My final official appearance of 2015 will be at HorrorHound Weekend Indianapolis, September 11-13.  Guests include cast members from ALIEN, Scream, Big Trouble in Little China, Silent Night, Deadly Night, and the Nightmare on Elm Street series, including Freddy himself, Robert Englund.  I will be signing all of my novels and short fiction collections, including my bestsellers Cinema of Shadows and Spook House.  Hope to see you all there!

V.I.P. and Early Access passes are already SOLD OUT! Day and weekend passes still available at early bird discount, but prices will go up dramatically at the door, if they are still available at all. Don’t miss your chance!  Order yours now by clicking here!

Pleasant nightmares!

Well, here we are again.  Another year over, and a new one just begun.  And what a year it was; filled with the highest highs and the lowest lows, with professional triumphs and personal tragedies, and the hope that 2013 will bring something better.  But before we look ahead to what the new year has in store, let’s do a bit of review…

The year started off with the release of my short story “For the River Is Wide and the Gods Are Hungry” as a digital download for $0.99 through Seventh Star Press.  This was the first time that I had ever released my work in a purely digital format.  The publisher also re-released my award-winning short story “Goodnight” in the same fashion.

March saw the release of Poseidon’s Children, the first novel in my epic Urban Fantasy series The Legacy of the Gods.  The project introduced me to a world-wide audience, and to date, it has been sold in Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain!  This was a project that I had been kicking around for many years, so it was incredibly gratifying to see so many enjoying my story and falling in love with this cast of characters who had been so close to me for so long.

Then, during my publisher’s Summer Open House, my novel Cinema of Shadows became the most downloaded Horror novel on Amazon.com!

Growing up, I can’t tell you how many times I dreamed of having a #1 book, and it was so surreal and exciting to see it actually happen.

I traveled a lot this year in support of my novels – appearing at conventions, book stores, and book fairs in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and as far south as Atlanta, Georgia.  It was great to meet my faithful readers face-to-face, to introduce my work to new people, and to get to know a lot of stars from film and television, celebrities I have been watching  and idolizing for most of my life, including Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead, Army of Darkness) and the amazing Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night).

But 2012 still wasn’t done with me yet.

October saw the release of my third Harmony, Indiana novel, Spook House.  A mash-up that featured the first meeting of Robby Miller (The Wide Game, Cinema of Shadows) and Earl L. Preston Jr. (Poseidon’s Children), the novel proved to be my best reviewed work to date,  even making its way onto some year-end lists as one or the year’s best reads!  The novel also sent me on my first virtual book tour.  For thirty days, I visited various sites from around the world, posting guest blogs, doing interviews, and just generally blown away by the overwhelming response.

And the year ended as it began, with more short story news.

“Trolling,” my tale set during the events of Poseidon’s Children, saw publication again as part of the Beast Within 3: Ocean’s Unleashed anthology.  And a new story,, my first real zombie tale, “Hell’s Hollow,” was part of the very limited Appalachian Undead anthology.  Hopefully you got your copy of that one before it went out of print!

While 2012 was the best year of my career, it was a year of personal struggles and tragedies.

Sara Larson, one of my closest and dearest friends, and a founding member of the Indiana Horror Writers, lost her long and painful battle with breast cancer.  The cancer had moved into her bones and her brain, and the year began with her in hospice care.  I visited her often, and she fought hard to stay with us, but on March 17th, she left this world behind and left a huge hole in a lot of people’s hearts.

Then, in September, cancer struck even closer to home when my wife Stephanie got the diagnosis shortly after our 20th wedding anniversary.  Thankfully, it was a slow-growing tumor that was confined to the bone in her arm.  Surgery replaced the infected bone with metal, and no chemo or radiation was needed.  As I type this, she is cancer free, but, because she can no longer physically perform the duties of her nursing job, a job she’s had as long as I’ve known her, she is also job free.  We are getting by, however, and I hope that the new year will bring good news.

Which brings us to 2013.

The new year will see the release of a special anthology, one that I’ve been editing off and on for over a year now; an anthology that will donate money to cancer research with each and every purchase.  This is, obviously, something that has a personal importance to me, and I am thrilled that it is finally coming together, and coming together so very well.  Look for an an official announcement on that one soon.  I hope we can do a lot of good with this one!

There will also be a new announcement in the Harmony, Indiana series in May, something faithful readers have been asking for for some time.  Sorry to be such a tease – there are a lot of moving parts to it, and some have yet to be set into motion – but trust me, it is something that will make a lot of people very happy, myself included.  *nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say no more*

Now, on to the stuff I can talk about in detail.

My short stories “The Grove” (Shroud Magazine #13) and “Unknown Caller” (Cadence in Decay) will be released during the next twelve months.  Stay tuned for exact release dates and more information as those dates draw near.

And last, but certainly not least, I will be working on the next two chapters in my Legacy of the Gods series, Hades’ Disciples and Zeus’ Warriors.  Look for the first of these two entries to be released before 2o13 ends, with the second coming out in early 2014.

So thanks to you, all my faithful readers, for your kind words and encouragement over these past twelve months, and for your continued support in 2013 and beyond.   Happy New Year!  May the future be a bright one for us all!

In addition to the casts of ALIENS, Monster Squad, and the Terminator films, I will be appearing at HorrorHound Weekend: Indianapolis on Friday, September 7-Sunday, September 9.

Marriott Indianapolis East
7202 East 21st Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46219

Phone: 317-352-1231

I will be signing copies of all of my works, including the #1 downloaded Horror novel on Amazon.com, Cinema of Shadows, and the first book of my Legacy of the Gods series, Poseidon’s Children.  While I have attended just about every HorrorHound in every location they’ve been held, this is the first time I have had a table at the Indianapolis show.  Please stop by and make this homecoming a true celebration!

Note:  As of right now, I don’t know exactly where I will be on that map up there.   I’m thinking it will be in that long, skinny dealer / celeb room on the right, but I may also be in the Maskfest room at the top.  Follow my on Twitter or “like” my Facebook page for more up-to-the-minute info as the show approaches.  Look forward to seeing all my faithful readers there!

I’ve just confirmed that I will be doing a book signing at That Book Place in Madison, Indiana on Saturday, October 27th…just in time for Halloween!  I will have copies of all my novels, including the new edition to my Harmony, Indiana series, Spook House!    Now, while I hope to have copies of Spook House in time for September’s HorrorHound Weekend in Indianapolis, this will be the first time that we will have a proper launch for the novel.   What better way to kick off Halloween week?

The information for the book store is below, along with all the info we currently have for the signing, but things do change, so please check the Schedule section of the website for more information as the date approaches.  Hope to see you all there!

That Book Place    337 Clifty Drive, Madison IN 47250 / Store telephone: (812)574-4113 /  Date: October 27/ Time: TBA / Book Launch for Spook House!

Michael West will be a guest at HorrorHound Weekend Cincinnati 2011, November 11-13th at the  Crowne Plaza Cincinnati North.   He will be signing copies of his novels, The Wide Game and Cinema of Shadows, as well as his short story collection, Skull Full of Kisses, and other works.   Other guests include the casts of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, Ghostbusters, and the hit AMC series The Walking Dead.

The Crowne Plaza is located at 11320 Chester Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45246.  Look for more information as the event draws near.  Michael West hopes to see all his faithful readers there!

Greetings, faithful readers! 

Another month has come and gone.  Hard to believe that a fourth of the year is already in the history books.  Guess the old saying about “time flies when you’re having fun” is true after all.  March, 2011, was full of  interviews, signings, and work, work, work.    So without further ado, here’s a quick recap / status update…

The month began with not one but two glowing reviews of my debut novel, The Wide Game.  The first was from Sheri Jenkins White at Xomba Horror:

 Stick a fork in 2010.  It’s over.  Done.  Finito.  Finished. 

Despite some personal struggles, 2010 was the best year of my professional career thus far. My first short story collection, Skull Full of Kisses, was released to amazing feedback and reviews. My first novel, The Wide Game, was picked up by Graveside Tales Books for release in 2011. I got to work with the good people at Dark Rider Studios on the book trailers for both. I received invitations to write new stories for various magazines and anthologies. And, most amazing of all, I got to tour the Midwest and meet faithful readers from all over the country.

So where do I go from here?

 Well, 2011 will see the release of the Fell Beasts anthology, featuring my short story “Sandwalkers,” sometime in January. The winter issue of Shroud magazine will feature my short story “Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite.” And, as previously mentioned, my first novel, The Wide Game, will be released on February 15th. Also coming are stories in The Beast Within 2  anthology and Appalachian Folklore: Dark Tales of Superstition and Old Wives’ Tales.  And that’s just the stuff I’ve already written. New projects for the new year include work on my first Sci-fi / Horror novel, Echoes of Aurora, continued work on my epic Urban Fantasy series, The Legacy of the Gods, and a few new short tales, including a zombie Western. And, of course, I will be out on tour in support of all my work. Look for me at Horror Hound Weekend, Mo*Con, Fandomfest, Context, and Scarefest, just to name a few (check the Schedule page for all the details as they become available).

 So thanks to you, all my faithful readers, for your kind words and encouragement in the past, and for your continued support in 2011 and beyond.  Happy New Year!  May the future be a bright one for us all!

“Pray for me. There are demons in this hotel!”

A woman was overheard saying this into her cellphone.

Why do hotels do this? They book a big Horror convention, an event that brings fans wearing T-shirts covered in blood and violent images, fans in ghoul make-up; in full costume as Jason, Freddy, or Leatherface, and, my personal favorites: the Goth girls. 

Where was I? Oh yes!

Hotel bookings.

Anyway, you have a Horror convention booked, so what do you schedule for that same weekend? If your first thought was a Christian Women’s Conference, then, not only are you correct, but you should be working for Marriott. 

This Horror Hound Weekend was huge! Not only were there more guests than ever before, more tickets had been pre-sold than at any previous show. Add to that the people who walked in off the street, and, well…crowded was an understatement. But the good news was that, despite the throngs, or perhaps because of them, a wonderful time was had by all. 

When we walk in the door, we are greeted by Corey Haim (Lost Boys, Silver Bullet). He likes my T-shirt.

“I’ve always loved that poster,” he says, then as he signs my poster, asks, “You want me to write ‘Death by stereo?'”

I tell him sure. It’s one of my favorite lines. 

The next person we meet is Chris Carnel, the killer miner from My Bloody Valentine 3D. A really great guy, just nice as can be. Chris has been working on a remake of George A. Romero’s The Crazies, and he had originally canceled his appearance at Horror Hound due to the workload. After changing his schedule around, however, he was able to make it after all.

“Thanks for coming,” I tell him. “I really appreciate you working it out.”

“Yeah, I really wanted to be here,” he says. “I’m glad I could make it work.”

He signs a still of himself in full costume, and we chat about the film. “Did they really pump oxygen into the mask, or–”

“Nope. I was breathing my own air.”

“The tunnels looked really narrow,” I tell him. “And the 3-D was very effective…it tricked your mind, made you actually feel claustrophobic.”

He laughed, “Yeah. They’re low. After a time, real miners start to walk all hunched over. I tried to do that in my performance. Actually, my lack of claustrophobia is what got me the job. They saw that I worked on Spider-man, and they figured, ‘if he can handle the Spider suit, he can handle this.'”

We then approach G. Tom Mac (above), who sang Lost Boys‘ theme, “Cry Little Sister.” He signs my poster and I tell him how much my kids and I love the song. “We listen to it all the time,” I tell him. “When I put in the CD, they tell me to skip to ‘Cry Little Sister.'”

“That’s wonderful,” he tells us. “I love singing it.”

Beside G. Tom Mac sit two of the vampires from the film, Billy Wirth (above) and Brooke McCarter (below). They could not have been nicer to the fans who came up to them…joking, smiling, and laughing. They appeared to really be enjoying themselves.

Next, we meet Chance Michael Corbitt, the young actor who played half-vampire “Lonnie” in the film. As he adds his name to my Lost Boys poster, my youngest son stares at him, trying to figure something out.

Finally, he asks, “Which vampire were you?”

“I was the youngest one, the little boy.”

I smile. “Eddie Munster.”

“That’s right,” he laughs. “‘The attack of Eddie Munster.'”

We talk for a moment, and, before we leave, the actor picks up a still of himself vamping out. “Here, let me give you this,” he tells me as he signs the still.

I thank him for being so gracious, then it is time to move on.

The next person we meet is none other than Adrienne Barbeau. When I first saw her in The Fog, Escape from New York, and Swamp Thing, I was no older than my children, and, I must confess, I had such a crush. Not to mention the fact that Creepshow is a personal favorite of mine, and her episode, “The Crate,” was the best in the film. Who could forget her famous line, “Just call me Billie–everyone does.”

In person, Adrienne is just a sweetheart, with the widest, brightest smile. She signs posters for The Fog and Escape from New York, and then, on a still from Creepshow, she writes, “Michael, I’ll just call you Mike–everyone does.”

I could not have been happier. 

We then met John Kassir, the voice of the Crypt Keeper from HBO’s Tales from the Crypt. I was wearing my Crypt Keeper shirt, and John asked me where I got it. To be honest, I couldn’t remember.

“I like that the lettering is all in blue,” he said. “All the shirts I’ve seen have had the title in that slime green color.”

My sons were amazed to learn all the cartoon voices he had done over the years (Buster Bunny from Tiny Toons was one of my favorites), and, to their delight, he would break into the various characters as he named them off. Then, as the Crypt Keeper, he created a message for my cellphone’s voice mail. Of course, my phone picked that moment to act up–dropping out as he tried to record the greeting. I stood there, red-faced, but John kept telling me not to worry about it. He must have recorded that same message six or seven times, but he never complained.

And the end result was amazing. 

When I saw John Saxon, we didn’t talk about Elm Street. Well, not at first. Instead, I pointed to a still of a Gene Roddenberry pilot called Planet Earth. I told him that it was the first thing I’d ever seen him in.

“You know,” he began, “the studio didn’t think humor and Sci-fi went together. That’s why it was never picked up to be a series. Finally, they did it down in New Zealand with that young actor…what is his name?”

“Kevin Sorbo?”

“Yes! Kevin Sorbo. He did it for about five years down there.” He then turned to the partially unrolled poster I held in my hands. “What have you got there for me? I can see the New Line logo.”

I showed him a teaser poster from Freddy’s Dead (Born 1984 – Dies 1991), and he was happy to add his name to it.

Andrew Bryniarski (star of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake) signed a Leatherface still and told my youngest son, “Anybody picks on you at school, you tell ’em Leatherface is my buddy, okay?”

Next, we met Luke Goss. He signed a still from Blade II with a gold paint pen, and the result was quite striking.

“You need to let it dry a little longer,” he told me, “but I really like the look of it.” Then he turned to my oldest son. “You’re dad’s pretty cool, isn’t he?”

My son smiled. “Yeah.”

“To bring you to this thing? My dad’s a cop,” John told him. “He’d have me arrested if he knew I was here.”

I then caught up with Derek Mears, “Jason” from the new Friday the 13th. “Mike, hey!” He shakes my hand. “How are you?”

“I’m fine.” I look at the line for his table and say, “Big difference from last August.”

He nods. “Pretty crazy, huh?”

We talk about his interview on a local morning show the day before, and about the possibility of him putting on the hockey mask again. Then his phone rings and it is a call he has to take, so I wish him well and say my goodbyes.

Derek is not the only Jason actor at Horror Hound Weekend. C.J. Grahm (Above Center, Jason Lives) and Warrington Gillette (Above Right, Part 2) are also in attendance, and, like Derek, both are great, friendly guys who loved their time behind the hockey mask…or, in Warrington’s case, pillowcase.

And, last but not least, we meet Ari Lehman (below). Ari was the child who appeared in flashback, the Jason who drowned, and, at the end of the film, sprang up out of the water to scare the audience. He signs a still of that famous scene and says, “You see all the leaves? It was autumn and that water was freezing.”

I ask, “How old were you when you did the movie?”

“I was 14 when it was filmed, and 15 when it was released…and now you’re doing the math, aren’t you?”

Sitting next to Ari is the beautiful Amy Steel, star of Friday the 13th Part 2 and April Fools Day, but as I look at the stills on her table, I see one role that is not represented. “Nothing from The Powers of Matthew Star?”

The Powers of Matthew Star was a television series that aired on NBC in 1982.

Amy laughs. “Wow, nobody’s asked me about that in a while.”

We then talk about the confusing ending to Part 2.

“I was supposed to be in Friday the 13th Part 3, but I said no…like an idiot. So, when I didn’t come back, they just decided to do something else.”

Next, we find Howard Sherman. Howard played the iconic zombie “Bub” in George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead.

My youngest son is a huge zombie fan, and the only thing he wanted from the weekend was to get an action figure of “Bub.” We find the last one Amok Time toys has at their booth, and then we met the actor. Needless to say, my son was thrilled.

Finally, we attend a screening of the 1981 film, Dark Night of the Scarecrow. I have so many fond memories of that film, and have tried to describe it to my children on numerous occasions, so it is great that they are finally able to see it for themselves.

After the screening, writer J.D. Feigelson (Above Left) answers questions from the audience and tells us the film will be available on DVD for the first time around Halloween. I cannot wait! 

At the end of each and every Horror Hound Weekend, I find myself wondering how they can possibly top it. And, every single time, the organizers manage to do just that. With the huge crowds and happy guests, I know there will be another convention in the near future, and you can bet that I will be there to enjoy it.

My only question is…what will the hotel book for the room across the hall? 

(ABOVE) With An American Werewolf in London director John Landis.

Michael West attended Horror Hound Weekend in Pittsburgh.  Read his reports on the event in Horrid Ravings or on his MySpace blog.

(ABOVE) Michael West with Kane Hodder (Jason, Friday the 13th Part 7-Jason X)

Michael West attended Horror Hound Weekend in Indianapolis.  Read a full report in Horrid Ravings or on his MySpace Blog!