Lisa Morton is a screenwriter, author of non-fiction books, award-winning prose writer, and Halloween expert. Her work was described by the American Library Association’s READERS' ADVISORY GUIDE TO HORROR as “consistently dark, unsettling, and frightening”, and FAMOUS MONSTERS called her "one of the best writers in dark fiction today". She began her career in Hollywood, co-writing the cult favorite MEET THE HOLLOWHEADS (on which she also served as Associate Producer), but soon made a successful transition into writing short works of horror. After appearing in dozens of anthologies and magazines, including THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF DRACULA, BLOOD LITE III, and CEMETERY DANCE Magazine, in 2010 her first novel, THE CASTLE OF LOS ANGELES, was published to critical acclaim, appearing on numerous “Best of the Year” lists. Her book THE HALLOWEEN ENCYCLOPEDIA (now in an expanded second edition) was described by REFERENCE & RESEARCH BOOK NEWS as “the most complete reference to the holiday available,” and Lisa has been interviewed on The History Channel and in The Wall Street Journal as a Halloween authority. She is a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award®, a recipient of the Black Quill Award, and winner of the 2012 Grand Prize from the Halloween Book Festival for TRICK OR TREAT: A HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN (Reaktion Books), and in 2012 she received her seventh Bram Stoker Award® nomination for the collection MONSTERS OF L.A. A lifelong Californian, she lives in North Hollywood, and can be found online at www.lisamorton.com.

She currently serves as Vice President of the Horror Writers Association, and is represented by Robert Fleck of The Fleck Agency.

(For "Sparks Fly Upward" from Mondo Zombie, reprinted in The Living Dead) "Recently prolific anthologist Adams (Seeds of Change) delivers a superb reprint anthology that runs the gamut of zombie stories. There's plenty of gore, highlighted by Stephen King's “Home Delivery” and David Schow's classic “Blossom.” Less traditional but equally satisfying are Lisa Morton's “Sparks Fly Upward,” which analyzes abortion politics in a zombified world, and Douglas Winter's literary pastiche “Less than Zombie.” - Publishers Weekly

(For "Black Mill Cove" from Dark Delicacies: Original Tales of Terror and the Macabre) "Two standouts, Lisa Morton's story of a solitary abalone forager stumbling across a mass murderer, and Playboy cartoonist Gahan Wilson's about a macabre artist whose grim subjects may be all too real, sell the volume all on their own." – Booklist

(For "El Cazador" from After Shocks) "Lisa Morton's "El Cazador"... decode[s] dark truths encrypted in the tags of Los Angeles graffiti artists...all well written, the stories... suggest that their horror is more a universal idiom than a regional dialect." - Publishers Weekly

(For "Poppi's Monster" from The Mammoth Book of Frankenstein) "There are a few stories which affected me deeply. Lisa Morton's 'Poppi's Monster' brought a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye. The story follows the life of Stacey, daughter of Poppi, her drunken and violent father. The piece has great depth and beauty in its simplicity, and I felt for the child trapped in a world not of her making." - Shivers

(For The Halloween Encyclopedia) "...Morton's research extends to Wiccan lore, Celtic observances, and Christian mythology...she writes enthusiastically about folk customs and is sensitive to the controversies surrounding horror literature, witchcraft, and demonism. Without undue pedantry, she explains the house-to-house souling pilgrimage, the incorporation of cabbages in Scottish holidays, the source of the boogeyman in bogs, and the lengthy training of Druid priests...this generously illustrated and indexed overview is a worthy addition to public and school libraries as well as the reference shelves of journalists and leaders of community events." - Booklist Reference Books Bulletin

(For The Cinema of Tsui Hark) "...a labor of love...provides a thorough look...Morton writes with great passion, providing a worthy analysis of the director's filmography that accurately relays the sense-heightening thrills of Tsui's best work...succeeds in offering a fine profile of a remarkable talent." - Video Watchdog

(For my full-length play Trashers) "[A RECOMMENDED Pick] Writer-director Lisa Morton’s ambitious, sci-fi comedy has a decidedly Ed Wood feel. Set in the mid-21st century, it tells of an America beset by a complete breakdown in society, and is mostly played for laughs... [Troy] Harris plays morally bankrupt Jack with great panache... hilarious portrayals include those by J. Anthony McCarthy as the android security chief and Brooke Heys as a pleasure-serving female android. Sidney Wickersham also deserves praise for his terrific set design of a trashed inner city." LA Weekly

(For my collection of one-act plays Spirits of the Season) "...it's good to see small, disadvantaged theater cop some real attitude... isn't some dumb ghoul show, but a collection of pieces riddled with disturbing thoughts. 'Too Young To' clearly establishes the evening's 'Twilight Zone' pedigree... shifting in a flash from light comedy to dread, Morton manages to avoid cheap exploitation traps and opts for some real existential resonance... Morton directs her own 'Silver Nitrate Blues', which blends two big items in the American cultural landscape - angels and AIDS - without cliches, melodrama or triteness... Grand Guignol takes center stage in the closer, 'Howlin' Monck and the Death of Music'... like the first piece, what could have been stupid horror tricks turns into a real drama with this committed cast." Los Angeles Times

(For my short play "Sane Reaction") "...'Sane Reaction' contains moments of incredibly uncomfortable tension as a torturer-murderer (John Benjamin Martin) menaces his prey (Marybeth DeLucia). Surprising plot twists by Morton (who also directed with precision) relieve the tension and make the play work as both pitch-black comedy and frightening drama." LA Weekly

Trick or Treat? A Global History of Halloween for Reaktion Books (October 2012); Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times (graphic novel co-written with Rocky Wood, illustrated by Greg Chapman) for McFarland (July 2012); Hell Manor for Bad Moon Books (October 2012)

The Halloween Encyclopedia, now in a 2nd edition; The Castle of Los Angeles, Bram Stoker Award winner and Black Quill Award nominee, now available in e-book from Cemetery Dance

Acknowledged as one of the world's leading experts on Halloween. Have appeared in The History Channel's The Real Story of Halloween and the Blu-Ray edition supplements for the feature film Trick 'r Treat. Have also been interviewed for Halloween features in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and numerous other articles and blogs.

Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween won the 2012 Grand Prize Award from the Halloween Book Festival.

Monsters of L.A. (Bad Moon Books) has been nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Fiction Collection.

The Castle of Los Angeles (Gray Friar Press/e-book published by Cemetery Dance) won the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel, and was nominated for the Black Quill Award for Best Small Press Chill.

The Samhanach (Bad Moon Books/e-book from Crossroads Press) was nominated for the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Long Fiction.

The Lucid Dreaming (Bad Moon Books/e-book from Crossroads Press) won the 2009 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction.

The anthology I edited, Midnight Walk (Darkhouse Publishing), was nominated for the 2009 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology. Midnight Walk also won the 2009 Black Quill Award for Best Dark Genre Anthology.

"Tested" won the 2006 Bram Stoker Award for Short Fiction.

A Hallowe'en Anthology won the 2008 Bram Stoker Award for Nonfiction; it was also nominated for the Black Quill Award for Nonfiction.

Eight of my short stories have received Honorable Mentions in the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror volumes.

My work has appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award, and the World Fantasy Award.

Meet the Hollowheads was selected as one of twelve films to participate in the 1989 Avoriaz Film Festival, and was the Grand Prix winner at the 1989 London Odeon Film Festival.

I won the President's Richard Laymon Award (from the Horror Writers Association) in both 2005 and 2006.

Netherworld

Historical Dark Fantasy Novel | First (Stand-alone) Book in a Proposed Series | Proposal and Sample Chapters or Complete Manuscript Available Upon Request

In 1879, Lady Diana Furnaval discovers that her late husband William was heir to an astonishing legacy: His family are the ancestral gatekeepers of 81 mystical portals scattered around the globe, all of which lead to the Netherworld, a place of demonic forces and mythological creatures. When Diana receives messages indicating that William may be alive somewhere in the Netherworld, she and her sidekick, a handsome young Chinese man named Yi-kin, set off on a journey that will eventually take them through 19th-century Europe, India, China, America, Ireland...and finally into the heart of the Netherworld itself, where they must face a monstrous general who plans to lead an attack of occult forces on our world, unless Diana and Yi-kin can stop him.