I apologize for not posting here a lot lately — I’ve been very busy teaching this past year, and I’ll be busy teaching all over again in the month to come, for a number of genre fiction-focused writing workshops. I’ll be running my “Atmosphere in Horror and Fantasy” course in the MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University next week, followed by a fun guest lecture on “Making the Reader Squirm” at the acclaimed Odyssey Fantasy Writing Workshop the week after that, then running some workshops on writing uncanny scenes at Alpha: The SF/F/H Writing Workshop for Young Authors in July just to top it all off. Busy days ahead!

All of these are only open for registered students only, but Alpha is hosting a free public reading/signing with myself, Holly Black and Tamora Pierce at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Greensburg, PA on Tuesday, July 20th at 7:30 pm.

To keep up with my readings and book signings, visit my author page at BookTour.Com (updates appear on the gorelets.com front page, as well).

[Are you a writer, but can't attend a workshop? You'll want to read the Stoker Award-winning book, Writer's Workshop of Horror!]

Check out editor Stephen M. Wilson‘s new twitterzine for poetry, called microcosms. I have a poem in the latest “issue” (“twissue”?) released today and more to come soon.

If you don’t know what a “twitterzine” is, then read this article.

The 2009 Bram Stoker Award winners were announced by the Horror Writer’s Association at World Horror Convention in Brighton, England, last weekend. I read almost all of these titles and I can vouch that they are superlative reads. (In fact, I lauded Lucy Snyder’s poetry-winning book here in The Goreletter). See the HWA’s announcement for a complete list…congratulations to all the winners!

I contributed work to two of the books (though the editors, not me, rightfully get the awards!). These are pretty amazing books to be a part of, so I want to celebrate them here (and share some breaking news along the way as well):

The winner in this year’s “Fiction Anthology” category was He Is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson. It includes stories by myself, Gary Braunbeck, Nancy A. Collins, William F. Nolan (who also received a Lifetime Acheivement Award at this year’s Stokers), Joe R. Lansdale, and, okay, too many great writers to list. This hardcover book is notable among horror collectors because it features the first published collaboration between Stephen King and his son Joe Hill, who have since released it as a part of an audiobook package of novellas with Matheson called ‘Road Rage’. He Is Legend is a great anthology, and — here’s the news I promised: I’m pleased to share that the book has recently been picked up for a trade hardcover by Tor Books releasing this September, and will also soon appear in Italian and Japanese editions! [You can see the illustration Harry O. Morris did for my tale, "She Screech Like Me," in the gorelets.com gallery, by the way.] Congratulations to editor Christopher Conlon and publisher Gauntlet Press!

The winner in the “Non-Fiction” category was a fantastic instructional book called Writer’s Workshop of Horror, which includes essays on the craft by a long roster of today’s best horror writers. A coterie of us who teach in the MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University — myself, Gary Braunbeck, Tim Waggoner, and Lucy A. Snyder — all contribute work. (This book also won a “Black Quill” award earlier this year for Best Dark Non-Fiction). If you write, you need to get a copy! CONGRATULATIONS to editor Michael Knost and publisher Woodland Press!

The Bram Stoker Awards are given by the Horror Writers Association. A complete list of this year’s Bram Stoker Award winners appears on their weblog, Dark Whispers.

PS Publishing has announced that Darkness on the Edge: Tales Inspired by the Songs of Bruce Springsteen will be shipping later this month. You can pre-order it NOW on the PS Publishing home page. Here’s the book trailer to get you in the mood:

Had a fabulous time last weekend at Backlist Books in Massillon, Ohio — a great new indie bookstore that does a knock-out job supporting not only speculative genre fiction (horror, science fiction and fantasy literature), but also the independent press.  It’s good to see a place like this in the Midwest region of the country.  They carry any number of books that I have only heretofore seen available online (especially when it comes to ‘bizarro’ fiction), lots of genre magazines, classic titles of science fiction and fantasy… They had LOTS of collectibles and rarities. I even spotted a quirky line of “adult sci-fi” paperbacks on one shelf that made me laugh aloud (I can’t remember the titles to the letter, but they were something along the lines of  Captain Loins vs. the Tentacular Space Pirates from Planet Vulvon), and all sorts of cool art on the wall.  Every book buyer even got a fortune telling fish!

The “Bizarro Day” reading event was a smashing success, and it was fun to hear D. Harlan Wilson, Anderson Prunty, John Edward Lawson, Gary A. Braunbeck and Lucy Snyder all read their latest weirdness. I read song parodies (everyone seemed to laugh at my Journey remake, “Don’t Stop Bleeding”) and other pop culture horror poems. Bookseller Fred Van Patton reported that it was probably the most successful event in the store’s history — and that we even outsold Deepak Chopra! It’s true that I sold a goodly number of books, but subsequently spent whatever I made on sales to buy the other writer’s latest books. I hope you will do the same.

Event Coverage updates posted here as they come in:

• Event Photos at Raw Dog Screaming Press
• Bizarro-styled reportage of the event by Andersen Prunty
• Backlist Books photos on Facebook
• Photo album at Arnzen’s Gallery at gorelets.com
• YOUTUBE: Video of Mike Arnzen Reading parodies of pop culture and more event videos from RDSP.

Saturday, March 06, 3:00 PM
Backlist Books bookstore: 39 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, OH 44646

Reading and signing with Raw Dog Screaming Press authors Michael Arnzen, D. Harlan Wilson, Anderson Prunty and John Edward Lawson at Backlist Books bookstore: 39 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, OH 44646. FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
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To keep up with my readings and booksignings, visit my author page at BookTour.Com

A few bits of “writer”-related news to note:

I’ll be returning as a guest lecturer at the Odyssey Fantasy Writing Workshop next Summer (applications for early admission due Jan 30th!). The kind folks at Odyssey just interviewed me for their blog, too, where I talk about how I persisted in the early years of my career, and where I share some advice for writers of genre fiction. [I'll also be returning to teach at the Alpha Workshops for Young SF/F/H Writers next summer, as well!]

A shorter interview is attached to a brief 5-Star Review of my short story “Spring Ahead, Fall Back,” over on Red Adept’s Kindle Book Review Blog. You can get that story and more on your Kindle at amazon.com. [Speaking of amazon, I just posted lengthy "Listmania" of hard-to-find anthologies they sell in which I appear, aptly entitled "Michael Arnzen Is Lurking In The Shadowy Corners of Your Bookstore"].

And finally, a meaty excerpt from my article in the book Writer’s Workshop of Horror appears in this month’s (Jan 2010) issue of The Writer magazine, which is on the racks now!

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P.S. My 20th Anniversary Contest has passed deadline. If you have entered by kindly writing a customer review, you need to let me know about it via e-mail with your mailing address asap. The random draw for winners will be posted later this week. WINNERS HAVE BEEN POSTED. THANKS TO ALL!

Book Collectors, Arnzenophiliacs, and Ebayaholics, look out! Your chance to win some pretty rare swag in my 20th Anniversary Contest is ending sooner than you think! I’m extending the deadline to December 13th!

Up for grabs are some exceptionally hard-to-find items:

A “test design” pressing of the Live and Vile audio disc. This CD (pictured above) was released in only 26 lettered edition copies, bundled with the leather bound edition of my novella, The B*tchfight, from Bad Moon Books in 2008. It features a hilarious live reading from the Zombiefest convention and demo versions and outtakes from my recording sessions for Audiovile. Only 26 people in the country own these rare tracks; and only three copies of the hand-made test pressings exist. It’s signed. The winner will get this rare cd PLUS a signed copy of 100 Jolts for read-along fun.

Also up for grabs is a signed deck of Play Dead playing cards. These cards feature art by David Liscomb, inspired by images in my novel PLAY DEAD. They were included with the “Grim Grimoire” (sculpture-bound) edition of the novel. Not a lot of these exist! The winner will get the cards PLUS a copy of Exquisite Corpse, the film based on my short-shorts and poetry.

A third prize offering is a signed white paperback / “advanced review copy” of my out-of-print novel, Play Dead. Unavailable anywhere, an unknown limited run of these bound paperback versions were sent only to book reviewers before the book’s release. You’ll get this PLUS a signed copy of my latest chapbook, Skull Fragments.

HOW TO ENTER:

I’m trying to broaden my audience, so I need your help. You get an entry for any “user review” or “customer comment” you post about any of my books on any web retailer where you already shop online. I don’t see this as a bribe for false advertising: You can praise or damn me and my god forsaken “writing…I don’t care. Ideal places to do this include the Arnzen pages on Amazon.com, itunes, cdbaby.com, horror-mall.com, or anywhere my work is sold.

ANY old titles from my 20 years of weirdness can be reviewed in this way (for convenience, there’s also a large list on my amazon.com biography page). If you haven’t actually read any of my books, I invite you to review some of these freebies:

• you can review The Goreletter on amazon.com
• you download your free ebook of Sportuary and then post a review on amazon.com
• you can listen to the sampler of Audiovile on cdbaby.com and review it there or post one on itunes

When you’ve published your review, simply e-mail me (or post a link in a comment here) to tell me about it before Midnight eastern on Dec 13th, 2009. Include your mailing address, because the first thirty entries get this signed bookplate for free, while supplies last:

That’s a lot of cool stuff. If you do not currently subscribe to the email edition of The Goreletter, you will automatically be added to the list. If you are weird enough to be reading this now, you are sure to like the newsletter (which is only delivered quarterly or so, and won a Bram Stoker Award, so it can’t be half bad). You must be on my mailing list to qualify for a prize when winners are chosen, but you are free to unsubscribe anytime you like.

Winners will be chosen from a random draw. have been posted (see comments section on this post).

I’ve decided to challenge myself with an art & fiction experiment that is being hosted by The Art House Co-op called “The Fiction Project.”

How it works is like this: I registered on their site and will soon receive a Moleskine sketchbook and a random surprise “theme” that they will send me in the mail. I next will create a story along with images somehow based on that theme (and it can be as loosely based as I want it to be). I will share scans of my work in progress online. The resulting physical book will be sent back to Art House by their mid-April deadline, for permanent display in the co-op’s future location, The Brooklyn Art Gallery.

The Fiction Project is kind of like “nanowrimo“…only more artsy, less lengthy, and with lots and lots of breathing room.

I literally intend to choke every cubic inch out of that breathing room.

Who knows what will come out of this? Something dark and dreadful and weird, for certain. Sounds fun. I look forward to sharing as it develops.

And I invite you to do this along with me! Deadline to sign up is Feb 15, 2010. Once you’re registered (cost = $18), you can add me as a friend on their site so I can follow your progress. I will post every page I create as I finish it on my site profile and someplace here on gorelets.com.

[ To see how great Art House Co-op projects can get, check out their gallery of art from a similar event they ran last year (which I started, but then quit too soon): The Sketchbook Project 3. The exhibition was covered by CNN in the video below]