Halloween Haunts: HAVE A BLUETOOTH HALLOWEEN

Halloween Haunts: HAVE A BLUETOOTH HALLOWEEN

Halloween Haunts: Have a Bluetooth Halloween By Lisa Morton   Bluetooth. Who could’ve predicted ten years ago that Bluetooth technology would be one of the major future advances in the art of the Halloween haunt? But it’s happened, and it’s fantastic. Bluetooth, that nearly-magical energy that allows us to connect our phones to other devices, first entered the Halloween haunt arena a few years ago by allowing haunters to use Bluetooth speakers throughout their mazes. The speakers, which are surprisingly powerful but may be no bigger than a hockey puck or a box of crackers, are controlled by phone apps,…
Final Frame Judges Announced!

Final Frame Judges Announced!

  2025 JUDGES ​The judges for the Final Frame competition are always an essential part of an ever-evolving film family we love to see at StokerCon. Four returning judges and two new additions round out the discerning minds tasked to evaluate the evening’s selections. We’ll have fun hearing them scream along with the audience during an evening of cinematic mindbenders leading up to their prize determinations for Grand Prize, Runner-Up, Best Writing in a Short Film, and more! (in alphabetical order) AARON DRIES is the author of Dirty Heads, A Place for Sinners (featured in 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered), House of Sighs, and Where…

HWA Winter 2024 Horror University Online Session

The Horror Writers Association is pleased to announce our Winter 2024 Horror University Online session! From January 22 to April 8, 2024, Horror University will present ten live workshops and a special presentation for horror writers everywhere interested in refining their writing, learning new skills and techniques, exploring new writing formats, or better understanding the genre. Full descriptions and registration information are available in the Horror University School on Teachable. REGISTRATION IS OPEN NOW!

Women in Horror: Interview with Lisa Morton

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 over 150 short stories, and a world-class Halloween and paranormal expert. Her recent releases include Night Terrors & Other Tales, Weird Women 2 (co-edited with Leslie S. Klinger), and Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances; her latest short stories appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2020, Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles, and In League with…

Halloween Haunts: Weird Women Take on Halloween: Five Early Halloween Works by Women by Lisa Morton

When we remember holiday ghost tales, we probably go to Charles Dickens and the most famous ghost story of them all, “A Christmas Carol”. Think about Halloween stories, and you might imagine that you’d have to wait until at least the mid-twentieth century, when Robert Bloch and Ray Bradbury rolled around. But here’s one of those historical bits that even the most knowledgeable horror fan might have missed: many of the earliest stories about Halloween were by women. That’s right, not long after Dickens tormented Scrooge with Christmas ghosts, his feminine counterparts were setting their spirits loose on Halloween. After…

A Portrait of the Halloween Expert as a Young Woman By Lisa Morton

  Happy Halloween! Today's Best Of Halloween Haunts was originally published last year..... When my father passed away in 2015, I received an unexpected and lovely inheritance: thousands of color slides, many of which featured me as a baby, a toddler, and a child. One of the reasons this was remarkable was because I really thought there weren’t many photos around of me as a kid. My mom only had a handful, and for some reason – even though I remained close to my dad after my parents split up – I hadn’t realized he had so many photos. I…

“A Little Halloween Chat” By Lisa Morton and Ellen Datlow

HWA’s next anthology, the Halloween-themed Haunted Nights, debuts on October 3rd. Including sixteen brand new stories about every horror writer’s favorite holiday, the anthology – published by Anchor Books and Blumhouse Books – recently received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Below, editors Ellen Datlow and Lisa Morton talk about their editing processes, the thrill of finding a great story, and how they’re celebrating Halloween this year. Lisa: When I first approached you about co-editing a Halloween-themed anthology, did you ever think, "Wow, is there really anything left to say about that holiday?" Because I know that thought has crossed…
Halloween Haunts: The Real Creeps, or How to Create Horror Non-fiction Shorts by Lisa Morton

Halloween Haunts: The Real Creeps, or How to Create Horror Non-fiction Shorts by Lisa Morton

One of my favorite pieces of advice for new writers looking to make more sales is to consider trying some non-fiction. As an author who is known for both fiction and non-fiction, I periodically get requests for articles from editors who tell me that for every 300 short story submissions they receive, they get…well, zero non-fiction submissions. I think many writers have this notion that non-fiction requires a different skill set, or doesn’t provide the emotional satisfactions they get from fiction. My answer to that: Then you’re doing it wrong. Certainly some non-fiction is intended to be first and foremost…

Halloween Haunts: Crossing Over: Halloween and Ghosts by Lisa Morton

Ghosts have become one of Halloween’s most beloved icons, and each October we see them manifest in everything from terrifying haunted attractions to whimsical decorations. Haunted locations boast increased traffic, and ghost-themed movies scare up box office dollars. But were these elusive spirits of the dead always a part of Halloween? The answer is a resounding “yes”. Scholars are divided on whether Halloween derives more from the ancient Irish Celtic celebration of Samhain or the Catholic observance of All Saints Day (on November 1st)/All Souls’ Day (November 2nd)…but both of these festivals involve ghosts. Samhain was the Celts’ New Year,…
Halloween Haunts: Tamlane and Alison Gross: Halloween Ballads by Lisa Morton

Halloween Haunts: Tamlane and Alison Gross: Halloween Ballads by Lisa Morton

Although magazines and books like to tell us that Halloween is an ancient festival with pagan roots, the truth is the holiday as we know it is really only a few centuries old, especially in terms of being a night that incorporates dark enchantments and spooky tales. Combining the Celtic Samhain with the Christian All Saints Day and All Souls Day (the latter wasn’t instituted in the Catholic Church until 998 A.D.), references to the holiday are basically nonexistent prior to the 16th century, and those few scarce mentions hardly sound at all like the holiday we love. For example,…
Know a Nominee, Part Six: Lisa Morton

Know a Nominee, Part Six: Lisa Morton

  Welcome to the latest edition of “Know a Nominee,” the interview series that shows you what’s inside the minds of some of today’s best horror writers and editors: this year’s Bram Stoker Award nominees. Today’s update features Lisa Morton, who is nominated in the category of Superior Achievement in a Novel, for Malediction (Evil Jester Press).   DM: Can you please describe the genesis for the idea that eventually became the work for which you've been nominated?   LM: I'm a native of Los Angeles, and this city has a much deeper and stranger history than most people know.…
Women in Horror Month Part Two.

Women in Horror Month Part Two.

Here we are once again on this, our second day of WiHM! Today I'm proud to present the lovely Lisa Morton, a name we all know & love. We share similar thoughts on the subject of female characters within horror fictions novels & tales, as well as the opinion that women should be more forward in their writing. Meanwhile here she is on the subject of the Female Protagonist...       FEMALE PROTAGONISTS IN HORROR A Blog Essay by Lisa Morton     Quick: Name the last horror novel you read with a female protagonist. <Crickets chirp. Distant freeway…

Halloween Haunts: A Halloween Primer for Horror Writers by Lisa Morton

As a Halloween expert, I’ve been asked to do a lot of interesting things. I’ve been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal about the proliferation of sexy Halloween costumes, I’ve jabbered away on the supplements for the Blu-ray release of the movie Trick ‘r Treat, and I’ve been asked by writer and editor friends to fact-check works of Halloween fiction. Most horror writers love Halloween (of course!), and I’m betting most of them know more about the holiday than the average joe. They’ve seen the yearly documentaries, they’ve read enough Halloween-themed fiction to fill a haunted house, and maybe they’ve…

WITCH HUNTS: A GRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE BURNING TIMES by HWA Member Rocky Wood, Lisa Morton (authors) and Greg Chapman (illustrator)

Author: Rocky Wood, Lisa Morton (authors) and Greg Chapman (illustrator) For nearly three centuries, as the Black Death rampaged through Europe and the Reformation tore the Church apart, tens of thousands were arrested as witches and subjected to trial, torture, and execution, including being burned alive. This graphic novel examines the background; the methods of the witch hunters; who stood to profit; the brave few who protested; and how the trials finally faded as Enlightenment replaced fear and superstition with reason and science. The book examines famed witch hunters Heinrich Kramer, architect of the infamous Malleus Maleficarum; Matthew Hopkins, Englandâ…

RAGE AGAINST THE NIGHT — Benefit Anthology for HWA President Rocky Wood

Edited by HWA Member Shane Jiraiya Cummings Under the onslaught of supernatural evil, the acts of good people can seem insignificant, but a courageous few stand apart. These brave men and women stand up to the darkness, stare it right in the eye, and give it the finger. These are the stories of those who rage against the night, stories of triumph, sacrifice, and bravery in the face of overwhelming evil. Rage Against the Night features the megastars of dark fantasy and horror, including Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Peter Straub, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, F. Paul Wilson, Jonathan Maberry, Scott Nicholson,…

HELP! WANTED TALES OF ON-THE-JOB TERROR Edited by HWA Member Peter Giglio

Editor: Peter Giglio Wake up! You don’t want to be late. Shower and shave, you want to look your best. Drink coffee, scramble eggs, you’ll need your energy. Today’s a big day…even if you don’t know why. Within these pages reside 25 terrifying visions from the finest talents in dark fiction. From a call center floor to and undertaker’s slab, a chain bookstore to a dark Christmas with border patrol agents, HELP! WANTED: Tales of On-the-Job Terror removes the veils that protect your psyche, beckoning you into nightmare worlds that will leave your screaming…for more! TABLE OF CONTENTS “The Chapel…

Jack O’ Lanterns

by Lisa Morton This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book Halloween, to be published by Reaktion Books in 2012. If you're not familiar with Reaktion, they do beautifully designed pop culture histories with color illustrations, and Halloween will inaugurate their new line of books on holidays. This section discusses the evolution of Halloween's most beloved symbol. Excerpt from Halloween Around the end of the 19th century, the American Halloween celebration was in the process of acquiring what would become its most popular icon: The jack-o’-lantern carved from a pumpkin. The legend of Jack, the blacksmith who outwits the Devil,…

Stoker Spotlight: Thirteen Questions with Lisa Morton, author of The Castle of Los Angeles

Lisa Morton won the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in First Novel for The Castle of Los Angeles, published by Gray Friar Press. In addition to nearly 50 short fiction appearances in books and magazines, Lisa is the author of two acclaimed novellas, The Lucid Dreaming (which won the 2009 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction) and The Samhanach. She is also one of the world’s foremost authorities on Halloween and has been seen on The History Channel and the Blu-Ray edition of Trick ‘R Treat talking about her favorite holiday. Her first fiction collection,…

IL POSTO NERO – July Links (HWA Italy)

The first episode of Il Posto Nero's link collection is here. In the month of July, Alessandro Manzetti posted an awesome list of articles and interviews for our Italian HWA members and other horror fans in that country. Some come with an English translation, but even if they don't, remember that most browsers offer a "translate" feature. While it may not be perfect English, you'll definitely be able to understand the great information in these articles. Horror Street: Interview with John Everson (in English, in Italian)  Queen Anne’s Resurrection – Journey II – The Voice of Elsewhere with Lisa Morton,…