Arnzen's "Instigation": Creative Prompts on the Dark Side

New ebook for writers: $3.99

Michael Arnzen's latest book for writers, Instigation: Creative Prompts on the Dark Side is a treasury of over 500 twisted tips, strange scenarios and disturbing sparks to help ignite the fuel in your creative furnace. Its aim? To push you into the danger zone of your imagination, by thinking in unconventional ways and trying things you never thought — or dared — to try before in your writing, art, or dreams.

Writers, especially, will benefit from this book of “story starters” that can shatter writer’s block and possess your fingers with an impish creative spirit. Arnzen’s Instigation — filled with unique prompts drawn directly from his fiction workshops at Seton Hill University, his columns from Hellnotes and his Bram Stoker Award-winning newsletter, The Goreletter — has already helped hundreds of horror writers, dark “creatives” and unconventional artists…many of whom have not only crafted original material, but published it as a result of responding to these twisted prompts.

Contents include: Prompts: 365 Sick Scenarios | Spurs: 31 Turns for the Worse | Resurrections: 13 Radical Revisions | Memoir Mayhem: 151 Prompts for Journaling | The Devil Made You Do It Yourself: 6 DIY Exercises | Essays on Writing on the Dark Side: “In the Mood: Getting Ready to Write”; “Binge Writing and NaNoWriMo”; “Discovering Your Hidden Intentions”; “Question-Storming”; “Making Modern Monsters”; “What Corrupted Me”; “The Five Laws of Arnzen” | Tips For Further Instigaton | Apps, Websites, Related Readings, and Writing Communities

See the catalog page for more information on this dangerously helpful ebook. Or visit scribd.com for a meaty 30 page preview, with a heaping supply of prompts and an article on "Binge Writing and NaNoWriMo" excerpted from the book.

Just $3.99! Now available direct from Mastication Publications, or on the Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook.

 Writers inspired by Instigation are inspired to share and promote their work on the Instigation Showcase.

MGOC Contributor News: Dana Marton's Deathscape

Many Genres, One Craft contributor Dana Marton has a new Thriller out--Deathscape.

He will do anything to put her in prison for her crimes...even if he's falling in love with her.

After a near-death experience, artist Ashley Price is compelled to paint visions of the dead. Then she paints a man buried alive and, recognizing the surroundings, she rushes to save him.

Instead of being grateful to her for rescuing him, Detective Jack Sullivan accuses her of being in league with a serial killer. He swears he will put her behind bars. Except, the more time he spends with her, the more he falls under her spell. Can he trust her, or is he walking into another deadly trap?

"... sucked me in from the beginning and kept me guessing... the characters are real people--with histories and motivations and interesting quirks. Add a scary killer, some romance and you have a perfect read!" Susan Mallery, NY Times bestselling author

MGOC Contributor: David Morrell

DAVID MORRELL

EXCERPT from "To Thine Own Self Be True: Five Pieces of Advice for Potential Thriller Writers" by David Morrell in Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction

Thrillers have never been more popular. On the New York Times hardback fiction bestseller list, over half are often filled with examples of the genre. Thrillers even have their own organization, International Thriller Writers. But they didn’t always have this presence. Back in 1972, when my debut novel, First Blood, introduced the character of Rambo, bestseller lists favored a mix of literary, sentimental, and historical fiction as well as the sort of celebrity gossip novels that we identify with Harold Robbins and Jacqueline Susann. Not that thrillers were entirely absent. Michael Crichton’s The Terminal Man appeared on the New York Times list that year, but it was considered an exception. Only in this decade did thrillers become so unusually dominant. If you’re a writer who’s thinking of going in this direction, here are five pieces of advice that might be helpful.

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David Morrell is the award-winning author of First Blood, the novel in which Rambo was created. He holds a Ph. D. in American literature from Penn State and was a professor at the University of Iowa. Noted for his research, Morrell has written numerous international bestsellers that include the classic spy trilogy The Brotherhood of the Rose (the basis for an NBC miniseries after the Super Bowl), The Fraternity of the Stone, and The League of Night and Fog. International Thriller Writers honored him with its ThrillerMaster award. His writing book, The Successful Novelist, discusses what he has learned in his almost four decades as an author. Find him online at http://www.davidmorrell.net.

Arnzen and Miller Interview with the The Big Thrill

Editors Mike Arnzen and Heidi Ruby Miller were interviewed by the International Thriller Writers organization for The Big Thrill webzine. A chatty and entertaining podcast will also be featured by the ITW in July.

The International Thriller Writers is an honorary society of authors, both fiction and nonfiction, who write books broadly classified as “thrillers.” This would include (but isn’t limited to) such subjects as murder mystery, detective, suspense, horror, supernatural, action, espionage, true crime, war, adventure, and myriad similar subject areas. Their mission is "to bestow recognition and promote the thriller genre at an innovative and superior level" and they do this through awards, conferences, and other forms of community. Join the ITW or attend THRILLERFEST -- one of the greatest writing conferences for popular fiction around -- held annually in New York each July.

Contributors to our book, Many Genres, One Craft, who are also current ITW members include: David Morrell, KJ Howe, Tess Gerritsen, Michael Arnzen, Susan Crandall, Scott Johnson, Thomas Monteleone, Mary SanGiovanni, and Tim Waggoner. Meet some of them at Thrillerfest VI (July 6-9th, 2011 in NY).