“The Goreletter is the most inventive, most entertaining, and SICKEST author newsletter out there! Mike Arnzen is not well.” -Jeff Strand

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VISIT THE MAIN NEWSLETTER PAGE WITH THE ARCHIVES

Q. What is The Goreletter?
A. Corrupting readers since Sept. 2002, The Goreletter is Michael Arnzen‘s e-mail newsletter for fans of his weird writing…and all aficionados of the aberrant, readers of the repulsive, and browsers of the bizarre.

Q. What’s with the name “gorelets”? Is it just about exploding body parts?
A. Despite its title, the writing is not just gory, but it can be icky from time to time. It’s all about horror fiction and unpleasant poetry. It’s not just “gross-out” humor, but it’s quite dark. I would rate it somewhere between PG-13 and R.

The best of The Goreletter appears in the book,  The Gorelets Omnibus (RDS Press, 2012)

The newsletter is called “The Goreletter” because it functions as a sequel to (or perhaps is the continuing saga of?) a special one-year creative “electronic horror” project from 2001, that launched this website, called Gorelets: Unpleasant Poems. When that series ended, I converted this website over to my main home page for my horror creations and launched a newsletter version to keep the series alive…and haven’t looked back since.

A new book — The Gorelets Omnibus — celebrating the first 10 years of the Goreletter and everything gorelets.com, was released in 2012 by Raw Dog Screaming Press and is now available!

Q. Is it really worth subscribing to?
A. The Goreletter won the Bram Stoker Award for “Superior Achievement in Alternative Forms” from the Horror Writers Association in 2003 (see below). Subscription is free, issues are infrequent (mailed roughly 1-3x/year) and subscriber privacy is very much respected. People really seem to like it.

As a fiction writer, I approach my “author’s newsletter” as a creative workspace — not just as a marketing tool for my latest books. It includes new material and features the best of things I’ve posted here online and elsewhere you might have missed. It also often features contests and discount coupons available ONLY to readers who subscribe via email. I like to add things to the email version that no one else ever gets, as a token of appreciation for following my work.

Not sure yet? You can BROWSE THE BACK ISSUES to see what you’re getting yourself into. Otherwise, just enter your email address below and click the subscribe button to take the plunge into all its weirdness.

Subscribe to The Goreletter!

“The Goreletter is good enough to read all the way through….It’s very entertaining, often funny, full of interesting observations and interesting links. Highly recommended.” -Bruce Boston

Q. What’s the difference between the blog and the newsletter?
This weblog is the enhanced version of that newsletter, full of live links, pictures and even exclusive blog-only content.  Despite these elements, I consider it the “draft in progress” of the e-mail version as well as a place for subscriber feedback and comments, and a way to share emergent things on the road or on my mind that I want to share live.

The Goreletter often reprints “the best” of the blog, so if you don’t come to this website often, subscribe to the newsletter and you won’t miss the good stuff. Departments featured in both include…

Arnzen News | Blather (Column) | Data+Errata | Dictionscary (Word Play) | Gorelets: Unpleasant Poems | Instigation (Writing Prompts) | Not Dead Yet: Print Reviews | Online Gizmos | Odd Triple Feature (Film Lists) | Pithy Morbid Quotations | Snippets of the Strange | Weird Websites

Q. Can I submit to The Goreletter? Where do I post letters to the editor?
A. Every blog entry has a place where you can post a message. The newsletter is NOT an open market for writing, but if you want to share creative writing, the complete Instigation department is open to it (please keep it PG-13; Arnzen reserves the right to delete or edit posts for obscenity; all legal ramifications regarding comments are the complete responsibility of the author). I also would love it if you posted a review of The Goreletter on the “customer discussions” area of my author page at Amazon bookstore, where a discussion has begun.

I am always happy to receive e-mail at gorelets@gorelets.com

“Packed with writing prompts, flash fiction, macabre poetry, and lots of giveaways, the Goreletter provides hours of entertaining pleasure. Of course, you may want to take it in small doses at first, otherwise your head might just explode like that zombie in ‘Brain Candy.’” -Jason Jack Miller

Q. I think I signed up but I’m not sure. How do I check?
Q. I want to update my email address. How do I do that?
Q. I want to unsubscribe and/or sign up with a different address instead. How do I do that?

A. All this and more is available through the Goreletter subscription form. Just enter your email address in the subscription field and you will be told how to change or confirm your subscription.

Q. Is my information really private? What software are you using?

A. The Goreletter has never shared its subscriber base with anyone or been used for anything other than sending out the newsletter. I have always taken steps to keep my online work as self-contained as possible, with as much customized code and secure software as I’m able to, in order to protect my readers’ privacy and my own literary rights. The newsletter itself runs using code from email software package called Dada Mail (formerly “mojo mail”) — served from gorelets.com since the very beginning.

Q. I like to use RSS newsfeeds. Can I subscribe via RSS?

YES! Here are my recommendations for this:

• Subscribe to a RSS newsfeed that only announces NEW RELEASES.
• Subscribe to the main blog feed if you enjoy the blog version best.
• Subscribe to the e-mail archive’s RSS feed (server intensive — email is recommended instead).

[Hint: virtually any blog page on gorelets.com can be subscribed to via RSS by adding "/feed/" at the tail end of the URL!]

Q. Do you offer other newsletters?

A. My humble and tiny publishing outfit, Mastication Publications, will send you news of upcoming Mastication releases to subscribers. Subscribe here.

Q. Anything else?
A. I hope you’ll enjoy reading The Goreletter — and the rest of the weirdness here at gorelets.com and on my social network — as much as I have enjoyed inflicting it on the world for the past decade-plus. I always appreciate reader feedback and interaction, so please comment voraciously. Issues are infrequent, and will sneak up on you when you least expect it. And there’s plenty more horror to come!

– Michael A. Arnzen, gorelets.com

P.S. Remember to look for the book edition — The Gorelets Omnibus from Raw Dog Screaming Press to really understand this website and to catch up on all you’ve been missing.
 

Winner of the 2003 Bram Stoker Award in Alternative Forms

 

 

The Goreletter received the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Alternative Forms in 2003.

• Read my acceptance speech from the 2004 Bram Stoker Award ceremony.
• Discover my other award-winning and nominated works.
• Read about The Gorelets Omnibus — a new book celebrating the first decade of this website.
• Learn more about the HWA’s Bram Stoker Awards
• Visit or join the Horror Writers Association
• Read a related article by Dr. David Sandner on “The Uncanny In Your Inbox”