NUTS & BOLTS: Lisa Morton Discusses Dennis Etchison
By Tom Joyce
Lisa Morton describes Dennis Etchison’s work as a “brain bombshell” that changed her idea of what horror fiction could do. When she was just starting out, Etchison had a major influence on both her art and her career. In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, Lisa discusses Etchison’s writing technique, his influence on her own work, and what writers today can learn from the late horror legend.
Q: Can you tell us a little about Dennis Etchison and his contributions to the horror genre?
A: To me, Dennis is one of the absolute greatest craftsmen of the horror short story. His short story collection The Dark Country came out in 1982, when most of the genre was split between Stephen King’s suburban, East Coast horror on one hand and the glorious excesses of the splatterpunks on the other, and his work fit into neither camp. It was completely unique and was the first time I’d read horror set mostly in my hometown of Los Angeles; it’s not an exaggeration to say that it made me think I might be able to write horror fiction. My all-time favorite short story is his 1993 masterpiece The Dog Park, which is one of those works of fiction that’s like a magic trick — it really gets under your skin and you’re not sure how it was done. Although I also like several of his novels, especially California Gothic, his short fiction is what I think will be remembered.
Q: How did he influence your career?
A: I first met him in the early ’80s, before I’d sold a single piece of writing, and even then he treated me like an equal. Because we were both involved with the Southern California horror scene, we saw each other frequently at signings, meetings, and other events. After I started selling screenplays, Dennis became President of the HWA and convinced me to get involved. In the ’90s, when I decided I wanted to make the move into prose, it was Dennis who urged me to attend my first World Fantasy Convention (it was in Minneapolis that year) and who introduced me to the prominent editor Stephen Jones, who provided my first fiction sale and would go on to become another dear friend. In the 2000s, when I asked Dennis for a blurb on my first novel, The Castle of Los Angeles, he gave me a two-page letter!
Q: What were some of the most important things you learned from him?
A: Dennis treated everyone with kindness and respect, which is maybe the biggest lesson you can pass on to anyone, especially in a writing community that is too often fueled by competition and ego. He also loved to share stories about his interactions with other writers, but he’d tell them in a way that made you feel as if you were a part of the history, too. As a writer, he was meticulous, going over and over every word in multiple drafts until he was satisfied, and I’d like to think I acquired some of that mindset from him, although I have a bad tendency to rush things sometimes.
Q: He had a reputation for horror stories that didn’t hit the regular beats. Even when he did employ a recognizable horror trope, he tended to come at it from such an oblique angle that you barely recognize it. Do you have any thoughts on how he managed to pull that off while keeping readers engaged?
A: Even when he was writing about more recognizable horror tropes, his work is grounded in his own experience. I think about stories like “The Dead Cop,” which is firmly rooted not just in place (the hills and canyons between L.A. and the Valley) but also in time (the tense atmosphere around Southern California just after the Rodney King verdicts and resulting riots). His work engages us because he was a natural storyteller, but I think it stays with us because it just feels so REAL, so lived-in.
Q: He was known for his spare prose, but his stories still tend to be very atmospheric and evocative. Can you discuss how he handled elements such as language and descriptive details?
A: He rewrote everything over and over, polishing and polishing … I mean, we’re talking a dozen drafts, not two or three. I’ve seen some of his old files — astonishingly, he not only rewrote every piece repeatedly, he kept all the drafts — and you can see the slow evolution of the language and atmosphere throughout the drafts, which might be handwritten, typed, or typed with lots of handwritten notes. He was a perfectionist in that sense.
Funny side story about Dennis’s process: he used to pass a school every day where they were always throwing out old student workbooks that hadn’t been completely used. Dennis fished those out of the trash and wrote on the unused pages!
Q: Are there any other particular qualities that you consider distinctive to a Dennis Etchison story? And do you have any advice for writers hoping to emulate him in their own work?
A: As (like Dennis) a lifelong Californian, I love that he finds the darkness in this sunny place. As for advice, I’d say use his example of using your own life experience; write about it honestly. It’s not always easy to write about the horrors that you’ve dealt with on a personal level, especially if you’re tacitly acknowledging any participation in those horrors, but that willingness to go deep is what makes a story great. And don’t EVER think a first draft is good enough!
Q: Can you point to any examples in your own writing where you feel his influence guided you?
A: When I first read Dennis’s work, I wanted to be a screenwriter, in part because most of the horror fiction I’d read up to that point was entertaining but I didn’t find myself really relating to it. But The Dark Country was a brain bombshell for me — here was a writer speaking to me, to things I’d thought about and experienced and been disturbed by. That book — as well as later Etchison stories and novels — gave me the inspiration I needed to pursue prose. My collection Monsters of L.A. not only reveals some obvious Etchison influence, but also includes a couple of the first short stories I ever wrote, which were very much wallowing in an Etchison vibe.
Without Dennis’s brilliant work … well, at some point I would probably have found my way to prose anyway (I didn’t love the world of screenwriting), but I would likely have been a very different writer.
Q: What important lessons did you go on to learn independently of him?
A: The biggest one is perseverance. I think a lot of new writers get disappointed and stop when they don’t get big sales right off the bat. It can take years for a writer to garner a reputation (it certainly worked that way for me!), and you have to hang in there during the lean times and just keep working. You have to focus on your love for what you’re doing.
Q: Do you have any recent projects you’d like us to know about?
A: I’ve just launched a paid newsletter – https://lisamorton.substack.com/ – which will stand alongside my free monthly author’s newsletter but provide in-depth articles on the paranormal and Halloween, two subjects I’m surprised to find I’ve become an expert on.
Q: Where can people follow you online?
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Note: As a beginning writer, I find it comforting to realize that authors I admire were once beginners themselves, with lessons to learn. For the HWA’s monthly Nuts & Bolts feature, I’ve begun interviewing established authors about the mentors and influencers who guided them along the way. If you have suggestions, please contact me at TomJHWA@gmail.com.
– Tom Joyce
Lisa Morton is a screenwriter, author of non-fiction books, and prose writer whose work was described by the American Library Association’s Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror as “consistently dark, unsettling, and frightening.” She is a six-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award®, the author of four novels and 200 short stories, and a world-class Halloween and paranormal expert. Her recent releases include the novella Placerita (co-written with John Palisano) and the Rondo Hatton Award-winning The Art of the Zombie Movie. She also hosts the popular weekly “Ghost Report” podcast and a newsletter about the paranormal (The Whole Haunted World). Lisa lives in Los Angeles and online at www.lisamorton.com .
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.morton.165/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisamortoninla
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/lisamorton.bsky.social
Tom Joyce writes a monthly series called Nuts & Bolts for the Horror Writers Association’s blog, featuring interviews about the craft and business of writing. Please contact Tom at TomJHWA@gmail.com if you have suggestions for future interviews.
