Eat me! Thanksgiving Horror

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I got to thinking (dangerous, I know), what horror stories go well with this holiday? And eventually, it came to me: Cannibalism stories!

So let's hear it, what are some of your favorite stories involving cannibalism, either in books, short stories, or film? I want to hear about all sorts of stories that involve people eating people in all of its various forms.

By the way, the photo is from my Facebook group. You can join us here.

My First Scholarship Haul

I received my first haul from the Horror Writers Association Rocky Wood Memorial scholarship for Non Fiction Writing recently (pictured above). I'm pretty sure the contents at this stage will make sense only to me, but I will attempt to explain them anyway.

The books with the face cover are my methodology, Kenneth Burke's dramatistic pentad (or pentad on dramatism). It is considered a pragmatic approach to analyzing literature, or any other rhetoric. I will post more thoroughly on this at a future date.

Next to Burke is the first film purchase, Jess Franco's Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein. I have a few other outlets to get films, but am pretty sure I will not be able to get this one from any other source, so I placed it in this first order. It's also a film I've been trying to hunt down for about 20 years. Jess Franco is (sort of) the Ed Wood of Europe, I like to call him. He makes horrible films, but has a certain amount of enthusiasm for the horror genre, which I can very much appreciate.

Below that are two books that I chose to order first because I think I can use them for far more than just this project. The Golden Turkey Awards is a list of the worst movies ever made. It didn't have as many Frankenstein films in it as I had hoped, but it is a fun read.

Next to that is a far more serious study, that of homosexuality in film, The Celluloid Closet. It is essential for one chapter, but it is a very important chapter, the one on James Whale's Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, which I will examine together. Whale was one of the first openly gay figures in Hollywood. I would also like to use the book to write another article or two on Whale and the horror genre in general that will be separate from this book project. The book doesn't look exclusively at horror, but LGBTQ images in Hollywood.

I've also finalized the title of my book, Franksploitation and the Rhetoric of Filmed Frankenstein. I will be posting much more about it in the future, so please keep checking back, and don't be afraid to subscribe.

My First Pitch Party

I'd been reading for some time that Twitter is the place for writers these days so I joined a while back. From there I learned that they occasionally have pitch parties, where agents and presses ask you to pitch your book using a specific hashtag. If any agents or acquisitions editors favorite ❤ your pitch, they are asking you send them a query.

The pitch party I participated in was specifically for horror and dark fiction, with the hashtag #PitDark, and here is what I learned. I made several pitches (the rules stated it was okay to make up to one pitch per hour), one general, and several pitches from the perspective of some of the main characters. Only one of my pitches received a ❤, but it was from two different acquisitions editors. This helped me figure out what kind of posts attract the most attention from decision makers in the publishing industry. When I sent the query I changed it a bit to better match the successful Tweet. And by the way, it hinged on the stakes of the story. So makes the stakes large and important.

Last night I sent my two queries, a little wiser about how to write them. By the way the winning Tweet was:

"The Times of London reporter, Leonard Atmore, has been handed the strangest story of his career, but it is so fantastic that if he prints it no one will believe him and his career will be ruined. If he doesn’t print it, hell could take over the earth."

Meantime, don't forget to eat your Monsters cereals. It's that time of year again.

Photos from Monster Fest 2018

Here are some photos of my presentation, Franksploitation, Frankenstein exploitation films from the 1950s to the 1970s, at this year's Monster Fest. I'll provide more information on this even soon.

About That Scholarship

Last blog post I talked about some recent successes I've had as a writer. It's been a while, but I finally have a few. On the other hand, I also had another rejection letter in my inbox the other day too. Anyway, the biggest of those success was winning the Horror Writers Association Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship for Non-Fiction Writing. This has led to some interesting developments so far. One of the schools I work for, Paul D Camp Community College, set me up to be interviewed by the local newspaper, the Suffolk New Herald,  for an article. I also notified my alma mater magazines. We'll see if they choose to cover this or not.

This is not some ego burst, but an attempt to draw up some interest in the project to hopefully sell books whenever I can finish it and get it to an agent and/or publisher. I'm also working on a presentation for Monster Fest next week on this very project.

I actually applied to both the Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship and the regular HWA Scholarship. Sometimes you have to throw your hat into many rings before one decides to take you in, just like my last blog post, "Throwing Shit Against the Wall." After they reviewed all applicants for several weeks, I received an email asking if I could be more specific about what I will do with their funds. So I did several things to accomplish this. The easiest was to create a wish list on Amazon.com.

I also knew I might need money for photos for the book, but I had no idea about the legalities of even using photos for books. I did know one thing, however, I knew David J. Skal wrote what I consider the best horror book I've ever read (and I've read a few), with The Monster Show. I friended Skal on Facebook, and interacted with him enough. This was not enough for me to say I "knew him" but enough to know he seems very approachable about this topic. So I Googled his name and found his author page, which provided me with his email, and I asked him about how to get photos. He proved to be as approachable as I previously thought as he replied to my email within 2 hours. I added this to my budget.

The third part of my budget was to purchase research articles. I work for two different higher education facilities, which allow me access to their article databases. These databases are enormous, and can provide a large amount of the information I'll need to write the book for free. However, while the majority of these articles are free, sometimes you have get an inter-library loan to get some of the articles. And these inter-library loan articles are often not free. I searched for some articles I knew I would have to pay for to get an idea of how much to budget for this. I found two articles that I felt were exemplary, one cost $6 and the other $36. So I budgeted as though these were the higher end and lower end of the articles I'd need.

They reviewed this for about another week or so, and then sent me an email telling me I won the scholarship. Now some of my colleagues at Paul D Camp are asking if I can do a presentation on my progress as I go. And I still need to contact someone to help me with the methodology, but that's a topic for another blog post.

Throwing Shit Against the Wall

I am from a blue-collar town in Pennsylvania, Erie to be exact. For whatever reason, everything up there relates back to various excrements and the crotch. We don't say a business went belly up, we say it went "tits-up." If an idea didn't work out, we say it "shit the bed." It's just part of the colorful way we talk.

So when we're trying all sorts of things to be successful, sometimes we'll say we're just "throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks." For some time now, I've been doing just that, and FINALLY, I have a few things that have stuck. Mind you, most of these things I was working on all summer in the hopes of drumming up some business during my slow time of the year as adjunct faculty. But then when things began to come in, it really began to pour.

First off, I spent part of my summer shopping my resume and a few clippings around to a few of the newspapers in the area to try and drum up business, keep busy, and bring in a few extra dollars. Well, they finally got back to me as soon as classes started again. I'll still work in a few articles into my busy schedule. I feel it is important for a writing teacher to continue writing for an audience anyway. And getting paid for it is always better than not.

Then the poem I sold at the beginning of summer is finally published in Teach. Write. Here it is. I seem to have a regular place to publish some of my more literary works since this is the second time they published my work. I have a personal essay I worked on over the summer that still needs some work, but when I do send it out, I will likely send it to them first. I like the publication a lot, and I think the piece is a good fit for them anyway. Their homepage is here.

Third, and most importantly, I just won the Horror Writers Association Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship for Non-Fiction Writing for a non-fiction book idea I have on the history of Frankenstein in film. This is actually a really big deal. They split the award between myself and another writer, Joseph Maddrey, who seems like a real heavyweight, having published eight books and written and produced over 50 hours of documentary television. It's a tremendous honor just to be named in the same breath with someone with these kinds of accomplishments.

I'm sure I'll post much more about this scholarship and the project in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, since winning this scholarship, I've received two more rejection letters in my email, but somehow, they don't seem so bad now.

The Return of Professor Staff

"Hello, I am Professor Staff," is one of my favorite ice breakers when starting off a new academic year. Some students get it, and some don't, but that's not the point. The point is you have to start with something, and it's often best to start with trying to get nervous people to laugh. At times, I've worked that into an entire stand-up routine. "What is this, a classroom or a yearbook picture?" or "Come on, I know you're out there, I can hear you withdrawing" are two of my other favorites (and there's always extra credit for anyone who knows anything about Henny Youngman).

Next week I go back into the classroom to teach college freshmen English composition courses. I enjoy my job immensely. I am only adjunct faculty, however, so that makes pay short, and pay periods awkward, but I'm not here to talk about that today. I enjoy helping students express themselves with words in ways they never thought they were capable. So after a few icebreakers, of course we start going over the syllabus, and talking about college expectations.

I've enjoyed my time off for the summer too. I'm nearly done with my honey-do list, like painting the living room. I also used a lot of time to write and submit. I also taught two summer courses, but that is a far cry from the 7 courses I am about to teach during the fall semester. I am always a bit nervous this time of year. Each new class has its own personality. I think I will continue to be nervous if I'm doing this 20 years from now. It's one of those things where if you're not nervous you're probably not doing something right.

So wish me luck, and if you didn't get the joke, adjunct faculty often appear in course catalogs as "Staff." Here's to (hopefully) another great semester for Professor Staff.

Getting Paid to Write Fiction (and Poetry)

I sold a poem a few weeks ago. I sold it to Teach. Write. which is the publication I sold a short story earlier this year. It is a small literary publication that pays token payments to its contributors. It is a very small payment, but the amount isn't the point. The point is that I found someone willing to pay me to write: fiction and poetry.

Perhaps then today's blog is a good time to talk about getting paid for writing fiction and poetry.

literary magazines, whether they cater to any particular genre or not, fall into four different categories: non-paying markets, token paying markets, semi-pro rates, and professional paying markets. I'll look at each going from lowest to highest paying markets.

The lowest is of course, zero. the non-paying markets will agree to publish your work, but will not pay you. There is some debate about whether markets that pay in copies of the publication should be lumped here or if they should be added to token paying markets, but I believe there is a majority who believe they belong in the non-paying category. This is becoming a moot point because the majority of these markets are now websites or some other online form these days. I do not submit my work to non-paying markets. It's not that the money is the issue, but the prestige. I just need someone to say this piece that I wrote is worth something, even if it is some small amount. For me, there has to be some acknowledgment that what I wrote was "good." (A subjective statement at any level).

Then we get to the token paying markets. These generally pay some small, flat rate for contributors. While many would debate where the defining line is, most would say the lowest rates are around $5 and go as high as $25. However, I think most would say they really end when you get paid by the word, a penny per word or so. This is where I am as a writer currently, although I have submitted to higher paying markets in the past and received rejection slips from them. I do have a few stories out in consideration at higher paying markets at the present time, and I feel they have a better chance this time around, I have not made any of these sales yet.

Then we get to semi-pro rates. According to Duotrope's Glossary of Terms, semi-pro rates go from 1 penny per word to 5 cents per word. If you don't know, Duotrope is an online listing of publications for, mainly, short stories and poetry. They used to be free, but now charge for their service. If curious, Write Good Books uses the same payment scale, so I would say it is likely very accurate.

Finally, there are the professional payment rates, which is essentially anything over 5 cents per word. Some may even pay royalties, but I believe those are anthology books only, and even then it is pretty rare, unless you are a big name in your genre.

One thing to keep in mind is that money should always flow to the writer. Many people have gone broke in the pursuit of becoming an author, and many others have gotten rich by taking their money for very little service in return. Be careful, but that doesn't mean isn't always to your best advantage to spend money to make money. This is another reason I don't submit to non-paying markets, but if you are desperate to get published, and have been turned down numerous times, sure go ahead and submit to them. Also remember that non-paying does not mean they are scammers. A scam will ask you for money for the "privilege" of publishing your work. Good luck and stay safe out there. And remember:

My Writing Life Lately

Every once in a while, I should do a post about what I've been working on, and that will be today's post. First off, my house is finally calming down after my dad's passing. We emptied out some of the house and toted it back to Virginia. I finally got the last of those boxes put away today. I've done a little writing and submitting, so this is what I've been working on.

I finally finished my latest short story, "The Gargoyle Chair", and submitted it to a horror magazine and anthology last night. It's a weird fiction story. This publication pays pro rates, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I also submitted a poem to a publication that published me before. I received an email confirmation today, and apparently the lady running the publication remembered me. That's a good feeling, but certainly not any sort of guarantee. More fingers crossed.

I also pitched an article idea to a newsletter. I heard back, but have not received a green light yet. I'm hoping it pans out because it will involve some horror research. I don't want to name any of these publications in a public forum like this unless they green light my stories for obvious reasons. running out of fingers, so toes crossed on this one.

I submitted my current novel, The Sorcerer, to another agent. We'll see how that goes.

I contacted the Horror Writers Association about getting me into their mentoring program for some research I did a while back. I'm trying to do more research, so I can get into a PhD program next year.

Finally, I managed to find a slew of literary journals that cater to horror fiction and films, thanks to the Horror Writers Association. I've been researching each one of them, and going through papers I wrote back in college to see what can be shaped up to send to some of these, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet.

I guess that's about it for now. Here's a shot of the desk I used to use. I'll get a shot of my current writing space once I get my room straightened out.

How to write a Eulogy

I wrote my first eulogy recently. My father passed away, and I felt obligated as the family writer to write one for him. That's him pictured with me in the late 1970s at my grandparents' house. I'm not sure I'm really over it yet, as I've found it very hard to do any writing since he passed almost two weeks ago. His eulogy was the last thing I wrote until this blog post.

I feel I did really well on the eulogy and received several positive comments, so I thought I would post today about how I went about writing it.

First off, I approached the eulogy as a college essay, with an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. I even included a thesis statement. Basically, mine was that my father had a rough upbringing but fought to become a very good person in the end. There was a lot more to it than that, but for the purposes of a how to blog post, I think that suffices.

Then I went through the various stages of his life. His upbringing, how his father built their house (and my father and his brother continued working on it until it finally sold in the early 2000s). Something about his time in the army, and then of course how he met my mother. A little something about when my sister was born and then when I was born, and finally the end concluded that portion.

But to ensure things do not become too sappy or depressing, it is good to put in a few humorous stories. I had one that everyone commented on afterward. It was about how my father used to teach me things, such as when he would play board games with me when I was a child, he would never let me win. When I asked if he could let me win, he would tell me that's not how life works, you have to work for everything. Later, when I married and we had a child, my daughter would play board games with my father (her grandfather), and he would ALWAYS let her win.

I finished up with a positive note, which I think is also important in writing a eulogy. I talked about how my dad didn't like to look back but forward to the future. To keep growing, and advancing, and moving forward. So here's to you dad, I finally put down a few words since your eulogy. Here's hoping I get down a lot more.

I Joined Another Professional Organization

Part of the purpose of this blog, like many other blogs out there, to share information, right? So when I figure something out I should share it with the world, or least with the few people who click on my blog (and yes, I do watch you guys, and appreciate the traffic). So not too long ago, I was sharing my Curriculum Vitae with a colleague at one of the schools I work at and she suggested I join the National Council of Teachers of English, another professional organization for English teachers, including those teaching at the college level.

I've often hesitated joining these types of organizations, partially because I don't make much money. But also because at times I ask myself if this is really "pay for play." I really try to avoid such things, even the ones that are legitimate. I don't want to give them a bad name here, especially because I just joined some. And perhaps this apprehension was just me being green about the topic.

So I have changed my tune, as I now belong to not one but two professional organizations, the Horror Writers Association, and now this, the NCTE. These organizations do provide access to needed resources, such as places to submit work for publication. They show you are a serious writer, researcher, or educator. They also provide access to other professional development resources, such as conventions, symposiums, and calls for submissions.

So it looks like this is the next step in my journey of writing and publishing. Meanwhile, it's almost the end of the semester and I'm trying to get through grading stacks of papers and exams that look like this:

Researching the Research

It's been a while since I posted here, partially because it's getting to be the end of the semester, and I'm up to my elbows in papers to grade. This will continue until the end of the semester when all grades have to be turned in on May 8. Therefore, my posts here may be a little sparse until then.

Anyway, since it looks like I need to try and bulk up my nonfiction credits to get into a terminal degree program (which I sometimes refer to lovingly as a terminal illness), I've decided to start looking over a few items I wrote during my previous two master's programs (yes, I have two master's degrees). I'm updating a few items, including links, as some of them are now dead. Even some of the citation styles have changed slightly since then.

In other words, I've been researching the research. I have several items I feel may be good enough to publish, if I can find the right market for them. It takes a bit of a brain shift to move from fiction to nonfiction writing, especially nonfiction writing that requires research. I've also been making lists of new articles I want to write this summer. As adjunct faculty, I have a lighter schedule over the summer, so I will have more time to write.

The hard part was coming to the conclusion that to get into a PhD program you have to have already published research, even though avenues to publish are fewer and farther between when not in a graduate program. It's that age-old question, how do you research outside of a PhD program, and how do you get into a PhD program without having conducted research.

Meanwhile, I've also been researching not only other PhD programs, so I don't make the same mistake of only applying to one, and being screwed if I don't get in, but I'm also researching MFA programs. It was my original plan when I graduated with my bachelor's and moved out of my parents' house to get a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing. Like a PhD, it is also considered a terminal illness, er, I mean terminal degree. I settled on a regular master's degree in English instead. I'd like to say I should have gone for the MFA all along, but looking back, I'm not so sure I would have gotten in then anyway.

Wish me luck on publishing and getting back into school, and I'll wish you luck in all you do too. Meanwhile, here's shot of me presenting my (in)famous Ed Wood paper I wrote in my master's program at last year's Monster Fest.

Good News and Bad News

It's been a few weeks, and I have good news a bad news. I also have a LOT of personal strife going on which I will not get into here.

Anyway, the good news is that one of my stories was published recently. This was "An Unlucky Day" and I'll post the link in a minute. I first wrote the story in a Creative Writing class as an undergraduate in the 1990s. I always liked the story, and it was one of the first items I ever sent to a literary journal. Although it was rejected, even in its first submission, I was given encouragement to the send the publication more of my work. I sent it out about another half dozen times to various publications, and never heard a peep until it sold in February.

I also changed the ending about five hundred times. Ok, it was probably more like 5, but it felt like a lot more. The trouble was part of the assignment was NOT to write an ending, something I was unsure of at first, but the professor explained that it was because students often concentrate too much on the endings of their stories. It did help me concentrate more on developing the characters and the story itself, which is why I believe he wanted us to do it that way. But then I graduated, and if that story was ever going to be published, it needed an ending. I was trying to come up with a more literary ending, but it was a bit of a dark comedy. Finally, I decided to just give it the ending people would expect out of it, and finally it sold.

So without further ado, here's "An Unlucky Day" at Page and Spine.

Then there's the bad news: I did not get into the graduate school PhD in English program I wanted. :-(

Such is life I suppose. I'm not exactly sure why I was not accepted because I only received a form letter. I have two theories though. One is because I don't have any research credits (although I do have a few fiction credits). But then the question becomes, how do you get research credits outside of a PhD program, and how do you get into a PhD program without research credits. My other theory is that academia is beginning to think I'm too old. I hope it was the former and not the latter. Tata for now.

Publishing and Grad School

It's been an up and down week for me. It started off great as I sold another short story this week (Yippie!). Two short stories in two weeks is nothing even close to anything I ever experienced before. Both were stories I wrote in a creative writing class I took as an undergrad. I will again provide more details about where and when my work can be found as the time grows closer (should be some time toward the end of March).

I also received a rejection e-mail (my knee-jerk reaction is to still call them "letters") for one of the stories I sold, and another one earlier this week for several poems I submitted. Then I woke up this morning to an e-mail informing me one of the publications where my work will be published will be presented (although my specific work will not be presented) at a conference in April.

Meanwhile, I had been playing telephone tag with a head of the English Ph.D. program where I had applied. This was not specifically to inform her of these two recent publications, but I figured as long as I have her one the line, I might try to mention this fact. I finally caught this lady on the phone today. We had a decent talk and I asked a few of my other questions I had about touring the campus and discussing the program with others there. I mentioned the two publishing successes I recently received (which were not included in my curriculum vitae because they occurred after it was submitted), and she was quite unimpressed. She kept saying she didn't want to read them, even though I made no indication I wanted her to read them, just to acknowledge I two new publications not present on CV. The only thing I thought she might be interested in seeing were the acceptance e-mails to prove I was telling the truth.

I've had a similar experience when I joined the Horror Writers Association in reverse. In this case, I was trying to show that I have experience with research and teaching in writing and was wondering if I could qualify under the scholarly membership.

My question is why is there such as growing gap between the production of research and creative fiction? If one can produce literary fiction, one would think that in itself would count (even tenuously) as research in the field. If I can research horror one would think that would (again, perhaps tenuously) count as some of production in the genre.

Anyway, this was not intended as a rant or a vent or even a criticism of either field, just trying get someone out there to think about things. Anyway, in the meantime, here's a jack-o-lantern I made this past Halloween.

I FINALLY Sold a Short Story!

Yay! It has been a long time since I sold anything, seven years to be exact. But now the drought has ended. I should also point out that I have not been submitting very many short stories or poems during much of that seven years (although I have submitted a few items). Much of that time has been spent submitting my current novel, The Sorcerer, rewriting it, sending it out some more, and working on two other rough drafts of novels.

Then I finally got a hair up my ass. I looked at my spreadsheet of all the things I've ever submitted for publication, my novel, short stories, and poems. I decided to try a tactic that I'd used before to get my work published, and sent everything I have out to one publication or another. Everything! When I stopped and looked at everything I had, I remembered a few pieced I had retired a few years ago. I realized that one piece had only been sent out once since I rewrote it. So I thought, what the hell, let's go ahead and send that one out, too.

I never really liked that rewrite. It was originally a story I wrote 20 years ago for my Creative Writing class for my undergraduate degree. The assignment was to include a song I really liked. After I graduated, I tried getting some of my works published, but I already knew what the problem would be with this one piece. It included a song that was copywritten material. No one would ever publish it due to the legalities. So I eventually got around to rewriting it and taking out the copywritten song and replaced it with a generic "Irish drinking song," as I describe it in the short story.

But I thought it would never work. The piece was so much better with the copywritten song. So I only sent it out once in that form, and it was quickly rejected. I left it alone and forgot about it. Life got in the way and when I had time to write I concentrated on writing other things. Then as noted above, I decided to send out everything I have, and sometimes to multiple publications, and finally, this past Wednesday, I received an e-mail accepting my short story for publication. When I receive more information I will reveal the publication and issue the piece will appear.

I've often heard that the artist is often unaware of what their best work is, but I'd never experienced it myself. I guess this is my first time with that story to add to my repertoire. For now, here's a picture of a Shamrock Shake, which should be returning soon, because my story included an Irish drinking song, and for a little more luck.

Please, Reject Me.

It seems like an odd thing to ask for rejection, but that's exactly what I'm about to do. Like anything else, the writing and publishing world is changing. One of the ways that it is changing is that many publications now allow simultaneous submissions. That means I can now submit my story to more than one publication at a time, and that is a good thing. I can cover more ground in much quicker time. However, the reason this rule changed for many (but still not nearly all) publications, is because very few writers were actually listening to this rule request in the first place. So many of the publications simply gave up trying, figuring most (although likely not all) writers were simply not listening to it (although I always did).

So now we are allowed to submit our work to as many publications as allow simultaneous submissions. But in the olden times we writers also received rejection letters. We were supposed to submit to one publication at a time, and after a few weeks or months we received a rejection letter in the mail (provided we remembered to include a self addressed stamped envelope). Very often, they were simply form rejection letters, but it was still some notification that your work was not wanted. But as time went on, fewer and fewer publications were sending out rejection letters, to a point where it seemed like almost no one was sending them out anymore. So allowing simultaneous submissions became virtually essential to anyone who wished to be published. How am I supposed to know my work was free to send to another publication if no one ever bothered to send me a rejection letter?

Now there are still a few publications left that request an exclusive look at your work. "No simultaneous submissions" it will read somewhere on their submission guidelines. Fair enough. But here is my point of writing this blog on this subject this week. If you request an exclusive look at my work, you had damn well better send me a rejection letter letting me you are not interested in it, so I know when it is time to peddle my wares elsewhere.

Recently, when I checked a website where I submitted my work, and this particular website requested no simultaneous submissions, the website stated they made all of their editorial decisions and already chose the work they wanted. And I never received anything one way or the other. Yes, publishers, there really are some writers who listen to your requests, and follow them to the letter. If you allow simultaneous submissions and don't send out rejection letters, I have no beef with you. But, if you request an exclusive look at someone's work, you should at least have the courtesy of sending out rejection letters to people who didn't make the cut. This doesn't strike me as an unreasonable request. Rant over.

CC's Top 100 Classic Horror Movies

I’ve created my list of the top 100 Classic Horror movies of all time. “Classic” is here defined as being released in or before 1976. Feel free to criticize it, deconstruct it, or if you feel appropriate, praise it. What movies did I miss? What did I rate too high? Or too low? What did I get just right? Anyway, here’s my list, and if you have enough gumption, feel free to post your own top 100list or top 10, or whatever, just have fun with it.

1. King Kong (33)

2. Psycho

3. Bride of Frankenstein

4. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (20)

5. Jaws

6. Witchfinder General / The Conqeror Worm

7. Dracula (31)

8. Pit and the Pendulum

9. Frankenstein (31)

10. Night of the Living Dead

11. The Invisible Man

12. Phantom of the Opera (25)

13. The Exorcist

14. The Mummy (32)

15. The Thing From Another World

16. The Old Dark House

17. Masque of the Red Death

18. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

19. Black Sunday

20. Invasion of the Body Snatchers

21. Horror of Dracula

22. Freaks

23. Blacula

24. Texas Chainsaw Massacre

25.The Black Cat (34)

26. White Zombie

27. A Clockwork Orange

28. Bedlam

29. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (39)

30. The Wolf Man

31. Rebecca

32. Nosferatu (22)

33. Theatre of Blood

34. Cape Fear (62)

35. Sweeny Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

36. The Body Snatcher

37. Mad Love

38. The Curse of Frankenstein

39. Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde (31)

40. House of Wax

41. House on Haunted Hill

42. Creature from the Black Lagoon

43. Phantom of the Opera (62)

44. The Unholy Three (30)

45. Gojira / Godzilla, King of the Monsters

46. Vertigo

47. Deep Red

48. I Was a Teenage Werewolf

49. The H-Man

50. The Raven (35)

51. Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde (41)

52. Little Shop of Horrors (60)

53. The Lost World (20)

54. The Blob

55. Castle of Blood

56. The Beast of 20,000 Fathoms

57. The Giant Gila Monster

58. Curse of the Werewolf

59. The Abominable Dr. Phibes

60. Dead Men Walk

61. The Birds

62. Mystery of the Wax Museum

63. The Last Man on Earth

64. Island of Lost Souls

65. The Monster (25)

66. Doctor X

67. Them!

68. The Raven (63)

69. The Cat People

70. Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror

71. Destroy All Monsters

72. The Mad Monster

73. Die! Monster, Die!

74. Murders in the Rue Morgue (32)

75. The Black Room

76. Werewolf of London

77. The Flesh Eaters

78. Plan 9 From Outer Space

79. Black Friday

80. The Haunted Palace

81. Hunchback of Notre Dame (22)

82. Rodan

83. Two Thousand Maniacs

84. Frenzy

85. Nightmare Castle

86. The Beast with 5 Fingers

87. The She Beast

88. King Kong Vs. Godzilla

89. The Killer Shrews

90. The Ape Man

91. Dr. Phibes Rises Again

92. Tower of London (63)

93. Hunchback of the Morgue

94. Don’t Look in the Basement

95. Revenge of Frankenstein

96. Black Sabbath

97. House of Dracula

98. Dracula, Prince of Darkness

99. The Leopard Man

100. The Mad Magician

I am a Monster Kid, and What That Means

I grew up a monster kid. I'm not exactly sure what that even means, but it's a label being used a lot these days. There is even a quick guide to help determine if you, too are a monster kid on this blog.

To the best of my knowledge it simply means I loved monsters when I was a little kid growing up. According to many articles, I'm in good company. There is an entire magazine dedicated to monster kids. According to one source, the term was not coined until 1995 by someone on the internet. Forrest J. Ackerman can certainly count himself as one of the original monster kids. In modern times, Guillermo del Toro can certainly count himself as a monster kid. Certainly, Author Ray Bradbury, and Moviemaker Ray Harryhausen are counted as other famous monster kids.

To my understanding, a monster kid is simply anyone who grew up watching and loving monster movies. One of my earliest memories of my love for monster movies was when the 1976 version of King Kong was first released on television in a two night event, and my grandfather encouraged me to sit with him and watch it when he was babysitting me. I was immediately hooked on King Kong.

It's sometimes funny how one small event in your childhood can have such a large role in developing who you become later in life. It makes one wonder if, for instance, I would have grown an interest in monster movies anyway, or if this event was the cause of it all.

Anyway, after that, I was in the library with my mother one day when I found the Ian Thorne Monsters series of books on Kong, Godzilla, Frankenstein, Dracula, and all the rest of the great monsters. I read them all several times. Every time I went to the library, either public or at school, I would check out one of these books, or another one similar on monster movies, how to make them, the actors who played in them, or anything else on the topic. Then one day in the third grade, I found the novelization of King Kong by Delos Lovelace, and it became the first real book I read.

Like most monster kids, I then found a hosted horror movie show in my area. It was The Late Great Horror Show on WJET-TV channel 24 in Erie, Pa. Here I finally found some of the most famous horror monsters such as The Mummy's Curse, Frankenstein, and what became my favorite, Godzilla!

A few years later, we got cable. This opened up a whole new world of television to my developing young mind. Included in that world was certainly the world of monsters, particularly those on WWOR channel 9 in New York on Thanksgiving Day and the Friday afterward. But I could still never catch the 1933 version of King Kong, nor could I catch another favorite of mine, King Kong vs. Godzilla. Then one night, King Kong vs. Godzilla was scheduled to come on the other cable channel 9, WGN in Chicago. I snuck up, and watched it in the middle of the night. Finally, a brand new cable channel came out called American Movie Classics, and they aired the original Kong and Son of Kong.

At the beginning of each week, I used to (and still do quite often, actually) check the television schedule to see what monster movies were coming on that week. Then my whole week was scheduled around the movies that would air. This was just before my family got a VCR. When we did, Godzilla, King of the Monsters on another hosted horror movie show, Super Scary Saturday on WTBS, hosted by Grandpa Munster, was one of the first thing I recorded, and King Kong on AMC (back when American Movie Classics actually showed classic American movies) was soon after.

Fast forward a few more years, and I was in my early twenties. I had rediscovered a lot of those famous monster movies, such as Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man, and all the other Universal horror monster movies.

But by this time I was looking for something a little bit more. I wanted to discover the original stories that these movies came from. One day I borrowed The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and read it in one day. This made me thirsty for the other original horror and sci-fi monster stories. I got a copy of Dracula by Bram Stoker, and this became my all time favorite novel, and shortly after Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. At this point I was hooked for life. There's no turning back now.

As an adult, I now have become a collector of action figures, which are pictured throughout this article. I'm sure there are many other Monster Kids out there. I hope this lends a little light on what that means.

Why writers need to make New Year's Resolutions

It is a new year, and time to make those promises to yourself that (hopefully) you will keep the whole year through. It is very rare that I make New Year's resolutions because I want to be sure to keep them. The ones I have made and been able to keep include no longer flipping off other drivers in the car, and that one still gives me trouble from time to time.

But as writers, we all have an obligation to make that same resolution year after year, even if we are sure it will not be kept. But hopefully we will keep those resolutions. You know, the ones like, lose weight, exercise more, stop drinking (yeah right), save money, and as writers we all have to make the resolution to write more. Therefore, everyone raise your right hand and repeat after me:

"I promise to watch only the Ren and Stimpy Show, to make underleg noises during the good scenes, to wear unwashed lederhosen every single day, for the rest of my life."

No wait, that's the wrong resolution. Here is the correct one:

"I promise to write more this year and be distracted less, to finish my major projects, and to submit my work until I become a published writer."

Give it a try, and hopefully you'll be as successful as I am. No wait, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Well, you know what I mean.