RH Greene's New Orson Welles Radio Documentary AIRBORNE: A LIFE IN RADIO WITH ORSON WELLES

INCARNADINE novelist R. H. Greene has just completed a groundbreaking radio documentary on one of his artistic passions: the late, great Orson Welles. AIRBORNE: A LIFE IN RADIO WITH ORSON WELLES represents the fruit of over a decade of research, and is the first biographical documentary ever to offer a complete overview of Welles' vast American radio career. The extended "director's cut" of AIRBORNE can be heard here. Greene's statement to readers of this blog follows.


Folks --

I know this blog is dedicated to my "Memoirs of Dracula" project, but over time it has evolved into a sharing space for other activities as well. Chief among these have been my various documentary projects for public radio, including the feature-length VAMPIRA AND ME, first aired last Halloween.

That holiday seems to be a good one for Dracula novelists, because this year I've managed to air another of my dream projects: AIRBORNE: A LIFE IN RADIO WITH ORSON WELLES, the first comprehensive documentary ever created about the fascinating totality of Orson Welles' American radio career.

A Note on THE CHARNEL HOUSE from R. H. Greene

I've been receiving a lot of queries from INCARNADINE fans about the publication schedule for THE CHARNEL HOUSE, the second and final volume in the MEMOIRS OF DRACULA project. Please forgive the delay. I am currently directing a documentary feature film and have not been able to dedicate the time to do the final manuscript corrections and editing on CHARNEL HOUSE, as the movie deadlines are in the moment more pressing.

I thank you for your patience and interest, and promise to keep you all posted through this website and via the aggregated blog feature on AMAZON's INCARNADINE page as THE CHARNEL HOUSE moves through its final phases and into print.

All the best, R. H. Greene

A Rave Review for INCARNADINE from FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND!

Goth bible FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND has just given INCARNADINE a rave review!

The legendary outlet, launched by Forrest J Ackerman and Jim Warren way back in 1958, calls INCARNADINE an “ambitious” and “authentic” work for the way it "reexamines and re-imagines the mythos of Bram Stoker’s Dracula." The FM review also says

DRACULA... IN HIS OWN WORDS... (trailer)

YOU CAN LINK TO THIS VIDEO! Just go here and cut and paste the "embed" html in the upper right portion of the frame into your homepage.

INCARNADINE Author R. H. Greene's NPR Radio Commentaries

INCARNADINE author R. H. Greene is now producing regular segments for Southern California Public Radio.

A new site feature has been added to the INCARNADINE website where listeners will find the following archive pieces on their own dedicated page:

• Interview with Author R. H. Greene about INCARNADINE: THE TRUE MEMOIRS OF COUNT DRACULA. Both the 6-minute radio piece and the full 45 minute interview are included.

• For Baby B. R. H. Greene's tribute to "Baby B," his twin brother, Tom, who passed away before INCARNADINE's publication.

• Airborne: A Life in Radio With Orson Welles A dream project completed: the first full-length documentary ever about the totality of Orson Welles remarkable 500-broadcast American radio career,

RH Greene Profiles New Indie Movie Musical LEAVE IT ON THE FLOOR

Photo: RH Greene (in sunglasses) with the cast of LEAVE IT ON THE FLOOR

INCARNADINE author R.H. Greene's latest radio piece for public radio powerhouse KPCC and its OFF-RAMP magazine show profiles LEAVE IT ON THE FLOOR, an audacious new low budget indie musical shot on the cheap on the streets of L.A. Extended musical clips from the slamming score by Beyonce' musical director Kimberly Burse and lyricist/screenwriter Glenn Gaylord plus interviews with Gaylord, producer/director Sheldon Larry and breakout star Phillip Evelyn make this a must-listen for indie film freaks, muscial fans or anyone who wants to know what's happening at the outer limits. Enjoy it here.

RE-ANIMATOR: THE MUSICAL: Interview with Stuart Gordon and Jeffrey Combs by R. H. Greene

Horror legends Stuart Gordon and Jeffrey Combs talk to DRACULA novelist R. H. Greene about their 1985 cult classic RE-ANIMATOR, RE-ANIMATOR: THE MUSICAL and NEVERMORE: AN EVENING WITH EDGAR ALLAN POE. It's a new "stage" in a legendary horror collaboration stretching back more than 25 years as Gordon and Combs return to their roots in live theatre and emerge with two sellout triumphs. Hear clips from the shows, Stuart Gordon's thoughts on the difference between theatre and film, and Jeffrey Combs' feelings about the musical version of his signature character Dr. Herbert West. It's all right here.

INCARNADINE Comes to Kindle

We are pleased to announce that a new Kindle edition of INCARNADINE: THE TRUE MEMOIRS OF COUNT DRACULA has been created under the personal supervision of author R. H. Greene. The INCARNADINE Kindle is available for download for just $4.49. This is a savings of more than 80 percent off the hardcover list price.

"Amazon's new royalty structure for Kindle is a very generous one thanks to competition from the iPad," Greene says. "So we made the decision to pass that generosity along to readers as a

Invitation to the DANSE: Stephen King's DANSE MACABRE Considered

I've been meaning to read Stephen King's survey of horror DANSE MACABRE for many years but I held off, partly because my enthusiasm for King waned a bit as I grew older and partly because when I set out to write my own revisionist Dracula epic I didn't want literary theory and structural spreadsheets rattling around in my head to compete with the characters--new and familiar--who were trying to find my version of their voices. But King was a seminal reading experience for me as a youngster. My first withdrawal

Freaky FRIDAY: A Frankenstein Story

In his latest commentary for public radio station KPCC 89.3-FM in Los Angeles, RH Greene takes a different approach to Rebecca Black's FRIDAY--the viral music phenomenon. FRIDAY mastermind Patrice Wilson takes on the haters with a song of his own, reports of legal tussles swirl around Ark Music Factory, and youkoolaylee00 drops the definitive emo version, featured below. The radio story can be heard here.

Who is "VOLUPTUA?" Revisit a 1950s TV sex scandal with RH Greene

Who is "Voluptua?" In his latest broadcast documentary for public radio powerhouse KPCC, INCARNADINE author RH Greene profiles Gloria Pall, an "it" girl from the 1950s who worked with everyone from Abbot and Costello to Elvis Presley.

Pall's career took a scandalous turn in 1954 when she began appearing as "Voluptua," a sexy TV show hostess on LA-based KABC-TV. Voluptua pushed sexual boundaries way past the accepted norms, and a culture war resulted, with Pall denounced as "Corruptua" from pulpits throughout California. In "Voluptua: The Love Goddess," Gloria Pall reminisces about her days as a "bad girl," and re-enacts her most notorious role. You can hear it all right here.

Corman's World at Sundance Featuring Footage by RH Greene

Photo: R. H. Greene at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival

The documentary feature CORMAN'S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL just premiered at Sundance and it features footage of Roger Corman directed by INCARNADINE author RH Greene. The doc, which tells the story of Roger Corman's career as a pioneer and continuing practitioner of exploitation cinema, contacted Greene early in the filmmaking process for advice about archival

The Mazursky Mystery: Radio from RH Greene

Image: Paul Mazursky (left) and INCARNADINE author RH Greene

INCARNADINE author RH Greene just did a public radio profile of and interview with legendary filmmaker Paul Mazursky for KPCC 89.3 in Los Angeles. The piece aired on both OFF-RAMP, where Greene is a regular contributor, and on NPR's Morning Edition during LA drive time. Have a listen here.

R. H. Greene to Interview Filmmaker Paul Mazursky at LA County Museum of Art

LOS ANGELES-Legendary filmmaker Paul Mazursky ("Down and Out in Beverly Hills," "An Unmarried Woman") will be honored with a public screening of his Oscar-winning 1974 comedy "Harry and Tonto" at the LA County Museum of Art on Thursday, Jan. 13th at 7:30 pm in LACMA's Leo S. Bing Theater. The screening will be followed by a rare personal appearance by Mazursky to discuss his work and legacy, with the Q and A to be conducted by INCARNADINE author and public radio personality R. H. Greene.

Dracula: A Mosaic of Alternative Approaches

R. H. Greene has created a new list for Amazon of books which, like INCARNADINE, provide different approaches to Bram Stoker's classic text. See why the author of THE TRUE MEMOIRS OF COUNT DRACULA prefers Syrie James to Karen Essex, the "Gospel" of Renfield to Renfield as "Slave of Dracula," plus nods to the scholarly contributions of Sylvia Starshine, Robert Eighteen-Bisang and Elizabeth Miller. It's all available right here.

Vampira and Me - An Addendum to the Radio Documentary by RH Greene

(Recently, INCARNADINE author RH Greene was given an entire hour of airtime on LA public radio station KPCC FM 89.3 to present a new radio documentary entitled "Vampira and Me" about the life and cultural importance of his friend, the late Maila Nurmi, aka Vampira.

The experience of sifting through many hours of unpublished audio, video and transcribed interviews with Maila in Greene's collection inspired further thinking about her. Hence what follows.

To listen online to RH Greene's radio documentary "Vampira and Me" or to download a commercial-free mp3 of the full 50 minute broadcast, go here.)

Dana Gould, who was the dearest friend of Maila Nurmi in her declining years and possibly the dearest friend she ever had, mailed me a picture of Maila as Vampira just after she died. It was an

NEWS: Paperback Edition of INCARNADINE Now Available on Amazon!

The trade paperback edition of INCARNADINE: THE TRUE MEMOIRS OF COUNT DRACULA has been released just in time for Halloween 2010!

Identical to the hardcover in all respects, the new softcover retails for $19.95, or almost one third off the hardcover list price.

Though the INCARNADINE Kindle is probably still the season's best bargain at $2.99 during the run up to Halloween, the softcover gives readers who want to kick it old school a low-price option.

The INCARNADINE paperback is so new that the listing is a bit primitive, but you can find it on Amazon here.

LOS ANGELES YEAR ZERO: The Riots, Remembered

I spent the first night of the L.A. riots cut off in a cheap three bedroom Hollywood apartment, about four blocks above where the northern tip of that day's mayhem crested. I remember the smoke from the burning stores down the hill, and watching the horror unspool hour by hour on my TV. I remember self-medicating, with a cheap bottle of wine, a pack of MERIT gold cigarettes, and the only narcotic that's ever really done me any good--a keyboard connected to a word processing program.

The result was a kind of eulogy crossed with a tone poem called LOS ANGELES, YEAR ZERO. The essay was first published two days after the rioting began, and I have re-enacted it for radio thanks to my dear friend John Rabe at Southern California Public Radio/KPCC 89.3-FM.

In a week rightly dedicated to remembering a great cataclysm, I think the piece still has something of its own to say about the intimate aspects of that incomprehensively vast social tragedy from two decades ago. It can be heard online here.

Peace, RHG

VAMPYRES.COM Reviews INCARNADINE, Says It's A "True Work of Art"

VAMPYRES ONLY editor Brad Middleton has posted a 5 Star review of INCARNADINE to VAMPYRES.COM under his nom de plume "Vladimir" in which he says the book "reassured [his] faith that there is still room for true works of art within this genre."

Middleton went on to praise INCARNADINE for "challenging my perception of the most iconic character in vampire literature," and for altering his thinking about Bram Stoker's venerable creation. "Dracula," Middleton writes, "is now much more than simply a fiend lurking within the shadows of a crumbling ruin high atop the Carpathian mountains. He's now a fully-realized character; a monster still, but one we now truly understand."

"The author has created an engrossing back-story to Dracula, breathing new life into what had become a tired, one-

VAMPIRE MAN (new song/video by R. H. Greene)

JUST IN TIME FOR YOUR HALLOWEEN MIX TAPE, here comes VAMPIRE MAN, a rockin' new track written by INCARNADINE author R. H. Greene and performed by his good friend and frequent musical collaborator Johnny English.



The VAMPIRE MAN YouTube video is an homage to great silent horror classics, including Murnau's NOSFERATU and FAUST, DER GOLEM, CALIGARI and many others. A free signed edition of INCARNADINE goes to the first reader who can name all the movies represented.

Q and A with INCARNADINE author R. H. Greene

The following Q and A was conducted just before the publication of INCARNADINE: The True Memoirs of Count Dracula,  a new novel by R. H. Greene. The book is available in hardcover via both Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com and in select bookstores, with a special electronic edition available via the Amazon Kindle Store for $6.49 per download.

Q: We seem to be in the midst of a major vampire fad. Did this factor into your thinking when you wrote Incarnadine?

R. H. Greene: I wish I could credit myself with so much forward thinking, but no, it didn’t – not at all. The first rather complete draft of Incarnadine was finished in the summer of 2007, mainly to fulfill some psychological needs of my own I would say. As presumptuous as it sounds, my intentions were literary, although it’s up to others to decide how close I came to deserving that rather imposing adjective. When I started

Marc Abrams, THE WALKING MAN -- A Radio Remembrance

Marc Abrams aka THE WALKING MAN was the neighborhood eccentric for anyone who lived in the Bohemian community of Silver Lake, CA during the past two decades or so. A compulsive walker who logged around twenty miles a day, he gradually became a folk hero due to his lonely presence on the streets, and the way he seemed to move in and out as a permanent but elusive part of so many lives.

I had a brush with Marc's oddball notoriety about ten years ago when I helped produce my friend Lauren Malkasian's documentary short about him. It's a unique piece of film

FATALLY YOURS gives INCARNADINE its latest RAVE!

Horror website FATALLY YOURS is the latest prestigious outlet to weigh in with a RAVE REVIEW of author R. H. Greene's novel INCARNADINE: THE TRUE MEMOIRS OF COUNT DRACULA. Calling INCARNADINE "a thoughtful, exciting, and wholly engrossing novel that sheds new light on vampire lore and lets us experience the grand legend of Count Dracula through his own eyes," reviewer Sally Jahier says "The novel is beautifully written by Greene.... There are lots of profound and major events... all of which add to the grand legend of Count Dracula."

Adding that she "eagerly looks forward" to the publication of INCARNADINE's companion volume THE CHARNEL HOUSE, Jahier

BECOMING DRACULA...

VOLUME ONE OF
THE DARING NEW
RE-IMAGINING OF
A LITERARY CLASSIC

"Impious, audacious, strangely moving, R. H. Greene's postmodern take on Dracula illuminates his darkness by making us feel in our viscera the compulsions that created him. Greene's literary tour de force blends Victorian and modern prose styles to give us new ways of understanding and exploring the vampire genre."
-- Joseph McBride, author, STEVEN SPIELBERG: A Biography

R. H. Greene Comments on His Jimi Hendrix Movie Project SLIDE

Folks --
A film I'm making with producers Don Murphy and Carol Lewis was recently announced in several news stories. The project is called SLIDE, and it deals with the alleged kidnapping of Jimi Hendrix, the greatest rock guitarist of all time.

Some of the initial coverage used the word "fiction" to describe this project. After digging into the various accounts of Jimi's kidnapping and dramatizing what seemed to me the most likely sequence of events, I would say that's a simplification that borders on inaccuracy.

The finished script is actually inspired by a pervasive story that has circulated for 40 years saying Jimi Hendrix was kidnapped

R. H. G. on NPR! INCARNADINE Broadcast takes a Bite Out of Public Radio

A long radio interview with R. H. Greene is available online!

LA County NPR powerhouse KPCC (89.3 FM Pasadena) featured INCARNADINE on a special broadcast of the popular magazine show OFF-RAMP. Host John Rabe blogged that INCARNADINE is "a wonderful, engrossing memoir of an easily villainized literary figure" and said "I couldn't put it down."

Rabe has posted the entire raw interview with R. H. Greene to the KPCC website. Included are readings of two entire book chapters and a freewheeling discussion of: Bulgaria; Dracula movies; comic books; Sherlock Holmes stories; and some heavy existential stuff about Dracula, GRENDEL and God. It's a fun chat whittled down for a six minute piece. You can get the whole story here.

OFF-RAMP Airs on KPCC Saturdays 12-1 p.m. and Sundays 7-8 p.m

OUR FIRST REVIEW IS IN... AND IT'S A RAVE!

INCARNADINE: THE TRUE MEMOIRS OF COUNT DRACULA has received it's first review... and it's a 5 star rave!

Author Randall Radic (A Priest in Hell, Sound of Meat) drew first blood writing for the lifestyle journal BASIL AND SPICE. Radic has given INCARNADINE a rating of "colossal," climaxing his review by admonishing readers to "begin the countdown for the sequel, which has already been written. "

Some excerpts:

"Needless to say, Dracula’s version of his life is vastly different than the one set forth by Bram Stoker. For starters, Dracula is much more sentimental – even romantic – which means he is also more cruel and violent than previously supposed. He is not a detached bloodthirsty monster, who is notoriously callous. Rather he is a passionate creature capable of horrific deeds

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER Declares INCARNADINE / DRACULA THE UN-DEAD in VAMPIRE "FEUD"

In what the Cleveland Plain Dealer is calling a “Battle of the Vamps” and “a strange feud between the authors of competing vampire tomes,” a new Dracula “memoir” is squaring off against the Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt “sequel” DRACULA: THE UNDEAD in a bloodthirsty battle to the death.

“I’m not sure I know what the Cleveland Plain Dealer is on about,” says R. H. Greene, credited as the “editor” of INCARNADINE: THE TRUE MEMOIRS OF COUNT DRACULA, a book whose conceit is that it was written by

FREE STUFF: GOOGLE BOOKS PRESENTS: INCARNADINE

Wanna see the entire dustcover and read the first 64 pages of INCARNADINE after the "Foreword" and "Prologue" (both available elsewhere on this site as PDFs)? You can, just by clicking on the magical words Google Books...

R. H. Greene's List of 10 Offbeat, Rare and Overlooked Vampire Flicks

View R. H. Greene's list of 10 offbeat vampire movies here. Titles discussed include George Romero's MARTIN, Larry Fessenden's HABIT, Italian quickie SLAUGHTER OF THE VAMPIRES and THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES, Hammer's sole excursion into Dracula/martial arts pastiche.

Author R. H. Greene Interviewed by THE GUARDIAN UK in London (Video)

On a recent visit to London, INCARNADINE author R. H. Greene was interviewed on camera by journalist Xan Brooks for the presitigious daily newspaper THE GUARDIAN in conjunction with the European theatrical premiere of Greene's 2001 documentary feature SCHLOCK: THE SECRET HISTORY OF AMERICAN MOVIES at the British Film Institute. The complete segment can be viewed here.