News & Blog

The Morbid Anatomy Museum opened to the public today in Brooklyn, so of course Alexa and I had to go! What we found was right up our alley. Inside a black-painted building on the corner of 3rd Avenue and 7th Street in Park Slope, the Morbid Anatomy Museum houses all sorts of funerary, spiritual, and anatomical artifacts, from death masks to spirit photography to Victorian post-mortem photography to strange medical specimens, and on and on. We were in heaven!

No photography is allowed in the museum, unfortunately, but you can see some great shots of their displays in this article from Gothamist (which is also where I found the photo reprinted above, taken by Sai Mokhtari).

In addition, the museum has its own cafe and bookstore. They seemed excited to meet a local author, especially one who writes horror, and are looking into carrying my books!

Special shows and exhibits are coming soon, including a lecture and slideshow on August 7th at 8 PM called “Demonically Possessed Cats.” I want to go to that so badly, but it’s the same night they’re showing Spaceballs on the deck of the USS Intrepid. I LITERALLY DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT THIS!

Anyway, you have to check out the Morbid Anatomy Museum when you get a chance. It’s amazing. I’ll be going back a lot!

As someone who doesn’t think he photographs well, there aren’t a lot of pictures of me I like. This one, however, may be my favorite picture to include me in recent memory:

(Photo by Ellen Datlow)

That’s Paul Tremblay, Livia Llewellyn, and me having a good time at the KGB Bar reading Wednesday night. (You can see more of Ellen’s photos from the event here, including a particularly hilarious one of Alexa.) Paul was in town to read with Laird Barron. Both readings were excellent, by the way. Laird read his story “Slave Arm,” and Paul read an excerpt from his forthcoming novel Head Full of Ghosts. It was a great night. I’m glad there’s a photo I like enough to commemorate it with.

From left to right: Karen Heuler, me, Chandler Klang Smith.

Photo courtesy of Chandler’s mom!

All the pictures so far from the HiFi Bar reading are now collected on my Flickr!

Last night’s reading with Chandler Klang Smith and Karen Heuler at the HiFi Bar went really, really well! Their new back room is perfect for readings, separate from the bar itself with its own sound system and another, smaller bar. Also, their happy hour prices couldn’t be beat: $3 for a pint? Yes, please! If you’re looking to set up a reading in New York City, put the HiFi Bar on your shortlist. Seriously.

We had a great turnout. Standing room only. Before the reading began, I took this not exactly well-lit photo of a portion of the crowd. I took it from the stage, which is why you can see the microphone at the bottom there (click to enlarge):

Here’s a photo of me reading an excerpt from my forthcoming novel Die and Stay Dead (out September 30th from St. Martin’s!), taken from the back of the room by my friend M.M. De Voe (click to enlarge):

The crowd seemed to enjoy our readings, and all of us managed to sell some books, which is no mean feat in this age of one-click ebook delivery. Unfortunately, these are the only two pictures I have from last night. However, you can see more pictures of me, Chandler, and Karen reading on Jim Freund’s Instagram. Jim also recorded the readings. If the recording shows up online, I’ll be sure to link to it.