All About the Goreletter
Subscribe to The Goreletter!
“The Goreletter is the most inventive, most entertaining, and SICKEST author newsletter out there! Mike Arnzen is not well.”
–Jeff Strand
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 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, is coming in Winter 2012 from Raw Dog Screaming Press and is available for preorder now!
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 3x/year) and subscriber privacy is very much respected.
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 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.
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 | Weblog Exclusive Content | 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. 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 Michael Arnzen Social Network newsfeed for breaking news.
- 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. Anything else?
A. I hope you’ll enjoy reading The Goreletter — and the rest of the weirdness at gorelets.com — 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. And remember to look for the book edition — The Gorelets Omnibus — from Raw Dog Screaming Press in late 2011. 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
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– an upcoming book celebration of 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”


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