Many people are probably familiar with the Satanic Panic of the 80s and 90s where at least dozens of people across the country were accused and convicted of committing fantastical crimes – child sacrifices, weird sexual abuse – then shown to be innocent. It’s a fascinating instance of mob mentality gone bad (I guess it…

There’s a timeless premise for horror movies: young people do something horrible and are punished for it. It’s the conceit of “I Know What You Did Last Summer”, “Soriority Row”, “Carrie” and even my new novel “The Mirror Man.” (How’s that for subtle advertising?) 2020’s “The Call” follows this path as well. New kid in…

I’m pleased to announce my second horror novel, The Mirror Man,” is arriving at Amazon on May 1st, 2025. Pre-orders available now. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DYBKTX7Y Blurb: What you don’t say can still kill you. When a viral sex video humiliates a small-town beauty queen, college student Mason Gutierrez’s friends join in the online mockery. Mason stays quiet,…

I don’t talk much about television shows here, partly because there isn’t much horror on television. (I’ve found seasons of American Horror Story hit or miss—sometimes brilliant, sometimes unwatchable.) Because it aired on STARZ, otherwise known as the network nobody watches, I missed the horror comedy series Shining Vale that ran a few years ago.…

I’m taking part in a new book promotion that has a number of horror books available at Amazon. Click the link to see the goods! https://books.bookfunnel.com/intotheshadows/onn2n93q1y

So I don’t write here much about writing. Perhaps that’s ironic. I don’t know; I’ve never been clear what irony is. However, I was looking through some notes and came across this handy list I created for myself in my formative days editing “What Waits in the Shadows”. Thought I would share it here. Things…

Part of the fun of horror writing is getting to discover the real life monsters that populate nature. Many posts ago I mentioned the giant insects of the Carboniferous Period. Today I discovered the blobfish, which looks very much like the name would suggest. (Pics at link.) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/worlds-ugliest-animal-blobfish-6676336 And there’s an explanation for its hideous…

I was just reminded of the existence of Inkitt, a “story-farm” company similar to Wattpadd. Writers on Inkitt post stories, some of which earn mass readership. But Inkitt has a twist that I’ll let this TechCrunch article explain. Everyone has a story in them, as someone famous once said. A startup called Inkitt believes that…

Though I seldom comment on a celebrity’s death unless I have some personal story about them, I did feel an extra kick in the gut when Donald Sutherland died. He was a face so present for the entirety of my life (his career was in full swing in the seventies when I was born) that…

I’m going to make a minor confession that may seriously impact my standing as a horror aficionado: I have never liked the “Friday the 13th” film series. Can’t say why exactly, I just always found the plodding serial killer archetype represented by “…13th’s” Jason (and “Halloween’s” Micheal Meyers) kind of dumb. I much preferred the…

Reading through this NY TImes obit of exploitation director Roger Corman, I was struck by how many of the films mentioned I have seen: “The Wild Angels,” “The Trip” (a cautionary tale about LSD starring Jack Nicholson), “The Intruder” (a cautionary tale about racist demagogues starring Bill Shatner), “The Little Shop of Horrors”, “A Bucket…

A few weeks back, I taped an appeared on the “Do You Like Scary Movies” podcast. (In fact, I do like scary movies.) The podcast is produced by the same folks who did the Arithmophobia anthology I had a short story in early this year. It was a fun talk about horror films, horror writing,…

I had a short story in a toy themed horror anthology last year. The reviews are still coming in, such as this one from Mathew Fryer’s blog, that comments on several of the stories, including my own. In “A Decent Guy” by Wil Forbis, we meet Bennett: a successful family man whose son has a…

One of my ongoing writing projects is a novel that riffs on the premise of a pair of female twins, one good, one evil. I’m aware this is well-worn territory in thrillers, and was happy to recently discover the 1947 film “The Dark Mirror”, which operates in the same space. (It’s free on youtube.) As…