Can I even read this book? Well…no. But I just received an autobiography on my beloved Maria Germanova all the way from Russia, and I’m not gonna let a bunch of Cyrillic alphabets stand in my way!
To be perfectly honest, I had despaired of ever receiving this package. I don’t typically order many things from that part of the world and wasn’t sure how long it might take to arrive (and it seemed like it was taking forever! Although maybe I had only ordered it three weeks ago. Hm. I should better manage my expectations.)
In a prescient missive heralding things to come, I received the below image link via Instagram yesterday from a friend. This is a great re-enactment of Maria Germanova’s Blue Bird costume–doesn’t the Laughing Cow cheese container disks just totally make it?! Brava to the creator! And as it happened, the book arrived not an hour later.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock (mmm…rose quartz!), then I probably do not need to inform you that Pam Grossman –writer, podcaster, practicing witch, and all-around mistress of magic, myth, and moxie–has conjured forth an incredible book to share with the world: Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power.
I recently had the ideal opportunity to devour its wonderments whilst whizzing through the skies on a mammoth metal broomstick, dizzying views of watercolor clouds in the early dawn’s cauldron bubbling and churning below. Free from obligations, phone calls, and miraculously (!) even a seatmate, it was the perfect setting to dive into this powerful collection of meditations and celebrations focused on the evocative, influential archetype of the witch.
I have since arrived back home and I am so pleased to share with you today my thoughts on Waking The Witch, and, in celebration of the summer solstice, Haute Macabre and Pam have an exciting giveaway announcement for you below, as well!
As with anything Pam creates, and which I know I may eventually write about, I’m initially intimidated at the prospect of reviewing Waking the Witch, which debuted on June 4th and is already a best selling new release on Amazon. But, as in the past, once I have cracked the cover and peeked inside, I am inexplicably drawn in with a whoosh as through a magic portal, and having begun to read the material, I’m immediately awestruck. And then! It’s off to the races and I’m scribbling notes and observations faster than I can read the material or even properly parse what I’ve written about it, and I tell you what: no one–no one!– has the ability to grab my attention and my imagination quite that way that Pam does.
[And if you don’t believe me, check out the bundles of blurbs brimming with words of praise in the book’s opening pages, penned by a veritable who’s who of contemporary neopaganism and witchcraft– the likes of Kristin Solee, Gabriela Herstik, Neko Case, etc. If your Sarah E. doesn’t know what she’s talking about (and let’s face it, sometimes she doesn’t), then, by goddess, these writers, artists, and magic-makers do.)
If that doesn’t grab you, I will steal the lines right out of art critic Morf Vandewalt’s mouth (played with campy panache by Jake Gyllenhal in the Netflix film Velvet Buzzsaw.) “Mesmeric… I’m ensorcelled,” he sighs with embellished, unbridled enthusiasm at the sight of …something or other. It doesn’t matter. That movie has nothing to do with this book. All you need to know is that I too, was ensorcelled during my airborne afternoons with Waking The Witch, and I don’t mean that with any amount of smarmy irony or the puffed up, self-importance of a critic who thinks their words are going to make or break someone’s career. From the book’s electrifying introduction right through the emotional acknowledgments at the end, I was, for a time lost to this world, utterly immersed in its resplendent thrall. If that’s not ensorcelled, then I just don’t know what is.
Visually, texturally, Waking The Witch is an eye-pleasing, tactile delight. Bound in material cool to the touch and satiny-not-quite-slippery to grip, the matte cover glimmers with gold foil motifs that glow gratifyingly when the light hits them just so and is boldly punctuated with flashes of flaming scarlet. The mystical patterns and symbols–hands conjuring bolts of lightning, fingertips twinkling with tiny stars, crescent moons, curving arrows, and circling paths– are nestled against a deep celestial blue echoing the velvet vault of heaven at midnight. As to these observations, Pam shared a few magical, behind-the-scenes insights: “[The cover] reminds me of the sky and sea, and also looks like lapis lazuli, a gemstone associated with elevating the spirit and having clear communication – which is certainly what I hope the book will do! The triangle is associated with the triple goddess, and I love the way the fiery red pops against the background like some sort of amulet or jewel…”
Though at first glance this appears no slim tome, balanced on the palm, the book possesses a peculiar weightlessness that belies the scholarly and spiritual heft of the wisdom, wit, and warmth contained within. A beautiful, brilliant, biblio-treat, I found this is not so much a casual book for the nightstand so much as a magical grimoire/memoir for my altar. But whether your interest lies in witches and witchcraft or feminism, culture, and gender, I believe you’ll find yourself too ensnared in its spell to leave it lay long in either place.
If you’re already familiar with Pam’s evocative writing through her essays and articles, her illuminated manifesto What Is A Witch, or perhaps even from her artful blog posts, then you are no stranger to the beat and the pulse of her words, and how they sing with a wonderful rhythm in your blood. The lyrical language with which she crafts her assorted observations and myriad musings have a profoundly poetic, incantatory quality that you can’t just passively read without also, in a heady, personal way, simultaneously experiencing. They’re a song, a chant, a spell; you feel them, and they move you. ” There is a line between witchcraft and wordsmithery,” she notes, and later references the poem “Spelling”, by Margaret Atwood: “A word after a word after a word is power–” and I believe there is no more powerful word on contemporary witchcraft that those that Pam shares within Waking The Witch.
Early in I’m struck by her words of inclusivity. It makes me a little sad to note that sometimes (it seems to me, at least) our various alt-communities can seem anything but inclusive. Do you ever notice that the weirdos, the strangelings, the outcasts, and outsiders–those friends and familiars on the fringe–can sometimes be the most vicious gatekeepers? (But listen, I’m not here to judge; the meme “who hurt you?” comes to mind, which can be so funny/unfunny, because it’s so painfully true. I’m sorry that someone, somewhere gave you a hard time, spooky friends.) I love how Pam makes her opinion clear that whether your interest is heartfelt or cheeky, budding or established, your beliefs and practices public or private—the witch is an elastic archetype accessible to all, and we might call ourselves witch for manifold reasons.
The word “witch”, she further elucidates, represents “a means of identifying how I carry myself through the world and the kind of energetic current that I wish to be a conduit for.”
“At any given time I am a feminist; someone who celebrates freedom and will fight against injustice using every tool at her disposal; a person who values intuition and self-expression; a kindred spirit with those who favor the unconventional, the uncanny, the underground. I am a woman who dares speak her mind and display the full gamut of human emotion–behavior that is still met by society with judgement or disdain.”
From the current state of my copy of Waking The Witch, you’d think it had undergone the fabled test of the 7 Wonders and come out the other side scrappier, scarred, and deeply changed for the experience. Never have I underlined with such feverish intensity, dog-eared with so much unreserved enthusiasm, and highlighted with cackling, demented glee. Contained within these pages was a fascinating exploration brimming with nuanced insights of witches in history, politics, cinema, literature, and the arts–and which will surely remain a perpetual font of inspiration and sagacity that I will no doubt revisit again and again. I didn’t want to forget a single word. (And trust me, this book has been forever marked in such a way to ensure that I will not!)
From chapters encompassing the awkward, rebellious magic of the Teen Witch, to the old-timey Girls Gone Wild idea that witches were thought to be horned-up, power-hungry consorts of Satan, all kissing his butthole and eating dead baby parts and whatnot; the cruel brutality of witch hunts which arose from that foolishness, to how those collective perceptions and experiences shaped the notion of witches and witchcraft over time–when I initially remarked that I devoured this book, that was no exaggeration. Waking The Witch serves up a boundless buffet of brilliance and I greedily consumed every course.
Highlights included:
Chapter 4: “Body Monsters” which struck a deep, dark chord within me; amongst other items of relevance, Pam discusses childlessness and the right to that reality, bodily autonomy, and growing older in a society punitive of repulsive, repugnant wrinkles and sags.
In Chapter 6: “The Dark Arts: Magic Makers And Craft Women,” we are introduced to a handful of women who wield their wands creatively, and in particular: surrealist artists and friends, Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington. “Steeped in kitchens and cauldrons and laboratories and labyrinths,” these artists speak to my particular flavor of witchery and spell-craft–that which involves puttering and muttering around boiling pots, cursing and curing, chopping and chanting–all of the toil and trouble and cauldron bubble, without, you know, the eye of newt and toe of frog. And then when you’re through, you’ve got a nice meal! (Or a not so nice meal, as the case may be. Not that I’m endorsing this.)
Finally, with Chapter 7: “Power In Numbers: Covens And Collectives”, Pam presents us with the idea of joining forces with like-minded practitioners. Ooof! This is an unnerving thought, as Pam, like me, was concerned that the individuals involved might be “…too flaky or too corny or too serious or not serious enough.” But this resistance, she reveals, really might be more about us:
To practice in a group requires both a loosening of self-consciousness and a tightening grip on the rudder of sincerity. You have to care and you have to let others see you caring. And you have to bear witness to their caring in turn. You will most likely grow to care about them. And heaven forfend, you may even allow them to care about you too.
When we decided to be part of any community, we are making a commitment to literally be there for ourselves and for each other. Once you’ve identified a group that you may want to be part of–and that group has signaled that you are indeed invited to join them–the next step you take is to simply show up.
For in that moment, you are choosing to say, “Here I am,” and for many of us that may be a scary prospect.
Before I sign off (TLDR; Waking The Witch is a rare treasure! Go out and buy this book!) I thought I might share a few words from the author. As someone who continually struggles with starting creative projects, sustaining forward momentum throughout the process, and who stresses with the oftentimes depressing aftermath of putting a thing out into the world and wondering, “what now?”… and also realizing that I am not the only one among us to work through these challenges, I thought it might be illuminating and valuable to find out how this witchy writer handles these concerns for herself. See below, wherein Pam shares a few insights for us egarding the processes, practices, and rituals that she utilized while writing Waking The Witch…
“I had so many different rituals and magic workings I was doing throughout the process of this book. It was a constant process of burning candles and lighting incense, and surrounding myself with helpful talismans. My friend Peter had me do a magic square and sigil for Jupiter, which is a planet associated with power and authority. This was to help me step into my confidence because I must say, at times it felt rather daunting to try to write about such a big subject, especially when so many brilliant people have already done so. The magic square is on my desk – right near my RuPaul candle in fact, which I also light when I need to feel extra fierce!
But it was also important to me that I marked each step of the process, as well as giving thanks to my various spirits along the way for their guidance. When I handed in the final first draft, for example, my husband and I went for a walk in our neighborhood late that night to get a celebratory candy bar. We ended up in this pharmacy that happened to be open late and there I saw that this gorgeous, iridescent candle I had my eye on for months was on sale for 50% off! And this may sound strange, but my late Grandma Trudy was the queen of bargains, and I write about her in the book as well, so I knew it was her way of sending me a little congratulatory sign! So I bought the candle and lit it that night to thank her, and I still light it when I need an extra boost of support from her.
When I got the galley for the book, I put it on my altar and also brought it to my coven whenever we met, for extra good vibes, too. And now that the actual book is out, I replaced the galley on my altar with the final product. My wish for it is not only that it is successful – whatever that may mean – but more so that it will be of service to Spirit and will reach those who need it. I hope it brings more compassion, love, fun, and freedom into people’s lives, and that it helps wake the witch within them. We’re going to need a lot of wide-open hearts and transformational power to change this world for the better, so I hope in some small way this book contributes to that. I truly believe that witches are the future.”
…not to be confused with “butt stuff”. Which…don’t ask me how one could be mistaken for the other, but as someone who frequently mishears and misreads things, I know it happens!
Book stuff the first is our Stacked reading compilation over at Haute Macabre, covering the months of April and May. Among others, I really enjoyed In The House In The Dark Of The Woods by Laird Hunt, a witchy woodland fever dream of a tale, set in colonial New England, is utterly immersive and twisty and strange. Not mentioned, because I didn’t even know how to begin to tackle the material, is The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esmé Weijun Wang. I feel funny saying that I “enjoyed” this book, a woman’s exhausting struggle with chronic and mental illness, but it was intimate and candid, beautifully written and immediately compelling, and provided perspectives and insights that were surprising, terrifying, and sometimes even quite empowering.
Book stuff the second: I interviewed Mallory O’Meara, best-selling author of The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick. Milicent Patrick was an illustrator and artist “who designed the iconic monster from The Creature from the Black Lagoon, but, unfortunately for decades, no one knew much else about her.” Mallory’s book is the incredible true story of Milicent Patrick’s life and legacy, and an exploration of why her accomplishments still matter today and why her story needs to be told now more than ever. Bonus: if you’ve never seen Creature From The Black Lagoon, you can watch it over on archive.org!
By my broom,” said she, “I give you no spell against magic.”
It’s taken me three years, but I have finally finished reading Lord Dunsany’s The King Of Elfland’s Daughter. It was a bit of a slog, but I’ll confess: this enchanting passage kicks off the point at which the story begins to redeem itself for me (20 pages from the end, oh well.) The ageless, enigmatic Ziroonderel is the star of the show as far as I’m concerned. “As though magic were not the spice and essence of life, its ornament and its splendor.” Quite right! Send that parliament of old fools packing, you wise, wonderful old thing!
This title marks the first of my five goal books read in 2019, though it is book 25 of the total read so far this year. Next up: The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies by Clark Ashton Smith, which I began in late summer of 2017 and was actually enjoying very much, but I became distracted by other books, set it aside, and it was soon buried and forgotten.
For the winter holidays this past year I suggested to my baby sister that if she wanted to get me something in addition to the planner that you’ve all heard so much about recently, why not one of her very favorite books? The sort of comfort read that she might return to year after year, savor time and time again. She presented me with Rosamunde Pilcher’s Coming Home.
“Against the backdrop of an elegant Cornwall mansion before World War II and a vast continent-spanning canvas during the turbulent war years, this involving story tells of an extraordinary young woman’s coming of age, coming to grips with love and sadness, and in every sense of the term, coming home…”
I hadn’t yet started the book, but I learned that Rosamunde Pilcher passed away yesterday, so I thought I’d begin reading it this very afternoon in honor of both the author and the story that so captivated my sister. And in honor of the one who so thoughtfully gave me a tiny piece of her history to cherish, I thought I would dine on what I imagine one of her favorite snacks used to be at the time she discovered her love for this specific book: a generous helping of bright orange Cheezits. To sip, a serving of delicious diet chemicals, which I do not believe she ever developed a taste for.
And you? If you were to gift a loved one with your most beloved, returned-to-time-and-time-again story, what would it be? Do you recall where you were in your life’s path when that book became so vital to you? And of course, it’s always helpful to pair a special snack with your comfort reading–what would you recommend your loved one to pair with your book?
Early last week I was in the heady throes of the honeymoon stage with my new planner…I was riding the high of having written down a thing AND done it, AND I went on to do the next thing, as well. And the next!
It was, as I said, I very heady feeling, and dare I say…empowering. I found myself taking care of something I had put off for six months (it involved a phone call…and not just an easy, 5 minute phone call, but the kind where they’d probably put you on hold and transfer you to six different departments, to which you would have to explain your problem six times over, and then they’d try to talk you out of whatever you want, or they’d have to get a manager…and then more hold time…you get the idea. I did not want to make this phone call.)
Last week I:
-called the bank to initiate a thing
-ordered new eyeglasses
-scheduled an eye doctor appointment
-scheduled a dentist appointment (it has literally been 20+ years)
-scheduled an appointment with the dermatologist
-scheduled a appointment with a new therapist (gonna give it another try!)
-canceled three services (I had to make phone calls for all three!)
-wrote a handful of things
-went to see my nail tech and got my claws removed
-participated in a monthly call for creative women
-went to Post Office (twice)
-went to library (twice)
-cleaned out closet and all clothing drawers, all without having watched or read Marie Kondo
If I am being honest, all this is probably more than I get around to doing in a year! I am basically the PLANNINATOR, crushing all goals!
So, you may be wondering, what brought about this flurry of productivity, is it sustainable and can we really chalk it up to the the acquisition of a new planner?
To backtrack just a little, this new planner was a gift from my youngest sister (see previous planner post from her, to give you an idea as to her dedication to planners and planning.) I had her asked if she thought that she was up to the task of picking out a planner for me and perhaps some fun accessories, as a holiday gift. As I expected, she was super excited about the possibilities! I think nothing would make her happier than to have all her sisters in the same room together, gleefully ignoring each other as they plot and plan and scheme their days away in their respective planners.
With a few guidelines from me, that this new planner be:
1. undated, but with time slots, and
2. it’s gotta be black!, and
3. hard bound (as opposed to ringed)
…she said that with all of my restrictions, I didn’t leave her a lot to work with and she ended up going with a Passion Planner. Here’s what they have to say about themselves:
“Passion Planner is the one place for all your thoughts. It’s more than just a planner—it’s a tool that helps you break down your short and long-term goals and incorporate them into your daily life. It has been designed to encourage you to plan for the future, reflect on the past, but most importantly, act on the present. Think of it as a paper life coach — ready 24/7 to challenge you to focus on what is most important, accept your thoughts and ideas without judgment, and prompt you to reflect on your everyday life. We hope that it becomes a place where you can declutter your mind, allowing you to focus on the present moment.”
I also asked her to feel free to include lots of fun accessories…even though I don’t really know how they work or what I am supposed to do with them and I’m actually convinced I don’t even know what “fun” is, or how it works. But it seemed important to include stickers! And washi tape! I mean but also what are you supposed to do with washi tape? I don’t know!
And I know I’m hard to shop for, I want “sort of, you know, “goth”, but not like, Victorian goth, or cutesy goth, or Halloween-y goth, or like 1992-era Spencer’s Gifts, goth.”
I guess what I am saying that I don’t want anything too cheesy or too “on the nose.” So… that pretty much rules out everything on Etsy, because Etsy tends to be all of those things. So instead she went with something far easier to pin down–cats and Sailor Moon!
…and a darling pouch for all of my accoutrements!
If you’re curious as to where she picked up the stickers, the tape, and the pouch, these are the three shops that she shared with me:
The Passion Planner is much larger than the one I was previously using, seen here for comparison. But honestly, I like both sizes! I’m really digging the larger version right now, but that could be due to me being the kind of person who adapts pretty easily and I generally reach the conclusion that what I am doing now is better than what I was doing before. I like that I can really sprawl and ramble with my thoughts and ideas, but I do see how this larger one might be a little bit more challenging to travel with, but my planner stays at my desk all the time, so that’s not really a concern.
If you’re interested, I was previously using the undated planner from Ink + Volt, and I thought it was pretty great. I didn’t use it consistently, and it wasn’t exactly for planning and scheduling purposes (more like for ideas and brainstorming and lists) and because it’s undated, I think I have probably been using it for two years now. Highly recommended!
ALSO: because my sister is a marvel and she knows me pretty well, she DID find me some “goth but not really” stickers, and they are perfect. As an aside, I gotta find another word to sum up my “goth but not really” aesthetic. But the best I’ve been able to come up with, that doesn’t sound too long-winded, self-important, or cheesy, is “cats and darkness”. I don’t know that it’s an important distinction, I mean I know what I mean and I know it when I see it. And the more I belabor the point, the more it sounds like I’m putting down the stuff that doesn’t fall into my narrow criteria–which I don’t mean to do! If you like it, it’s very good! As the sample lady once told our other sister, when she was sampling some sheet cake or bagel bites or whatever at Costco on a Saturday afternoon. “If you like it, it’s very good!”
SO THEN. Week One of using my planner was a spectacular success! I wrote a lot of stuff down, and I crossed a lot of stuff off my list. Or I put a checkmark next to it. (Are you a crosser or a checker? What’s the difference, anyway?) This week I’m…well, let’s say I’m a tad less enthusiastic.I actually might have overdone it last week, and maybe made myself a little manic about it (I mean, I seriously did feel a little crazed) and I’m still recovering, heh heh. I mean to the point that, even after writing almost 1200 words about the thing and having taken a whole mess of photos of it today, I don’t think I have actually written a single thing in it..
Well, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow! Which, I don’t think Macbeth was talking about his planner when he said :
“.To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time;”
…but then again if Macbeth had all these stickers and washi tapes at his disposal, he might have been a PLANNINATOR too. Also if you look up #pashfam on instagram, you won’t see a lot of Shakespeare but you might find some layout ideas and different tips and tricks and suggestions for how other users put their Passion Planner to work. I am passing that tidbit on not having looked at it myself, because I’m stubborn and I am pretty sure I don’t need to see how other people do things, but wow, that sounds really bad when I see it in black and white like that. Maybe I’ll just take a peek.
If the mention of Valancourt Books sounds familiar to you, well no doubt that’s because you’ve an excellent memory and you’ve seen an interview with them on this blog before! (With many thanks to my ghostly blogging partner of yore…!)
As the mornings grow chilled, and the days shorter; when the nights are impossibly dark and very possibly haunted–we must acknowledge that the time has come to pack away our blithe, breezy summer beach reads in favor of material more in keeping with the pall of gloom that has been cast by the season’s brittle, dying days. I know that none of us are particularly unhappy about this.
We yearn for those books whose spines hint at an eerie atmosphere of mystery, and titles encompassing all the metonymy of melancholy and strangeness and horror! Pages upon pages encrypted with ancient prophecies, ominous portents, infernal curses! Ghosts, phantoms, and strange sinister spirits! Abandoned monasteries, isolated castles, unquiet graves! Dreams, illusions, obsessions, and murders! And if the book’s cover art features ridiculously over-the-top visions of fiendishly cavorting ghouls and disembodied eyeballs glowing with hellfire and horror…all the better.
The good news for us is that we can find all of these tales and more at within the cobwebbed, crumbling vaults of Valancourt Books. An independent small press located in Richmond, VA, Valancourt specializes in the rediscovery of rare, neglected, and out-of-print fiction, and I am over the (skull-faced, grinning maniacally, and dripping with blood) moon to share our interview with publisher, general editor, and co-founder James D. Jenkins of Valancourt Books. See below for a glimpse into what makes a title worthy of the Valancourt catalog, our enthusiasms regarding favorite authors and crazy book cover art, and to learn more about their current collaboration with the publishers of PAPERBACKS FROM HELL!
Unquiet Things: Valancourt’s beginnings focused on bringing forgotten, neglected, and overlooked 18th and 19th century gothic fiction back into the light, in a cost effective sort of way… which eventually led to unearthing the titles from the Victorian era — penny dreadfuls and the like, before moving onto excavating works of 20th century fiction. Most of these titles are works of horror or weird fiction, but other than classifications of genre, what is that special something a work must possess to capture your attention and cause you to exclaim, “ah, this is one for our catalog!” And is there any sort of common thread that you feel runs through the crusty titles that you exhume and bring to life again?
James: One common thread that runs through most of the books we republish is that they were once either very highly regarded by critics or else very popular with readers but nevertheless somehow mysteriously fell out of print at some point over the years. These days, we’re focusing mostly on horror/supernatural/weird fiction, although we also have a secondary focus on LGBT-interest literature, and we also reprint a small number of great books that don’t fit in either of those categories.
In terms of more recent authors, I think we share some beloved favorites! I adore both the strange, disquieting writings of Robert Aickman, as well as Michael McDowell’s unpretentious but thoroughly imaginative and sharply-crafted stories. What is it about these author’s works that resonates with you? And if one admires the works of Aickman/McDowell, what else from Valancourt’s catalogue might you suggest along those lines?
Aickman and McDowell are obviously very different sorts of writers, but one thing they have in common is that their reputations have been kept alive over the decades by a group of devoted fans, even when their books were long out of print or, in Aickman’s case, only available as expensive collector’s editions. I think you put it well: Aickman’s works are strange and disquieting, oddly unsettling even if sometimes their precise “meaning” seems to elude us. McDowell, on the other hand, said he never aspired to posthumous fame or to be considered a “literary” writer: his only aim was to entertain and frighten readers, and judging from the responses we’ve gotten to our reissues, it’s pretty clear he succeeded!
Those who enjoy Aickman’s more literary style might want to give our reissues of Forrest Reid’s subtle supernatural fiction a try, or possibly David Case’s books, which are not as subtle as Aickman’s but are written in a traditional, more literary style with vocabulary that will have you frequently reaching for a dictionary. And, obviously, you’ll want to read the Victorian-era horror fiction we’ve published by Richard Marsh, who was Aickman’s grandfather! Fans of McDowell’s fiction should find our reissues of Ken Greenhall, Bernard Taylor, Michael Talbot, and Alan Ryan — all of them (like McDowell) neglected masters of ’80s paperback horror fiction — to their liking.
You recently signed a deal with the publishers of PAPERBACKS FROM HELL, [reviewed in our September 2017 installment of Stacked!] to publish a PFH series of reissues of titles featured in the book, which I believe will be edited by Grady Hendrix and Will Errickson? You guys + those guys is the dreamiest dream team I could ever imagine! Can you share how this came about? How did you go about selecting the titles you’ll be reissuing? And I have to ask…what are you going to do about the cover art? Because some of those covers are bananas!
That’s definitely a project we are really excited about! Grady has written introductions to a couple of our books (HELL HOUND, THE AUCTIONEER), and we’re longtime followers of Will’s TOO MUCH HORROR FICTION blog, where we’ve discovered a few books that we went on to republish, so it was sort of natural that we’d team up. As far as how the series came about, I think we here at Valancourt, like everybody else who bought PAPERBACKS FROM HELL, were flipping through the book and thinking how great some of those out-of-print horror novels looked and what a shame it was some of them were unavailable!
When we teased the series on social media, the response was huge, and as far as the cover art goes it was unanimous: people want the original covers! So we’re going to do everything we can to use the original cover paintings. For the first book in the series, Elizabeth Engstrom’s WHEN DARKNESS LOVES US, the original cover painter, Jill Bauman, has kindly allowed us to reuse the art, and we’re hoping to be able to get permission to reuse others. There may be some cases where we can’t locate the original artist or otherwise can’t get the rights (and at least one of the titles we’re planning for the series didn’t have an interesting cover the first time around), so in those cases we’ll be coming up with something new that hopefully retains an ’80s feel.
What can you tell us about our giveaway title, Valancourt Book of Horror Stories Volume Three?
We’re giving away a copy of our new Valancourt Book of Horror Stories because the series has been one of the most popular things we’ve done over the past few years. The mix of rare and seldom-reprinted older stories with some new and unpublished material has gotten a great response from readers, and, above all, the books are a great introduction to Valancourt and what we publish. For readers who are just discovering us and wondering where to start with the 400+ books in our catalogue, our Valancourt Books of Horror Stories are the perfect place to start: Volume 3, for example, includes contributions by 16 different Valancourt authors, so you can sample a lot of different writers to see whose works you might like to read more of. One thing that’s great about our Horror Stories books is that many of the authors featured aren’t typically thought of as horror authors and aren’t often featured in horror anthologies, so you’ll find tales by literary and mainstream authors like Christopher Priest, Isabel Colegate, and Nevil Shute alongside contributions by well-known horror writers like Michael McDowell and Bernard Taylor.
Thanks very much to James and Valancourt Books, and please be certain to leave a comment below in order to be entered into the giveaway! A winner will be chosen in one week’s time. This giveaway is open to our U.S. readers
On the Haute Macabre blog today, Needful Things is back (it’s a regular-ish feature now, wheee!) and the staff writers dish on the stuff & things–both fancy and fundamental– that we’ve been enamored with this past summer. Have a peek! You may find your own next needful thing here.
Also this week we dust off our Aural Fixation feature to discuss some of our favorite podcasts. Admittedly, this is a bit of a ploy to get you guys to chime in with some of your own, so that we can expand our libraries 😉
And lastly, you can take a gander at August’s gathering of late summer reads! See what books the Haute Macabre writers loved, the books we loathed, and the books we’d swan about in a posh library looking gorgeous with, like Madonna here.
Flashing My Fancy Knickers At This Apathetic Stone Fountain And Other Mundane Tales Of Desperation And Revenge
Esteban Maroto
Just A Quick Detour Through This Graveyard In My Filmy Négligée And Other Tales Of Efficiency, Intrigue, and Intimatewear
Lou Marchetti
Indulging My Perverse Paramour’s Fucking Tweety Bird Fetish Bullshit And Other Twisted Tales Of Terror And Tomfoolery
George Ziel
Surely This Rusted, Unlocked, Antique Gate Will Foretall That Hideous Fiend And Other Naive Tales Of The Rich, Beautiful, And Privileged
Harry Barton
What The Fuck Are You Looking At, Tree? And Other Salty Tales Of Irksome Annoyance
Robert McGinnis
A Poot In The Night; Or, How I Escaped The Clutches Of My Roguish Captor With Naught But A Gut Full Of Tacos And Refried Beans
Harry Barton
I Think I Left The Asparagus Risotto Simmering Gently On The Stove, and Other Spine-Tingling Tales of Culinary Consternation
George Ziel
Just Casually Harvesting Some Grain While The Murderer Gains On My Head Start, And Other Thrilling Tales Of Terror
Lou Marchetti
Funeral Plot Options And Why It’s Never Too Soon For End-Of-Life Planning, A Tale Of One Woman’s Practicality And Preparedness In The Face Of Immeasurable Horrors And Murder Most Foul
If you enjoy posts like these or if you have ever enjoyed or been inspired by something I have written, and you would like to support this blog, consider buying the author a coffee?
