Posted inAmbulations

Snapshots of StokerCon 2017

Although there are about 30 Bram Stoker Award banquets in the history books, this season's StokerCon 2017 was only the second time the Horror Writers Association has run a full-fledged convention, highlighting the genre with panel discussions, author readings, writing workshops, booksignings and varied presentations… culminating in the Award banquet, awarding the genre’s top practitioners with what I think remains the coolest trophy in the world: a creepy "house of usher" statuette.  And this year's conference, held aboard the famous ship moored in the docks of Long Beach, CA -- the Queen Mary -- was majestic and creepy as all…
May 1, 2017Posted inAmbulations2 Comments
Posted inArnzen News

Squirm and Squirm Again: Arnzen Course at Horror University – StokerCon 2017

I'll be returning to the HWA's StokerCon event (this year held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA) on April 27-30th, 2017... to teach "Making Readers Squirm"! Visit the StokerCon website or see my upcoming event listings for further details. Registration is required; you can get a discount for signing up for multiple courses by luminary writers (like Jack Ketchum, Tim Wagonner, Jonathan Maberry, and many others) throughout the weekend. You can also apply for a "Scholarship from Hell" for a chance to get assistance to attend. Last year's event was the initial StokerCon and it was a riotous…
February 4, 2017Posted inArnzen News
Posted inGorelets: Unpleasant Poems

Five More Ways I’d Prefer Not to Die

This past fall, one of my favorite releases was 555 Vol. 2: This Head, These Limbs, put out by Carrion Blue 555. Every story in this book is 55 words a piece; every author in the book (myself, John Edward Lawson, Stephanie Wytovich, Jonathan Moon and several others) contributed 55 of them each. That might sound like meaningless literary gamesmanship, but the results are staggeringly strong. It's a pretty impressive volume, and deserves more attention. My contribution is a short story series called "55 Ways I'd Prefer Not to Die," which explores just that: worst case scenarios for "the end"…
December 24, 2016Posted inGorelets: Unpleasant Poems
Posted inArnzen News

New Christmas Horror Short Stories

Collected Christmas: Horror Shorts -- the new anthology from Kevin Kennedy and Brandy Yassa -- has just been released, just in time to raise your holiday spirit (literally). Includes a new story I'm really proud of, "All Naughty, No Nice," which takes a post-apocalyptic approach to the legend of Old Saint Nick. But that's just one many great tales by a number or new writers and authors any genre fan might recognize. Get this collection of great yuletide terror from the UK cheap on amazon.com today! HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Publisher's Description Christmas is often thought of as a time of joy…
November 30, 2016Posted inArnzen News
Posted inGorelets: Unpleasant Poems

The Gobbling

THE GOBBLING It was a normal Thanksgiving meal like any other, until I heard the gobbling from the kitchen, where my mother was checking on a pie. The sound refused to cease. One by one my family members stood up from the table and went to investigate while the rest of us ate with bemused expressions on our faces and gravy on a few of our chins. Gobble-gobble-gobble. I presumed that high pitched chortling was just some goofy turkey day sound effect, like the phony screams that plastic door knockers make on Halloween. But when only my brother and I…
November 24, 2016Posted inGorelets: Unpleasant Poems