I was born waaaay back in 1952 and had a very lucky "Baby Boomer" childhood. That meant I got to see all those great Hammer films at the cinema, I watched The Mickey Mouse Club and Disneyland on TV (not to mention Batman; The Wild, Wild West; Dark Shadows; Star Trek; Lost in Space and so many more cultural touchstones), and I knew and loved Vincent Price, Walt Disney, Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. I was 16 when Woodstock "happened" and man walked on the moon. I not only remember where I was when JFK was assassinated, I watched Nixon give his resignation speech. I saw The Exorcist first-run, did the Twist and the Frug, survived Viet-Nam, Civil Rights, disco, grunge and rap (barely). Somewhere in between all thI was born waaaay back in 1952 and had a very lucky "Baby Boomer" childhood. That meant I got to see all those great Hammer films at the cinema, I watched The Mickey Mouse Club and Disneyland on TV (not to mention Batman; The Wild, Wild West; Dark Shadows; Star Trek; Lost in Space and so many more cultural touchstones), and I knew and loved Vincent Price, Walt Disney, Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. I was 16 when Woodstock "happened" and man walked on the moon. I not only remember where I was when JFK was assassinated, I watched Nixon give his resignation speech. I saw The Exorcist first-run, did the Twist and the Frug, survived Viet-Nam, Civil Rights, disco, grunge and rap (barely). Somewhere in between all that, I became a writer. I started writing short stories as a child--inspired by Hammer's "Dracula, Prince of Darkness" and "The Gorgon." At college, I began working for the campus newspaper, and that led to my becoming a freelance writer after graduation. Since 1984, I've been contributing to several magazines, but my longest affiliation has been with Fangoria. The Blue Classroom is my first attempt at novel-length fiction. Hope it's more interesting than this essay! ...more
When I decided to write a novel, I burned through several ideas. First, there was the one about zombies. Pure gold, right? This was in 1986, before zombies were all the rage, so I’d be cornering the market! Well, my zombie novel lasted nine pages before sputtering out like a deflating balloon. I just could not get a handle on zombies or why they’re so darned interesting. Still can’t.