Up From the Fathoms #21
The candy-colored clown they call the Sandman
February is my birthday month, so I should be excited, but instead I’m feeling a little down because just recently, on January 15th, we lost one of my favorite filmmakers, David Lynch.
I remember seeing Blue Velvet when it hit movie theaters in 1986. (I was 17 and finally able to see an R-rated movie without having to beg a random adult in line to buy a ticket for me!) Anyway, guess what? I hated it! I didn’t understand the movie at all and made fun of it quite a bit afterward.
A few years later, I saw it again in a film class in college, and with the help of the professor I had a much greater understanding of what Lynch was trying to achieve. Now I think Blue Velvet is a masterpiece!
In fact, I think most of Lynch’s works are masterpieces. There’s Twin Peaks, of course, the TV series that was appointment-viewing for me and my friends while we were in college—I remember all of us piling into the dorm room of our one friend who owned a TV—and later, the feature film followup Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, which I rented on glorious VHS in ’92 or ’93, and which disturbed me so much I had to watch cartoons for an hour afterward just to clear my head.
Lost Highway, with its fractured narrative and interrogation of reality vs. fantasy, blew my brain apart. Mulholland Drive, which is structurally and philosophically the same and the opposite of Lost Highway, blew it apart all over again. Frequently, I would have to sit with Lynch’s movies and mull them over before fully understanding them, and even then, I knew that what I thought I understood might just be my own interpretation, and someone else’s might be just as valid. Lynch himself refused to say what any of his movies were “about.”
I think the last thing I saw by him was What Did Jack Do?, a hilarious and bizarre short in which Lynch, playing a detective, interrogates a monkey about a murder. It’s as crazy as it sounds—as crazy as any David Lynch piece—and yet not at all surprising that it came from the mind of this wildly inventive and creative genius.
Elsewhere, I called Lynch a maker of surreal, nightmarish films. Somehow, he was able to get under the viewer’s skin with images and sounds that affected us, especially our fear centers, on a primal level. He made it look effortless. I can only hope my fiction will someday have a similar effect on readers, and that I’ll be able to make it look as effortless as he did.
Rest in peace, David Lynch.
Sneak Previews
Dark Spores: Stories We Tell After Midnight Volume 4 is finally out! This anthology includes my story “Dead and Forgotten in Manhattanville,” which I think fans of dark, creepy horror and New York City architectural history are going to love. (I know they’re out there!)
It’s available at Amazon, Bookshop, or wherever you buy books.
Many thanks to editors Carol Gyzander and Rachel A. Brune for inviting me to write a new fungal-horror story in the vein of The Hungry Earth. I always enjoy revisiting the world of strange fungi, which anyone who listens to Spooky Science Lab already knows!
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I recently got some news about Cold War Cthulhu, a new Lovecraftian anthology edited by Darrell Schweitzer that includes my story “The Endless Black Cathedral.”
You might remember it was supposed to be released in 2024, but word from the editor is that it’s been pushed back to April, 2025.
I’m eager for this one to come out because I think “The Endless Black Cathedral” is one of the best things I’ve written, and I can’t wait for people to read it!
In the Flesh
Boskone 62 is fast approaching! It runs from February 14th through February 16th in Boston, and it’s always a good, informative, and inspiring time. Here’s where you can find me on the program:
Saturday, February 15
• 1 PM, The Science of Fear
Writing realistic and compelling psychological suspense in a speculative or even in the real world takes a careful and thoughtful hand. From haunted starships to cursed forests, speculative fiction creates unique settings for psychological suspense. How do authors use fear to explore deeper truths? Let’s dig into the mind games that keep us turning the page.
With Kelley Armstrong, Nicholas Kaufmann, Paul Tremblay, Stephen P. Kelner, Jr., and Trisha J. Wooldridge (moderator)
• 4 PM, Reading
I’m not sure what I’m reading yet, but I’m leaning toward reading from one of the originals from my upcoming story collection, Monuments in Darkness.
Sunday, February 16
• 10 AM, When the Darkness Strikes Back
Whether it’s Alien or The Thing, science fiction horror thrives where curiosity and terror collide. Why do we fear what we don’t understand, and how does science fiction magnify that fear? Let's shine a light into the darkness and see why these stories make us imagine what terrors might exist in the night sky.
With Carlos Hernandez, Catherine Scully, F. Brett Cox, Jack M. Haringa, Jeffrey Ford, and Nicholas Kaufmann (moderator)
• 11:30 AM, Starting Up a Podcast (Audio and Video)
Podcasting has changed, evolving to include both audio and video. Starting a podcast requires content, format, equipment, distribution platforms, publicity, and more. Our panel of experienced podcasters will talk about how to navigate these hurdles and answer your questions from Spotify to YouTube and beyond!
With Brad Abraham (moderator), Dan Moren, Erin Underwood, Madison Metricula Roberts, and Nicholas Kaufmann
If you’re at Boskone, come say hi! I don’t have a signing scheduled, but if you bring a book from home you’d like me to sign, don’t be shy, I’m happy to do it!
Spooky Science Lab
Spooky Science Lab is back for a second season! Co-host David Wellington and I have a whole new batch of strange-but-true science we can’t wait to share with our listeners!
As always, you can listen to it wherever you get your podcasts, or follow these easy links to the new episodes that have gone live so far:
Episode 013: Spooky Science Lab Live! - In this episode, Nick explores the strange and spooky phenomenon of bog mummies in northern Europe. How are they so well preserved after thousands of years, and what dark, deadly secret do they share? Then, Dave examines what intelligent alien life might look like should we ever encounter them. The answer might surprise you! (This episode was recorded before a live audience at the Flying Fox Tavern in Queens, NY, on September 15, 2024.)
Episode 014: Chernobyl Fungus / The Phoenix Cluster - In this episode, Nick leads us deep into the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to the remains of the deadly reactor itself, where a most unexpected organism has made its home. Not only is it resistant to the radiation bombarding it, it appears to be feeding on radiation to grow and reproduce. Then, Dave takes us on a journey to the Phoenix Cluster, a massive and beautiful collection of galaxies billions of light years from Earth. Yet something terrifying lurks at the center of the Phoenix Cluster, something we know is there but cannot see.
Episode 015: When Birds Attack / The Yucca Flat Experiment - In this episode, Nick recounts the bizarre events that befell the small coastal city of Capitola, California in 1961, when thousands of seabirds attacked the city, an incident eerily similar to Alfred Hitchcock's famous movie The Birds, yet this happened two years before the movie. What caused the birds to swarm Capitola and peck madly at its residents, and could it happen again? Then, Dave tells the sad story of American servicemen purposely exposed, without their knowledge or consent, to the radiation of nuclear blasts at Yucca Flat, Nevada in the 1950s. The dark and tragic secret they were forced to keep for decades has finally been revealed.
And don’t forget, Spooky Science Lab has merch now! T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, tote bags, phone cases, stickers, you name it!
Check out our merch store here!
As an added bonus, if you take a picture of yourself with any Spooky Science Lab merch and email it to contact@spookysciencelab.com, we’ll post it on our social media sites!
Let everyone know you like your science spooky!
Until next time!
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