicists in the family, we're huge fans of the show.

ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS on Bram Stoker Ballot

2012-01-25T10:17:00.006-05:00

I almost forgot to post this item!

ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS: 26 Weird Science Fiction, Dark Fantasy, and Horror Stories somehow made it onto the HWA Preliminary Bram Stoker Award Ballot for Best Collection of 2011.

Thank you to everyone who recommended it. This particular book means a lot to me.

Here are some of the reviews:

"An extravagant gift...devastating genius...and oh, that story, Debutante Ball - in a perfect literary landscape it would now be as well-remembered as Shirley Jackson's The Lottery."
--Adam-Troy Castro, SCI FI, official magazine of the SYFY TV channel

"Riveting stories with mind-bending ideas intensely creative!"
--Catherine Asaro, Nebula-Award winning author of The Ruby Dice

"Lois Gresh is a terrific writer and this collection is a terrific book for anyone who wants to read the best in science fiction, dark fantasy, dark humor, and horror."
--Robert Weinberg, Winner of Lifetime Achievement Award, HWA

"Everything you want in horror fiction."
--Scott Edelman, Five-time Nominee for the Bram Stoker Award, Editor of Syfy's Blastr

"Lois Gresh makes me scared of things I've never been scared of before. In person, Lois seems so nice and ordinary...but in her writing, she's *evil*."
--James Alan Gardner, Winner of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial award

"Intensely memorable stories...shocking, funny, disturbing. A uniquely gifted writer whose work I have admired for many years."
--Charles Platt, former editor at Avon books & senior writer at Wired

"If you're hoping for surprisingly quirky takes on reality combined with cleverly worded fiction, you're in the right place. One of the cleverest writers out there."
--Nancy Kilpatrick, editor of Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead

About Time: Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang

2012-01-25T09:29:00.006-05:00

University of Rochester Professor of Astrophysics Adam Frank’s About Time: Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang (Free Press, 2011) is a survey of the history of cosmology intertwined with the history of human society, religion, and culture. The principal point of About Time is that human society, religion, and culture change over time based on what we perceive as cosmological truths. By exploring both cosmological and human history side by side, Frank gives the reader a fascinating and provocative way to view cosmology and time.

The book expands on Frank’s April 2008 article in Discover Magazine called "3 Theories That Might Blow Up the Big Bang: Time may not have a beginning--and it might not exist at all." Both postulate that science is ready to abandon the idea that nothing existed before the Big Bang, that time might be an illusion, that time might not run sequentially forward and backward. How can we talk about the dawn of time--that is, the moments before and during the Big Bang--when time has no beginning?

Rather than think of the universe and its inflation, theorists are now thinking in terms of multiverses and eternal inflation. This notion was proposed in the late 1980s by MIT V.F. Weisskopf Professor of Physics Alan Guth, who wrote that when the universe was between 10^-37 and 10^-24 of a second old, it doubled repeatedly in size until the expansion, or inflation, finally slowed down.

Along with Guth, other physicists in the 1980s proposed that pocket universes might constantly be popping in and out of our universe’s uninflated background. They called the sum of these pocket universes the multiverse.

Eternal inflation refers to the inflation and deflation throughout the multiverse. Fluctuations in dark energy might provide the kick that creates pockets universes out of empty space. While some pocket universes might move forward in time, others might move backwards. Basically, so the theory goes, before our Big Bang, a lot of other Big Bangs might have happened, with the inflating universes possibly collapsing into black holes or running backwards in time.

In 1999, physicist Julian Barbour wrote in The End of Time that time might not even exist. Hence, what came before our Big Bang might be fairly irrelevant.

What’s unique about Frank’s book is his approach. As he writes, "Even today, human culture needs its dominant cosmology, and if culture changes, it appears that cosmos building will, too."

Frank is very skilled at presenting complex science to the general public. Anyone interested in string theory, multiverses, the Big Bang, and time will understand the concepts presented in About Time.

A recipient of an American Astronomical Society prize for his science writing, Frank is a frequent contributor to many magazines, including Discover and Scientific American. He is a frequent guest on the History Channel and is the co-founder of NPR’s science blog.

You can buy the book here.

For more information, please see:

Adam Frank, "3 Theories That Might Blow Up the Big Bang: Time may not have a beginning--and it might not exist at all," Discover Magazine, April 2008.

Brad Lemley, "Guth’s Grand Guess," Discover Magazine, April 2002.

NPR Science Blog

HUNGER GAMES COMPANION - another great review!

2012-01-15T06:34:00.003-05:00

A huge thanks to Fresh Fiction for a wonderful review of THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION!

"What is just as exciting (well, almost) as the Hunger Games? THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION, of course! The reader will be taken through details that makes The Hunger Games the exciting, fast-paced, nerve-wracking series fans around the world obsess over."
--Krystal Larson, Fresh Fiction

TEEN INK EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD!

2012-01-03T09:39:00.005-05:00

A huge thanks to Rachel Herriman, who interviewed me about The Hunger Games for Teen Ink. Her wonderful interview received an Editor's Choice Award!

Here's a small excerpt followed by a link to the entire article.

Lois Gresh is the author of several popular novels, including the short story collection, Eldritch Evolution and her sci-fi thriller, Blood and Ice. She has also written many unofficial guides which belong in any collector's or fanatic's library, such as The Science of Superheroes, The Twilight Companion and most recently, The Hunger Games Companion.

Rachel: You recently wrote THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION; how did that opportunity come about?

Lois: I was gripped by THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy, but I also felt that Suzanne Collins’ books were filled with important messages. For example, people should focus on what matters (kindness, peace, nurturing their children, health, food for all) than on things such as what they look like and how mean they can be to other people. Is it more important to get ahead -- literally to survive in THE HUNGER GAMES -- by stabbing other people in the back, or does it make more sense to get ahead by using your skills and intelligence and trying to help the people around you?

I was struck by the horrific nature of Katniss’ life from the first chapters of THE HUNGER GAMES. I saw the trilogy as a reflection -- a mirror -- of our own times, our own history as human beings. The trilogy is a bold warning, in my opinion, that as an intelligent species, we need to pull together and save ourselves from a future that could even remotely be anything like what we see in THE HUNGER GAMES. The novels are brilliant in that they acutely warn us about where we might be heading if we don’t take care of each other on a global level. Mass starvation isn’t right. Sending little children into the slaughterhouse of war isn’t right. Environmental meltdowns, terrorist acts, and nuclear warfare aren’t right. Set against these themes, Suzanne Collins brings us a story of rich beauty. Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Prim, Rue, and all the others: as readers, we care about them and desperately want everything to turn out okay. THE HUNGER GAMES novels are among the finest books I’ve read in quite awhile.

So when my longtime editor at St. Martin’s Press asked if I wanted to write THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION, I immediately said, “Yes!”

Rachel: What can fans expect?

Lois: THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION includes facts and insights into the main ideas and themes of the novels -- from the nature of evil to weaponry and rebellions to surviving the end of the world. I dig deep beneath the surface and offer opinions as to how the world has ended up in this hideous post-apocalyptic state; why Katniss agrees to be the Mockingjay, why she chooses Peeta, why she becomes intensely depressed, why she becomes addicted to morphling; why the Capitol is so evil, why the government lets their own people starve, why they send children into these deadly arenas, why they justify binge-eating and plastic surgery and fine clothing while letting everyone else die from grotesque torture. The book covers everything from the various type of muttations, including how they might be created in real life, to the poisons and medicines, the Avoxes, the hovercrafts, the Career Tributes; Thresh, Finnick, Plutarch Heavensbee, Haymitch, President Snow, Cato, Beetee, Johanna, Katniss’ mother, Buttercup, Effie Trinket, Caesar Flickerman; and very interesting to me, the complex nature of the arenas themselves. As you might have guessed by my answers thus far, I’m obviously FASCINATED by THE HUNGER GAMES!

Rachel: What is the biggest difference between writing children's books and adult fiction? Which do you prefer?

Lois: I enjoy both categories. I don’t hold back at all in my adult fiction.

As for children’s books, with DRAGONBALL Z, I very much wanted to make children laugh and have a good time. I wrote DRAGONBALL Z with my 10-year-old son, and we received more than 2,000 letters from children who wrote that they loved the book. I can’t tell you how happy that made me! The same thing happened with THE TRUTH BEHIND A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS -- so many wonderful letters, they made my heart sing.

That said, I don’t believe in treating teens as if they’re little children. They’re mature, responsible, and old enough to read THE HUNGER GAMES. Teens should have books that reflect the times in which we live now, and they should have books that help them think about tomorrow, too.

Read the entire story here:

TEEN INK EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD: HUNGER GAMES INTERVIEW WITH LOIS GRESH

HUNGER GAMES FANS to FOLLOW!

2011-12-15T11:36:00.004-05:00

If you're a Hunger Games fan, make sure to check out these terrific sites. Each offers something unique - I always find something fascinating about the books, the upcoming movie, the characters, the actors, even the guy who's coordinating all the stunts for the films.

HGgirlonfire.com -- read a super interview with me courtesy of these wonderful Hunger Games fans!

NightlockPodcast.com -- take a look at another really nice interview with me on this site, which also ran a contest!

Currently, 3 lucky readers have won FREE copies of THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION, which I'll personally autograph and mail this week. Congratulation to the winners, happy holidays, and happy reading!

HungerGamesMovie.org -- this is a HUGE Hunger Games fansite with all the latest info about the upcoming movie, as well as just about everything else you could possibly want to know about the Hunger Games. The official partner of NightLockPodcast!

When I meet people like the ones who run these fansites, I remember what attracted me to fandom long ago. Nice people who love to read. That's what it's all about.

Fabulous Hunger Games Fansite!

2011-12-09T09:04:00.006-05:00

Today, I'm pleased to welcome Sheila Cordero (left) and Lindsay McComber (right), who created and run the popular Hunger Games fansite, hggirlonfire.com.

I recently interviewed Kira and Matt of Nightlock Podcast on TOR.com. I started the interview by noting that, in addition to being an author, I’ve been a part of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom for 25 years. After meeting an interesting variety of Hunger Games fans on the internet, I began wondering what drives them. What is it about the Hunger Games that they love so much? What do they think about the upcoming movie? Kira and Matt had some interesting answers, and so do Sheila and Lindsay. Read on!

Lois: What inspired you to create hggirlonfire.com, and what can fans expect to find on your site?

After reading the books we were so captured by the story and emotional depth of the characters that we found ourselves wanting the opportunity to connect with other fans by developing a site that provided the most current Hunger Games news and gave fans like us an outlet to share in our Hunger Games obsession. On our site, readers can expect to find not only the latest news reading the Hunger Games books and movie, but also information about the Hunger Games cast members other projects and participation in events.

Lois: How many people are involved with hggirlonfire.com, and what are your different functions?

We are currently a team of 5 Hunger Games obsessed fans!

Lindsay and Sheila are the founders and admins for the site. We maintain the site's daily operations coming up with special features, contests, and tracking the news.

To help keep up with all the news on a daily basis, we have 3 amazing, dedicated and talented bloggers in Colleen, Amie and Ella.

Lois: Are the actors portraying the tributes close to your visions of the characters in the book?

A lot has been debated about the actors cast in the Hunger Games movie. While visually we don't believe any of the actors fit the images we had in our heads, we support their casting, and after seeing some of the images from the movie, reading different interviews, and of course that AMAZING trailer, we couldn't be happier with the casting choices made. We also appreciate that much of the casting has been with relative newcomers and are excited to see what they bring to their characters.

Lois: I’m interested in your take on some of the main characters. For example, I think of Katniss as kind, thoughtful, resourceful, intelligent, heroic, and forced to act hard and tough due to the extreme circumstances of the Hunger Games. Do you agree? If not, how do you view Katniss’ personality?

Yes, Katniss is all of these things. For us, she is the epitome of a survivor. She has endured such a difficult life at such a young age and found the strength to pull herself together to survivive. Whether that was learning to hunt and gather plants to eat, stepping up to take the place of her sister at the reaping, finding the courage to open herself up to possible love, and facing her fears to become a symbol of hope for people. At the same time Katniss doesn't claim to be more than she is, a young girl thrown into an impossible situation and experiencing all the fear and uncertainty that goes along with that.

Lois: Everyone’s talking about the actors chosen to portray Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). Do they meet your expectations as the two main male characters in the Hunger Games?

We know a lot has been said about these actors not living up to the image that fans had in their heads as they read these stories. While we can certainly understand the initial fan reactions to the casting, for us, it was ultimately more about whether these 2 actors could capture the essence of Gale and Peeta. Could we believe them in these roles, and would we feel the same way about them as we did about the characters in the book. Listening to interviews from both Josh and Liam, watching their work in other films, as well as the images we've seen and the Hunger Games trailer, we think the right decision was made. We have found that Josh does seem to embody all the traits of Peeta that fans love, and Liam exudes just the right amount of grit we imagined in a character such as Gale.

Lois: Oddly, I was very fond of Haymitch Abernathy in the books. He appealed to me as an "uncle" type of character, someone who cared about the kids in the arena; but like Katniss' mother, Haymitch had suffered long and hard, and he was too far gone to function well. His drunken behaviors added a bit of amusement and lightness to the story. What do you think about Haymitch?

Haymitch breaks our heart. While his antics in the book were great points of humor to relieve some of the seriousness of the story, when we think about who Haymitch was as a person and how he became the way he is, it's really a pretty tragic story. Haymitch was an intelligent young man who won his games by figuring out the so called "chink" in games. While in the games, Haymitch killed to survive, then witnessed the death of his district 12 ally. After the games, the Capitol kills Haymitch's family and he is left essentially alone, to deal with all of his feelings and the trauma from his experience. Then year after year, he is forced to mentor the district 12 tributes only to watch them die in their games. His only means of coping was by drinking himself into a stupor on a daily basis and become the source of of jokes. But internally, Haymitch was a tortured soul, one who was angry at the Capitol, and not surprisingly became a central player in the rebellion against the Capitol.

Lois: Do you have a favorite stylist?

Cinna of course is our favorite stylist. We loved his interaction with Katniss and the relationship they were able to form.

Lois: It’s almost obligatory to ask everyone, "Which is your favorite book of the three?" I’ve been surprised by some of the answers! Which book did you like the best, and why?

Lindsay's favorite book is Hunger Games. I tend to like origin stories and this is the book that introduced me to Katniss and the world she lives in. As bad as that world is, I can't help but love the book that was my first glimpse into this world, and my first introduction to characters that I love so much.

Sheila's favorite book is Catching Fire. I loved this book because I really enjoyed reading about Katniss and Peeta's experience after the games, and what happens to them.

Lois: Do you think there’s a danger that the real world could someday become like the world of the Hunger Games? Are people so mean to each other, so greedy, so vile that we’re in danger of blowing ourselves into oblivion (via some sort of apocalyptic event) and then subjecting our children to gladiator-type death arenas? Are we capable of the inhumanities of the Hunger Games?

It's hard to imagine our world being like the Hunger Games. We like to think that people are better than that, and that we have enough controls in place to prevent such an occurrence, but then again, I think if there wasn't a balance of people in this world who fight to do the right thing, people can certainly be capable of some of the inhumanity of the Hunger Games.

Lois: Of all the inhumanities of the Hunger Games, which ones do you think are the worst?

The starvation of the children in this book was really tough. It made me so sad to read about Katniss' starvation with her family and that there were no resources she could turn to to get help. It broke our heart to read Rue exclaim she's never had a whole leg to herself before, and reading about how even the people in District 11 who provided food to the Capitol, never had enough to eat themselves.

Lois: Finally, I’d love to know more about the people behind hggirlonfire.com. Are you big fans of other series? When not running hggirlonfire.com, what other things do you enjoy?

When not obsessing about the Hunger Games, we are all big fans of Harry Potter and Twilight. Lindsay is the main admin for a Team-Twilight.com and Sheila blogs for this Team Twilight as well.

Lois: Thanks for stopping by, Sheila and Lindsay. I enjoyed interviewing you very much. For fans, please hop over to hggirlonfire.com and check them out!

In this holiday season, all best wishes to all Hunger Games fans!

~~Lois

THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION

THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION - IS PRESIDENT SNOW A PSYCHOPATH?

2011-11-29T10:03:00.002-05:00

Here's an excerpt from THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION that I found on the UK Pan-Macmillan Publishing site. I figured it might be nice to include the excerpt on my blog, too!

In Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, President Snow is the ruler of Panem. He is responsible for the creation of the Hunger Games. Author of The Hunger Games Companion Lois H. Gresh asks whether Snow and his cronies fit the bill of psychopaths . . .

A psychopath is quite different from someone who is psychotic. The psychotic person suffers from severe mental disorders that are probably caused by biological factors. For example, schizophrenics can be confused, they have delusions and hallucinations. They tend to be withdrawn, depressed, and anxious.

The psychopathic person, as defined by doctors, has a disorder of character or personality. These people are lucid, they do not hear voices or see things that don’t exist. They can be quite charming. They do not suffer from increased angst, depression, or insecurities. Many simply lack any compassion or empathy for their victims.

It’s likely that, as with most human behavior, psychopathic behavior results from a combination of biological traits and social environment. And then there’s that gray area: How extreme does the behavior have to be for a person to be called psychopathic?

President Snow, for example, exhibits all the behaviors associated with psychopathic criminals.

Psychopathic Traits, President Snow, and His Gamemakers

Personality Traits and Behaviors Associated with an Egomaniac? - Yes

No compassion for others? - Yes

No empathy for others? - Yes

No remorse? - Yes

No feelings of guilt? - Yes

Meticulously plans tortures and killings? - Yes

Manipulative? - Yes

Chronic liar? - Yes

Superficially charming and personable? - Yes

Inflated sense of self-worth? - Yes

Very good at faking intimacy and compassion? - Yes

Callous? - Yes

Accepts no responsibilities for his actions? - Yes

Control freak? - Yes

Sadistic—enjoys humiliating and hurting other people? - Yes

Sexually promiscuous or selling others for sexual purposes? - Yes

Preys on others? - Yes

-------Extracted from The Hunger Games Companion

My thanks to UK Pan-Macmillan, which is featuring THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION throughout November!

Pssssttt... if you read this far down and you live in the UK, go their site and enter the contest. They're giving away 10 FREE COPIES TO UK READERS!

THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION -- NICE INTERVIEW

2011-11-28T17:05:00.003-05:00

I just learned about a very nice interview with me about THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION.

I've reproduced some excerpts from the interview below. To read the entire interview, please visit the wonderful people at HungerGamesMovie.Org!

What can we as readers expect from The Hunger Games Companion?

Lois: To open discussion among fans, THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION offers opinions about matters relating to the characters, their relationships, and the storylines. For example, THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION discusses why Katniss becomes suicidal and hooked on morphling in Mockingjay: does it make sense in the context of her personality in both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, and if so, why?

As another example, the book suggests reasons why Katniss votes "yes" for a Capitol children’s Hunger Games at the end of Mockingjay.

I even tell you if I think Katniss chose the right guy, and why…

And I speculate about how the post-apocalyptic world of the Hunger Games might have happened, whether it could happen in real life, and whether a Hunger Games mentality could take over and destroy our children’s lives -- in the real world.

Also, readers will find plenty of information about subjects ranging from repressive regimes (like the Capitol) to dehumanization, the end of our privacy, the gladiators and the tributes of Panem, the use of hunger as a control freak mechanism, how muttations might be created, and much more.

In short, readers can expect interesting and thought-provoking discussions about "all things" Hunger Games: everything from tributes, muttations, the arenas, the psychopathic personalities of Presidents Snow and Coin, and of course, details about key characters such as Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Finnick, Rue, Primrose, and even Buttercup.

What aspect of The Hunger Games Companion do you think readers will be most excited about?

Lois: I suspect readers will be excited by a lot of the material in THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION. For those who want to know more about the Hunger Games characters, the Companion’s analyses of their personalities, motivations, decisions, and relationships might prove most interesting. For readers fascinated by the muttations, THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION provides information about how the mutts might actually be created in real life. For readers interested in all the weird science in the Hunger Games books, I speculate how the science might (or actually does) work. For those who find Effie, Flickerman, and all the stylists interesting, THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION talks about how the Hunger Games reflects our modern obsession with fashion, style, hair, plastic surgery, self-indulgence, reality television.

You have written quite a few companions/guides. Which has been your favorite to work on and why?

Lois: I enjoyed working on THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION because I love the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. The subjects in THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION fascinated me from the start of the project to when I finished writing the book.

I very much enjoyed writing THE SCIENCE OF SUPERHEROES, THE SCIENCE OF SUPERVILLAINS, and THE SCIENCE OF JAMES BOND with Bob Weinberg. All three of these books are among my favorites.

For example, THE SCIENCE OF JAMES BOND explains how all sorts of cool things might (or do) work: artificial fingerprints, voice box that imitates other people, Russian Lektor message decoder, U.S. Clipper Chip, hydrofoils, hovercrafts, multipurpose watches, Q’s robot dog, GPS navigation, GoldenEye’s EMP, the Gustav Graves DNA plastic surgery, the “You Only Live Twice” spaceship that gobbles other spaceships, the “radar invisible” Moonraker space station, Blofeld’s gigantic rocket base inside a defunct Japanese volcano, and of course, invisible cars – to list just a few topics!

THE SCIENCE OF SUPERHEROES and THE SCIENCE OF SUPERVILLAINS gets into a lot of other really cool info, too, such as: Can a woman kill a man using her lipstick? Can a person turn himself into a lizard? Can a gorilla be a genius? Is it possible not to die? What is anti-matter? Can a man fly? Can a man have super strength? Can a man run faster than light? Can you download somebody’s brain into a computer? Is it possible to have a skeletal body of adamantium? Is it possible for a person to breathe underwater? Can a man really have robotic arms? Is it really possible that there might be five dimensions?

As well as companions/ guides, you have written original novels. Are experiences in your novels based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

Lois: I’ve written/published 28 books and close to 50 stories. All of my fiction is (drum roll…) fiction.

My current novel is Terror by Numbers, a crazy thriller to be published soon. I definitely understand my heroine and what makes her tick. I understand her environment, her surroundings, how she interacts with people. I’ve been to most of the places (the settings) in the book. I feel my heroine as if she’s real. I’ve personally done some of the things my heroine does; she knows how to sail a certain type of boat, for example, and so do I; she gets off on weird technologies, and so do I; she loves to swim, loves the sea, loves the beach, and so do I.

Yet with all that said, the heroine of Terror by Numbers most definitely is not me. For example, unlike my heroine, I’m not an undercover operative in a spy organization.

I should also add that I understand my bad guys and what makes them tick, too, but that’s a whole other story.

My most current short story is in Horror for the Holidays to be published within a few weeks. Trust me, the main characters in my story, Cthulhu Mhy’os, are totally fictional, as are the events of the tale.

ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS is my current 2011 collection of 26 weird science fiction, dark fantasy, and horror stories. In ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS, I talk a bit about what inspired me to write each story, so you might find that book interesting to read.

What are your inspirations for writing?

Lois: I do want readers to think about basic human emotions, such as kindness, evil, greed, jealousy, the struggle most of us share to try and become better people. But I also want to entertain readers -- that’s very important! In short, I want to tell a good story that also makes readers think about what it means to be human.

I constantly observe people: motivations, mannerisms, behaviors, interactions, expressions, actions. I constantly wonder what makes people tick -- why bullies are mean, for example, or why someone in great physical pain can ignore it sufficiently to function. How do different people handle emotions and conflicts? I also read an enormous amount of both fiction and nonfiction, and many subjects fascinate me.

To write fiction, bits and pieces from all of these observations, experiences, and thoughts somehow gurgle up from the back of my brain and coalesce into something new. Ideas spring out of nowhere, but they’re based on tidbits merging like a puzzle into a new form.

Read the entire interview here at HungerGamesMovie.Org!

Hunger Games Contest Running Now through Mid-December! Free Copies!

2011-11-14T08:26:00.010-05:00

Head over to iTunes and listen to Nightlock Podcast's Episode 9: Now or Never, which features an interview with me. The interview will also appear on the two websites listed below.

Kira and Matt of Nightlock are running a contest starting NOW through mid-December.

Two winners will receive signed copies of THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION!

You can learn about the contest on:

http://hungergamesmovie.org

www.hggirlonfire.com

Here's a copy of the awesome ad on their websites for The Hunger Games Companion!

THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION: Released Yesterday

2011-11-09T08:43:00.007-05:00

Okay, the wait is over: THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION is now available! It was released yesterday, November 8.

THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION will be the November Featured Book for UK Simon & Schuster's young adult line. I did an extensive interview with Simon & Schuster last week, and I'll post the url here as soon as I have it.

HORROR FOR THE HOLIDAYS

2011-11-09T08:30:00.004-05:00

I'm pleased to be in a new anthology, HORROR FOR THE HOLIDAYS, from editor Scott David Aniolowski who plans to release the book in time for Xmas this year.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Scott David Aniolowski

TALES OF ROSH CHODESH

The Tomb of Oscar Wilde by W.H. Pugmire

TALES OF VALENTINE’S DAY

Love and Darkness by Oscar Rios

Be Mine by Brian Sammons

TALES OF PASSOVER

Cthulhu Mhy’os by Lois H. Gresh

TALES OF EASTER

And the Angels Sing by Cody Goodfellow

The Last Communion of Allyn Hill by Pete Rawlik

Mrs. Spriggs’ Easter Attire by Joseph S. Pulver Jr. and Tara VanFlower

Seasons of Sacrifice and Resurrection by Adrian Tchaikovsky

TALES OF MOTHER’S DAY

Mother’s Night by Ann K. Schwader

TALES OF THE FOURTH OF JULY

Free Fireworks by T.E. Grau

Doc Corman’s Haunted Palace One Fourth of July by Don Webb

TALES OF VJ DAY

Translator by James Robert Smith

TALES OF HALLOWEEN

Hallowe’en in a Suburb by H.P. Lovecraft

Moonday by Will Murray

The Trick by Ramsey Campbell

TALES OF THE DAY OF THE DEAD

El Dia De Los Muertos by Kevin Ross

TALES OF GUY FAWKES NIGHT

Treason and Plot by William Meikle

TALES OF REMEMBERANCE DAY

The Dreaming Dead by Joshua Reynolds

TALES OF THANKSGIVING

Entrée by Donald R. Burleson

TALES OF YULE

Keeping Festival by Mollie Burleson

Wassail by Tom Lynch

TALES OF CHRISTMAS

Krampusnacht by Joshua Reynolds

The Christmas Eve of Aunt Elise by Thomas Ligotti

Letters to Santa by Scott David Aniolowski

Keeping Christmas by Michael G. Szymanski

The Nativity of the Avatar by Robert M. Price

Roots of the Hunger Games Companion: Posted on TOR.COM

2011-10-14T08:22:00.007-04:00

In his review of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Stephen King calls the book "a violent, jarring speed-rap of a novel" and points out that "The winner gets a life of ease; the losers get death. The only 'unspoken rule' is that you can’t eat the dead contestants."

Once kids are in the Hunger Games arena, they fight to the death, and anything goes. The same is true in the second book of the Hunger Games series, Catching Fire.

By the time we get to the third book, Mockingjay, as Nicole Sperling of Entertainment Weekly says, "Collins has kicked the brutal violence up a notch."

When I first read the books, I was stunned that they were young adult novels. Only a year or two earlier, romantic vampire novels such as Twilight dominated the genre. And before Twilight, we had Gossip Girls, which combined Mean Girls with Sex in the City and tossed in plenty of high fashion, boozing, and partying.

All of a sudden, the young adult genre took a 180-degree twist into the realms of dark science fiction and brutal horror. Fans everywhere went wild. It didn’t matter how young or old you were; when the Hunger Games series came out, you were hooked.

Read more... Hop over to TOR.COM to read the whole story.

Mourning Steve Jobs - a personal perspective

2011-10-06T09:23:00.006-04:00

Steve Jobs, who died yesterday from cancer, was one of my few heroes throughout my twenties. (right up there with George Lucas) I remember when Jobs bought Pixar from Lucas. I remember when Apple bought NeXT & Jobs returned to give the world the iPod, iTunes, iPhone. Jobs was a brilliant visionary.

Being the type of person who's most happy writing or puttering with technology and science, I haven't spent much of my life following the careers of business people. In fact, I can't think of anyone else other than Steve Jobs whose career has fascinated me over the years.

I was crushed when he had to leave Apple in 1986 due to a corporate power struggle. For me and many others, Apple was synonymous with Steve Jobs.

I was a professional programmer starting at 17. While managing a writing, training, and systems analysis department, I also turned to engineering in my twenties.

There were plenty of women doing all the peripheral work involved with launching computer products, but very few of us were allowed or able to gravitate to circuitry and low-level code. Back then, if you were fascinated by circuitry, hex, bdos commands, C, machine code, Assembly, and so forth, well, it was a man's world.

In the 90s, I shifted heavily into virtual reality, animation, and the more creative aspects of programming.

But in those early days, my heroes were all men. A few guys with whom I worked. And Steve Jobs. Visionaries. People I admired and respected, right up there with George Lucas.

"If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it." - Steve Jobs

His advice also applies to writers. Don't settle. Be true to yourselves, write what you believe and what matters to you. Never lose faith.

Why I Wrote The Hunger Games Companion

2011-10-04T11:19:00.002-04:00

I just wrote an email to somebody about the importance of Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games trilogy. Here's an excerpt:

Orwell's 1984 talks about repressive totalitarian regimes of the future with the aim of warning people about the present. When I first read the Hunger Games trilogy, I was struck by the fact that Collins' books also address the important political and social issues that we should all be thinking about now -- before it's too late.

The novels are beautifully written, as I note in various ways throughout The Companion - these are great works of fiction. As a novelist and short story author myself, I admire Suzanne Collins' work a great deal.

But the Hunger Games trilogy goes far beyond fiction, which is exactly why the books are so important.

They challenge readers to think about truth, about what's right and what's wrong. They challenge us to think about superficial attitudes versus getting up and doing something about what's wrong in our world. And there's an awful lot wrong in the world today.

I wrote The Hunger Games Companion to stimulate intellectual discussions about Suzanne Collins' brilliant trilogy. Hence, not only do I analyze characters and story, I include topics that are not covered elsewhere.

CHAPTER 1 POSTED ON TOR.COM!

2011-09-29T14:04:00.006-04:00

Many THANKS to TOR.COM!

Chapter 1 of The Hunger Games Companion is here:

http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/09/the-hunger-games-companion-excerpt#

I'll post more excerpts HERE on my blog after the book is released on NOVEMBER 8, 2011!

The Hunger Games Companion - table of contents

2011-09-28T22:30:00.007-04:00

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Hunger Games Companion:

Chapter 1. The Hunger Games Trilogy:
Surviving the End of the World

Chapter 2. Repressive Regimes and Rebellions:
Could The Hunger Games Really Happen?

Chapter 3. Hunger: Starving in the Districts

Chapter 4. Tributes: Gladiators in the Arena

Chapter 5. Weapons: How Tributes Survive

Chapter 6. Torture and Execution: What a Way to Go

Chapter 7. The Nature of Evil: President Snow and His Cronies

Chapter 8. Killer Kids: How Responsible are They?

Chapter 9. Hype Over Substance: A Mirror of Modern Times

Chapter 10. Theseus and the Minotaur: Parallels

Chapter 11. Survival Instincts and Strategies:
Does Katniss Know What She's Doing?

Chapter 12. Medicines and Poisons: Simple and Complex

Chapter 13. Muttations and Other Hybrids:
Birds, Beasts, and Roses

Chapter 14. More Weird Science: A Brief Roundup

Appendix A End-of-the-World Scenarios

Appendix B Apocalyptic and Dystoptian Post-Apocalyptic Fiction:
Further Reading

Roc-Con Guest of Honor Report

2011-09-25T20:03:00.010-04:00

Huge thanks to Alicia Lurye for a remarkable job running Roc-Con on Saturday! I was thrilled to be Guest of Honor Writer at Rochester's first Anime-Trek-SF media convention.

Hundreds of fans showed up for a fun day with JG Hertzler, Eileen Stevens, Steve Skeates, Stephen Lindsay, moi, and many others. I met a lot of students from RIT, MCC, UR, and various Rochester area high schools, and people showed up from NYC, Albany, Syracuse, and other far-off places.

My thanks also goes to all the wonderful people who stopped by to talk to me and/or buy my books. I was bowled over by the friendliness, overall good will, and positive vibes at Roc-Con.

Here I am with JG Hertzler, famous actor of 6 different characters on Star Trek, most notably Klingon General & Chancellor Martok. He's also has appeared on many other TV shows and movies. He's incredibly entertaining and an all-around nice guy!

And oh what a thrill it was to sit next to Steve Skeates, who wrote AQUAMAN for 3 years in the era when Jim Aparo did the art! Steve was also co-creator of The Hawk and The Dove - and lots more, and he won 4 Shazam Awards for comics writing. We talked for hours. I gave him a copy of ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS, and he gave me some goodies, too.

Steve signed a copy of THE SCIENCE OF SUPERHEROES, which I co-authored with Bob Weinberg in 2002. Specifically, he signed the AQUAMAN chapter. Did I mention sufficiently how thrilling it was for me to meet this man?

Here we are posing with the signed copy of SUPERHEROES. I also took a photo of Steve while he was signing an original AQUAMAN comic for a couple of guys who bought copies of ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS, too.

Steve gave me a signed copy of Alter Ego, Roy Thomas' Sub-Aqueous Comics Fanzine featuring fascinating interviews with Steve along with comics snippets. I read about half of the book late last night.

I was also the lucky recipient of a signed copy of AQUAMAN DEATH OF A PRINCE, which is a whopping big full-color book. He signed his stories, too: As the Undersea City Sleeps; The King is Dead, Long Live the King; The Menace of the Marine Marauder.

The next photo shows me with the lovely and very talented Eileen Stevens, voiceover actress in Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and many other anime shows. She did a few of her anime voiceovers for me, which was a lot of fun.

And here I am with Stephen Lindsay, who writes comic scripts and is actively involved in some projects at the SF TV channel, as well.

The Rochester Fantasy Fans had a table at Roc-Con, represented here by Wayne Brown and Frank Glover. Folks from Eeriecon were on hand, as well. Wayne mentioned that he's hoping to run another Astronomicon in 2012. This long-running Rochester con is a much-loved and long-running event in the area. A lot of the Eeriecon guys and gals will be happy to see another Astro, too.

Scott David Aniolowski and his brother, Steve Aniolowski, were on site during the morning. Although Scott has a complementary copy of ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS, Steve bought a copy for himself. (Hey, thanks, man!) This was Steve's first convention, so I hope he had some fun.

As I was leaving the con for the day, I saw this guy, who just screams ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. He's an RIT student and told me that RIT will present a (probably at midnight) theatrical rendition of ROCKY HORROR on Halloween this year. I WILL DEFINITELY BE THERE.

Finally, I must show you a necklace I nabbed from Sweet Poisons Cupcake Designs - a black skull on a purple and black background with a black chain -- oh, yes baby!

Sherlock Holmes Cover

2011-08-18T16:46:00.005-04:00

Arrived today - latest Sherlock Holmes anthology. Love this cover!

I've been on a Sherlock Holmes kick lately, watching a bunch of the old movies. And voila, this lovely new antho shows up in the mail! (Yes, I have a story in it.)

Human Brain Computers? Coming Soon from IBM

2011-08-18T09:38:00.004-04:00

The human brain has 80-100 billion neurons and approximately 100 trillion synapses. Kudos to IBM for pushing the boundaries of AI (see below)! But we still have a way to go before the digital human brain equates to the flesh-and-blood human brain.

IBM announces experimental cognitive chips that emulate the human brain's ability to sense, perceive, & interact. Each brain-like "unit" has 256 neurons, "an array of 256 by 256 (or a total of 262,144) synapses, and 256 axons."

Click here for more info.

E-publishing tsunami about to hit!

2011-08-15T10:05:00.005-04:00

I used to own a bunch of those O'Reilly books.

Java in a Nutshell
SQL in a Nutshell
Javascript in a Nutshell
etc etc etc

Maybe I just liked the cute animals on the covers.

I still see the books on the shelves of programmers and IT guys -- not that I often see the insides of offices anymore. My days are spent in the Dungeon, where I write books and stories.

I recently came across a post, in which Tim O'Reilly, the nutshell media mogul, talks about the rise of e-books as if we should all expect an e-publishing tsunami. The interview with O'Reilly is by Harvard Library Innovation Lab's David Weinberger. Here's the link.

Eeriecon 2012 Program Book - author's photo dilemma

2011-08-07T10:02:00.004-04:00

With the amazing and talented Catherine Asaro, I'll be a Guest of Honor at 2012 Eeriecon, and I have to supply an author's photo for their program book. I'm leaning toward the photo to the left.

I love this photo. It's so insane!

It was shot in Milan, Italy when I was in a lot of pain. In fact, I could barely stand, and perhaps if I had indeed keeled over, I was in a good spot for it.

On the other hand, the photo below is my standard author's headshot. In this photo, I look a lot better than I do in real life (as anyone who knows me can attest). Behind me are some of the books I've written. Yes, it's a standard, boring author's photo.

I'm going with the crazy candle-church photo, yes!

The Hunger Games Companion - Advanced Reading Copies

2011-08-07T09:31:00.004-04:00

I recently received a few of the Advanced Reading Copies (otherwise known as ARCs) of THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION: THE UNAUTHORIZED GUIDE TO THE SERIES.

I want to share the beautiful cover with you!

Gorgeous! St. Martin's Press does a magnificent job with my books, and it's always a pleasure to work with them. I've had the same editor at St. Martin's since 2000, when he published DRAGONBALL Z, which I wrote with my 10-year-old son.

So what is an Advanced Reading Copy? Simply put, it's a bound copy of the real book -- as it will be appear in bookstores -- except that it omits my proofreading corrections.

Behind the scenes, I have indeed proofread what's called the "galleys" -- the typeset book as it appears in the ARC -- and submitted my corrections. At this stage of the game, the corrections typically are confined to catching typos and other small errors. While I was proofreading THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION, the publisher was printing the ARCs.

When St. Martin's publishes THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION, my corrections will be in the book.

I can't wait for you guys to read THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION! Then we can start talking about Katniss, Peeta, the Games themselves, and everything else related to Suzanne Collins' magnificent series!

NOVEMBER 8, 2011 RELEASE!

Coming soon... in this space... the table of contents and excerpts!

The Hunger Games Companion - everything from muttations to the APOCALYPSE!

2011-07-16T10:39:00.012-04:00

Given that pre-sales are already trickling in for THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION: The Unauthorized Guide to the Series, I might as well post the cover.

(drum roll)

This is one of my best speculative books. I analyze everything related to THE HUNGER GAMES, a series I truly enjoyed reading, and offer theories about everything from muttations to the apocalypse.

NOVEMBER 8, 2011 RELEASE!

Coming soon... in this space... the table of contents and excerpts!

E-worms & Biblioworms

2011-07-16T10:10:00.004-04:00

I'm currently writing a guest article about my book collection for another blog. I've always described myself as a bookophile, although I've never heard anyone else use the word. Before writing the article, I figured it might make sense to look up the definition.

Lo and behold, I could only find one definition of bookophile -- someone who has sex with books!

The word, bibliophile, is more accurate, but it feels too stuffy.

The word, bookworm, is also more accurate, but it feels too 1950s nerdy, as if I should don thick black-plastic glasses with duct tape holding them together.

Perhaps those of us who love to collect and read books are a combination of bibliophile and bookworm. Biblioworm? Bibliobookwormphile?

It occurs to me that with the rise of e-books, we may soon be called e-worms.

I read a wide variety of books and magazines: thrillers, weird fiction, hard science fiction, dark fantasy, horror, literary fiction, mysteries, poetry, sword & sorcery, comics, and nonfiction leaning towards science, art, and history. I read several books simultaneously, supplemented by news and magazines of all kinds.

What you see in the above photo is just a tiny sample of my thriller novels.

Does this mean I'm a thriller bookophile?

Heck, no!

I'm a thriller biblioworm, who is evolving into a thriller e-worm.

History Channel Ancient Aliens - Herbert Nitsch

2011-07-16T09:52:00.008-04:00

I recently flew into New York City to appear on the History Channel's Ancient Aliens program. It was a fun day, full of adventure and interesting conversation.

Some of the most fascinating questions surrounded the feats of Herbert Nitsch. The director asked me to explain how Nitsch freedives down to 702 feet and returns to the surface so quickly without an oxygen tank.

She also asked me if Nitsch's abilities offer evidence of the Aquatic Ape Theory.

Fun questions!

I hope my discussion about Nitsch's technique and the Aquatic Ape Theory make it onto the program -- I think this guy is really cool, and the whole bit about the Aquatic Ape Theory has intrigued me for ten years or more.

Compared to Nitsch, I am no fish; I just flop around in the water.

Surprise newspaper articles!

2011-07-16T09:43:00.003-04:00

Thanks to Dan Glickman for writing a wonderful article about me! What a nice surprise! Dan called me one day and asked a bunch of questions. Little did I know that his article would pop up in 6-8 newspapers.

Article about me in 6-8 newspapers - based on a phone interview.

Here's an excerpt from Dan's article:

Brighton resident Lois Gresh is a six-time New York Times Best Seller, and her two most recent books, BLOOD AND ICE and ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS, are now on bookshelves everywhere. Although she specializes in genre fiction incorporating science fiction, horror and dark fantasy, she has also co-written several books that look at the real-life science behind popular genres such as those of superheroes James Bond and Indiana Jones.

Q: When did you first get interested in writing?
A: Probably as a little child.

Q: What about seriously writing -- submitting things, for example?
A: When I was 16, I self-published a book about poverty, and it sold pretty well, actually. When I was 17 I started writing full-time as a technical writer. When I was 21 or 22, I wrote some novels I really didn’t try to publish, but in my mid-20s I started writing a lot of short stories, and those started to sell.

Q: One of your recent books, BLOOD AND ICE, involves vampires. Why does it seem that vampires are in a lot of books these days?

A: I think they are actually starting to go away, zombies have taken over in the last year or two. But the vampires certainly seem to have had surged back, probably because of Twilight. The book I wrote isn’t really so much a vampire story -- I was specifically asked to put a vampire in it -- it's more of a dark horror, strange science fiction that takes place in Antarctica, the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenees of France. There's definitely a vampire in it, but he's not the stereotypical vampire that sucks blood and makes girls swoon.

ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS - lovely surprise!

2011-07-16T09:37:00.003-04:00

Thanks to Angeline Hawkes for the very kind ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS surprise!

NECON - ARKHAM NIGHTMARES

2011-06-16T12:25:00.000-04:00

ANYONE ATTENDING NECON 2011 is eligible to submit to Arkham Nightmares. The anthology guidelines are on this blog at:

http://loisgresh.blogspot.com/2010/11/arkham-nightmares-eldritch-tales-of.html

ARKHAM NIGHTMARES

2011-05-10T11:37:00.001-04:00

I've received a lot of questions about the status of the ARKHAM NIGHTMARES anthology given the recent death of April Derleth. Please note that the anthology is still on schedule.

Eeriecon Panels

2011-04-27T07:31:00.004-04:00

If you're at Eeriecon this weekend, please stop by and say hello! Here's my current schedule:

Free for All. Panelists discuss their pet subjects with audience input. Hear some lively give and take. Friday, 7 pm
Late Night Talk Show. Jim Gardner, aided by useless sidekick Ed McClink, pries interesting tidbits from guests. Friday, 10 pm
Is the Short Story Dead? Has the novel taken over completely? Are online short stories the answer? Saturday, 11 am
Conspiracy Theories. Are there any that are worth your time? Saturday, 1 pm
When Genres Collide! Combining two genres in one book is a lot of work and make make some fans unhappy. Why do it? Are there tricks to make it easier or better? Saturday, 3 pm
What Lines' Mine? See guests embarrass themselves by not recognizing lines they wrote, taken out of context. Saturday, 5 pm
I Can't Believe You Said That! How do you handle all the social networking, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs? What if someone gives you a bad review? Sunday, 10 am
Reading from ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS - Lois Gresh. Sunday, 11 am
Word Building. How do you go about it? Where do you start? Do you have a formula? What works and what doesn't? Sunday, 12 noon

I-CON PANELS

2011-04-12T12:34:00.003-04:00

If you're at I-CON this weekend, please stop by and say hello! I'm not quite sure how I landed on some of these panels -- I expect that I'll learn a lot about Star Wars and Klingons. Anyway, here's my current schedule:

Author's Reading - Lois Gresh - I plan to read a couple of stories from ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS. Friday from 7:30pm - 8:30pm in SAC 312
Meet the Pros Party - Friday from 9:00pm - 11:00pm in Sayville Room
Author Signing - Lois Gresh - I doubt that copies of ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS will make it to I-CON on time given that Chaosium expects the books on April 14! We should have plenty of copies of other books on hand, though, including BLOOD AND ICE. Saturday from 10:00am - 11:00am in Authors Table 1
Urban Fantasy - Saturday from 4:30pm - 5:30pm in SAC 302
Mythical Themes and Archetypes in Star Wars - Saturday from 6:00pm - 7:00pm in Psychology A 137
Weird Science Fiction, Dark Fantasy, and Horror - Sunday from 10:00am - 11:00am in SAC 302
Mongols to Klingons - Sunday from 1:00pm - 2:00pm in SAC 311
Reboots – The Future of Kicking Around Old Ideas - Sunday from 2:00pm - 3:00pm in SAC 302

SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY WORKSHOP

2011-04-12T12:27:00.002-04:00

I'll be teaching the SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY WORKSHOP at Writers & Books starting on April 27, 2011.

(interesting image courtesy of the Writers & Books catalog)

Science fiction stories--in print and on the big screen--are more popular than ever. Whether you are interested in writing short stories or novels, this workshop will guide you through the challenges of writing tales of science fiction (that extrapolate upon scientific theory) and fantasy stories (that involve elements of myth or magic). Learn all about the genres and sub-genres that make up this thriving literature, as well as how to market your work to appropriate publishers. Participants are expected to share at least a first draft of a short story or one chapter of a novel with the group for constructive in-class critique sessions. The workshop will be topped off with a visit from the Rochester Speculative Literature Association (R-SPEC, http://r-spec.org/).

ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS - EARLY REVIEWS

2011-03-01T09:05:00.005-05:00

"An extravagant gift...devastating genius...and oh, that story, 'Debutante Ball' - in a perfect literary landscape it would now be as well-remembered as Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery'."

---Adam-Troy Castro, SCI FI, official magazine of the SYFY TV channel

"Riveting stories with mind-bending ideas intensely creative!"

---Catherine Asaro, Nebula-Award winning author of The Ruby Dice

"Everything you want in horror fiction."

---Scott Edelman, Five-time Nominee for the Bram Stoker Award, Editor of Syfy's Blastr

"Lois Gresh makes me scared of things I've never been scared of before. In person, Lois seems so nice and ordinary...but in her writing, she's *evil*."

---James Alan Gardner, Winner of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial award

"If you're hoping for surprisingly quirky takes on reality combined with cleverly worded fiction, you're in the right place. One of the cleverest writers out there."

---Nancy Kilpatrick, editor of Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead

"Lois Gresh is a terrific writer and this collection is a terrific book for anyone who wants to read the best in science fiction, dark fantasy, dark humor, and horror."

---Robert Weinberg, Winner of Lifetime Achievement Award, HWA

"Intensely memorable stories...shocking, funny, disturbing. A uniquely gifted writer whose work I have admired for many years."

---Charles Platt, former editor at Avon books & senior writer at Wired

26 Weird Science Fiction, Dark Fantasy, and Horror Stories

From the Publisher (Chaosium):

ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS is the first collection of short stories by Lois H. Gresh, one of the most talented writers working these days in the realms of imagination.

These tales of weird fiction blend elements wrung from science fiction, dark fantasy, and horror. Some stories are bent toward bizarre science, others are Lovecratian Mythos tales, and yet others are just twisted. They all share an underlying darkness, pushing Lovecraftian science and themes in new directions. While H.P. Lovecraft incorporated the astronomy and physics ideas of his day (eg, cosmos-within-cosmos and other dimensions), these stories speculate about modern science: quantum optics, particle physics, chaos theory, string theory, and so forth. Full of unique ideas, bizarre plot twists, and fascinating characters, these tales show a feel for pacing and structure, and a wild sense of humor. They always surprise and delight.

The Future of Arkham House (and Other Weird Matters)

2011-02-16T13:45:00.012-05:00

I recently talked to Bob Weinberg (photo, left) about the plans he and co-editor George Vanderburgh (photo, right) have for Arkham House. Among the other topics we discussed were the upcoming movie by James Cameron and Del Toro - At the Mountains of Madness; Bob's favorite writers and paintings; and some of his fondest sffh memories.

ARKHAM HOUSE

Lois: What are your current plans for Arkham House?

Bob: We hope to publish two books a year if not more, and we are already scheduled through 2014. I hope to schedule books through 2030 soon. Then, the trick will be staying alive until all our titles are published!

Lois: How do you and George Vanderburgh divide the editorial duties for Arkham?

Bob: George reads the initial proposals. If he likes the idea and/or the concept, he passes the proposal on to me. If we both like the proposal, we ask the author for more. So far, it’s worked pretty well.

Lois: Tell us something about your upcoming titles. What can readers anticipate from Arkham?

Bob: As mentioned, we hope to publish two books a year. Our plans call for one entirely new book, either a story collection or an anthology, and one book of older material, hopefully something that ties in with an out-of-print Arkham House title.

NOTE FROM LOIS: Click here for the February 2010 Arkham House Report.

Lois: Are you and Arkham involved with The Mountains of Madness movie from James Cameron and Del Toro?

Bob: Arkham House was involved in licensing the Lovecraft novel for the screen by del Toro. We are not involved with the actual making of the movie, but we do have other movie plans in the future. To be announced at a later date!

Lois: Arkham House traditionally prints high-quality volumes with amazing artwork. Do you see Arkham House pushing into the e-publishing realm, and if so, how?

Bob: Arkham House will be entering the e-publishing market in the next year with some of our most popular titles available as e-books. Depending on sales, we will continue to make books available for the electronic marketplace in the future.

Lois: What is the future of weird fiction? Will we continue to produce Mythos spinoffs? Will we strike out into new weird territory?

Bob: Weird Fiction will always be with us, no matter what. Feeling horrified is one of the basic emotions and will one that will always be written about. I suspect mankind will be reading Cthulhu Mythos stories on the Moon and on rockets to the stars. Some stuff remains part of our literary heritage. Lovecraft never dies!

Lois: Who are some of your favorite writers from the classic Arkham and Weird Tales archives?

Bob: Needless to say, I love Lovecraft. I also think highly of Clark Ashton Smith, Henry Whitehead, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, and most of the rest of the Weird Tales writers published by Arkham House. And I always enjoy stories by Ramsey Campbell and Brian Lumley.

YOUR ART COLLECTION

Lois: Tell us something about your famous art collection. How many pieces do you own? How many are on display in your home? If forced to identify a handful of favorites, which pieces would you select and why?

Bob: I own around 450 pieces of original art. I have nearly 400 pieces hanging in my house at any one time. I do move around pieces from time to time to make sure that everything does get displayed during a year. I like many, many artists but have a special interest in the work of Virgil Finlay. I own around a hundred black and whites and paintings by him. I also like art by Edd Cartier and Lawrence Sterne Stevens very much. I have way too many favorites to list them all. Among the pieces I like the most are black and white interior pieces for "To Follow Knowledge," a story by Frank Belknap Long, art by Charles Schneeman; "The Ship of Ishtar," by A. Merritt, art from the special tribute hardcover published in 1949 with art by Virgil Finlay (5 pieces), and "The Vault of the Beast" a story by A.E. van Vogt, art by Edd Cartier.

NOTE FROM LOIS: Oddly, Bob doesn't mention Margaret Brundage, definitely one of his favorite sffh artists (photo, left - Bob with a Margaret Brundage painting from his collection)

Lois: Most of us know how you started collecting genre art, but how did you evolve into a major art dealer?

Bob: My adventures collecting art and becoming a dealer in original art is described in detail in my ongoing column called "Collecting Art" published by Tangent Online. The articles are posted every month and I’ve written 15,000 words so far on my start as an art collector and art dealer.

Lois: You've met and been friends with a lot of classic writers of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and weird fiction. Tell us about one or two people who are most memorable. How did you meet them, and what happened?

Bob: I’ve been lucky enough to meet a lot of old timers in the SF/Fantasy fields, both writers and artists. I think meeting Edd Cartier, one of the great artists from the 1940’s, had to be one of my greatest thrills. I corresponded for several years with Dean Cartier, Edd’s son about his father’s work, but had never met him as I was living in Chicago and he was in New Jersey. Then I flew out to Jersey for a collector’s convention and it was not too far from the Cartier home. Dean invited me over to visit. I talked for several hours with his father and got to see several hundred original Cartier illos done for the 1940’s pulps. It was an exciting day! Fortunately I was wise enough to bring a camera with me and I took some great photos of Cartier and his art for my scrapbook.

YOUR BOOKS

Lois: Of all the novels you've written, which is your favorite?

Bob: The Termination Node, of course.

Lois: You and I wrote a bunch of "Science of...." books for John Wiley & Sons. I especially like The Science of Superheroes, The Science of Supervillains, and The Science of James Bond. In fact, I would have a hard time choosing a favorite among the three. Do you have a favorite?

Bob: I liked all of our science books. The best one I think was The Science of Supervillains. For some reason, I think that was just the best written of the science books.

Lois: What is your most current book?

Bob: In 2010, I wrote the text for a stunning art book titled HELLFIRE: PLAGUE OF DRAGONS, a mock historical document about the invasion of Europe by a flock of fire-breathing dragons during the 14th century, the history of which was later suppressed by the Church. It was a fun book to write and the art by Tom Wood, a bestselling poster artist, was incredible. It was a stunning book but the publisher, Running Press, did not promote it very well and few people ever saw the book.

FUN STUFF

Lois: Do you still wear goofy ties and socks?

Bob: I still collect ties and socks with comic characters on them. Happily, I do not often wear a tie. I do still wear my crazy socks!

Lois: I overdosed on 5-10 episodes of Star Trek per day for months while writing The Computers of Star Trek with you. You ate breakfast with Captain Kirk every morning. We've seen 'em all -- multiple times. So what's your #1 Star Trek episode? (Don't tell me, Spock's Brain, because I know better!)

Bob: "City on the Edge of Forever" is a favorite of mine, partly because I’m friends with Harlan Ellison. I also liked "What Are Little Girls Made of?" which was written by Sam Peeples, another friend. For Next Generation, I liked "Data's Day" quite a bit.

Lois: Do you ever re-read anything by Louis L'Amour or Robert E. Howard?

Bob: I haven’t picked up any Louis L'Amour stuff in the recent past, as I haven’t done a lot of reading lately. I have re-read some of Robert E. Howard for business reasons and I still enjoy reading his stuff. The good material never goes bad!

Lois: Final question: Conan or Red Sonja?

Bob: I like Conan. Though my favorite Howard character has to be Solomon Kane.

February 2010 Arkham House Report

H.P. Lovecraft E-Books

Editors: John D. Haefele & Martin Andersson

Multiple pirated copies of this definitive text as well as corrupted text are available elsewhere. In addition, this text is essentially in the public domain in other parts of the world since the author died in 1937. This is the first authorized edition and should not be missed. These volumes are suitable for all forms of e-book readers. The entire collection will be available
from E-READS.COM

2011

Deadly Dimensions and Other Blasphemies

by Lois H. Gresh

The Gargoyle and Others: A Shiver of Horror

The novels, novellas & short stories by Greye La Spina from Weird Tales & the pulps.

Edited and introduced by Jean-Philippe Gervais

2012

On the Road to Cinnabar: The Fiction of Edward Bryant, 1970-2010

Collected and edited by Jean-Philippe Gervais

The Arkham Garland: An Anthology of Macabre Fiction

Introduced by David Drake

Contributors: Nina Allan, Griffin James Barber, Leigh Blackmore, Edward Bryant, Ramsey Campbell, Gina Castater, Judith Conly, Sarah A. Hoyt, Ticia Isom, John Kessel, T.E.D. Klein, John Lambshead, Barry N. Malzberg, Melissa Michaels, Sarah Monette, William F. Nolan, Mike Resnick, Mark L. Van Name

The Ghostly Fiction of H. Russell Wakefield

Introduced by Barbara Roden
with Mystery Commentary by Douglas Greene

2013

Arkham Nightmares: Eldritch Tales of the Macabre

Introduced and edited by Lois Gresh

Contributors to date: Mike Arnzen, Gary Braunback, Mort Castle, Nick Cato, Scott Edelman, Cody Goodfellow, Lois Gresh, William Jones, Nicholas Kaufmann, Nancy Kilpatrick, Michael Marano, Mark McLaughlin, Lisa Morton, Joe Nassise, Yvonne Navarro, Adam Niswander, Norman Prentiss, Robert Price, Wilum Pugmire, Darrell Schweitzer, John Skipp, Lucy Snyder, Henry Russell Wakefield

The Blood Princess and Other Shadow Tales

by William F. Nolan

Edited by Jason and Sunni Brock

2014

Seventy-Five Years of Arkham House

Compiled by Dan Boulden

Cthulhu Hat Exchange

2011-01-25T10:36:00.002-05:00

The Sunday night right after ConFusion, my daughter gave me a post-holiday gift: a Cthulhu hat! Oddly, I brought her a very similar gift: a balloon Cthulhu hat that I made in the ESP booth at ConFusion.

BOOKS page - fixed!

2011-01-25T10:30:00.006-05:00

I noticed that a lot of people have been clicking on the BOOKS page tab on this blog. It took me awhile to notice that the book images had been corrupted, but I finally fixed everything. All the book images are fine now. I also added a few reviews of BLOOD AND ICE and the March 2011 release of ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS.

ConFusion 2011 party for BLOOD AND ICE

2011-01-25T08:52:00.005-05:00

Many thanks to everyone at Elder Signs Press for the terrific BLOOD AND ICE book launch party at ConFusion over the weekend. We had a great turnout, sold a bunch of books, and overall, had a lot of fun. I'm especially grateful to Kimba for the fudge, decorations, and support; and of course, to everyone at ESP -- Deborah, Chuck, Christine, Stewart, etc -- for making food, setting up the party, and being such fine people. And thanks to everyone for attending the party!

Below are a couple more photos, the first of Stewart, Lois, and Christine, the second of the ESP panel on Sunday.

BLOOD AND ICE - now available!

2011-01-16T11:35:00.002-05:00

BLOOD AND ICE is now available at Amazon. Look for it this month in all fine bookstores!

Read the first chapter here!

Or better yet, buy the book at Amazon!

[end of obligatory announcement that one of my books was just released]

BLOOD AND ICE - Book Launch Party at ConFusion!

2011-01-16T11:00:00.003-05:00

If you're attending ConFusion 2011 next weekend, please stop by Saturday's BOOK LAUNCH PARTY for BLOOD AND ICE (Elder Signs Press, Jan 2011). Hope to see you there!

BLOOD AND ICE is a terrifying blend of vampire horror, weird science fiction, and lust!

Read the first chapter here!

Or better yet, buy the book here!

Here's my complete ConFusion schedule:

Saturday, 11 am - noon. Offbeat Stories. It's hard to say just what we mean when we say a story or a writer is offbeat. What are the qualities that make a story offbeat? Can a writer choose to be offbeat- are there conscious methods at work here, or is it just something you're born with?

Saturday noon - 1 pm. Author Reading. I plan to read from BLOOD AND ICE and from ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS (Mar 2011, Chaosium).

Saturday, 1 - 2 pm. Characters Other Than the Hero. How are they created? How can they be used to fill out the background of the story giving texture and detail without overwhelming the plot?

Saturday, 3 - 4 pm. BLOOD AND ICE BOOK LAUNCH PARTY.

Saturday evening. Autograph Session.

Sunday, 10 -11 am. Science Fiction as a mind altering substance. A discussion about how readers often read genre fiction to make themselves feel certain emotions or to exercise their minds and how writers can create this effect.

Sunday, noon - 1 pm. Elder Signs Press Panel.

ARKHAM NIGHTMARES: Announcement

2011-01-16T10:34:00.007-05:00

Please note: There is no change in plans. I will accept 10-15 additional stories per the original guidelines posted elsewhere on this blog. This announcement simply lists the 15-20 top horror writers I mention in the original guidelines.

Within a week or two, Arkham plans to announce news about Arkham Nightmares. So without further ado, here is the news as of 01-16-11.

Arkham Nightmares, an anthology of original stories, will include tales ranging from traditional forms of weird fiction to bizarre dark fantasy to freakish psychological horror to moody goth tales to really "out there" science fiction. The emphasis is on stories that capture the mood, atmosphere, and creative strangeness of Lovecraftian cosmic horror.

Editor: Lois H. Gresh

Details at: http://loisgresh.blogspot.com

As of 01-16-11, the writers below plan to contribute stories.

Lois Gresh: Introduction

Michael Arnzen – Four-Time Winner of the Bram Stoker Award

Gary Braunback - Five-Time Winner of the Bram Stoker Award, Winner of International Horror Guild Award, World Fantasy Award Nominee

Mort Castle - Four-Time Nominee for the Bram Stoker Award

Nick Cato – Prolific Writer, Publisher of Novello Publishers

Scott Edelman - Five-time Nominee for the Bram Stoker Award, Editor of Syfy's Blastr

James Alan Gardner – Winner of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award

Cody Goodfellow - Editor and Co-Founder of Perilous Press

Lois Gresh – New York Times Best-Selling Author

William Jones - Publisher & Editor-in-Chief of Elder Signs Press

Nicholas Kaufmann - Finalist for the Bram Stoker Award

Nancy Kilpatrick - Three-Time Finalist for the Bram Stoker Award, Winner of the Arthur Ellis Award

Michael Marano - Winner of the Bram Stoker Award, Winner of International Horror Guild Award

Mark McLaughlin - Winner of the Bram Stoker Award

Lisa Morton - Winner of the Bram Stoker Award

Joe Nassise - Finalist for the Bram Stoker Award

Yvonne Navarro - Winner of the Bram Stoker Award

Adam Niswander - Prolific HPL Writer

Norman Prentiss – Winner of the Bram Stoker Award, Associate Editor of Cemetery Dance

Robert Price – Prolific HPL Writer, Editor at Chaosium

Wilum Pugmire - Prolific HPL Writer

Darrell Schweitzer - Prolific HPL Writer, Former Editor of Weird Tales

John Skipp - New York Times Best-Selling Author, Winner of the Bram Stoker Award

Lucy Snyder - Winner of the Bram Stoker Award

Henry Russell Wakefield - (unpublished 1500 words) A Crystal Pause

Plus 10-15 stories by other writers
Each story will have a frontispiece illustration

MythosCon 2011 Report & Photos

2011-01-10T18:14:00.006-05:00

Many thanks to Adam Niswander for an excellent convention!

The panels were both stimulating and intellectual, and I was fascinated by many conversations and readings. For anyone who's into weird fiction and HPL, this was THE convention to attend. Absolutely superb.

Highlights for me (in no particular order):

Peter Atkins' comments about HPL's literary style
Ramsey Campbell's reading
William F. Nolan's reading
Ken Faig Jr's comment that he really "got" the math in Mandelbrot Moldrot
catching up with Allen Koszowski, one of my favorite artists, whose work is in my office and bedroom
hanging out with Charlie Krank and his daughter at the Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast
having my photo taken with William F. Nolan
listening with Donald Sidney-Fryer to Fred Phillips' poems
attending the Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast and Program Participant Reception
accidentally meeting & sharing a ride with Peter Cannon
discovering a few authors whose work I want to read
meeting W. Paul Ganley's new wife, Terry
finally meeting Robert M. Price and Wilum Pugmire
meeting Ann K. Schwader and Jenna Pitman
Cody Goodfellow's reading
enjoying and being fascinated by everything that ST Joshi said
talking to Tom Lynch
enjoying comments by fellow panelists Simon Strantzas, Richard Dakan, and Richard Gavin

I should have taken more photos -- but I always say that after I come home from a con. Here are the few photos that I did take:

	Ramsey Campbell reading
	W. Paul Ganley and his new wife, Terry
	William F. Nolan reading
	Alan Dean Foster, Walt Debill, Donald Sidney-Fryer, Ramsey Campbell, W. Paul Ganley
	Ron Hilger, Scott Connors, Chuck Hoffman, Ken Faig Jr.
	Matt Cardin, Donovan Loucks, Jason Brock
	William F. Nolan and Lois Gresh
	Lois Gresh and Charlie Krank
	Ken Faig Jr, Steve Mariconda, ST Joshi
	Cody Goodfellow, Ann K. Schwader, Wilum H. Pugmire, Robert Price

BLOOD AND ICE - EARLY REVIEWS

2010-12-23T11:40:00.005-05:00

“It's a cliche to call horror stories chilling, but BLOOD AND ICE had me frozen to my seat. A spoonful of Lovecraft, a jigger of Dracula, and a pinch of John Carpenter, all stirred up with sex and neutrinos and served on ice.”

---James Alan Gardner, Winner of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial award

"Vampire fans are in for a treat with BLOOD AND ICE! If you're hoping for surprisingly quirky takes on reality combined with cleverly worded fiction, you're in the right place. Lois Gresh always surprises me. She's one of the cleverest writers out there."

--- Nancy Kilpatrick, editor of Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead

"Lois Gresh is one of the most talented writers working these days in the realms of imagination - unique ideas, bizarre plot twists, and fascinating characters! Supremely creative!"

--- Robert Weinberg, Winner of Lifetime Achievement Award, HWA

BLOOD AND ICE - JAN 2011 (VAMPIRE NOVEL)

2010-12-16T09:06:00.003-05:00

Weird SF-horror vampire novel BLOOD AND ICE -- Jan 2011 release!

Ignore the incorrect title of the book as posted on Amazon. Weird. They list the title as Blood and Ice Horror Ghost Stories. No, folks, there are no "horror ghost stories" in this book. But there are vampires of a strange new type!

They also list a ridiculous author's bio. The publisher is trying to get Amazon to update the incorrect book title and incorrect author's bio.

In the scheme of things, this is small stuff, but still... VAMPIRE NOVEL! VAMPIRE NOVEL! not ghost stories!

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Ice-Horror-Ghost-Stories/dp/1934501204/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292507450&sr=1-1

Arkham Nightmares: Eldritch Tales of the Macabre

2010-11-23T08:49:00.006-05:00

Arkham Nightmares: Eldritch Tales of the Macabre is now open for submissions to active/pro HWA members, 2011 MythosCon participants, and 2011 Necon writers.

Approximately 15-20 award-winning horror writers have already signed up to write stories for Arkham Nightmares, so this should be a mind-blowing anthology. I have space for 10-15 more stories.

Questions? Please post them here (loisgresh.blogspot.com) rather than via email.

Editor: Lois Gresh, lgresh@gmail.com

How would you like to have a story in a beautifully illustrated Arkham House hardcover? Is this cool, or what?

Arkham Nightmares, an anthology of original short stories, will include tales ranging from traditional forms of weird fiction to bizarre dark fantasy to freakish psychological horror to moody goth tales to really “out there” science fiction. I’m open to strong new voices in dark fantasy, weird science fiction, and horror, as well as to established professionals. I prefer the unique, the strange, the dark.

The emphasis is on stories that capture the mood, atmosphere, and creative strangeness of Lovecraftian cosmic horror. Please set stories in your own worlds & avoid Mythos monsters, Necronomicon, etc.

I've received a lot of tales that have absolutely nothing to do with weird fiction or Lovecraftian mood/atmosphere. Please: no splatterpunk, no werewolves, no vampires.

Note that this is not a Mythos anthology, so no Cthulhu, Elder Ones, or Necronomicon, etc.

Word Count: 3-5K

Payment: Upon publication, a $50.00 honorarium, a special Arkham Presentation Volume of the anthology, an Arkham Medallion engraved around the rim with your name and the book title, and the thrill of being an Arkham House author

Arkham House is the official publisher of H.P. Lovecraft, considered by many to be the finest horror writer of the 20th century. HPL single-handedly invented “cosmic horror,” the paranoid fear of the darkness created by modern science. Monsters from outer space, other dimensions, alternate realities are just a few of the creatures that threaten humanity in his tales of mind-numbing terror.

Quality of content has made Arkham House the most honored and imitated small press in the fantasy field. Established in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, Arkham House produces high-quality volumes featuring the finest stories in dark fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Arkham authors include Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, Ray Bradbury, Robert E. Howard, Greg Bear, Bruce Sterling, James Tiptree Jr, Michael Bishop, JG Ballard, Barry Malzberg, E. Hoffman Price, Clark Ashton Smith, Lucius Shepard, and many others.

Deadline: August 31, 2011

If you send a story but don't hear from me right away, please be patient. I'll read most submissions after the deadline (Aug 31, 2011).

No simultaneous submissions, no reprints.

Submit to:

lgresh@gmail.com (Subject: ARKHAM NIGHTMARES - YOUR NAME)

Make sure to put ARKHAM NIGHTMARES and YOUR NAME in the subject line.

Questions? Please post them here (loisgresh.blogspot.com) rather than via email.

BOOK NEWS

2010-11-08T09:59:00.010-05:00

As 2010 winds down, it's time to report some book news.

BLOOD AND ICE (Jan 2011) -- a weird SF vampire novel!

Join us for the BLOOD AND ICE Book Release Party at ConFusion (Jan 21-23, 2011 in Detroit, MI).

ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS (Mar 2011) -- 25 tales of SFFH

I'll post the book cover as soon I have it.

PROJECT X (late 2011, currently untitled) -- St. Martin's Press

I have 5 months in which to read well over 100 books and write what I hope will be one of my best non-fiction books to date. A killer topic -- loads of fun!

DEADLY DIMENSIONS (late 2011) -- Arkham House

The plot, sub-plots, pov and other characters, settings, and ideas are all in place. I've outlined the first 8 chapters, and I'm cranking along on the first draft. I expect this novel to hit approximately 90-100K words. It's beyond weird and has some of the wildest speculative science and characters of any book or story I've written.

VARIOUS SHORT STORIES (2011)

I've sold several short stories for 2011 release in various anthologies.

ARKHAM NIGHTMARES: ELDRITCH TALES OF THE MACABRE

(anthology editor, 2012) -- all new weird fiction!

OTHER FORTHCOMING NOVELS (2011-2013)

I never identify pre-contract projects that editors have promised to me. However, there's quite a lot of exciting news about to unfold, so... STAY TUNED!

How to Make a Zombie

2010-10-20T10:13:00.001-04:00

Our traditional notion of zombies originated with Haitian Voodoo culture. In fact, the word, zombie, comes from the Haitian word, zombi, which means spirit of the dead. As the story goes, Voodoo priests called bokors studied enough black magic to figure out how to resurrect the dead using a powder called coup padre.

The primary ingredient of coup padre is deadly tetrodotoxin from the porcupine fish, the fou-fou. The tetrodotoxin disrupts communication in the brain and is 500 times more deadly than cyanide. A tiny drop of tetrodotoxin can kill a man.

This weird poison, coup padre, was made by first burying a bouga toad (called a bufo marinus) and a sea snake in a jar. After the toad and snake died from the rage of being confined in the jar, the bokor extracted their venom. The toad's glands held bufogenin and bufotoxin, each being from 50 to 100 times more deadly than digitalis. The bufogenin and bufotoxin increased the victim's heart beat. In addition, the glands held bufotenine, a powerful hallucinogenic drug.

To these drugs, the bokor added millipedes and tarantulas to tcha-tcha seeds that caused pulmonary edema, nontoxic consigne seeds, pomme cajou (cashew) leaves, and bresillet tree leaves. Both of these types of leaves were related to poison ivy. Having ground everything into a powder, the bokor buried the concoction for two days, after which he added ground tremblador and desmember plants; two plants from the stinging nettle family, which injected formic acidlike chemicals beneath the victim's skin; and dieffenbachia with its glasslike needles, which made the victim's throat swell, causing great difficulty in breathing and talking. He then added the sharp needles of the bwa pine.

But we're not done yet...

The bokor next added poisonous animals to the deadly powder. Two species of tarantulas were ground up and added to the skins of white tree frogs. Another bouga toad went into the mixture, followed by four types of puffer fish, the fou-fou carrying the coup padre. The final ingredient was dead, human flesh.

If a family or community despised someone sufficiently, they called upon the bokor to turn that person into a zombie.

After ingesting the coup padre, the despised villager or family member immediately became numb. His lips and tongue went numb first, followed by his fingers, arms, toes, and legs; then his entire body went numb. He was sick with feelings of weakness, floating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, and headaches. Quickly, the victim's pulse picked up, he had trouble walking and talking; and finally, paralysis set in: his breathing became shallow, his heart nearly ceased to beat, and his body temperature plummeted. The victim's body was blue, his eyes were glassy. In essence, the victim was in a coma.

While still alive, the poor, despised victim was buried as if already dead. Because he wasn't really dead, the victim often heard his own funeral and was horrified to suffer through his own burial.

Later, the bokor dug up the body and brought the person back to life. Physically, the person appeared as he did before ingesting the coup padre, but mentally, his mind was gone and his soul was dead. Being traumatized, the victim believed he had been reanimated, brought back to life. As a mindless drone, this new zombie remained under the Bokor's power and did the Bokor's bidding. The bokor gave his new zombie an hallucinogenic mixture of Datura stramonium, cane sugar, and sweet potato. There is absolutely no antidote for tetrodotoxin, so once a zombie, always a zombie.

--Excerpted from Exploring Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials by Lois H. Gresh (St. Martin's Press, 2006)

VAMPIRES AROUND THE WORLD: PART 3

2010-10-13T10:21:00.001-04:00

In Romania, vampires were known as Strigoli, from the Roman word, strix, which referred to the screech owl. It was thought that the strix were demons. Of the various forms of strigoli, the strigoli vii were live witches who become vampires after they died; and the strigoli mort, or reanimated dead. There was also a vircolac, a type of wolf who ate the sun and moon; and this type of demonic being later became known as a werewolf.

Speaking of owls, Lilith from the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament supposedly was a monster who roamed at night as an owl. Adam's wife before Eve, Lilith supposedly became demonized because she demanded that Adam respect her opinions. In fact, the myth has it that she was so demonized that she killed babies and pregnant women at night using her owl form. Later it was thought that Lilith became a vampire who attacked all of Adam and Eve's children.

In the English language, the word vampyre or vampire was first noted in the early 1700s. It may have come from the Turkish uber, meaning witch, and from there, to the Slavic upior or upyr, which became vampyre.

The Eastern European Nosferatu also referred to the vampire. The western world learned of Nosferatu when Bram Stoker wrote his famous novel, Dracula.

In the middle ages, many people blamed the black death--the bubonic plague--on vampires. The plague killed perhaps one-third of Europe and was actually spread by fleas and rats.

In the eighteenth century, a major vampire scare broke out across Eastern Europe. Peter Plogojowitz died when he was 62 years old, but he supposedly returned a few times after dying to beg his son for food. His son refused to help the dead Plogojowitz and was soon found dead himself, followed by several neighbors, all of whom died from massive blood loss. Another famous case of vampirism from this period involved Arnold Paole, a farmer who had been attacked by a vampire and who died while collecting hay. Soon after Paole's death, the local farmers and villagers began to die, as well. Government officials examined the bodies of both Plogojowitz and Paole, and their reports were distributed throughout Europe. Terrified of vampires, people began digging up bodies to examine them for evidence of the undead blood-sucking killers. In 1746, Austrian Empress Marie Therese asked her personal doctor to conduct an investigation into vampirism. He concluded that vampires did not exist, and the scare died down.

--Excerpted from Exploring Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials by Lois H. Gresh (St. Martin's Press, 2006)

VAMPIRES AROUND THE WORLD: PART 2

2010-10-12T09:50:00.001-04:00

From the far east, vampire lore spread from China, Tibet, India, and the Mediterranean to the coast of the Black Sea, and from there, to Greece and the Carpathian mountains: Hungary and Transylvania.

Most vampires in film and literature are based on the Eastern European variety, that of a blood-sucking, sexy creature who returns from the dead. These vampires wear gorgeous clothes and sumptuous capes, and they can turn into bats, at will.

Some of the richest vampire lore comes from Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Poland: the Slavic people. The word, vampir, is related to the Russian word, peets: to drink. When the Slavs migrated from north of the Black Sea, they started converting to Christianity. During the ninth and tenth centuries, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Western Roman Catholic Church were battling for control of overall Christianity. In 1054, the two churches formally divided from one another, and the Russians, Serbians, and Bulgarians went with the Eastern Orthodox Church, while the Croatians, Polish people, and Czechs went with the Roman Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox faction decided that the living dead were vampires.

In the beginning, the Slavic people thought that vampires were created from people who were born "on the wrong day," who died under strange circumstances, who were excommunicated from the church, who were buried improperly. Some people also believed that people born with tails or odd teeth could end up being vampires.

To protect the dead from turning into vampires, the deceased were buried with crucifixes, with their chins held upright with blocks, and with poppy seeds so the numerically obsessed vampires could count and count rather than cause trouble. Other dead were pierced with stakes to protect them. Yet others had their clothes nailed to the sides of their coffins.

To destroy vampires who were roaming the countryside, sucking the blood from villagers, people used stakes, holy water, and exorcism. They also decapitated presumed vampires and burned them. Garlic left in the church was said to expose vampires. Later methods of destroying a vampire included driving a stake through its heart, decapitating the remains, and putting garlic into the mouth. And even later, methods became more gruesome, including bullets, dismemberment of the body, and burning of the remains, with the ashes given to people as preventive medicine.

--Excerpted from Exploring Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials by Lois H. Gresh (St. Martin's Press, 2006)

VAMPIRES AROUND THE WORLD: PART 1

2010-10-11T12:15:00.003-04:00

Vampire lore has been around since ancient times. People in cultures all over the world have believed in these blood-sucking creatures. The ancient Chaldeans in Mesopotamia believed in vampires; as did the ancient Assyrians, who wrote about vampires on clay and stone tablets.

In China, vampires were often portrayed as red-eyed monsters with green hair. In ancient India, vampire legends were evident from the paintings on cave walls of blood-drinking creatures. In some writings in 1500 B.C., the destroyer Rakshasas is depicted as a vampire; and paintings from 3000 B.C. show the Lord of Death drinking blood from a human skull. The Indian Baital vampire is a mythological monster who hangs upside down from trees, much like a bat. The Baital hasn't any blood of its own.

The ancient Malaysians had a vampire called the Penannggalen, which was a human head with entrails. The entrails left the Penannggalen's head to seek the blood of human infants. In ancient Peru, the canchus were devil worshipers who drank blood from children.

In ancient Babylonia, the ekimmu was a vampire spirit who drank human blood when hungry. In Wallachia, the murony vampire sucked blood and operated as a shapeshifter, changing from human to dog to insect to cat, at will. Sometimes, the murony operated in werewolf form.

In Greece, vampires were thought to be winged serpents combined with human females. The ancient Greek strigoe or lamiae were monsters who drank the blood of children. These notions came largely from the lore of Lamia, one of Zeus' lovers; when Hera fought Lamia, the mistress went insane and killed all her own children, then at night, she killed everyone else's children, as well.

--Excerpted from Exploring Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials by Lois H. Gresh (St. Martin's Press, 2006)

My ConClave Schedule

2010-09-28T09:57:00.002-04:00

As of today, here's my ConClave schedule:

Writing 101: what you didn’t hear in Creative Writing class (6:30 Friday Ballroom 5)

Monsters of Today: vampires, werewolves, and zombies (Saturday 9:30am Ballroom 5)

E-media (Saturday 10:00am Ballroom 5)

Author Reading from BLOOD AND ICE (Saturday 1:30 Ballroom 5)

Writing Your First Novel (Sunday 10:00am Ballroom 5)

Preparing for ConClave

2010-09-28T09:45:00.004-04:00

Usually, I don't prepare for conventions. However, I'll be reading from BLOOD AND ICE (Jan 2011 from Elder Signs Press) for the first time at ConClave. You're probably thinking, Oh, she's deciding what part of the novel to read, or maybe you're thinking, She's practicing by reading aloud.

I guess at some point I'll have to do both, but for now, here's what I've done to prepare -- I've assembled a costume for the reading from BLOOD AND ICE. Given that this is a futuristic vampire thriller, I could easily dress as a vampire, but that would be too dull. No no no, I'm going to read from the novel dressed literally as BLOOD AND ICE.

BLOOD AND ICE: Update

2010-08-06T10:26:00.005-04:00

I'm doing the final work on BLOOD AND ICE, which will be published in Jan 2011 by Elder Signs Press. Here's the handy Amazon link.

A year and a half ago, I developed a complex thriller plot that was based largely in Antarctica. I intended to use the plot, which had nothing to do with vampires, for my upcoming Arkham House novel, DEADLY DIMENSIONS. The Arkham deal took awhile to seal, and in the meantime, William Jones of Elder Signs Press asked if I would like to write a vampire horror novel. I was thrilled and said, “Yes!” I ended up not using 90% of the material I had developed for the Arkham book. And I had to twist the remaining 10% around the central notion of vampires.

When writing fiction, I like to veer towards the original. I don’t like to play with anything ordinary. So my vampires had to be something new.

I’ve read a lot of scientific papers based on research done in Antarctica and the Mediterranean Sea. I’ve also read a lot of papers about microscopic creatures and about early Antarctic explorations.

I can’t really explain how everything evolved to form the vampires of BLOOD AND ICE. Many ideas converged, and something new was born. I very much like the main vampire, Fernando Le Sprague, in BLOOD AND ICE, and I’m also fond of a couple of his vampiric friends.

Necon - mini log

2010-07-30T16:20:00.006-04:00

Necon was a much-needed writer's happiness boost. I saw my agent for the first time in ages, and it was wonderful to hang out with her again. I met Tracy Carbone in person and enjoyed her effervescent personality. I met Jan Kozlowski and enjoyed her mutual taste in dance tunes - The Cramps zombie surfin' tracks can't be beat. Boogied at the Danceteria with Doug Clegg and K.A. Laity, & others. Met John Skipp and realized he's a nutty as I am, which doesn't happen very often. Ran into many horror writers that I used to know back in the 90s. IT'S ABOUT TIME! Met a bunch of folks who've entered the fray SINCE the 90s. IT'S ABOUT TIME! Stray interesting fiction opps presented themselves, but we'll see what happens as this is a fickle business. Had a wild-crazy-bad leg seizure the night before I left the con, left me unable to walk for days. In fact, I'm still recovering from it. Ate a lot of university cafeteria food. Beach time was good. I missed most of the panels because I decided to come at the last second (and hence missed programming).

(photo by Gardner Goldsmith - LL Soares on the left in the cowboy hat; Max in the black shirt, Lori Perkins in the flowered jeans, Jan Kozlowski in the green shirt, Lois Gresh in the white shirt)

DEADLY DIMENSIONS - cover art

2010-06-23T07:03:00.003-04:00

I talked to George Vanderburgh late yesterday about the cover art for my 2011 Arkham novel, DEADLY DIMENSIONS. I love his ideas as well as the artist's work. This cover is going to be awesome!

A Writer Dreams about Summer

2010-06-07T09:10:00.009-04:00

How I want to Spend my Summer

1. Sleeping on a beach

2. Snorkeling in warm waters where tropical fish are plentiful

3. Reading for pleasure (thrillers and anything weird-odd-unusual-creative-provocative)

4. Sleeping on the patio in the sun (during the 1% of the summer when the sun shines here, meaning I won't get much sleep this way - but one can always dream)

5. Tending to my plants and flowers

6. Listening to the birds

7. Listening to the rain

8. Gazing at beautiful paintings in art galleries

9. Snuggling with my guy while watching L&O reruns

10. Oh yes, and sipping delicious cold drinks!

How I will Spend my Summer

1. Working in the basement all day

2. Finishing Blood and Ice

3. Finishing Eldritch Evolutions

4. Writing a partial

5. Gearing up for the 2 books that I have to finish before Dec 31, 2010

6. Reading textbooks

7. Guzzling coffee

8. Hoping for a publishing deal with a reasonable advance so I can afford to live!

9. Writing science articles for the university so I can afford to live!

10. Oh yes, and attending various writing conventions, where I will sip delicious cold drinks and have lots of fun!

Lovecraft Walking Tour in Providence, RI

2010-05-10T09:37:00.007-04:00

I was fortunate to be at Brown University in Providence for a couple of days last week and limped around town to see some Lovecraftian sites. My first stop was the John Hay Library (20 Prospect St), which houses a large collection of HPL's manuscripts.

I hoped to spend many hours in the library, luxuriating in the thrill of reading the stories in their original form. I've known for a long time that HPL wrote in "long hand" and loathed typing, so I was interested in seeing how he edited his mss as he created them. Mainly, I wanted to SEE the handwritten stories.

First, the librarian asked me to sign a register: my name, time in, institution I represented. For the latter, I wrote "UR + Arkham House" -- heh, talk about a thrill! Next, she told me to put all of my belongings in a locker and give her my driver's license. Locking one's belongings up while handling original mss is typical in a univ library, so this request didn't surprise me, though I've never been asked to hand over my driver's license. She gave me a huge book (photo below) listing all of the library's Lovecraftian holdings.

I was ushered into a locked room and asked to sit at a table near the librarian's desk. She returned with two large mss-sized boxes, which she kept at her desk. She told me that I could read one ms at a time at my designated table.

I was certain that I was about to see HPL's mss in the original ink!

Lo and behold, the boxes contained poor-quality Xerox copies of the original mss, and I was intensely disappointed.

Apparently, the original mss are rarely "brought out" for view -- only once in awhile as the library rotates its official displays. Oh, such disappointment!

I did read the Witch House, noting how HPL deleted and revised the ms as he wrote it. And I did see the typed version with a few of his handwritten notes on it. I browsed quickly through the boxes, looking at a few other poor-quality Xerox copies, and then gave up. I should note that for HPL scholars, the library is an essential stop, and if you're lucky enough to be in town when the original mss are on display, you'll have quite a treat. It was wonderful simply to visit the library where so many of HPL's works are stored...somewhere in the back room.

I saw the Van Wickle Gate, where HPL supposedly posed for a photo that was labeled "Lovecraft in Brooklyn." I took a photo of the HPL Memorial (a plaque -- see below), that ST Joshi, Will Murray, Jon Cooke, and The Friends of HPL posted in 1990.

I next made my way (limping as if from Innsmouth) to the Samuel B. Mumford House at 65 Prospect St (photo below). This was HPL's final home, and according to the notes at www.hplovecraft.com, is "the home of Robert Blake in The Haunter of the Dark." I was surprised to see that people were living in the house and asked some students working the building across the street if the house happened to be open for public viewing. The students didn't know anything about Lovecraft, much less the house. Disappointed again, I forged ahead on my walking tour.

I visited the Providence Athenaeum at 251 Benefit St, the Henry Sprague House at 100 Prospect St, and the Halsey House at 140 Prospect St. The tour notes at www.hplovecraft.com suggest that both houses might have been the used as the Ward residence in the Case of Charles Dexter Ward (Ward's address of 100 Prospect St and the "haunted house" that literally was at 140 Prospect St).

At the campus bookstore, I hoped to find an HPL section. No such luck, though I did purchase an excellent poetry book. I asked the checkout gal if the town or the bookstore had a central Lovecraft repository. She thought I was looking for "arts and crafts" museums/shops -- she had never heard of Lovecraft. (sigh) Brown does have a terrific campus bookstore -- one of the best I've seen -- though it really should have a Lovecraft section!

My final stop was fascinating. 10 Barnes St (the 2 photos below -- I'm on his HPL's porch in the left photo), which served as HPL's home from 1926-1933. The house is unmarked -- not even a street number -- and is now split into 2 apartment buildings (10 Barnes and 12 Barnes) with many residents. Luckily, a couple of guys were sitting in lawn chairs out front and were kind enough to talk briefly to me about the house.

Overall, there are touches of Lovecraft throughout Providence. While his memory may have faded into the background, his presence still permeates the town. I certainly felt him everywhere: I imagined him penning his stories at night in those houses, imagined him walking down the cobbled old New England streets with their tall houses, sitting in the graveyard, in the library. I could see how Providence provided a remarkable setting for his imagination, the perfect stage for his twisted stories.

The owners of his former homes are very lucky people, imo. Imagine living in one of HPL's houses!

ARKHAM HOUSE LIST (2010-2011)

2010-04-29T10:11:00.007-04:00

Arkham House, the official publisher of H.P. Lovecraft, announced its 2010-2011 list yesterday. For horror and weird fiction fans everywhere, this is huge news.

This post outlines the list and supplies a few details about my upcoming Arkham House book, which will be published in 2011. I'll post more about all of the reprint and new Arkham House books as they're released.

For more details about the entire list, please see George Vanderburgh's blog.

Arkham House Mission Statement 2010 (excerpt from George Vanderburgh):

"In 1939, two successful authors, August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, decided to publish a hardcover collection of short stories by their late friend and mentor, H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft, who had died in 1937, was considered by many to be the finest horror writer of the 20th century, yet no mainstream publisher was willing to take a chance on a volume of his short fiction. Derleth and Wandrei named their new press, Arkham House, after the eerie New England village where most of Lovecraft’s stories took place. Over the next seven decades, Arkham House published the best horror and supernatural fiction in the world."

Arkham is not accepting manuscript submissions!

Forthcoming Arkham House List:

2010 - Baker Street Irregular (new - Sherlock Holmes mystery)
by Jon Lellenberg

The Arkham Sampler (1948-1949) 2 Volumes (reprint)

2011 - Deadly Dimensions and Other Blasphemies: A Novel and Short Weird Fiction (new - weird fiction/horror)
by Lois H. Gresh

The Gargoyle and Others: A Quarto of Horror (reprint)
by Greye La Spina

2011 - The Arkham House H.P. Lovecraft (reprint)
The digital edition in 13 volumes

2014 - Seventy-Five Years of Arkham House

Here's the detailed description of my forthcoming Arkham House book from George Vanderburgh's blog:

Deadly Dimensions and Other Blasphemies:
A Novel and Short Weird Fiction by Lois H. Gresh (2011)

Since the early 1990’s, Lois H. Gresh has tied quantum physics and math to weird tales of dementia, altered realities, and nanotech-flesh conquests. She believes that our perceptions of reality are anthropomorphic visions, that the unknown far exceeds our self-centered views of the universe. Her earliest published stories merged science with the supernatural, producing acclaimed weird tales such as Snip My Suckers, Psychomildew Love, Let Me Make You Suffer, Digital Pistil, Cafebabe, Algorithms & Nasal Structures, Mandelbrot Moldrot, Where I Go, Mi-Go, and many others. Recent stories include There’s No Place Like Void, The Lagoon of Insane Plants, and Julia Brainchild; and the forthcoming Eldtrich Evolutions (2011) collects some of her favorite tales in one volume.

Lois has waited ten years -- since the release of her first novel in 1999 -- to write a no-constraints creative novel springing from her roots in weird fiction.

With Deadly Dimensions and Other Blasphemies from Arkham House (2011), Lois dishes up a book stuffed with the kind of dark fantasies, supernatural oddities, and whacked-out weirdness that launched her career. The novel, Deadly Dimensions, ties quantum physics and math to weird tales of dementia, altered realities, and nanotech-flesh conquests. And the Other Blasphemies are several new works of shorter fiction from Lois H. Gresh: Arkham’s Mistress of the Weird.

Lois H. Gresh is the New York Times Best-Selling Author (2008 & 2009) and Publishers Weekly Best-Selling Paperback Author (2009) of 21 books with 5 more scheduled during 2010 and 2011. Her books have been translated into more than 20 languages and are in print worldwide: Italy, Japan, Spain, Russia, Germany, Portugal, France, Brazil, Thailand, Korea, China, Estonia, England, Canada/French, Finland, Poland, Czech, etc. In addition, they are often featured in the New York Times Book Review, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Science News, National Geographic, Physics Today, New Scientist, and US News and World Report, as well as by National Public Radio, the BBC, Fox national news, the History Channel, and many other television and radio programs. Lois’ teen novels have been endorsed by the American Library Association and the Voice of Youth Advocates. She’s the author of dozens of published mystery/ suspense, dark fantasy, and weird fiction stories. Lois has received Bram Stoker Award, Nebula Award, and International Horror Guild Award nominations for her work.

My deepest thanks go to George Vanderburgh, Bob Weinberg, and April Derleth.

I'll post more about all of the reprint and new Arkham House books as they're released.

Eeriecon Excitement Mounting!

2010-04-14T15:48:00.005-04:00

Next weekend (April 23-25) is the much-anticipated Eeriecon 12 in Niagara Falls. This is one of my favorites cons of the year.

Here's my panel schedule:

Friday April 23

7 pm Free for All

10 pm Late Night Talk Show

Saturday April 24

12 noon The Creative Process

3 pm How Did You Get Where You are Today?

5 pm What's My Line?

Sunday April 25

10 am After the First Saucer Arrives, What Would Really Happen in a First Contact?

More Books!

2010-04-07T14:03:00.005-04:00

Oh, happy day! I received a box of books today from Amazon.

In my early-mid twenties, I read everything of interest in the public library -- both fiction and non-fiction: everything from 12-15 magazines/week to history to exotic plant life to biographies to science to Shakespeare (and the associated study guides) to mysteries to literary novels to poetry to YA novels, etc. It was almost impossible to get certain types of books (literary fiction and poetry, eg) at the library.

My lust for books increased. I needed more, and yet more, to satisfy my bookaholic cravings. Something had to be done.

When I first started selling short stories, I told myself that, after each story sale, I would take a small chunk of the proceeds and indulge in buying books I wanted to read for fun (as opposed to "research"). I became a book store troll, spending absurd amounts of time seeking new novels to read and new authors to follow. Then along came Amazon -- oh my!

I honestly don't read as much as I used to read. I'm so busy reading research materials for my own novels, not to mention working on my own novels, that my pleasure reading has slacked off. (I'm also older and much more lazy. I like to relax and buzz out in bubble baths every day, and I like to take walks and enjoy the trees, flowers, and birds. )

But I still go on a book-buying binge every now and then -- I just can't help myself. And when the box of books shows up at the door, it's like a major holiday!

ZOMBIE LOVE-FEST!

2010-03-23T19:41:00.028-04:00

ZOMBIE LOVE-FEST

As soon as I heard the title, HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF ZOMBIE ROMANCE, I knew that Lori Perkins had a winner. The notion of zombie romance was new, fun, and totally crazy! I loved it.

Lori pulled together a great collection of stories and published the e-antho under her Ravenous Romance banner. She quickly sold print rights to St. Martin's Press, and the trade paper edition of HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE will be available in October, 2010.

HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE at Ravenous Romance: http://www.ravenousromance.com/fantastica/hungry-for-your-love-an-anthology-of-zombie-romance.php

Always up for a good time, it occurred to me that it might be fun to learn what sparked the ideas behind each story. So I emailed the authors on Lori's standard HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE list and asked them to send me short descriptions and optional zombie-dead author photos.

I received some great responses, as you can see below. And the zombie author photos are drop-dead gorgeous.

Feel free to ask about zombie love and any other undead matters that strike you.

I'll ask the first question of our authors, and it's a very basic one: WHAT IS IT ABOUT ZOMBIES THAT TURNS YOU ON AS AN AUTHOR AND A READER?

Lori Perkins, EDITOR
"Once upon a time, in a place called Necon, intrepid editor Lori Perkins was double dogged dared to come up with a single example of romantic fiction about zombies. She took the challenge to heart, and HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE was born. She went back to her romance team at Ravenous Romance, and they too said it couldn't be done. But she soldiered on... putting out a call to the romance and horror community of writers, where she received 110 submissions. The 19 short stories in this collection were the best and/or most original. Zombie love lives!"

Jeremy Wagner, ROMANCE AIN'T DEAD

"I first heard about this anthology when Lori Perkins put a call for it out on Facebook with a link to the Ravenous Romance site. I wanted to write a story about true-love and how love has no boundaries between 2 soulmates--one alive and one...well, undead. By putting my head and heart into my protagonist, I took the journey as a man who lost his beloved wife and got her back from the dead in order to still be with her. That's how I came up with the story, Romance Ain't Dead.'"

Francesca Lia Block, REVANANTS ANONYMOUS

"So I was dating this Werewolf, see? But it turned out he was really a Zombie. And it got me thinking about how without love and art I'd be a Zombie, too. Well things didn't fly with that Zomibe dude. And then along comes this REAL Werewolf and then this freaky Vampire. And it didn't work out with them either. But I get to keep writing; that's what keeps me alive."

Web: http://www.francescaliablock.com/

Jaime Saare, I HEART BRAINS

"When I was told Ravenous Romance was looking for stories to share in an anthology of zombie love, I knew the opportunity was too good to pass up. I wanted to create something very campy and fun, yet sexy and sultry. The result is I Heart Brains, a story about a guy, a girl, a dead husband, and a chance at a better life. It's not the most sensual or heartfelt of the anthology, and has been described like 'something out of the twilight zone', but I had a blast writing it and was thrilled to be included nonetheless."

Web: http://www.jasaare.com/

Elizabeth Coldwell, EVERYONE I LOVE IS DEAD

"I never imagined I'd write a zombie romance until the idea was first floated, because where vampires are always seen as cool, seductive and erotic, zombies are just shambling, rotting husks - or they were till Hungry For Your Love. I was struck by the idea of a couple who seemed destined to be together, but before it could happen, one of them died, and wondered what would happen if that person then came back from the dead. Throwing a live body into the mix, in the shape of Millie's current boyfriend, set up the conflict of having to choose between the two men. Could you really be as appealing to someone after death as you were before it? I also wanted to stick some social satire in there - again it's not something I often write, but the genre is ripe for it. Maybe I was a little influenced by Shaun Of The Dead in the idea that a lot of people live in what's close to a zombified state, but I also remembered seeing a bus drive past late one with a poster for one of the updates of George A.Romero's Dawn Of The Dead/Day Of The Dead films on the side, with the passengers on the top deck looking just as undead as anything from the film. I liked the idea that instead of blindly killing zombies, you might choose instead to integrate them into society as good, honest tax payers, and that it might one day become acceptable to date them. Stranger things could happen..."

Web: http://elizabethcoldwell.wordpress.com/

S.M. Cross, THROUGH DEATH TO LOVE

"Recovering from open heart surgery and feeling a little zombie-like myself, the call to write a zombie romance, seemed the inspiring return to writing I'd been looking for. I'd spent my recovery time listening to my friends bemoan the state of the dating world and so I decided to tackle Freud's question, What do women want (and its less familiar but equally important corollary, What do zombies want)? My story, Through Death to Love, looks beyond the hunger for brains, to the deeper longings of the human and inhuman heart and finds, underneath the rotting flesh we're not so different after all. To love and be loved trumps, brains and terror every time."

Stacey Graham, EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

"Eye of the Beholder was hatched after returning from a trip to New York and staying in Times Square. I had my pick of subjects to mold into zombies, hmmm, some of them smelled a bit off as well come to think about it... The Undead have a sense of humor not normally found in corpses. I loved that though the characters had seen far better days, their capacity to love wasn't diminished by a lack of cooridination on the dance floor. They could still get jiggy with it. Wait. Does anyone say that anymore? Nevermind."

Blog: http://staceyigraham.blogspot.com/

Jan Kozlowski, FIRST LOVE NEVER DIES

"The core idea for First Love Never Dies came out of pairing the zombie apocalypse with the human race’s seemingly endless capacity for evil, specifically in the form of the Seven Deadly Sins. Focusing on two of my personal favorites, Lust and Greed, brought a zombie brothel to mind, which then led into the character back story of an abusive family situation and from there, to the development of a good guy main character to offset the evil ones, both living and undead."

Web: http://www.jankozlowski.com/

R.G. Hart, MY PARTNER THE ZOMBIE

"My Partner the Zombie comes from wanting to use some of the same characters, and the world I built for them, in my paranormal zombie romance novel, Bachelorette Zombie Edition, and smash this into the noir mystery genre. My idea was where would these characters be after the novel, and how was the sexual tension between Matt and Aloha resolved? The short story answers these questions."

Web: http://rghart.com/

Regina Riley, UNDYING LOVE

"Undying Love came as a response to the overwhelming notion that even though vampires are just as dead if not deader than zombies, they are somehow sexier because they maintain their freshness. So, I thought what if a zombie could stay fresh, would he be as sexy as a vampire? Turns out, he is."

Web: http://www.thebackseatwriter.com/

Brian Keene, CAPTIVE HEARTS

Web: http://www.briankeene.com/

Gina McQueen, APOCALYPSE AS FOREPLAY

"I've always been skeptical of zombie romance. It just seemed like a bad idea whose time had finally come. But then I got this glimpse of Ray and Sunshine, and saw the hotness in surmounting the fuck out of disaster together, finding true love in complete catastrophe. There is nothing more bonding than true survival skills shared, and nothing more ridiculous than shambling empty meat-bags that still want to be your significant other. From there -- for me -- it was all brain-squirting, heart-throbbing comedy gold. I hope that you enjoy."

Web (coming soon): http://johnskipp.com/

Lois Gresh, JULIA BRAINCHILD

"I had just seen the Julia Child movie, Julie & Julia, and marvelled at how the French master chef prepared everything from tentacles to sorbet to creamed goat flanks. When Lori told me about her zombie romance antho, Julia Brainchild popped into my... um, brain. I knew my zombie would be French master chef Julia, and I pitted her against arrogant Brain Burger King Dicky Ashford. After tossing in alpaca and llama ingredients and a television chef show, I was ready for the ultimate ZOMBIE LOVE-FEST."

Blog: http://loisgresh.blogspot.com

Steven Saus, KICKING THE HABIT

Blog: http://ideatrash.net/

Isabel Roman, ZOMBIFIED

"Zombies and romance? Are you kidding? That was my first thought. Then the notion of spooky nights and hideous creatues all wrapped up with Scooby referrences and every 1950s B horror movie I had ever seen about the brain eaters sparked an idea."

Web: http://www.isabelroman.com/

Mercy Loomis, WHITE KNITE, BLACK HORSE

"When I saw the call for Hungry For Your Love, I knew I just had to be part of that project. I'm not all that into Romero-style zombies (outside of the movie Zombieland), so I knew it would be a challenge and stretch my creativity. I wanted to find a way to work zombies and voodoo into my own mythology, so I started researching Haitian voodoo. (Fascinating reading, but then, I love research!) Zombies are supposed to be mindless, but I wanted the protagonist to be a zombie. Figuring out the answer to that dilemma was how I came up with 'White Knight, Black Horse.'"

Web: http://www.mercyloomis.com/

Jeanine McAdam, INHUMAN RESOURCES

"I love nerds, I married a nerd. I'm particularly enamored with the process a heroine goes through when she finally realizes there are beautiful blue eyes behind those thick black glasses and a firm ass in those baggy jeans. Even though Rafe Thayer (zombie hunter) always pulls a push door and everyone in town thinks he's an unemployed loser, Claire Defoe soon learns he can put a bullet straight through the eye of the undead and save civilization from Satan's Army like no other. Look for 'Inhuman Resources' and many other great zombie stories in Hungry for Your Love. (St. Martin’s Press, September, 2010)."

Stacy Brown, THE MAGICIAN'S APPRENTICE

Kilt Kilpatrick, LAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH

"My original title was 'Last Freshman on Earth,' but I have to give props to Lori for thinking of the awesome title 'Last Times at Ridgemont High.' The germ of the story started with the opening scene in the teacher's lounge. I woke up at 3 or 4 a.m. with that image in my head; I really liked the mental flipflop between 'whoah, that's sexy/whoah, that's horrible.' When Dana and I watch zombie movies (which is a lot, if you know Dana), we often note that people in zombie movies have clearly never seen a zombie movie. So it was fun having a hero who can't deal with the terrors of everyday school life, but quickly becomes a black belt in zombie apocalypse survival. In fact, I had so much fun with it, I'm quite tempted to expand the story into a full-length novel..."

Vanessa Vaughn, SOME NEW BLOOD

"What inspired me to write 'Some New Blood' was thinking about the intense connection between sex and food. There are so many euphemisms for sex that sound more like cannibalism, when you get down to it. We talk about how someone is so gorgeous we just want to 'eat them up', about how we want to 'devour' someone. We want to be 'eaten out', to be 'skewered', to be 'tasted'. We want love to make us 'ravenous' and 'hungry for more'. My contribution to this anthology is a tongue-in-cheek tale about a zombie couple in the suburbs who hunger for their neighbors' bodies (and brains) in a slightly unconventional way, and how this hunger reanimates their lifeless relationship."

Dana Fredsti, FIRST DATE

"My very first date movie was the original Dawn of the Dead, an event which resulted in a strange association between zombies and dating ever since. So when it came time to write a story for HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE, my first thought was writing about a first date that gets interrupted by the outbreak of a zombie plague. I've also had several friends who've had really lousy experiences on dates they've found through E-Harmony, Match.com, etc., which led to the thought that sharing and surviving the first day of the zombie apocalypse might make for a better compatibility check than online dating services. 'Cause you'd want a guy who'd be there at your side taking out zombie brains, not one who'd lose it and make you do all the work! Hence my story FIRST DATE."

Michael Marshall Smith, LATER

HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE -

Available now in e-format from Ravenous Romance and coming
in October 2010 in print from St. Martin's Press.

"For the purists and naysayers who believe zombies are incapable of feeling anything but an insatiable appetite for human brains, here's a collection of stories that demonstrates the enduring hunger for love after undeath. Even though a zombie's heart has stopped beating, it can still ache with desire."

--S.G. Browne, author of Breathers: A Zombie's Lament

"A wonderfully twisted undertaking (pun intended), HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE is a many-faceted feast of love, loss, sex, heartbreak, rotting flesh, and romance from beyond the grave."

--Christopher Golden, bestselling author and editor of THE NEW DEAD

I'll ask the first question of our authors, and it's a very basic one: WHAT IS IT ABOUT ZOMBIES THAT TURNS YOU ON AS AN AUTHOR AND A READER?

How (Not) to Pose for an Author Photo

2010-03-16T14:37:00.007-04:00

Being new to e-books and blogging, I've been fascinated by online author photos.

Mine (current photo is to the right) is terrible, probably one of the worst head shots in the e-zone.

Some women go to a salon for an upswept do or a downswept "casual yet Hollywood-tease" look. Some apply heavy makeup. Some put on semi-formal evening attire. There are full-face photos, 3/4 profile shots, and that cutesy "prop your chin on your hand" format.

I haven't looked much at male author photos, so I don't have a clue what the guys do.

Like I said, I can't diss other women's author photos because mine is clearly one of the worst ones out there!

My first author photo (see the above left photo) was in Aboriginal Science Fiction, 1998. It accompanied the story, Algorithms & Nasal Structures, in which a computer science grad student programs sheep odors to kill her husband. (I'm not kidding.) I wrote the story while in a computer science grad course and was more interested in how stacks and queues might be used to whack someone than in how they might be used to "deplane fake passengers." The author photo was simply a precursor to the one I have today.

My second author photo (photo to the left) was taken at a World SF convention in LA by Laguna beach. I thought it would be fun to blur my face and make my hair purple because I was just starting to use Photoshop. Hahaha. Such a gorgeous author photo!

My third author photo doesn't even look like me. I mean, the World SF convention photo with the blurred face and green hair looks more like me than this third photo. My mother loves the third photo because I "look so beautiful in it" -- unlike the real photos of me!

This brings me to my fourth and final (to date) author photo (the one on the top right of this page). It's seriously bad with bug-out eyes and a computer screen glow. I snapped it directly from my computer. Surprise surprise, I always go for that glamour!

While I never take my own advice, here are some tips from professionals who prepped me for television spots:

1. Wear lipstick because the camera bleaches your skin, and without added color, you'll look like a zombie. (Otoh, I once had a tv guy liberally apply white baby powder to my entire face and neck.)

2. Don't wear plaids or stripes. (In my case, this is unlikely anyway.)

3. Wear colorful yet "neutral" clothes; ie, no neon pink dots set against an orange background. I was also told NOT to wear black because it promotes the zombie look. (Do I naturally look like a zombie, or what?)

4. Omit large pieces of jewelry. (I rarely wear any jewelry, so this is easy.)

I'll add one more note of my own: If your hair has any red in it, watch out, because on camera, you'll look as if your head's going up in flames.

Word Count Meters

2010-02-27T02:39:00.004-05:00

I'm fascinated by word count meters on blogs. I put myself under enough stress, worrying about word count. If I were to publicly track my progress, my stress level would fly up to 100% and my actual daily word count would plummet to 0%.

I wonder how people handle their meters when they edit 5,000 words out of a novel. Do they reduce the progress count on the public meter?

BLOOD AND ICE: Cover!

2010-02-26T15:58:00.005-05:00

I just received the cover of vampire horror novel BLOOD AND ICE , and it’s gorgeous! I’m currently slaving away on this novel, working toward a June 1 deadline.

LOOK FOR BLOOD AND ICE IN OCTOBER, 2010!

VAMPIRES AND BEEF STEW – Lois at Marta Acosta’s Vampire Wire

2010-02-26T15:57:00.002-05:00

I'm new to blogging - that's obvious, isn't it? Marta, otoh, is clearly a pro at blogging, not to mention a world-class vampire author. I was thrilled when she invited me to guest blog at VAMPIRE WIRE. I'm there today (see the link and excerpt below) and will return in Oct or Nov when BLOOD AND ICE is published.

http://vampirewire.blogspot.com/2010/02/guest-blog-with-lois-gresh-fantastic.html

EXCERPT:

I'm writing this article on a Sunday evening, and it occurs to me that a modern girl should have something better to do than moon about vampires, ghouls, and other supernatural creatures night after night, alone in a basement hole with a keyboard.

On the floor above me, people are eating dinner: the smell of beef stew is wafting through the ceiling, and I can't decide whether it's making me nauseous or hungry. I'm sucking down generic diet cola, not a particularly nutritious meal but definitely on par with what I've been "eating" lately.

A liquid diet? Coffee in the morning, generic diet cola at night...

I started thinking that perhaps I've been writing about vampires for too long!

Today, I finally forced myself to leave the keyboard and my abode. I ventured out to buy a heating pad for my back, which is aching from being chained to the keyboard for 12 hours per day. While at the local Walmart-Target-name a cheap store, I also found black pants, black t-shirts, and black hoodies: nine bucks apiece, so I stocked up.

Wearing all black? Okay, I dressed in all black for more than ten years - back in the day when I was broke and wearing the same thing every day made life easy. I mean, I didn't have to buy pink shirts to go with pink socks; or white shirts that had to be ironed; or pantyhose, skirts, or dresses. I just wore black pants with a black t-shirt and black crew socks (and black underwear) every single day. What a simple (yet somewhat dead) life!

Over the years, I gradually cultivated a taste for more colorful clothes. For five years, I wore neon ankle socks. Then I started wearing solid non-black t-shirts. Wow!

Yes, and I was also eating solid food! For many years!

So why am I now on a liquid diet in black clothes in a basement hole, writing vampire novels?

It's like riding a bike: we never forget how to do that, so why should we forget what it's like to live and breathe vampires 24 hours a day?

If I can satisfy my vampy lust by writing vampy novels, I'm happy. Whether the subject of horror or romance, vampires are sexy and intoxicating.

Of course, I also like zombies (as in my story, JULIA BRANCHILD in Hungry for Your Love: A Zombie Romance Anthology - e-format from Ravenous Romance, Oct 2009; print edition from St. Martin’s Press, Oct 2010).

And female creatures of my own concoction (as in my story, THE LAGOON OF INSANE PLANTS in Ancient Shadows, 2010).

And murder mysteries, thrillers, adventure stories, and... well, I guess that I've written a lot of stories in a lot of areas!

Anyway, please look for BLOOD AND ICE in Oct 2010! For now, Marta is offering one lucky winner the chance to have his or her name used in BLOOD AND ICE.

Be forewarned: You'll be a secondary character and I may have to kill you off (author's prerogative).

I'll be back circa Nov 2010 for a BLOOD AND ICE giveaway contest and to answer questions about the novel. I'll probably be reading HAUNTED HONEYMOON AT CASA DRACULA by my gracious hostess, Marta Acosta, so we can talk about that, too!