Gauthic Nights:
My LiveJournal
Last updated
15 December 2007
Friends
Toby Gray is my best friend. He's also an amazing artist who did the logo for American Gauthic.
Kim Gatesman is another best friend. She also happens to be a very talented artist. Her artwork is simply great. She's funny, beautiful, intelliegent, and talented. She also owns a Mac, which makes me jealous now. Bitch.
Josh Noone grew up with Kim. He's an up-and-coming singer/songwriter who can make you laugh as well as make you think. He and I have become friends and I urge you to check his site and music out.
Jorj Pitter introduced me and Toby way back in June of 2000. It was like Qui-Gon Jinn introducing Anakin Skywalker to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Only with better results. He's a musician, an artist, and a funny guy.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Jorj and his wife, Tami, have a karaoke business. So if you feel like singing, check them out.
I went to high school with Danny Sasseville. We hadn't talked in a long time and then he popped back into my life. We've hung out since. He's the bassist for Concrete Tuesday. Check 'em out.
I'm putting Jay Smith and his website here in Friends because he's an internet bud and his talents seem to go all over. He writes, he makes films, and he likes Harlan Ellison. Check out his site.
The Ludlow Lions is a group formed by a buddy of mine. Check them out.
Magoo is a guy I used to work with. He's married to Danni. However, they're causing a stir locally as Garou the werewolf and Penny Dreadful, hosts of Penny Dreadful's Shilling Shockers. Check out their website.
Writers
Here are some links to writers' websites I enjoy and think you will, too.
Stephen King is one of my favorite writers. His book The Shining is what got me writing at the young age of thirteen. Imagine my delight when I found out "The Growth of Alan Ashley" would be in Borderlands 5 with a novella by him. Anyway, check out his official web presence.
Brian Freeman (who is also a co-contributor to Borderlands 5) runs an excellent unofficial Stephen King news site with an equally excellent e-mail newsletter on all (needful) things King. Check it out. He also writes under the pseudonym James Kidman.
If Stephen King is #1 on my Favorite Writers List, then Harlan Ellison is #1.5. Mr. Ellison works on a manual typewriter. More than seventy books, 1,700 short stories, essays, screenplays, teleplays, comic book scripts, and even a computer game were written on these typewriters. He's almost as famous for public appearances as he is for writing. He's appeared on shows hosted by Merv Griffin, Tom Snyder, and Bill Maher. I saw him lecture with Peter David and Neil Gaiman on 6 October 2001. What a blast! There are three sites he calls official:
Ellison Webderland. A play on a title of a collection he wrote, as well as the name of his house (which is legendary among speculative fiction readers), Ellison Wonderland. That's so cool and I'm stuck with Gautham. Sheesh. This website is about every aspect of the man named Harlan Ellison. There are two bulletin boards where I post. There are some great people there plus an occasional appearance by The Man himself.
The Islets of the Landerhans. The title comes from one of Ellison's stories. This site focuses primarily on Ellison's works. Very informative and great for people just getting into Ellison who want to know where to start.
The Sequential Ellison. All about Ellison's comic book work and references to The Man.
Neil Gaiman has a great website. Go read his novel American Gods and experience one of the best books I've read. He's famous for his work on the groundbreaking Sandman comic book/graphic novel series. He was among the authors (with Peter David and Harlan Ellison) I saw at MIT 6 October 2001.
Dan Simmons is an excellent writer I ask you to check out if you haven't already. I've loved the books I've read of his, especially Song of Kali, Hyperion, and The Fall of Hyperion. The man writes horror, science fiction, crime, mainstream, and everything in between. He's great. Getcho ass out to a bookstore and see how great.
John R. Little is a writer who is a loyal reader of American Gauthic, and has been a supporter of mine for a while now. In 2007, he published a novelette called Placeholders (Necessary Evil Press) and a novel called The Memory Tree. Both are out of print now and both are great stories. I can't recommend him highly enough.
Joe Hill is a writer who has just made a huge splash. He's been haunting the small presses for a while now and his short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts, made a small splash when it was published as a limited edition from PS Publishing. His novel, Heart-Shaped Box, was sold to HarperCollins and I first heard about it from Neil Gaiman, who'd received an ARC (advanced reader's copy) and loved it. The novel was published in early 2007 and it is phenomenal. News broke out before the book was published that he's a famous writer's son. That's inconsequential. The man can write. The good news is that 20th Century Ghosts is now out in a mass edition.
When Stephen King got hit by that van, he was reading Bentley Little's book The House. When I went for my surprise (I hate the word emergency) surgery in June 2000, I was reading Bentley Little's book The Town. Several months later, when I returned to the hospital to for some tests, I was reading Bentley Little's book The Walking. And, in November 2001, when I went in for more surgery (this time planned), I was reading Bentley Little's book The Association. It seems I've taken his books to hospitals, either for tests or to visit someone else, too often. Kinda weird, don't you think? While I haven't loved his last few books, I've enjoyed some of his work enough to recommend him, especially his short story collection called The Collection. Here's a site devoted to him.
I've only read three Jack Ketchum books: The Girl Next Door (one of the single most unsettling books I've ever read), The Lost , and Red. I've enjoyed them all and own several others of his that are on my Must Read list.
I've enjoyed the work of Norman Partridge a long time. His first novel, Slippin' Into Darkness, rocked me back in 1996 or 1997, whenever I read it, and his most recent book, Dark Harvest, is a fast, fun read that I highly recommend.
Tom Piccirilli is the writer of a novel called A Choir of Ill Children which is a masterpiece. Go pay him a visit.
Celestial Timepiece is a Joyce Carol Oates site. One of my favorite sections of the site is the archives, where you can see actual scans of her manuscripts. Ms. Oates's official site is through her publisher, but isn't as cool as the Timepiece.
For a while, Greg F. Gifune was the one person who not only thought I had talent, but was willing to showcase it in The Edge, Tales of Suspense. Greg is also a writer. Visit his website for more info.
L. Lynn Young has a story in Borderlands 5/From the Borderlands/The Best of Borderlands with me. She's also a very nice person who has become a friend. Stop by and tell her I sent you.
Ray Bradbury. Do I really need to say more? Ray BRADBURY!
Robert Bloch is, perhaps, best known for his novel Psycho, basis of the Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece. He was a great writer. This unofficial site is great.
Christopher Golden has been publishing for a while now. His novel Wildwood Road is very well done and I recommend it without any reservation. I had the opportunity to meet him in November 2007 at a joint signing we did at Pandemonium Books. A very gracious, nice man.
Michael Laimo had his first mass market novel published in 2001, Atmosphere. I enjoyed the book so much I wrote him to say so. My testimonial can be found on the site.
Bev Vincent is a writer who writes a Stephen King-based column for Cemetery Dance and is a co-contributor to Borderlands 5. He has a cool bulletin board that I've been known to visit.
Peter David is best known for his comic book work (twelve years on The Incredible Hulk) and his Star Trek novels. I've never read his comics work and I don't like Star Trek. However, David's book Sir Apropos of Nothing and its follow-up, The Woad to Wuin, are moving, well-told stories that I recommend to anyone.
Douglas Clegg is a writer whose work I enjoy. After a visit to Gautham, he called it a great website.
Films
Don't let the only links in this gate fool you, I love movies. I just don't go to many film-related websites. I have a favorites list and a best list. Some titles jump to the other list, some don't. No, I'm not giving you the lists. Not here, anyway.My favorite movie of all is Star Wars. This is the official website. If you want Star Wars news, this is the place to go. Speaking of the official Star Wars website, here's the official Star Wars store...perfect for gifts!
Another okay but unofficial Star Wars site is The Force.Net. They warn you about spoilers if you're like me and want to be surprised by new movies.Writing
Ralan's Webstravaganza is a great place to go for guidelines and links to speculative fiction publications.
Publications
These are not all the publications I could list -- that could take all day and way too much space. However, here are a few I think you may find interested in.Dark Discoveries is a HDF magazine edited and published by James R. Beach. He seems to like my work and I may have found a home there. As a matter of fact, he's giving me a column that I call American Gauthic. It's a good magazine and I hope it reaches the proportions of my next link...
Cemetery Dance has been around for about fifteen years and I've been reading it for about ten or eleven. It's the biggest and best HDF magazine out there with great stories and columns including Thomas F. Monteleone's great Mothers and Fathers Italian Association.
There are some magazines that a writer dreams of getting into. The aforementioned Cemetery Dance is one of those for me. Even more so is the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. This magazine has been around in one form or another for fifty-five years and has published all the greats: Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Joyce Carol Oates, Isaac Asimov.... Hopefully, someday, I'll find my name on the contents page.
Ideomancer is a great speculative fiction webzine that has some good taste. After all, they published my short story "Snow Day."
Misc.
Here are some places to check out:Borderlands Press publishes quality hardcover limited editions but some of the premier writers of speculative fiction including Harlan Ellison, Joe R. Lansdale, F. Paul Wilson, and others. They have published the landmark horror/dark fantasy anthology series Borderlands.
Shocklines used to be a web-store that specialized in all things horror, but has dropped from that business. However, it still hosts a rocking message board where all sorts of fans and writers hang out.
The Red Light District and the Lost and the Damned are two other cool message boards/forums where often lurk and sometimes participate.
Horror World is a cool place to go, too. Nanci Kalanta runs a great place to read about all things horror. Horror World also hosts writers message boards, which can be cool.
Another great place for scary news and reviews is Hellnotes. Created by the editot/publisher of the classic Horrow Show, David B. Silva, it's a cool place to find out what's new.
I grew up and lived until October 2007 in the city of New Bedford. Here are New Bedford websites: The Official New Bedford Website, National Park Service New Bedford page, The Unofficial but interesting New Bedford Website, and don't forget the New Bedford Free Public Library.
I am now a proud resident of Jamaica Plain. Woohoo!
Copyright © 2000-2007 Bill Gauthier.