Wicker Man Studios
Nov 07, 2024:
#1: Preakfast, Totoro, Troll Hunter
#2: Guinness
#3: Sayers, Wodehouse
#4: More things above the dining table
#5 Foxes, Errol Flynn
#6 Hoodlum, Chad and Jeremy
#7 Delivery drivers
#8 Mugs
#9 Barb talks about the old song “Up on the Roof”
Links to songs mentioned by Barb:
#10 Kids’ books
By Park Cooper and Barb Lien-Cooper
This post contains SPOILERS for the wonderful spooky films THE CAT PEOPLE and CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE! So you should very probably consider going and watching them first if you haven’t already!
Okay, here we go:
When adults don’t care enough to save a child, what option does the child have but to save herself?
Well, it’s October now– things have been a bit delayed with our first contest, as you already know presuming you read our last newsletter. In case you missed it, the publisher of our story Hungry Ghosts celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a giveaway contest, giving away art and copies of Hungry Ghosts the graphic novel– and some copies of the ebook of the HG prose novel, too, as well as a digital story from Barb’s comic Gun Street Girl.
Park: Okay so what happened was that our internet went out yesterday. Spectrum– and by the way, we’ll be switching to Google Fiber in less than a week because of this, because it’s been happening more and more– Spectrum gave us unstable and then totally missing internet. Well, we played board games a little, but… for some time, I had been planning to re-watch the anime Dai-Guard, because we own the complete show on DVD. Back when Barb and I were in charge of a website called MangaLife, we reviewed things, and so companies would send us manga and DVDs to review. One such company was ADV, based out of Houston, and one such thing they sent us was the anime Dai-Guard. And Dai-Guard is really good in my opinion, but the funny thing is, it’s from the turn of the century (1999, adapted to English in 2002), so when Barb and I watched it, we were comparatively new to all this. Partly because of this: Dai-Guard holds up REALLY well!
Park: Okay so today Barb and I are going to discuss our new binge-watching show that isn’t 1966’s DARK SHADOWS: a little show called FORGED IN FIRE. Forged in Fire seems like a sort of reality show//contest show, and in some ways it is– but not like the others of its kind. Forged in Fire is about blacksmiths making knives and swords. Each round we eliminate one of 4 guys that we start with– last guy gets 10 thousand dollars. …But it’s so much better than that even makes it sound!
As a writer of urban/dark fantasy stories (Gun Street Girl, Hungry Ghosts (a graphic novel and also a related-but-not-the-same prose novel by the same name), The Talking Cure, and Song to the Siren), I had originally planned to write this essay about obscure female fantasy/horror writers that deserved more attention. I wanted to write about the Weird Tales writer Mary Elizabeth Counselman (“The Monkey Spoons,” “Mommy”) and the quiet horror writer Rosemary Timperley (“Harry,” “The Sinister Schoolmaster”). However, I ran into a psychological block: it’s extremely difficult to find these fine ladies’ works. Oh, if you’re lucky, you may find “Harry,” one of the finest quiet horror stories out there, in a ghost story anthology. If you’re extremely lucky, you may find Mary Elizabeth Counselman’s “The Monkey Spoons,” a tale of fate and tragedy, in a horror anthology. But if you liked their work and wanted more, unless you’re an internet detective the way my husband and writing partner, Park Cooper, is, finding more stories by these women will be an exercise in frustration, as their works are, sadly, long out of print.
So, I’ve decided to write a personal essay about two women named Dorothy and how they influenced my writing. The first one is an ace short story writer. The second is a mystery author.
Look, it’s more stuff of which Barb approves! (And I, Park, do, too!)
—Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974) (also known as The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue)
I am not usually a fan of zombie films. They bore me. All zombie films have the same plot: zombies eat a bunch of people, humanity is screwed, the end.
Yes, there are exceptions. I love the original Night of the Living Dead, Hammer Studios’ Plague of the Zombies, and the obscure radio production of a Halloween one-off called “The Peoria Plague.” But unless a zombie film has something different to offer me like the Blind Dead films or, I just have no interest in the walking-dead-type films.
So, I was surprised how deeply affected I was by Let Sleeping Corpses Lie. It had such a stupid title, just for a start. But Kill Baby Kill has a silly title, and I like that film, so, what the heck, I decided to poke those sleeping corpses with a stick to see what gives.
My husband Park and I spend a lot of time reading, listening to music, and watching movies, old TV shows, etc.
We’re also pretty picky about what we like.
So, I thought I’d make a list of some stuff I (and he) do approve of!
–“The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall” (read by Jonathan Frid)
I’m putting this up at the top of this list front for my fellow Dark Shadows fans! My husband and I are huge fans of the old supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows, and the lead vampire actor, Jonathan Frid, had such a compelling voice! So listening to him read this funny ghost story about how to outwit a ghost that makes rooms and people wet with water, is a minor treasure and a major pleasure for me.
–“The Erl King” by John Connolly
“The Erl King” is a scary poem about a father and son riding on a horse at night. The son starts hearing the voice of the “Erl King,” who is the king of the fairies. The Erl King wants to drag the son away to his fairy kingdom…
Park: So recently– and funnily enough this had never come up before– you explained to me that the first adult books you read were mystery stories, and then I suppose entire mystery novels, yes? So is that how you got into Dorothy L. Sayers?
Barb: As a child, I hated most children’s books. Only Dorp Dead, The Pushcart War, and The Egypt Game appealed to me. I hated kids’ mysteries where kids foiled jewel robberies, bank heists, found stolen loot, and so on. See, I knew that kids would never do such things, so I couldn’t suspend my disbelief…
Barb’s Turn! Finally, I ask Barb some questions instead of the other way around!
Park: Okay, questions-for-Barb starts now! Favorite Actor?
Barb: OOOH, tough one. I really love Van Heflin, the old Hollywood star. He’s so tough yet so gentle. And I love Robert Ryan, as he has a “don’t mess with me, you’ll regret it” vibe. I don’t like a lot of modern actors. I love Tom Holland, but I don’t think Hollywood knows what to do with him, post-Spider-Man. Same goes with the other two modern actors I like, Tom Hiddleston and Ryan Reynolds. Of course, Ryan Reynolds doesn’t have a thing to worry about, as he’s a savvy business man. But Hiddleston needs to find some post-Loki roles. Maybe he should go back to Shakespeare.
Park: Favorite ACTRESS?