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Scary Movies (and More) by my Horror Writing Students (Spring 2013)

Since January, I have had the great fortune of teaching a 15 week course in Horror & Suspense Writing at Seton Hill University. As their final project, the students were asked to create a multimedia story. I am happy to share the great results below!

From “Eradicate” by S. Lago

Tyler Carter, “The Lost Man” (short film)
Sarah Lago, “Eradicate” (short film)
SarahTantlinger, “When the Sky Turns Red” (short film)
Michael Ingram, “Grave” (short film)
Calvin Yoder, “Stuck” (short film)
Jeannie Bujdos, “Germs” (short film)
Jessica Walker, “Indulgence” (short film)
Ashley Samek, “An Unexpected Guest” (short film)
Brendan Monahan, “Sea of Bones” (short film)
Jered W. Johnston, “The Nightmare Man” (short film)
Sarah Last, “Project” (short film)
Felicia Domasky, “Herrington’s Tragedy” (short film)
Stephen Ray, “The Voice that was Silenced” (short film)
Jade Woodridge, “Children of the Night” (short film)
Kayla Lent, “Decomposed” (short film)
Holly Reid, “Meat” (story trailer/vid)
Esther Spurlock, “Murder My Tears” (hypertext story)
Shelly Decker, “Convening with the Spirits” (hypertext story)
Allyssa Yanniello, “Choices” (hypertext story)
Angie LaVelle, “Killing Fate” (downloadable game)

My class had a lot of fun all term, composing all sorts of terrifying and insane tales. You can also see their drawings of monsters online, too, such as their interpretations of the character “X” from Matheson’s “Born of Man and Woman,” or their fun contributions to the Cthulhu mythos, based on the spelling of their last names backwards. I suspect some of their tales will also be published in various magazines and books in the near future for you to read, as well!

The Tell-Tale Heart (1953)

This 1953 animation of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, in my opinion remains the best adaptation of the story. Narrated by actor James Mason, produced by UPA…and purportedly the first cartoon to be X-rated in Great Britain.

Of course, you should also read the original story, too.
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See the full playlist of my Saturday Morning Cartoons on youtube.

A Video Appreciation for Funding our Fridge

I made this video to shout out my thanks for all who have been pledging to make The Fridge of the Damned a reality. As of this post, there are two weeks left to pledge and we’re 76% of the way toward funding the manufacturing of the magnet sets. But we want to see these come in collectible tins, and the only way to make that happen is with your support. Please pledge or spread the word by sharing this video or the link to our page on kickstarter.

Remember: the campaign ends on February 1st!

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01/02/2013
Michael Arnzen
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Arnzen News
anthologies, books, flash, free, releases, video, youtube

Fear the Abyss…and the Scary Tiny Citybots!

Just posted the above video review of a few funky science fictional things I’ve been up to lately: including a teeny tiny ebook device for microfiction, a new experimental (and free!) short-short anthology (#Citybots) and the awesome Fear the Abyss anthology from Post Mortem Press.

They Stop Cthulu (sic) Eating Ye

Here’s a goofy Saturday morning cartoon about “Narwhals” to get your spirits up for New Years. Sure, it’s more PG than my usual choices, but its creator, Mr Weebl references Lovecraftian Horror and that deserves respect. Chances are good you’ve already seen it — it only has about 30 million views on youtube. The song will stick in your head. In fact, it just might impale itself there.

You should check out the beautiful National Geographic photogallery of Hunting Narwhals to see the real things.

Frankenwinnie

MAD magazine has been adapting its trademarked parody to skits on Cartoon Network. Here’s a pretty good one — “Frankenwinnie” — mashing Winnie the Pooh with Tim Burton’s film, Frankenweenie, to some crazy results…

“It’s pronounced Eeyore, but everybody gets it wrong…”

11/16/2012
Michael Arnzen
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Arnzen News
ebooks, kindle, Mastication Publications, opinion, video, webwork, writing, youtube

Attention Ebook Readers: Fictionwise.com to Close Shop

If you’ve been reading my ebooks since the early days (e.g., pre-Kindle), then there’s a good chance you got them through Fictionwise.com — one of the first successful ebook distributors, known for offering a wide array of genre fiction — especially individual short stories — for a very affordable price. You may have already known that they were “bought out” by Barnes and Noble a few years ago, to help support B&N’s offerings for the Nook e-reader.

Yesterday I was informed that I should backup all my own purchases and get ready for the site to close down. They have posted a FAQ page with instructions for both downloading your bookshelf to archive copies and to also automatically transfer your ebooks over to B&N’s site, for your Nook library. I recommend doing both, if you can, as I’ve heard rumors that not all ebooks convert over to the Nook bookstore — and if you don’t have a Nook, you still might want to set up an account anyway, because you CAN read Nook books on some other devices, in aps, and on computers for free. Or in case you ever buy one.

Let me say it again:
Bookshelves on fictionwise.com will be unavailable after December 21, 2012. ACT SOON.

I’ll try to keep the books page on gorelets.com updated to help fans of ebooks find my work. Not all of my titles are in ebook form (and I like that, because I think avid readers SHOULD have special and exclusive — if not collectable — versions of stories). But in the years ahead, you’ll be seeing a growing number of e-titles from me, like the re-release of my second novel, Play Dead in ebook form from Raw Dog Screaming Press in late 2013, and a project I am developing for my own line (Mastication Publications) that takes the “Instigation” section of this website to a new level.

Although the death of fictionwise.com is not a major travesty to literature — since most of the titles are really just moving over to the Nook — I’m a little saddened by this turn of events. I’m a “Kindle person” for the most part, but I liked being able to read fictionwise titles on the Kindle. But thinking more broadly, this is another sign of the volatility of the ebook publishing economy, which constantly seems to shake things up and disorient readers, while struggling to evolve into something stable. The thing I liked most about fictionwise was its short story offerings — you could easily build your own “anthology” (or mixed tape) of fiction, and find good short-shorts by your favorite authors that might have appeared in magazines and anthologies you missed. It allowed writers who had a modicum of success to self-publish, and it offered a distribution for indie publishers to sell their wares outside of the dominant agency model that circulates mass market books. I also wonder if this is a sign of the waning of interest in the short-story form. As people can buy complete novels for a mere .99 cents, it seems hard to suggest they pay that much for a short story. Fictionwise had a micropayment system that seemed to solve that issue, and provided a really good niche market to find new genre fiction outside of the mainstream, but now we’ll likely have fewer options, as the dominant corporations have more control the e-publishing economy.

On a related note, Heidi Ruby Miller recently posted a video of our talk at the Western Maryland Indie Lit Book Festival back in 2011, that reveals some of my thoughts about how e-publishing is changing the way readers find books, and how publishers need to brand their lines as a signpost for navigating the disorienting, uncharted waters of electronic books.

10/24/2012
Michael Arnzen
1 Comment
Arnzen News
audio, con reports, poetry, raw dog screaming press, video, youtube

“Dog Con” Launches a Yearlong Anniversary Party for Raw Dog Screaming Press

Welp, the very first ever “Dog Con” has come and gone, and as you’ll see below, while I didn’t go, I still went.

The good folks at Raw Dog Screaming Press hosted a semi-private party-slash-convention to launch the celebration of their ten year anniversary, and from all reports, the festivities were nothing short of transformational. The press is renewed, launching a brand new science fiction imprint called Dog Star Books — with Heidi Ruby Miller (co-editor of Many Genres One Craft) at the editorial helm. There will be a new website, a new focus on community, and pack of new books to come in the years ahead. In fact, I think this is going to be the Year of the Dog and I’m proud to be a part of the year-long ten year anniversary party.

For full coverage of the event, drop by the Raw Dog Screaming Dog Con report on livejournal or facebook. The real gem of it all is editor/publisher/designer Jennifer Barnes’ “State of the Dog” Speech, which can be seen on YouTube.

I said “I didn’t go but I still went” to DogCon. This was because I performed a reading over the internet airwaves (via “FaceTime”) which was projected on a TV at DogCon, and which involved all sorts of funky interactive hijinx (even prizes!). Here’s a cool photo from the other side of the TV, from Mike “Tricky” Mehalek, taken during my reading:

Arnzen FaceTime Reading at DogCon

And the hosts even posted a videotape of my reading over the television on youtube:

And if you want more video action, take a look at this video — they’ve also shared snippets of my dramatic reading of the original source material from which the publishers drew the name for their press, “Raw Dog Screaming.” If stick around till the end, you’ll see a funny snippet of the quiz show I ran over the air, with rare prizes involved. (“Winners have to have courage.”) I’m sure there will be more videos to come on the RDSP YouTube Channel.

I saved a high quality audio file of the reading, which you can listen to or even download below. It includes a few new and unpublished poems (as heard on the video), followed by a recitation of my flash fiction piece from the Hazard Yet Forward charity anthology, called “The Scraper” (not on the video).

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

[download "The Scraper (Live)" - 15.7mb mp3 file]

Keep your eyes on Raw Dog Screaming Press as their website evolves in the year ahead. There are a ton of great books to come from RDSP, including — drum roll — the re-release of my novel, Play Dead, in 2013.

While a new edition of an old book might not seem like much to those of you who already read it, it’s a little shocking to realize that this novel is currently only available in a long out-of-print and sold out fine hardcover or sculpture-bound edition. SO a far more accessible paperback and ebook edition will be published by Raw Dog in the year to come. Woot! Perhaps it will even feature a new cover and other fun elements. In fact, I’m working with Raw Dog on a couple of other fun things, which I know will surprise some of you. I look forward to announcing these in the year to come, too. The horror never ends here on gorelets.com. Thanks for sticking with me, and for supporting the indie publishers I’ve worked with over the years like Raw Dog Screaming Press. Here’s to their next ten years!

The Mystic Order of the Koo-Koo-Ma-Hatcha!

Good morning. Let’s turn on the time machine and watch an original nightmare cartoon from last century’s Depression-era cultural dreamscape: “Bimbo’s Initiation” (1931). This classic animation from the great Max Fleischer is a surrealist haunted house story as much as it is a edgy, pre-Hays Code, Betty Boop classic.

Join the Mystic Order of the Koo-Koo-Ma-Hatcha!

“Bimbo’s Initiation” is currently featured on the Fleischer Studios front page — or you can catch it on YouTube

If you like this kind of thing, you’ll also dig Fleischer’s “Swing You Sinners,” which transpires in an uncanny graveyard. Both films are detailed in Cracked.com’s article, “5 Old Children’s Cartoons Way Darker than Most Horror Movies.”

DogCon is On

Raw Dog Screaming Press – longtime publisher of many of my books — like 100 Jolts, Play Dead, Audiovile and The Gorelets Omnibus — are preparing for the launch of their — gasp! — TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY, by hosting an exclusive (invite-only), limited engagement called “DogCon” in Bowie, MD. I won’t be able to attend it this year (maybe next!), but I will be there in cyberspace for a reading over the internet on Saturday at 4 p.m. via FaceTime (followed by a reading by the great bizarro D. Harlan Wilson).

The DogCon group will be hosting a Google+ Hangout for those who can’t attend the event. For more info on DogCon — or to watch the web for news of next year’s event — be sure to follow Raw Dog Screaming Press on Facebook or watch their website.