Back to School Books (& Booze!)
Books & Booze with Jo Kaplan
Well, it’s September. Time has gotten away from me again.
I am currently watering the seeds of a new (academic horror) novel and a story that may either be a short or a novelette (a bit The Witch and a bit In the House in the Dark of the Woods). At the same time, I’m acclimating to a new teaching schedule.
This semester, I’m teaching at a high school as part of a program called the Early College Academy, where professors go and teach our classes directly in the high school for a select group of students. I’m enjoying it so far; the high schoolers have been significantly more lively than my typical college students, which brings a fun energy to the classroom (even if I frequently have to shout over their chatter). It’s also possible I’m enjoying myself because it’s still that lovely grace period before the first major assignments come in. I’m sure no one in the history of education has ever claimed that grading is more fun than teaching.
Luckily, I’m prepared for when the first essays are due, as I’ve recently purchased and built a new bar cabinet that will allow me to actually keep a stock of liquor that no longer needs to live on my kitchen counter. Cocktails, ahoy!
At the moment, I’m just glad it isn’t a hundred degrees. LA had an unpleasant heatwave recently, followed by some awful wildfires. It’s a shame that as much of the country is heading into autumn, LA gets stuck in the dead of summer this time of year. Spooky season is right around the corner and I’m just waiting for the glorious moment when I can shut off my A/C.
Since it’s been a few months, please accept two new book and drink recommendations for lovers of the strange, the haunted, and the boozy.
Cheers!
The September House
In Carissa Orlando’s The September House, Margaret and her husband have moved into a beautiful old Victorian, but like all old houses, it’s got its quirks: namely, each September ghosts appear and the walls drip blood. When her husband suddenly leaves, Margaret will have to contend with the house’s peculiarities on her own—especially the terrifying thing that lives in the basement…
Things become even more challenging when her adult daughter shows up to search for her missing father, and Margaret has to shield her from the hauntings. The book makes it very clear that a haunted house is an analogy for an abusive relationship, but I don’t think the obviousness detracts from the strength of the writing, characters, and blend of eeriness with dark humor.
As for the bleeding, it always started at the top floor of the house—the master bedroom. If I wasn’t mistaken, it started above our very bed itself. There was something disconcerting about opening your eyes first thing in the morning and seeing a thick trail of red oozing down your nice wallpaper, pointing straight at your head. It really set a mood for the remainder of the day. Then you walked out into the hallway and there was more of it dripping from in between the cracks in the wallpaper, leaking honey-slow to the floor. It was a lot to take in before breakfast.
Pairs best with…
Autumn Apple Mule
A little sweet, a little zesty, and with some classic fall flavors, this drink works as a nice transition from warm weather cocktails into the autumn season. A perfect September drink.
Ingredients
2 oz vodka
1/3 cup apple cider
ginger beer
1/2 oz lime juice
cinnamon stick for serving
Directions
In a cocktail shaker with ice, add vodka, apple cider, and lime juice. Shake.
Strain into a copper mug filled with ice. Top with ginger beer and garnish with a cinnamon stick.
The Strange
Nathan Ballingrud’s The Strange is a love letter to the space western. In a retrofuture 1930s, Mars is colonized. Earth has gone silent. And thanks to the bizarre substance they’ve been mining called the Strange, the people are, themselves, becoming different—another haunted creature in a land of ghosts and machines gone mad. The beautiful way he plays with genre in this book is a treat.
I was struck by an image of Mars as a vast haunted house, its interminable tunnels infested with ghosts, the very rock of which it was made deranged by malignant intent. We’d made our little stations here, planted our foolish flag, and sent fragments of that evil rock back to Earth to fuel the Engines there—quaint Kitchen Engines like Watson making dinners, big work Engines building cities, delicate vanity Engines serving us tea in our homes so we could pretend we were little kings and queens. Feeding our obsessive need to tread where we were not wanted and turn the world in service to us. We’d sent this phantasmal rock to Earth, and the Silence fell over the world.
Pairs best with…
Paper Plane
All right, so the substance known as the Strange creates a green glow, but Mars is so very red. What I’ve paired with the book is a bright, almost fluorescent, cocktail that happens to match the bright hues of the cover. It also relates to a key element of the book: flight. The people of Mars, after all, rode there on a saucer, but lacking communication with Earth, they have no way of getting home that isn’t potentially a one-way trip, not knowing if there is anything even left there. And so, like a flimsy plane made of paper, the saucer remains useless and its cowardly captain despised.
Ingredients
1 1/2 oz bourbon
1 1/2 oz Aperol
1 1/2 oz Amaro Nonino
1 1/2 oz lemon juice
Directions
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until chilled.
Strain into a glass.
Get a little Strange.
Writing Update
Book News
Nothing is official until it is signed on the dotted line, but I must share: that fungus horror novel I’ve been going on about for… well, however long it’s been? It’s got a publisher. More details soon!
Awards News
I got my Shirley Jackson Award nominee rock. Yes, all nominees are given a rock. Yes, it’s a reference to “The Lottery.” Yes No, the nominees did not use them to stone the winner.
Events
Horror and Hops
September 25, 6-9pm
Santa Monica Brew Works
Join the Los Angeles chapter of the Horror Writers Association for a night of meet & greet, signings, and books! No books sold on site but bring anything you wish to have signed in advance. Enjoy swag while supplies last and raffles galore. This will be a spooky night of horror authors to kick off the Halloween season. I will be there handing out freshly-printed bookmarks and signing whatever comes my way!
About Me
Jo Kaplan is the Shirley Jackson Award nominated author of It Will Just Be Us and When the Night Bells Ring. Her short stories have appeared in Fireside Quarterly, Black Static, Nightmare Magazine, Vastarien, Horror Library, Nightscript, and a variety of anthologies (sometimes as Joanna Parypinski). Find her at jo-kaplan.com.
Always entertaining!