The Walking Dead...Sitcom?

In honor of the impending return of The Walking Dead on AMC (Feb. 12), fans are starting to get excited.  Today on io9, they had a link to this video imagining:

Instead of bullets and bodies, what if The Walking Dead was about the hijinks of a newly formed family just trying to remember to take the trash out without being consumed by members of the undead?

It made me chuckle, but it also made me think that Feb 12 is too far away.  How are they going to top zombie Sophia coming out of the barn?!  You can head on over to the official show site here for more bonus material to keep you busy while you wait.

Bram Stoker Preliminary Ballot Announced

Here is the link.  Details below.

For each category (Novel, First Novel, etc) there are potentially TWO ballots: one for the works that proceed from the recommendations (‘Recs’) ballot and one for the works that proceed from the Jury ballot.
A short explanation of the system for determining for the Bram Stoker Awards™ ballots appears at: http://www.horror.org/stokers.htm. As the preliminary ballot is designed to produce three works for the final ballot in a category from each of the “Recs” and “Jury” ballots, if there are three or less works qualified in a category, they proceed directly to the final ballot.
If you see four, five or six works in a “Rec” or “Jury” ballot below, that ballot will proceed to be voted on by Active and Lifetime Members and they are marked ‘Ballot Required’.

NOVEL:

RECS:

Ballot Required
• Lamberson, Greg — Cosmic Forces
• Longfellow, Ki — Houdini Heart
• Malfi, Ronald — Floating Staircase
• O’Neill, Gene — Not Fade Away
• Warner, Matthew — Blood Born

JURY:

Ballot Required
• Conlon, Christopher — A Matrix Of Angels
• Dunbar, Robert — Willy
• McKinney, Joe — Flesh Eaters
• Oliver, Reggie — The Dracula Papers, Book 1: The Scholar’s Tale
• Thomas, Lee — The German

FIRST NOVEL:

RECS:

Ballot Required
• Bird, Allyson — Isis Unbound
• Lee, Frazer — The Lamplighters
• Reynolds, Graeme — High Moor
• Talley, Brett J. — That Which Should Not Be
• Wagner, Jeremy — The Armageddon Chord

JURY:

No ballot required, the following works will proceed directly to the Final Ballot. Please note these works may not be described as Nominees until the Final Ballot is formally announced.
• Jacobs, John, Horner — Southern Gods
• Roche, Thomas — The Panama Laugh

YA NOVEL:

RECS:

Ballot Required
• Faherty, J. G. — Ghosts of Coronado Bay, A Maya Blair Mystery
• Holder, Nancy — The Screaming Season
• Maberry, Jonathan — Dust & Decay
• Matthews, Araminta Star — Blind Hunger

JURY:

Ballot Required
• Blake, Kendare — Anna Dressed in Blood
• Kraus, Daniel — Rotters
• Ness, Patrick — A Monster Calls
• Oppel, Kenneth — This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein
• Roth, Veronica — Divergent

GRAPHIC NOVEL:

RECS:

Ballot Required
• Hill, Joe — Locke & Key, Volume 4
• Maberry, Jonathan — Marvel Universe vs. The Punisher
• Maberry, Jonathan — Marvel Universe vs. Wolverine
• Mignola, Mike and Golden, Christopher — The Plague Ships
• O’Reilly, Sean; Nassise, Joe; Weick, Halston — Candice Crow

JURY:

Ballot Required
• Brosgol, Vera — Anya’s Ghost
• Fialkov, Joshua Hale — Echoes
• Jensen, Jeff — Green River Killer
• Moore, Alan — Neonomicon
• Smith, John — Cradlegrave

LONG FICTION:

RECS:

Ballot Required
• Breaux, Kevin James — Dark Water: Beaming Smile
• Calvillo, Michael Louis — 7Brains
• Little, John R. — Ursa Major
• O’Neill, Gene — Rusting Chickens
• Schwamberger, Ty — The Fields

JURY:

Ballot Required
• Hodge, Brian — Roots and All
• Kiernan, Caitlin — The Colliers’ Venus (1893)
• Lindqvist, John Ajvide — The Music of Bengt Karlsson, Murderer
• Shearman, Robert — Alice Through A Plastic Sheet
• Straub, Peter — The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine

SHORT FICTION:

RECS:

Ballot Required
• Bailey, Michael — “It Tears Away” (The Shadow of the Unknown)
• Lillie-Paetz, Ken — “Hypergraphia” (The Uninvited, Issue 1)
• O’Neill, Gene — “Graffiti Sonata” (Dark Discoveries)
• Palisano, John — “X is for Xyx” (M is for Monster)
• Warren, Kaaron — “All You Can Do Is Breathe” (Blood and Other Cravings)

JURY:

Ballot Required
• Ausubel, Ramona — “Atria” (The New Yorker Magazine, April 4, 2011)
• Ballingrud, Nathan — “Sunbleached” (Teeth: Vampire Tales)
• Castro, Adam Troy — “Her Husband’s Hands” (Lightspeed Magazine)
• King, Stephen — “Herman Wouk Is Still Alive” (The Atlantic Magazine, May 2011)
• Saunders, George — “Home” (The New Yorker Magazine, June 13, 2011)

SCREENPLAY:

RECS:

No ballot required, the following works will proceed directly to the Final Ballot. Please note these works may not be described as Nominees until the Final Ballot is formally announced.
• Ball, Alan — True Blood: Spellbound (Episode #44)
• Goodman, Cory — Priest
• Nolfi, George — The Adjustment Bureau

JURY:

Ballot Required
• Gimple, Scott M. — The Walking Dead, episode 13: “Pretty Much Dead Already”
• Gimple, Scott M. — The Walking Dead, episode 9: “Save the Last One”
• Noxon, Marti — Fright Night
• Ovrehahl, Andre and Havard S. Johansen — Troll Hunter
• Sharzer, Jessica — American Horror Story, episode 12: “Afterbirth”

ANTHOLOGY:

RECS:

No ballot required, the following works will proceed directly to the Final Ballot. Please note these works may not be described as Nominees until the Final Ballot is formally announced.
• Carbone, Tracy L. — NEHW Presents: Epitaphs
• Hutton, Frank J. — Tattered Souls 2
• Skipp, John — Demons: Encounters with the Devil and His Minions, Fallen Angels, and the Possessed

JURY:

Ballot Required
• Dann, Jack and Nick Gevers — Ghosts By Gaslight
• Datlow, Ellen — Blood And Other Cravings
• Datlow, Ellen — Supernatural Noir
• Datlow, Ellen and Terri Windling — Teeth
• VanderMeer, Jeff and Ann — The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities

COLLECTION:

RECS:

Ballot Required
• Burke, Chesya — Let’s Play White
• Connolly, Lawrence C. — Voices: Tales of Horror
• Gresh, Lois — Eldritch Evolutions
• Haines, Paul — The Last Days of Kali Yuga
• Morton, Lisa — Monsters of L.A.
• Ochse, Weston — Multiplex Fandango

JURY:

Ballot Required
• Fowler, Christopher — Red Gloves: The London Horrors
• Kiernan, Caitlin R. — Two Worlds and In-Between
• Llewellyn, Livia — Engines of Desire
• Oates, Joyce Carol — The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares
• Oliver, Reggie — Mrs. Midnight and Other Stories

NON-FICTION:

RECS:

No ballot required, the following works will proceed directly to the Final Ballot. Please note these works may not be described as Nominees until the Final Ballot is formally announced.
• Bannatyne, Lesley Pratt — Halloween Nation: Behind the Scenes of America’s Fright Night
• Mamatas, Nick — Starve Better
• Mogk, Matt — Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies

JURY:

Ballot Required
• Crawford, Gary William, Jim Rockhill, and Brian J. Showers, Eds. — Reflections in a Glass Darkly
• Rupe, Shade — Dark Stars Rising
• Shultz, David E. and S.T. Joshi, Ed. — Letters to James F. Morton
• Tibbetts, John C. — The Gothic Imagination
• Wood, Rocky — Stephen King: A Literary Companion

POETRY:

RECS:

Ballot Required
• Alexander, Maria — At Louche Ends: Poetry for the Decadent,the Damned & the Absinthe-Minded
• Clark, G.O — Shroud of Night
• Borski, Robert — Blood Wallah and Other Poems
• Simon, Marge — The Mad Hattery
• Ward, Kyla Lee — The Land of Bad Dreams

JURY:

Ballot Required
• Addison, Linda — How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend
• Boston, Bruce — Surrealities
• Marshall, Helen — Skeleton Leaves
• Schwader, Ann K. — Twisted in Dream
• Simon, Marge — Unearthly Delights

Visual Horror

Picture of Dorian Gray (1943-44)
by Ivan Albright

As I mentioned on RA for All, I took a trip to The Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) this week.  While there, I was struck by the painting you see here on the left.  Done by Ivan Albright, this painting was used in the film version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.  From the AIC's website (text also appeared next to the painting on the gallery wall):

Ivan Albright painted this lurid portrait for the Oscar-winning movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde's 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. In Wilde's tale, Dorian Gray commissions a portrait of himself as an attractive young man and later trades his soul for an ever-youthful appearance. As the still-handsome Gray leads an increasingly dissolute and evil life, his painted representation rots and decays, revealing the extent of his moral corruption. Albright's renown as a painter of the macabre made him the ideal choice of Albert Lewin, the director of the movie, to paint the horrific image of Gray. Although the movie was shot in black and white, Lewin filmed the painted portrait in color to emphasize Gray's shocking transformation.


I honestly had forgotten about the wonderful macabre paintings of Ivan Albright before this trip.  The AIC has a nice collection of his work cataloged on their website.


As a horror fan, it is also nice to know that this painting has an extremely prominent location as it hangs directly across from Hopper's Nighthawks and next to the doorway leading to the room that houses Wood's American Gothic.  So millions of people are getting exposed to this disturbing, yet extremely thought provoking painting whether they want to see it or not. I would love to meet the person who curated this particular section of the museum and shake his or her hand.


The visceral response I had to this painting reminded me of how I feel when I read some of my favorite horror novels.  It also forced me to remember that movies are not the only way we can consume visual horror.


I am a big proponent of whole collection Readers' Advisory.  Click here and here to see where I have talk about it before.  I also have an entire chapter in the new book about whole collection horror options.  Although I included movies, TV shows, and graphic novels as visual horror options, I did not even consider art.


Today, I am admitting my oversight.  I experienced first hand how a wonderful macabre painting by a master artist can be as appealing to the horror fan as any of these other mediums.


As a bonus link today, here is  Gothic.net's list ofthe Top Ten Horror Films of 2011. 

Debut Buzz

As promised, I will be posting at least once a week here on RA for All Horror from now on.  You can expect posts to come Thursday or Friday each week.  Since I teach Wednesday nights, I know that the end of the week tends to be less busy for me.  But remember, you can follow me every week day with general RA issues over on RA for All.

In the horror world there has been quite a lot of buzz about some debut novels which came out in 2011.  I wanted to share a few that look promising. Please note, I have not read these books yet myself; I am simply passing on the buzz.  I am always on the look out for new authors:

• Back in October, I posted here about a few debut titles including That Which Should Not Be by Brett Talley.  I have since received a review copy and will have my own take on it in the coming weeks.
• The Watcher by Roh Morgon is Book One of a projected series called "The Chosen."  I am pointing it out for 2 reasons.  First, it is by a female author, which is still less common in the horror world.  And second, it is geared toward a YA audience. When I help readers at the public library, I find that many want to try horror but are afraid they will be too scared by it.  Often, YA titles are a little less graphic and work well as an introduction to the genre for new horror readers.
• These Trespasses by Kenneth W. Cain harkens back to H.P. Lovecraft in that it combines SF and horror.  This too is being marketed as Book 1 in a projected series.  It also happens to be set in Illinois, which caught my attention.
• Bloom's Desk by Jeffrey Littorno combines two frightening horror tropes: ghosts and serial killers.  I have a review copy waiting for me.
• Finally, Richard Schiver has published a horror novel, Shadows of the Past, that I currently have on the to read pile (provided by the author).  I will have a review in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, you can read the first three chapters for free on his blog by clicking here.

So there are a few choices of works by some new voices.  Let me know if you know of any other new novelists who have caught your attention.

New Year's Resolutions

RA for All: Horror is often neglected for its big sister, RA for All.  Such is the problem of success.  With 3 paying jobs and 2 kids for whom I am the primary caretaker (read: husband has the better paying job), my love for horror and this non-profit generating blog often gets left behind.

However, I hope to rectify this in 2012.  In honor of the release of the new book sometime in the first quarter of 2012, I am going to make a conscious effort to post here on a regular basis.

So, as 2012 begins, I am planning to post once a week here on RA for All Horror.  As the year progresses, I hope to increase that to a reliable 2 days a week.  Once the kiddos go back to school (January 9th), I will have more specifics, such as a day of the week to expect the promised posts.

I also plan to update my ongoing features more regularly, since these are my biggest original contribution to the world of horror RA.  Click here to see what I already have.

Finally, now that I am done writing the book, I am agreeing to read and review more horror novels and stories, so if you have something that you are interested in getting in my hands, feel free to contact me.  I currently have a 3 or 4 novel backlog, which will begin to be cleared out after school is back in session.

Here's to a terrifying 2012.