Carl Marchese's Page

International Issue of Apex Magazine Posted

This month Apex Magazine presents a special “international” issue of their online magazine.

Patient Zero – Book Review

This is the best zombie novel I’ve read to date. It even knocks Brian Keene’s classic take on the undead, The Rising, out of its top spot.

Postscripts To Get Bigger

After some lengthy consideration PS Publishing has decided on another change for the creature formerly known as Postscripts.

AND NOW, OUR … LOSER!

The Chicago Tribune ran “The Great Chicago Ghost Story” contest for Halloween.

The rules: A Chicago site must be mentioned in the story. No more than 750 words.

I wrote a story. Entered.

Lost.

Here’s the loser.

THE GHOSTS OF CHICAGO, I SET THEM FREE

I see the ghosts of Chicago.

I set them free.

This is a mission statement.

Mine.

###

How is it [...]

Q&A the Second

Q: How does it feel to walk away? You’ve just complete a ginormous four book cycle (well, you finished it a while ago). Is it refreshing to turn back to other things, or do you light-headed?

A: The answer, of course, is yes. I am tremendously grateful to be done with the Doctrine of Labyrinths, but [...]

When I Wish I Wasn’t a Writer

When people ask me what I do for a living, I am always at a bit of a loss as to how to answer.  It sounds a little too highfaluting to announce, “I am an author.”  You just can’t say that sentence without sounding like you graduated from Oxford, or that you [...]

Dream Versus Time, Life, the World, And All The Really Important Things

The holidays are coming.  We’re arriving at an intersection of worlds – the real and the imagined, outer and inner, concrete and symbolic, the past and the now.

What must be done, what needs to be done.

Kids dressed up as monsters expect candy offerings.  Blood-bonded friends and enemies gather for the ritual slaughter [...]

Long-Term Relationships With Your Characters

One of the things authors decide when they sit down to write is how long and drawn out their relationship will be with particular characters.  There are short stories, novellas, novels, and then – at the far end of the spectrum, you find trilogies and the continuing series.  Each of these involves a level of [...]