Having a very busy fall, so I am reposting the following.
For me, inspiration runs to a fever pitch even as the leaves turn, fall, and the, heady wine-like smell seems to pervade the world. I used to always pen a Halloween story, from grade six or so onward, up through university, and afterward. It is no coincidence that my first novel, Town & Train, was literary horror. So, I am always seeking out Halloween viewing and reading.
Over the years, on this blog, I have made the strong case for Hallowe'en films and comics and books. You can find links to all of these posts below:
Two more days 'til Hallowe'en, Hallowe'en, Hallowe'en ....
It being so close to October 31, I thought I would share my good and interesting October journey.
Let's talk October reads first.
Just finished Renn Graham and Jeannette Arroyo's Blackwater. Originally a web
comic, it is a YA queer romance horror, sort of a mash-up of Stranger Things
(though not retro), Heartstopper and Teen Wolf with alternating art styles!
Crushing on supporting goth character Marcia, a
slightly under-realized young black woman of size. Perhaps another story with
more of her, and protags, jock Tony Price and German kid, Eli Hirsch? There's
room for all that, and I'd read it.
Also Adam Cesare's Clown In A Cornfield, which marries old-and-new-school
slashers, moving at a good clip. As it is YA horror (which I only discovered after reading the novel), Cesare is often borderline
satirical in depicting townies, and any grown-ups, who are alternately inept or
menacing for the most part. But this view of townies grows more sympathetic as
protagonist Quinn widens her view of Small Town, Missouri. She and her dad Dr. Glenn Maybrook have
a shared requisite tragic backstory. Their sudden relocation from Philadelphia
to Kettle Springs allows for new-school/old-school, big-city/small-town
comparisons and juxtapositions, granting Cesare the ability to tell the story
like an old-school slasher in a contemporary setting. Jock Cole Hill, her romantic interest, also grapples with grief, but his story of loss is shown instead of told. It is a curious choice,
considering that whole Cole character is a means to digging into the town's
quandaries and past. Quinn, on the other hand, remains the main character and should have agency or at least a background deserving of
equal attention.
In some ways, Clown is a variation on the Scream
franchise themes, but with compelling characters, action and small-town spicing,
courtesy of Kettle Springs, Missouri. Only recently did I learn it is YA. With
its level of gore and dismemberment, though, it is a closer descendant of
the Netflix Fear Street trilogy than Stranger Things.
For a good laugh, I am slowly working through Grady Hendrix
and Will Erickson's riotously funny Paperbacks From Hell: The Twisted History
of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction. It remains a mood up-lifter of
the most ridiculous sort.
I realized I
never saw all of John Carpenter’s 1981 effort, The Fog, and rented it. It
remains immersive 1980's horror, with tough-sensitive guy Tom Atkins, Curtis
shimmering as free-wheeling hitchhiker Elizabeth Solley. Loved Janet Leigh, saucy 1978 Halloween alumni Nancy
Kyes, cool lighthouse deejay Adrienne Barbeau. All that said, some shots, in
fact many, and the music remind me of Halloween. In fact, director Carpenter
is really cribbing himself for much of the tense scenes, when he isn’t busy
showing the beautiful seaside before the fog rolls in in and the fog machine
really starts gunning in-town. The '76 Ford LTD Country Squire is also a close
cousin to Michael Myers' ride, the '78 Ford LTD Station Wagon in Halloween.
Perhaps Carpenter got a deal on these station wagons, or simply owned one?
Also viddied queer director James Whale’s The Invisible Man (1933); The Old Dark House (1932, also a Whale film). The first is mercilessly dark and twisted, and campy and the second, well, the second is the same, sans a Universal Studios monster. In House, Whale also nods, winks and leers at the queer viewer, passing off strikes as balls, or queer jokes as straight clap-trap, and they’re a joy to detect, each and every one of them.
As well, I quite enjoyed Tom Seeley and Michael Moreci's Revealer, pairing a stripper and religious zealot in Chicago during the rapture. This impressive cosmic-horror endeavour works hard, delivering a great story and performances despite Covid shooting limitations.
Watched Dave Grohl's Studio 666, a predictable but
loving tribute to horror cinema. Like seeing Kiss in the classic 1979
rock-cheese feature Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park, one must appreciate the rock band the Foo Fighters hamming up every scene
to a rather kick-ass soundtrack and crop of cameos including ... Lionel Ritchie?
Blade from 1988 still remains kinetic. Wesley Snipes kicks
fanged-fiend butt, but with some power-level discrepancies and Stephen Dorff
remains a fine Jack Nicholsonesque antagonist. Kris Kristofferson as cranky old
Whistler is still as endearingly irascible as ever.
George A. Romero's 1968 Night of
the Living Dead still wields power over the viewer, as does John Landis’
1981 An American Werewolf in London, although I still maintain it
suffers from a simplistic and fatalistic third act. While Night’s ending
is a kick to the stomach, American Werewolf’s remains abrupt and unsympathetic
to the point of sarcasm.
The last two are revisits. Still
hankering to revisit It Follows, one of my all-time contemporary favourites.
My case for It Follows is here in previous blog post.
Also watching Shudder’s Queer For
Fear. The documentary series traces the lineage of queer or LGBTQ1+
influence on horror and gothic literature and cinema from its earliest days,
from Mary Shelley penning A Modern Prometheus and kickstarting the gothic
and horror genre and onward. While it features an uneven third episode, Queer
is at its best when focusing on a particular actor, a film or film series (Anthony
Perkins in Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock’s portrayal of gay men) or a particular
genre trend (the endless list of exploitative lesbian vampire films in the 1970’s)
or juxtaposing overtly campy or sexual sound bites into the thesis breakdown.
In between all that, trying to finish a review of
a sci-fi collection for U.S. magazine and trying to revise an autumnal story
about a traveling roadshow of horror writers who are down on their luck, and turning
to dark means in their desperation.
Lots of people (okay, a few) ask what Fear Itself, my debut Lethe Press collection, coming Dec. 5, is about.
Here's what my ten stories are about.
"Canadian author James K. Moran's
debut collection of dark fiction offers fantasy, sci-fi and horror shot through
with hope and friendship. Inside, readers will
discover sea serpents among the roiling waters of the St. Lawrence River under
a dilapidated international bridge; a misguided bi mage negotiating with a demon
he accidentally summoned into his dorm; a baby monitor issuing the voice of an
intradimensional dark god; a couple in Picton County fleeing an ancient entity they
cannot see directly that demands a blood sacrifice; queer ghosts haunting a British
nightclub; two salty old ranch hands outside Lethbridge, Alberta, betting on
who is a better shot in what may be the apocalypse; a shape-changing huckster seducing apathetic
suburbanites; a gay rare-collectibles hunter hunted by a being moving between
the Internet, film and fact; a cat-fished giant marauding the backroads of
Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry counties; a gay wine shop manager discovering
more than a dusty Moscato lurking in the musty basement; and a pterodactyl
loose downtown."
Now with a new cover!
Cover and interior design by Ryan Vance.
Pre-orderable at https://www.lethepressbooks.com/store/p635/Fear_Itself.html#/
I am distracted and pensive and sad today. It is my sister Kim's birthday. She would have been fifty-five.This is the weekend, a year ago, when everything changed and we could see time running out on her five-year, stage-four lung cancer prognosis. Me and my family raced home to take care of her and help out my overwhelmed brother-in-law. It soon become a dark time and darker still, but I will always be grateful I could be there for her with my other sister, the health-care pro in her element, my brother-in-law, my nieces, and my parents as well.
I have another book coming out.
It has been a long road, but I am beyond excited to announce my first short-story collection Fear Itself is at last coming from Lethe Press this fall. It's a special blend of mainly horror, with a soupçon of fantasy and sci-fi. Fear Itself includes nine stories in all, a ghost novelette, and story notes. Many pieces have a clear local setting and feature LGBTQ1+ protagonists. While they generally do not meet tragic, pulpy ends, my characters do not make it out unscathed, either.
I will be talking or, rather more accurately, teasing out fun facts about the stories in future posts, and describing some of the road that led to the book's publication, but for now, here's a quick little teaser about one story in the collection.
In “Crag Face”, recently divorced Ray Morley is driving the back roads of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry to Cornwall for a funeral. His deceased friend always believed in his writing, despite never publishing his novel these past few decades. But Ray is waylaid by a sexually-frustrated (and cat-fished) creature of fantasy who has stumbled into our world from a portal in the Back Forty. And it is looking for satisfaction, one way or another.
Fear Itself is available for pre-ordering here on the Lethe Press website.
So, having recently tested positive for Covid-19 has more than put a dent in my semblance of a summer schedule for over a week. I think I had contact in Niagara-On-The-Lake during our recent Ontario vacation, the first such vacation in about three years. The virus is still out there and even though we were diligent, while many others went unmasked outdoors and in, we caught it. Coming through it even now, but this will take time. More to follow once I have more full recovered.
