Michael A. Arnzen's Blog: News from Gorelets.com, page 31

The Last Drop

"Capital punishment. The criminal is killed because the crime has spent all the capacity for living a man has. He has experienced everything if he has killed. He can die. Murder drains a man."

– Albert Camus (died 1960)

Signs, You Might Be Crazy

Stick Figures in Peril

Outrageous Signs

Irrational Signs

Make Your Own

Snark Infested Interview — and a Special October Offer

My hour long interview with the internet radio show, Snark Infested Waters, is now up on their website. It was a funny-yet-serious chat about all things horror, including such topics as: sick elephants, mutant beards, cows dangling from meat hooks, sleep apnea hoses, ebooks, M. Night Shamayalan, collectible books, goreno, the relationship between zombies and coffee, and much more. The interview includes three high quality streams of selected tracks from my horror-story-meets-sound experiment, Audiovile, followed by deep discussion of each. Check it out and have a few laughs. Snark Infest Waters is posting a new horror-related podcast every day in October.

Audiovile Special Offer!

You may be curious how to go about getting Audiovile after you listen to this interview. How about a special deal to celebrate Halloween? Throughout the month of October 2010 (or until my limited supply runs out), I will personally sell you a copy of Audiovile for $6, postage paid. Paypal me at arnzen@gorelets.com or write me an email for alternative ordering details. Be sure to let me know your mailing address and whether or not you want your copy signed or left in the originally sealed package. Otherwise, you can download Audiovile from iTunes or order direct from the publisher.

microcosms of horrors

Throughout this Halloween month, microcosms twitterzine is posting horror poetry of 140 characters or less via twitter. I'll have about five of them in the mix, with the first one — "Sick Taxidermist" — posted just today. Check 'em out, and follow microcosms (and me too!) if you're on twitter.

The internet radio show, Snark Infested Waters, is posting a new horror-related podcast every day in October, too. They interviewed me about — and will be playing a selection of tracks from — my Audiovile CD in a few days. The interview was funny…check it out when it goes live on October 5th.

Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers (29)

+ Write a paragraph for each tick of the clock during a countdown to an execution or bomb blast.

+ Steal the title of a computer game at random ("Angry Birds", "Fallout", "Civilization V") and use it for the title of a horror/crime/science fiction story that has nothing whatsoever to do with the game's premise.

+ Begin a story in the chapel of a hospital.

***

Review the entire "Instigation" department for more prompts. You can share your writing here on The Goreletter by clicking on the 'comment' link.

ichor

Ichor. You want it to taste like liquor, but it doesn't. It's just icky. Pronouncing the term aloud is enough to make most people reach for some hand sanitizer and drink a glop of that instead.

It's a weird word, so it's no surprise that you'll stumble over it in horror stories everywhere. "Ichor" is used quite a bit by HP Lovecraft and others of his ilk to describe oozy things like the slime that dribbles from the dread nostrils of the Great Old Ones (especially that nasular monstrosity known only as "Achoolu"). It's a fun word to say, since its pustular resonance is right there, phlegmy in the back of your throat when you pronounce it. But I have to agree that the term is a bit hackneyed in horror fiction, as Ursula K. LeGuin suggested when she once wrote: "You know ichor. It oozes out of several tentacles, and beslimes tessellated pavements, and bespatters bejeweled courtiers, and bores the bejesus out of everybody." Everybody except role playing gamers, anyway.

The term actually comes to us from Greek mythology. Ichor is not just some nasal nasty; it also refers to the golden blood of the gods — the plasma present in ambrosia, giving it that rich potency. Some mythologists compare it to a mineral, claiming it grants immortality; most treat it as so strong that it is poisonous to humans, despite its allure.

It is perhaps this mixed message — potent yet poisonous — that leads to the word's strangely alternative employment in the medical field. Merriam Webster's Medical Dictionary informs us that "ichor" is an anachronism in older medical journals, used in reference to a foul-smelling watery, often blood-tinged discharge from a wound or ulcer. Some use it in reference to green bile. Regardless, this mucopurulent discharge — this infectious gleet — is the sicker ichor rupture.

Not to be confused with Flickr.

Upcoming Arnzen Events – October 2010

Halloween encroacheth, so I'm climbing out from under my writer's rock to make a few spot appearances on the dark side:

I'll be reading at the Morgantown Poets night on Thursday, Oct 21st, 7pm-8pm. If you're in the West Virginia area, come on by the Morgantown Arts Center, 107 High Street, in Morgantown, WV (located next to the Hotel Morgan) and be horrified. Directions and contact info available on booktour.com

I'm also going to be featured in the Snark Infested Waters radio program in...

Legends of the Mountain State

Cover for Legends of the Mountain State 4

Woodland Press is now taking pre-orders for the latest volume (#4) in the LEGENDS OF THE MOUNTAIN STATE ghost tale series. Featuring transformations of "Appalachian myths, ghost tales and folklore" derived from West Virginian lore, this book is sure to be a gem, with stories by Gary Braunbeck, Brian Hatcher, Steve Rasnic Tem, Elizabeth Massie, Lisa Morton, and a raft of other horror greats. My story involves a ghost child at the end of Childer's...

Now on Flickr

I've been feeling artsy this summer. Indulge me.

I have begun taking strange photographs of things like abandoned hospitals, so I thought I'd join flickr to have a place to put these. Come warm the place up with a comment or something.

You can also see some of my latest weird drawings — like the piece below, entitled "Shark Starvation" — at the gorelets.com gallery.

RDSP Retrospective Event: Book Deal, Chat, and Writing Contest!

For the month of August, Raw Dog Screaming Press (publisher of my novel, Play Dead) is offering a sweet "Retrospective" book bundle of their bestselling short-story collections, which packages together my book, 100 JOLTS, with Jeremy C. Shipp's Sheep and Wolves and Adam Golaski's Worse Than Myself, for a VERY low price ($30 for paperbacks, $12 for Ebooks). Orders get a bonus pdf of secret goodies, as well.

To celebrate and promote this event, I'll be participating in a live chat on TWITTER