Isabelle Drake

The past couple months were filled with conference travel.  In early March, I attended an academic/literacy conference in Baltimore. It's an event I've attended on and off for over a decade. When I first started attending, I went as an MFA student. The faculty of the MFA program I was attending told us the event was a blast - super fun! I am, and was back then, all about having fun especially if it involves books and writers. So, expecting the sort of fun I typically had at a writing event, off I went.  As it turned out, as I figured out the first time I went, it was not that kind of fun. I found the other attendees to be a tad stuffy at times. No laughing in the halls. Very literary. As it turned out, it was a serious event filled with serious people. I did have the promised "good time" but it took some rethinking on my part. Once I caught on to the serious nature of the event, I decided not to tell anyone I was a romance author. Meanwhile, over the years, I continue...

Its recording season for me. I've been busy chatting with writers, scholars, and some other writing community folks. Something I like about interviewing writers, each has a new and unique story to tell. We all put words on paper (or the screen) but we each do it differently.  I ask, what's the story behind the story, because I want to know what motivates people to write what they do. Sometimes poems turn into stories and scholarly research turns into a poem. Anything can happen. You can find my podcast, Washington Square OnAir, done under my "real" name, on Spotify and all the other podcast places . 

 In 2008, I headed off to LA for my first “big” signing. I was writing for Ellora’s Cave and the signing was part of BookExpoAmerica . The book expo was huge, filled with (maybe) hundreds of publishers that were there showing off the books they currently had available and the books to be published in the upcoming year. The idea was to connect with booksellers and other book distributers in order to get the books—old fashioned paper books—on the shelves—old fashioned actual shelves—in the stores—old fashioned brick and mortar stores. At the time I was new to publishing. The posts I wrote about the trip were among the very first posts I published on my blog. I was, obviously, excited to be in LA, signing books and being part of the sparkling excitement that is LA and the buzzing excitement that was BEA. BEA doesn’t exist any longer. COVID, no need to say more, right? But I attended a couple times, and it was always Big Fun and attending often made me feel like I’d Made It. This past...

Isabelle Drake was born in 2005, the year I (Melissa Ford Lucken) published my first erotic romance, Everglades Wildfire, with the long defunct Venus Press. She, I, published several titles with Venus Press before moving on the publish with the now infamous Ellora's Cave. For those more recently delivered to this romance book scene, Ellora's Cave was The first big publisher of erotic romance. Being an EC author was, despite quick and sad the way things ended, great. Big parties, big promotions, and truly great readers. In addition to having fun, I learned much writing erotic romance. One thing I learned about my writer self is that I like writing what "they" tell me I can't. If someone adds to that message that I shouldn't write something that doubles the likelihood that I will be writing it.   The entire time I've been building my career as an author, I've been building an academic career. Sometimes people think I kept the two parts of myself separate...

Last month I presented my academic paper, Three Ties the Victim: The Unique Traumatic Terror of the Child Victim in 'Guilty Mom' Horror, at the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference in Pittsburgh.   I'm happy to say, the presentation went well--except for a silly mishap, check out the video above. I had a great time, hearing the other presenters and checking out the Horror Writers Association event for the first time. Curious about my paper? You can read the abstract here.  I hadn't been to Pittsburgh in a while, so I arrived a day early to take a look around. The thing that surprised me the most was how beautiful the hills and roads were.  Each curve of the road led to another cluster of quaint brick buildings and pretty painted wood homes. I grew up in Cincinnati, so I have a special place in my heart for the long, narrow rows style homes and buildings you often see in hilly and mountainous cities. I did a bit of shopping, bought a little antique pin to commemorate the...

Here we are in the middle of the summer: barbeques, day trips, family trips, and hopefully-some extra time for reading. This summer, I'm rereading Servant of the Undead and Mistress of the Undead, the first 2 books in my Tribe of the Undead dark, erotic horror/urban fantasy series. Why am I rereading my own stuff? I'm working on book 3 in the series, Disciple of the Undead. Wow are these books dark! The last fiction book I wrote was the very fun, upbeat and romantic, Not Home for the Holidays. Writing something so different is both challenging and fun. One piece of writer advice that is out in the world is that authors should stick to one genre so that readers will know what to expect from you and your work. Since you're reading this newsletter, you already know I don't follow that advice. My fiction falls in several genres. I also write academic articles and chapters and non-fiction books. In July 2019, I attended the Popular Culture Association's Research Institut...

Here we are in the middle of the summer: barbeques, day trips, family trips, and hopefully-some extra time for reading. This summer, I'm rereading  Servant of the Undead  and  Mistress of the Undead , the first 2 books in my  Tribe of the Undead  dark, erotic horror/urban fantasy series. Why am I rereading my own stuff? I'm working on book 3 in the series,  Disciple of the Undead . Wow are these books dark! The last fiction book I wrote was the very fun, upbeat and romantic,  Not Home for the Holidays . Writing something so different is both challenging and fun. One piece of writer advice that is out in the world is that authors should stick to one genre so that readers will know what to expect from you and your work. Since you're reading this newsletter, you already know I don't follow that advice. My fiction falls in several genres. I also write academic articles and chapters and non-fiction books. In July 2019, I attended the Popular ...

James Frey, in his book, How to Write a Damn Good Novel II, takes the concept of the fictive dream a step further than a singular focus on concrete detail. “As a fiction writer, you’re expected to transport a reader. Readers are said to be transported when…they feel that they are actually living in the story world and the real world around them evaporates” (6). In this transported state, the reader’s subconscious—the area where sensory input is processed and decoded—has been engaged and is the primary source of response. Tapping into the reader’s subconscious requires more than carefully selected details; it requires a delicate linking of details to story components such as action and characterization. Frey describes three sequential steps that enable the writer to reach the subconscious of readers and thus fully transport them into the fictional dream. Sympathy: “Sympathy is the doorway through which the reader gains emotional access to a story” (8). The first step in connecting the ...

  What's the story behind your latest book? One of my earliest memories is of a cereal box—Super Sugar Crisp, now called Golden Crisp—with an actual, playable cardboard ‘flexi record’ printed on the backside. My mom had just taken the box from the grocery bag, and it sat on the kitchen table, waiting to get stored. At age 4, I was already a music fan and pop culture scholar in the making, so I was both fascinated and excited. Still a preschooler, and so not great with scissors, I enlisted by big sister’s help in cutting the record from the package. I’m guessing the box, missing most of its backside, ended up in the cupboard. The small album, featuring brightly colored images of Archie and the gang, played at 33 1/3 speed and had 4 songs from cartoon band, The Archies, including one of my favorites, the mega-hit,  Sugar, Sugar . The flexi-record stayed on my family’s turntable for at least a day. Which, in little kid time, is forever. Fast forward about two decades, and I...

  Hit here for the April newsletter. In the midst of the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic, binge-watching became an acceptable pastime. No more did we bingers have to discuss our hours in front of the screen with a sheepish attitude. Time spent ‘binging’ was no longer considered ‘wasted.’ Now, that time represented a connection to other humans. Sections of the ‘stay at home’ time are marked by which show we ‘were on.’ What did I binge? Riverdale. I rewatched each of the Riverdale episodes three times. All four seasons...all seventy-six episodes. That's A LOT of teen gothic drama. The end result, my non-fiction book of quizzes, sassy summaries, and trivia, that is out now!

Hit here to g et your copy . Busted families, broken hearts, secrets and corruption are the lifeblood of The CW’s gothic horror series Riverdale . The show is based on the original Archie comics, but this sinister town is a far cry from the wholesome, anyplace USA depicted in 80 years of the teen adventures featuring Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and the rest of the gang. This Riverdale is an other-worldly, ominous place where enigmatic parents and cunning town leaders hide wicked secrets while teens struggle to survive. The Riverdale gang face the definitive dilemma: good vs. evil. They fight ghouls, a cult leader, a serial killer, and each other—all while sporting inspiring outfits and photo-ready hair. Great music, the occasional Vixens cheer dance-off, and too-steamy-for-high-school sex scenes add an undeniable layer of watchability to the fan-favorite show. This Binge Watcher’s Guide will get you through the first four seasons. Keep the book beside you while binge; the tr...

One of my earliest memories is of a cereal box — Super Sugar Crisp, now called Golden Crisp—with an actual, playable cardboard ‘flexi record’ printed on the backside. My mom had just taken the box from the grocery bag, and it sat on the kitchen table, waiting to get stored. At age 4, I was already a music fan and pop culture scholar in the making, so I was both fascinated and excited. Still a preschooler, and so not great with scissors, I enlisted by big sister’s help in cutting the record from the package. I’m guessing the box, missing most of its backside, ended up in the cupboard. The small album, featuring brightly colored images of Archie and the gang, played at 33 1/3 speed and had 4 songs from cartoon band, The Archies, including one of my favorites, the mega-hit, Sugar, Sugar . The flexi-record stayed on my family’s turntable for at least a day. Which, in little kid time, is forever. I didn’t know then that Archie and the gang had already been living on the pages of comics fo...

My non-fiction book of quizzes, sassy summaries, and trivia, will be released next month! I'm excited about that. I'm also excited because this will be my first book published under my own name. My first stories, old school confession stories, were published anonymously--because they were  that  scandalous. Well, no, that's not really why. Its because all  confessions  were published anonymously. After that, my first novel, a YA suspense, was released as M. Ford. Then a YA romance and some adult romance under the name Melissa Ford. Then--Isabelle Drake. And now, after twenty-one years, I'll have my first book as me. The Binge Watchers Guide will cover Season 1-4. Stay tuned for Season 5.  Get your copy.

A year or so ago, I was interviewed for a documentary on Detroit's early punk scene. I was a scene kid back then, and so was asked to talk about my experiences. The film came out January 1. As part of the promo, the director made this silly clip of me talking about my thoughts back then...back when I was 15. Tucked into the fun is my real name reveal. Which, as many of you know, has never been a secret.

"LCC English Professor Melissa Lucken channels her passion for writing through teaching and shares her knowledge and background with her students. Lucken teaches ENGL 121, ENGL 278, Writing the Novel, at LCC. When she is not teaching, she spends a good amount of time writing. Lucken has published multiple books and has written fiction for almost 30 years." Read the rest in The Lansing Community College Lookout.

Watch the finale of Season 3. Entertainment Weekly declared Season 3’s Chapter Fifty-Seven, “Survive the Night,” the best season finale to date and with good reason. This action-packed episode delivers some serious reveals viewers have been waiting for but, if this is your only episode, you aren’t going to care about that. Here’s what you will care about. The Sisters of Quiet Mercy & The Farm From our first introduction when Penelope sends Cheryl there for a cure, we know the Sisters of Quiet Mercy is neither quiet nor merciful. Before being closed in the middle of season 3, the Sisters of Quiet Mercy was a home claiming to be dedicated to reforming the troubled youths of Riverdale. While claiming to aspire to honest and good values, such as meaningful work and spirituality, the so-called ‘Sisters’ ran an illegal distillery and gave the resident teens Fizzle Rocks, a drug that induces hallucinations. A truly rockin’ place. It turns out Betty was right when she mocked her sis...

For decades, the Archie comics have depicted the fictional world of Riverdale and while doing so explicitly and implicitly addressed era-relevant social issues. Two characters have consistently been at the forefront of transgressive interests since their first appearances in 1941 and 1942: Betty Cooper, sweet girl-next-door, and Veronica Lodge, privileged debutante. These characters have been reinvented and freshly envisioned in the CW’s series, Riverdale . The world surrounding Archie Andrews, already dynamic as it has been developed over an extended period of time via multiplatform storytelling, has been updated, intensified, and othered. This multilayered amplification of setting provides an effective backdrop for the revitalized Archie characters but also complicates the understanding of the degree to which Betty and Veronica have been recrafted in a way that makes them currently relevant when situated in the conversations and politics of this #metoo era. Intergeneratio...

For one reason, this triangle of tension is uncanny. Obviously, horror film writers are working intentionally to craft situations and circumstances that are eerie, disturbing and frightening, so making things uncanny is good craft. Ernst Jentsch, in his essay, “On the Psychology of the Uncanny,” defines the state as a person’s “doubts whether an apparently animate being is really alive; or conversely, whether a lifeless object might be, in fact, animate.” He was quick to note that awareness and understanding of such a state is important to the writer. He says: In telling a story one of the most successful devices for easily creating uncanny effects is to leave the reader in uncertainty whether a particular figure in the story is a human being or an automaton and to do it in such a way that his attention is not focused directly upon his uncertainty, so that he may not be led to go into the matter and clear it up immediately. Uncanniness is created when the distinction between r...

Mama ,  Rosemary’s Baby ,  The Others —the maternal plotlines of these films make them stand out. Well-crafted horror film mothers are more than characters; they are women who drive the plot. Jeanine Basinger’s definition of the woman’s film as “a movie that places at the center of its universe a female who is trying to deal with emotional, social, and psychological problems that are specifically connected to the fact that she is a woman.” (59) applies to the consistently popular horror films featuring monstrous moms.  Mothers in these films are often given the generic label of dysfunctional, but this broad term is not sufficient. We can assume if a mother is a main character, she is flawed and conflicted. If her role of mother is highlighted by the storyline, it is necessary that the conflict be connected to that aspect of her character. A mother character who is not conflicted by her parenting responsibilities would not be conflict worthy. This is to say, if she were f...

Over the summer I started an MFA in Fiction program. Needless to say my to-be-read and reference stack is bigger and more varied than ever. The Art of Fiction by John Gardner is right next to my getting more tattered copy of Different Loving by Gloria and William Brame. If you're interested in the MFA world, check out my new blog Adventures in MFA Land .