Maria Lima's Blog, page 8

My buddy Chris Golden had issues with Blogger and his  Next Big Thing blog post so he asked a few of us if we’d help him out. That was a no brainer – Chris is awesome so of course I said yes. 

So…most of you probably know this already…maybe…possibly.  There’s a wonderful blog-contagion going on, something called THE NEXT BIG THING.  A blog-hop, they call it, and in it authors are mean to answer a handful of questions about their latest work and then tag five or so other authors to do the same the following week.  As you might imagine, it’s growing exponentially.  I mean, do the math, right?  A month or so ago, my good friend Stephen Volk asked me if I wanted to do it, but I was on a craaazy deadline for my upcoming thriller for St. Martin’s, SNOWBLIND, which is now complete.  Then, a week or so ago, the great and funny and charming and brilliant Dana Cameron tagged me.  I was on a different deadline, no less desperate, but I realized that if I didn’t jump in, I was going to miss the Next Big Thing entirely.  The circus would have passed me by.  Also, I didn’t want Dana mad at me.  Bitch’ll cut a guy.

Of course, I was supposed to have this blog up yesterday, so I may yet face her wrath.

My answers to the questions—and the poor suckers I’ve tagged for next week—are below, but you should also go and check out Dana’s Next Big Thing blog from last week, and pick up her first urban fantasy, SEVEN KINDS OF HELL.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

CG:  FATHER GAETANO’S PUPPET CATECHISM is the third book I’ve done with Mike Mignola.  The prior novels (BALTIMORE and JOE GOLEM AND THE DROWNING CITY) were conceived by Mike.  This one—though it has so many elements that are near and dear to Mike’s heart—was my idea.  We were on the phone one day, talking about our love of puppets and how unnerving they can be, and the idea hit me pretty much fully-formed, which is rare but nice.  It’s short and a St. Martin’s has made a beautiful little book that would make the perfect Christmas gift for anyone who loves fantasy, horror, or just plain weird.

What genre does your book fall under?

CG:  It’s a supernatural story, so you could call it horror, but I think anyone who enjoys dark fantasy would enjoy it as well.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

CG:  Funnily enough, it isn’t the actors I think of when I think of a film version of this story—it’s the style.  I’d love to see it directed by someone like Henry Selick, done like Coraline or Corpse Bride.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

CG:  In the aftermath of a critical World War II battle, Father Gaetano believes that God has called him to teach catechism to a group of young orphans and to restore their faith in God, but he soon finds that it can be dangerous to rely too much on what one perceives as the wishes of one’s creator.  Oh, and there are puppets that come to life.  [Two sentences.  Sue me.]

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

CG:  The book was published about six weeks ago, but was sold at the very tail end of a period of many years in which I represented myself, so the answer to that question is neither.  Shortly after selling the book to St. Martin’s, I signed on with the great, and dashingly handsome, Howard Morhaim, and I feel fortunate to have him in my corner.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

CG:  About a month, I think.  Remember, it’s a novella, not a full-length novel.  I’m not sure how long it took Mike to do the illustrations.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

CG:  I can’t think of any, really.  I’m sure there are plenty and that readers can draw comparisons, but the first thing that comes to mind for me is The Twilight Zone, and not because of the various living doll stories that Serling did.  There’s just something about the subtle alteration of reality, the eeriness, and the way in which that series always used the supernatural to explore larger themes that I loved, and the influence of that show on a lot of my work is clear.  I do think that if you like creepy, then you’ll like this story.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

CG:  It’s got a gorgeous cover and creepy illustrations by my co-author, Mike Mignola, who is not only the creator of Hellboy, but the greatest and truest artist working in comics today.

And those are the questions, folks.  The lovely and ruthless Dana Cameron tagged me this week, but she also tagged three other great writers.  Here’s what Dad had to say about them….

Toni L. P. Kelner: I’ve been a fan of Toni’s award-winning writing since her Laura Fleming books, and wait until you

see her new series, starting with The Skeleton in the Armoire (as Leigh Perry)! I’ll let her tell you about that next week!

Kat Richardson‘s latest novel Seawitch, was #3 on the Locus Hardcover Bestseller list for November! Kat and I got

acquainted via anthologies Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (which Toni edited with Charlaine Harris) and most recently, Murder and Mayhem in Muskego.

Elaine Viets has TWO series: the Helen Hawthorne “Dead End Job” mysteries, and the Josie Marcus “Mystery Shopper mysteries.” Elaine and I are both members of the Femmes Fatales (as is Toni), and she’ll be posting her Next Big thing blog there.

*******************

And now we get to the folks I’m tagging, the amazingly talented writers to whom I have spread the Next Big Thing contagion.  Look for their posts next Tuesday, December 12th!

S.G. Browne’s latest novels are Lucky Bastard (which has a neat little blurb from yours truly, every word of which I meant) and I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus…and you know you need that freakin’ book right now.

Cherie Priest is the author of the hugely successful Clockwork Century novels, including Boneshaker and the latest, The Inexplicables.  She’s also written creepy-as-all-get-out Southern Gothic supernatural tales and urban fantasy, has dynamite fashion sense, and different hair every time I see her.

Caitlin Kittredge is the author of the ass-kicking urban fantasy Black London novels and the YA series The Iron Codex, which has the best titles.  I mean, book two is The Nightmare Garden, that’s pretty damn cool.  She once told me that she’s not ready for the zombie apocalypse but she is prepared for the kitten apocalypse.  Make of that what you will.

Yes, Amber Benson is the author of the Death’s Daughter series of urban fantasy novels, among other things, and yes, she’s an actress-writer-director who has been elevated to the status of cult icon in recent years.  She’s also my little sister, gave me the best nickname ever, and commandeers my daughter’s “princess bed” at every opportunity.

As far as I know, the only thing that all four of these writers have in common is that they have all written short stories for anthologies I have edited, which means they bear the same psychological scars.

Happy Holidays!!!

Human adaptability has never ceased to amaze me…even when it’s my own. I’m not the most “go-with-the-flow” gal you’ll ever meet, as I enjoy my routines. I revel in the steadiness so I can enjoy other things as they change.

This last year has been a true lesson in riding the waves and making the best of circumstances. Learning to live with chronic pain and the ability to modify one’s habits is a tough sell, but a necessary one.

Now that I’m beginning to grok how everything I do must be thought about first, I’m think I’m starting to get the hang of it.

Today, I had to say goodbye to an old friend – My lovely wee Smart car, Simply Red. As much as I adored it, I could no longer enjoy it thanks to the fact that I have freakishly long legs (thanks, Mom!!). Before the fibromyalgia pain, I was able to deal with that fine. I was flexible and driving around was great.

Over the past few months, that’s changed, and the pain just got to be too much. Coupled with a very timely email from my credit union offering 1.49% financing, I knew it was time.

After soliciting advice from family & friends, I found it. The right one. The steady, reliable one but with enough quirkiness that I could still feel like me.

Meet Phil…as in “His first name is Agent” Coulson.

My cane is there for size reference.

Phil is a 2012 Scion xB, purchased at Alexandria Toyota – a group of people whose customer service is unparalleled. I can see why they are constantly busy.

Phil has all sorts of nifty features, and he’s just a base model.

It’s been a heck of a busy day off – no sleep at all last night (thanks, Cymbalta), followed by 9:00 a.m. blood draw. Followed by a visit to the sleep doc (all is great with my CPAP use). Followed by a trip to the pharm as sleep doc gave me Rx for Ambien so I can at least get sleep. Then about 1.5 hours at the dealership.

I think I’m going to do nothing else of value the rest of the day.

More pics of Phil & a farewell picture post for Simply Red

Welcome to our guests, Clay & Susan Griffiths of Vampire Empire fame as they continue their  “What Scares Us” Halloween blog tour by talking about scary places. Comment for a chance to win nifty prizes!

Susan

Clay and I used to write scripts for Monster Creature Feature, an old-time horror host show that starred our good friend, Ormon Grimsby. We loved helping out with the low-budget filming too, and would meet Ormon at his various locations. The studio had set up shop once in downtown Raleigh in the basement of a particularly old building below an antique shop called Father and Son. Disturbingly old, odd collectibles cluttered the space so you couldn’t see all the way to the back walls. Shadows filled every nook and cranny and I tried not to look into those dark corners. The ceiling was low in spots so Clay and Ormon had to hunch over a great deal, while the top of my head just skimmed the low beams which felt like someone was touching my hair constantly. It was just the type of basement where creepy stuff happened in movies all the time, not to mention it was a death trap if a fire broke out.

I was doing fine of shoving those thoughts aside and keeping busy working the fog machine and various low-level special effects. Until ghoulish Ormon decides to tell me some history of the building. “You know,” he says, “back in 1918, an influenza epidemic swept though most of America, including Raleigh.” Yes, I heard that in North Carolina it killed more than thirteen thousand people. I didn’t need to hear any more, but of course that wasn’t to be the end of the conversation. With a wave of his ratty undertaker gloves, he gestured to the dark corners. “So many died that funeral homes couldn’t handle them all. They started stacking the bodies in the buildings. This one in particular. The word is they stored a number of bodies here in the basement.”

And that was it. I hated going to film there suddenly. Now every corner had eyes. The creepy tableau of antique dolls and old furniture seemed to cry out. The touches from the low beams felt human.

I can’t tell you how relieved I was when we moved to a new locale. The sad thing was I really liked the antique store above. They have some great items, along maybe with a ghost or two.

Clay

Susan and I were married in Edinburgh, Scotland. That city has plenty of scary and creepy places, but I found one that went beyond scary to genuinely disturbing. While honeymooning in Edinburgh, I decided I needed to see the skeleton of William Burke. Why, you ask. If you ask that, you don’t know me very well.

William Burke was one of the murderous pair of Burke and Hare, famous for killing more than 15 people in 1828, and then selling the cadavers to Dr. Robert Knox for anatomy lessons. Burke was convicted, thanks to testimony from Hare, and executed. Then his body was surrendered to the medical school to be anatomized and his skeleton displayed in the museum.

Unfortunately for me, Edinburgh has two medical school and two medical museums. I only had time for one and in those days before you could pull out your phone and Google William+Burke+skeleton+Edinburgh+museum, I had to just pick one. The museum of the Royal College of Surgeons was divided into a small public collection and a larger private collection for medical students. At the time, I worked for the Department of Plant Pathology at NC State University as a researcher in the history of science so I informed the museum gatekeeper that I was in town from NCSU and wanted to study the museum’s collection for potential research about connections between human medicine and plant medicine. Yeah, it sounded stupid then too, but it worked. The museum was closed, but they unlocked the door and told me to knock when I was finished.

It was a beautiful space, designed by the famous 19th century architect, William Playfair. And the displays were amazing. At first. Eventually, however, one tired of shelf after shelf, cabinet after cabinet, row after row of anatomical specimens floating in oily liquid. The peculiarly attentive and vengeful faces inside jars began to creep me out. And I saw no skeleton of William Burke.

Finally I had my fill of diseased organs, and frankly even the most crowd-pleasing deformity lost its power to charm. I went to the door and knocked. There was no answer. I knocked louder. Still no answer.

Now, I’ve seen a lot of horror movies. Were those bloated arms flexing their fingers? Did I hear the sound of tiny hands unscrewing jar lids from the inside? Were empty eye sockets turning toward me?

Needless to say, I managed to escape (although how awesome would it be to end this by saying I was writing from inside a display case?). The gatekeeper had merely gone to lunch and forgotten he had a lone guest that day.

I asked him about William Burke’s skeleton? Was it out being cleaned? No. It turns out Burke’s bony remains were at the University of Edinburgh. I had picked the wrong museum.

Or had I? On the way out, I noticed an odd little display item. It was a book. And it was supposedly bound in the skin of William Burke, flayed from his anatomized body.

* * * * * *

Okay, I get it, these two LOVE the scary places, right? As for me, my scariest place isn’t physical, it’s mental…when I’ve run out of ideas. I haven’t found it yet, and hope never to!

What’s the scariest place you’ve been/seen? What was awesome about it?

Hiya, gang!

Awesome authors Clay & Susan Griffiths of Vampire Empire fame will be guesting here on Thursday, October 24 as part of the “What Scares Us” Halloween blog tour.

I totally adore their series and am looking forward to hosting them.

There are nifty prizes, too! So save the date & make sure to stop by!

And this is where I’ll be Friday, thanks to the Cheshyre Cheese club at San Antonio College and Professor Jane Focht-Hansen, one of my oldest friends (we’ve known each other since my senior year at Trinity University). What a great way to return to San Antonio!

The Cheshyre Cheese Club is pleased to announce that on Friday, October 5 at 10 am in the Longwith Auditorium, Maria Lima will discuss her experience becoming a novelist.

At 2 pm in the SAC Writing Center, Lima will present a writing workshop. Limited to 15 students, the workshop is provided at no cost to participants; contact Jane Focht-Hansen 486-1436 for information.

Wow, has it really been a month since I last posted? I guess it has. Dealing with life these days is definitely a one-day-at-a-time proposition.

So this happened:

* The futon frame on which I sleep broke. At first, I thought a leg bent, but then I realized, it was a metal frame piece that had completely broken. Oddly enough, some years back when I first bought this along with the chair version at IKEA, the initial chair frame was broken in that exact same spot. IKEA sent me a new one. Must be a manufacturing defect or something.  

* Kit, in his infinite kitty wisdom (or something), managed to puke up all over my white comforter. Even the comforter cover didn’t help. It soaked through and it’s pretty much ruined. He also managed to ruin a pillow.

I’d been considering doing some reorganizing of furniture–an urge I get now and again, especially as the sun begins moving into Virgo, my birth sign. I want to clean up, clear out and make things look different. Which, if it weren’t for the ongoing fibro flares, might be easier. I’ve got a feeling that the universe is trying to tell me that since I wanted things to look different, it would create a situation whereupon I had to do something – like buy a bed and new comforter.

I’d thought about just replacing the frame with the same IKEA frame – after all, the mattress is still in excellent shape. Only, after thinking about it, I realized that this might happen again in a few years. Instead, I’m going to buy a real bed, instead of a futon…something I’ve not done in nearly 15 years.

Boy, howdy, are beds expensive or what? I don’t want anything fancy, just a frame and mattress/boxspring set. I live in a studio, so a smaller footprint is the key. Even for a full-size bed, to get a decent mattress, I’ll be paying close to $800.

I guess it’s a good thing that I recently got a small stipend check that will, after paying estimated tax, comes close to covering that expense. Oh, well.  The universe giveth & then taketh away. A  friend of mine posted today on Facebook that she’s had unexpected expenses due to vet bills & suchlike, but got a very gladly received small windfall today. So I guess it all balances out.

Still, I’m happy that I do have the funds to do this. So many people don’t.

In other news, still working on audiobooks. Blood Bargain is now available at Audible.com and at iTunes. I’m hoping to finish up Blood Kin by September end, depending on the vagaries of my health.

I have no excuses, just that my life is a series of busy-ness, dealing with health issues and all the usual stuff that makes up, well…life.

The great news, I finished recording Blood Bargain, and it’s now for sale as an audiobook via Audible.com or iTunes. 

Soon, I’ll start recording Blood Kin, for your listening pleasure. ::g::

A lot of folks have been writing me, asking me about the fate of the Blood Lines series. I’m afraid that at this point there are no more books as Pocket isn’t continuing the series. I’m concentrating on the audiobooks right now and am contemplating various options after that. I’m actually not sure at this point. There is always the direct-to-ebook option and I have not discarded that idea at all. I just need to focus on the recordings first and then move forward.

I’m extremely heartened by these emails, though. It’s wonderful to hear from my fans and know that they love the books. So often, we writers send our work out into the aether and don’t get much feedback outside of our editors. It’s lovely to be able to correspond with our readers.

I hope you’ve all been having a great & safe summer!

I have so much I want to say, yet the words are lost in sadness. One of the masters of words, the inimitable Mr. Ray Bradbury died today. He was 91, yet gone far too soon.

A lot of people cite his Fahrenheit 451 as his most seminal work…or at least, the most remembered. For me, it’s the sheer poetry and lyricism of Something Wicked This Way Comes (the opening line of which I quote in this blog post title) or the brilliance of the collection of short stories that introduced his work to me: The Illustrated Man.

Who can forget The Veldt? The Long Rain?

I first read The Illustrated Man at age 10, as a fifth grader at Holy Family Elementary in Parma Heights, Ohio. Though a Catholic school, we had a lay teacher, a young man, who not only wasn’t Catholic (the horror!), but was Greek and all of 23 or 24, fresh out of college. Mr. Koutis (yes, I remember his name) exposed our small class to all sorts of great literature, including that of Mr. Bradbury.

These stories changed my life. The richness of the prose transported me. Reading Bradbury was like sitting down to a ten-course meal composed of everything awesome.

I never had the privilege of meeting him in person. I am so very, very sorry he is gone.

My sadness knows no bounds.

John Scalzi wrote an awesome post entitled: Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is.

I highly recommend you read it – including the 800 comments.

Scalzi’s post struck a strong chord in me (who, according to his game metaphor got the hardcore setting, thanks to being female, Latina, queer).

I find it fascinating and not a little disheartening to see the same old “stop blaming me”, “what am I supposed to do about it” comments from so many straight white males. As an adjunct to that, a lot of “but my life was anything but easy because [insert reason(s) here].

Dudes: you are missing the point by miles. I don’t know if my analogy will help, but here’s an attempt: (and all my points are based on US/Western Culture)

Imagine there’s a pile of cards in play for the game called Life.

The objective is how you play during your journey, not some vague “winning” of the game, since the final outcome is the same for everybody.

Each card represents points a person can play throughout their personal journey. Points can be translated into real world advantages (jobs, money, opportunities, etc.)

At birth, each person gets 1 card to play based on the fact that s/he lives.

If you’re white, you get a second card, if male, yet another. If you are heterosexual, you get another.

Based ONLY on these criteria, at the start of the game, straight white males already have the advantage in having more cards.

No, this doesn’t mean that their entire journey through Life will be easy, simple and without roadblocks, only that they get more cards to start with. Some folks will get extra cards along the way (for money, education, other aspects of Life that affect their journey). That’s a given.

What Scalzi was pointing out that, at the start, straight, white males have more cards to play. What they do with those cards and how many other cards they get are variable.

So, we’re not blaming you for this, it’s just a statement of fact. You (the straight white male) have more cards at the beginning. You can choose to use those cards to lord it over others, or you can choose to stop, think and be inclusive.

It’s up to you.

For those of you who asked “what do you want me to do?” – I will repeat Scalzi’s answer (from the comments) – What do you want to do? It’s not my call. I am not the captain of your underpants.

If you want to sincerely know what you can do to level the playing field, I suggest you start by increasing your awareness–of your surroundings, of the language you and your friends use (do you laugh at homophobic, racist jokes or do you stop them?), of anytime you can reach out a helping hand to someone who is not a straight white male.  Small steps lead to bigger ones.

Some other thoughtful posts on the same topic:

Karen Healy

Steven Brust

(Please note, discuss as you wish, however, like Scalzi, I have the Crossbow of Courtesy primed & loaded…aka, don’t be a dick or I shall have to shoot down your comment.)