Withersin’s Damned Interview with:

Ken Goldman

This sounds like a job interview.  Okay, then . . .  I’m middle aged (don’t ask, I won’t tell), grew up in Philadelphia, went to Temple University for my BA in Education,  got my Masters at Rider College for my MA in Guidance Counseling, yada yada and yada.  Never married but engaged twice (their loss), taught English and Film Studies at Washington High until I took the money and ran in ‘99. But not before I started a popular course on Horror and Science Fiction in Film and Literature that had a full-seat sign-up every semester.

Since 1993 I’ve had over 475 short stories published in the independent press (magazines and anthologies) in the U.S, Canada, the UK, and Australia.  My book of short stories, “You Had Me At ARRGH!!” was published October 2007 and is an all-time top ten best seller at The Genre Mall.  Precision Pictures (Australia) is going to film my story, “The Keeper,” later in 2008. I’ve had honorable mentions five times in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. I own two homes, one on the Main Line in PA and one at the Jersey shore, so I can’t complain. Now if you’ll allow me a few moments to gloat . . .

List published works:

Okay, since you asked . . . But I’ll just list the publications’ names since 2006.

Short Story Collection (Paperback):

You Had Me At ARRGH! : Five Uneasy Pieces by Ken Goldman (Sam’s Dot Publishing/October 2007)

Novelette/Horror Imprint:

“POE 103” in Barley Books’ Little Horrors series, UK (October 2000)

Print Magazines 2006-2008:

The American publications Tales of The Talisman, Ambitions, Sinisteria, Champagne Shivers, The Shantytown Anomaly, Sinister Tales, Switchblade, Ethereal Gazette, Trail of Indiscretion, Dark Discoveries, Lorelei Signal, Horror Garage, Out Of The Gutter, 7th Dimension, The Willows, and Glutonlump‘s Chilling Tales; the Canadian publications Storyteller Magazine, Revelation, Meat Grinder Press, Spinning Whorl, and Backroads; the United Kingdom Publications SciFantastic, and Midnight Street.

Online (web zine, e-anthology, CD, PDF, PodCast) Publications 2005-2007:

Whispers of Wickedness, Bewildering Stories, Vampires 2, Dark Recesses, Simulacrum, Tapestry, Hell Inside, Afterburn, Susurrus,  Neometropolis,  MicroHorror, HorrorD‘Ouervres,  From The Asylum,  Chaos Theory, Expressions,  Demon Minds, HUB, 7th Dimension; and the PodCasts PseudoPod and Well Told Tales. 

Anthologies: 

The 1995 Small Press Genre Association Showcase (Orinda Press, Orinda, CA)
Nasty Snips (MT Publishing, UK)
The Darkest Hour : An Anthology of Short Thrillers (Telltale Press, Boston, MA.)
The World’s Shortest Stories of Love and Death [paperback and audiotape] (Running
Press Book Publishers, Philadelphia, PA)
The Witching Hour Volumes 1 and 2 [e-book, CD, and hard copy] (Silver Lake Publishing)
New Traditions in Terror (Writers Club Press)
MOTA 2002 Anthology : Truth (Triple Tree Publishing)
A Search for Monsters e-anthology (Cyber-Pulp Houston/USA)
Freaks, Geeks, & Sideshow Floozies (Twilight Tales)
Darkness Rising 5 : Black Shroud of Fear (UK Anthology/ Prime Books USA)
The Fear Within (3F Publications)
Justus Roux Erotic Tales Anthology (Booksurge)
The Blackest Death Anthology Vol. 1 and 2 (Black Death Publications)
Chimeraworld 1, 2, and 4 (Cyber Pulp/Chimericana Books)
Tales From The Asylum Year 1 (The Asylum Books and Press)
Spooks Anthology (Twilight Tales)
Vicious Shivers (Undaunted Press)
Raging Horrormones (Oxcart Press)
Potter’s Field (Sam’s Dot Publishing)
Dream The Dark Majestic (Rage Machine Books)
Trip The Light Horrific (Rage Machine Books)
Tabloid Purposes II (Lake Fossil Press)
Revelation Volumes I, II, and III (Fourth Horseman Press)
Goremet Cuisine (Rage Machine Books)
Project Contagion Vol. 1 (3 Pitt Productions)
The Star Spangled Zombie (Maniac Press)
Evermore (Arkham House)
A Time To . . . The Best of The Lorelie Signal 2006 (Wolfsinger Publications)
Echoes of Terror (Lachesis Publishing)
Horror Library Vol. II (Cutting Block Press)
Read By Dawn Volume 2 (UK/Bloody Books, an imprint of Beautiful Books Limited)
Book of Dead Things (Twilight Tales)
Heavy Glow : Two Years Burning Brightly, Book One
Damned in Dixie (Tenoka Press)

Coming in 2008-2009:

Filming to begin at Precision Studios (Australia) on a full length movie based upon my short story, “The Keeper.”

Our Shadows Speak 2 Anthology (Steel Moon Publications)
HELP Anthology (Lulu)

CONTESTS AND AWARDS:

Second place cash prize in The Rod Serling Memorial Foundation's 2nd Annual Writing Contest, 1992.
First place cash prize for short fiction in The Ebbing Tide Magazine literary contests, 1994, and 1996 (issues #5 and #13), and third place cash prize 1994 and 1995 (issues #3 and #7).
First place cash prize for short fiction in Beyond the Moon #1, 1993
Honorable mention for “A Head Full of Pigs” in Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling’s Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror Seventh Annual Collection (1993)

The SPGA Small Press Service Awards nomination for Best New Fiction Writer 1994.
The Genre Writers Association nomination for Best New Writer 1995.
Honorable mention for “The Snow Angel” in Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling’s The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror Ninth Annual Collection (1995)
First Place Winner of The Preditors and Editors ‘The Best Poem in The Universe On The Internet Contest 1997.’
Honorable mention in Eternity Online’s Top 25 Stories (1999).
Second Place ‘Silver’ prize in The Salivan Short Horror Story Contest (October 1999).
Second Place Runner-Up Cash Prize in The Horizon Literature Awards Contest c/o Dark Moon Publications (May 2000)
Third Place prize in The Rose & Thorn Writer’s Contest (July 2000)
Honorable Mention in the Dark Moon Rising Halloween Dark Fiction Contest (October 2000)
Finalist in the Ninth Annual Calliope Fiction Contest, Special Interest Group of American Mensa, Ltd. (December 2000)
First Place Cash Winner in the Red Writer Hood Contest (Summer 2001)
Second Place Cash Winner in the Harrow Murder Contest (Fall 2001)
Twilight Tales Author of The Month (Domestic) March/April 2002
Honorable mention for “The Boardwalk Cats” in Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling’s The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror Sixteenth Annual Collection (2002)
Champagne Shivers Editors First Choice Award (February 2003)
Nomination For The 2003 James B. Baker Award (December 2003)
Honorable Mention in Futures Magazine’s Fire to Fly Contest (2003)
Second Place in Short Story Horror in Preditors & Editors Readers Poll Contest (2003)
Honorable Mention for “Young Girls Are Coming to Ajo” in Ellen Datlow and Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant’s The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror Seventeenth Annual Collection (2003)
Runner up in The Dead in Th13teen Flashes e-Anthology Contest (2004)
Finalist in The Cracked Lenses Short Fiction Contest (2005)
First Place in The Gryphonwood Short Story Editor‘s Choice "Magic" Contest (2005)
First Place cash prize in the UK’s Titty Biscuits Literary Competition (2005)
First Place cash prize in the SpecFicWorld.com 2005 Fiction Contest (2005)
Nomination for The 2005 James B. Baker Award (January 2006)
Honorable mention in Dark Intentions’ To Die For Mystery Contest (June 2006)
Honorable mention in SpecFicWorld.com  2006 Fiction Contest (2006)
Honorable Mention for “POE 103” in Ellen Datlow and Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant’s The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror Twentieth Annual Collection (2007)
2008 Eppie Award Finalist as part of The Best of Lorelie Signal’s 2006 anthology “A Time To . . .”

List web site:  None!  Too busy writing to ego trip. (Unless I’m asked to.)

In your own words define Withersin:

Never use the word “wither” to a middle aged man.  It’s a sin!

If you were a sideshow act what would you be?

A trained seal comes to mind.  But I wouldn’t settle for the sideshow.  I’d like to think I’m the main attraction.

What is your greatest non-literary influence?

I can think of a dozen literary influences, but non-literary?  There’s no actual person, but I remember an amusement ride at the old Steeplechase Pier in Atlantic City, a haunted house ride-through.  I was too young to go inside, but I would hear the screams while I stood outside and watched the people exit the ride laughing. This made me want to have that effect on people.  I decided to become a horror writer, but maybe it would have been easier jumping from behind the bushes and shouting “Boo!” at strangers.  (Under different circumstances I could have become a serial killer.)

Describe your most irrational fear.

I’m terrified by cream cheeze.  And old women who wear big hats.  But seriously . . .
The idea of having my throat slit has always sickened me. Yecch.

How about your most guilty pleasure?

I like “Sex and The City.”  There, I said it.

Name the most disturbing nursery rhyme/fairy tale you can recall.

Hansel & Gretel always creeped me out. An old woman offering gingerbread cookies, kids shoved into the oven, a trail of bread crumbs left for some later CSI unit to figure out . . . Very creepy stuff.

Do you eat meat?

Only after it has stopped moving.

What were the skies like when you were young?

Orange.  But we lived in a poor neighborhood.

Name your favorite garden tool.

My hoe.  I hear rappers mentioning it all the time.

Name your least favorite color, first job, and worst job.

With apologies to Oprah, purple.  The name even sounds stupid just saying it.
First job . . . Worked in a department store alongside a phone that never rang. But I got a lot of homework done and got paid for doing essentially nothing.
Worst job . . . Substitute teaching for an entire class that had actually brought darts to school.

Favorite author, movie, music group, song, and quote.

Author: Stephen King.  For a horror writer, that’s required by law.
Movie: “Forrest Gump” because life really is like a box of chocolates. And just as sticky.
Music group:  The Beatles collectively.  Separately, nah.
Quote: “You want to make God laugh?  Tell him your plans.”

If you were a loaf of bread, what kind would you be?

Two weeks expired with a hint of mold.

Weirdest news you have read in your local newspaper.

This is for real . . .  Read an article on singles who met their mates online. The article featured my old girl friend and how, on their first, date she knew she had recently met the man she would marry.  But I was still getting phone calls from her asking for me to come back to her three weeks after their first date!

Why horror?

Because it’s there.

Here's a photo. (seen on Interview main page)

“INEDIBLE NOT INTENDED FOR HUMAN FOOD”

You have 112 words. Go.

Reminds me of a girl I used to date, who some guys described as looking like the back end of a bus.  (I won’t go into how edible she was.)  But I digress . . .

I’m not one to follow behind anyone on the highway for very long.  Trucks especially require immediate passing,  because I have this fear that at any second they’re going to stop suddenly and I’m going to plow right under them,  and I don’t look good decapitated. Hell, I don’t even look good dehydrated. But again, I digress . . .

I think the sign is misleading. It seems to imply that the truck itself is not intended for human food, and this could greatly confuse anyone intending to eat it.

(I wrote the above in under two minutes.  And it’s terrible!)

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