How To Contact The Living - Official Playlist
Music that inspired (and featured in) the book.
Have you been dying to know what songs soundtracked the writing of How To… and shaped not only its main character Wil but also its writer? Shut up, of course you have!
This playlist is locked and loaded on Spotify and ready to improve your life, just follow this link:
Death or Glory - The Clash
Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley
True Believers - The Bouncing Souls
Meathook Sodomy - Cannibal Corpse
Themselves - Minutemen
Blueprint - Fugazi
Mandy - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
I Don't Wanna Hear It - Minor Threat
The Cop on the Beat/Me and My Shadow - Ted Lewis
Living Dead - Plasmatics
Superman (Scrubs Theme) - Lazlo Bane
Die, Die My Darling - Misfits
Dead and Alive - Dead Boys
The Passenger - Iggy Pop
Mercy Me - Alkaline Trio
C'mon - Go Betty Go
Something Better Change - The Stranglers
Veronica - Elvis Costello
Enemies - The Radiators from Space
Addams Groove - MC Hammer
New Rose - The Damned
Identity - X-Ray Spex
I Against I - Bad Brains
You Should Never Have Opened That Door - Ramones
Love and Pain - New Found Glory
You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory - Johnny Thunders
Suspicious Minds - The Defects
Behind The Scenes
Pre-Production
I've always been voracious in my appetites when it comes to the things I love. A film fanatic who devours every movie he can get his sweaty eyeballs on, a rabid reader known to walk around with a book in his pocket lest a five minute lull in his own life not be used productively by advancing through a chapter of somebody else's, and a music-mad melomaniac (look it up) who likes it loud, fast, and frequent.
My tastes are broad, but just as my special musical love has always been punk rock (the values, the energy, the "oi's"), my greatest love in fiction, whether it's movies, comics, books, or TV, has always been the paranormal. Not just hardcore horror, though I've mainlined plenty of that, but also the more emotional, relationship-focused kind found in movies like Ghost, Heart and Souls, and The Frighteners (in which fear and feeling intersect perfectly IMHO), TV shows such as Brimstone, Deadbeat, and The Haunting of Hill House, and books by fantastic authors including Steve Rasnic Tem, Sarah Waters, John Connolly, Toni Robinson, and of course Stephen King...because Stephen King.
As a non-practising but fully Certified Paranormal Investigator (see photographic evidence below), I was keen to write something that combined my interest in the paranormal, my love of punk music, and my belief that the best supernatural fiction should aim to squeeze more out of its juicy reader than just fear. Fear's great, don't get me wrong, I love watching or reading something so scary it sends me screaming under the bed covers while I issue my wife with orders to stay on watch and patrol our house and grounds, but give me fun, give me frights, and give me feelings, and I'm yours completely (don't tell my wife).
Production
The earliest drafts of How To Contact The Living were completed in Adelaide, South Australia. These drafts were handwritten using a beautiful leather folio presented to me by my loving, patient, kind, supportive, patient, and caring wife...did I mention the patience?
I wrote on public transport during my work commute, at our kitchen table in the evenings, and during lunch breaks in the Mortlock Wing of the State Library of South Australia. If you ever have the opportunity to visit beautiful Adelaide, I can't overstate how badly you need to get yourself into the Mortlock Wing which frequently features in lists of the World's Most Beautiful Libraries (see photo below). Stately, elegant, and welcoming...it is one classy joint. So classy, I kept waiting for someone to grab me by my grubby collar and throw me out the door for daring to soil their seats with my low-class-ass.
If this period taught me a lesson, it's that longhand writing of novels is time consuming and pretty damn annoying when it comes time to type it up. You'll never be angrier at your own handwriting than when you're transcribing thousands of scribbled words of it onto a computer. Nowadays, I enjoy handwriting short stories but for anything longer, it's straight to the keyboard.
It was a joy to channel my passion for the paranormal into something creative. It gave me the opportunity to read and reread fantastic works from fiction authors and paranormal experts alike, to take renewed inspiration from the music that had been inspiring me my whole life, and to binge watch endless supernaturally-inclined movies and television for Important Authorly Research Purposes.
The final drafts were typed while my wife and I travelled around Australia for work and subsequently in Ireland when we moved back to my home country. This time period involved a lot of early readers who offered their time, patience, efforts, patience, diligent feedback, and support...did I mention the patience?
Slowly, eventually, graaaaaadually, the book took shape. A book-shaped shape, if you will.
A note for aspiring authors tearing their hair out as they listen to podcasts or read books telling them (with the best of intentions) that a completed novel should only require about three drafts. You will get to that point with practice but for your first book or even your third? Don't be too hard on yourself. If I was able to put a number on what draft How To... finished on...well, I wouldn't, because I don't want to feel that pain. Take the time you need to create something you are truly proud of and know that it will also take patience, determination, commitment, patience, hard work, and faith.
But did I mention the patience?
FreakyLinks
Section title with self-indulgent reference to obscure one-season-only TV show?
Check!
A bucket of paranormal links to push even the most sane mind down a deep dark Wiki-hole?
Check!
For those of you who’d like to learn more about the world of paranormal investigation that Wil and the rest of DAPI are a part of…
The Ghost Club - a paranormal investigation and research organization, founded in London in 1862. It is believed to be the oldest such organization in the world, though its history has not been continuous. The club still investigates mainly ghosts and hauntings. Past members include Charles Dickens, Harry Price, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Siegfried Sassoon.
Society for Psychical Research (SPR) - founded in London in 1882, the SPR was the first scientific organisation to examine claims of psychic and paranormal phenomena (the aforementioned Ghost Club doesn’t count since it is less an objective research concern and more a place for true believers to discuss and collaborate). Still going strong and with no corporate opinion on the meaning or existence of the phenomena its members investigate, the SPR has been involved in researching such famous cases of alleged paranormal activity as Borley Rectory and the Enfield Poltergeist.
American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) - the oldest psychical research organization in the United States, it is based in New York City. For some real juicy 1920’s gossip, I highly recommend checking out these Wikipedia links to learn about the scandal caused by supposed spirit medium Mina Crandon that led to the founding of the splinter group, the Boston Society for Psychical Research (BSPR).
Peter Underwood - author of more than 50 books on ghost-hunting and the paranormal, including the Dictionary of the Supernatural (1978), The Ghosts of Borley (1973, with Paul Tabori), No Common Task: Autobiography of a Ghost Hunter (1983), and Where the Ghosts Walk (2013). One of Britain’s greatest authorities on hauntings. Known for his integrity and clear-headed approach, he once said: “I have long thought that 98% of reported hauntings have a natural and mundane explanation, but it is the other 2% that have interested me.” For two decades he was president of the Ghost Club and was later life president of the Ghost Club Society. Peter passed away in 2014, aged 91.
Joe Nickell - renowned sceptic, forensic detective, investigator of all things paranormal, associate dean of the Center for Inquiry (a non-profit organisation whose main aims are to defend science and critical thinking and to challenge pseudoscience and the influence of religion in government and education) and also senior research fellow for their Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Nickell has been involved in exposing frauds, debunking myths and generally kicking ass over a lengthy career which has seen him consulted by universities and media alike. Nickell very much fits the “Mulder Mould” of wanting to believe, which means that despite his deep grounding in research and the scientific method, his empathy and respect for the beliefs of others shines through in all his works, including Secrets of the Supernatural (1988) and Investigating the Paranormal (2004).
Loyd Auerbach - paranormal investigator, parapsychologist, mentalist, lecturer, stage magician, research consultant and yes, you guessed it, chocolatier…Auerbach has lived quite a life! Coming to prominence in the post-Ghostbusters mid-80’s paranormal boom, he has a knack for presenting and educating on the paranormal that has seen him involved on both sides of the camera for TV shows as diverse as The Oprah Winfrey Show and Ghost Adventures and comes across well in his books, including the extremely enjoyable ESP, Hauntings, and Poltergeists: A Parapsychologist's Handbook (1986).
American Hauntings - the online home of paranormal investigator and author Troy Taylor.
The Anomalist - this website, updated daily, could do with an update overall - its a little bit analogue - but it is a treasure trove of news, views, and reviews of the unexplained and the outright bonkers.
Fortean Times - named in honour of Charles Fort (1874-1932), a writer and researcher who specialised in “the unexplained”. By all accounts, a genial and highly intelligent chap, his playful sense of humour, healthy scepticism, and genuine interest in all things supernaturally-inclined resulted in some fantastic nonfiction books including Lo! (1919) and The Book of the Damned (1931) which inspired generations of likeminded souls including Bob Rickard, the founder of Fortean Times. A monthly UK magazine that has been running since the mid-70’s, FT features a wide variety of contributors weighing in on anomalous phenomena with views ranging from the doggedly scientific to the absolutely wild. Always a fun read!
PSA: Depending on where you are in the world, joining your local library - never a bad idea - will score you free use of PressReader which gives you online access to thousands of newspapers and magazines from around the world, including Fortean Times. Free, I tell you, free!
