Michael A. Arnzen's Blog

Last week I posted a batch of creative writing sparks just for novelists to inspire some craziness during the launch of NaNoWriMo ("National Novel Writing Month")

Now it's a week later. Many writers have quit. Still others are beginning to lose steam. So I'm offering another batch of Instigation to possibly keep the fires burning weirdly.

Remember: finishing is not enough. You have to GO CRAZY! The glee of the twisted is a communicable disease that many readers love to catch. Good...

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The first Zoomquilt, back in 2005, was an amazing feat of online collaborative art. It took me five years to break out of its infinite loop. Little did I know that in 2007, it returned in a sequel that's even darker and more addictively hypnotic than the first. Are you ready for…

ZOOMQUILT II

Let's play a scavenger hunt together, shall we? See if you can spot the following on your never-ending journey into madness:

+ a pirate flag
+ a "warning dynamic killa" flag
+ "the end is nigh" flag
+ a...

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He skins action figures

for his masks and stalks

the model railroad village

weilding his deadly pushpin

every Halloween

until Giant Michael Myers

tosses him aside, bored,

leaving him fallen

paralyzed on the tracks

for an eternity of waiting

in suspense

for the train that never comes –

his tiny imagination

a cruel justice

worse than a thousand thousand

carnage-ridden runovers

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Horror author Brian Keene is being massacred today by writers across the globe…fictionally, of course, and in the name of drumming up donations to the Shirley Jackson Award society.

Here's my unsolicited and wholly unwarranted contribution, written impulsively just a few moments ago, because I like Brian and I like the Shirley Jackson Awards. Be sure to click over to Keene's website, where there are plenty of entertaining alternatives by numerous twisted writers. All in good fun!

BRIAN...

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NaNoWriMo — aka National Novel Writing Month — launched today (and I have a suspicion that Starbucks' stock will, too)! Since I know that a lot of writers follow this blog, I thought it might be cool if I shared some "Instigation" prompts just for novelists who are speeding through a caffeinated session of binge writing but hitting roadblocks along the way.

These prompts are intended to help you get over those hurdles more than just help you get started — but whatever they do, I hope they i...

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A plea:

If you enjoyed the latest issue of The Goreletter, please post feedback in the forum I opened up at Amazon to help me spread the word. I'm always eager to hear what people think, and I appreciate concrete tips for future issues. It will land you an entry in the latest contest and perhaps a freebie for being the first of thirty entries!

If you're not on amazon.com, you can leave a comment here on the blog too, of course, (but to be fair to all I can't give a contest entry for it).

If...

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The Goreletter Vol. 6, #1 was e-mailed to subscribers on Halloween, 31 October 2009 @ 9:30pm est. It contains extra material not available here on the weblog version, including a great contest to win some very RARE Arnzen-related collector's items, and a chance to get a signed numbered bookplate.

If you subscribe and did not receive this issue, e-mail me for a replacement or review the archives at gorelets.com.

Subscribe today…it's free and you can always unsubscribe if it terrorizes you too...

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"Could it think, the heart would stop beating."

– Fernando Pessoa (died 1935)

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Last year's Shirley Jackson Award winner for "Best Anthology" — The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease, edited by Sarah Eyre and Rah Page (Comma Press, 2008) — is a knockout example of genre renewal. The book features some of the best British horror authors alive, including Ramsey Campbell, Nicholas Royle, A.S. Byatt, Christopher Priest and many more…even Matthew Holness (whose comedic double from the BBC, Garth Merenghi, is echoed here). The book definitely deserved the Jackson Award for its...

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Tap-tap-tap. Class, pay attention. I'm going to teach you a new word today. It's called "gavage." Say it out loud. No, not like "savage," Little Jimmy. It's pronounced like "garage." That's right, Mary: guhvahzh. Really resonate that last syllable in your mouth. What? No Patty, "garvage" is not a word.

Gavage. Do any of you know what it means?

No, Jimmy, it's not the trash you run over in your garage.

No, Mary, it's not a battlefield dressing invented during the French revolution.

What's...

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