Happy New Year!

Tasty Soups and Unexpected Fun

Happy 2024!

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Once I got my grades in for the Fall ‘23 semester in December, I gave myself over to the comings and goings the holidays bring. We definitely ate too much, celebrated wildly, had a lot of happy reunions with old friends and unexpected visitors. I love when old friends swing through town and reach out. As you get older, it is such a treat the layers of friends you make from varying parts of life and the holidays bring this wonderful confluence of them that is really life affirming. Our kids are bringing a whole other layer of folks around, so it was really enjoyable.

I do love the madness that shifting schedules and company bring, but I also dove into rewriting my next horror novel The Collective which is coming from Writ Large Press in 2024! I’m most excited as this book is released in its varying forms. First up, you will be able to subscribe to get the book delivered to your inbox in thirteen tasty pieces. I love how it worked out to be thirteen, perfect for a horror novel. For subscribers there will be a few extras made available to you. A paperback version of the book will be released later in the year and it will come out in audio sometime after that! The hope is that it will be available however readers like to access books.

I worked in Hollywood developing screenplays for producers for over ten years awhile back and this book is a look behind the velvet rope where, naturally because I’m writing it, things are not what they seem and evil lurks.

This is the story of The Collective:

You know what people say, move to Hollywood, lose your soul.

Still reeling from her mom’s sudden death from cancer, Jenny, 26, has blown off admission to med school and moved to Hollywood to pursue a lifelong dream of acting. Life now feels too short to ignore her heart’s desire. She can’t seem to get a foot in the door in the industry until she falls in with the Collective, a support system for actors and producers that seems to have some power inside Hollywood. Everything begins to change. She becomes an assistant to the charismatic, yet elusive Simon Raithe, a man who seems to run everything in the industry. As she starts building connections, getting auditions, and invitations to exclusive parties, she puts aside any misgivings she may have about secret meetings, hushed conversations, and parts of her life into which the Collective seems to seep.

Jonathan Hawkins is Simon’s devoted right-hand man, producer, partner of several decades. He named and built the Collective and is behind its language, genius, and silenced evil doings. Working for a demon is complicated. But in his late fifties, Jonathan is fighting the waning of his career in ageist, racist Hollywood and is scrambling for his relevance in The Collective. Simon’s interest in the young actress, Jenny, threatens everything. He takes a liking to a young Variety reporter Curtis, 28 and agrees to foster him. Black guys in the industry have to stick together.

Curtis is intrigued by his weekly dinners at Musso & Frank’s with Simon and Jonathan, which are filled with stories of Hollywood of the last century, stories that would make for a fantastic book. He is going to write about the real power in Hollywood, the unpinnable, ineffable Simon Raithe. But as he begins his research, their stories start showing holes and dark spots including the mysterious disappearance of an old friend. He has no choice but to dig further. What he uncovers could topple the entire organization.

Writ Large has been changing the publishing game since its inception in 2007. As Sesshu Foster said of them in 2017, “Where other people beat against closed doors, Writ Large is building new doors.” I am so happy to be working with them. Check their site to see how they are building those doors by creating space in Pittsburgh.

I also had a wonderful conversation about my novellas Bleak Houses with Pete Riehl on his Chills at Will podcast. It was so nice to talk with someone who did such a deep read of both novellas. We discussed writing about lockdown, social inequities and spaces for horror.

January is lemon season here in LA! We have a promising crop this year.

I preserved some lemons last February and I’ve been making a very tasty red lentil soup for the family that I’ll share with you this month. Also, I am so thrilled to share L. Marie Wood’s beautiful 12 Hours (out next week!) which is the second novella featured in Raw Dog Screaming Press’s series, Selected Papers from the Consortium for the Study of Anomalous Phenomena curated and edited by R.J. Joseph. I was lucky enough to write the afterword for this book. There is a special deal where you can buy the first two novellas in the series for 20 bucks! Don’t they look amazing together? Lynne Hansen is doing the covers for this series. Click on the image below for a deal!

I’m not a real New Year’s Resolution type, but I do love that clean out the house, clear off the desktop, starting over feeling and I’m diving in this week with this note, writing forward, and squaring off for the exciting year ahead!

Read.

I shared in prior letters the excitement of finding out that friend colleague and phenomenal writer, L. Marie Wood was the next in line to come out with a book in Raw Dog Screaming Press’s novella series! She was keeping it under her hat until the RDS 20th anniverary party at StokerCon last year. I was thrilled when I was asked to write the afterward for the book, as she is such a phenomenal writer. This book will not disappoint. It grabs you by the collar and carries you through right to its moving ending. I share only the beginning of my afterword here, as afterwords are usually rife with spoilers:

Some horror starts off slow, like a frog in a pot, we don’t know we’re boiling until it’s too late. We’ve been lulled by a slow ratcheting up of stakes, things that turn out to be other things.

But L. Marie Wood drops us right into that boiling water. We are sitting in horror with our protagonist, looking around us, trying to make sense of who turned on the stove and what boiling means anyway.

Her descriptions and rhythm carry us along in a staccato that reveals the world through images, thoughts, and an ebb and flow of franticness as our hero, making sense, reaches out, layering memory in with fact, thoughts in with observations, but keeps us riveted as we learn little things about him…

Anyway I may be partial, but pick this book up. And, if you have horror lovers in your life, this is a good series of novellas, sort of Goosebumps for grownups, that you can keep buying as they come out over the next few years. Get the whole series! You can preorder by clicking on the link above, or get a copy when it comes out on the 11th!

Write.

As I said above, I’m not a New Year’s resolution type and I’ve always found New Year’s Eve parties a space fraught with emotional peril. Folks putting hopes on a single day to change everything. All those hopes and worries and dreams all pent up in a single space, churning around. The sadness of not having someone to kiss, the hope of making a New Year’s kiss meaningful, a feeling of celebration mixed with regret, worry and an overall wistfulness. Wild resolutions, This year I will finally… or the frantic need to get rid of a rotten year. Now it will be different. There are enormous expectations and emotions banging up against each other to create the friction necessary to a story or poem.

So your prompt! should you choose to accept it: and horror writers have fun and dig deep. Nonfiction writers, try to take care of yourself as you write into this, if you are digging deep make sure you have support when you surface. And poets, go wherever you will go:

Tonight is everything.

Cook.

We have a very productive lemon tree and preserved lemons need not only lemons in the first place, but enough juice to fill the jar. As our lemons come ripe again I’m trying to use up the preserved lemons we have and clear the space for the next round. They last a full year in your fridge and seem to only get more delicious as you go on. Thanks to Raph Worrick for nudging me for several years to make them. They are great in any marinade and on roast chicken, but they are especially delicious in this soup. As to Aleppo pepper, if you are in LA you can get it in most groceries that service middle eastern cuisine (if you find sumac, you’ll find Aleppo pepper), if not maybe order it online? It’s a really singularly delicious ingredient, a sweet, slightly spicy rich chili. If stuck, another kind of chili (pepperoncino, chipotle, or cayenne) can be substituted. Add cumin for that smokey flavor.

ingredients:

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1/4 -1/2 preserved lemon, rinsed and sliced thin (up to you how lemony you want it, we have sour tooths in this house)

2tbsp aleppo pepper

1 red bell pepper or if you like that snacky size pepper they sell at costco (orange, yellow red) a handful of those, minced

1 cup tinned tomato sauce (or if you have tiny tomatoes getting tired in your fridge you can use those instead!)

2 cups red lentils

4 cups chicken broth or one cup chicken broth and the rest water or just water if you’re veggie

salt to taste

directions:

Sautee onion, garlic and red pepper for ten minutes, until onions are translucent

Add lemon and aleppo pepper and use blender or immersion blender to blend until smoothe (you can add broth or water for the right consistency for blending).

Add lentils and liquid (broth/water combo), simmer for 35 mins adding more water if necessary.

taste and add salt if necessary.

Serve! Really good with toasted bread with olive oil, or a crusty bread on the side. If you’re the type to work late it’s a really good soup to have before bed, not to heavy but filling.

Have a cozy January! I’ll share more when I know more!

Kate