Posted inDictionscary

offal

It's funny: when I turn to my dollar-store dictionary for advice on the correct way to pronounce "offal" it says "awful"! I thought so. There's nothing wonderful about offal: it's all awful, even in its very utterance. Offal is butcher's term for the "less valuable edible parts of a carcass" -- which is another way of saying the "guts" that are left over after the "meat" has been cleaved into muscular, familiar chunks. But the important thing to remember is that while these aren't worth much, they're still "edible." I think horror writers often use the thesaurus to look up…
June 13, 2009Posted inDictionscary
Posted inOnline Gizmo of the Month

Evolving Your Monster

"Monster Evolution" is a clever online game from Nob Studio, in which you terrorize a city eating humans -- and if you eat enough of them, you can "evolve" into creatures with special powers and take out the shooters and tanks that come after you. It's like Cloverfield meets John Carpenter's The Thing. Almost. Try "Monster Evolution" for yourself, and play God(zilla) for awhile: http://www.nobstudio.com/games.html?fid=&gid=18
June 10, 2009Posted inOnline Gizmo of the Month

NOTE: THIS CONTEST IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED. However, you can still post a ‘pithy morbid thought’ — a dark quotable quote from a dead person — if you wish, in the form of a comment to this post. View the winners here. *** What is a "Pithy Morbid Thought"? A brief philosophical quip -- often ironic -- about death, disease, horror, torment, fear, terror, etc. I collect them for inspiration and uncomfortable moments at dinner parties. They also serve as "curtains" which close out each e-mail issue of The Goreletter. Here's an example of one of my favorites (from Goreletter 2.7):
Peace Meal “I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars.” — Abbie Hoffman (died 1989)
I want YOUR pith. Give me a good one to use in a future issue of The Goreletter. If I like it a lot, you can win one of five free prizes: Five different people will win one of these prizes: a FREE signed copy of PLAY DEAD hardcover a FREE signed copy of PROVERBS FOR MONSTERS softcover a FREE signed copy of 100 JOLTS softcover a FREE signed copy of AUDIOVILE cd a FREE signed copy of FREAKCIDENTS softcover The rules are simple: a) post a comment to this message that includes your favorite "Pithy Morbid Thought" from a dead person. You must include their name, the title of the work you're drawing it from (if available) and the year they died. You can give it a title if you want (like I did with "Peace Meal" above). For more inspiration, see the previous Pithy Morbid Thoughts in The Goreletter. b) only ONE entry per contestant, so choose wisely! c) be sure to include your e-mail address when you enter, so I will be able to contact you for delivery should you win a prize. If you include a link to your website, too, all the better, because I can include that in my newsletter. d) understand that posting an entry is no guarantee of a prize or publication. I may or may not use your PMT in future issues of The Goreletter. Also submit with the understanding that I will delete any entries that I deem offensive to junior web visitors or legally problematic due to copyright or obscenity law. Chosen winners will be the TOP FIVE ENTRIES with the pithiest of quotations, in my personal opinion, with one prize going per contestant. CONTEST ENDS JULY 1st AT MIDNIGHT, EST. I will announce winners in the e-mail edition of The Goreletter and in the blog. The winning entries may also be reprinted in The Goreletter blog column by the same name. [This contest is a substitute for the one that was running last month on The Haunt... they lost their forum pages and the entries that were posted originally there, without a backup. So Haunt members should repost their entries here.]

Post a Pithy Morbid Thought…And Win!
Posted inOnline Gizmo of the Month

Broken Picture Telephone

Remember Telephone -- the "pass it down" game of crazy miscommunication from your youth? Well you no longer have to get uncomfortably close to your neighbor to whisper into their ear. Broken Picture Telephone is an ingenious game of text and stick figure drawing that will have you laughing for hours. It involves responding to obscure messages by drawing what they say -- and vice versa -- until you get a very bizarre story reminiscent of David Lynch's surrealism. For example, my first test of the game gave me the sticky note above ("a smiling bowl of meatballs with feet…
April 10, 2009Posted inOnline Gizmo of the Month