Live Horror U Class at StokerCon 24: “Catching the Reader by Surprise”

Live Horror U Class at StokerCon 24: “Catching the Reader by Surprise”

POST-CONVENTION UPDATE, 6/4/24: Unfortunately, this class will not be available online as a recorded lecture. If you attended the class at the con, know that the secret website for the course has been updated with extra materials! Just email me if you've forgotten it's location; otherwise, enjoy and stay in touch! Registration for my next Horror University course has opened up! "Catching the Reader by Surprise" will be a 2-hour online session covering strategies to keep your reader guessing, from building suspense in clever ways to crafting surprising plot twists, while taking the special considerations of the horror genre into…
Raising the Dead Draft (& Other Fall Events)

Raising the Dead Draft (& Other Fall Events)

Take a quick gander at my events page, and you'll see that I'm lining up a number of readings, talks and writing workshops for the 2022 Harvest season... hope you're able to join me at one of them! I always love reading live. But here I want to highlight a one-hour writing workshop I'm running that is also part of an awesome book launch. From Oct 8th-10th, Raw Dog Screaming Press and AllAccessCon are hosting "Writing Poetry in the Dark" -- a unique event featuring a roster of top horror poets, all talking shop to help writers learn about the…
The Uncanny & The Abject: Open for Enrollment!

The Uncanny & The Abject: Open for Enrollment!

I'll be offering a new (virtual) course for horror writers at StokerCon 2021! (Yes, even if you are not attending StokerCon, you can still enroll in the course -- see the end of this message!) "The Uncanny and The Abject": Applying Psychology to Disturb the Reader Saturday, May 22, 5 P.M. EST -- StokerCon 2021 Online DESCRIPTION: This two hour online workshop will unravel the psychological theories of the Uncanny and the Abject. Together, we will explore how they pertain to crafting tales of terror and shock through discussion of published horror fiction and live short writing activities that explore…
Voices Echoing in Your Head

Voices Echoing in Your Head

At the end of March, I returned to the Visited by Voices vidcast series hosted by Lorne Dixon, to participate in the first VbV Writer's Roundtable and it was a pretty amazing conversation! I chatted and laughed for over an hour with a diverse group of horror writers, all of whom I hold in high esteem: Ramsey Campbell, Brian Hodge, Mary SanGiovanni, Mark Allan Gunnells, doungjai gam & Lorne Dixon himself. It was kind of like being on a panel discussion at an international horror convention... or more like a chummy roundtable. Check it out. We talked about so many…
Stoker-Inspired Special Spring ’21 Update

Stoker-Inspired Special Spring ’21 Update

Spring is springing and I thought I'd share a general update, sparked by my registration for StokerCon this May... StokerCon -- the annual convention of horror genre professionals run by the Horror Writers Association -- announced it was going virtual this year (due to the Covid pandemic; a wise move), so I registered and WILL be attending and probably be a part of the program in some fashion. I'm proud to report that there are several alumni from the MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program (where I teach horror) in the running for the Bram Stoker Award to be given…