Catch Me on the Moths to the Flame Podcast
Or watch the video. Or do both! I'm easygoing.
As if to signal that Halloween is not all that far off now, our friendly neighborhood Halloween cat (whose real name is Loki) has started turning up on our deck again. Soon, my pretty. Soon.
TRIVIA QUESTION: Which performer, not primarily known as a horror actor, portrayed a vampire in a well-known 1992 film and then reprised the character on a popular TV show in 2019? The answer is at the end of this newsletter.
MOTHS TO THE FLAME: A few weeks ago, I had a very nice chat with Dr. Marie Lestrange, the host of the Moths to the Flame podcast. I also got to meet her briefly at StokerCon and slip her an ARC of The Shadow Dancers of Brixton Hill. For her podcast, we talked about my new novella, my writing approach, my general thoughts on horror, and my time as a Jeopardy contestant, which seems so long ago now.
Anyhow, the podcast featuring me is now live and available on your platform of choice. If you don’t listen to podcasts, no worries: she also recorded the video of our conversation and posted it to YouTube. I had a lot of fun talking to her; I hope you enjoy the show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEAFVK1lnlU&t=1s
WHY I AM SO ANNOYING ABOUT REVIEWS: So here’s the thing: When you’re with small presses like I am, reviews are critical. Readers can’t buy a book if they don’t know it exists. More Amazon reviews spells higher visibility for my books on the site. And I’d really like to get more reviews for The Shadow Dancers of Brixton Hill.
People have said plenty of nice things about the novella on Twitter and Instagram, and I truly appreciate that. However, social media posts tend to be pretty fast-moving and ephemeral, especially with the field getting increasingly fragmented. Make no mistake: The new Twitter management’s ongoing efforts to bury posts by people who won’t pay for Twitter (or X—whatever *rolls eyes*) is really screwing over small-press authors like me who rely on word of mouth to get readers.
Having the reviews on sites like Amazon and Goodreads where people are looking for book recommendations with an eye to buying them is ideal, but blog entries are also useful. So if you read my books, please leave a review. Anywhere, including your social media feeds, is welcome, but Amazon and Goodreads would be most excellent. And as always, I won’t pick on anyone for leaving a less than five-star review.
WHAT I’M WATCHING: I finally caught a matinee of Oppenheimer on Wednesday. I’m really glad I did, because this movie lived up to all the hype and then some. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I highly recommend seeing it in the theater to get the full effect of the movie’s incredible depiction of the Trinity test sequence. It’s been a long time since I got goosebumps from a movie scene, but that did it.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TIDEPOOL: On Thursday, my debut novel turned two years old. When it came out, my hopes were that it might sell a couple hundred copies and maybe help put my name on the horror map. Tidepool exceeded those hopes and then some, and it continues to sell steadily. I am still stunned and grateful that so many people have visited my creepy little shoreside town. If you haven’t read it yet, there’s no time like the present: https://www.amazon.com/Tidepool-Nicole-Willson-ebook/dp/B08L6YNSN6
TRIVIA ANSWER:
Paul Reubens, better known to many as Pee-Wee Herman, played the vampire Amilyn in the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer film and treated viewers to probably the goofiest staking scene ever:
He reprised the character in What We Do in the Shadows in 2017, although they couldn’t use the character name for copyright reasons. I was so sorry to learn about his untimely death this week; he will be greatly missed.
Thanks so much for reading, and if you know anyone who might be interested in my work, please feel free to pass this along to them.
Stay spooky and safe,
Nicole