Author Fan Clubs:
Camille Alexa
R.A. Allen
Kevin David Anderson
Peter Andrews
Thomas Anselm
Carol Ayer
Victor J. Banis
Cynthia S. Becker
Sally Bellerose
Karen Bernardo
Venita Blackburn
Andrea Bodel
Bruce Boston
Michael Bracken
Warren Bull
Mort Castle
John Chabot
Keri Clark
T.F. Davenport
O'Neil De Noux
M.M. De Voe
Denise Dietz
McKenna Donovan
Peggy Duffy
Barry Ergang
Elrena Evans
Gail Farrelly
John M. Floyd
Sunny Frazier
Robert Friedman
Jennifer Gennari
Kaye George
Jonathan C. Gillespie
Diane D. Gillette
Beth Groundwater
Mindy Hardwick
Jess Harris
Laura Hartman
Libby Fischer Hellmann
Belea T. Keeney
Floris M. Kleijne
Gerri Leen
Laird Long
Adrian Magson
Tracie McBride
Thomas Millstead
Michael Neal Morris
Jim Musgrave
Kris Neri
Richard O'Donnell
Lydia Ondrusek
Heather Parker
Barbara Quinn
Bruce Holland Rogers
Terry Sanville
Anita Saran
Wayne Scheer
Marge Simon
Del Stone, Jr.
Loretta Sylvestre
Mark Troy
J.A. Tyler
Dennis R. Upkins
Daniel Wallace
J.D. Webb
Mike Wiecek
Bill Wilbur
Big Jim Williams
Sarah Wisseman
Tim Wohlforth
Simon Wood
Mort Castle published his first novel in 1967 and since then has had over 500 publications. “I’m not prolific,” Mort insists, “just old.” His work has received many honors, including a Bram Stoker nomination for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction from the Horror Writers Association for Dreaming Robot Monster from Mighty Unclean.
Mort has seven novels to his credit, including The Strangers, optioned for the screen by Whitewater Films, two short story collections, including Moon on the Water, from which some of his Sniplits stories were selected, and two chapbooks. He edited the definitive genre fiction “how to” books, Writing Horror: The Horror Writers of America Handbook, and its successor, On Writing Horror, both from Writer’s Digest Books, and wrote a chapter for the Bram Stoker Award winning Handbook of Horror, edited by Michael Knost. He also wrote a chapter for the Handbook of Novel Writing from Writer’s Digest Books.
Though he has written comic books, including the International Horror Guild award nominee Night City, articles for such magazines as The Writer and Writer’s Digest, poetry, journalism, comedy for performing groups, and ever so much “miscellaneous”—which is how he classifies the international advertising campaign for a hog farm flooring system—Mort is probably best known for his short fiction. He is the only living author with stories in all five of the famed Masques anthologies, edited by the late J.N. Williamson, and has seen his stories translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Japanese. The Polish translation of his novel, The Strangers, released by Replika Publishing, was named one of the the “10 Best Horror/Suspense/Thriller Novels of 2008” in Newsweek Polska.
Mort has been nominated six times for the Bram Stoker Award and four times for the Pushcart Prize, and he was named one of “21 Leaders in the Arts for the 21st Century in Chicago’s Southland” by the Chicago Sun-Times/Hollinger Newspaper Group.
He teaches in the Fiction Writing Department of Columbia College Chicago, serves as writer-in-residence for Chicago Heights High School District 206, conducts an annual writing workshop at the World Horror Convention, edits the magazine Doorways, plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and dobro in the aging but frequently on-key Acousti-Coots, and seldom becomes bored. He and his wife of 36 years, Jane, live in Crete, Illinois.
Appearances
March29-April 1, 2012
Workshop Presenter
World Horror Convention
Salt Lake City, Utah
Articles
Interview with NOWA Fantastyka, (Poland) September 2009
Interview with Ron Hansen appeared in The Writer, February 2009
Writing the Pastiche, Writer's Digest, January 2008
Links
Mort
Castle’s website
Columbia College Chicago
Doorways Magazine
Graphic Classics
Overlook Connection Press
Prime Books
Writer's Digest books
Q: Do you approach writing for audio any differently than writing for print? Kevin Anderson
M.C.:You know, I have an extensive “old-time radio” collection and I’ve
studied and heard the classic scripts of Arch Oboler
and Norman Corwin. Plus, like so many authors, I read all my work aloud.
Storytelling is very much the foundation of the pedagogy of the writing program at
Columbia College, Chicago, where I teach, and not at all
coincidentally, it fits right in to my approach.
No, I do not really approach “writing for audio” any differently than I do writing
for print—but most everything I write—fiction or
non-fiction (and of course poetry!) is meant to be heard whether
by ear or in the middle of the brain. Thanks for asking—and
making me think about the question!
Q: As a fellow Sniplits author, I wonder if you prefer writing short stories to other forms of writing.
Always
interested in the opinion of a published writer. Thanks. Tom Anselm
M.C.: Hi fellow Snipliter, Given my choice, I’d earn a living writing only short stories (alas,
an
impossibility in our era). The brevity, that one can begin and actually have an end in sight, certainly appeals to me.
Moreover, like a poem, a short story is intensity—and and I have great difficulty maintaining intensity at novel
length. While “some parts“ of
my novels have satisfied me, I’ve never been fully pleased with a
book length fiction—but short stories, I’ve got probably 20 (out of 500!) that make me nod my head and
say, “Yeah, I nailed it.” Appreciate your interest.
When he needs to know the truth of things, or just if the dogs are dancing, the boy turns to his grandfather.
Time: 11:38 / $0.89 Sample Add to Cart
(3)
Eavesdrop in a smoky club at a time when Jelly Roll, Louis, Miles, and Prez... all the jazz greats LIVE, all except Charlie Yardbird Parker. Some profanity.
Time: 14:15 / $0.89 Sample Add to Cart
(4)
Three jazzmen searching for the perfect sound in old-days Chicago, and then a woman steps out of the lake.
Time: 27:22 / $0.99 Sample Add to Cart
(2)
As this serial killer knows, people tend to see what they expect to see. And sometimes that's the last thing they'll ever see. Violent.
Time: 18:22 / $0.99 Sample Add to Cart
(3)
Just how does one human prepare to kill another? Violent and for mature audience
Time: 21:18 / $0.99 Sample Add to Cart
(2)
He lives mostly alone, and sometimes in the dark, so he's happy when Mama says it's Party Time.
Time: 5:04 / $0.89 Sample Add to Cart
We can learn some interesting lessons from our parents.
Time: 5:28 / $0.89 Sample Add to Cart
Henderson has his special, hidden away place, the place where he meets The Girl with the Summer Eyes.
Time: 26:51 / $0.99 Sample Add to Cart
(6)
Includes both "Healers: What Is" and "Healers: Miss Hazeltine's Miracle."
Time: 8:53 / $0.89 Sample Add to Cart
(1)
A woman's prayer for relief from unbearable pain could lead to almost anything.
Time: 6:13 / $0.89 Sample Add to Cart
(4)
To what lengths would you go to save your child when medicine fails?
Time: 2:40 / $0.49 Sample Add to Cart
(2)
Have you ever wondered who's there, when the phone rings in the middle of the night and all you hear is silence? Supernatural, some profanity.
Time: 10:59 / $0.89 Sample Add to Cart
(4)
Polish translation of The Strangers and
Moon on the Water.