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Goth Chick News: Vampire Novel of the Century? I’ll Be the Judge of That

Goth Chick News: Vampire Novel of the Century? I’ll Be the Judge of That

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interview-with-vampireLast week, beloved editor and big cheese John O’Neill told you about the 2011 Bram Stoker Award winners which included what I consider a travesty of justice perpetuated on the vampire-genre-loving community by the Horror Writers Association (HWA).

In January the HWA, an international association of writers, publishing professionals, and supporters of horror literature, in conjunction with the Bram Stoker Family Estate and the Rosenbach Museum & Library, announced the nominees for the one-time-only, Bram Stoker Vampire Novel of the Century Award.  The Award was to mark the centenary of the death in 1912 of Abraham (Bram) Stoker, the author of Dracula.

A jury composed of writers and scholars selected, from a field of more than 35 preliminary nominees, the six vampire novels that they believe had the greatest impact on the horror genre since publication of Dracula in 1897.

Eligible works must have been first published between 1912 and 2011, and published in or translated into English.

Beyond this, the criteria for consideration seem a tad vague, but from the descriptions of the six finalists described by the HWA, here are the other points considered.

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Goth Chick News: Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania

Goth Chick News: Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania

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ht-bannerNothing sends me straight to my happy place faster than a cartoon; unless it’s a cartoon about monsters.

This probably started before I could walk with the Saturday-morning Bugs Bunny episodes; specifically Hair-Raising Hare featuring the first appearance of the sneaker-wearing creature “Gossamer.” As an adult I was still so enamored with Gossamer that I very nearly had him tattooed on my…

Well thankfully I decided against it.

But maybe its comic books or Captain Crunch cereal or anything related to Star Wars which does the same thing for you. You know you held onto those Dark Lord of Sith footie PJ’s and don’t try to say it was for the collectable value either.

Nowadays, what I love most about cartoons (or animated features as we now call them) is their multiple layers of humor. Just try watching those Warner Brothers shorts today and see what I mean. There was a whole different level of funny which was aimed at our parents, thus flying straight over our heads.

And happily this tradition has carried forward to features like The Incredibles and Despicable Me. I own both and even though I’ve watched them dozens of times, I still kill myself laughing over something new I hadn’t noticed before.

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Goth Chick News: You’re Going to Hell Jack Nightingale

Goth Chick News: You’re Going to Hell Jack Nightingale

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nightfallNormally a crime drama, or anything that smells like one, wouldn’t get much of my attention.

It’s nothing personal you understand.  It’s just my concern that any tale of violence and blood-letting that’s too close to real CNN headlines serves more as sociopathic training material than relaxing escapism.

That, and the fact I’m skeeved out rather than entertained by realistic stories depicting man’s inhumanity to man.  Ghosts being mean to man is perfectly fine.

So when our friends over at Wunderkind PR contacted me about Nightfall promising it was “right up my alley,” I wondered if my alley had suddenly detoured from behind a haunted mansion to behind the city crime lab when I wasn’t looking.  I determined to give it no more than a cursory look.

Nightfall’s English author Stephen Leather is the creator of over 20 thrillers which frequently include themes of crime, imprisonment and military service, and lately terrorism: manly pursuits all, but nary a ghost or zombie in sight.

Well to be fair, there was that one from last year, Once Bitten, which had vampires in it… sort of.  But I’m not sure even Leather himself counts it since no mention is made of the book even on the author’s own website.

But because in the past Wunderkind has been the source of new material that I have loved much more often than not, I decided to dig a bit deeper when it arrived.  After all, Nightfall premiered in the US last week, but in the UK it’s only the first in a series of three novels published there in 2009.

Once again, Wunderkind knew exactly what they were doing.

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Goth Chick News: Full Length Trailers for Shadows and Prometheus: It’s Getting Interesting…

Goth Chick News: Full Length Trailers for Shadows and Prometheus: It’s Getting Interesting…

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image004This week saw all sorts of new goodies being released to moisten your pallet for what will surely be two of the upcoming summer movie season’s biggest box office draws.

Let’s start with Dark Shadows and my assertion that if Barnabas Collins were really in his grave somewhere, he’d probably be spinning like a rotisserie ham.

It’s because the original vampire Collins wasn’t particularly heartthrob material (and proper vampires really shouldn’t be) that I didn’t mind some of the initial low-quality stills that came from Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s rewind of the 1960’s TV cult classic.

Depp had his hair plastered down and was sporting a seriously pasty complexion.

Okay, fair enough. I did fret ever so slightly about the borderline comical nature of his look but, well, that’s just Burton and Depp.

Then on March 16th we finally get the goods: a series of character portraits and a full length trailer of Dark Shadows to hold us over the 55 or so days until its release on May 11th.

Oh joy, oh rapture, oh…. seriously?

A comedy?

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Goth Chick News: The Best of The Haunted Attractions Show

Goth Chick News: The Best of The Haunted Attractions Show

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Ernie
Ernie
“You brought back a what?”

“A shrunken head.”

“A shrunken head of what?”

“Umm…supposed to have been a person I guess.”

“And you’re happy about this acquisition?”

“More like ecstatic, actually.  I mean as souvenirs go…”

Sometimes the Black Gate staff still isn’t sure what I’m doing in their offices or whether they just left the front door unlocked once too often and I somehow just wandered in; left behind by a traveling midnight showing of  The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Still, when I returned from my St. Louis road trip, fresh from attending the 2012 Haunted Attractions Show, the curiosity was palatable and far be it from me to disappoint.

The 17th annual gathering of all things disturbing and their creators was a huge success, cram-packed with enough material to keep me in posts for several weeks to come.

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Goth Chick News: 17th Annual Halloween and Attractions Show

Goth Chick News: 17th Annual Halloween and Attractions Show

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image003It’s that time of year again.

You can tell because the blender in the underground offices of Goth Chick News is cranking out frozen adult beverages at a terrific clip, fueling the preparations for TransWorld Exhibits’ annual bacchanalia of special effect grossness.

This weekend one lucky Black Gate photographer and I will sign out one of the company vehicles (which I assure you with not be that oft-mentioned zeppelin) and head south toward St. Louis, MO in search of the latest trends in all things Halloween and horror.

Though I have been known to lose members of my team in the Leg Avenue adult costume section, and I myself have been known to become woozy when hob-knobbing with some of Hollywood’s lords of gore, the HAA never fails to yield amazing content and must-have products.  This year my personal holy grail consists of an autograph and interview with Tony Moran, who played the original Michael Myers.  And then there’s all the swag we collect from vendors in pursuit of a coveted “5 Bat Award” for best in show products (for instance, who can forget the Blood Energy Drink dispensed in blood donation hang bags?).

Attending the HAA is a job perk of working at Black Gate as it’s an “industry only” event not open to the public.

But fear not!

We’ll make sure you don’t miss a thing and to hold you over, here’s a little video clip from the 2011 show.

Is there something in particular you’re looking for to add to your own Halloween decorations?  Ever wonder how a particular movie horror effect is done? What to know if Michael Myers is boxers or briefs? Post your question here and I’ll ask the experts at the HAA.

Goth Chick News: Another Priceless Tidbit from Ridley Scott

Goth Chick News: Another Priceless Tidbit from Ridley Scott

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image0021This very nearly made me scream like a 14-year-old girl attending a Justin Bieber concert with Robert Pattinson.

Close, but not quite.

Apparently Ridley Scott is engaging in a little viral marketing for his upcoming Alien prequel, Prometheus; “viral” in that he’s trusting people like us to find this stuff and circulate it like the lunatic fan boys / girls we are.

Far be it from me to not live up to Mr. Scott’s expectations, so here it is.

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading.” It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design (“TED,” get it?).

Since then TED has grown in leaps and bounds. Along with two annual conferences, TED includes the award-winning “TEDTalks” video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations.

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Goth Chick News: King Shines On

Goth Chick News: King Shines On

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image001Telling you that The Shining ranks in my top five favorite horror movies of all time isn’t news here at Black Gate. Over the years I’ve found all sorts of ways to weasel it into my posts, even going so far as to cyber-stalk Danny Lloyd, the reclusive adult who played the emotionally damaged little kid with the “shine” all over him.

The Shining is my stormy, Sunday afternoon go-to movie, and the first one into the Blu-ray player as soon as the snowfall breaks the 12 inch mark here in Chicago.

No matter that I know the dialog by heart, it scares the crap out of me anyway. Because let’s be honest; those two creepy little girls will get you every time.

But as much as I love the adrenaline rush brought on by the film, ironically I’ve always been a little lukewarm on the book.

I say “ironically” because it is a rare thing indeed when a movie manages to simply not massacre the text upon which it is based — not to mention equal it or surpass it.

The Shining book is absolutely interesting in that it provides all the backstory about why the Overlook Hotel is such an attractive vacation spot for evil spirits, and why Jack Torence is such a fractured human being.

However, what makes the book less of a fav for me is that exact same backstory.

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Goth Chick News: Welcome to Scotland, Where Vampires Still Suck

Goth Chick News: Welcome to Scotland, Where Vampires Still Suck

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image0041A few nights ago my inbox lit up with an email entitled, “They still suck over here.”

Now I believe I’ve already explained that one of the job hazards I face regularly (besides the toilet seat being left up in Black Gate’s unisex bathroom) is being the recipient of email clearly meant for an entirely different “Goth Chick” in an entirely different profession which is substantially older than my own.

However, in this particular case I recognize the sender as a former colleague from my time as an expat residing in the UK. “Ian” lives in eternal hope of enhancing Black Gate’s content by passing along what he considers appropriate Goth Chick fodder from the British Isles.

Honestly, to talk about the British horror industry is nearly as much of an oxymoron as British top chefs or British fashion designers. And as snarky a sweeping generalization as that may appear; suffice to say that if I ever penned the book A Yankee Goth Chick at Cambridge it would now stand as the primary source on adult bullying.

But even still, I did become chummy with a few nice, normal folks who weren’t still harboring secrets resentments over July 4th and one of these was my good friend Ian.

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Goth Chick News: When Goth Chicks Attack

Goth Chick News: When Goth Chicks Attack

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image002Vampire Fashionistas, Flesh-Eating Ogres, Paranoid Werewolves and Sugar-Addicted Zombies…

Welcome to Gothopolis.

As I stare at the cover of Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 which was just delivered by the spotty intern handling the Black Gate mailroom this semester, several thoughts are competing for top billing; like “Where is this ‘Gothopolis’?” and “Someone get my travel agent on the horn,” and “Would Steven Roman mind if I developed a crush on him?”

Finally, someone who understands…

The cover of this magnificent work of art is reminiscent of looking in a mirror. Okay, not so much. But still I’m mesmerized. Is this really a novel about a zombie shooting, werewolf booting Goth chick?

It looks too good to be true really.

So I fire up the blender and with fine adult beverage in hand, I climb into my comfy chair (the big leather one just under the life-size stand up of Bela Lugosi) to have a nice, long, get-to-know-you session with Pandora Zwieback.

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