Michael A. Arnzen's Blog: News from Gorelets.com, page 38

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New Chapbook: Skull Fragments

Just received this photo from translator, Jerome Charlet. SKULL FRAGMENTS has just been published by Les Perseides in France, and is available through French book outlets online (it is a bilingual edition, so English readers can also enjoy). Click on the photo to read more info, or see the news on “European Translations” below:

Skull Fragments: New French-English Chapbook

Post a Pithy Morbid Thought…And Win!

NEW GORELETTER CONTEST! DEADLINE JULY 1st

What is a “Pithy Morbid Thought”?

A brief philosophical quip — often ironic — about death, disease, horror, torment, fear, terror, etc. I collect them for inspiration and uncomfortable moments at dinner parties. They also serve as “curtains” which close out each e-mail issue of The Goreletter. Here’s an example of one of my favorites (from Goreletter 2.7):

Peace Meal

“I believe in compulsory cannibalism.
If people were forced to eat what they killed,
the

“Werewolves & Shapeshifters” Flash Fiction Contest News

Attention writers of short-short horror stories: Ligonier Valley Writersis hosting a new contest looking for flash fiction on “Werewolves and Shapeshifters”. Deadline is Aug 15th. I have agreed to be the finalist judge.

Bare Bone Finale

Raw Dog Screaming Press has announced publication of the grand finale issue of Bare Bone magazine (#11). It features fiction from Kurt Newton, Ronald Damien Malfi, Cody Goodfellow, Steve Rasnic Tem, Paul Finch and Jeffrey A. Stadt among others. Some of the poets included are myself, Cameron Pierce and Forrest Armstrong. (Read the full TOC on Kurt Newton’s blog.)

Editor Kevin Donihe has done a rather remarkable job with this magazine over the years, turning it from a truly-bare-boned zine into a

“Pithy” Contest Lost — But Will Return Soon

IMPORTANT: The “Pithy Morbid Thought” contest I was running on The Haunt (with a deadline of tomorrow) has been lost by their website! Apparently their boards crashed and the backup was unrecoverable. I will make up for this by starting over here on The Goreletter in the days ahead.

If you participated in that contest, I do NOT have your original entries or names (I expected the webmaster to back those up!)…so I hope you will re-enter. I may use Twitter as part of this contest. More to come

‘Pithy’ Contest Ending Soon…

Just a quick heads up:  now that my ‘featured member’ month is over, the Pithy Morbid Thoughts contest ends on April 31st at midnight.  Get thee to The Haunt if you wanna win a free book!

European Translations

This Spring will see a handful of my short works transformed into European languages, so I want to publicly express thanks to the translators.

Piotr Leszczyński has written a number of excellent Polish versions of my short-shorts for the online journal, Minimal Books , over the past few years — and several of his translations have appeared in print this month in the Polish literary magazine, Red.

Jerome Charlet has been busy translating my work into French, and a fine chapbook edition of “Skull Fr

Apron of the Abattoir

Author Carole Lanham (aka “The Horror Homemaker”) has posted a fun collection of aprons, including a funny old one from the Michael Arnzen Dying photoshot and Kim Paffenroth roasting his Bram Stoker Trophy.

Speaking of trophies, it’s Stoker season right now and the final ballot for last year’s best horror fiction has recently been announced on the Horror Writers Association website.  Congratulations to all!  Extra helpings of kudos to Horror Library Vol. 3 (collection category) and The Book of Li

Broken Picture Telephone

Remember Telephone — the “pass it down” game of crazy miscommunication from your youth? Well you no longer have to get uncomfortably close to your neighbor to whisper into their ear. Broken Picture Telephone is an ingenious game of text and stick figure drawing that will have you laughing for hours. It involves responding to obscure messages by drawing what they say — and vice versa — until you get a very bizarre story reminiscent of David Lynch’s surrealism. For example, my first test of t