Tag Archives: Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement

May 1 2014

Author Joe R. Lansdale Talks about ‘Cold in July’ and Writing

 

By Jason Harris

Joe R. Lansdale

Joe R. Lansdale

JH: The movie version of Cold in July comes out in May. Did you have any involvement with the filmmakers?

JRL: Yes, Jim Mickle, the director, and Nick Damici the writer, kept me in the loop and asked my opinions frequently. I was on the set for two weeks watching them film. It was a great experience, and as icing on the cake, I like the film. A lot.

JH: If you did have any involvement, what was your involvement and how did you feel about it?

JRL: Mainly just as an adviser. They respected me enough to make me a producer on the film. I did teach Sam Shepard a finger lock for one of the scenes.

JH: What do you think about the casting of Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard, and Don Johnson in the roles of characters you created?

JRL: It was like they were born for those parts. I didn’t think about them as the actors, but as soon as they said their names, I thought, oh hell yeah.cold_in_july

JH: Are there anymore film adaptations in the works of your books?

JRL: There are several. The Bottoms is the only one I can talk about right now. Bill Paxton is set to direct, and there is a great script by Brent Hanely. He wrote Frailty and Bill directed it. I think we’ve got a winning team. Next actors are to be chosen. The plan right now is to shoot this fall.

JH: How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning? Do you have any name choosing resources you recommend?

JRL: Sometimes I just want something common. And there are times when I feel something a little unusual is better. I’m not picking names like Bill Storm or Willie Hammer, but now and again I go for something a little exotic like Vanilla Ride.

JH: Do you have a favorite conference to attend? What is it?

JRL: ArmadilloCon in Austin, Texas. I go most years.

JH: What is your least favorite part of the publishing/writing process?

JRL: Proofing and promotion, though I have learned to embrace those things.

JH: Is there one subject you would never write about as an author? What is it?

JRL: I don’t know. I never say never, but I’m sure there are some things I wouldn’t want to write about, but I’d have to come up on that one before I’d know it.

JH: Is there a certain type of scene that’s harder for you to write than others? Love? Action? Racy?

JRL: Not really. Not if I like the story and feel it works in the context of that story.

JH: Just as your books inspire authors, what authors have inspired you to write?

JRL: Too many to name here. But among them: Jack London, Mark Twain, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, William F. Nolan, William Goldman, Raymond Chandler, James Cain, Dashiell Hammett, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, [William] Faulkner, a little, Flannery O’Conner, a lot Glendon Swarthout, some [Larry] McMurtry, and the list goes on.

JH: What writing advice do you have for other aspiring authors?

JRL: Read a lot, and learn to write regularly, daily. Put your ass in a chair and write. Have a reasonable goal each day. Say one to three pages, and reach it, and if you go over, great, but try hard to reach that goal.

Editor’s Note:

THe movie version of Cold in July comes out in limited release in theaters on May 23.

You can read an earlier article about Lansdale receiving the Horror Writers’ Association’s Lifetime Achievement award here.

May 1 2012

NEHW at New Haven Craft Show Sunday

The New England Horror Writers and craft shows are becoming synonymous. This trend continues this Sunday when the NEHW participates in the East Coast Craft Fair in New Haven.

The craft show will be held at the Trolley Square Mall on Saturday and Sunday, but the NEHW will only be there Sunday.

NEHW members Kimberly Dalton, Stacey Longo, Kristi Petersen Schoonover, Kasey Shoemaker, Rob Watts, and Nathan Wrann will be there selling and signing their works.

You can purchase Epitaphs, the first anthology created by the NEHW, which includes only stories by members. Longo’s story, “Private Beach,” which is reminiscent of Stephen King’s story, “The Raft,” is in this inaugural collection. This anthology also includes a story by Christopher Golden, who has written a number of Buffy the Vampire Slayer books, and Rick Hautala, the recent recipient of the Horror Writers Association’s 2012 Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.

If you saw The Raven starring John Cusack last weekend and are still craving Poe, you could purchase a copy of In Poe’s Shadow, a collection of short stories inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Schoonover’s piece, “VanityVanity,” which was inspired by Poe’s “The Oval Portrait,” is in this anthology.

If Poe is not your style, maybe you’d like a trip to Iceland with newlyweds Jeffrey and Susie Hill in Huldufolk, which is based on Icelandic folklore, written by Watts. Along with the book, he is giving away a copy of The Traffic Lights CD, the band in Watts’ book, with each book purchase. Watts composed the music for his fictional band.

If you are a New Haven resident or work in the city, then Silver Vengeance, by Kasey Shoemaker, whose main character is an ambitious chef in one of New Haven’s trendiest restaurants in her urban fantasy novel featuring werewolves, witches, romance, and bloodshed, might be for you.

There will also be young adult novels by Nathan Wrann and a children’s book by Kimberly Dalton available.  Wrann will have his first two books in the paranormal thriller Dark Matter Heart trilogy at the NEHW table. In Good Night Fright, Dalton rhyming children’s book, John is afraid to go to sleep so he asks his friends how they handle the monsters in the closet. She also illustrated the book.

The show’s organizers will also have readings by Longo, Schoonover, and Watts in the middle of the mall at different times of the day.

Come hear the readings and stop by the NEHW table where there will be plenty of other books available to buy from these authors in addition to the ones mentioned above.

The craft show runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Trolley Square Mall is located at 1175 State Street in New Haven.

Jan 10 2012

The HWA Announces 2012 Recipients for Lifetime Achievement

The HWA Announces 2012 Recipients for Lifetime Achievement

by Jason Harris

The Horror Writers Association has announced the 2012 recipients of its Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Rick Hautala (photo courtesy of his Facebook page)

The two recipients of the award are NEHW member Rick Hautala and Joe R. Lansdale.

Hautala and Lansdale join previous recipients such as Stephen King, F. Paul Wilson, John Carpenter, Thomas Harris (no relation), Anne Rice, Charles L. Grant, Harlan Ellison, and Ramsey Campbell to name a just a few of the people who have been honored with this award.

Hautala, who recently had his first novel, Moondeath, rereleased by Evil Jester Press and is in the NEHW’s first anthology, Epitaphs, released last year, said that receiving the award was “unexpected.”

Lansdale’s novel, All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky and the e-book, Bullets and Fire, were released last year. His newest book, Edge of Dark Water, comes out March 25.

“Truthfully, I am more humbled than excited by it,” Hautala said. “There are so many other writers who, I think, are much more deserving. I feel like Carrie White at the prom.”

Lansdale “was surprised” and “maybe even shocked” when he heard about the honor, he said.

Joe R. Lansdale (photo courtesy of his Facebook page)

“It’s an honor to be given this award along with Rick,” Lansdale said.

According to the HWA website, “the Lifetime Achievement Award is the most prestigious of all awards presented by the HWA. It does not merely honor the superior achievement embodied in a single work. Instead, it is an acknowledgement of superior achievement in an entire career.”

A committee chooses the recipients for the lifetime achievement award instead of it being voted on by the entire associations’ active membership, the website said. By having an committee, it “prevents unseemly competition” and the “impression that there are any losers in this category.”

Hautala said, he will “accept the award with humility and — yes, a measure of pride.”

He feels better “sharing the stage with Lansdale, who has been a great friend” for many years.

“As Harlan Ellison says: ’Becoming a writer is easy. It’s staying a writer that’s hard.’ So this award should be an inspiration to young and aspiring writers everywhere … If you stick around long enough, eventually they have to notice you.” Hautala said.

Lansdale agrees with Hautala’s sentiment about having to be noticed when “you have been around long enough.”

“… I like to think we’ve contributed to the field of horror and dark suspense, and that there’s someone out there who became a fan, or writer of horror, because of something I wrote, or something Rick wrote,” Lansdale said. “Again, it’s a great and respected honor.”