Posted inAmbulations

Bizarro Reading in Morgantown

I drove out to Morgantown, WV to see the Raw Dog Screaming Press reading event -- sponsored by the Morgantown Poets society -- for stalwart "bizarro" writers and old friends John Edward Lawson and D. Harlan Wilson. This event marked the official print release of Lawson's new book, SuiPsalms, which he introduced by announcing the number for the Suicide Hotline and explained that his book fell in with a new genre he hadn't been aware of until he started writing the book, Suicide Poetry (example here). D. Harlan Wilson read a hilarious excerpt from the tongue-in-cheek Hitler: The Terminal Biography.…
August 17, 2012Posted inAmbulations
Posted inArnzen News

Hazard Yet Forward — New Genre Fiction Charity Anthology

I'm proud of the alumni, students, and faculty in Seton Hill U's Writing Popular Fiction graduate program for putting this new book together, with profits going to assist Donna Munro, a great writer and fellow member of our community who shocked us all by being diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year. The kindle edition of the book was just released today on amazon for just $9.99. Totally worth it, given that it's got over 700 pages of genre stories in it. I wrote one them (first appearance of my story "The Scraper") as well as the introduction. There are…
August 7, 2012Posted inArnzen News
Posted inAmbulations

Gorelets.com Returns to its Mobile-Friendly Roots

While "responsive" is a word I usually associate with "Things Doctors Say In Intensive Care Units," it's also a word that now applies to this website. "Responsive" means that the site automatically recognizes if you're reading it with a touchscreen device and it changes to make it more mobile-friendly. [The same is true of the Arnzen Social Network page at http://michaelarnzen.com/ and most of the other main pages linked in my menu.] While I doubt it's perfect, you can now far more easily read the text and browse pages while on the road, riding in the back of your hearse…
August 5, 2012Posted inAmbulations
Posted inData+Errata

New Audiovile Review + Twitter Contest Winners Announced

Weird John C. -- union leader of Gravediggers Local 16 -- just posted a fantastic review of my spoken word cd, Audiovile. Jump to the Gravediggers website to take a look. It's rather in-depth, reviewing each track deeply. "Rather than coming of as simple readings, many of the tracks seem closer to songs or poetry....Michael Arnzen has a voice that’s well-suited for telling offbeat stories, both in terms of tone and his ability to adopt different styles of delivery depending on the track....and the flash fiction that makes up this release always kept me guessing." -- Gravediggers Local 16 To…
July 31, 2012Posted inData+Errata
Posted inInstigation

Every Horror Writer’s Nightmare

This image from Futurama (found on the wonderful TvTropes.com) cracks me up, but it also encapsulates every horror writer's dilemma: escaping the conventions and the dominant trappings of the genre. This is one of the reasons why I continue to publish the Instigation series of "dark prompts for sicko writers," even if my tongue is sometimes in my cheek. But here's a few for you now, inspired by this comic: + Imagine what lies beyond the side of the frame. What is chasing the creatures? Or where are the characters being chased to? + Take a page from King: Write…
July 24, 2012Posted inInstigation1 Comment