The Haunting World of Scowler

Young Adult author Daniel Kraus was kind enough to answer a few questions about SCOWLER, his latest release. Daniel “is a Chicago-based writer, editor, and filmmaker. His debut novel, THE MONSTER VARIATIONS, (Random House, 2009), was selected to New York Public Library’s “100 Best Stuff for Teens.” Fangoria called his …

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A Long Journey To Publication For A Story About Immortal Love

Guest Blogger: Alma Katsu Even though my first novel, THE TAKER, wasn’t published until last year, I’ve been writing on and off my entire life. However, my career in intelligence (yes, I worked for CIA) made it hard to pursue publication and I stopped writing for a long time. Then …

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Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones … The Power of Words

Guest Blogger: Jaime Rush Okay, it may be the writer in me, but I love the idea that words have real power. That old kid’s saying was wrong—“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” Words can hurt. How many times have we been hurt …

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Go Ahead, Watch TV and Movies

Guest Blogger: Martha Brockenbrough When I was growing up, my mom would let us know when—in her view—we’d had too much fun. My brothers and sisters and I jokingly called it TMF or “exceeding the fun quotient.” Mom used to feel the TV for telltale signs of warmth when she …

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“Extinction” in Slices of Flesh Anthology

I’m pleased to announce that my story “Extinction” is now published in SLICES OF FLESH: A Collection of Flash Fiction Tales from the World’s Greatest Horror Writers. Mike Mignola of Hellboy fame (with Dave Steward doing the color work) created the cover art. Net proceeds from the book go to various reading …

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Hooking the Reader

Guest Blogger: Dakota Banks Browsers in a bookstore scan the shelves, eyes moving rapidly from book to book. If your books are spine-out rather than face-out, you have only your title and your name to get the buyer to pick up your book. If your book is face-out, you have …

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Is There a Writer Gene?

Guest Blogger: Donna Galanti Is there a writer gene and is storytelling genetic?  NY Times Best Selling Author Jonathan Maberry thinks so. As a student in his Write a Novel in 9 Months class he noted that we either have the urge to write or we don’t. I believe this …

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Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling

I’m guest blogging over at “Biff Bam Pop!, a website devoted to the world of pop culture, from comic books and video games, to movies, books, and music. I’m talking about Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter and Clarice Starling and what makes them such an intriguing couple in their own twisted way. And I’ve …

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Zombies

Guest Blogger: Jonathan Maberry DUST & DECAY (Simon & Schuster) is the second in my series of post-apocalyptic thrillers set fifteen years after a zombie plague has wiped out most of mankind. Okay…if you’re still reading this then you haven’t been scared off by words like ‘post-apocalyptic’ and ‘zombie’.  Good …

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Monsters Who Have Touched Our Hearts

For WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE, we interviewed tons of experts about the struggle of good vs evil in film, comics, pop culture, world myth, literature, and the real world. Here’s what some of them have to say about which monsters in film or mythology touched their hearts. DOUG SCHOONER—King Kong …

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