Via Mr. Midnight Eric Wright's Facebook page.

I can guarantee you'll want a copy.

StokerCon 2025 is now two weeks behind me, and I now feel comfortable writing about what was, for me, my personal high point.

I was at the Joyce Carol Oates signing table, where she sat with writer and editor Rebecca Rowland (who is president of the Boston HWA chapter, and edited my story “Movie Call” for the anthology Generation X-Ed). As she signed my copies of Night-Side and Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque, she spotted my nametag and said, “Oh, are you a writer?”

My mind blanked.

Look, part of the reason I became interested in horror fiction was reading her story “The Bingo Master.” I picked up a copy of Night-Side almost immediately, and continued to read her work steadily. I’ve learned much by studying her work, though I’m hardly a completist. This was one of the great women of American letters acknowledging me as an actual writer.

“Oh, are you a writer?” My mind was bereft of a single thought. And then suddenly, my mouth made sounds, even as my brain waved at it and shouted, “Dude, don’t do that!”

“Uh,” I uhhed, “not a good one.”

And Rebecca Rowland proffered a kindness I can never repay.

She leaned to Ms. Oates’s ear and said, “He’s being extremely modest. He’s an outstanding writer.”

I managed to mouth a thank-you to her, then collected my books.

I was paid a compliment by an amazing writer and editor to Joyce Carol Oates. I’m going to live with that for a long time.

I received an email response to a query stating that I've sold a story to one of my favorite venues. Details to follow.

On CrimeReads, Laura Elliott talks about monsters and how they are created in horror fiction. 

I like her view of monsters being an offshoot of the Uncanny that branches into what she calls "the abject".

It's a rich article that also includes insights into how the abject is incorporated in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper", and River Solomon's Model Home.  It's worth your time.