The Blog Has Moved...Join the Party!

You are reading the final post to The Goreletter at this location.

This weblog has now been consolidated with Michael Arnzen's homepage at http://www.gorelets.com/blog/.

Read All About The Goreletter to learn more about the new blog. New posts have already been posted to the new blog, so please come join us!

I hope you will also take this moment to add it to your favorites/bookmarks, change any weblinks on your own sites... and if you use RSS, resubscribe to the fancy, improved new feed, as well. If you'd like to embed a graphic button into your website, I've got those, too, like so:

Just point your links to http://www.gorelets.com/blog/ and you'll be set! Thanks for your patience during this upheaval.

Yours,
Michael A. Arnzen

What A Limited Edition Looks Like

The book collector's website, Awful Books, has posted photographs of my limited edition novella, The Bitchfight, in the Bad Moon Books section of their gallery of collectable books.

Here you can see what a great job the publisher did with this exclusive collector's edition, signed, leatherbound in a deep crimson cover, with bonus art and an exclusive CD. The CD is called "Live and Vile," featuring an individualized "backmasked" message unique for each disc, the recording of a live performance (at Zombiefest 2007), and a cluster of remixes, rare demo versions and outtakes from my spoken word CD from Raw Dog Screaming Press (Audiovile). Only 26 copies of these books+cds were made, as it is a lettered edition. [Awful Books acquired the letter "V" which is even more unique because only the V, I, L, & E -lettered CDs were done in blue ink rather than red!] Like the "Grim Grimoire" edition of my novel, Play Dead, I think this is a neat production!

This book has been getting very positive reviews. The lettered edition sold out on publication, but signed trade paperbacks are still available at the Horror Mall.

gorelets.com is changing hosts

I'm in the process of changing webhosts for the gorelets.com domain -- the ISP I have had for that site since 2001 is going out of business and that means moving to a new host.

This shouldn't pose any major problems for visitors, but there may be unexpected site outages in the weeks ahead for gorelets.com and The Goreletter. This particular weblog will still be up and running; but I may take advantage of the new host to make some changes to how I run this blog, as well.

In any case, please keep checking back here if you find my web site is returning errors. If your e-mail to me gets bounced back, try sending it to arnzen@gmail.com as a temporary substitute.

Thanks for your patience and understanding. -- Mike Arnzen

Ragdoll Avalanche II

It's a dance with death! A simple idea, "executed" quite nicely beneath a rainstorm of blades.

http://www.ragdollsoft.com/ragdollavalanche/

Gorelets.com Back Up

The gorelets.com server was temporarily down from 4/15-18. If you tried to contact me during that time and did not succeed, please try again.

My ISP is changing hands, so it may be a bumpy ride over the next month or two. I might move the site to a new server, as well. If gorelets.com doesn't work, try the alternate domain, http://www.michaelarnzen.com.

-- Mike Arnzen

Goreletter 5.02 Mailed

The Goreletter Vol. 5, #2, with the title "Grim Henzen Productions" was mailed to subscribers on 02/Apr/2008 @ 11:20 pm est. It contains extra material not available here on the weblog version, including a subscriber-only contest where you can win a free DVD!

If you subscribe and did not receive this issue, e-mail me for a replacement or review the archives at gorelets.com.

Subscribe today...it's painless, fun and free! (Well...probably not completely pain-free). Issues are mailed only four times a year, so your inbox won't be glutted. -- Mike Arnzen

Proverbs For Monsters Wins Stoker Award!

I’m still stunned, so I’ll keep this relatively short...

The HWA’s Bram Stoker Awards were announced last night in Salt Lake City at the 2008 World Horror Convention. My book, PROVERBS FOR MONSTERS, tied for the win (along with Peter Straub for his wonderful book, 5 Stories) in the "Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection" category.

This is my fourth Stoker award for my horror writing and since this particular award is going to a book that collects stories from across my career, I’m obviously overjoyed.

I’ve posted a copy of my acceptance speech (read by Weston Ochse at the banquet) on gorelets.com, but here I just want to share the good news and to shout out a huge THANKS to the HWA and to anyone who has picked up my book and enjoyed it.

Here’s the full list of winners...and all of these books are just GREAT, so if you like horror fiction, this is the stuff you should be reading, folks!:

Bram Stoker Award Winners 2008

Superior Achievement in a Novel
THE MISSING by Sarah Langan (Harper)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel
HEART-SHAPED BOX by Joe Hill (William Morrow)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
AFTERWARD, THERE WILL BE A HALLWAY by Gary Braunbeck (Five Strokes to Midnight)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
THE GENTLE BRUSH OF WINGS by David Niall Wilson (Defining Moments)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology
FIVE STROKES TO MIDNIGHT edited by Gary Braunbeck and Hank Schwaeble (Haunted Pelican Press)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection (tie)
PROVERBS FOR MONSTERS by Michael A. Arnzen (Dark Regions Press)
5 STORIES by Peter Straub (Borderlands)

Superior Achievement in Nonfiction
THE CRYPTOPEDIA by Jonathan Maberry & David F. Kramer (Citadel Press / Kensington)

Superior Achievement in Poetry (tie)
BEING FULL OF LIGHT, INSUBSTANTIAL by Linda Addison (Space and Time)
VECTORS: A WEEK IN THE DEATH OF A PLANET by Charlee Jacob & Marge Simon (Dark Regions Press)

HWA Lifetime Achievement Award: John Carpenter & Robert Weinberg

***

For more information about the Bram Stoker award, visit the Horror Writers Association.

For more information about Proverbs for Monsters, see my website, Gorelets.com or pick up a copy at the Horror Mall.

Back to celebrating... Cheers! -- Mike Arnzen

squalid

"Squalid" refers to something filthy and repulsively foul -- like the living conditions of a cat collector with an affinity for gourmet cheese -- but to me it sounds even worse. When I hear the word "squalid" the very sound of the letters makes me think of a "squid" with a "wall" in the middle of it -- the wall of a nasal cavity. It also sounds sort of square, sort of solid, but not quite either of those -- more lumpy and slumping like some lesser Lovecraftian monstrosity. Yeah, Squalid is the younger brother of Nyarlathotep, but he isn't quite so scary -- he just sits on the couch all day, playing X-Box, festering in a pile of cookie crumbs and black ooze, sickly digging into an economy sized bag of Ctheetos every minute or two with a soiled tentacle, wiping the combined orange residue and ichor of his suction cups all over the arms of the sofa. As you can imagine, Squalid -- like most young tentacled creatures -- kind of smells bad, too.

His older brother, "squalor" is much smarter, an honor's student at Miskatonic U, majoring in Home Ick, and he's even currently on the Dean's List.