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Short Is Good: David Lubar and Why Short Stories Are Awesome

David Lubar is the author of many children’s books, including some great books to introduce to kids who love scary books, such as the Weenies books and the Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie series, and he now has published a “young adult” collection of horror stories called Extremities (the publisher failed to send us a copy for review, so I can’t tell you what that actually means in terms of age appropriateness).  It wasn’t an easy thing– he wrote about how difficult it was to get a publisher to show interest in short stories in this essay.

I think publishers in general have missed out on the appeal of the short story, especially for kids and young adults. A short story can have a solid impact that a novel makes too diffuse (if you want to see how awful translating a short story into a novel can be go check out Isaac Asimov’s short story “Nightfall” (I first read this in high school) and then read the novel version, Nightfall, co-written with Robert Silverberg (or not– how two giants of science fiction managed to make such a mess of such a masterpiece is beyond me). When a short story ends suddenly, it doesn’t feel like a cheat. It takes your breath away. You have to muse on that last moment– did the princess choose the lady or the tiger?  If a novel ends suddenly, it’s annoying– I want things tied up.

The short story requires economy of language. Every word must count, and what is left out can be as important as what is visible on the page. A collection of short stories provides variety. You can flip through and find something that probably will fit your mood. Even if one story doesn’t float your boat, it doesn’t mean you’re sunk with hundreds of pages. The next one might be fantastic. A short story can be read in one sitting. Someone who finishes what she’s reading builds a sense of mastery. It’s not required that you slog through a thousand page novel for that feeling of “Aha!”

Lubar wrote that he felt that one reason he wasn’t able to sell the concept was because, although he described it as an anthology of horror stories, not all of them had supernatural forces. That may matter if we’re niggling over the details of genre– Becky Siegel Spratford’s definition of horror states that it must have a supernatural creature or aspect. But it mostly doesn’t matter to the readers. Maybe it’s better to call them scary stories than horror stories, if genre definition matters that much. We receive anthologies and short story collections all the time (check out this link to our YA anthologies page and this link to our adult anthologies page). Some have supernatural horrors, some have human horrors, and some have both. Kids and adults both like short and scary stories, and a short story collection is a great place to take risks. Publishers, take notice.

Posted on July 24, 2013 by , Reply

Good Night, Sammy Terry: Guest Post by Mike Redmond– Bob Carter Is Dead, But Not Sammy

Sammy Terry - Sammy Terry George Wallwalker Bonus Picture

Sammy Terry– Photo courtesy of George Wallwaker.

If you grew up in Indianapolis in the 1960s, 1970s, or even 1980s, you probably remember Sammy Terry. Before cable, before movies came out on VCR or DVD, before Netflix and Hulu, if you wanted to see the classic (or classically awful) horror movies out there, you had to hope that your local television station had spent money on Universal’s “shock theater” package, and put together a low budget midnight movie show, complete with creepy host. The local station here was WTTV4, the show was Nightmare Theater, and the horror host was Sammy Terry, played by Bob Carter. Sammy’s impact didn’t stop in the Indy area (I was wowed by this tribute at Horror Hosts and Creature Features), but this is where he started, and when Bob Carter died on June 30, it was clear what a major influence he was on so many of us who grew up to love scary movies (and books). Sammy Terry’s official website can be found here, if you’re interested.

Mike Redmond, an author, humorist, journalist, and speaker who grew up in the Indianapolis area (and still lives here) agreed to share a tribute to Sammy Terry he had written here.

 

Bob Carter Is Dead, But Not Sammy

By Mike Redmond

The news came in the form of a text that said, simply, “Sammy Terry died.”

How sad. And how wrong. If you took a look at the World Wide Interweb thingie in the days after the story broke, with comments by the hundreds on Facebook, you would have seen that Sammy Terry was more alive than ever in the memories of all us kids who peeked from behind sofa cushions  (or, in the case of my brother, the sofa itself), when “Nightmare Theater” was showing on WTTV Channel 4.

The death of Bob Carter, who created and played Sammy from 1962-1989, brings a couple of ideas to mind.

The first is how much fun it used to be to watch a scary movie. Of course, my definition of scary has little in common with what passes for a scary movie today, unfortunately.

I’m a big fan of the classic monsters– Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, the Mummy. Why? Because despite the visual impact of the monsters themselves, their movies rely on your mind to do most of the scaring. Blood and gore– the stock in trade for scary movies for the last three decades or so– aren’t necessary. The sight of the Frankenstein monster coming to life or Dracula’s riveting stare was more than enough to send a kid’s imagination into high gear. One of the greatest– and spookiest– shots in any classic monster movie has to be in The Mummy, after Im-Ho-Tep comes back to life. As he shuffles away, the camera fixes on a piece of linen trailing after him out of the room, and you just know bad things are going to start happening.

Bob’s death (I met him a couple of times so I’m taking the liberty of calling him Bob) also brings to mind how much we’ve lost with the death of local entertainment television. Kiddie shows like “Cowboy Bob’s Corral,” “Janie,” and “Harlow Hickenlooper” were just the beginning. Remember Jim Gerard’s interview show? I always thought that was one of the best things about being home from school.

Oh, well. That’s why we have memories, I guess. Which gets us back to Sammy Terry.

Bob Carter, the man who played spooky ol’ Sammy on Channel 4 during the 60s, 70s, and 80s, might have gone, but Sammy himself? He’ll be around forever, or at least as long as guys like me remember his spooky laugh, his spider George, and the creepy-campy fun of the classic monster movies he loved.

— This tribute first appeared in the July 16, 2013 issue of Current in Carmel.

 

 

Posted on July 19, 2013 by , Reply

MonsterLibrarian.com Review of The Undead and Theology Published By Examiner.com

If you visit our site frequently, and I hope you do, you know that we just wrapped up a big review project on the Stoker nominees of 2013. In 2012, for the first time, we decided to review as many of the Stoker nominees as we could. Many of the writers and publishers of nominated books sent us review copies and our hardworking reviewers took on the challenge of getting as many reviewed as possible. This year we decided to do it again. Lisa Morton at the HWA notified nominees that we planned to review Stoker nominees, and we received review copies from many of the writers and publishers. Our final reviews for the Stoker 2013 project went up in June before the Stokers were awarded.

One of the Stoker nominees in the nonfiction category was The Undead and Theology, edited by Kim Paffenroth and John W. Morehead. This is an anthology of essays by academics on the topic indicated by the title, published by Pickwick Publications, an imprint of independent publisher Wipf and Stock. Having just written an essay for an anthology of essays by academics myself, I can tell you that it doesn’t pay much to write for one, and copies are expensive and not handed out to just anyone. So we were very pleased to receive a review copy of this book! Reviewer Colleen Wanglund read and reviewed The Undead and Theology for us, and recommended it for purchase by libraries.

I am pleased to say that Colleen’s review has now been picked up by Examiner.com, where hopefully an entirely new audience will be reached. Reviews matter, especially for niche academic titles, and the more people who know about a great book, and want to read it, the better. Take a moment and check out the review, and reviews for some of the other nonfiction titles we’ve done in the past. Best wishes to everyone involved!

Posted on July 8, 2013 by , Reply
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