THE GORELETTER: Michael Arnzen's Weird Newsletter http://www.gorelets.com +++Vol. 10.2 | December 2015+++ **Household of Blood** ---- ====HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016!==== THE END-OF-YEAR CONTEST RALLY has begun! To celebrate the holidays, the best gift I could come up with for you was to spontaneously run random book giveaways from Xmas all the way through New Year's Eve. I started posting these on my blog, twitter and other places online and already people have rapidly begun winning... so ACT QUICK and enter now!!! Enter and track the various contests as they go live or expire here: \\ http://gorelets.com/blog/arnzen-news/holiday-hugs-kisses-from-gorelets-com/ YOUR EXCLUSIVE CHANCES: \\ A day after the mailing of this newsletter, I'll announced the last of the amazon giveaways on the above webpage, but you are hearing about it here first -- so here's how to take advantage of the early leak: Head directly to https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/84bc51c0a9162c3e for an advanced chance to win a paperback copy of Grave Markings: 20th Anniversary Edition. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY; you'll be told right away if you're a winner, like an instant lottery ticket. Ends the earlier of Dec 31st, 2015 at 11:59 eastern or when all prizes are claimed. [Official Rules http://amzn.to/GArules ] Don't be too sad if you missed your chances or didn't win. As newsletter subscribers, you also have exclusive opportunity to win the following GRAND PRIZE. All you have to do is BE subscribed to this newsletter and I will randomly draw an email address. If that's you and you answer my emailed query within 24 hours, you will have won! How easy is that?! What is the grand prize? A signed, limited leatherbound copy of the Bram Stoker Award-winning collection of my best horror fiction and poetry, Proverbs for Monsters! Only 26 of these are in existence...and they listed at $125 on release. Again: ALL SUBSCRIBERS TO THE GORELETTER ARE AUTOMATICALLY ELIGIBLE FOR THIS PRIZE, which will be randomly drawn on New Year's Day, 1/1/2016. You don't have to do a thing to win, except stay subscribed! The grand prize winners will be contacted via email and must respond to my query within 24 hours to win. So check your email early on New Years day or see the contest rally blog entry to see if a prize has been claimed. This book could be yours! \\ http://gorelets.com/books/proverbs-for-monsters/ ====GORELETS: Unpleasant Poems==== HOUSEHOLD OF BLOOD \\ \\ the plasma pours \\ from every faucet \\ and drains into basins \\ you can never clean because \\ it's taken over the plumbing \\ \\ and it sprays from all showerheads \\ and it spits from all spigots \\ and it dances inside dishwashers \\ a grisly crimson \\ all foamy with Finish \\ \\ and the laundry room churns \\ downstairs like a heartbeat \\ rhythmically soaking the clothing \\ imbuing the fabric with its dirty dye \\ \\ and you think about suiciding \\ in the tub with a wrist slit or two \\ but don't want to join the drainage \\ don't want to lose yourself \\ in the incessant flow of \\ liquid anonymity \\ \\ and then you hear laughter \\ and gaze out the window \\ to see a rainbow of \\ beautiful bloodspray \\ misting your dancing daughter \\ shiny and purple \\ as she plays mindless \\ in the sprinklers \\ laughing like \\ a crazy, crazyfaced clown \\ and you dare not interrupt her joy \\ with your household horror \\ \\ but the water pressure is too much \\ too much \\ to watch / to feel / to bear \\ it's shredding her \\ in curly waves \\ out there on the grass \\ blending her flesh in the air \\ \\ so you open all the faucets \\ and hope this ocean of red will run, \\ run out completely -- \\ and maybe kill this house, haunted \\ not so much by your murder \\ as by the clean up afterward \\ \\ but as it spits from all spigots \\ and it sprays from all showerheads \\ the plasma pours \\ as the memories circulate \\ and surround you \\ in a prisonhouse womb \\ that won't ever be so easily \\ filled and then emptied again \\ \\ ====MEET MIKE ARNZEN==== World Horror Convention 2016 \\ http://whc2016.org/home.html \\ April 28-May 1st, 2016 | Provo, UT \\ Arnzen will be a Special Guest \\ \\ StokerCon 2016 \\ http://stokercon2016.org/ \\ May 12th-15th, 2016 | Las Vegas \\ Workshop on "Making the Reader Squirm" \\ \\ In Your Write Mind 2016 \\ http://inyourwritemind.setonhill.edu/ \\ June 24th, 2016 | Greensburg, PA \\ Massive booksigning at Seton Hill University with WPF Alumni \\ \\ Winchester Mystery House Retreat \\ http://igg.me/at/winchester2016/x/8742347 \\ Aug 11th-13th, 2016 | San Jose, CA \\ One of several guests of honor at this special writers retreat at the Winchester Mystery House \\(http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/) Events will continue to be listed online as they emerge: \\ http://www.gorelets.com/upcoming-arnzen-appearances/ ====ON THE HORIZON==== + I'm pleased to announce that my Bram Stoker Award-winning collection of fiction and poetry, Proverbs for Monsters, will finally be released in 2016 in an ebook edition from one of my favorite horror publishers, Dark Regions Press \\ http://www.darkregions.com/ \\ http://gorelets.com/books/proverbs-for-monsters/ \\ \\ + 2016 should also see the release of The Popular Uncanny (currently being revised for Guide Dog Books). The weblog will be the first place I announce details, so check it out. \\ http://gorelets.com/uncanny/ \\ + I've also already begun taking steps to produce new audio creations and I'm excited to share these with you shortly. Stay tuned to this newsletter! ====GALLERY FEATURE==== **"Raven Confused"** from the gorelets flickr gallery \\ https://flic.kr/p/BB3zvB ====VIDEO FEATURE==== Many Genres, Many Presentations in 2015 I will always remember 2015 as a year crowded with live readings, travels and lecture events -- from a panel discussion on teaching horror at ICFA to a vacation in Germany where my wife and I visited a Till Lindemann art exhibit. I gave a talk at UCF in Florida about "Subversive Reading," gave a reading at the Nightsun fiction workshops and chatted with PARSEC in Pittsburgh about the Uncanny. I also enjoyed the usual conferences and conventions, especially World Horror Con in Atlanta. Many of these events have appeared on http://gorelets.com or my social network, for the curious. One of my favorite experiences this year was a weekend-long takeover of Philadelphia for Raw Dog Screaming Press' annual DogCon event \\ http://rawdogscreaming.com/events/dogcon-iv-%E2%80%A2-october-23-25/ DogCon started with a talk I gave at Neumann University and you can catch a video clip from this lecture on "The Uncanny Valley" last October on The Popular Uncanny website [In the video, I discuss how "Terror Management Theory" relates to the creepy feelings we sometimes attribute to the most lifelike of robots and animatronic characters...] Many thanks to everyone who hung out, hosted, or just said hello... I really enjoyed the laughter with everone and getting to meet so many new readers and friends. It inspires me to keep it crazy. This winter will be devoted to writing and then I'll crawl out from my crypt again in late Spring...hope to see you then. For now, here's the link to the video clip from my talk at Neumann U: https://youtu.be/23sX6EABK30 \\ http://gorelets.com/uncanny/book-news/terror-management-theory-and-the-uncanny-valley-video/ \\ http://gorelets.com/upcoming-arnzen-appearances/ \\ ====INSTIGATION==== twisted prompts for sicko writers \\ SCARY POLITICS + Murder by voting booth. \\ + Script an over-the-top smear campaign or ludicrously accusatory TV commercial. \\ + From the point of view of an assistant or intern, dramatize a politician's appeal for help in covering up a heinous crime. \\ + Describe a deathmatch between an elephant and a donkey (or other political animal symbol) with as much gritty realism as possible. Give this battle a function. \\ + Write a "Bill of Rights" for the citizens of Hell. Or invent a "Bill of Wrongs." \\ + Choose your favorite monster or imaginary creature. Now create a political party for others of its kind, or have it run for office on behalf of all monsters. \\ + Zombify an assassinated politician. \\ + Deliver a non-human character's speech before the UN General Assembly. \\ \\ *** \\ Meet the latest writer to be featured in the Instigation Showcase: Joe La Dowdy, who is doing something REALLY AMAZING with her blog: responding to a daily prompt from the Instigation ebook for all 365 days of the year! \\ http://gorelets.com/showcase/ \\ Don't forget you can also get "Bizarro Instigation" in the Raw Dog Screaming Press newsletter \\ http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/home/?u=07c76c0a7bf3bbf3304e9f6eb&id=79ac975016 ====PITHY MORBID THOUGHTS==== "When I have inspired universal horror and disgust, I shall have conquered solitude." \\ -- Charles Baudelaire (died 1867) \\ ====COLOPHON==== Read the back issues (http://gorelets.com/repository/doku.php/goreletter/start) ! Copyright 2016, Michael A. Arnzen - All rights reserved You are reading a “plain text” version of The Goreletter. The newsletter is now designed with HTML in mind, so I recommend you review your subscription options and choose HTML if your email reader or browser will allow it. VIEW THE FANCY HTML VERSION OF THIS NEWSLETTER WITH ARTWORK AND MORE: \\ http://eepurl.com/bDrVf5 ---- {{page>gfoot&nodate&nouser}}