Been a while since I came here and just sorta painted the walls with a erratic spatter of thoughts and news musk, so here we go, let’s do it.

Hey, you can find me talking about writing in a couple places this week. First, The James Altucher show had me on, and it’s always fun to do a podcast like this where the curiosity level is off-the-charts and you get such good, brain-chewing questions. Then! I got to sit down with good buddy and writer extraordinaire Delilah S. Dawson for Gotham Writers and get into crunchy process questions about writing across both genre and medium and we even dig into some business-related writing stuff. Bonus: on both shows I talk about Star Wars, too, which leads me to…

The Mandalorian Has [SPOILER] In It?! I created the character for the Aftermath trilogy and now I guess that character is in the show, played by Timothy Olyphant of all people. I always envisioned the character with a bit of Raylan Givens in him, so this is a damn fine fit. It’s funny, the news about this had been percolating for months, but I truly, truly disbelieved it; it’s very rare in my experience that something makes the jump from the pages of a Star Wars book to the Star Wars screen. The reverse is a constant flow, but the content doesn’t usually swim upstream, so to speak. So, that’s very cool. It’s admittedly also… you know, a bummer, and I sorta wish that I could be just 100% all YAY about it. I have a lot of complicated feelings about it, ranging from harassment and death threats and then how you just sorta get left out there to deal with it, and soon you realize that it maybe exacerbates anxiety and depression and — you know, this isn’t fun to hear. Star Wars is supposed to be fun, not fuckin’ bummertown, so I’ll just say, yay, this is exciting, even if I don’t really get anything for it besides the Cool Points. It’s nice too because the Aftermath trilogy was always at the top of a ladder of really wonderful storytelling and character-building throughout the franchise’s legacy, and part of that ladder includes a lot of references to Clone Wars and Rebels, so to come full-circle and to have something from Aftermath then feed back in, as it were, is pretty rad. I’m excited to see the episode later today with the fam. (Some have suggested the story in the show for him is somewhat different, so I can’t speak to that. But I know despite people demanding canon be a rigid act of historicity, it’s generally far more flexible than that, and must be for any of it to exist at all without exploding.) If you want the spoiler character, here’s the sentence — just plug it into ROT13. Pboo Inagu vf va Gur Znaqbybevna. And actually PBOO INAGU sounds like a great Star Wars name, doesn’t it?

And in case anyone wants to be mad at me about this, for some reason: hey just fuckin’ relax, I’m not in the sandbox anymore, I don’t think I’m even allowed in the sandbox anymore, I’m not breaking your toys, calm down. I’m doing my own thing and you can go on not giving a shit about that and being cranky about space wizard social justice or something.

Let’s talk about writing advice for a second, by the way. There’s been a thing recently where people have been going through my writing advice and, I dunno, fisking it, taking it to task, ripping it apart — and please let me be the first to say, that’s good! Do that. I try to be very clear up front about writing advice that it’s all nonsense. As I’m wont to say, it’s bullshit, but for some people, bullshit fertilizes. Both of my writing books open with me pretty clearly saying, hey, don’t take this stuff too seriously. It’s why I write it in a way that’s absurd and obscene, so nobody reads it like I’m telling you WHAT MUST BE DONE LEST YOU DIE IN THE ABYSS. This is a lawless place and art is re-invented by the artist every time they choose to make something new, and I like to think I’ve been clear again and again that we need to constantly question the Sacred Cows of Writing Advice, because for every thing you MUST DO or CAN’T DO, there are countless authors who have gone the opposite way to great success. Shit, I don’t even agree with half my writing advice anymore — as I write more, I know less, and I’m good with that. Every book I write reminds me that I don’t know how to write a book. It’s as designed, I suspect. And the writing advice is always just a toolbox full of random tools; maybe you need that weird screwdriver, or maybe you don’t. Throw it away if it doesn’t help you. Stomp on it like it’s a baby. Wait no don’t stomp on babies. That is also bad advice. Unless you hate babies. In which case, ennnh, yanno.

Who doesn’t like scary stories? Been watching a handful of horror movies recently, some favorites, and some new stuff. The Autopsy of Jane Doe is the standout, I think — astonishingly creepy fucking movie, though I’d also argue it maybe wavers a little in the third act. (Though the third act waver is a horror movie problem in general, and probably deserves a blog post unpacking that problem at better length.) I won’t spoil, but I had NO idea what it was about going in, and it threw me for a couple good loops. Apostle on Netflix was great, if utterly brutal and dour. Ready or Not is a fave, and I’ve watched it a buncha times now — serves really well in a two-fer with Knives Out (which is not a horror movie, I know). Scare Me on Shudder was so fucking great — it’s hard to know if it’s even a horror movie or a movie about horror, but it’s funny and weird and twisted and entirely relies on the performances of its capable actors. It’s arguably better than any of the movies I watched, but I also wonder if it’s really even a horror movie at all. I feel like there’s something else I watched, too, but now I don’t know what the hell it was. WHATEVER. Yay horror movies. It’s weird that right now they’re comfort food? That, too, demands a greater unpacking — during times of stress and upheaval, horror stories do well. Again, I’m surprised Wanderers has sold as well as it has through the pandemic. It’s sales have been, up until the last couple weeks, ridiculously steady. Which boggled my bits, but hey, cool. Thank you for reading.

Oh oh wait, I remember! The last movie was One Cut of the Dead. Again, no spoilers because — well, I just can’t spoil it. You need to see it to know what I’m talking about.

Let’s talk fun horror stories. Let’s say I’m still in the mood for a fun horror movie — what’s your favorite? By fun, I mean, not a movie that crushes your soul. Not something that wrecks you after, but something that’s a blast to watch, even if it’s gross or scary or whatever. Also, was the most recent Halloween any good? Thinking on checking that out today.

You got your vote plan in place, right? Too late to mail a ballot if you haven’t, so go to a drop-box, or your polling place on the day of, or the electoral office nearest to you — get it done. Get those ballots out. Vote! Vote for your democracy, vote for your friends, for the kids of this country and the world, for the people at the border in cages, for climate change refugees, for those sick from COVID and those locked down trying not to catch it and those forced into more dangerous situations because there is no safety net to help them, vote for Senate and local and president and every initiative you think can help people and not hurt them. Vote, vote, vote. Have a plan. Talk to friends and family. Make your case, plead your POV, get it done. Love you all, whatever happens. We’ll figure it out.

And that’s it, I think.

BYE.

We are at the hinge point — the door is opening, or the door is closing. We are seven days away from Election Day, and millions of people have already voted. The Senate is up for grabs. The presidency is up for grabs. Our current president thinks women’s body parts are up for grabs. It’s a lot. So, I figured, why not offer my thoughts? Why not dig into the polls, do some nitty-gritty, examine the possible outcomes, and lay out what I think will be the likeliest course of action on that day.

Ready?

Here it is:

I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA

AHHHHHHHHH

I am a wildly vacillating ping-pong ball in a table tennis game played by angels and devils — my heart goes from table side to table side, from WANTON FOOLISH OPTIMISM to GUT-CHURNING SOUL-CRUSHING PESSIMISM, with little chance to settle on either. My hope is Schroedinger’s Cat in the goddamn box: it is dead and alive at the same time, its fate unknown until the box is finally opened and the cat is revealed. I have literally no idea what is to come. How could you? This is 2020. This is the year of CHAOS INCARNATE. Come Wednesday we might’ve elected a hive of giant hornets to the highest office in the land, and honestly, it’d be an improvement on what we got.

I mean, in a logical year, I see how this goes, right? The polls are strong for Biden, stronger than they were for Clinton, and more stable across vital districts and states. None of the shit they’ve tried to stick to Biden has stuck, and Trump appears, from my window at least, to be flailing — and I don’t say that as a Triumphant Liberal, because generally liberals are the first to be like OH GOD MY CANDIDATE IS DROWNING IN THE ABYSS THE OTHER GUY IS GONNA WIN. There’s a stink around Trump that’s like what you get off a car-struck raccoon — a rotten, bloated odor. Doesn’t help that he’s incredibly unlikable, and has accomplished almost nothing in his four years. Certainly nothing good. Oh, rich people are getting richer, that’s nice, if you’re mega-rich. Otherwise, where’s his health care plan? Where’s his COVID plan? Where’s Infrastructure Week? Anything?

His priorities have been:

a) rich people

b) bigotry

c) judges

All in equal proportions.

Beyond that, he’s got nothing. He’s proposed no agenda for 2020, and the GOP’s agenda for 2020 is, “uhhh, what’d Trump say?” and round and round we go.

So, in a normal year, in a normal country, the writing is on the wall.

But this is America in 2020. The writing is centipedes. The wall is a glitching TV screen. There’s no stability. No sense to what’s going on. Part of that is intentional — it’s not that 2020 is some kind of CURSED YEAR (except it totally is), but that the Grand Ole Party has committed a violent psychological assault on our brains. They are hypocrites at every turn, they are liars, they question expertise, they lie, they turn their face from basic facts — the ground beneath us is unstable because they have committed to its instability. If we are unstable, they can get away with more bullshit. If we’re trying to catch a bunch of falling plates and cups from rattled cabinets, they can steal our money and jewels and pets while we flail. We’re constantly on the defense because they’re constantly on the offense. All we can do is block punches because it’s INFINITE PUNCHES.

Could Trump win? I didn’t think he could win the first time. Hell, one could argue that he didn’t — between losing the popular vote and a bevy of inference, it remains unclear how “legitimate” that election even was. Do I think it’s possible he’s built on his coalition from 2020? That he’s gained voters instead of lost them? It’s hard to envision, because I’ve seen anecdotally (local and nationwide) a number of Republicans who have bailed — they saw a “businessman,” wanted some change, and got nothing for the bet. He’s withered on the vine and spends his time just shit-barfing on Twitter all day, and meanwhile farms and factories and small businesses are kicked to the curb. So it’s really hard to imagine people getting onboard a hayride full of manure as it totters drunkenly toward a cliff.

But, it’s 2020. And white supremacy is a helluva drug.

Further, they’ve created a pipeline that pumps shit into people’s heads while convincing them it’s caviar. Fox and OANN are just a steady parade of lies, lies, lies, there to lube up King Dump and keep him slick and gooey. People have built for themselves not so much an echo chamber as a Jonestown enclave with all the “””definitely unpoisoned””” Flavor-Aid you require. I mean, you try to tell people “hey that’s not a true thing you just said” and they snap back with WELL DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH despite the fact they did literally no research at all except reading an e-mail from Old Uncle Dave who said that the Democrats are aborting babies in Brooklyn pizza ovens in order to appease the Demonic Socialist Treaties. “Someone on Facebook said that masks don’t work so I believe them unreservedly and that is my idea of ‘research,’ please and thank you. COVID is a hoax and it’ll disappear on November 4th like magic!”

So, in a normal time, he couldn’t win.

But this ain’t normal.

Could Biden win? I didn’t think he could back in the primaries. I was wrong. He’s run a far better campaign than I expected. He’s taken serious steps to actually bring onboard a diverse coalition of voices, and he actually did move in a more progressive direction in places it counts. He’s made it clear he’s the guy who embraces compassion and science and while normally I’d hope those would be obvious picks for campaign planks, it’s 2020 and we’ve got a president who jerks off to Q-Anon propaganda and who lacks basic competency in nearly everything. (God, I really wish for a journalist who would simply ask him to explain basic facts about our government. A journalist who plays dumb and who asks for his explanation, and then you watch him just stammer through some gibberish answer like an 8th grader who didn’t read the book he’s currently giving a report on.) So, Biden could win too. The numbers favor him. Sanity favors him. Basic humanity favors him.

But the Cursed Year 2020 may have other things in store.

And part of that is down to the fact that this binary outcome is by no means the only, or even likely outcome. We have far greater shenanigans that could occur, friendos. Biden could win, and Trump could contest it, and now that he’s got Supreme Court Justice Handmaid’s Tale in the seat, she could throw the election to him. Especially if Biden doesn’t win in a landslide, the kind that ends up decided on Election Night, even though no election is ever actually decided on election night. If we have anything approaching Bush V. Gore, they’ve packed the courts so hard with corrupt bastards, that fate is written. They’re glad to do the devil’s work on this one.

Then there’s all the extra fun add-ons — protest! General strike! Civil war! Shit, if I woke up on Wednesday and the news said, “Both presidential candidates were eaten by starving polar bears, which throws the election to Kanye West,” I’d be like, yeah, that tracks. Because I don’t know! I don’t know what’s happening! I don’t know what’s coming down the pike! It’s probably not going to be great. Shit’s on fire! We’re under the boots of a burgeoning theocratic kleptocracy, and even just saying those words makes me feel like I’ve lost my marbles. It sounds too extreme, too fearful — it can’t be that bad, right? Except the majority is ruled by a minority who is increasingly pushing religion over science, who urges white supremacy and misogyny over inclusion, who is continually working to undermine the vote rather than get the vote out, who is expecting grand overtures of gratitude for doing literally nothing except hurting people, who supports a president that routinely makes comments about being president for an extra four years, or eight, or for life, or demanding his children become president next, or, or, or. It’s seeing a house and saying, “Well, that house is clearly fine, it’s a house, it’s just standing there,” while simultaneously realizing the whole thing is riddled with termites and will fall down in a stiff breeze. It looks okay from the outside, but it’s rotten to the core.

I don’t know what happens! I have no prediction! Revolution! Coup! Evangelical pogroms! Trump eats babies while accusing Democrats of eating babies! Democrats treating all this as normal until they’re thrown into jail! Boogaloo-slash-Proud Boy TV network! Fire bees! Laser bears! Holes! Holes opening up underneath all of his, holes from whence goblins crawl, holes that stink of sulfur and moan and gibber! Aaaah! HAhahahaahAHAHA AAHHH WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING WHAT THE SHIT IS GOING TO HAPPEN ARE WE GOING TO BE OKAY ARE WE NOT GOING TO BE OKAY JESUS EFFING CHRIST ON A CRAPWAGON THERE’S STILL THE PANDEMIC AND STILL THE RISING BOIL-TIDE OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND AAAAAAAH PLEASE MAKE THE SHITTY PRESIDENT SHUT UP AND GO AWAY I NEVER WANT TO HEAR HIM OR SEE HIM OR LAY EYES ON HIS MAGGOTY FUCKING TWEETS EVERY AGAIN AAAAAAAAEEHhhghghhhrrble

Ahem.

I got nothing.

What I got is this:

The one place I have some hope — some persistent, steady hope — is in each other. I’ve seen that in the last four years a lot, where people — a lot of people — come together and stand for one another, and who have stood up for what matters most, which is a democracy that benefits not only the few, not even the many, but a democracy that serves everyone. And I know that if the shit hits the fan, we can count on the people to get on some comfortable shoes and a jacket and hit the streets, particularly for those who can’t. And I think we need to be ready for that. To raise a ruckus. To cause that good trouble. To disobey non-violently and to choke the gears of the machine until it shudders and breaks. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I know it could. Anything could happen now. This is the final run-up and the chaos will continue. The chaos will worsen. We must be there for each other and for our democracy, in the voting booths, on the streets, in the charities that need us, for everyone who is reaching out and will be hurt by four more years of this venomous, inept administration.

You’re not alone.

I’m not alone.

I have hope in you.

Also, the laser bears.

I have hope in laser bears.

Because, I mean, at this point, why the fuck not?

LASER BEARS 2024

pyoo pyoo

*bear noises*

Grab Them From The First Chapter and Don’t Let Go

Creators must compete. Whether we like to admit it or not, our work and the things that we create need to capture an audience. Why would someone read your book when there is a lifetime of amazing shows on Netflix or cute puppy videos on YouTube? Your story needs to start strong, stay strong, and end strong. Make it so the reader can’t put the book down. You need to end each chapter with something that scares the hell out of you. Thrillers are called thrillers for a reason. Because if you’ve written a good one, that’s exactly what it should do. It should thrill you even as you write it. If it’s boring to write, it’s damn sure going to be boring to read.

Zoom Call? Turn Your Camera On

Like most authors, this was our first experience writing and working through a pandemic. With Darren living in Toronto and me in New Jersey, the physical distance alone was enough to drive us crazy. When the whole world is shut down, your creative process can either go one of two ways. The first is that you finally feel like you have all the time in the world to write and get stuff done. The other is that with the whirlwind of stress and other factors going on, all of that can blend into your work and bring the writing process to a complete stand still. My advice for those trying to create in a virtual, socially distanced world is to always turn your Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, whatever camera on. Whatever method you use to communicate, make sure you’re getting the most out of it. Coordinating with our publisher, editors, managers, agents, and each other was almost entirely virtual on this book. Working on a novel is such a personal project and being able to connect with each other in that way (even during a pandemic) was crucial. Not to mention that it helps us stay focused. Plus, it’s always nice to see Darren face-to-face. What can I say? His smile lights up a room.

We’re Never Really In Control

In a similar vein—if this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that no matter what goals we’ve set for ourselves or how we expect certain years to go, the world has a way of slapping us in the face. Mother Nature, especially, has her own methods of making us feel small. I think that’s part of what makes DON’T MOVE feel so relevant. It plays on that idea of helplessness. How do you build yourself back up after senseless tragedy strikes? Our lead character is forced to ask herself these questions. When you’ve seemingly lost everything, how do you gather the courage to face something potentially even scarier? Or more specifically, how do you outsmart a gigantic prehistoric arachnid that has survived for thousands of years as an evolutionary apex predator when it wants to eat you for lunch?

Every Character Deserves A Second Chance

Darren and I started this novel with a clear idea of our protagonist. We went into it knowing Megan Forrester would be a master problem solver—someone with a highly logical and methodical mind who faces enormous challenges every day as a part of her job. (She was inspired by the real-life people I met while touring the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center about a decade ago.) But in a moment when her family needs her to make a life-or-death decision, she freezes. It’s an instant that will haunt her for the rest of her life. She becomes riddled with grief and for the first time in her life, she’s uncertain about everything. Her foil is Ricky Vargas, a streetwise, tattoo-covered man who’s always been alone and as a result, hasn’t always made the best decisions along the way. That’s why the church-sponsored camping trip Megan and Vargas embark on seems like a perfect chance for a fresh start for both characters. But throw a murderous beast into the mix, and what do you have? You’re left with two flawed characters who both need to overcome their demons and their pasts while simultaneously fighting for their lives. That begs the question: Are we destined to repeat history? Or is it possible to override fate by working together?

***

James S. Murray is a writer, executive producer, and actor, best known as ”Murr” on the hit television show Impractical Jokers along with his comedy troupe, the Tenderloins. He has worked as the Senior Vice President of Development for NorthSouth Productions for a decade and is the owner of Impractical Productions, LLC. He recently starred in Impractical Jokers: The Movie, and also appears alongside the rest of the Tenderloins, and Jameela Jamil, in the television series The Misery Index on TBS. James is author of the internationally bestselling novels Awakened, The Brink, and Obliteration.

Darren Wearmouth spent six years in the British Army before pursuing a career in corporate technology. After fifteen years working for multinational firms and a start-up, he decided to follow his passion for writing. He is the author of numerous internationally bestselling novels, including Awakened, The Brink, First Activation, and Critical Dawn. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Don’t Move: Blackstone | Indiebound | Bookshop | Amazon

In the popular podcast, Video Palace, Mark Cambria, aided by his girlfriend Tamra Wulff, investigated the origins of a series of esoteric white video tapes. Cambria went missing in pursuit of these tapes, but not before hearing whispers of an ominous figure called the Eyeless Man.

Fascinated by these events, Maynard Wills, PhD, a professor of folklore, embarks on his own investigation into the origins of the tapes and the Eyeless Man, who he believes has lurked in the dark corners of media culture and urban legends for decades. As part of his study, he has invited popular writers of horror and gothic fiction to share their Eyeless Man stories, whether heard around the campfire or experienced personally.

Those who participated and shared their tales include Bram Stoker Award® winners, Owl Goingback and John Skipp, Brea Grant and Graham Skipper.

As Professor Wills chases the shadowy Eyeless Man he’s increasingly unable to separate fact from folklore. Only his protege, Daniel Carver, strives to save him from the fate that befell Mark Cambria and untold others. Read this thrilling and terrifying collection at your own risk; you might just get swept away, too.

THERE ARE PROS AND CONS TO COMMISSION VS SUBMISSION

Once we got the approval to start on Video Palace: In Search of the Eyeless Man, we only had about three months to get a manuscript together in order to hit the necessary pre-Halloween release date. Since we both have full-time jobs and Nick was wrapping his forthcoming book on The Sopranos, we knew an anthology approach was the only option, with the two of us acting in a producer/director/editor capacity. At first, we thought we’d light the beacons and solicit submissions, but when we thought about it, the risk seemed too great. Would we have time to read everything? And what if we read everything and didn’t love what we got? To paraphrase a line we both use with our daughters, “You get what you get and you don’t get upset.” We ultimately decided that we couldn’t guarantee we’d get to great this way. Instead, we decided to commission stories. Between our personal networks, plus a big boost from Ben Rock and Bob DeRosa (our podcast writer/director team) we were able to wrangle a varied and talented group of voices who we believed could deliver so long as they were set up with the proper info and received the right guidance. Going the commission route gave us more confidence and control. It also meant a lot more hours prepping, chatting and working through our vision; remember, if we went submission, we would probably have received 100+stories. We were contractually obligated to deliver a book with 10-12 stories and we could only afford that many before going deep(er) into our own pockets. We’d have to budget, brief and coach to greatness or else we’d be left to write stories to cover our remaining word count; whether we had a great idea (and the time to nurture it) or not. What did we miss out on by going commission? Well, we were limited in the people we could approach (though lucky we know so many great writers) and we’re fairly certain we would have been able to surface some new and amazing voices had we rolled the dice on submissions. This being our IP, our baby, the control meant more to us. We’ve got some ideas for how we can open up Video Palace storytelling opportunities in the future, though. 

CONTRACT & LEGAL RIGAMAROLE IS THE REAL HORROR STORY

Legal work is the bane of any creative endeavor, but it was especially challenging for us as we were taking characters and mythology we created with Shudder for the Video Palace podcast and adding entirely new stories and characters for the book with the folks at Simon & Schuster/Tiller press. Because we wanted to offer our contributors an up-front payment and royalties as well, we had to form an LLC to act as the legal entity between ourselves, Shudder, Simon & Schuster/Tiller, and our contributors. The first step was getting Shudder and Simon & Schuster on the same page over all the various rights and character issues while protecting ourselves and our contributors. Fortunately, both organizations made it as easy as possible, and everyone wanted to make this book happen, but the details of the law and contract language really bogged us down on occasion. This was especially challenging as we were moving forward with the book while still working through the contracts. Making sure that the interests of all the involved parties were being handled appropriately was far more time consuming than we expected and significantly more expensive than we budgeted. In fact, we would have lengthy conversations between ourselves about everything before we would get on the phone with our legal team just to minimize the amount of time logged on the legal meter. We kept our legal emails to a minimum and would preface any internal discussion about issues we wanted to address by asking ourselves if it was a battle worth fighting, as the cost of the battle came out of our own pockets.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BRIEF

Working with commissioned authors (who had varying degrees of familiarity with the podcast) on a tight timeline, we knew we had to strike the perfect balance of material and inspiration so that our collection would feel “of a piece.” Give too much mythology and an author might burrow down a rabbit hole, don’t give enough and you can end up receiving 5000 words that hit a beautiful but entirely wrong note when considered against the whole. We had to get it right at the start to imbue everyone with confidence and spark inspiration. First we constructed an enticing invitation doc that focused on tone, theme and length with some broad examples of the kind of stories that might work. Once an author showed interest, we delivered a much more focused and tactical brief that we hoped would set each writer up right. These documents really helped to level set everyone and I think we did a good job making the assignment–to create in somebody else’s world–seem fun and open. We wanted everyone’s story to feel more theirs than ours, but it was also crucial that they all hung together. In addition to the documents, we spoke to everybody via phone, some for as much as an hour, (and with plenty of follow-up emails and chats), to ensure comfort level and same-pageness. These conversations really helped. We both have an enormous palette of references, thanks to our voracious (and, shall we say, irresponsible!) media diets. To get individual writers aligned, we drew comparisons and built bridges to specific IP, books and movies that our contributors loved to help cover the gap. We absolutely believe we would have mucked this “kick-off” up if not for our combined four decades of marketing and advertising work. Every day we have to communicate to clients and colleagues with documents, presentations and conversations that keep business moving efficiently. It all starts with Goldilocks Guardrails. Not too overbearing, not too precious, but not wishy-washy either. Clarity up front saved us so much time and, frankly, made the editing and feedback process a snap.

HELP YOUR PUBLISHER’S MARKETERS HELP YOU 

Thanks to all the authors and editors who came before us, we were aware that the marketing capabilities of most publishers are typically stretched thin. Since we both hold day jobs in marketing, we know how challenging it is to manage the sheer volume of titles released each month by a publisher like ours, so we decided rather than be the squeaky wheel asking for more marketing support, we took it upon ourselves to be an engine for ideas and enthusiasm with our team. We brought marketing ideas to the table and found everyone super-receptive to hearing them, and enthusiastic enough to invest in the ones they felt would move the needle and be manageable given their insane workloads. 

And while the legal hassle up front was painful, having both Simon & Schuster and Shudder onboard for the marketing has been amazing. We asked if we could have some stories from the audiobook production to create three bonus episodes for podcast fans and everyone agreed to it — the first one drops Monday, October 12. We asked for specific assets to be made for sharing across their social feeds as well as for our contributors and they delivered. They are even making a special premium item we requested that will be used to help generate more attention for the book. We’re currently in full self-promotion mode and we’re so much better equipped to handle it because we listened to their suggestions, they listened to ours, and we’re all working towards the same outcome. The choice we made–being marketing production partners, rather than worried authors–resulted in us having a real sense of agency around the book’s success and stronger collaboration with our publisher.

DIFFERENT MEDIUM, DIFFERENT RULES 

The criteria for success in a prose collection is completely different than for an audio drama. We couldn’t just dive in and try to tell written Video Palace stories without having a conversation on how to achieve that. So much of what made our podcast work well is specific to dramatic performance: actors who emote, sound design, editing and score, for example. We had to get on the same page–and quickly–about what makes the DNA of a Video Palace story, regardless of medium. Once we crystalized that, through a kind of reverse engineering, we focused on providing guidance around prose techniques, so that we–and our writers–would understand how to explore the universe through language only.

There’s certainly some crossover. In both mediums, you want to withhold just enough information and, when you do provide answers, they need to spark new questions. Ultimately any Video Palace story needs to transport the listener and create competing feelings of curiosity and vulnerability; a must in horror fiction. You’ve got plenty of tools to do that in audio, plus the podcast is a first person story, so listeners benefited from the immediacy of their connection to Mark. But in prose, everything–all the pressure–is on language to achieve these feelings. To help set up the stories to feel more personal and dangerous, we invited each author to determine how they came upon their story. Did it happen to them? If not, who did they hear it from? In the case of first person stories, the immediacy is there, but even in second-hand ones there’s a clear connection to the author. We gave each writer the chance to write a little upfront intro about the origin of their story. The ones we got worked so well, we made sure everybody included one in their final draft. This helped make things all the more personal and relatable. Ultimately, the smartest move we made was commissioning extremely talented writers and storytellers. In prose stories, rife with menace and woe, just one awkward metaphor or wrong note can torpedo the immersion. The mastery of evocative language was a must and everyone delivered.

***

Nick Braccia is a Cannes Lions– and Clio–winning writer, director, and producer. In 2018, he cocreated and coexecutive produced the horror podcast Video Palace for AMC Network’s streaming service Shudder. While working at the marketing agency Campfire, he helped to develop immersive, narrative experiences for TV shows like Outcast, Sense8, Watchmen, The Man in the High Castle, Westworld, and The Purge. Braccia is a member of the Producers Guild of America and lives in Manhattan with his partner, Amanda, and daughter, Evie Blue.

Michael Monello is a pioneer in immersive storytelling. In the late 1990s, Monello and his partners at Haxan Films created The Blair Witch Project, a story told across multiple media, which became a pop-culture touchstone. Monello cofounded Campfire in 2006 which creates groundbreaking participatory stories and experiences for TV shows such as True Blood, Game of Thrones, The Purge, The Man in the High Castle, Westworld, Hunters, and more. He cocreated and co-executive produced Video Palace, a scripted fiction horror podcast for Shudder. Monello lives in Brooklyn with his wife Julie and daughters Ava and Lila.

In Search Of The Eyeless Man: Indiebound | Bookshop | Amazon

When a country is held in thrall to a vicious, despotic king, it’s up to one woman to take him down.

Long ago, Queen Mirantha vanished. King Karolje claimed it was an assassination by a neighboring king, but everyone knew it was a lie. He had Disappeared her himself.But after finding the missing queen’s diary, Anza–impassioned by her father’s unjust execution and inspired by Mirantha’s words–joins the resistance group to overthrow the king. When an encounter with Prince Esvar thrusts her into a dangerous game of court politics, one misstep could lead to a fate worse than death.

Esvar is the second son to an evil king. Trapped under his thumb and desperate for a way out, a chance meeting with Anza gives him the opportunity to join the resistance. Together, they might have the leverage to move against the king–but if they fail, their deaths could mean a total loss of freedom for generations to follow.

Set in a world where resistance is as dangerous as it is important, The Vanished Queen is a tale of the courage and sacrifice it requires to take on a tyrant.

STALIN WAS REALLY REALLY BAD

The biggest change between the published novel and the earlier ones is that I focused the plot almost entirely on the political resistance to the king. This meant I had to do some reading about authoritarianism.

I had known Josef Stalin was a dictator, up there with Hitler and Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein, but I hadn’t know any of the details of his life or regime. Having grown up under Reagan, I had developed skepticism toward anyone bad-mouthing the Soviet Union, and I had not known how really bad Stalin was. Well. He was bad.

He ordered the collectivization of agriculture which resulted in famine that killed millions of people and may have been directed at ethnic Ukrainians, the show trials of the 1930s in which he eliminated rivals, and the “Great Purge” of 1936-1938 in which hundreds of thousands, perhaps more than a million, people were killed, many of them ethnic minorities. Stalin, his chief of secret police Lavrentiy Beria, and his other cronies were ruthless, cruel, evil people, of the sort that made me feel dirty after I read about them.

I added details inspired by this history here and there in the novel, but it was pretty brutal to realize that nothing I could imagine was as horrific as things that had actually been done.

THE KINGDOM OF AKSUM WAS A PLACE

I also read The Emperor, by Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuściński (1978), which is an oral history of the fall of Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia and dictator. This book is fascinating and was useful to me for its depictions of how Selassie played his ministers off against each other while cultivating the adoration of his subjects.

I knew that Ethiopia had existed in some form since antiquity, but I knew absolutely nothing about it prior to the Selassie regime, so I did some additional reading. The Kingdom of Aksum, which encompassed parts of modern Ethiopia, Eritrea, and other regions in North Africa, was a major player in the trade and politics of the first ten centuries of the Christian Era. The last ruler of the Aksum dynasty was the Empress Yodit in CE 912. (Eventually Ethiopia was ruled by the Solomonic Dynasty, which began in 1262 and lasted until Selassie.)

I have not learned nearly as much as I would like to, and I am really hoping that multiple writers of African origin will use Ethiopian history as a setting or model for a setting to write some completely badass epic fantasy. So much history waiting to be retold!

EXPLOSIVES ARE NOT INCENDIARIES, AND VICE VERSA

In movies, whenever something explodes, there’s a big boom and a big fire. In the opening scene of the first chapter of Queen, something explodes. I wanted it to be a loud explosion that would break some windows and make it hard for people to hear each other afterward. I also wanted lots of flames, because dramatic. Since I have no personal experience of explosions, I decided I had better do some research and not trust Hollywood.

It turns out that an incendiary is a chemical reaction that releases energy slowly, while a bomb causes explosive damage by releasing energy suddenly and powerfully. It generates shock waves and noise. Pulling the trigger on a gun sets off an explosive reaction which propels the bullet out of the barrel. Dynamite blows up rocks but doesn’t set them on fire. A Molotov cocktail, on the other hand, does its damage by burning things. Damage from the shattered glass is incidental.

It’s possible to have both heat and noise in one device by using an explosive charge to ignite the incendiary material, but the technology is complicated and was beyond the means of my characters and their environment. So I had to put a separate fire-source on the site to have both booms and flames.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY IS A SIGNIFICANT COMPONENT OF PLOT

In writing, I’ve often let my settings develop intuitively and focused my worldbuilding on customs, food, religion, transportation, and so on. In earlier versions of the book, the capital city was a river city. I decided somewhat arbitrarily to make things a little more interesting for myself and change the setting to islands in a lake. That led into all sorts of other things I hadn’t anticipated at all.

Control of the lake gave the king much more control of the populace. It was easy for his minions to limit access to various parts of the city. People leaving the city had to have a way “off-Island.” Even his sons couldn’t just get up and go. On the other hand, an entire economy related to shipping developed, and that introduced targets for the resistance. The resistance suddenly had the ability to attack vulnerable docks and to sow dissent by playing merchants off against their insurers. Changing the physical geography to one of isolation at the outset turned out to be extremely useful for coming up with small plot points that I could string together. This relationship between geography and plot has been a useful tool to add to my writer toolbox.

FAMILY DYNAMICS AND POLITICAL DYNAMICS ARE MUCH MORE INTERESTING WHEN THEY ARE INTERCONNECTED

I knew I wanted to explore power dynamics in Queen, but the book wasn’t gelling. So finally I sat down and thought about my favorite Shakespeare plays: Henry IV, Part 1; King Lear; Macbeth; and Hamlet. What I realized was that the core of each of these plays is a family story. Prince Hal has to negotiate his relationship with his father; Lear grievously misunderstands his children; Macbeth operates in concert with his wife; Hamlet is driven by his father’s ghost to kill his uncle. The politically powerful positions of the characters shape the plots, but what makes the plays meaningful is the family dynamics.

That power and family are more interesting when combined seems really obvious, and I had known it intellectually. But I didn’t really learn it until I was trying to make the connection important for all the characters. In earlier drafts, my main character Anza was an orphan; in this version I gave her a father who had been executed by the king, which not only raised the stakes for her but made all her interactions with the king’s son Esvar more complicated and twisty. In turn, Esvar’s relationship with his missing mother shapes his own actions. These changes gave the story a lot more meat.

***

Lisbeth Campbell grew up in Illinois and western Pennsylvania. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her jobs have run the gamut from housecleaner to teacher. When she is not writing, reading, or spending time with her husband and daughter, she is probably attending to one of her cats.

Lisbeth Campbell: Website

The Vanished Queen: Indiebound | Bookshop | Amazon