Highlights from the HWA Stoker Award Weekend (June 2011)

I had a great time in New York last weekend, participating in the 2011 Stoker Weekend put on by the Horror Writers Association. The "Stoker Weekend" is an annual professional writer's conference that centers around the Bram Stoker Award ceremony, featuring business/professional meetings, public book signings, panel discussions for the national writer's organization, the Horror Writers Association. I took lots of photos this time around, to try to capture the spirit of the event. Here are some of the highlights from my trip to Long Island: + Was greeted by many old friends and new readers at the massive autograph…

2011 Stoker Weekend Coming to New York

YO, NEW YORK! In mid-June I'll be attending the Horror Writer Association's "Stoker Weekend" on Long Island and I invite you to the public book signing and more... Stoker Weekend 2011 will be held at the Long Island Marriott Hotel and Conference Center (101 James Doolittle Boulevard; [516] 794-3800) in Uniondale, New York, June 16-19. The multi-author book signing extravaganza is on Thursday evening, June 16, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom. In addition to myself, some of the authors planning to appear included Peter Straub, David Morrell, Douglas Clegg, Gillian Flynn, Sarah Langan, Heather…

“Scary Things”: An Address to the Class of 2011

[Here's a video of the speech cited below, posted by my friend, photographer/designer Bruce Siskawicz] "Scary Things" Professor of the Year Acceptance Speech by Michael A. Arnzen Seton Hill University Honor's Convocation Friday, May 13, 2011 President Boyle, Provost Gawelek, distinguished members of the stage, cherished faculty colleagues, dear staff, close friends and -- most importantly -- future alumnae of Seton Hill University…I thank you all for this dubious honor. I also want to thank two other major figures in my life, without whom I would not be here today: first, my wife, Renate, who chose to move from Germany…

Preorder: MANY GENRES, ONE CRAFT

Readers of this blog who have the writing bug might want to hop on over to Amazon.com and put in an order for my latest book (co-edited with Heidi Ruby Miller), called Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction. Modeled after the graduate program where I teach -- the MFA in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University -- Many Genres is a thick hardcover collection of over sixty essays by prominent writers who look under the hood of both the craft of writing for a genre audience and the business of penning novels in today's publishing world.…

Making Readers Squirm: Sensory Immersion Podcast

Last June, I went on a Summer Teaching Tour at various writer's workshops, and one of the highlights was my return as guest lecturer to the Odyssey, The Fantasy Workshop, run by Jeanne Cavelos annually at St Anselm College, in New Hampshire. My guest lecture topic at Odyssey was "Making the Reader Squirm: Sensory Immersion," which they have just released as a podcast on the Odyssey Podcast page (it is also available through iTunes). In this lecture, I discuss ways that science fiction/fantasy and horror writers appeal to the reader's "sensorium" to generate a visceral effect. The class analyzed examples…