If you got your free ebook for subscribing to the Goreletter, but don’t know how to read it, did you know that Amazon.com recently released a free Kindle reader for the PC? (New versions for other platforms are coming soon, too). Here’s how: simply download and install Kindle Reader for PC…and then double click on the file for your ebook from inside of Windows. Voila! It’s easy. Then go back to amazon’s kindle shop and download any of the INNUMERABLE other free ebooks they’ve got. (This is so popular, that all their “bestsellers” today are freebies). Or buy some of my short stories for under .50 cents!

(If you do the latter, and post a review before Dec 1st, e-mail subscribers can get an easy entry into the rare Arnzen stuff giveaway contest in the latest Goreletter! First thirty entries get a free signed bookplate, too. Can’t lose!

[I am loving my Kindle. You should get one too. Here are my reasons.]

I don’t know why I’ve fallen for Amazon after all these years of resisting their lure. But e-books aside, I’ve finally got a decent amazon author page, and I’ve been getting way too goofy with listmania and other amazon fun.

A plea:

If you enjoyed the latest issue of The Goreletter, please post feedback in the forum I opened up at Amazon to help me spread the word. I’m always eager to hear what people think, and I appreciate concrete tips for future issues. It will land you an entry in the latest contest and perhaps a freebie for being the first of thirty entries!

If you’re not on amazon.com, you can leave a comment here on the blog too, of course, (but to be fair to all I can’t give a contest entry for it).

If you don’t know what this ‘contest’ business is, then just sign up free to my newsletter to find out. You’ll get a free ebook for subscribing and you can always unsubscribe later if you want. — Mike Arnzen

The Goreletter Vol. 6, #1 was e-mailed to subscribers on Halloween, 31 October 2009 @ 9:30pm est. It contains extra material not available here on the weblog version, including a great contest to win some very RARE Arnzen-related collector’s items, and a chance to get a signed numbered bookplate.

If you subscribe and did not receive this issue, e-mail me for a replacement or review the archives at gorelets.com.

Subscribe today…it’s free and you can always unsubscribe if it terrorizes you too much. Issues are mailed only a few times per year, so your inbox won’t suffocate. And remember: all subscribers to The Goreletter get a free ebook, yours to keep, in either .pdf or kindle/.mobi format!

Happy Halloween,
– Michael A. Arnzen

Just read this important post at Horrorgy that the ‘myspace for horror fan’ site, The Haunt, is shutting down in early November and becoming a discussion forum sponsored by the Horror-Mall instead. Sorry to hear it…I liked the concept, but it’s true that participation was lacking after the initial buzz of the place wore off. Hopefully the discussion forum will spark interest and continued community, rather than leaving a ‘ghost town’ in its wake. I probably won’t play there very often; I feel like I’ve got too many strands to follow online right now…

But I’m glad you’re following this one. So, here are Some Things The Average Schmoe Can Learn From Crappy Horror Movies and some Very Bad Poems, which I’ve learned about thanks to Lit Drift.

I’ve just published I’m getting geared up to finish the next e-mail edition of The Goreletter, so I thought I’d post a little incentive for readers to subscribe (free) so they won’t miss a beat as this award-winning newsletter launches into its sixth volume of all things weird, wacky, wicked and wobbly. I try to make every issue a combination of original material with “best of blog” excerpts and often include coupons and contests for free swag (or as I prefer to say, “schwag,” which is probably German for…schomething).

But back to the point: EVERYONE who subscribes to The Goreletter e-mail edition for the foreseeable future will receive a free electronic copy of my long out-of-print weird poetry chapbook from 2003, SPORTUARY. Available in two flavors: you’ll need a kindle or other .mobi device to read it, or otherwise an Adobe Reader — or other .pdf format reader — is required).

This is actually a new expanded edition of the original book. I have added new poems, restored the artwork, included a preface, and redesigned the book into a more palatable format.

Anyone who subscribes will qualify. Happy Halloween!

Sportuary (which was published in an electronic edition only by CyberPulp Publishing in 2003) is good goofy gory fun. The book is a series of gruesome poetic musings on the sporting world, littered with horror haiku and twisted humor along the way. The art by Marcia Borell is surreal and funky. In his review of the book for (the now defunct) magazine, Dark Krypt, Tim Curran wrote:

“Employing haiku and free verse, Arnzen plumbs the depths of his aberrant, wonderful imagination and offers biting, metaphorical commentary on the shadowy side of athletics: swimmers mesmerized by hungry undertows and ping pong played with staring human eyes, referees getting their gruesome reward and badminton as played by lunatics. These poems are good. Not only are they good, they’re great and if you think they’re fun to read, try reading them out loud with a friend.”

Get it while it’s cold! You can subscribe right now using the form on the top of your screen.

[For another tricky Halloween treat, visit Raw Dog Screaming Press -- publisher of my books, 100 Jolts and Play Dead -- for an awesome offer to get a free copy of Jeffrey Thomas' excellent 'Punktown' novel, Everybody Scream when you buy another title from their catalog!]

Lots of little things going on, so I thought I’d post a bunch of random news all in one batch:

+ WD Prescott is running a neat contest on his website with a chance to win a signed copy of my out of print novel, Play Dead!

+ You can now order the ’spoon river horror poetry anthology,‘ Death In Common, edited by Rich Ristow, on amazon.com

+ Two of my critical essays on THE EXORCIST will appear in Studies in the Horror Film: The Exorcist, which promises to be a fantastic — if not the definitive — collection of studies of this seminal shocker, from the always exquisite publisher Centipede Press.

+ Dark Regions is previewing their upcoming book, Nostradamus’ Fate! A must buy.

+ Writers! Don’t forget Writer’s Workshop of Horror…already in its second printing, this book is fast becoming one of the most important ‘textbooks’ on how to write for the genre of the unexpected, by masters of the craft.

+ Do you subscribe to The Goreletter yet? If not, do so. A new issue mounts.

The International Thriller Writers organization has announced their 2009 “Thriller Award” Winners. Congratulations to:

The 2009 THRILLER Awards:

Best Thriller Of The Year:
THE BODIES LEFT BEHIND by Jeffery Deaver (Simon & Schuster)

Best First Novel:
CHILD 44 by Tom Rob Smith (Grand Central Publishing)

Best Short Story:
THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN by Alexandra Sokoloff (in The Darker Mask)

ThrillerMaster Award: David Morrell

Silver Bullet Award: Brad Meltzer

Bravo! As a new member of this organization, I was pleased to read of these selections…all strong, worthy stories and authors.

For the record, the Pithy Morbid Thought contest has officially ended and prize-winners have been selected! Winners were announced live with much drama on twitter.com/MikeArnzen this morning. I assigned all entrants a number and used http://random.org to pull random winners out of the virtual hat, then announced as I went a long live on twitter.

Below are the prize winners (visit their websites if they provided them) along with links to information about the titles they won. Congrats one and all. — Mike Arnzen, http://www.gorelets.com

WD Prescott won a signed hardcover of my novel PLAY DEAD for:

“When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I’ve never tried before.” -Mae West d. 1980

E.A. White won a signed paperback of PROVERBS FOR MONSTERS for:

“The graveyards are full of indispensable men.” – Charles de Gaulle (Died 1970)

Chris Valk won a signed paperback of 100 JOLTS for:

“It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”
– Woody Allen

John Pupo won a autographed CD of AUDIOVILE for:

The Monster Called Hollywood
“If they tell you that she died of sleeping pills you must know that she died of a wasting grief, of a slow bleeding at the soul. ” -Clifford Odets (1963)

Ron McGillvray won a signed copy of FREAKCIDENTS for:

I want to die like my father, peacefully in his sleep, not screaming and terrified like his passengers.
– Bob Monkhouse (December 2003)

***
Though the contest is over, you can still post a ‘pithy morbid thought’ — a dark quotable quote from a dead person — if you would like to share it.

This press release just came in, hot off the ether:

***

Horror Writers Association celebrates 2008 Stoker winners

At long last, the anticipation is over. The Horror Writers Association has announced the winners of the 2008 Bram Stoker Awards at its annual Stoker Banquet held tonight as part of the Stoker Awards Weekend held in Burbank, California.  Nine new bronze haunted-house statuettes were handed over to the writers responsible for creating superior works of horror last year. This year’s winners are:

Superior Achievement in a NOVEL

DUMA KEY by Stephen King (Scribner)

Superior Achievement in a FIRST NOVEL

THE GENTLING BOX by Lisa Mannetti (Dark Hart Press)

Superior Achievement in LONG FICTION

MIRANDA by John R. Little (Bad Moon Books)

Superior Achievement in SHORT FICTION

“The Lost” by Sarah Langan (Cemetery Dance chapbook)

Superior Achievement in an ANTHOLOGY

UNSPEAKABLE HORROR edited by Vince A. Liaguno and Chad Helder (Dark Scribe Press)

Superior Achievement in a COLLECTION

JUST AFTER SUNSET by Stephen King (Scribner)

Superior Achievement in NONFICTION

A HALLOWE’EN ANTHOLOGY by Lisa Morton (McFarland)

Superior Achievement in POETRY

THE NIGHTMARE COLLECTION by Bruce Boston (Dark Regions Press)

Works can be recommended by any member of the HWA. Members with Active status then vote works onto a preliminary ballot. From there the field is narrowed to the final ballot and Active members choose the winners from that. The award is named for Bram Stoker, best known as the author of Dracula. The trophy, which resembles a miniature haunted house, was designed by author Harlan Ellison and sculptor Steven Kirk.

HWA also presented its annual Lifetime Achievement Awards and its Specialty Press Award. F. Paul Wilson and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, who both received Lifetime Achievement Awards this year, were on hand to accept. The Specialty Press Award went to Larry Roberts of Bloodletting Press.  The Silver Hammer Award, for outstanding service to HWA, was voted by the organization’s board of trustees to Sephera Giron. The President’s Richard Laymon Service Award was given to John R. Little.

Lisa Morton, who organized this year’s event with John R. Little, commented on the location chosen for this year’s event: “It was nice to come home again to Burbank (where the event was held in 2005). It gave us a chance to emphasize more business and film opportunities for our members this year, and hopefully even gave a little extra glitz to the awards banquet.”

For more information, visit www.horror.org.

***

Also see the complete final ballot on the HWA weblog, if you’re compiling your 0wn “best horror stories of the year” reading list.

The Goreletter Vol. 5, #4 was e-mailed to subscribers on 14 June 2009 @ 4am est. It contains extra material not available here on the weblog version, including exclusive discounts on several horrifying goodies!

Note: the subtitle for this issue was dropped from the mailing’s subject line. It is titled “The Goreletter 5.04: Black Saabath”.  This was the 40th issue of the newsletter, publishing free since 2002. The next issue will begin Volume 6.

If you subscribe and did not receive this issue, e-mail me for a replacement or review the archives at gorelets.com.

Subscribe today…it’s free and you can always unsubscribe if it terrorizes you too much. Issues are mailed only a few times per year, so your inbox won’t suffocate.

– Michael A. Arnzen