Michael A. Arnzen's Blog: News from Gorelets.com, page 37

The Writer’s Workshop of Horror

Learn from 30 terrifying masters

I’m pleased to appear in this brand new book of advice for those who want to improve their horror fiction, called order The Writer’s Workshop of Horror (ed. Michael Knost, Woodland Press, Aug 2009). It’s focused exclusively and deeply on the craft of scary storytelling, with a stellar line-up of contributors that include the likes of Clive Barker, Joe Lansdale, F. Paul Wilson, Ramsey Campbell, Brian Keene, Elizabeth Massie, and too many more to list:  from grand m

2008 Bram Stoker Awards Announced

This press release just came in, hot off the ether:

***

Horror Writers Association celebrates 2008 Stoker winners


At long last, the anticipation is over. The Horror Writers Association has announced the winners of the 2008 Bram Stoker Awards at its annual Stoker Banquet held tonight as part of the Stoker Awards Weekend held in Burbank, California.  Nine new bronze haunted-house statuettes were handed over to the writers responsible for creating superior works of horror last year. This year’s winne

Teachers of Terror Take Note

Dissections: The Journal of Contemporary Horror just released their May 2009 special issue on “issues of teaching the horror genre in the classroom.”  Sure, I’m in there with a discussion of “learning objectives” in a horror course, but with essays like Doug Ford’s “The Sublime Trials of Jack Ketchum: Teaching ‘The Girl Next Door’ in the Era of Torture P**n” and poems about classic movie actors by Bryan Dietrich, you know you’re getting something as fascinating as it is educational.

Dissections:

Classic Car Accident Ad Slogans

Have You Driven A F*rd Over A Stroller Lately?
This Is Your Late Father’s *ldsmobile.
V*lvo. For Life Support.
Killt F*rd Slough.
Ch*vy. The Last Heartbeat of America.
Chummer — Like Nothing Else!
Ponti*c. We Are Driving Excrement.
Grab Life By The Horns. That Won’t Stop Honking.
Sa*b. Move Your Mind. Off My Lap.
B*W. The Ultimate Chicken Machine.
V*lkswagon. Drivers Haunted.
Juice in Engineering. *udi.
C*dillac. When You Turn Your Car Off, Does It Return The Favor?
Unlike Any Other. Mortcedez Endz.
B*ick. Dr

Goreletter 5.04 Mailed

The Goreletter Vol. 5, #4 was e-mailed to subscribers on 14 June 2009 @ 4am est. It contains extra material not available here on the weblog version, including exclusive discounts on several horrifying goodies!

Note: the subtitle for this issue was dropped from the mailing’s subject line. It is titled “The Goreletter 5.04: Black Saabath”.  This was the 40th issue of the newsletter, publishing free since 2002. The next issue will begin Volume 6.

If you subscribe and did not receive this issue, e-ma

Flash Reviews of Semi-Autobiographical Fictions

Sorry for the length of this section, but I’m making up for lost time. This time around I offer four three “flash” reviews of books that are quite effective because they inexplicably feel “autobiographical” in some way, despite being entirely, totally, and thankfully made up.

>> Chimeric Machines by Lucy A. Snyder
Snyder is a massively talented writer — the sort who knows how to make you take a gulp when you hit the ending of a story or poem — and this poetry collection made me gulp with awe on v

offal

It’s funny: when I turn to my dollar-store dictionary for advice on the correct way to pronounce “offal” it says “awful”! I thought so. There’s nothing wonderful about offal: it’s all awful, even in its very utterance.

Offal is butcher’s term for the “less valuable edible parts of a carcass” — which is another way of saying the “guts” that are left over after the “meat” has been cleaved into muscular, familiar chunks. But the important thing to remember is that while these aren’t worth much, the

The Goofy Terror of Richard Benjamin

For your next movie night, rent:

Witches’ Brew (Strock, 1980)

Love At First Bite (Dragoti, 1979)

Saturday the 14th (Cohen, 1981)

Evolving Your Monster

“Monster Evolution” is a clever online game from Nob Studio, in which you terrorize a city eating humans — and if you eat enough of them, you can “evolve” into creatures with special powers and take out the shooters and tanks that come after you.

It’s like Cloverfield meets John Carpenter’s The Thing. Almost.

Try “Monster Evolution” for yourself, and play God(zilla) for awhile: http://www.nobstudio.com/games.html?fid=&gid=18

Darkness on the Edge: A Bruce Springsteen Anthology

[image error]



PS Publishing is now taking orders for Darkness on the Edge: Tales Inspired by the Songs of Bruce Springsteen. It will soon be available in a signed and unsigned limited edition hardcover.  My story is called “The Hungry Heart” — sort of like Poe meets the Boss.  Other contributors include Sarah Langan, Gary Braunbeck, Elizabeth Massie, Lawrence C. Connolly and lots of other great dark fantasy writers.  Edited by Harrison Howe, with cover art by the infamous JK Potter. Definitely worth a look!