Lonely Hollows

May 12, 2023May 20, 2023 / Darrell Grizzle / Leave a comment

The new folk horror anthology is up for preorder on Amazon Kindle! Publication date is May 21, 2023. Paperback and hardcover editions are coming soon. The spooky awesome cover is by artist Lynne Hansen. This anthology will include my queer Lovecraftian folk horror story, Incantation on a Summer Night, as well as stories from an awesome lineup of authors:

Becky Beard
Cliff Biggers
Amanda DeWees
Bob Freeman
John Linwood Grant
Raven Hart
Leanna Renee Hieber
Paul McNamee
James A. Moore
Jessica Nettles
Charles R. Rutledge
Jeff Strand
James R. Tuck

Click here to preorder!

Writing Update, Spring 2023

March 21, 2023March 28, 2023 / Darrell Grizzle / Leave a comment

The Atlanta-area premiere of Moonlight Sonata, with Scissors, the short film by Chris Ethridge based on my story, was awesome! The film was very well received, and the audience laughed at the right places and gasped in horror at the right places. You can read my original short story in my collection, I Never Meant to Start a Murder Cult. Chris made several changes in adapting the story to film, including making the main character female instead of male, but all changes were made with my approval and they all worked out well.

It was such an honor for the film to be screened at the Renegade Film Festival on March 4, 2023! The film is still making the rounds in the film festival circuit, with several screenings in other states still to come. Here’s a photo from the red carpet:

L-R: artist Lynne Hansen, authors Bridgett Nelson and Jeff Strand, me, filmmaker Chris Ethridge

Also, I’m honored to announce that I will be an Attending Professional at DragonCon 2023 (August 31 to September 4) and I’ll be an Author Guest at Multiverse 2023 (October 20-22), both in Atlanta!

I’ve also had several publications since my last update:

The Werewolf and the Vampire Priest, a flash fiction story in the anthology Clarity from Queer Sci Fi

Ghost Child of the Creek, a poem in the horror anthology Georgia Gothic

Squatch and Behr: Not a Love Story, a homoerotic crime fiction tale in Pink Triangle Rhapsody, an anthology of pulp fiction by gay writers (this was especially cool since I was on the same Table of Contents as David Gerrold, one of my literary heroes!)

Selfie in the courtyard of Cool Beans Coffee Roasters on Marietta Square, during the Renegade Film Festival, March 4, 2023. Behind me is the Kennesaw House, one of the most haunted buildings in all of Georgia.

Moonlight Sonata, with Scissors

February 1, 2023February 1, 2023 / Darrell Grizzle / Leave a comment

Tickets are now on sale for the Atlanta area premiere! Moonlight Sonata, with Scissors will be shown at the Renegade Film Festival, March 3-4, 2023, in the “Southern Discomfort” block of short films, Saturday, March 4, at 7:00 pm. You can buy a ticket to that block or for the whole festival. It’s at the Strand Theatre on Marietta Square, north of Atlanta. Join us! Here’s the link to buy tickets:
https://earlsmithstrand.secure.force.com/ticket/#/instances/a0F3m000014iNqrEAE

Coming soon to a film festival or horror convention near you: Moonlight Sonata, with Scissors, a short film based on my story from “I Never Meant to Start a Murder Cult and Other Stories.” I’m now in IMDb, thanks to filmmaker Chris Ethridge and producer Dayna Noffke! (And featuring Jeff Strand as Dead Body Under a Tarp in Back of the Truck!) Click here to read the IMDb entry!

Murder Cult! Now on Mastodon and Tumblr

November 30, 2022January 29, 2023 / Darrell Grizzle / Leave a comment

Here’s a pic of Leonidas the Cat with my short story collection, “I Never Meant to Start a Murder Cult,” available on Kindle Unlimited and in paperback from Amazon. Graverobbers, vengeful ghosts, reluctant killers, dead bodies in trunks, and monstrous entities abound! Check it out! Perfect for holiday gift-giving!

Also, I now have author pages on Mastodon and Tumblr. I’m new to both sites. I followed Neil Gaiman, George Takei, and my friend and fellow writer Jessica Nettles to Mastodon, and so far I’m really loving it. Here’s an open invite to join Mastodon (if you join through this link, you’ll automatically follow me), or if you want to go directly to my page on Mastodon, here’s the direct link: https://mastodon.social/@DZGrizzle

To join me on Tumblr, here’s the link: https://www.tumblr.com/dzgrizzle
My focus on Tumblr will be promoting other writers, as well as posting about my own writing, folk horror, Gothic literature, dark academia, queer academia, and mysticism.

See you on the interwebs!

DragonCon 2022!

August 26, 2022 / Darrell Grizzle / Leave a comment

I’m excited to be an Attending Professional at DragonCon, September 1-5 in Atlanta! I’m on 8 panels and events this year, on the Horror Track, the Urban Fantasy Track, and the Writers Track. Here’s where I’ll be:

Thursday 7:00 pm, Westin Peachtree 1-2 (Horror Track)
Gothic Literature: Ruin and Evil
An examination of Gothic themes in literature and how they continue to inform modern writers.
Gail Z. Martin (Moderator), Beth Dolgner, Leanna Renee Hieber, Tony Sarrecchia, Darrell Z. Grizzle

Friday 1:00 pm, Westin Peachtree 1-2 (Horror Track)
Foundations of Fear: Building Haunted Houses in Fiction
A roundtable of authors discuss making the haunted house archetype relevant for modern readers.
Gail Z. Martin (M), Leanna Renee Hieber, Marie Whittaker, Hank Schwaeble, Darrell Z. Grizzle

Friday 7:00 pm, Westin Peachtree 1-2 (Horror Track)
Harvest of Dread: Conjuring Folk Horror in Fiction
Authors on incorporating themes of folk horror into fiction.
James R. Tuck (M), Gail Z. Martin, Jessica Nettles, D.J. Butler, Aaron Michael Ritchey, Darrell Z. Grizzle

Friday 10 pm, Westin Chastain 1-2 (Urban Fantasy)
Things That Go Bump in the Night (or Day): Ghosts & Spirits in Urban Fantasy
Ghosts in Urban Fantasy take many forms & have a variety of goals & purposes. Our panel will discuss those they employ in their work, as well as others they admire.|
Carol Malcolm (M), Delilah Dawson, Beth Dolgner, Leanna Renee Hieber, Stuart Jaffe, Darrell Z. Grizzle

Friday 10 pm, Westin Chastain 1-2 (Urban Fantasy)
Spooky Tales and Haunting Music
Our group of authors will each read a scary story, followed by a short concert of atmospheric music by Victorian Chamber Metal virtuosos, Valentine Wolfe.
Beth Dolgner, Leanna Renee Hieber, Valentine Wolfe, Darrell Z. Grizzle

Saturday 11:30 am, Westin Peachtree 1-2 (Horror Track)
Shattered Mirrors: Writing Human Monsters
It has been said that humans are the most dangerous animals of all. This panel will examine writing killers and other terrifying human evils.
Jessica Ann York (M), Jessica Nettles, Clay Gilbert, Delilah S. Dawson, D.J. Bodden, Darrell Z. Grizzle

Sunday 10:00 am, Westin Peachtree 1-2 (Horror Track)
Sinister Forces: Invoking Supernatural Horror
Authors discuss incorporating supernatural elements into horror fiction.
Darrell Z. Grizzle (M), Jessica Ann York, Bill Mulligan, Hank Schwaeble, Trisha J. Wooldridge

Sunday 2:30 pm, Hyatt Embassy EF (Writers Track)
Horror? Soft Horror? Things that make you jump out of your skin?!
Readers of horror vary in their tastes greatly. Some love a psychological tale while others look for the most blood-thirsty novels available. Where do you, as a writer, fit into this popular genre?
Nancy Knight (M), Gail Z. Martin, James R. Tuck, Erika Lance, David Boop, Darrell Z. Grizzle

A Community of Readers and Writers

June 11, 2022June 11, 2022 / Darrell Grizzle / Leave a comment

I was truly honored when my friend Carmen Acevedo Butcher wrote about me recently in her blog. Carmen is an author, teacher, poet, and award-winning translator of spiritual texts. I fell in love with her dynamic translation of the Middle English classic The Cloud of Unknowing when it was first released back in 2009. Carmen wrote about our friendship in her blog post, Red Dirt, Rilke, & The Sidney Psalter:

“Thankful for these poets, I reflect. I also do not consider myself writing alone but in the company of others, readers and writers, present and past, connecting these diverse strands: Grizzle, Rilke, VanderHart.”

This is the first time I’ve ever been mentioned in the same sentence as the poet Rainer Maria Rilke! I’m grateful for my community of readers and writers, past and present, a literary “cloud of witnesses” that enrich my life as well as my writing efforts.

I’m looking forward to reading Practice of the Presence, Carmen’s upcoming translation of the classic text from 1692 by Brother Lawrence. You can pre-order it here.

DragonCon 2022

April 8, 2022August 26, 2022 / Darrell Grizzle / Leave a comment

I’m very happy to announce that I will be an Attending Professional at DragonCon this year, September 1-5, 2022, in Atlanta! Look for me on the Horror and Urban Fantasy tracks!

Moderating a vampire panel (V-Wars authors) on the Horror Track, DragonCon 2018.
L-R: me, James Tuck, Dacre Stoker, Scott Sigler, Keith DeCandido, Larry Correia

From Nightmare to Story to Movie

November 26, 2021 / Darrell Grizzle / Leave a comment

My short story “Moonlight Sonata, With Scissors” is being made into a short film by award-winning filmmaker Chris Ethridge and producer Dayna Noffke (shown here, obviously up to no good). Filming starts next month, in December 2021! This story, which is about lucid dreaming, began as an actual lucid dream, a nightmare I had a few years ago. I originally sold the story to an anthology, “Death Dances in the Moonlight,” but the editor died and the anthology didn’t happen. You can read the story in my collection, “I Never Meant to Start a Murder Cult and Other Stories,” which features an awesome cover by James R. Tuck and a foreword by Jeff Strand in which he calls me a son of a bitch in my own book.

I’m looking forward to seeing my nightmare come to life on the movie screen!

Author Interview: Benji Carr

November 20, 2021 / Darrell Grizzle / Leave a comment

As a child growing up in the South with cerebral palsy, Benji Carr developed an eye for the bizarre and quirky, which provided all of the stories he told his friends and family with a bit of flavor. Working as a journalist, storyteller and playwright, his work – whether the stories be personal tales of struggle and survival or fiction about cannibal lunch ladies, puppet romances, drag queen funerals, and perverted killer circus clowns – has been featured in The Guardian, ArtsATL and Pembroke Magazine. Onstage, his pieces have been presented at the Center for Puppetry Arts, Alliance Theatre, and as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival in Manhattan. He lives in Atlanta and helps run the online literary magazine, Gutwrench Journal.
IMPACTED is his first novel.

What’s new and exciting in your life as an author?

IMPACTED came out over the summer, and it’s been doing pretty well. I have a story called “Marthasville” coming out in the Georgia Gothic anthology this year. Blood Bound Books published my story “Nougat” after I performed it at KillerCon.

What is your connection to the American South?

I grew up in Buford, and I live in Atlanta. I’m a UGA grad and a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society. And I’m a fan of the culture, its music and its literature.

How has that connection to the South informed your work as a writer?

I grew up around natural storytellers, the gossips and the smart alecks. In the South, the stories are all soaked in Baptist shame, which gives them a different, darker flavor. And there’s a touch of the wild in them. Even though I was a fairly dainty kid, I still have stories of running through kudzu, getting poison ivy, getting run over by a Big Wheel and accidentally burning my face on an electric fence. There are a million different layers in every story, from the tacky to the genteel.

What can we expect to see from you in the future?

I’m trying to write another book for my publishers at The Story Plant.