Horror authors on their convention and the bookstores where they are free to ‘not be weird’
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I’m Jim Ruland, a novelist and punk historian, and today we’re going to explore the dark side of the bookshelf.
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If you felt a chill in the air this week, a sense that all is not as it appears to be, it might be because 700 horror writers and their fans from all over the world have descended on Southern California.
They’re here for StokerCon. Named in honor of the Irish author of “Dracula,” StokerCon is the annual convention held by the Horror Writers Assn. This year’s gathering is in San Diego from May 30- June 2, and offers a long weekend of panels, workshops and signings, and culminates in the presentation of tonight’s Bram Stoker Awards in 13 categories for superior achievement in horror writing.
For die-hard fans, StokerCon is more than a place to talk shop and chat about their favorite writers — it’s home.
“It’s probably the least stuffy and pretentious community within the larger literary world,” said California writer Jonathan Maberry, a New York Times bestseller and one of StokerCon’s guests of honor this year. “And that’s a high bar, because there are a lot of good people in the other groups. But there’s something about the horror writers that smashes expectations.”
Stephen Graham Jones, who has won the Bram Stoker Award four times and is up for another one this year, echoes this sentiment. “Most of our lives, horror fans, we’re the odd one out. We’re laughing at the wrong stuff, we’re wearing chains, tats, black T-shirts. But at StokerCon, we’re moving among our own. We have the same sets of heroes, the same fears, the same distrust of the reality out there. It’s nice to, just for a weekend anyway, not be weird.”
I talked to another of this year’s guests of honor, Paul Tremblay, whose novel “The Cabin at the End of the World” was adapted by M. Night Shyamalan as “Knock at the Cabin” last year. His upcoming novel, “Horror Movie,” is about a low-budget, art house horror movie with a very troubled history. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What makes a film a cult movie?
A cult movie is something that you watch over and over again. In the things that I rewatch, I’m searching for the minutiae. For me, and I think for a lot of people, it’s a movie that made me feel a certain way that I’ve never really felt before. You go back and rewatch for that feeling, which won’t ever quite be the same.
Why do you think the horror genre has such a lasting impact?
I hear all the time that horror is having a moment, which is cute, because that implies it has an end, right? Horror taps into those emotions that you typically don’t feel day to day. If you do, they aren’t pleasant experiences, and you try not to admit to yourself that you’re feeling them. Horror should always be a little bit outside the mainstream, a little bit dangerous.
What are some of the gnarlier novels you’ve read recently?
Gretchen Felker-Martin’s “Cuckoo,” which takes place in a gay conversion camp, is body horror that mixes the grotesque with the beautiful. Eric LaRocca just put out a collection of novellas called “This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances.” When it comes to transgressive fiction, there are very few people doing what Eric’s doing right now.
Are you someone that is always excited about what’s coming out or do you go back to the classics?
I think both. I try to keep up with what’s new. I get sent a lot of new horror novels, but I do try to make time to either go back and reread something or read something I never got a chance to read before.
What are some horror novels you’re excited about?
They’re not out yet, but Laird Barron’s “Not a Speck of Light,” which mixes horror with crime noir, and Stephen Graham Jones’ “I Was a Teenage Slasher” plays with cinematic tropes. It’s a weird personal story with a teenage slasher.
Are there any more adaptations of your work in the pipeline?
Yes, for “A Head Full of Ghosts,” it was announced a few months ago that the directing team known as Franz and Fiala would be working on it. They directed the movies “Goodnight Mommy” and “The Lodge” and they have a new movie coming out called “The Devil’s Bath.”
(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)
Bram Stoker Award nominees in the L.A. Times
Paula L. Woods profiled Tananarive Due, whose novel “The Reformatory” also won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction. “My mother loved horror,” Due confesses. “That was how I learned to love the genre.”
Victor LaValle discusses his feminist horror western “Lone Women” with Lorraine Berry. “I wondered about the variety of characters, and the comfort I felt with who might show up or not show up.”
Steph Cha wrote about Stephen Graham Jones and his novel “The Only Good Indians,” which won a Bram Stoker Award in 2021.
And way back in 2016, Michael Schaub wrote about Chuck Tingle, an author with a flair for the irreverent, whose novel “Camp Damascus” has been nominated in the novel category.
(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)
The Week(s) in Books
Thomas Curwen visits the Silver Lake Reading Club at Lamill Coffee where on Tuesday nights books rule.
Valorie Castellanos Clark reviews Meredith Jaeger’s “The Incorrigibles”: “Thematically her historical fiction is dark, more in the vein of crime fiction than courtly historic novels.”
Caleb Carr, author of “The Alienist,” died last week. Chris Vognar remembers the cat-loving writer in this moving tribute.
Noé Álvarez searches for his grandfather in “Accordion Eulogies: A Memoir of Music, Migration, and Mexico.” “Álvarez hopes for resolution to the inherited trauma of those forced to wander the land in search of work and the devastation left behind for those who stayed.”
Horror writer bookstore faves
L.A. writer Kate Maruyama, whose new horror novel “The Collective” was published last month, on her favorite bookstores in L.A.:
“Dark Delicacies in Burbank is my go to for new horror books. [The owners] Del and Susan Howison are experts in the field and most horror writers launching their books come through that store. For used books, The Iliad in North Hollywood can’t be beat. Lisa Morton, who is a six-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author and the world’s living expert on Halloween (and ghosts and seances), works there, as does horror writer Sean Patrick Travers. So you are well taken care of in every category.”
Alma Katsu, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning work of long fiction “The Werewolf,” may live in West Virginia but she knows her California bookstores:
“Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, without a doubt, is my favorite bookstore and a can’t-miss stop anytime I’m in Southern California. It’s so well curated, not only in horror but science fiction and fantasy, too. It’s a haven.”
Jonathan Maberry has three go-to bookstores for edgier and weirder stuff:
“My home-base store is Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego. I host a free monthly event, The Writers Coffeehouse, there on the first Sunday of every month. The staff is amazing and deeply knowledgeable about books. I’ve launched every new book there since moving to San Diego in 2012. The second store is Artifact in Encinitas. It’s a tiny used and new store run by a fellow writer. Great place for signings and even better for finding rare books. The third is Dark Delicacies in Burbank. Sadly it’ll be gone in about a year, when the owners retire. But it’s been a go-to place for signing events with writers, comic book people, and filmmakers. It’s always a great place to meet fellow pop culture nerds.”
Thanks for reading. Whether it’s at the beach or in your backyard, I hope your summer plans involve great books.
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