Well, I got another event on the horizon! And this one, both its timing and theme, shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows me.
I attended the Columbus Witches Ball in November 2022, and had an amazing time. Hosted by the Magical Druid, one of the most prominent metaphysical shops in Columbus (we have a few), it’s an awesome gathering of witches, Wiccans, and neo-Pagans. There was a ritual (which I filmed for YouTube), some dancing, and, of course, plenty of people interested in books and Tarot readings. I did very well on sales, and also had a ton of fun.
I wanted to go back in 2023, but I had a conflict, and last year, I attended a different event held by the Magical Druid, so I decided not to go. But this year, I’m going back. And this year, it’ll be held at the Ohio Brewing Company at 421 East 2nd Avenue in downtown Columbus from 1 PM – 11 PM. Obviously, there will be food and drink (it is a brewery, after all), but also a guest lecturer, a ritual, and dancing. Plus, lots of vendors, including little old me. I’ll be there selling books and doing Tarot card readings, so if you’re in the area, please consider attending. I’ll include links to tickets below.
And don’t worry. I’ll be sure to post a reminder before the event. Just in case you forget. And I’ll let you all know if any new events pop up. Which, given Halloween is 94 days away, is likely to happen.
Until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night and pleasant nightmares!
Some of you may remember prior to COVID a rather unusual novel called A Cosmology of Monsters, about a family in the business of haunted attractions and the entities that seem to haunt them through the generations (see my review here). You may also remember my interview with the author, Shaun Hamill (which you can read here). Well, Shaun’s got a new novel called The Dissonance coming out soon, and I got him to sit down with me to discuss the new book and what went into writing it.
So, without further ado, let’s do an interview!
Rami Ungar: Welcome back to the blog, Shaun. Can you tell us what you’ve been up to in the past five years since Cosmology came out?
Shaun Hamill: Like everyone else, I’ve had a crazy few years! I’ve moved from Alabama to Texas (and then moved three more times to different living situations in the last 3 years). I haven’t written as much as I would have liked, but I managed to write The Dissonance, and I have just turned in another novel I can’t talk about yet.
RU: Tell us about The Dissonance. What’s it about, and what inspired it?
SH: The Dissonance is a dark fantasy novel (with a dash of horror), about a type of magic that feeds on negative emotions: pain, depression, and the like. The only people who can use it are usually “broken” in some way—traumatized or mentally ill or the like. The story focuses on a group of friends who discover this power as teenagers, and how it shapes their lives in good and bad ways. It was inspired during COVID, when I couldn’t see any of my friends in person. I missed them terribly, so I wrote a novel about friendship.
RU: Can you tell us a bit more about the novel’s themes and influences?
SH; As previously mentioned, friendship is a huge theme of The Dissonance. So is trauma, and pain, and regret. It was influenced mainly by Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and Lev Grossman’s The Magicians. Some reviewers are also comparing the novel to IT (it deals with a group of friends and has a split timeline between their adolescent and adult lives), so that’s in the mix, too!
RU: Nothing wrong about being compared to IT, especially when it’s favorable. So, do you think your writing style has changed at all since Cosmology?
SH: I’m not sure. When I started The Dissonance, I set out to write a more accessible book, with characters who were a little easier to love and root for. I also wanted there to be more action and excitement. Whether that means a change in style? I couldn’t say. Maybe I’ve gotten a little less pretentious? I’ll be curious to see what readers of Cosmology think.
RU: I’ll be sure to let you know. Now, I’ve noticed based on Cosmology and on the description for The Dissonance, but you seem to have a thing for cosmic horror. Can you tell us your thoughts on cosmic horror and what about it you like?
SH: Yeah, I’m a cosmic horror nerd for sure. I think it stems from growing up religious (although I’m not a believer anymore). I was always fascinated by the awe and wonder that came with believing in something bigger than myself, and when I discovered cosmic horror (relatively late, in my early 30s), I found something more in tune with my personal feelings about the universe: a dark wonder, and the sense that reality is bigger and more complex and strange than any of us can ever comprehend. The best we can hope for in this life is a peek behind the curtain. Weird fiction is all about that curtain.
RU: It also seems this book will be delving quite a bit into witchcraft and the occult. Do you have experience with magic and witchcraft, or did you do a bunch of research and then make up the rest?
SH: I have an ex who practiced a bit of witchcraft. I’ve partaken in a couple of rituals (which I found as boring as church), and have spent my fair share of time in wiccan shops, browsing books of spells and baskets full of crystals and whatnot. In The Dissonance I employ a little bit of that knowledge, but mostly stick to made-up stuff, where I get to make the rules. My novel doesn’t discount the idea that pagan beliefs are valid, but it doesn’t engage with them much, either.
RU: Changing gears a bit, in our last interview, you mentioned at one point cutting down Cosmology from 250,000 words to about 100,00. Did you have to do something similar with The Dissonance?
The cover for The Dissonance.
SH: Actually, it’s the opposite! I worked hard to turn in a draft of The Dissonance at about 100,000 words. When my editor bought the book, she encouraged me to open up the world and story, and we ended up adding almost 50,000 words to the novel. Just like the cuts were appropriate for Cosmology, I think the additions ended up helping The Dissonance. The early drafts of the novel were very fast-paced—a little too fast. We needed to slow down (just a little) and give the characters time to breathe and feel between the action beats. We needed to show them having fun in addition to getting into trouble. The resulting novel is almost 50% longer than Cosmology but I have yet to hear anyone complain about the word count, so I think we got it right!
RU: Before we wrap up, are you working on anything new and spooky right now? And do you have any exciting future plans?
SH: I just turned in my third novel (which I can’t really talk about yet). It’s definitely on the spooky end of the spectrum. I’m also in talks for a fourth book (which I also can’t talk about), and have given my agent outlines for two possible other novels. So I’m going to be quite busy for the next few years! Hopefully I’ll be publishing more than once every half-decade from now on.
RU: Final question: what are some horror stories you’ve read recently that you’ve enjoyed?
SH: I loved Rachel Harrison’s latest novel, Black Sheep, and Clay McCloud Chapman’s What Kind of Mother. I’m really excited for Gabino Iglesias’s House of Bone and Rain. I haven’t been reading as much horror recently (because of the fantasy edge of The Dissonance, that’s been most of my reading), but I need to get back into it!
RU: I hope you do! It’s an amazing genre, after all. And thank you again for joining us once more.
If you’re interested in checking out The Dissonance, it comes out July 23, 2024 and is available for preorder from most retailers. And if you want to follow Shaun Hamill, you can follow him using the links listed below.
I hope you’re as excited as I am to read this book, my Followers of Fear. And until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares!
My signed copy of Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
Back in September, author Silvia Moreno-Garcia visited Columbus as part of my local library’s Carnegie Author series of events. Me and many of my fellow members of HWA Ohio went to see the event, where she talked about the influences behind her latest book, Silver Nitrate, which I later got signed by the author herself. That was a cool Sunday.
Months later, I finally cracked open the book to read it. And, as you can tell from this blog post, I’m going to review it.
Taking place in Mexico City in the 1990s, Silver Nitrate follows Montserrat, the only female sound editor in a studio dominated by chauvinistic men, and her best friend Tristan, a former soap opera star whose career was marred by tragedy and now makes a living doing voicework. Their lives change forever when they meet Abel Urueta, a film director they both once loved whose last film was never completed. After learning the history of the film, including that it was co-written by a German occultist with Nazi ties who was trying to cast a spell with the film, Urueta convinces them to help him finish the film and occultist’s spell, thereby possibly fixing a string of bad luck that has plagued the director.
What occurs next is a series of events that comes with two realizations for our two leads. One is that magic, especially magic in film, is more than just a metaphor. The other is that they have set something in motion, something big. And if they’re not careful, they’re going to lose everything from it.
The best part of this book is definitely our two leads. Montserrat and Tristan are such fully realized characters that you feel like they could step out of the pages and you’d know them. Montserrat is quite prickly but does care a lot, while Tristan is slightly narcissistic and dramatic but does care and wishes he were a better person. Their interplay throughout the book is fun to watch, as well as their reliance on one another.
Another plus of the book is the magic system. Those of you who’ve been with me for a while know that I studied Nazi occultism in preparation for my WWII study abroad trip in college. Yes, a lot of that stuff is real, though it is highly exaggerated in most depictions. In any case, I was delighted to see a lot of what I had learned mixed in with the magic system used in the novel. It made it easy for me to grasp, and gave it a sense of “realism,” so to speak, that I liked.
However, Silver Nitrate does have its flaws. So much time is spent explaining the complexities of the magic system that the slow burn of the story is too slow. Things don’t really start to get exciting to the last hundred pages or so, and by then it’s a bit too late to really bring up the book’s final score.
I also had some issues with the ending, but I won’t say what because I don’t want to spoil it.
All in all, I would give Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia a 3.9 out of 5. It’s a bit too slow for my tastes, but it’s got great characters and a fully realized setting and magic system. If you’re interested, give it a read and fall down the occultism rabbit hole.
I read the book back in 2018 and loved it (would have done a review, but I think by that point it had been out a while). I was excited when I heard that it was getting a show…and then sad when I heard it would be on HBO. However, now I have HBO Max, so I was able to watch the show. Which I finished watching today. As I’m obligated to do, I’m writing a review.
Based on the novel by Matt Ruff, Lovecraft Country follows Atticus Freeman, a black soldier living in 1950s America who returns home to Chicago after receiving a mysterious letter from his estranged father Montrose, stating he is in Arkham, Massachusetts, a location from the works of HP Lovecraft. Turns out, it’s actually a secret community called Ardham, but that doesn’t change how fantastical life gets for Atticus. Pretty soon, his life starts to resemble a Lovecraft story, involving secret societies of sorcerers and magic, ancient history, and entities that defy reality and biology. And it may end up putting Atticus and his whole family in danger.
So, it would be more fair to say this is a variation on the novel’s story than a direct adaptation. The first season acknowledges the concept of a multiverse and uses that to explain the changes from the novel. Some of these changes are minor–some names or genders are changed, roles are reduced or expanded, etc. Others are good, such as the expansion of Montrose’s character to be a meaningful exploration of a man with a troubled past still effecting his present. And others just made me scratch my head.
An example of this would be the creation of the character Ji-ah, a character from Atticus’s past who knows more than she lets on. On the one hand, I get why they added her and they tried to make her inclusion into the story important to the plot. At the same time, I feel like this whole character’s reason was diversity for diversity’s sake, which is an odd choice considering the show.
As for the rest of Lovecraft Country, it was great for the most part. The writing in even the dullest episodes was superb, and the actors were awesome. There were several scary moments, such as the events of the first two episodes and episode eight. The exploration of racism in America was powerfully done as well, drawing many parallels between events then and now (and making me want to know more about the Tulsa race riots. I do not remember learning about that in school).
If you haven’t checked out the novel, that’s also worth the read.
However, there were some downsides. The actress playing the villainess, Abbey Lee, played her role so emotionlessly I wondered if she couldn’t get into her character’s head, let alone play her convincingly. A lot of the music choices were modern rap or music from well past the 1950s, which honestly felt out of place in a historical fantasy-horror piece. And there were a few episodes where things kind of dragged for me.
Like the novel, Lovecraft Country the TV series isn’t perfect, but there’s plenty there to enjoy and make the watch worth it. You’re going to get different things from each iteration of the story, so it’s up to you which one you prefer.
On a scale of 1 to 5, I’ll give the first season of Lovecraft Country a 3.7. Combining horror, magic, heavy themes and great characterization, it’s worth the hype I heard. A second season may be in the works, but until we get confirmation one way or another, there’s still plenty of time to check it out. Get on HBO Max if you can and prepare for a powerful experience.
That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’m off to work on stories I doubt will ever get their own adaptations (though it can’t hurt to try). Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares.
I swear, this is the last time I’m posting about my Boston trip. Unless I actually did capture ghost voices (or EVPs, as believers prefer), in which case there will be another post. Don’t worry though, that’ll take a while to accomplish, so don’t go to the unsubscribe button just yet. Also, this post will be a quick one…I think. I’m saying that while still writing it, so who knows?
Anyway, as you can tell from the title, this is about the souvenirs from my Boston trip. On Instagram I broke these down by type of souvenir (book, toy, etc), but here I think I’ll separate it by day or location. Why? Just makes more sense that way, it seems.
Independence Day souvenirs.
As I said in my last post, I went into a Harry Potter shop and a comic book shop on that day. I’m a Slytherin (mostly because I’m pure evil), so I bought some Slytherin gear from the Harry Potter shop. Specifically, a sticker and a tie.
The ancient and noble House.
I’m wearing this the next time I wear a tie.
From the comic book store I went a little crazy. In addition to some more stickers, I bought a couple of those Funko Pop dolls. Those who know me won’t be surprised which franchises I bought dolls from.
You know it’s true.
Looks great on my laptop.
My first, and probably my favorite Doctor.
Moonies forever!
Including all the anime figurines I’ve been collecting, I’m building quite the doll collection. And I’m not ashamed to say that.
Salem souvenirs.
It won’t surprise you that most of the souvenirs here are witch-related. They’re also all books. Well, there is a print of the House of the Seven Gables under a creepy moon, but it’s copyrighted, and the last thing I want is a copyright lawsuit on my hands, so forgive me if I don’t post a photo of that here.
Looks cool.
I’ve always been curious.
You knew this was going to be coming home with me.
This will make a great reference material.
I swear, it’s another reference book. I’m not going to do anything evil…probably.
At least you can’t say I won’t get bored or go without reading material for a while.
Lizzie Borden souvenirs.
Luckily, I went easy on the souvenirs here. And of course, they are so totally me.
Because I’m on a true crime kick lately.
Not going to lie, this doll creeps even me.
So that’s all my souvenirs. Pretty cool, huh?
That’s all for now…on Boston, anyway. I probably won’t post anything new until the weekend so you don’t get sick of me, but if something big comes up, I’ll probably have to talk about it. In the meantime, I’m going to work on Rose for a little while. Wish me luck, and good night, my Followers of Fear. Pleasant nightmares!
It’s Friday again, so you know what that means! It’s #FirstLineFriday! It’s also been a full week of work at my new job. I’ll have to blog about that at some point, if I’m allowed (government work, you need to be very careful when you talk about what you do with them).
Now if you don’t know what #FirstLineFriday is, let me explain. On Fridays, you:
Create a post on a blog entitled #FirstLineFriday, hashtag and all.
Explain the rules like I’m doing now.
Post the first one or two lines of a potential short story, a story-in-progress, or a completed or published story.
Ask your readers for feedback and encourage them to try #FirstLineFriday on their blogs as well (tagging is encouraged but not necessary).
Ever since I moved into my new apartment, I’ve been feeling more creative than I have in months. Oh, the number of new ideas I’ve had since I started living on my own! So picking just one story to do an entry on was a hard choice. In the end, I went with on I came up with last weekend, inspired partially by a story I read recently, about an online campaign of witches to cast a hex on that Stanford student who only got six months for rape (yes, both of those are a thing. Crazy, right?). Along with some recent events, I was able to come up with something original and strange and hopefully creepy. Enjoy:
Sometimes you can only take so much from the world before you just decide to strike back. And yesterday was the final straw.
Thoughts? Errors? Let’s discuss.
And while you’re at it, why not try #FirstLineFriday on your own blog? It’s easy, a lot of fun, and if you’re a writer, you get great practice for openings in your own stories. In fact, I’m going to tag someone. Let’s see…I pick Ryan M. Church of The Way of the Storyteller. Ryan, you’ve been tagged. You must do your own #FirstLineFriday either this week or next. Good luck!
That’s all for now. Packed weekend after work, so I hope I have time to check in with the latest. Until next time, my Followers of Fear!
Rami Ungar The Writer 