Black Figures in Classic Horror Films

This blog post came from a series of posts I made a few years ago on my Facebook group, Classic Camp's Classic Horror Emporium. Being February is African American history month, I thought it would be a good time to honor some of the pioneers in the history of horror movies. I understand there are not a lot of Black people in Classic horror cinema, but in some ways, that makes honoring those who did appear that much more important.

Duane Jones, the star of Night of the Living Dead, was one of the first Black people to star in a role that did that did not specifically call for a Black actor. In fact, he was a last minute replacement for a white actor who left the role. All the racist subtext with his interactions with the character Harry Cooper was entirely unintentional.

But Duane Jones was more than just an actor. He was also an English professor at New York State University, where he also directed plays at their Maguire Theater on Old Westbury campus. Although he is best remembered for his starring role in the previously mentioned George A. Romero Classic, he appeared in other horror films such as Ganja & Hess, Vampires, To Die For, and Fright House, with none other than Grandpa Munster himself, Al Lewis. Jones suffered an untimely death due to heart failure at the age of 51.

No movie or role is more iconic, in my opinion, than William Marshall in Blacula. Don't let that silly title or obvious blaxsploitation era film fool you, this is actually a really good film by any measuring stick, and mostly because of Marshall's iconic performance. It would redefine jump scares for the next 20 years.

This led him to a sequel, Scream, Bacula, Scream, and several other horror roles throughout his career. His deep, booming voice made him a great choice. One of my favorites was when he played The Grim Reaper in an episode of Benson, when Benson has a near death experience. Fans may also recognize Marshall as The King of Cartoons on Pee Wee's Playhouse.

Next up in famous African Americans in Classic horror films is Mantan Moreland! He was a comedian best known for his bug-eyed reactions to anything scary happening on screen. Yes, I am aware that this is a reaction that is outdated and perhaps even offensive today, but he also would have the best funny lines and his delivery was legitimately funny. His most famous role was the recurring part of playing Charlie Chan's driver, Birmingham Brown, but he also had parts in two zombie comedies, Revenge of the Zombies and King of the Zombies, as well as appearing in A-Hanting We Will Go with Laurel and Hardy, and in the serious horror film, Spider Baby in the 1960s.

It is also interesting to note that his comedy at least cracked barriers if it did not break them. He was almost chosen to replace Shemp in the Three Stooges after Shemp passed away, but they decided to go with Joe Besser instead. While I loved Besser in The Abbott & Costello Show, I think most will agree he never really fit in with the Stooges. Would Moreland have done any better? I have a hard time thinking he could have done any worse, but only our imaginations can answer that for sure.

The next Black History Month Classic horror figure is Ernest Morrison (sometimes known as "Sunshine" Ernest Morrison), who is probably best remembered for his part as Scruno in many of the East Side Kids comedies. This includes two horror comedies, Spooks Run Wild and Ghosts on the Loose, both featuring Bela Lugosi. The group most prominently featured Leo Gorcey and Hunts Hall and changed names several times during their very long run. Although Morrison only appeared in the East Side Kids version of the gang, they also went by the names Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, and the Bowery Boys. However, Morrison also appeared without the gang in a serious horror movie, The Ape Man, also featuring Bela Lugosi.

Morrison began his career as a child actor in the early silent version of the Our Gang comedies. He also appeared in a number of other silent comedies alongside such early comedy giants as Harold Lloyd and Snub Pollard. His child roles go all the way back to 1916 when he was only 4 years old, so it could certainly be argued he did break racial barriers.

The next African American history month honoree in Classic horror cinema is none other than the legendary Pam Grier. Although Grier is best known for roles in Blaxsploitation action flicks such as Coffy and Foxy Brown, she also had prominent roles in the previously mentioned Scream, Blacula, Scream, as well as the Ray Bradbury adaptation Something Wicked This Way Comes, as well as The Twilight People, an episode of Monsters, and a personal favorite, Mars Attacks.

One thing to admire about her roles is that she's no scream queen, but a real badass! As Grier once said and is printed in my copy of the book Fast and Furious: The Story of American International Pictures, "I took the parts no other Hollywood actress would because they didn't want to be demeaned or mess up their nails. If I held out for those sweet, pretty, demure roles I'd still be waiting."

Some may resent AIP's jump into the Blaxsploitation market, but when AIP was confronted by the Coalition Against Blaxsploitation, vice president Richard Zimbert noted the money his company threw at Black businesses. "We've got Black publicists. We've got Black people all around the country. We advertise in Black media. Blacula had an all Black cast, a Black director."

The next Black History Month honoree in Classic horror film is the first African American to ever win any Oscar, Hattie McDaniel. Forgive me if this one is a little bit of a stretch, but if finding Black people in Classic films is difficult, and finding Black people in Classic horror films is even harder, finding Black women in Classic horror films is nearly impossible. But McDaniel was a phenomenal entertainer in American history, who was rarely able to display her full potential. Although she was usually relegated to the typical roles available to Black actors during her era, which were most often maids, butlers, and other servants, she was often able to provide a little extra depth to those characters that few of her contemporaries were capable of. Her abilities to achieve this are best exemplified in the film that won her the Academy Award for best supporting role in Gone With the Wind, and it would be about 25 years before another African American would win another Oscar (Sidney Poitier for best actor in Lillies in the Field in 1964 if you're wondering). McDaniel also appeared in a number of all Black cast musicals where she could really display her talents for not only acting, but also singing and dancing.

So what was her contribution to Classic horror cinema? She appeared alongside Bela Lugosi (who's name keeps coming up in this series) in Murder by Television (which is technically more of a mystery / thriller) in 1935. The photo above is a screenshot of Hattie McDaniel in that film where she plays a cook.

The next Black History Month honoree is an unsung hero of the legendary 1933 King Kong, Noble Johnson! He earned billing for his role as the witch doctor in that Classic film, and he even returned to appear in the sequel, Son of Kong, but his Classic horror movie appearances don't stop there. He also returned to Skull Island (well actually, he returned to the Skull Island movie sets, complete with the giant log) for another personal favorite, The Most Dangerous Game as well as its remake A Game of Death, and he had notable appearances alongside Boris Karloff in The Mummy and Murders in the Rue Morgue with Bela Lugosi. Finally he also appeared in the comedy / horrors The Ghost Breakers with Bob Hope, and Mummy's Boys with the comedy team Wheeler & Woolsey.

But Noble Johnson's career goes further than just playing natives. He was a pioneer of what today are termed "race films," movies specifically for Black audiences with all Black casts played at Black theaters in Black neighborhoods from the 1920s to the 1950s.

In a strange case of synchronicity, Noble Johnson was childhood friends with horror legend Lon Chaney (Sr.), and they even rekindled their friendship in Hollywood, even though they never made a film together. Johnson lived a very long life. Although he stopped making movies in 1950, he lived well into his 90s and died in 1978.

Speaking of King Kong, the next Black History Month honoree is notably from the 1976 King Kong remake, Julius Harris. Although I like to remember him for his portrayal of Boan in Kong, the only survivor of the famous giant log scene, I chose a photo of him as Tee Hee a bond villain from the Live and Let Die, because he's probably more recognizable from that film. Yet, his horror credits go beyond these two roles. He had a major role in Shrunken Heads alongside Meg Foster, and had smaller roles in Grave Secrets: The Legacy of Hilltop Drive, and Darkman. He also appeared in episodes of the genre television shows Friday the 13th, the Series, The Incredible Hulk, Amazing Stories, and Eerie, Indiana. Additionally, he appeared in several mystery television shows including the Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries, Murder, She Wrote, Hart to Hart, Kojak, Jake and the Fat Man, and Dragnet (1990).

According to the IMDb, he began his acting career on a dare. He was working as a bouncer in a New York night club where many actors used to go, and he was challenged to try out for a part in Nothing But a Man, and he got it! He then appeared in quite a few Blaxsploitation films, including Super Fly, Shaft's Big Score, The Godfather of Harlem, and Hell Up in Harlem. He continued taking parts well into the 1990s and passed away in 2004.

Another Black History Month honoree is most famous in Classic horror cinema for his role of Hallorann in The Shining, Scatman Crothers! The Scatman had a unique look and voice that made him instantly recognizable in anything he appeared in. A few other genre films he appeared in include the hagsploitation flick Lady in a Cage starring Olivia de Havilland , Twilight Zone: The Movie, Deadly Eyes, and if I can count it as horror One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (well, it's at least horror adjacent, anyway). He also had early genre television appearances in Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Climax! as well as Kolchak the Night Stalker, Bewitched, and voice work in The New Scooby Doo Movies and Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo. He actually did a lot of voice work in animation and he is often remembered as the voice of Hong Kong Phooey. But he is probably most famous for his part as Meadowlark Lemon in the Harlem Globetrotters.

Scatman's real name was Benjamin Sherman Crothers, and he was born in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was also a songwriter, singer, and musician, making him a full entertainer. And here's a bit of trivia; he was born the year Halley's Comet came to Earth (1910) and died the year it returned (1986), a recognition he shares with Mark Twain, but with different appearances of Halley's Comet.

Another Black History Month honoree in Classic horror cinema is a little more modern - Tony Todd. Best known as the title character in the Candyman film series, Todd also had a real breakout when he played Ben in the Night of the Living Dead 1990 remake, but his notable horror credits don't even end there! He also appeared in Vampire in Vegas, Hatchet, Dead of Night, and a 2006 version of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde where he plays the title role. And just how far have we advanced in racial relations when when a Black actor can play that title role?

But wait, there's more! Todd also had appearances in numerous horror television shows, including a late 80s television series of Werewolf, X-Files, Master's of Horror, and he even did voice work for What's New Scooby Doo where he voiced a gargoyle. Then there's the work he did in science fiction and fantasy series, such as several variations of the Star Trek television series, Hercules, and Xena, Warrior Princess, and we finally have someone who can rival some of the Classic genre actors.

Additionally, he did a lot of work on the stage as well, including playing Othello, and that can be great training. Just one more notable horror credit would be in 2016 when he played in an audio drama version of Dracula, again as the title character. Todd has since passed away, but he was taking parts in horror movies and other genres up to the very end.

For the last few Black History Month honorees in Classic horror cinema, I thought I would honor at least a few people behind the camera, starting with a true pioneer in Black cinema, Oscar Micheaux. Long before the Blaxsploitation craze of the 1970s introduced the world to characters like Shaft, Super Fly, and Foxy Brown, and actors like Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, Jim Brown, and Jim Kelly, there was writer, producer, and director Oscar Micheaux, making films for primarily Black audiences who attended Black theaters in Black neighborhoods as far back as the 1920s and 30s. These were pretty far off Hollywood films with pitifully low budgets, but they often took on Black issues of the day like the KKK and being falsely accused of murdering white women.

Micheaux started out as a writer in South Dakota, writing novels and selling them to his white neighbors door to door. Eventually, he decided to make films of some of these stories and things bloomed from there. He made a total of around 40 movies, but sadly, many of these are lost to the sands of time. 

At least a few of them can be categorized as horror films! One whose description particularly caught my eye was A Son of Satan, where a man is challenged to stay the night in a haunted house. Although lost, The Conjure Woman is also bound to have supernatural elements. A few other titles that are eye catching to a Classic horror film fan include The Devil's Disciple, Black Magic, and Phantom of Kenwood.

Although his films are termed "race films" today, any study in film history (including horror film history) should include some notation about Oscar Micheaux.

My last Black History Month honoree in Classic horror cinema I am honoring the director of Blacula, William Crain. Throughout this series I talked a bit about blaxsploitation films of the 1970s and race films of the 1920s and 30s, but it should be noted that although these films gave work to Black actors and were pioneers in creating movies specifically for Black audiences, more often that not, the people behind the cameras, directors, producers, etc., in both cases, were white. People like Oscar Micheaux and William Crain were actually anomalies even in these genres.

Crain only has 10 directing credits to his name on the IMDb, but two of them are horror movies, the aforementioned Blacula, and The Watts Monster, which is also known as Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde. A few other non-horror directing credits under his name include episodes of several famous television shows, including The Duke of Hazzard, Mod Squad, Starsky and Hutch, and Designing Women. Another notable credit is that he was assistant director of the film Brother John starring Sidney Poitier.

There was an excellent interview with William Crain on the Without Your Head podcast, which can be found here.

I hope you enjoyed my look at Black contributors to Classic horror films, and if there is anyone you feel I may have overlooked, please feel free to note them in the comments.

2024 Accountability Post

It's time for my annual accountability post where I discuss how many submissions vs. how many works I had published in the preceding year. I've been posting about my productivity of submissions since 2021 (and it can be read here), but really I have been keeping track of my submissions as far back as 1999. I started putting them into an Excel file since 2010, and I have been submitting larger numbers of works pretty consistently since 2017. You can see my 2022 accountability here, and my 2023 accountability here, if interested.

At some point, I realized that the publishing game is at least partially a numbers game. You have to make large numbers of submissions to see any positive results, unless you want to self-publish. And there is nothing wrong with self-publishing. As you will see later in this blog post, I actually self-published my first short story and poetry collection earlier this year and blogged about it last month. It started a few years ago when I read a blog from an author who said they try to reach 100 submissions per year. It inspired me to see how many submissions I could make each year. While I found I could not reach 100, I did find that 50 was an attainable number. Unfortunately, I no longer remember who wrote that original blog.

So this year, I did not quite make my 50 submissions goal. However, this was because I chose to work on longer works this year. I finally completed my second novel-length manuscript, Blood of the Werewolf, and began submitting it to agents. Additionally, I started working on my next novel, a mussy story titled Osiris. Because I spent a good portion of my writing year working on longer works instead of shorter works, I give myself a pass at not quite making the 50 submissions goal.

So, here are the numbers. I had a total of 41 submissions for publications, which is not too shy of my 50 submissions total. This includes seven book submissions to agents and small presses total, including my first completed manuscript, The Sorcerer, the aforementioned Blood of the Werewolf, and my first completed short story and poetry collection, Classic Camp's Classic Horror Emporium, which I submitted to myself for self-publication. Yes, I am counting that one. This exercise is supposed to be motivational after all. It is available on Amazon here, in case anyone is interested.

The rest of the list includes 22 short story submissions, which was the largest number as usual. I had 11 poetry submissions, and one essay or non-fiction submissions. I had only two successes, and it was a tough year for me for fiction and poetry, especially considering one of the successes was my self-published collection. My other success this year was my article on Fay Wray, which was published at Ravenous Monster.

There you have it. Fee free to see how you measure up. I have a relatively low bar this year for anyone to compare, but that is what I have been up to. I am still out there writing and submitting, but like last year, so far I am concentrating most of my time and energy on longer works. Hopefully, it starts bear fruit soon.

How I Self-Published on KDP

I recently collected a bunch of my previously published short stories and poetry and bound them together in a self-published collection titled Classic Camp's Classic Horror Emporium. It is available now on Amazon here. After doing so, several people asked me how I published through Kindle Direct Publishing, and I kind of stammered through the answer. Not trying to be rude, but it was just one of those things that I figured out as I went along. So, I thought a blog post about how I self-published my first short story and poetry collection would be fitting since I have not blogged in a while.

First go to Amazon.com and sign in. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Kindle Digital Publishing. I actually Googled KDP and found this shortcut later, but it brought me to the same page.  Click the big yellow button that reads + Create at the top. The next page asks what you would like to create, a Kindle e-book, paperback, hardcover, or a series. So far, I have only created a paperback and a Kindle e-book, but it appears the hardcover is pretty much the same as the paperback. I am not sure about how to create a series, yet.

So for the sake of this blog, I clicked paperback. It then asks you type in your book title and subtitle (the subtitle is optional). It is also optional to enter the edition number. You can then add up to nine other contributors, which is important if you ever want to create an anthology instead of a collection (an anthology being a collection of short stories and poetry from different authors and a collection being works from only one author).

Scrolling down the same page a little further, it then asks for a description of the book. For this, I used the forward from my collection. Next, you choose if you own this work or if it is a public domain work. I checked off that I own the work. After that, it asks if there are any sexually explicit images or language, and I checked off no for my work. Then it asks for the minimum and maximum ages for the work, and I chose 12 to 18+ because these works do not contain any real explicit language. They are pretty much PG-13.

Next, it asks for the primary marketplace, and I chose Amazon.com because all of the other choices are international markets. Choose your categories, such as "mystery, thriller, and suspense," or "fiction & literature" from a dropdown menu. This is so Amazon can categorize the work. There are also subcategories and placement to choose from. It asks for some keywords so your book can come up when related words are searched. I chose words like short stories, collection, nature poetry, gothic, etc. You can choose up to seven of them. Then choose if your publication date is the release date or if it was previously published, and finally choose if you want today to be your release date or if you want to schedule it for a future date. I chose the same day, but in the future, I may try to build some anticipation and choose a future date. Click save and continue.

Here you can let Amazon give you an ISBN number or enter your own if you have one. I just let Amazon give me one. Next, choose if your book is in black and white or color and if you want white or cream paper. Then choose the trim size. This is the size of paper your book will be and determines how you will need to format your file to upload. Choose bleed or no bleed depending on if the book has images. This is all laid out in the KDP instructions. Choose if the book cover should be matte or glossy. I like glossy book covers, personally.

Now you finally get to upload the manuscript, and this is where things grew a little hairy. I write everything in Microsoft Word, and through trial and error, I have learned that single space in Times New Roman works well for books, but you can choose whichever font you like. I do suggest single space, however, because it looks more professional. Then click the previewer to see how it lines up. Likely you will need to adjust the margins of the Word document until they align into the margins of the trim size you chose earlier. If you want page numbers, this can also be accomplished by clicking insert, and then going to page numbers and choosing the placement of those page numbers. To adjust margins in Word, go to view and check the box next to ruler, then click and drag the tiny box on the left to where it you want to margins. Click and drag the tiny triangle on the left because the pages have to be centered. Then click the part of the ruler on the left at the top of the page where the shaded portion meets the dark part of the ruler and drag it where you want the top and bottom margins. However, to get the page numbers into the trim margins on Kindle, double click in the top margin to open up the header and hit enter as many times as needed until the page numbers appear within the trim margin. I wound up readjusting my manuscript several times and reuploading it and previewing it over and over until I got everything to line up correctly. I believe there is a way for KDP to do this automatically, but I kind of liked doing this part manually so I know it was done right.

Next, choose the cover photo. Kindle has an option of uploading cover you have already created, or you can choose among the many covers they have created. I chose one of Kindle's previously made covers because I'm on a slow track of learning about this stuff on my own. You can also choose where the book title appears in various styles and fonts. I chose a different style for the title across the same cover image for my paperback and e-book versions, just to have some differentiation.

Amazon also asks you to indicate whether or not generative AI was used in the creation of the book. I obviously chose no.

Finally, choose the pricing for the book. I chose to have my book available in all territories. Pricing, royalties, and distribution gets a little confusing. My first self-published book, a short story titled, "House of Vergosi," which is also included in this new collection, I did not include in expanded distribution because it keeps the price down. This one I did choose expanded distribution because I believe it is available to more people in more areas around the world. I'm still not fully sure what the difference is, honestly, but I do know the book has to have a higher price if you choose expanded distribution. It will tell you what the whole sale price of the book will be and you can figure out how much you want to charge for it to earn a profit.

Finally, click publish your book. It is pretty much the same for the e-book version. Choose the price at the end again, and the break-even price is far lower for e-books. That's how I did it. Every author should try to self-publish at least once just to see what goes into the process. There are other platforms that will allow people to self-publish, but from what I've heard, Kindle is still the easiest and the best way to make any money. Speaking of which, getting the money earned from book sales is another process, which I may blog about at another time. I hope everyone found this process helpful.

Three Things I Learned About Writing From Roger Corman

 

The world recently lost who I would name as the single most influential figure in the history of motion pictures, Roger Corman, but I am not here to substantiate that claim (perhaps I will one day). And before I get too far, let me say I've never actually met the man, but have admired him and his work for a very long time. He and James Whale are my two all time favorite directors, but Corman did much more than just direct film, he also produced and yes, he even sometimes wrote the screenplays. So today's blog is a collection of information I've learned about writing from stories about his work and interviews I've read and seen with him and how he has influenced my own work. Perhaps you may learn something from it as well, or at least hear some neat tidbits about Corman you did not previously know.

Sometimes you need to write a lot very quickly. In case you don't know, Corman is probably most famous for his Edgar Allan Poe adaptations from the early 1960s, which he produced and directed. One of my favorite stories about him concerns filming of The Raven. He had three weeks to complete filming The Raven, and he finished several days early. Instead of breaking up production, he wrote the script for another film, The Terror, and filmed most of it with the same cast and sets for the remaining days of the shooting schedule. In order to do that, he had to write the movie script very quickly, so he stayed up and wrote that entire script virtually non-stop for an 80 minute movie in just 48 hours!

I understand that a novel is much longer than a film script, in most cases, but it inspired me to see just how productive I could be when I really set my mind to it. So I once set myself a schedule to try and punch out a rough draft of a novel within Corman's film shooting schedule of just three weeks. That was one of the most productive writing bursts I have ever had before or since. I wrote up to four chapters per day. And I succeeded in (a very crappy) completed rough draft in just three weeks time. It had to be edited heavily before I could send it out to agents or publishers, but eventually, that rough draft became The Sorcerer, my first completed novel-length manuscript, which has at least garnered some interest with a publisher, but as of this time, is not yet published.

There is no writer's block. Roger Corman did not believe in writer's block. I believe there is such a thing as writer's block but it can be overcome, and anyone who wants to be a writer must find ways to overcome it. That does not mean that I do not occasionally sit in front my of computer staring at the scene for hours during a writing session. But I have my own methods of overcoming that. Corman's take on overcoming writer's block was actually quite simple, and would probably work for fiction writers in most instances. He once said (and I am paraphrasing here), if you are suffering from writer's block, simply watch a movie and change all the nouns. I would modify that to reading a book or a short story. Chances are, in my experience, when you are done "changing all the nouns" as Corman put it, you will end up changing a lot more as well. You will not be able to help changing other attributes about those characters and locations and other nouns and events in the story as well. In other words, you will likely wind up with a completely different story that was simply inspired by the story you set out to recreate.

Now, I'm pretty sure your next question is whether or not I have ever used that method of overcoming writer's block. My simple is answer is that those files are sealed and marked as highly classified.

Follow your passions. Look at Roger Corman's body of work and you will see he did a lot of genre work, mostly horror with some science fiction, but also some westerns, biker films, gangster films, etc. He even did a number of parodies, sometimes parodying his own work. You can see what his interests are from his body of work. It is no secret. He wrote about his interests, his passions. His passions were known to all, just by looking at even a small portion of the body of his work.

One of the things that first drew me to Roger Corman was that I have similar interests, particularly with horror and science fiction. It is also easy to discover my own interests by looking at my body of work, or by looking at my Facebook group, Classic Camp's Classic Horror Emporium https://www.facebook.com/share/h6TNimwEL5Zh8DxQ/. 

So there you have it, three writing tips I learned from film director, producer, and screenwriter Roger Corman. I think they can be useful to any aspiring, or perhaps even a few experienced, writers. Feel free to leave comments below on your thoughts about this, Corman, or anything else.

I'm About to Become a Full-Time Writer (For 3 Months [Again])

 I hold three jobs that actually pay the bills. Like most writers, I like to consider my writing a job, a fourth job in my case. Sometimes I consider my membership to the HWA still a fifth job, since I attend meetings, and am the Virginia chapter's events coordinator, but it does not pay me any money. In fact, it costs me a little in membership fees, but I enjoy it nonetheless, and it does provide me connections and opportunities to the publishing world. My main gig that pays the pills is teaching as adjunct faculty at two higher education institutions, which means my summers are (mostly) off. I have a third job that pays a few bills, and I continue working there during the summers, but I still work far fewer hours during the summer months than I do during the school year.

So one of the main things I do during the summer is write, and write a lot more than I do at any other time of the year. It is my most productive season. Most of the short stories, poetry, and non-fiction projects I've published in the past were written during the summer months. That does not mean I do not write at all during other times of the year, but I do have months where I can devote more time to writing and publishing than other moths. My annual writing schedule is something like this:

January: I'm off the the few weeks, but recovering from the holidays. I still find quite a bit of time for writing.

February and March: Early in the semester, I have some time for writing, but once essays start coming in that need grading, my writing time starts to dwindle.

April: Essays pile up to nearly unmanageable levels. Very little writing gets done.

May: First half of the month is finishing up finals and grading, but once final grades are posted I write nearly a full time schedule.

June, July, and August: The nearly full time schedule continues and I can usually be pretty productive during the summer month. Even when classes first start up in late August, not much needs grading yet, so I still find quite a bit of time for writing.

September and October: Since I write primarily horror, these can also be particularly busy months, attending cons as well as classwork starting to pile up. Still, because I primarily write horror, it is also a particularly inspiring time of the year, so I can usually continue to work in at least some writing time.

November: Essays and other classwork piles up again, so not as much writing gets done, with the exception of Thanksgiving break.

December: Not much gets done in the beginning of the month, and after classes end, I usually plan a trip to see family for the holidays, but I still usually work in a decent amount writing time after the fall semester ends.

And if you don't think there's that much grading to do when teaching college English, here is a photo of a stack of items needing grading I took in days before everything was turned in digitally:

I read about 1000 pages of student writing per semester. I could be reading War and Peace twice annually.

But then the summer comes and I get to pretend to be a full-time writer for three months out of the year (albeit a very poor one, since I also do not get paid over the summer). Still, I always feel as though I could have and perhaps should have been more productive during those summer months. I do create an annual summer writing to-do list (along with a summer honey-do list I make up with the wife, where I work around the house and complete some household chores that need attention). So that end, (um, the writing one, not the honey-do list), I thought perhaps if I published my summer writing to-do list here, I will hold myself accountable and be more productive this summer than in years past, so to that end here it is:

1. Make a Word file of all my class notes, (One school I teach at is changing over from Blackboard regular to Blackboard Ultra, so my files may not be good any longer. Besides, I have been meaning to do this for a while now. I even applied for a stipend to have my notes published as an Open Educational Resource)
2. Finish putting together the short story and poetry collection for self-publication. This is a project I started during the spring semester, and it is pretty close to being finished already. It will feature most (but not all) of my previously published short stories and poems, and a few new short stories I have been shopping around for a while, and have decided to add to the collection.
3. Finish editing Blood of the Werewolf. It is so close to being ready to send to an agent or publisher. It only needs about 50 more pages of editing, and maybe one last quick passthrough for continuity. This is a top priority this summer.
4. Work on a rough draft of Osiris, the next in my series of historical horror tragedies. I'm thinking about joining Camp Nano to punch out a good portion of a rough draft in July.
5. Edit the short story "The Vampire's Coffin" which I did for a writing group recently. It's pretty short, so this should not take very long.
6. Finish that next section of Franksploitation non-fiction book and write the proposal on Frankenstein in film. I'm embarrassed at how many years this appears on the list and does not get done. Especially, since the sample chapters are actually pretty close to finished.
7. Edit and resubmit a non-fiction article on Ed Wood to a literary magazine. I have done this a few times, but still have not found the right market for it.

Aside from all that, I will continue to do my usual submitting more poetry and short stories to various publications. Chances are I will still not get all of this done even this summer, but it never hurts to shoot high. My hope is that publishing it here will help make me more accountable and hopefully more productive this summer.

How Long Have I been Editing My Current Novel? (It's Complicated)

 

Not long ago, I was in a monthly meeting with the HWA - Virginia Chapter when I was asked how long I had been editing my current work in progress (WIP), and I was not ready with an answer. I am sure whatever I said sounded evasive, but honestly, I had to think about that question for a while, and was not quite sure what the answer was. The more I thought about it, the more I felt it may make for an interesting blog post about my process and since this is apparently going to be my second completed manuscript ready for submission to agents and / or publishers very soon, it may also make for great promotion for this labor of love.

The current project is titled Blood of the Werewolf, and as the title suggests, it is a werewolf tale. The setting is the early 1800s Great Britain (with a few key scenes in Tibet), which places it in the same universe as my first completed manuscript, The Sorcerer, which is still under consideration at a small press publisher at the time of this writing. I will one day blog about why I have chosen that location and timeframe, but the short version of that answer is, it is the era of literature I studied in college.

Anyway, I began my college career in the mid-1990s and it was around this same timeframe that I started thinking about becoming a author. It turns out to be a very long, hard, and slow process. One thing I did for fun and practice was to write novelizations of some of my favorite horror movies, such as those from Universal Studios. I had no intention of getting these published, but it was a way to try my chops at writing something of some length.

It made me start to think about writing my own stories about vampires, werewolves, and mummies, so I started writing a few longer pieces, more so for my own amusement once again than with any intension of trying to get it published. Once I had a few of these under my belt, I started thinking more seriously about writing a full length novel and hopefully one day getting it published. I decided that with some major revisions, these projects could be made into full length novels.

Those who say writing for yourself is very different from writing for publication are certainly correct. These stories needed a lot of work. In their original form they were only the length of novellas and novelettes as they ranged from 12,000 to 17,00 words. Most publishers like novels to be around 80,000 words. They needed extra scenes, backstories, more thoughts and emotions from characters and other elements to flush them out into full-length novels and make them much better stories in the process. At their heart, they were already novels, really, they just needed to be flushed out to reach their true potential. The first of these stories I did this with was what is now titled The Sorcerer, and in its final form it reached the industry standard for a finished novel at 80,000 words. The second is the one I am working on now, Blood of the Werewolf.

So to finally return to the question above (You do remember the question above, don't you, "How long have I been editing my current novel?") The original 17,000 word version was completed sometime in the late 1990s. Then it was placed in a drawer for a very looooong time. I completed The Sorcerer, and edited it I don't even know how many times, until I decided I could no longer edit it. I finally put what at the time were the finishing touches on The Sorcerer around 2017. And I finally started a major revision of Blood of the Werewolf. But the question now is, does revision count as editing? I would say that since this revision was so massive, it is probably does not count as true editing. It became practically a new story.

But then in 2019 I received a mentorship from Tim Waggoner through the Horror Writers Association. He gave me some good feedback on that novel and insight as to why it was not attracting agents or publishers yet. In order to make Blood of the Werewolf come out right, I had to put it down once again and edit The Sorcerer one last time. This took about another year, which brings us to 2020, the year of Covid. I did work on it some during the pandemic, but like many other authors and publishers, no one was as productive as we wanted to be during those odd two years.

The editing process for Blood of the Werewolf I believe started around 2020 or 2021 (not counting the major revision years). I am now very close to getting this one finished and should have it done very soon. I'm editing page 306 out of 363 and it now totals almost 79,000 words. I will make sure it reaches at least 80,000 words by the time I am finished. It may need one more pass through before I am comfortable sending it out to publishers and agents, but that should only be a light edit to clean up a few things and ensure continuity throughout the novel.

I feel as though I am getting faster and better at this, and I've never missed a deadline when I've been given one. I am also getting excited to write more follow-ups to these stories, as I have one more, Osiris, that is in a very rough draft at about 13,000 words, and I have notes on numerous others in the series. The fact that I have been able to publish more short stories, poems, and non-fiction articles in recent years also shows I am improving. And keep in mind that I also wrote many of those short stories, poems, and non-fiction articles in between revising and editing these novels. Wish me luck with these and other projects in the future, so that I can post this self-made meme once again:

Recent Cons & Photos

 I thought I would do another one of those blog posts where I present some recent photos. I have been making a few appearances at various cons to sell books and sign people up the Horror Writers Association. I thought I'd throw in a few photos from last Halloween for good measure, so here goes.

Here is the table I set up at Monster Fest at the Chesapeake Central Library in Chesapeake, Virginia in October of last year.

It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of my friend Paul Knight, who was sometimes known as Pauzilla. He always remembered me and my family on Halloween.

Here is another attendee from Monster Fest, who was working a puppet on that day.

I entered the costume contest at Monster Fest as a famous movie murderer from a movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock and a book penned by Robert Bloch. I also moderated a panel on how to write scary scenes in horror which featured Red Lagoe, Pam Kinney, and Justin Cristelli.

Here are last year's yard decorations for Halloween.

The wife and I went out dressed as Jason Voorhees and Ahsoka Tano.

Here was the band for that night, Everafter, at Big Woody's in Chesapeake. I loved their costumes.

There's Laurie Camp as Ahsoka again at Big Woody's.

My daughter, Delaney, also got into the spirit of Halloween and dressed as Pearl from the movie of the same name.

Delaney always challenges me to do a difficult jack-o-lantern. This year, she challenged me to make a Frankenstein Monster. Of course that's Laurie dressed as a ghost in our driveway where we handed out candy.

An now we're up to January where I ran a table at Mars Con in Virginia Beach. This was a rather elaborate costume that I felt was photo-worthy.

A few other authors at Mars Con included, from back to front, Pam Kinney, Sidney Williams, yours truly, and Bryn Grover. It was fun meeting up with the other HWA members and talking with them.

And finally, Laurie entered the costume contest at Mars Con, again as Ahsoka, but don't call her a jedi.