Conversation with Brian Rosenberger Author What jump started you into Horror Writing? I’ve been a big horror fan since childhood. I watched the old Universal Studios films on TV, had the toys, and would reenact Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman in the backyard. While some kids wanted to grow up to be a cowboy or an astronaut, I always thought Godzilla would have been a great career choice. I’ve always been an avid reader. Having read and enjoyed so much horror fiction, writing was something I just kind of fell into, kind of like a Burmese tiger pit. Love of the genre was probably the catalyst and my early efforts were efforts to emulate authors I enjoyed. Has that changed how you write Horror today? Not really. I try to write largely based on a “coolness” factor, of what sounds cool to me but now have a lot more life experiences I can use and warp that I didn’t possess years ago. Today I could write a haunted house in foreclosure story with the added experience of being a homeowner. Same imagination but with more neurosis and less angst. You write poetry and shorts, when writing, which do you find easier? Poetry without question just because it’s much more finite. Shorts can take on a life of their own and are harder to control. With poetry, it’s an idea and it’s done. Poetry is a knife across the jugular; shorts sometimes wind up being death by blunt object. That said, I think poetry is for sissies. .Are there any influences that have affected your writing? As I mentioned, my early efforts were in imitation of authors I liked. Robert Bloch, Lovecraft, James Herbert, etc. I’m also a big comic book, pro-wrestling, and heavy metal fan, each larger than life in their own way. I don’t think there’s any one thing or person, but an amalgam of stuff. My writing is a punch concocted of several different poisons. The one that actually gets you I leave to the coroner to discover. Have any of these influences led to a comedic like approach to any of your Horror writing? Absolutely not. How do you feel about Horror and comedy mixed together? I think it can only end in tragedy for both the author and reader. Do not try at home or without parental supervision. Somebody’s bound to get hurt. But if you’re either bold or fool enough to try, when it works, I love it. And that’s coming from someone who has gone 53 days without smiling. Not a personal best, but hey, everybody needs goals. Your work has been seen in different publications, can you tell the readers about some of your work? Do you ever have those nights when you get the feeling that something is just dreadfully wrong? Then hours later, sun shining and flowers blooming, you can laugh at yourself but there’s still that lingering feeling, that knowing that night will fall again. My work will make you laugh, will make you cry, but mostly it makes me think “This stuff is just wrong.” Do you have a favorite piece that you wrote? That’s like picking a favorite scar. At the time, acquiring the scar was most likely unpleasant, but now you’ve got a conversation piece. Some pieces are more … personal than others are, but I don’t have the perfect epitaph for the tombstone yet. Another one of my goals. .On your website, you list the undead often, how has the undead, zombies affected your writing and perhaps your life? They have provided hours of entertainment. They are like visiting in-laws you can’t get rid off. Regardless of their smell, atrocious table manners, or bottomless appetite, the nicest thing I can say about them is I have yet to be sued. I cater to the cemetery crowd; they are my people. How may other authors give graveside poetry readings? I’m coming to a necropolis near you. Are there any projects in the works you would like to tell our readers? I have stories or poems slated to appear in the anthologies From the Mouth, The Book of Tentacles, Tooth Decay, Vile Things, SideShow II, and The Terror of Miskatonic Falls. I have a poem in the debut issue of Shock Totem and various buried projects slowly inching their way to freedom. Where can our readers find some of your work? You can visit me online at http://home.earthlink.net/~brosenberger to see my previous or upcoming publications or check me out on facebook. I’m the good-looking zombie.

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