If this is the first time you’ve ventured beneath, let me introduce myself. I’m Lynne Hansen, and I write dark fiction for teens. Horror is my passion, but I’m also a bit of a history geek, so my books tend to mix the two. I’ve written two historical horror novels, a contemporary horror novel with my friend Sally Bosco, a dystopian SAT vocabulary novel, as well as three dark time travel historicals for SparkNotes.
Click on the book covers to the right to learn more about my books, or use the navigation above to tunnel through my site and learn more about me, my books, my gigs, and my school visits.
Hope you enjoy your visit. I love to hear from folks, so don’t hesitate to sign my guestbook or leave a comment or two.
Keep creepin’…
Lynne Hansen
Public Memorial for Tampa Theatre Organist Bob Baker Will Be Held Sunday, September 13 at 11:00 am
For all of you who were fans and friends of Tampa Theatre organist Bob Baker, there will be a public memorial for him this Sunday, September 13th at 11:00 am at Tampa Theatre. (711 N. Franklin St., Tampa, FL 33602) If you enjoyed his music or his company, please consider stopping by.
Here’s a little bit about Bob and his life:
Tampa Theatre organist Bob Baker passed away on Thursday, September 10. He was 61.
A public memorial service will be held at Tampa Theatre on Sunday, September 13 at 11:00 a.m.
Bob was perhaps our most popular volunteer organist who performed pre-show mini-concerts 3 to 4 days a week for our audiences for over 15 years. He was also a mainstay of our tour program, where he performed and educated thousands of visitors about the Mighty Wurlitzer and the Theatre. In fact, he had just completed another demonstration and mini-concert for a public tour at the Theatre Wednesday afternoon just a few hours before his death.
A quick calculation suggests that he performed about 2,500 times for the enjoyment of about 750,000 Tampa Theatre patrons – all for free. His passion was music, but his love was the Tampa Theatre Mighty Wurlitzer. He was quick to donate his time and talent to any of our fundraisers, including the 80th anniversary gala dinner.
“Bob’s passing reminds me that the contributions people make to their communities come in many forms and all are special and important,” said John Bell, Tampa Theatre president and C.E.O. “Some, like Bob’s, are priceless. We will miss him a great deal.”
A self-taught musician, he played without sheet music and could accommodate most any request. In fact, when interacting with fans and patrons, he almost always asked if there was a special tune he could play for them. He often said he felt most at home performing at Tampa Theatre.
Bob loved having fun with the audience. Before this summer’s screening of Gone With the Wind, he channeled his inner Carol Burnett and rose from the orchestra pit wearing a green curtain, rod still attached. “I saw it in a window and just had to have it,” he told the audience.
Bob also performed in a nun’s habit before The Sound of Music, a black cape before halloween movies, and a fruit bowl hat before a Carmen Miranda movie. Before Jaws he held a plastic blow up shark while playing the famous eerie theme. Above all, Bob was a masterful performer who loved to play for all audiences, large or small.
A native of Illinois, Bob reveled in telling Tampa Theatre tour guests about his unusual music background. He taught himself to play at this family’s funeral parlor. “The audience never complained,” he would quip. He was a music therapist both a women’s correctional facility and a state mental hospital. “Not as a patient,” he would joke. Later he travelled the country performing in lounges. Since moving to Florida, he worked at Nielsen Media Research, but his real passion was always organ. He was the church organist at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Tampa, and performed for weddings both in churches and at Tampa Theatre.
Bob was born January 25, 1948 in Streator, IL, the son of James R. and Helen Patrick Baker.
He was a 1966 graduate of Dwight Township High School and continued his education at Lincoln Christian College in Lincoln, IL. He was employed for many years with the Nielsen Media Research Company in Dunedin where he was an administrative assistant in operations. He was also the organist for St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Tampa. He was a talented and gifted musician, playing both the organ and piano. He was a very active volunteer at the Tampa Theater and played the Mighty Wurlitzer before many movies and at special events. He was also very active in the Central Florida Theater Organ Society and served on their Board of Directors.
Bob is survived by a brother, James P. Baker of Springfield, IL, a sister (twin) Barbara Baker Chapin of Quincy, IL, a nephew, John Andrew Baker of Springfield, IL, a niece, Kathryn Milliman of Springfield, IL., 5 great nephews and one great niece. He was preceded in death by his parents.
Bob was a friend to his co-workers and Tampa Theatre staff, a beloved brother and family member, a leader among his Central Florida Theatre Organ Society peers, and an entertainer to all. He will be missed.
Memorial donations may be sent to either Tampa Theatre or The Central Florida Theatre Organ Society in care of Tampa Theatre, P.O. Box 172188, Tampa, FL 33672-0188.
Me, in the photographer's pit, in total disbelief, trying not to freak out. (Courtesy of Radko Keleman.)
As I stood in the pit line outside the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa with the blistering Florida sun searing my Stop, Drop and Roll t-shirt, I wondered if I was making a big mistake coming to see Green Day at what I was certain would be an impersonal arena show.
No, I’m not one of the lucky old school Green Day fans who saw them at Gilman Street, or even on their first major-label national tour with Dookie. “Good Riddance” didn’t play at my high school graduation, and I had no desire to be the “Minority” until I watched the live feed of Green Day at Live 8 in Berlin in July of 2005.
Green Day’s performance that day dropped my jaw and sent me scrambling through the Internet archives for more video. I bought every album available in the US and special ordered every import I could get my hands on. I’d already missed the American Idiot tour stops within driving distance, but despite not having seen them live, I developed LOGDF, Late Onset Green Day Fanaticism.
One of the official pictures from the Foxoboro Hot Tubs concert in New Orleans. I’m the girl with blue bangs in the powder blue Dollyrots t-shirt.
That fanaticism brought The Foxboro Hot Tubs, Green Day’s pimped-out 60’s garage-rock alter-ego, onto my radar. When they played One Eyed Jack’s in New Orleans in 2008, I drove ten hours, stood in line for ten more hours, and ended up front and center at a 500-person show that spoiled me forever for arena concerts–or so I thought.
A year later in the heat outside the St. Pete Times Forum, my stomach rolled with the smell of the Slim Jims, Pringles, and grape Gatoraid of the guys in front of me. How would Green Day, playing to a stadium of over 8,500 fans, ever be able to create the same kind of personal connection I’d felt with The Foxboro Hot Tubs?
When security finally released the pit line into the stadium, I found a spot in the corner where the catwalk joined the stage, right behind my new friends Ben and Chase (the guys who’d brought the line provisions). As I watched the empty St. Pete Times Forum fill with fellow Green Day fans, excitement moshed over the angst I’d had outside.
The Kaiser Chiefs helped the crowd get in the mood for an interactive, high-energy show. The intense-yet-playful, well-constructed set revved everyone up. Lead singer Ricky Wilson even tightrope walked along the security rail and into the audience to sing a verse. Later he introduced “You Want History” as being a request from two members of Green Day.
Then, in the shadows near the guitar rack, three black-clad figures wearing Mexican wrestling masks appeared. They watched the Kaiser Chiefs perform the entire song before applauding and slinking backstage. (I can’t say for certain the masked fans were Billie Joe, Mike, and Tre, but Tre did wear the same red Mexican wrestling mask when he teepeed the Kaiser Chiefs at their last show in New Orleans.) Seeing the masked fans reminded me that anything can happen at a Green Day concert–even before Green Day takes the stage.
I’d bought the Kaiser Chiefs’ latest album Off With Their Heads in preparation for the concert, and although it hadn’t turned me into an uber-fan, their stage show did, and I found myself hitting iTunes again for their 2007 release Yours Truly, Angry Mob for “Ruby” and 2005’s Employment for “Everyday I Love You Less and Less” and “I Predict A Riot”. Like Green Day, the Kaiser Chiefs adore playing live, and as a result I’ve added them onto my list of bands I’ll see again.
The breakdown time between the Kaiser Chiefs and Green Day was mercifully brief. The crew seemed focused and well-organized, and you had just enough time to pee and hit the merch table before the lights dimmed.
In the darkness, time freezes and it’s all about the moment, all about the present, the now. The static clarity of “Song of the Century” weaves through the arena like a pirate radio station broadcasting just for us.
A spotlight ruptures the darkness and Billie Joe poses on top of the monitor, arms raised like a furious crucified conductor about to lead us all in a debauched mass of fury and forgiveness. Jason Freese pounds the piano intro to “21st Century Breakdown” and the rest of the band takes the stage. Jason White strolls toward the rear of stage right as the new supporting guitarist/backup singer Jeff Matika appears far behind Jason Freese on stage left.
Tre and Mike aren’t nearly as understated. As the intro builds, Tre lurches and lunges along the edge of the stage, mugging for the audience. He climbs behind the drum set to add a relentless kick drum beat as he leers over his cymbals. Mike nods and rocks like a wind-up toy begging for release. Oh yeah, baby…it’s coming…just you wait…, he seems to be saying. It’s almost here…it’s almost–
And then it’s time. A wall of sound and light. Mike bursts into the background vocals as Billie Joe explodes into one of his classic, gravity-defying leaps from the monitor, arriving at the center mic just in time to sing, “Born into Nixon, I was raised in hell…”
And so it begins.
The concert is so etched onto my brain that I could go on like this, song by song, through the whole show. I could tell you about how Billie Joe and Mike keep even the people in the nose-bleed seats on their feet the entire time. I could tell you how in awe I am of Jason White’s low-key, underappreciated virtuosity, how I now realize that it’s his performance keeps the musicianship solid so that Billie Joe can entrance the audience. I could tell you how the songs we love just wouldn’t be the same without Jason Freese to weave piano, sax and accordion layers into them. I could tell you all the little things the band does to try to crack each other up. I could tell you all the ways Green Day reaches out and connects with the audience, from the never-ending barrage of call and response commands to the summoning of people on stage to sing or play. (Just remember that “Jesus of Suburbia” is in the key of C#). I could tell you all the ways an 8,500+ Green Day 21st Century Breakdown arena concert is totally different from an under-500 Foxboro Hot Tubs Stop, Drop and Roll club concert, and all the ways it’s exactly the same.
But I won’t.
“This is our f***ing moment!” Billie Joe screamed at the beginning of the show. “Put the f***ing cameras and cell phones away! This is OUR time!”
I’ve loved sharing some of my amazing night with you, but it shouldn’t matter to you one bit what I thought of the Tampa concert. What’s truly important is what YOUR Green Day experience means to YOU. If you don’t have tickets already, buy them now. Go get your own f***ing Green Day moment.
Tampa Set List With Selected Pics
(With special thanks to Green Day’s Idiot Club whose Band Photographer For A Day contest provided me with this amazing opportunity.)
1) Song of the Century
2) 21st Century Breakdown
3) Know Your Enemy
4) East Jesus Nowhere
5) Holiday
6) The Static Age
7) Before the Lobotomy
8) Are We The Waiting
9) St. Jimmy
10) Boulevard of Broken Dreams
11) Hitchin’ A Ride
12) Welcome to Paradise
13) Hold On
14) When I Come Around
15) Medley: You Really Got Me, Eruption, Ain’t Talkin’ About Love, Unchained
16) Brain Stew
17) Jaded
18) Longview
19) Basket Case
20) She
21) Medley: King For A Day, Shout, Break on Through, Free Fallin, I’ll Be There
22) 21 Guns
23) American Eulogy
24) See The Light
1st Encore:
25) American Idiot
26) Jesus of Suburbia
27) Minority
Acoustic Encore:
28) Scattered
29) Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)
So how cool is this? I won Green Day’s Band Photographer For A Day contest for Tampa! I still can’t believe it. I get to take as many pictures as I want of the band during the show. I even went out and bought a new camera just so the pictures would be good. I’ve got pit tickets, so assuming I get to the St. Pete Times Forum insanely early the day of the show, I should have some pretty pics to share.
Anyone have picture requests, special shots you’ve never seen photographers take at a Green Day concert before? Or just favorite shots you’d like to see in general? I can use all the advice I can get, ’cause previously, this is the best (and only) picture I’ve ever taken of the band. (It’s the back of Billie Joe Armstrong as he heads for a taxi after sound check before his Foxboro Hot Tubs gig at One Eyed Jacks in New Orleans.)
I just about fell out of my chair watching this. Proves yet again why Buffy is a way better role model than Bella.
YouTube – Buffy vs Edward: Twilight Remixed — [original version].
Commentary from creator Jonathan Mcintosh at www.RebelliousPixels.com:
In this remixed narrative, Edward Cullen from the Twilight Series meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s an example of transformative storytelling serving as a pro-feminist visual critique of Edward’s character and generally creepy behavior. Seen through Buffy’s eyes, some of the more sexist gender roles and patriarchal Hollywood themes embedded in the Twilight saga are exposed – in hilarious ways. Ultimately this remix is about more than a decisive showdown between the slayer and the sparkly vampire. It also doubles as a metaphor for the ongoing battle between two opposing visions of gender roles in the 21st century.
Zombie Rain by Mike Maihack - Check out http://cowshell.com/buffalog/category/comics/
Okay, so I had a REALLY rough weekend, and yesterday morning the Fates seemed determined to make it worse, because when I got out of my car for the four block trek to my day job in downtown Tampa, the skies opened and totally dumped on me. Thanks to my umbrella, it doused my spirits worse than my clothes, but it was still a pretty miserable walk, avoiding puddles while jostling all my stuff, including coffee which I spilled all over me repeatedly.
I was all about poor, poor pitiful me, and then I thought, You know, if we were in the midst of the zombie apocalypse, I’d be pretty thankful for this rain, especially if I was holed up in one of those skyscrapers. Water can be tough to come by once the power goes out if you don’t have a direct conduit to a natural water source. Ultimately, this rain is a good thing.
I am not joking. These thoughts actually drizzled through my brain. You know you’re WAY too into the book you’re writing when even a nasty Florida rainstorm has zombie implications. lol
Just a quick note to tell everyone to stop by my hubby Jeff Strand’s PRESSURE book launch party at Barnes & Noble Carrollwood in Tampa, Florida tonight, Saturday May 30th, starting at 7:00 at 11802 N. Dale Mabry Highway. Tampa, Florida 33618. Buy anything in the store and give the cashier Bookfair ID 560714 and at least 10% of your proceeds will go to Tampa Theatre, an amazing grand movie palace built in 1926. And you’ll even get a coupon for a free small popcorn at Tampa Theatre. You can use the bookfair ID 560714 at any B&N across the country, so even if you can’t make it to the book launch party, you can still help the theatre. (Unfortunately the coupons are only available at the B&N Carrollwood during the book launch party.)
If you’re unfamiliar with Jeff and his work, here’s a little video about how PRESSURE is making the world a better place:
A few weeks back I got to be an extra in a Herschell Gordon Lewis film, Grim Fairy Tale. I was a flannel-clad engineer in a TV studio who got to scream REALLY loud when the Big Bad Wolf came in to kill us all. Too much fun.
Of course my favorite part was my second scene, where I got to play a vacant-eyed dismembered corpse sprawled on the floor of the TV studio. I had to stare at the ceiling while the actors walked over me. The biggest distraction was the boom mike that kept moving in and out of my vision. I channeled my inner zombie, though, and kept as still as I possibly could. At one point the casting director said, “I think Lynne’s really dead!” lol
Afterwards, Mr. Lewis took both my hands in his said and said, “Keeping your body still is one thing, but keeping your eyeballs from moving, that’s tough. Not many people can do that. Thank you for doing that for my movie.” Too cool.
I’m not in the article, there’s a super one in Fangoria about the shoot, including some fun-yet-disturbing pics:
My hubby Jeff Strand is attending the RT Booklovers Convention, so I’m hunkering down in a condo nearby with the intent of writing my butt off for a few days. Before I got to work on the novel, I had to finish up the handouts for my “New Media and Social Networks for Writers” and “Writing Young Adult Fiction” workshops I’m giving at the Colorado Romance Writers conference next week.
While compiling and updating resources, I came across this incredibly comprehensive book review comparing one of my favorite apocalyptic novels, Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer,
with Razor Girl by Marianne Mancusi.
Click here to read the review.
I don’t usually read reviews, and when I do, I can’t remember the last time a review made me want to read a book, but this one definitely made me want to read Razor Girl. Any book that features, “a 400 mile road trip through the zombie-infested US Southeast” is aces in my book.
And I really like the way the reviewer pointed out that the plausibility of the post-apocalyptic worlds each author portrays isn’t really the point. To me, when you dip into any kind of dark fantasy or alternate world, it’s all about creating that willing suspension of disbelief, getting readers to connect emotionally with the characters, while still keeping the story moving forward. Razor Girl sounds like it has the potential to do it well, so I’m really looking forward to reading it. As luck would have it, Marianne Mancusi is actually a guest at the RT Booklovers Convention, so I hope to pick it up at the big booksigning Saturday.
So has anyone else read Razor Girl or Life As We Knew It? Share what you thought of them in the comments, but no spoilers, ‘kay?
