I was born on August 20 --I share my Birthday with H. P. Lovecraft--1972. I grew up on Long Island in a very Norman Rockwelltown called Northport. My parents put me into Catholic school at theage of five and kept me there until I was thirteen, a very traumaticexperience. That's why I embrace the dark side. I attended IthacaCollege in upstate New York where I majored in English/Creative Writing,a very liberating experience. Now I live in Brooklyn, where I write anddesign web sites, including one for James Gandolfini,www.gandolfini.com, among others. I'm also the Webmaster for theHorror Writers Association web site, www.horror.org.
2) What is the most appealing thing about horror fiction for you?
Writing horror allows me to come to terms with my own fears, death,humiliation, rejection, and work through them. I decide who gets bittenin the ass by their mistakes. Life isn't like that--you don't alwaysget to choose.
3) What best describes your work?
My stories run the gamut: contemporary, erotic, literary, satires,science fiction, but they all have one thing in common, they all delveinto horror and all of its grandeur. Horror is all around us, you justhave to know where to look!
I do my best to earn my readers' trust before things get nasty. I'mtalking about stuff that's so dark I can't believe I wrote it! I know astory is going well when I'm in "the zone. " That place where timeceases to exist and you become part of the story. I know a story isgoing well when my characters start controlling the action and I becomea voyeur. Sometimes my characters will reveal the ending before I'mready to go there. When that happens I make notes and come back to themlater. My mind is like a machine gun, sometimes I think faster than Itype! That's where the notes come in handy!
4) Some writers say that what they write doesn't have much to do withthemselves-others say that their writing is very much influenced bytheir ownexperiences. How is this with you?
My writing is all about the people I love to hate and hate to love!
5) What is your favorite story that you've written?
"Apple of My Eye. " It's set in New York City in the East Village,Alphabet City, to be precise, where every avenue tells a tragic tale: Ais for Alert. B is for beware. C is for Caution. D is for Death. It's a twisted, depraved story that's been accepted for a forthcominganthology of horror stories set in the Big Apple.
6)What is the weirdest true life thing that happened to you that if youwrote it down would read like fiction?
Two years ago I had eye surgery to correct a crossed eye. I was staringat my nose all the time and could not see out of my left eye. Thesurgeon, a married man, with a baby on the way, flirted with me. Afterthe surgery, he came on to me. It became a case of morbid fascinationfor both of us: he wanted a relationship and I wanted to see if he hadthe nerve to go through with it. He did, I didn't.
The surgeon misdiagnosed me during my recovery, prescribing drugs toolong and misinterpreting my symptoms--when I told him my eye burned anditched--he became extremely delusional, taking that to mean I burned forhim.
7)Who is YOUR favorite horror author.
Definitely Jack Ketchum! He's a master of psychological horror. Theshocks sneak up on you. I just finished The Lost. Ketchum does a greatjob of putting you in a time, the 60s, and a place.
8) Talk about upcoming/recent projects, et cetera.
My first novel, The Art of Deception, is available through Xlibris. The book may also bepurchased at Amazon.com.
332 Pages Trade Paperback ISBN: 0 -7388-3022-4
Here's the cover blurb:
New York City can be cruel but not nearly as nasty as RussellSilverburg's former employee, Joan Clifton. After he raped her, she fledto California to create Share Well Industries, a company he isprofitably investing his clients' money in. Russell is shocked whenShare Well Industries' stock plummets. After some fact checking, hediscovers the corporation is a scam Joan devised to get even -a financialrape that will leave Russell defenseless and vulnerable.
9)Anything you want to add?
Be sure to visit my official web fright, Crimson Screams. I'm always around; you just have to knowwhere to look!
I was born on August 20 --I share my Birthday with H. P. Lovecraft--1972. I grew up on Long Island in a very Norman Rockwelltown called Northport. My parents put me into Catholic school at theage of five and kept me there until I was thirteen, a very traumaticexperience. That's why I embrace the dark side. I attended IthacaCollege in upstate New York where I majored in English/Creative Writing,a very liberating experience. Now I live in Brooklyn, where I write anddesign web sites, including one for James Gandolfini,
Trade Paperback
