Thursday, April 05, 2012

Marting Mundt and Lawrence Santoro Together Again At Long Last

Time for some self-absorbed chestbeating and unabashed bookselling. Martin Mundt and I are doing a two-hour, round-robin, sudden-death reading here in Chicago. I'll be doing nothing but DRINK FOR THE THIRST TO COME. Well maybe a touch of the new novel, A MISSISSIPPI TRAVELER, OR SAM CLEMENS TRIES THE WATER, just to test-fly it. The poster tells all. If you're in Chicago, I hope you'll stop by. And if you do and you haven't picked up a copy of DRINK... please do and if you do and you like it, please go to Amazon.com and give it a glowing review.

I did say please.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

TALES TO TERRIFY 'Casts all 6 Stoker Nominated Short Stories

The image is from the publication, "The Uninvited, No. 1" The illustration is for the short story, "Hypergraphia" by Ken Lillie-Paetz, one of this year's nominees for the Horror Writers Association;s Bram Stoker Award for Short Fiction.

For the past two weeks, the podcast I host, Tales to Terrify, has been 'casting this year's short fiction Stoker nominees. The six stories were...

Well you can go to the site and find out yourselves. Listen to them. They were good... We finished up last Friday with Stephen King's "Herman Wouk Is Still Alive."

For our effort, we had an item in the News section of Stephen King’s website. The notice says:

“Herman Wouk is Still Alive on Tales To Terrify

"March 26th, 2012 1:19:36 pm

"TalesToTerrify.com has posted a podcast that features readings of several nominees for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction. Lawrence Santoro provides a fantastic reading of Stephen’s Herman Wouk is Still Alive at the 1 hour and 10 minute mark. Enjoy!

http://talestoterrify.com/tales-to-terrify-no-10-bram-stoker-awards-special-part-2/

As mentioned, we played ALL of the Bram Stoker nominees in the Superior Achievement in Short Fiction category but there we have it.

Hope you'll stop by now and again, and again and again. There are big things coming.

Friday, March 23, 2012

GENE WOLFE AT SANFILIPPO

We'll start with pictures. There are quite a lot. On Saturday, March 17, 2012, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame gave Gene Wolfe its Fuller Award. The event was held at the Sanfilippo Estate in Barrington, Illinois and drew hundreds of friends, colleagues and fans -- and the lines distinguishing fan from friend from colleague were virtually nonexistent -- from all over the country. Peter Straub, Neil Gaiman...et al.
Gene's daughter, Teri Goulding pins a rose on her dad...




I was asked to adapt one of Gene's stories for performance by a theater company, Terra Mysterium.







Here are just a few pictures from the day.








Jody Lynn Nye toasting Gene...
Gene on the Merry-Go-Round...Yes, there was a carousel in the banquet hall...

Saturday, February 25, 2012

New Anthology: SLICES OF FLESH


I just received my .pdf proof-copy of "Slices of Flesh," a collection of horror flash fiction published by Dark Moon Books. "Slices..." is scheduled for launch at the World Horror Convention, March 29th - April 1, 2012 in Salt Lake City. Cover art is by Mike Mignola (Hellboy) with Dave Stewart doing the color work.

I mention this not because I've got a story in it but because I want to pimp the thing to you. The net proceeds from "Slices of Flesh" will go to aid the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, Project Literacy and so forth. The main thrust of it is to help the more than 30 million functionally illiterate American adults to learn to read. You know? Make new readers, keep people from becoming Repu... Well, you know.

I'm also posting this information because I'm proud as hell to be nestled in the book with these people...
Linda Addison
Janice Gable Bashman
Erin Bender
Laura Benedict
Max Booth III
Chantal Boudreau
Kevin James Breaux
Jason V. Brock
Reesa Brown
Jennifer Brozek
Ramsey Campbell
Tom Cardamone
Stewart Carrick
Sierra Christman
Simon Clark
Sandy DeLuca
Christopher DiLeo
James Dorr
David Dunwoody
Ed Erdelac
J G Faherty
Charlie Fish
Fran Friel
Sephera Giron
Charles Gramlich
Amy Grech
Eric J. Guignard
Bryan Hall
Rick Hautala
David Hayes
Brad Hodson
Nancy Holder
Del Howison
Robert Jackson
Lee F Jordan
Paul Kane
Nate Kenyon
Jack Ketchum
Nancy Kilpatrick
C. W. LaSart
Tim Lebbon
Adrian Ludens
Graham Masterton
Araminta Star Matthews
Kevin McClintock
Joe McKinney
Michelle Mellon
Lori Michelle
William F Nolan
Marie O'Regan
Michael O’Neal
Monica O'Rourke
J F Palma
Susan Palwick
J R Parks
R. B. Payne
Anne Petty
Aaron Polson
Lon Prater
Timothy Remp
Roy Robbins
Jacob Ruby
Lawrence Santoro
J W Schnarr
M R Sellars
Lorelei Shannon
Jeremy Shipp
Lance Shoeman
Wayne Simmons
Marge Simon
Douglas Smith
D L Snell
Simon Strantzas
Stan Swanson
David Tallerman
Richard Thomas
Peter Timony
Shelley Towne
Stephen Volk
Jeremy Wagner
Matthew Warner
Kaaron Warren
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Fred Wiehe
Connie Wilson
Jennifer Word

Good company, yes? When you can, get this book. It's good reading and your money could help a few people make a better life for themselves and maybe, just maybe it will save the planet. Well...it might!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Tales to Terrify is now live...

Now I can talk.

Beginning today, Friday the 13th, January, 2012, you'll be able to stop by at "Tales to Terrify" and listen to the best in English language horror and dark fantasy. I'll be the weekly host of the show, produced by the Hugo Award-winning StarShipSofa.

TTT wil feature new fiction, classic tales, tales from the recent past by masters of the form and by voices that might be new to you. We'll also have reviews, commentary and more. So...drop in some midnight -- or any time -- and listen.

If you don't know Marty Mundt who's story, CHAIR, kicks off the site, Marty's a Chicago author, one of the centerpieces of the old Twilight Tales group. CHAIR is typical of Marty's work, a funny, witty, disturbing little piece. This one Reminds me of Voltaire or Swift. But, no, no....it's Mundt.
Marty's new novel. "Animated Americans" was recently published by Creeping Hemlock Press and is available on Amazon, B&N and wherever fine electrons congregate. It's also in ink on paper at those same sites.

Now go. Listen.

We're at http://talestoterrify.com/

Oh...the cover art for this month is by Michael Brack (http://michael.brack.free.fr/)

Comments to the site can be sent to TalesToTerrify@gmail.com Hope to hear from you.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Root Soup, Winter Soup at Tuesday Funk



"Tuesday Funk," is a year+ old writer's reading series. It happens every first Tuesday of every month at the Hopleaf Bar on Clark Street, Chicago. Writer Bill Shunn is the host.

This past Tuesday, December 3, 2012, I read my short story "Root Soup, Winter Soup," from DRINK FOR THE THIRST TO COME.

By the way, I wasn't nervous. I've got a permanent tremor of the paws.

I hope you'll enjoy it.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

An Ancient Mariner... Indeed, Mr. Chwedyk.

Since the release earlier this month of "Drink for the Thirst to Come," the collection has been gathering some very nice comments from other writers. I wanted to excerpt and post a few here.

"Santoro is a master at the top of his game, believe me!"
--Robert Walker, author of "Shadows in the White City," and "Children of Salem."
"Emerging as one of our true worthy successors to Ray Bradbury...Lawrence Santoro captures lightning in a killing jar... Lyrical, horrific, and luminous with dark wonder.”
--Jay Bonansinga, New York Times bestselling co-author of "The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor."

"Lawrence Santoro turns the emotional volume to 11 and cranks it up from there...with a breathless sense of detail and cadence..."
--Richard Chwedyk, Nebula Award-winning author of "Bronte's Egg."

Jay's entire comment: “Emerging as one of our true worthy successors to Ray Bradbury, Chicago scribe Lawrence Santoro captures lightning in a killing jar in his new collection DRINK FOR THE THIRST TO COME. Lyrical, horrific, and luminous with dark wonder, Santoro’s tales frame archetypes such as zombies, the apocalypse, the mysteries of space, and good old fashioned monsters with heartbreaking undercurrents of humanity and… well… sadness. Haunting and highly recommended!”

Here's what Richard said: “In these stories, Larry Santoro turns the emotional volume to 11 and cranks it up from there. They are set in worlds at once familiar and unique, amusing and horrifying, brought to life with a breathless sense of detail and cadence. The slightest gesture is illuminated with the passionate, unfaltering precision of an Ancient Mariner unfolding his tale, commanding your uncompromised attention.”