Posted inAmbulations

Poster for My Horror Writing Class at SHU in Spring

I love my day job, teaching terror. This class in "Horror and Suspense Writing" meets the requirements for our new undergraduate "Certificate in Genre Writing" at Seton Hill University. [Got a BA and looking to write a novel? Then check out our MFA in Writing Popular Fiction!] Recognize the image? That's "The Dark Librarian" from my flickr gallery.
October 21, 2012Posted inAmbulations1 Comment
Posted inArnzen News

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…
August 22, 2012Posted inArnzen News
Posted inInstigation

Every Horror Writer’s Nightmare

This image from Futurama (found on the wonderful TvTropes.com) cracks me up, but it also encapsulates every horror writer's dilemma: escaping the conventions and the dominant trappings of the genre. This is one of the reasons why I continue to publish the Instigation series of "dark prompts for sicko writers," even if my tongue is sometimes in my cheek. But here's a few for you now, inspired by this comic: + Imagine what lies beyond the side of the frame. What is chasing the creatures? Or where are the characters being chased to? + Take a page from King: Write…
July 24, 2012Posted inInstigation1 Comment
Posted inWeblog Exclusive

On the Irrelevance of Genre Poetry [Live]

At the fun "Raw Dog Screaming Press Book Party" at the Morgantown Poets group in West Virginia last month, I opened my reading by sharing a piece I'd written for Locus Magazine, a poem about why I write poetry, which I contributed to their running Roundtable series on speculative poetry.  Here's my recitation of "On the Irrelevance of Genre Poetry," recorded during the reading. I don't often write things like this -- an opinion essay told in the form of a poem -- but the audience really seemed to laugh and also get charged up by the poem. Press the…
June 7, 2012Posted inWeblog Exclusive1 Comment