Halloween Costume Contest Winner Announced

The winner of the Goreletter's "Virtual Halloween Costume Contest" is author JAMES NEWMAN for his creepy family portrait. I actually adored ALL the entries...so why did James win? Ultimately, it came down to the scenario of the photo. I liked the vampiric relationship implied by the couple, but it was the "eyeball with fangs" child that did it for me... it looks like something out of one of those Robt. Williams art pieces...and how can the kid breath inside that mask? FREAKY! James wins a limited edition hardcover of my new book, PROVERBS FOR MONSTERS, as soon as I receive…

Little Things Mean a Lot: Arnzen in Post-Gazette

Kate Luce Angell's wonderful profile on my work, "Little Things Mean a Lot in Writing Horror" was just published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It includes a good photo from my reading at Zombiefest and some great elements of our interview. Excerpt: "I'm interested in potent nuggets of narrative, and horror has always been a shorter genre," he said. "Look at Edgar Allen Poe's stories and poems." The little things also loom large in the subjects of his work, in which he finds the frightening in minutely observed, everyday details, like a janitor's glove (or IS it a glove?) and a…

Halloween Fever

Halloween Comes Early: [This just in: See the Post-Gazette article on this event.] I'll be attending Zombiefest in Pittsburgh this weekend (10/27-8) to kick off the Halloween-week frenzy early. I'll be presenting a reading on a panel with Greg Lamberson and Scott Johnson on Saturday at 2pm. Other guest writers include Gary Braunbeck, Max Brooks, Kim Paffenroth, Edward A. Holsclaw II, and the guys from Bloodtype Online. Zombiefest culminates in an attempt to break the world record in a zombie walk through the Monroeville Mall (setting for the original Dawn of the Dead) for charity. A Halloween Bargain: I was…

Fear Zone on Audiovile

I really enjoyed reading Greg Lamberson's meaty review of my audiobook, Audiovile, which was published last night at the great new horror site, Fear Zone: "16 tracks of brain damaging terror. Stories like "Psycho Hunter," "Stabbing for Dummies," and "Six Short Films About Chauncey the Serial Killer" will have you alternately cackling and gasping. The brilliance of these tales -- amplified by Arnzen's pitch perfect delivery -- is that within the space of a couple of minutes, each one sets a grin on your face, then slaps it off, then kicks you in the groin and leaves you gasping (but…