Year: 2023
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The Old School
Do you like the Universal Monsters? The old black and white film versions of Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Wolfman, Invisible Man, etc.? If so, then you probably love classic horror. So do I. I grew up watching those flicks in syndicated TV and later on the glory that is TCM. Monsters who literally moved at…
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The Hungur Chronicles
Last week, I received my contributor copy of the Samhain 2023 issue of The Hungur Chronicles, which proved to be a nice, early Holiday present. This semi-annual, digest-sized magazine edited by Terrie Leigh Relf and Robert Bellam features stories and poems about vampires, with a special emphasis on vampires who have a connection to space.…
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Stealth Muse
Sometime while I wasn’t looking my muse climbed in an unguarded window and set up shop in his old office. The nerve of this guy, right? Gone for a year and a half then sneaks onto the job site and pretends like he’s been here all along. If he thinks for one minute that I’m…
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The Art of Writing Scary Characters
Being a horror author, I often hear questions about how I can write such scary stories and where that inspiration comes from. The most interesting thing is readers often don’t realize that it isn’t just the story that gets them scared but the evil characters. For me, both as an author and even more as…
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The Art of Horror
Hello, fellow scream-lovers. My name is Brian, and I’m the new kid on the block. Jack is my grandpa and Venus is my little sister and partner in crime. I used to draw when I was in school and have started to get back into it; my grandpa said that I might find a welcome…
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Don’t Know Science
What do you do when you love science fiction, want to write science fiction, but don’t have a degree in any science? What do you do when you’re not the typical geek who loves nerdy stuff but never had the focus to get through college? Or struggled with a learning disability that killed that dream?…
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Life on the Flip Side
The recent passing of Jimmy Buffett – the Father of Trop Rock (and of ‘Gulf & Western’ music, as he once labeled his style in his pre-Caribbean days) – got me thinking about connections among the arts, and how one form of art can inspire another. As Negatrite said a while back, most people probably…
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Oh, the Pain! The Pain!
I blame Poe, Edgar Allan Poe, for my interest in torture. Who can ever forget that wonderful scene of immurement in “The Cask of Amontillado”? What a delicious way in which to exact revenge on those who slight you. Too bad we don’t have catacombs beneath our houses today. The practice of torture, in my…
Threads that Bind 