Stacey Longo at the Why Ghosts Love Me event
Kristi Petersen Schoonover at the Why Ghosts Love Me event.
Longo's table at the event
Schoonover's table at the event
Jennifer Cole, of Goshen, Longo, Schoonover, and Jayne Mackel, of Goshen
This article, “Steve Jobs and re-imagining obituaries,” by Michelle V. Rafter appeared on her blog, Word Count: Freelancing in the Digital Age (http://michellerafter.com/)
To do great writing, read great writing. Here’s the great writing I’ve been reading this week.
If you’re like me, over the past few days you’ve probably spent some time – or a lot of time – reading about Steve Jobs. The Apple Computer founder and ex-CEO died of pancreatic cancer this week at 56. He’d retired in August after having been on a leave of absence since early this year from the company he and a friend started in his parents’ garage in 1976.
It’s been a time for reflecting on the mark that Jobs left, not just on the technology industry, but on how people communicate and connect, and where he stands in the pantheon of American inventors and innovators.
For writers, it’s also been an opportunity to study a basic but often bungled story type: the obituary.
Studying the Obituary
Obituaries are a journalism staple. Open to the back of any local newspaper and you’ll see them. These days, most of what you see are paid obituaries that families write themselves and buy by the column inch, since financially-challenged newspapers don’t have as much space to devote to them as they used to. What you see is usually terribly written.
During the semester I taught an intro to news writing class in a graduate journalism program, students were required to write an obit as part of the general curriculum. It was one of the harder exercises of the semester. Why? Writing a good obituary is more difficult than it looks. Most students structured their stories chronologically, starting with when the person was born, and moving through where they went to school and worked, who they married, when they died – just like those paid obits in the back pages of the paper.
But when someone dies, readers don’t want a laundry list of facts and dates. They want the most important stuff and they want it right away: who the person was, why what they did mattered and how they made a mark on their community or the world.
The Modern Obit
Today, obituaries can cover the basis but take many different forms, which is apparent if you look at what’s been written about Jobs. Besides the classic, straight narrative, obits or tributes can be a personal remembrance, photo montage, video, slideshow or compilation of quotes from the famous or not-so-famous. One company, Mint Digital, disassembled a MacBook Pro and using the parts to create a Steve Jobs portrait – that’s it at the top of this post.
Here are a handful of Jobs obituaries and other tributes that stuck with me for their context, emotion or originality:
Traditional Obituary – Straight forward obituaries from the New York Times and Washington Post, attempt to put the man behind the Mac, iPod and iPhone in perspective, as a 21st century entrepreneur, tech visionary and marketer with a prickly, secretive side that made him a difficult subject to interview or photograph.
Personal Remembrance – Long-time Wall Street Journal tech columnist and All Things D cofounder Walter Mossberg shared stories about a side of Jobs most people, including reporters, never saw. After returning to Apple in 1997, Jobs called Mossberg Sunday evenings for some off-the-record shop talk. Later when he was sick, Jobs invited Mossberg to visit him at home and the two went for a walk:
He explained that he walked each day, and that each day he set a farther goal for himself, and that, today, the neighborhood park was his goal. As we were walking and talking, he suddenly stopped, not looking well. I begged him to return to the house, noting that I didn’t know CPR and could visualize the headline: “Helpless reporter lets Steve Jobs die on the sidewalk.”
But he laughed, and refused, and, after a pause, kept heading for the park. We sat on a bench there, talking about life, our families, and our respective illnesses. (I had had a heart attack some years earlier.) He lectured me about staying healthy. And then we walked back.
Apology – Brian Lam used Jobs’ passing to write a long apologia and explain what happened while he was editor at Gizmodo during the infamous iPhone 4 leak in 2010. After an Apple employee lost a phototype of the phone and it ended up in the hands of a Gizmodo reporter who wrote about it, Lam exchanged numerous telephone calls with an increasingly more frustrated Jobs, who wanted the device back but didn’t want to publicly confirm what it was. Lam held out and got confirmation in writing, but later regretted it. “I thought about the dilemma every day for about a year and half,” he writes in The Atlantic. “It caused me a lot of grief, and I stopped writing almost entirely. It made my spirit weak. Three weeks ago, I felt like I had had enough. I wrote my apology letter to Steve.”
Website – For a day after Jobs died, tech site BoingBoing temporarily rebooted its design to mimick the then-revolutionary (and still very black and white) graphical user interface of the original 1984 Macintosh computer.
Slideshow – As part of its coverage of Jobs’ passing, the New York Times asked readers to send in thoughts and photos, which the paper assembled into a “Reader Memories” slideshow. One family of a grandmother in Chile who recently died of cancer sent in a picture of her in bed with a MacBook Pro on her lap making a last video-phone call to a granddaughter in Belgium.
Video – For its homage, social media new site Mashable compiled a video of Jobs’ 10 most “magical” moments, including introducing the first Macintosh and launching the iPod, iPhone and iPad. In place of the photographs of Bob Dylan, Pablo Picasso, Maria Calas and other square pegs originally featured in the classic “Think Different” commercial Gizmodo’s Jesus Diaz substituted photos and videos of Jobs during his various stints at Apple, granting him star status through association.
Cartoon – Hugh McLeod, the Gaping Void cartoonist, used the copy from the same ”Think Different” commercial as the basis for a text-only cartoon that he posted on his website and offered free to anyone who wanted to download it (I ran it here yesterday).
From author Wrath James White’s blog, Words of Wrath (http://wordsofwrath.blogspot.com/2011/09/like-porno-for-psychos.html)
Like Porno For Psychos
When I first started writing short stories again, after more than a decade of only writing poetry, my first efforts were in the realm of pornography. It was pornography with a strong supernatural or thriller element, but pornography nonetheless. Its sole purpose was to arouse unto the point of orgasm. I even sold a couple to Hustler Magazine. Later, I rewrote many of these short stories, pumping up the speculative fiction elements, and removing much of the sex (or so I thought.) I then resold these stories to horror magazines. I was quickly labeled an “Erotic Horror Author”. Years later, when I reread these tales, I realized that I had not removed nearly as much of the sex as I had thought. A couple of these stories, like Fly, about a guy who tosses women off balconies after having sex with them, ended up in The Book Of A Thousand Sins. The rest of them have been collected here, in my latest short story collection available now from Deadite Books.
Like Porno For Psychos includes some of my most lascivious writings. These stories drip with body fluids. There is a story about a cure for AIDS that spawns a world-wide orgy resulting in the erosion of society, a story about a woman with a fetish for lions, a story about a pimp who sees the power of creation in the vaginas of his whore’s, a story about a prostitute from hell and the right-wing conservative politician who can’t get enough of him. There are less salacious fare as well. A story about the neighbor who owns the dog that is really the thousand-year-old demon that once commanded David Berkowitz to kill, a story about a woman so obsessed with losing weight that she will go to any lengths. There are even a couple of erotic poems.
After reading this short collection of pornographic terrors, you might be left with the impression that Wrath really likes sex. This impression would be correct. There are few things I enjoy that I can’t either fuck, fight, or eat. If you don’t also like sex, violence, death, and horror then this is not the read for you. As the title implies, this is not a book for prudes. This is erotic horror with a strong emphasis on the erotic. Ever read a horror book with one hand? Well, this would be the one to start with. Enjoy.
You can order this little book of horror porn here:
http://deaditepress.com/2011/09/12/like-porno-for-psychos-by-wrath-james-white/
Sent from my iPhone
Information compiled by David Price.
The Fear at Fenway. Haunted House attractions at Fenway Park
October 28 – November 6, 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., $45 general admission.
Haunted Attractions featuring Brigham Manor, Hancock Hill Cemetery, and 3-D Freak Out. Group Rates available for 30+
http://www.thefearatfenway.com/index.html
Nightmare New England (Spooky World) – Litchfield, N.H. Open 6p.m. through midnight
Haunted Attractions featuring The Colony, Catacombs, Torment, Willow’s Asylum, House of Eternal Darkness, Freak Show in 3-D
$35 general admission on Friday and Saturday. Sept 30 – Oct 31
$30 general admission on Thursday, Sunday, and Monday Oct 9 – Oct 31
Group Rates Available for 30+
Canobie
Lake Park Screeemfest. Salem, N.H. General admission $28
Amusement Park with Haunted Attractions featuring Dead Shed, The Village, Head Hunters at Cannibal Lake, Demons of Darkness, Merriment Incorporated, Pumpkin Palace.
http://www.canobie.com/SCREEEMFEST/prices.htm
Witches Woods at Nashoba Valley. Haunted Hayride and Halloween Screampark. Admission $30. Open Thursdays through Sundays. Westford, MA.
Factory of Terror. General Admission $20
Haunted Attractions featuring Bloodworth Dungeon, Gothic Nightmare, and Phobia Mayhem. Fall River, MA.
http://www.factoryofterror.com/main.html
Barret’s Haunted Mansion. General Admission $20. Abington, MA.
Haunted Ship at the USS Salem. Admission $15 to $25. Quincy, MA.
http://www.hauntedship.com/flash/index.html
Count Orlok’s Monster Museum in Salem, MA. Admission $7
http://www.nightmaregallery.com/
Festival of the Dead / Psychic Fair Salem.
http://www.festivalofthedead.com/psychicfair.html
Lakeville Haunted House. Lakeville, MA. Admission $13.
http://lakevillehauntedhouse.com/Main.html
Fright Kingdom, Nashua N.H.
Admission $20. Haunted Attractions featuring Bloodmare Manor, Vampire Castle, Psycho Circus. Open weekends in October.
http://www.frightkingdom.com/indexmain.html
Haunted Acres. Candia, N.H. Admission $25. Haunted attractions featuring Quarter Mile Nightmare Walk, Graveyard of the Damned, Maze from Hell, 3-D Nuclear Accident House, Cell Block 13. Open Weekends in October.
Dark Manor Haunted House. Norwich, CT. Admission $18.
http://www.darkmanorproductions.com/site/
Braintree Haunted House. Braintree, MA. Oct 23, 24, and 25. Admission $8. This year’s theme is “Alice in Wicked Wonderland.”
http://www.braintreehauntedhouse.com/
Faces of Phobia. Springfield, MA. Weekends in October. Admission $15.
David Price compiled this information.
Haunted Harbor Cruise
Lighthouse, Foliage and Chowda’ Cruise
Ghosts & Legends Trolley Tour
Tales & Tombstones Trolley Tour
Vampire Weekend at 13 Ghosts, a Vampire-themed haunted house, Oct. 7 through 10
Salem Chamber of Commerce Haunted Biz Baz. A Vendor type event Oct. 8 and 9 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Salem Seance at Omen: Psychic Parlor and Witchcraft Emporium, Oct. 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, and 29. Develop your Psychic Skills on October 13.
Other Omen events: Book Signing with Rosemary Ellen Guiley, author of Haunted Salem, The Encyclopedia of Vampires and Werewolves and Talking to the Dead on Oct. 22. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Summon the Dead Seance Oct. 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, and 29.
Hellboy. Live at Witches Cottage on October 8 and 9, 15 and 16, 22 and 23, 29 and 30. Free pictures with Hellboy!
Salem Chowder Fest on October 8, Pickering Wharf 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Haunted Corn Maze at Connors farm in Danvers on October 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, and 29.
Count Orlok’s presents actor Kane Hodder (Jason Voorhees) on Oct. 10, “Leatherface” Bill Johnson on Oct. 14 and 15, actor “Pinhead” Doug Bradley (Pinhead) on Oct. 21, 22, and 23. Actor Tony Moran (Michael Myers) on Oct. 28, 29, and 30. The time for all events are 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Gulu’s monster movie madness. Classic horror movies every Tuesday at the Gulu Gulu cafe. Schedule: Oct 4. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), Oct. 11 The Phantom of the Opera (1924), Oct. 18 The Golem (1920), Oct. 25 Nosferatu (1922).
Eerie Evenings at the Witch House. Ghost stories by costumed actors. Oct 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, and 29
Salem Harvest Fest Oct. 15 for people 21 and older. Tasting craft beers, fine wines, and mead!
Haunted Movies series on Salem Common. Free movies. Oct 8 – Monsters Inc, Oct 15 – Casper, Oct. 22 – Hocus Pocus, Oct 29 – Beetlejuice.
Spectral Evidence – Ghosthunting 101: 8 p.m. to midnight at the Hawthorne hotel, Oct. 21.
Haunted Salem Village Oct. 22, 29, and 30 at Pioneer Village is open for people of all ages. For more information, check out the website http://pioneervillagesalem.com
The Vampire Masquerade’s Ball on Oct. 22 at the Hawthorne Hotel for people 21 and older.
Messages from Spirit World Seance at the Hawthorne Hotel on Oct. 23
Official Salem Witches Ball “Lords of the Underworld” Oct. 28. For more information, http://www.festivalofthedead.com/witchesball/
Zombie Prom, a zombie costume party, Oct. 28 at 9:30 p.m. at Vic’s boathouse.
Learn the Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Salem Common, Oct. 29 10 a.m.
Wicked Night on the Wharf costume party. Oct. 29 at Salem Waterfront hotel.
Haunted Conductors costume party Oct. 29 at Victoria Station
The Mourning Tea – Salem witch Victorian ritual at the Hawthorne hotel, Oct. 30 from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
The Dumb Supper: Dinner with the Dead, Oct. 30 from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.
20th Annual Temple of Nine Wells Magick Circle, Oct. 31 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Salem Witches Magick Circle. Salem Common, Oct 31 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The 14th Annual Feast of Samhain, Oct. 31, from 8 p.m. to midnight at Finz restaurant. The event is hosted by the Witches Education Bureau.
Halloween Fireworks on Oct. 31 at 10 p.m. at the corner of Washington and Bridge Streets.
For more information, check out the website http://hauntedhappenings.org/
Guide to Moral Living in Examples: Rural Car Breakdowns by Greg X. Graves (via his website, www.Gregxgraves.com)
My car broke down on the creepiest road in town. It was out on the edge of civilization, past the chemical plant, out where the broken corn stalks stuck up like yellow bones from in a shitty graveyard. The way I saw it, I had two options.
One, I could use my cell phone to call my buddy Logan to come out and get me and wait for him to arrive. And get horribly murdered by an ax-wielding maniac.
Two, I could call Logan and walk to the nearest source of bright, scouring light, a gas station about two miles back.
I chose option two.
I walked along the darkened lane. My phone seemed terribly bright in the pitch blackness.
“Yeah, my car broke down. Come pick me up,” I said to Logan. The night was so still that I felt like I was screaming.
“No can do,” Logan said.
“Come pick me up right now or I will break your jaw the next time that I see you.”
“Here’s the thing, though, I’m with Stacy and she’s finally-”
“Fine,” I said, and hung up.
I had to hand it to Logan, though. I was so angry at him for abandoning me that I wrapped myself in my rage like a suit of armor. I made it to the gas station without a single lump chopped out of me.
The gas station was the only beacon in the night. It cast a sick, medical haze into the night. Drawn like a moth to the flame, I stumbled out of the shadows towards the solitary gas pump and tiny convenience store. The door tinkled as I pushed it open.
“Can I help you?” asked the clerk. He appeared to be just as dusty as his wares. In fact, the only merchandise not covered beneath a layer of dust appeared to be a stack of playing cards on the counter.
“Yes, I was wondering if you had a service station?”
“Did you see one on your way in?” the clerk asked.
“No,” I said.
“There’s your answer. What seems to be the problem?”
“My car broke down some ways back. Do you at least have the number of a tow truck?”
“Just a second,” the clerk said. He stood up from his stool and pulled a shotgun from beneath the counter.
I ducked behind a rack of Nixon-era Snickers bars. I’m not sure why I thought that they would do anything but fill my gunshot wounds with chocolate, nougaty goodness. Luckily, the clerk didn’t shoot me. But he did walk to the door while I cowered there. It opened with a tinkle, and before the bell had quieted itself the shotgun had barked. And again. And a third time.
The clerk came back in.
“I ain’t gonna shoot you, even though you can never trust the living.”
The clerk replaced his shotgun beneath the counter.
“What did you just do? Did you shoot somebody?”
“I sure did. Two ax-murderers. These fields are lousy with ‘em. Shot them right in their faces. One thought he’d be clever and not die right away, so I had to plug him again. You wanted the number of a tow truck?”
“Um, is it okay if you give it to me after the Sun rises?”
The clerk grinned. He snatched a deck of cards from the counter and slid a thumb along the cellophane until he could yank it off with a crackle. He grabbed the spare card with the rules printed on it and wrote a number on the back.
“I wanted to give you the information for the tow truck before dawn, because I’ll be gone. Can’t stand the sunlight. Do you know how to play gin rummy?”
The Moral: ghosts hate rural ax-wielding maniacs.
Bram Stoker Award 2011 Official Press Release
Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement
Categories: Novel, First Novel, Graphic Novel (*),Young Adult Novel (*), Long Fiction, Short Fiction, Fiction Collection, Screenplay (*), Poetry Collection, Anthology, Nonfiction
Each year, for the past twenty-four years, the Horror Writers Association (HWA) has presented the Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement within the Horror Genre. The Awards are named in honor of Bram Stoker, the famous author of the seminal work of horror, Dracula. The Bram Stoker Awards were instituted immediately after the HWA’s incorporation in 1987.
In a bold move, this year the Twenty-Fifth Annual Bram Stoker Awards will now be partly Juried with one half of the shortlist being selected by a Jury for each of the categories, as opposed to the prior method of all nominees being selected by recommendation of the general membership. The HWA has also added new categories for Screenplay, Graphic Novel and Young Adult.
Half the Bram Stoker Awards nominees in each category will come from a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics within each category, and the remaining half by recommendations from the general HWA membership, which exceeds 550 members. The “Active” class of members (the HWA’s highest professional category of membership) then vote to determine the final award recipients. The awards are for “Superior Achievement” in works published in the preceding calendar year for each of the eleven categories listed above.
Fiction: To be eligible for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement, a work of fiction must exhibit intrinsic story values that by general agreement identify it as a work of dark fantasy, horror, or the occult. A work need not contain any supernatural element to be considered horror.
Nonfiction: To be eligible, a work of nonfiction — including but not limited to criticism, biography, autobiography, scholarly analysis, and reference — must be related to one or more of the above-mentioned three facets of the horror field.
Publishers and authors wishing to promote their works to a specific Jury are requested do so by first emailing the relevant Jury chair (listed below) with a query on how to submit works to that Jury (it is possible that your work is already under consideration).
Do NOT send hard copy books to HWA’s Post Office box or directly to Jurors without prior permission, as this will likely put you in breach of the anti-spamming rules and may disqualify your work.
To send in material, please contact the appropriate Jury Chair for each category listed below:
Jury Chair Emails:
Novel – stokernovel@horror.org
First
Novel – stokerfirstnovel@horror.org
Collection – stokercollection@horror.org
Anthology – stokerantho@horror.org
*Graphic Novels – stokergraphicnovel@horror.org
*Young Adult – stokeryanovel@horror.org
Long Fiction – stokerlongfic@horror.org
Short Fiction – stokershortfic@horror.org
*Screenplays – stokerscreenplay@horror.org
Nonfiction – stokernonfic@horror.org
Poetry – stokerpoetry@horror.org
*new categories this year
For comprehensive details about the rules and process for submissions, please visit the HWA website. http://www.horror.org/stokerules-10.htm
The Jury will consider all works submitted up to 31 December 2011 but, due to the reading time required before our Short list is submitted on 15 January 2012, we strongly recommend that if at all possible authors, editors and publishers submit works for consideration to the Jury no later than 30 November.
Tracy L. Carbone is the primary contact. Please contact her at tracy@tracylcarbone.com for any questions about the award.
Contrary to what everyone in the publishing industry has been saying for years, the short story isn’t dead. In fact, it never was. And now that “short-and-sweet” is the accelerating trend, there’s room for one special horror conference to celebrate it all: the First Annual AnthoCon: The Anthology 2011 Conference, coming to Portsmouth, New Hampshire November 11-12, 2011.
Presented by Shroud Publishing, The Anthology 2011 Conference will “showcase the imaginative talent in speculative fiction and art, with an additional focus on the convergence of images and literature,” according to the AnthoCon website.
Like other cons, well-known writers will be on hand, among them Christopher Golden (Of Saints and Shadows), who will offer a reading and signing; Jonathan Maberry, who read from one of his new novels; and Jennifer Pelland, who will read from her debut novel, Machine. There will be an extensive dealer area which will feature books, films, artwork, comics, and more. There will also be a Juried Art Exhibit to include such shelf familiars as Ogmios (The Witches’ Almanac), Morbideus Goodell (Apex Digest, Maberry’s Vampire and Cryptopaedia), and Michael Bailey (who is also the editor of Pellucid Lunacy, an anthology of psychological horror and several novels).
“[AnthoCon] has some amazing authors, publishers and film people attending,” said Tracy L. Carbone, editor of Epitaphs, New England Horror Writers Association’s first official anthology, which will debut at the conference. “It should prove to be the best new Con for horror folks out there.”
But what makes AnthoCon unique is its focus on the nine panels’ concentration on education for both writers and horror fans. For example, Reaching through the Veil will examine the channeling of myth, religion, spirituality and the collective unconscious in imaginative fiction; Getting Your Short Story Published with the Small Press will offer insight on finding, submitting, and selling your short story; Evil Jester Press Presents “Help! Wanted: Tales of On-The-Job Terror” will dissect the process of producing an anthology. Horror names Biran Keene, Rick Hautala, Cat Valente, Maberry, Joseph Nassise, Pelland, and Golden will present I’ve Made It This Far, Now What?, using their paths to literary success to illumine what the process could be like for those in attendance. Topics also go deeper with Writing Programs: from the MFA to Private Workshops. And Eric Red (The Hitcher, Near Dark) will present a lecture and workshop The Elements of Writing Horror and Thrillers for Films.
Aside from guests, vendors, and panelists, the event promises to draw a unique crowd to include film and book reviewers and magazine editors—like Peter Schwotzer, the man at the helm of Literary Mayhem (http://literarymayhem.com/) who also reviews anthologies, lit-zines and books for Famous Monsters of Filmland and IMDB.
“I’m going mainly to meet a lot of authors I’ve met over the past couple of years in person. We correspond by e-mails, phone, Twitter, Facebook, etc., but it will be nice to meet face to face,” Schwotzer said. “All of the authors have been so kind and generous to me, it still boggles my mind that I actually correspond with my literary heroes.”
If that weren’t enough, AnthoCon’s location—Portsmouth, New Hampshire—is not only America’s third-oldest city, it’s the type of classic spooky New England Seacoast that has inspired countless creepy tales over the years: the perfect place to hold such a conference.
With so much to offer that seems to be different from what’s offered at other cons, this promises to be a great inauguration with long-lasting recurring potential—writer or fan, artist or reviewer, don’t miss out.
AnthoCon 2011 will be held at the Best Western Wynwood Hotel & Suites at 580 US Route 1 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Friday, November 11 through Sunday, November 13, 2011. For complete information on AnthoCon, including schedules, costs, who’ll be there and how to go, visit http://www.anthocon.com.
Her short fiction has been featured in The Adirondack Review, Barbaric Yawp, The Illuminata, Chick Flicks, Afternoon, The Circle, Citizen Culture, I Like Monkeys, New Witch Magazine, MudRock: Stories & Tales, Waxing & Waning, Wrong World’s multi-media anthology, I’m Going to Tell You One More Time, and many, many others. Skeletons in the Swimmin’ Hole: Tales from Haunted Disney World, a collection of ghost stories set in Disney Parks, is now available at www.haunteddisneytales.com, Amazon and all the usual outlets under the imprint Admit One Literary Theme Park Press. My short story “Doors” appears in Carpe Articulum Literary Review‘s Fall 2010 issue.
Her horror novel Bad Apple is forthcoming from Vagabondage Books in late 2011.
She’s the host of the “Dead Letters” paranormal fiction segment on The Ghostman & Demon Hunter Show, an editor for Read Short Fiction, and the recipient of Norman Mailer Writers Colony Winter 2010 and 2011 Residencies.
She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing in Literature from Burlington College in Vermont and an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College; prior to all of that, I was a student at the University of Rhode Island, where today I’m a member of a monthly writing critique group. My influences include Joyce Carol Oates, Edgar Allan Poe, Daniel Pearlman, Haruki Murakami, Koji Suzuki, Gina Ochsner and David Means, among at least thirty others. I’m constantly looking for ways to blend my favorite genres’ hallmarks, film’s visual qualities, and literature’s human themes in my writing. When do I have the most fun? Revision, actually. That’s my favorite part.
She lives in the Connecticut woods with my housemate, Charles, my fiancé, Nathan, and three cats, and I still frequently go to bed with the lights on.
http://kristipetersenschoonover.com/
Rob Watts’ bio:
Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Watts embraced his creative personalities early in life and ventured hand-in-hand through life with each of them ever since. From his early days of furniture making in high school to Culinary Arts in college, Watts craved creative environments and the satisfaction it supplied. Throughout the nineties and beyond, Rob spent twelve years working in the culinary industry in and around the Boston area. During that period, he possessed an urge to write, mostly songs and short stories, and with that he created Ocean View Press, an entertainment magazine and publishing company. The first major project was extensive research into the history of the Boston music scene for a book now titled “The Sounds from Boston.” This project led to a freelance career in the local, as well as international music industry. From live reviews and album critiques to one-on-one interviews, it was fully embraced and fondly remembered. These days, Watts is in the process of completing his latest horror-themed project titled “The Crooked Roads through Cedar Grove” which is a collection of interrelated novellas released one-at-a-time over the span of two years, beginning with the paranormal thriller Huldufólk. T.C.R.T.C.G. is an epic mosaic of several intertwining tales and characters based in the small New England town of Cedar Grove. Combining sub-genres of horror and fantasy, Crooked Roads is an experimental approach at independent book releasing. Four stand-alone stories will be released one-at-a-time every few months, each accompanied with its own original soundtrack of music. In addition to his writing works, Rob is now one-half of a successful custom stainless steel design company based in Boston. He still loves to cook, build, review music and travel.
http://www.robwattsonline.com/
Kasey Shoemaker’s bio:
Shoemaker currently resides in Connecticut with her husband and a fur-kid, also known as a Boston Terrier. She received her MA in writing, media writing, and rhetoric from Trinity College in Hartford where her thesis was a novel about witchcraft. Having grown up in Florida, she still considers herself a transplant and misses the beach. However, she gladly trades the sunshine state for a place where she can watch the seasons change. Plus, she sunburns really easily.
In Florida, she studied at a small liberal arts school, which she attended on an academic scholarship. She majored in Psychology and minored in English. She was a member of the English honor society, Sigma Tau Delta, where she was integral in the decision to not put the initials on the group’s T-shirts.
Shoemaker has been writing since she was seven years old and has been known to author everything from poetry to blogs. But, the novel is her favorite medium. Also, she loves reading (a necessary addiction for writers), spending time with her husband, walking the dog, practicing yoga, and dancing when no one is home to witness it.
Dan Foley’s bio:
Foley is a fugitive from New Jersey who now lives in Connecticut with his wife. He developed his rather dark sense of humor while serving on nuclear submarines. Dan’s professional writing career started writing late in life, publishing his first short story at the age of fifty-seven. His stories have appeared in Maelstrom 1, Dark Notes From NJ, Nocturne Magazine, Wicked Karnival and Hellbound Book’s Damned Nation and Death Grip: Exit Laughing to name a few. A novel, Death’s Companion, will be published in the coming year.
Dan has six grandchildren, the oldest Caiti also enjoys a good horror tale. And as she tells her friends, “This is my grampa, don’t believe a thing he says.
Some past publications include:
It’s In The Bag, Cyber-Pulp’s Second Annual Halloween Anthology.
Talking To Robert, Be Mine Anthology, February 5, 2004.
Friends, Maelstrom 1 Anthology, Lighthouse Media One, December 2004.
The Sixth Victim, Anthology, Garden State Horror Writers, Dark Notes From NJ, March,
2005.
Premonitions, Nocturne Magazine, Issue 1.5, March, 2005. (UK)
Premonitions, No Longer Dreams Anthology, LiteCircle Books, April 2005. (USA)
Fat Tuesday, No Longer Dreams Anthology, LiteCircle Books, April 2005.
Future publications include:
The Yankee Cap, Dark Elation Volume One, Lighthouse Media One, December 2005.
Roses For My Lady, Contest Winner, Wicked Karnival Ezine, Issue 3, February, 2005.
The Yankee Cap, Nocturne Magazine, Issue 5.0, September, 2005. (UK)
Simon’s War, Damned Nation Anthology, Hell Bound Books, October 2005
Roses For My Lady, Wicked Karnival #3
Creepy Mouse, Wicked Karnival #4
The Merchant, The Witch, and the Christmas Tree, Wicked Karnival #5
Foley doesn’t have a website, but is planning on creating one in the future.
There are five authors signed up for this event so far. The response has been great. There is still room for more authors. If you would like to participate, email Jason Harris at dudley228@gmail.com.
ROCK AND SHOCK NEWS…putting the finishing touches on the booth schedule for Rock and Shock Oct. 14-16. Here’s a list of authors who will be appearing throughout the weekend. If you don’t see your name here and want to come there is still time. I particularly need extra folks on Sunday. Email me at tjmayhorror@gmail.com
T.J. May
Matt Bechtel
Bob Booth
Scott Goudsward
Stacy Longo
Jason Harris
Geoffrey Goodwin
Danny Evarts
Kelli Jones
Trisha Wooldridge
Jack Haringa
Jennifer Yarter
Tracy Carbone
Anthony Laquerre
Rob Watts
Larissa Glasser
Kristi Petersen Schoonover
Nathan Wrann
LL Soares
Paul McMahon
John M. McIlveen
Morven Westfield
Ken Wood
Jason Harris Promotions 