In 1985, the late, great J. N. (Jerry) Williamson wrote a little book called The New Devil's Dictionary: Creepy Cliches and Sinister Synonyms. (The title being an homage to Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary.) It was published by W. Paul Ganley, and it had an introduction by Ray Russell (also sadly now gone) and illustrations by J. K. Potter. It's a delightful little book - one can still get a copy from Ganley's location on Ebay - whose premise is to select words and phrases that are oft-used (and overused) by writers of horror fiction. (Williamson even provides a list of the authors he combed, and the percentage of these who used them.) But the greatest thing about the book ... (more…)

The End Is Near?

There have been reams of writings claiming that on December 21, 2012 (the winter solstice), the world will end, or at least a major change in it will occur. In fact, on a train trip to New York, I saw graffiti on a wall, "2012: The End."

Not to mention, on the fiction front, the global disaster novels and movies that are the particular staple of us horror fans.

The most significant basis for these writings is that that date is the end of the Mayan calendar, and that is sort of scary.

But as to some other predicted events around that year, and as to ends in general, I respectfully beg to differ.

It won't be the beginning of the Age of Aquarius. The most accepted year for that ... (more…)

Okay, so you get a totally bad review - of your book, your movie, your music CD, whatever.

And I don't mean the sort of review that says your current thing isn't up to par, there's room for improvement, etc.

No, I mean the sort that says you, as a creator, are total shit, that everything you've ever done is likewise, and that you, and it, had best never been born.

The sort that, if applied to them, would say that Al Pacino should have chosen another profession, or that Jesus Christ should have kept making tables and chairs.

Sure, you're not saying you're Pacino or J.C. And you're not saying no one has room for improvement, since you've been helped by some lukewarm reviews over the years.

But ... (more…)

File this one under 'Humorous Anecdote'

When I started sending out press releases for my novel Johnny Gruesome, one of them was inexplicably posted by a news feed service for John McCain supporters. Apparently, the person in charge of the site picked up on the words "Johnny" and "McCain" (as in artist Zach McCain) and determined a heavy metal zombie character was his candidate!

Then, of course, Johnny Gruesome announced his own presidential ambitions. Johnny is neither a Democrat nor a Republican (although his long hair, taste in music, and illegal habits make him an unlikely Establishment Figure); he's the face of the new Zombie Reform Party.

Now comes this message from Robert Tomaro, ... (more…)

Okay, it's time for some interactive here.

You do that by hitting the Comment button below.

The topic: What are your top five humorous horror movies?

(Not necessarily in order, to make it easier?)

But first, my top five scary ones:

Psycho. I'm old enough to have seen this first-run in a theater, when no one knew the ending, or remotely guessed it. And believe me, the impact was incredible; it was a watershed in horror flicks.

Rosemary's Baby. Once again, a totally unguessed ending, or better yet, one that you think might happen but have decided won't.

The Exorcist. Nothing like religion combined with horror, just as Cecil B. DeMille invented the magic ... (more…)

A Visit from Old Nick

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the mansion
Not a creature was stirring, not even Charles Manson:
The leather boots hung by the chimney in pairs,
In hopes that Old Nick himself soon would be there;
Devil's children were nestled all fierce in their beds,
While visions of bloodletting danced in their heads;
And mamma with her piercings and I all tattooed,
Had just settled down for weird sex and taboo,
When out on the lawn their arose such a screaming,
I sprang from the bed to see if I was dreaming.

Away to the window I moved as undead,
Tore open ... (more…)

There's a great passage in Masonic ritual (FYI, I'm a Knight Templar), to the effect that young people don't think about death because it's far in the future, and old people don't because it's so near. But of course, those of us who are in the horror field, whatever our ages, think about it all the time.

And for my part, I've come to the conclusion that in the literal end, death isn't serious, but funny. Why? Because anything (actually the only thing) you can't escape, and not a single creature can, should either make you kill yourself in despair as soon as you know it's going to happen (say when you're age six), or make you laugh at it, since there's definitely no middle ground. As ... (more…)

I'm going to venture to take you into the literary past, hopefully to show that horror, and the dark humor of it, are timeless indeed. Like they say, everything old is new again - and everything you may think is new, is old.

So - have you ever heard of Dorothy Parker?

I think you should have, since I submit she was the first American woman poet of darkness, Poe having been the first male one. But while Edgar never cracked a smile, Dottie always wore a mordant grin, at the sick joke life could be.

I even think that with her black hair and dresses, her haunted eyes, and especially her whole attitude, she was the first woman Goth. If she were alive now, she'd probably have white ... (more…)

To be a horror writer or publisher - or for that matter, a writer or publisher of any kind - one always needs to have a sense of humor. That's because, as John Steinbeck wrote, "The profession of book-writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business."

So, to start this column off, here are a few humorous things that have happened to me and to others in the field along the way.

When Marty Greenberg was soliciting stories for his anthology Vampire Detectives were vampires!

When I was designing my edited and published anthology Voices from the Night (Maclay & Associates, 1994), I became strangely enamored with the color scheme of brown and black for the cover. ... (more…)