Kindle2 Opens the Ebook Watershed: The Time Has Come

It's time to go ebook, if you haven't already. Today amazon.com releases their next generation Kindle2 ebook reading device, which is now able to pull information out of the (cell phone) wireless networks internationally...and you don't have to subscribe to a cell phone service to do so.  This means that the medium has gone totally global; you can read an ebook anywhere -- and update/sync/buy anywhere, too.  So what? This means that publishers everywhere will now see a new way to reach millions of readers, so they're all going to push these electronic formats (if they haven't already). Readers like…

The Writer’s Workshop of Horror

I'm pleased to appear in this brand new book of advice for those who want to improve their horror fiction, called order The Writer's Workshop of Horror (ed. Michael Knost, Woodland Press, Aug 2009). It's focused exclusively and deeply on the craft of scary storytelling, with a stellar line-up of contributors that include the likes of Clive Barker, Joe Lansdale, F. Paul Wilson, Ramsey Campbell, Brian Keene, Elizabeth Massie, and too many more to list:  from grand masters to rising stars, the book is a treasury of wisdom you'd be hard pressed to find elsewhere.  If the (also fantastic) Horror…

Teachers of Terror Take Note

Dissections: The Journal of Contemporary Horror just released their May 2009 special issue on "issues of teaching the horror genre in the classroom."  Sure, I'm in there with a discussion of "learning objectives" in a horror course, but with essays like Doug Ford's "The Sublime Trials of Jack Ketchum: Teaching 'The Girl Next Door' in the Era of Torture P**n" and poems about classic movie actors by Bryan Dietrich, you know you're getting something as fascinating as it is educational.

Zombie CSU: The Lost Arnzen Interview

In August 2008, Kensington Books released a great nonfiction title called ZOMBIE CSU: The Forensics of the Undead, written by Stoker Award-winning author Jonathan Maberry, that is definitely worth a look-see if you're a fan of this subgenre of the undead. Reminiscent of -- but far richer in scope than -- Max Brooks' classic Zombie Survival Manual, Zombie CSU covers far more than just "Crime Scene Unit" material. It is, in fact, a thick cultural guide to virtually everything associated with these brain-eating maniacs, with chapters devoted to every possible subgenre within this huge subgenre, alongside original art by many…

Book of Lists Bonus: “The Hands of Horror”

THE BOOK OF LISTS: HORROR (edited by by Amy Wallace, Del Howison and Scott Bradley for Harper Paperbacks) is hitting the bookshelves across the country this week. It's a knockout collection of lists both quirky and informative, about all things horror, featuring an amazing roster of horror authors and filmmakers -- from Stephen King to Eli Roth -- between its covers. You won't want to miss it...and you can order it now from amazon.com. My contribution to the book is an annotated list of "The Top Five Horror Colleges" -- something you'd never find in the US News & World…