the severed hand speaks

when it first crawled the stump stung but it realized somewhere within the ring of bottomless pain at its base that it was feeling and because it was feeling it was thinking if only in that strange way that we all quiver in powerlessness when overcome with agony like a child banished to the corner by a teacher we secretly want to kill and then it realized that it once had a teacher, too -- an instructor of American Sign Language who used to rap its knuckles when it misproduced (which was the teacher's way of saying mispronounced) simple expressions…

Ask Me a Question on Goodreads

If you're on goodreads.com -- the book lover's equivalent of facebook -- then drop on by my profile page and "Ask the Author" any question you like. Nothing is too weird, too academic or too irrelevant. Of course, my answer might also be weird, too academic or irrelevant, too. I think goodreads is a great site, because everyone on it has a common interest and the discussions seem mostly genuine when it comes to books and stories. It features giveaways, reviews, discussion groups and more. And if you're into ebooks, the way it integrates with the new kindles from amazon…

The Goreletter 9.5 Mailed

The Goreletter Vol. 9, #5 -- the last issue for 2014 -- was delivered to mailing list subscribers on 11/27/14 @ 9:30pm est. It contains extra entertainment/material not available here on the weblog version, including info about the bonus materials in the 20th Anniversary re-release of my novel Grave Markings, the best poems from my Halloween night poetry slam with Stephanie Wytovich, a #HorrorSelfies contest and a new poem based on an piece of weird art I made called "Chernobyl Potatoes". A version of the image above was also included in the newsletter -- if you like it, you can…

Sportuary: Free from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday

What a year! This Thanksgiving, I want to express my gratitude to all the longtime readers and new-found friends who have read my work, attended a reading, come to a booksigning or posted a note online over the past year. You stoke my flames and I really appreciate it. So starting on Thursday, Nov 27th (at Midnight, Pacific time)through Black Friday and ending Cyber Monday on Dec 1st, you can nab a copy of my ebook, Sportuary, absolutely free exclusively on amazon.com. Tell all your friends -- it's a perfect season for sporting with the damned! Just head to my…

FLASH CONTEST: It’s #Haikuween Night on Twitter

[Note: this contest has officially ended. See results at the bottom of this post.] Horror poet Stephanie Wytovich (author of Hysteria and Mourning Jewelry) and I will be live-tweeting horror haiku intermittently on twitter.com throughout Halloween night, from 7pm-11pm eastern. Anyone who retweets one of our poems tagged with #Haikuween (or who posts their own bloody #Haikuween tagged as such) will be entered into a random draw to win the infamous "Poedown" limited lettered CD (in a double-live case, coupled with the Arnzensongs CD). This is a very rare treasure, as only selected backers of the Fridge of the Damned…