Posted inInstigation

Showcase Updated: KZ Morano

The Instigation Showcase page has been updated with a new featured author, KZ Morano, who talks about her creative process and offers up a new Instigation prompt all her own. KZ is the author of the new book, 100 Nightmares -- an illustrated collection of horror drabbles, each 100 words long. Recommended reading! She also generously reviewed Instigation: Creative Prompts on the Dark Side on Amazon with the following kind words: "...These are not the kind of prompts that you can find just anywhere. The ideas are bold, bizarre, brilliant. They make you go to places that you never even…
June 9, 2014Posted inInstigation
Posted inArnzen News

Horror 101 – New Book for Writers

Horror 101: The Way Forward has just been released by Crystal Lake Publishing, and if you're a writer on the dark side, I highly recommend it. As Mort Castle wisely notes in the book's introduction, this book is a successor, of sorts, to JN Williamson's classic writer's guide, How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and enters the canon of "essential reference" for the dark fiction author, alongside the HWA's On Writing Horror and Michael Knost's Writer's Workshop of Horror. It's a great collection of "advice from seasoned professionals" on how to sustain a career in the…
April 29, 2014Posted inArnzen News
Posted inGorelets: Unpleasant Poems

AVENGER – my Peter Gabriel-inspired crime poem for 30 Days of the 5-2

AVENGER I know something about opening pimpers and whores I know how to kill quietly and mop up bloody wooden floors I know how to hide body parts behind my cabinets and drawers Clipping the strippers Clipping the strippers of their spinal cord wires Their stunned paralysis inspires Inspires me I like laughing at lap dancers when they're tied to chairs I like listening to harlots when they make their final prayers I like watching while they clutch their throats for air Avenger's happy in the dark Avenger's come Avenger's come to take away your mark, devil's mark devil's mark…
April 18, 2014Posted inGorelets: Unpleasant Poems1 Comment
Posted inArnzen News Instigation

Diabolique Strategies: Random Provocations into the Dark Side

I've long admired the "Oblique Strategies" -- an infamous deck of creativity cards invented by musician Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt that has a cult following among artists and musicians. It is one part thinking game, one part fortune cookie. They made it as a way to spur them into thinking differently about their current projects, by drawing random lateral thinking triggers from the deck (like “destroy the most important thing” or “give the game away”). But I've always wondered: What would they look like if Eno had been in a Death Metal band instead of Roxy Music? Or…
March 23, 2014Posted inArnzen News, Instigation