Introduction

Welcome to Headhunting 101. If you're here, you're probably familiar with my books on the history of mask making legends Don Post Studios and Distortions Unlimited. You may also be wondering what I'm going to come up with next.

I'm a Halloween mask collector (aka headhunter) who became a writer by accident. I wrote the book on Don Post Studios only because nobody else would and I was afraid of all the information being lost over time. When I wrote the book, there were a number of questions that came up that were unanswerable as the only people who had the answers were deceased. Without the information being recorded, the number of unanswerable questions would have grown exponentially over the next few decades.

When I did write the book, it was received well and a lot of my fellow collectors seemed to appreciate what I was trying to do. That opened some doors to me, including the doors to Distortions Unlimited which would be the subject for my next book, currently scheduled for release in September of 2017.

In addition to the writing projects my publisher, Blacksparrow Inc., has come up with for me, I've come up with a few ideas of my own. One is sticking with what I love, mask collecting, and compiling a definitive history of the hobby. There are so many personalities and other aspects of the hobby which should be recorded, but none of which are substantial enough to fill a book of their own.

My idea was to write these up as a series of articles over time which could be offered to magazines along the way and, once a substantial enough body of work is written, use them as the basis of another book with subsequent volumes as I keep writing.

Looking into it further, I had opportunities to publish them in magazines, however they would put their name all over it and I would get "exposure". That didn't really sit well with me. Part of it was the fact that I would be doing all the work and getting nothing for it beyond the possibility of someone reading my articles being more inclined to buy one of my books at some vague point in the future. It also didn't seem fair to my publisher. Blacksparrow has to pay me to use my work. If a magazine thinks my work is good enough to publish, why shouldn't they have to pay for the content as well?

I did like the idea of added exposure though. I want as many people as possible to have access to this information. After giving it some thought, I realized I can expose myself as well as anyone! I came up with the idea of this blog to give everyone access to this information for free. It'll also give me the opportunity to run some ideas by you, the readers, and get some feedback. Anyone who has worked with me on my books will tell you I'm always open to ideas and suggestions for improvement, so send in those comments. I'll also be able to throw out some random thoughts from time to time amongst the articles.

With Halloween rapidly approaching, this seemed the perfect time to launch this blog, Even more important to mask collectors than the big day itself, we are less than a week away from the opening of the Art of the Halloween Mask exhibition at the Lethal Amounts Gallery in Los Angeles. I'll be there signing copies of the Don Post book at the opening and there will be a have a number of vintage pieces from my own collection on display. I'll be taking a ton of photos and writing up a review of the event after I get back.

Until next time, happy headhunting!

L