Posted inArnzen News

Preorder: MANY GENRES, ONE CRAFT

Readers of this blog who have the writing bug might want to hop on over to Amazon.com and put in an order for my latest book (co-edited with Heidi Ruby Miller), called Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction. Modeled after the graduate program where I teach -- the MFA in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University -- Many Genres is a thick hardcover collection of over sixty essays by prominent writers who look under the hood of both the craft of writing for a genre audience and the business of penning novels in today's publishing world.…
April 4, 2011Posted inArnzen News4 Comments
Posted inArnzen News

Making Readers Squirm: Sensory Immersion Podcast

Last June, I went on a Summer Teaching Tour at various writer's workshops, and one of the highlights was my return as guest lecturer to the Odyssey, The Fantasy Workshop, run by Jeanne Cavelos annually at St Anselm College, in New Hampshire. My guest lecture topic at Odyssey was "Making the Reader Squirm: Sensory Immersion," which they have just released as a podcast on the Odyssey Podcast page (it is also available through iTunes). In this lecture, I discuss ways that science fiction/fantasy and horror writers appeal to the reader's "sensorium" to generate a visceral effect. The class analyzed examples…
April 2, 2011Posted inArnzen News2 Comments
Posted inArnzen News

Alternative Rorschach

Encouraged by early feedback, I'm starting a new digital art series on my flickr gallery called "Alternative Rorschach." Check it out, free associate, and tell me what you see in the comments section on flickr or on facebook. I've only done three "cards" so far; and if feedback keeps coming I will do the entire deck of psychologist inkstains in my own weird way in the weeks to come, so keep coming back (see Rorschach Inkblots page on wikipedia to learn more about the source of this stuff).
March 8, 2011Posted inArnzen News
Posted inArnzen News

Magazine of Bizarro Fiction

Just learned that issue #4 of The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction is now being mailed (early birds can order it now from amazon.com). This special "Werewolves and Shapeshifters" issue was edited by John Skipp, and includes the first appearance of the piece I read at last year's Bizarro Day event at Backlist Bookstore, called "Endless Shrimp." Other great writers, including Jeremy Robert Johnson, Nicole Cushing, Robert Devereaux, D. Harlan Wilson, and Cody Coodfellow, also appear within. These are all some of the smartest and weirdest writers I know, so this is sure to be a great volume. p.s. Speaking of…
January 18, 2011Posted inArnzen News