“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…

Food Folks and Fun with Zombies at the Morgantown Poets

The Morgantown Poets society has posted video excerpts from my Halloween season poetry reading in Morgantown, West Virginia last month.  It was a goofy gory night of the bizarre, which I titled "Food, Folks and Fun with Zombies." I read three courses of horror:  a batch of gory "food" poems from a variety of sources (including crazy twitter poems and pieces from The Goreletter e-edition), a "folksy" ghost story (from the just-released collection, Legends of the Mountain State IV -- not appearing on the vid), and then I ended with a "fun" batch of zombie poems from my book, Rigormarole. …

“Bizarro Day” Bookstore Event Follow-Up

Had a fabulous time last weekend at Backlist Books in Massillon, Ohio -- a great new indie bookstore that does a knock-out job supporting not only speculative genre fiction (horror, science fiction and fantasy literature), but also the independent press.  It's good to see a place like this in the Midwest region of the country.  They carry any number of books that I have only heretofore seen available online (especially when it comes to 'bizarro' fiction), lots of genre magazines, classic titles of science fiction and fantasy... They had LOTS of collectibles and rarities. I even spotted a quirky line…

Book Trailer — The Writer’s Workshop of Horror

I am hearing reports that Writer's Workshop of Horror has already gone into it's 2nd printing. This collection of advice from today's top authors of terror -- from Brian Keene to Joe Lansdale to Michael Laimo to many more -- is a virtual college classroom in a book when it comes to the craft of the crypt. I'm recommending it to all my students in our MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program at SHU. But even if you're not a writer, where else, I ask, can you get such "behind the scenes" insight from your favorite authors? Visit the order…