Posted inInstigation
Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers
+ Dramatize an electroshock therapy session in second person, future tense. + Sketch a humorous conversation involving the devil's accountant. + Adapt the features and traits of any cartoon character into a "real" creature or man, exploring the freakish results. (e.g. What would a "Spongebob Squarepants" creature >really< be like, if living flesh in the real world? Write it out, obliterating the original reference to the cartoon in the process.) *** If you publish something instigated by this department, let me know and I'll mention it here next issue!
Posted inOur Odd Triple Feature
Monstrous Trees
For your next movie night, rent: From Hell it Came (Milner, 1957) The Grandmother (Lynch, 1970) Little Otik (Swankmajer, 2000)
Posted inArnzen News
Help Yourself to a Cemetery Dance
Cemetery Dance magazine issue #55 has just been published and will soon be delivered to subscribers and a magazine rack near you. It features a story I co-wrote with Mark McLaughlin, called "Help Yourself" -- a surreal and humorous tale about a very strange 'self-help' bookstore that preys on its visitor's self-esteem. Artist Keith Minnion's great illustration for the story is viewable on his website. You can order a copy of the magazine from the Cemetery Dance website; check out the book, Poe's Lighthouse, while you're there!
Posted inArnzen News
Desecrating the Storybook Forest
I had a great time in Morgantown, WV, last weekend for a fiction reading alongside Alyssa Sturgill (author of the FANTASTICALLY sick and surreal book of short-shorts, Spider Pie). We commandeered the stage in the children's book section of their Barnes and Noble bookstore, to read our dark fiction to a good-natured audience. Fantasy writer Andy Duncan was in attendance and gives a full and funny report in the article on his weblog, "Horror in the 100-Aker Wood", with more photos. So do Jason & Heidi Ruby Miller, authors of the great guidebook, Pennsylvania Camping, and the publishers who sponsored…