[caption id="attachment_7245" align="aligncenter" width="612"]Originally posted on Notegraphy Originally posted on Notegraphy[/caption] The message above was my overwrought response to a question posed on the Science Fiction Poetry Association's mailing list, that asked: "Is horror a genre or an attribute of literature?" It's heavy-handed, but that's kind of why I like it, so I turned it into a notegraphy post. [I've been using Notegraphy with students in my flash fiction writing course this summer. Here's my profile and I think you can see (though you may have to be a member first) some of my students work here ] Postscript, 7/31: Thanks to Diane Severson Mori for referencing this post in her recent review of Chad Hensley's latest poetry book at Amazing Stories.

The Nature of Horror: Horror is a Church…

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…

Dexter Notes

I've been a longtime fan of the Dexter series on Showtime, and a new season (#7) is going to begin in about a month. I unfortunately don't subscribe to Showtime, having caught it through Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand in the past. But last month I picked up the entire run of the whole series (when I spotted it as a blu ray deal of the week on Amazon) and have begun watching it all over again, deliberately, studying this serial killer series for whatever new observations I can make the second time around and to uncover any lessons…

To Write Well…

The following is an excerpt from the front page of my Fiction Writing syllabus at SHU, which I posted to scribd and soundcloud as part of the course. I was surprised to find out tonight that it was highlighted as a "Featured Document" by scribd.com! Neat. To Write Well Here's the audio version, recorded for the students in the class to respond to. Teaching does take time away from my writing, but it's just as rewarding to me, and it's fun to share in the students' creative spirits. Our class is going to be doing a lot of experiments with…

Many Genres Book Signing Friday 6/23 7-9pm at Seton Hill U.

The new instructional guide for writers that I co-edited, Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction will have a massive book signing at Seton Hill University -- a great opportunity for people in the area to not only buy the book, but get it signed by the many contributors in attendance. The launch will be part of a wine reception and book signing by Writing Popular Fiction alumni at the college. The event runs this Friday (6/23) from 7-9pm in the McKenna Center (look for the gymnasium) on the Seton Hill University campus on the hilltop in Greensburg,…