Michael A. Arnzen's Blog: News from Gorelets.com, page 13

Photos from NOVA Horrorfest Event — 10.25.2013 Manassas, VA

I had a fabulous time last weekend as a guest at North Virginia Community College – Manassas, who has been running a “Horrorfest” all month to celebrate student creativity on the dark side. The event began with my reading in Colgan Theater (I read a sampler of things, from excerpts from 100 Jolts to zombie poems from Gorelets Omnibus to a dark slide show of images and poetry based on my trip last Halloween season to the Mutter Museum). The booksigning afterward was great because I got to meet lots of great folks, from people I knew only from twitter to a few good folks from Virginia Writers Club. Though I was so busy that I didn’t get many good pictures, it was relatively well-attended, and the dynamic duo that run Raw Dog Screaming Press came down from Baltimore to hang out. The following day, I held two workshops with NOVA students (called “The Sense of Dread” and “Taking Your Reader by Surprise”), which included not only some deep conversations about writing in the horror genre, but also a deconstruction of a Black Sabbath song and writing activities involving such things as clowns and hammer killers. It was a lot of fun to meet new readers, and I was honored to come to NOVA to inaugurate Halloween week. Thanks to Prof. Lorraine Goldberg who coordinated and was an awesome host for both days (and good luck NOVA students on your short stories for the writing contest!).

You can see even more photos in the Raw Dog Screaming Press page dedicated to the event.

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The Goreletter — my creative horror newsletter, delivered free since Sept. 2002 — is evolving into something fresher. I’m still prepping the new issue, but you can now subscribe to add your name to the list and be among the first to check it out using the form below. Uncertain if you’re on the list? Go ahead and use this form to resubscribe. Or if you’ve never read The Goreletter, give it a whirl — you can always unsubscribe later if it doesn’t strike your fancy. Still unsure? Here’s a taste: a sample back issue from July.

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NOVA Reading & Booksigning in Manassas, VA – Friday 10.25.13

I’ll be reading at North Virginia Community College – Manassas on Friday, October 25th. The event in Colgan Theater begins at 7pm, and will be followed by a booksigning. This part of the event is free and open to the public; the following day’s workshops are for NOVA students only. If you’re nearby, come on by Friday night to warm up for Halloween!

Random Shots from the RDSPress “Booksburgh” Bookstore Hop 10.19.13

Raw Dog Screaming Press authors signed at bookstores all around Pittsburgh today, and I dropped in to see each one. With help from Diane Turnshek, Laurie Mann and the good folks at Parsec, the event was dubbed “Booksburgh” and every store offered some great discounts and happy surprises along the way. My photos don’t do much justice to the creative energy and frivolity on display this afternoon, but it gives you some sense of the occassion.

The day began with my signing/reading at CMU Bookstore, which was a good warm up act to a series of intelligent and entertaining readings and encounters with authors and readers across town. Pittsburgh really is a great town for book lovers, and Raw Dog Screaming Press — which hails from Baltimore, MD — really is right at home here. This was the line up:
Mike Arnzen at 1pm at the CMU Bookstore – 5032 Forbes, 15213

Stephanie Wytovich at 2pm at The Big Idea Bookstore – 4812 Liberty, 15224

Matt Betts at 3pm at The Muse Stand – 4524 Liberty, 15224

Heidi Ruby Miller at 4pm at Bradley’s Books – 125 West Station Square Drive 15219

Jason Jack Miller at 5pm at Eljays Books – 3233 W Liberty, 15216 (under new management as Rickert & Beagle Bookstore)

Signing at CMU Bookstore Pittsburgh 10.19.13

I’ll be signing books at Carnegie-Mellon University at 1pm on Saturday, 10/19 — part of Raw Dog Screaming Press’ “Pittsburgh Bookshop Hop.” If you come to town, tour the area bookstores and meet all five of the Raw Dog Screaming Press authors who will be on hand across the city. CMU should have copies of my novel Play Dead on hand, along with other titles. I’ll bring some Fridge of the Damned magnets, too.

Mike Arnzen at 1pm at the CMU Bookstore – 5032 Forbes, 15213

Stephanie Wytovich at 2pm at The Big Idea Bookstore – 4812 Liberty, 15224

Matt Betts at 3pm at The Muse Stand – 4524 Liberty, 15224

Heidi Ruby Miller at 4pm at Bradley’s Books – 125 West Station Square Drive 15219

Jason Jack Miller at 5pm at Eljays Books – 3233 W Liberty, 15216

For more details, see my event page or visit the publisher, RDSP.

Watch my events calendar page for other emerging opportunities to allow me to deface your printed matter.

Photos from Killercon V

KillerCon V (Sept 2013) — a scary-sounding and small-but-professional convention for authors of dark crime, horror and thriller fiction — was really a blast to attend last weekend. It was my first con West of the Mississippi in a really long while, so it was good to reunite with old friends and to make all sorts of charming and alarming new ones.  My reading and panels were fun, and perhaps I’ll share some audio soon.  I also was pleased to sell a lot of copies of my novel, Play Dead, since this book is SET in (a fictionalized version of) Vegas!

In addition to the shots below, I posted things on twitter throughout the weekend and there were numerous “Fridge of the Damned” magnetic horror poetry compositions created live at my signing table, which you can read on flickr.

Vegas. When you arrive, you have to descend…

 

Dawn and Bob Essig

 

I defaced my badge.

 

Lunch with Gene O’Neill, Michael Bailey, Chris Marrs, Eunice Magill, Arnzen

 

John Skipp gets pulled under, at the book signing

 

Deadite Press & Eraserhead authors Adam Pepper, Carlton Mellick III, and Jeff Burk

 

“Splatterpunk Then & Now”: Ryan Harding, John Skipp, Monica O’Rourke, Wrath White, Robert Devereaux, John Shirley

 

Wrath James White reads.

 

Audience abuzz. Or just a blurry shot. Sorry.

 

A great shot of Ellen Datlow and Tom Monteleone

 

Seton Hill authors: Nikki Hopeman, Querus Abuttu, Arnzen

 

David Schow patiently signs.

 

Arnzen with John DeChancie

 

Jerry asked me to sign something from days of yore!

 

Nikki and Wade Hopeman, afire in the city of sin.

 

Jeff Burk eats his namesake.

 

John Palisano has the nerves.

 

A pensive moment with Robert Devereaux (and Hal Bodner, seated)

 

Face-hugger Pretzel Surprise! Argh!

 

Photos from the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum Reading

An assortment of crazy images taken during the Raw Dog Screaming Press Poetry Reading at the scary Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (Weston, WV) with Arnzen, John Edward Lawson (The Troublesome Amputee) and Stephanie Wytovich (Hysteria) on 9.14.2013:

Skeeter

Tap the above frame for a tiny sequential story… just goofing around at the Tapestry website.

My Favorite Dexter Remakes and Riffs

As iconic as the shower scene from Psycho: the opening sequence from Dexter

I’m a big follower of the Showtime TV series Dexter, currently airing its final season. For the past year I’ve been rescreening the entire run, posting a running series of notes to twitter under hashtag #dexternotes (see the archive in The Nest), and my next personal reading project is to catch up with Lindsay’s Dexter book series (the program is a fascinating study in adaptation, as it departs wildly from the books) in preparation for the upcoming release of a new title, ironically called Dexter’s Final Cut (releasing end of August 2013 on Kindle and in mid-Sept in hardcover). As a fan, I’ve become somewhat impatient this season with waiting each week for the next episode, so when I’m not otherwise rewatching older seasons (the one with Lithgow is my favorite) I research Dexter fan postings on the internet.

Here, without further ado, are my favorite remakes and riffs on Dexter’s now CLASSIC opening sequence. There are a lot of remakes of this out there, as students of film study and reproduce it, and fans come up with clever parodies. These are my faves:

This Really is Dexter in 60 Seconds:
http://youtu.be/WM5_pac-4Is

Dogster
http://youtu.be/NArGzruaiEQ

Clever Approach to a School Assignment
http://youtu.be/pCF-AWJ7NJo

From The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror:
http://youtu.be/CAqH8HOBjno

Dexter Intro in Heavy Metal:
http://youtu.be/kt7cmmd6CKU

Clever Parody by Jack’s Films
http://youtu.be/Fox57HqOhEM

Dexterized Pee-Wee’s Playhouse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC8SczknsHQ

And here’s just the cool re-imagining of the opening credits by poster-creator, Ty Mattson:
http://youtu.be/n9adZ0HRuo4

Onward Christian Scanners

Imagine if Cronenberg had written

and directed The Exorcist. In it,

Father Damien Karras is not a psy-

chiatrist but a psychic, capable

of reading thoughts and moving objects

with merely his mind. This superpower, he believes,

is the Power of Christ, and it compels him

to study the art of exorcism under Father Merrin,

who trains him to become a “Scanner” — a psyche-soldier

in the Christian Army, capable

of not only sensing a sinner’s guilt

and truly knowing the nature of their crimes,

but also able to circumvent confession altogether

and directly absolve them, should they genuinely

regret their sin and seek psychic purity.

This, at first, is what exorcism means for Karras.

But then he meets Regan,

body scraped and raped from the inside out,

possessed by the demon Pazuzu,

who reflects and projects his scanning powers

right back at him:

she seems to be able to read his mind as well,

calling to him in the voice of Mother,

shaming him for abandoning her in the nursing home.

He shakes with rage, while Regan cackles quietly,

curled up in puddles on the bed,

knowing his wishes, cajoling him

to beat her to bruises

with his boxer’s fists.

And then her head pivots impossibly backward

on the child’s shoulders, puking green soup

spraying the stream like a garden sprinkler,

sloshing goop right into his face.

He blinks and screams and shudders

and as Regan’s head spins around

it progressively begins to swell with boils

and puff up like a blowfish

stretching open its scars

till it explodes in a burst of green gore

that splashes across the bedroom,

getting into his eyes,

now red demon eyes,

while Regan’s bloody, exposed spinal cord

is all that remains above her shoulders

spinning, still spinning,

like a forgotten whisk

in some sick cotton candy machine

as Damien summons the psychic power

needed to telekinetically

hurl himself toward

the bedroom’s open window.

***

I read this poem at DogCon2, as part of a poetry challenge with Stephanie Wytovich, who also wrote and delivered a Scanners-inspired poem called, I believe, “Head Helmet.”