Category: News

HWA Announces the 2025 Specialty Awards

Columbus, OH – The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its Specialty Awards. These will be presented on June 14, 2025, during the Bram Stoker Awards® Presentation at StokerCon®2025 in Stamford, CT.

Specialty Press Award

The recipient of the Specialty Press Award is Mocha Memoirs Press.

The HWA Specialty Press Award is presented periodically to a specialty publisher whose work has substantially contributed to the horror genre, whose publications display general excellence, and whose dealings with authors have been fair and exemplary.

The award was instituted in 1997, largely due to the efforts of long-time HWA member and specialty press aficionado, Peter Crowther.

Congratulations, Mocha Memoirs Press!

Nicole Givens Kurtz is the founder and publisher of Mocha Memoirs Press, a traditional publishing specializing in amplifying marginalized voices in speculative fiction. Her press has published groundbreaking anthologies such as SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire and Blackened Roots: An Anthology of the Undead. Mocha Memoirs is renowned for their progressive work in Black women in horror and continues to push the boundaries of intersectionality in speculative fiction.

Mocha Memoirs Press aims to create opportunities for voices that have traditionally been shut out of mainstream publishing. Our team is also primarily women and non-binary people, and we strive to foster an inclusive environment for both staff and authors. She’s a member of both the African-American and LGBTQIA+ communities. Nicole seeks to provide stories unavailable when she was a child. Overall, Mocha Memoirs Press is driven by a determination to increase representation one story at a time.

The Richard Laymon President’s Award

The recipient of the Richard Laymond President’s Award for Service is Maxwell I. Gold.

The Richard Laymon President’s Award for Service was instituted in 2001 and is named in honor of Richard Laymon, who died in 2001 while serving as HWA’s President. As its name implies, it is given by HWA’s sitting President.

The award is presented to a volunteer who has served the HWA in an especially exemplary manner and has shown extraordinary dedication to the organization.

Congratulations to Maxwell!

Maxwell I. Gold is a Jewish-American author and poet with an extensive body of work comprising over 350 poems since 2017. His writings have earned a place alongside many literary luminaries in the speculative fiction genre. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies. Maxwell’s work has been recognized with multiple nominations including the Eric Hoffer Award, Pushcart Prize, and Bram Stoker Awards. Find him and his work at www.thewellsoftheweird.com.

The Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award

The recipient of the Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award is Jonathan Lees.

In 2022, the Horror Writers Association renamed the Silver Hammer Award to the Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award in honor of the tremendous amount of work Karen did starting the HWA.

Our physical award has also been updated. Instead of a hammer, a new stylized sculpture has been designed and cast by the same company that mints our Bram Stoker Award statues. We look forward to sharing the new design at StokerCon2023.

The HWA periodically gives the Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award to an HWA volunteer who has done a truly massive amount of work for the organization, often unsung and behind the scenes. It was instituted in 1996 and is decided by a vote of HWA’s Board of Trustees.
The award is so named because it represents the careful, steady, continuous work of building HWA’s “house”—the many institutional systems that keep the organization functioning on a day-to-day basis.

Congratulations to Jonathan!

In addition to creating strategies and video series for media outlets, ranging from Complex Media to TIDAL, Jonathan Lees has spent decades championing independent cinema and filmmakers through his work with the New York Underground Film Festival, Troma, Tribeca Film, Anthology Film Archives, and now with the Final Frame Horror Short Film Competition at StokerCon. After twenty-five years working in NYC, he has apparated to the Hudson Valley to explore more personal rituals by inscribing arcane texts for grimoires such as Long Division [Bad Hand Books], Fear of Clowns [Kangas Kahn Publishing], Even In The Grave [eSpec Books], The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors [Bad Hand Books],and Other Terrors [Harper Collins].

Mentor of the Year Award

The recipient of the Mentor of the Year Award is Gretchen McNeil.

The HWA’s Mentor Program is available to all members of the organization. This popular program pairs newer writers with established professionals for an intensive four-month-long partnership. For new writers, the Program offers mentees a personal, one-on-one experience with a seasoned writer, tailor-made to help them grow in their writing and better market their work. For experienced writers, it is an opportunity to pay forward the assistance and encouragement other writers gave them when they were starting out. In addition, there is the added benefit of growing as a writer oneself through the act of teaching others. In short, the Program benefits all who participate, regardless of their roles.

Established in 2014, the Mentor of the Year Award recognizes one mentor in the Program who has done an outstanding job of helping new writers. The award is chosen by the current manager of the Program.

Congratulations to Gretchen!

Gretchen McNeil is the author of thirteen young adult novels for Disney*Hyperion and HarperCollins including the horror/comedy #MURDERTRENDING—the #1 YALSA Teens’ Top Ten pick for 2019—TEN, which was adapted as the film Ten: Murder Island for Lifetime, and the Get Even series which was adapted as the series Get Even and Rebel Cheer Squad: a Get Even series for the BBC and Netflix. Gretchen’s adult horror debut THEY FEAR NOT MEN IN THE WOODS hits shelves on September 9, 2025 from DAW Books.  


About the Horror Writers Association

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is a nonprofit organization of writers and publishing professionals around the world, dedicated to promoting dark literature and the interests of those who write it. Founded in the late 1980s, it now has close to 2000 members around the world and is the oldest and most respected professional organization for creators of horror fiction. The HWA encourages public interest in and appreciation of horror and dark fantasy literature and hosts an annual professional conference, StokerCon. HWA is also dedicated to recognizing and promoting diversity in the horror genre and practices a strict anti-harassment policy at all of its events. Please direct any questions regarding these awards to the Vice President of HWA. For more information about the Horror Writers Association, please visit https://horror.org/.

For more information about the Bram Stoker Awards® and our other awards, please visit http://www.thebramstokerawards.com.

The 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award Winners

Columbus, OH – The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its Lifetime Achievement Award. These will be presented on June 14, 2025, during the Bram Stoker Awards® Presentation at StokerCon®2025 in Stamford, CT.

The recipients of the HWA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for 2025 are:

Del and Sue Howison, Dame Susan Hill, and David Cronenberg.

Del Howison is an author, journalist, SAG actor including a cameo in the upcoming horror film Big Babyproduced by Cher and directed by Spider One.He is a Bram Stoker Award-winning editor of the anthology Dark Delicacies: Original Tales of Terror and the Macabre by the World’s Greatest Horror Writers. He has written articles for Fear.net,Gauntlet Magazine, and Writers Digest among others.Del’s short story Cul-de-Sac appeared in Weird Tales Magazine #369. His western short story The Lost Herd was turned into the premiere (and highest rated) episode, The Sacrifice, for the series Fear Itself. His dark western novel The Survival of Margaret Thomas was shortlisted for the Peacemaker Award given out by the Western Fictioneers. He has been shortlisted for over half a dozen awards including the Shirley Jackson Award and the Black Quill. Del’s retrospective short story compilation of dark tales, What Fresh Hell Is This?,was released in March of 2025. He is the cofounder and owner (with his wife, Sue) of Dark Delicacies, a book and gift store known as “The Home of Horror,” located in Burbank, California. The store won the “Il Posto Nero” award from Italy and has been inducted into the Rondo Hatton Hall of Fame.

Sue Howison is co-creator, with Del Howison, and COO of Dark Delicacies®. She and Del were business partners prior to their marriage. Sue is the main person responsible for deciding what stock to carry; lining up such diverse events as signings, memorials, weddings, and entertainment; as well as handling all charity happenings and donations. Her 30+ years working in horror has left an indelible impression on the genre. She and Del continue to work together in horror to this day.

Dame Susan Elizabeth Hill, Lady Wells DBE is an English author of fiction and non-fiction works. Her novels include The Woman in Black, which has been adapted for stage and screen, The Mist in the Mirror, and I’m the King of the Castle, for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award in 1971. She also won the Whitebread Novel Award in 1972 for The Bird of Night, which was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honors and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honors, both for services to literature.

David Cronenberg is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and the intertwining of the psychological, physical, and technological. Cronenberg is best known for exploring these themes through sci-fi horror films such as Shivers (1975), Scanners (1981),Videodrome(1983) and The Fly (1986), though he has also directed dramas, psychological thrillers and gangster films.

Cronenberg’s films have polarized critics and audiences alike; he has earned critical acclaim and has sparked controversy for his depictions of gore and violence.The Village Voicecalled him “the most audacious and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world”. His films have won numerous awards, including the Special Jury Prize forCrash at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, a unique award that is distinct from the Jury Prize as it is not given annually, but only at the request of the official jury, who in this case gave the award “for originality, for daring, and for audacity”.

Seven of his films were selected to compete for the Palme d’Or, the most recent beingThe Shrouds(2024), which was screened at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented periodically to an individual whose work has substantially influenced the horror genre. While this award is often presented to a writer, it may also be given for influential accomplishments in other creative fields.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is the most prestigious of all awards presented by HWA. It does not merely honor the superior achievement embodied in a single work. Instead, it is an acknowledgment of superior achievement in an entire career.

About the Horror Writers Association

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is a nonprofit organization of writers and publishing professionals around the world, dedicated to promoting dark literature and the interests of those who write it. Founded in the late 1980s, it now has close to 2000 members around the world and is the oldest and most respected professional organization for creators of horror fiction. The HWA encourages public interest in and appreciation of horror and dark fantasy literature and hosts an annual professional conference, StokerCon. HWA is also dedicated to recognizing and promoting diversity in the horror genre and practices a strict anti-harassment policy at all of its events. Please direct any questions regarding these awards to the Vice President of HWA. For more information about the Horror Writers Association, please visit https://horror.org/. For more information about the Bram Stoker Awards® and our other awards, please visit http://www.thebramstokerawards.com.

The 2024 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Final Ballot for the 2024 Bram Stoker Awards®. The HWA (http://www.horror.org/) is the premier writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with more than 2,000 members. We have presented the Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987 (see http://www.thebramstokerawards.com/).

Works appearing on this Ballot are Bram Stoker Award Nominees for Superior Achievement in their Category, e.g., Novel, and everyone may refer to them as such immediately after the announcement.

The HWA Board and the Bram Stoker Awards® Committee congratulate all those appearing on the Final Ballot. Notes about the voting process appear after the ballot listing.

If your work appears on this ballot and you would like to offer it to voting members of the HWA in the Internet Mailer to be sent on or around February 26, please see important information following the ballot.

The 2024 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

●       Ajram, Sofia — Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror (Ghoulish Books)

●       Costello, Rob — We Mostly Come Out at Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels & Other Creatures (Running Press)

●       Gyzander, Carol and Taborska, Anna — Discontinue If Death Ensues: Tales from the Tipping Point (Flame Tree Publishing)

●       Murano, Doug and Bailey, Michael — Long Division: Stories of Social Decay, Societal Collapse, and Bad Manners (Bad Hand Books)

●       Ryan, Lindy — Mother Knows Best: Tales of Homemade Horror (A Women in Horror Anthology) (Black Spot Books)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

●       Barron, Laird — Not a Speck of Light (Bad Hand Books)

●       Enriquez, Mariana — A Sunny Place for Shady People (Penguin)       

●       Sylvaine, Angela — The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls (Dark Matter Ink)

●       Waggoner, Tim — Old Monsters Never Die (Winding Road Stories)                                   

●       Yardley, Mercedes M. — Love is a Crematorium and Other Tales (Cemetery Dance)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

●       Coles, Donyae — Midnight Rooms (Amistad)

●       Drake-Thomas, Jessica — Hollow Girls (Cemetery Dance Publications)

●       Kiefer, Jenny — This Wretched Valley (Quirk Books)

●       Kim, Monika — The Eyes Are the Best Part (Erewhon Books)

●       Ryan, Lindy — Bless Your Heart (Minotaur Books)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

●       Ha, Robin (writer/artist) — The Fox Maidens (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

●       Hetland, Beth (writer/artist) — Tender (Fantagraphics Books)

●       Horvath, Patrick (writer/artist) — Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees (Penguin Random House)

●       Tanabe, Gou (writer/artist) — H. P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu (Dark Horse Books)

●       Umber, Maggie (writer/artist) — Chrysanthemum Under the Waves (Maggie Umber LLC)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

●       Ajram, Sofia – Coup de Grâce (Titan Books)

●       Cassidy, Nat – Rest Stop (Shortwave Publishing)

●       Chapman, Clay McLeod – Kill Your Darling (Bad Hand Books)

●       LaRocca, Eric – “All The Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn” (This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances) (Titan Books)

●       Royce, Eden – Hollow Tongue (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Superior Achievement in Long Non-Fiction

●       Bogutskaya, Anna — Feeding the Monster: Why Horror Has a Hold on Us (Faber & Faber)

●       Dauber, Jeremy —American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)

●       Honeycutt, Heidi — I Spit on Your Celluloid: The History of Women Directing Horror Movies (HeadPress)

●       Hughes, Emily C.  — Horror for Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You’re Too Scared to Watch (Quirk Books)

●       Sachar, Cassandra O’Sullivan, ed. — No More Haunted Dolls: Horror Fiction that Transcends the Tropes (Vernon Press)

Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel

●     Averling, Mary – The Curse of Eelgrass Bog (Razorbill)

●    Collings, Michaelbrent – The Witch in the Woods (Shadow Mountain Publishing)

●     Cuevas, Adrianna – The No-Brainer’s Guide to Decomposition (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

●     Ottone, Robert P. – There’s Something Sinister in Center Field (Cemetery Gates Media)

●       Royce, Eden – The Creepening of Dogwood House (Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)

Superior Achievement in a Novel

●       Iglesias, Gabino — House of Bone and Rain (Mulholland Books in US; Titan Books in UK)

●       Jones, Stephen Graham — I Was a Teenage Slasher (S&S/Saga Press in US; Titan Books in UK)

●       Kiste, Gwendolyn —  The Haunting of Velkwood (S&S/Saga Press)

●       Malerman, Josh — Incidents Around the House (Del Rey)

●       Tremblay, Paul — Horror Movie (William Morrow in US; Titan Books in UK)

Superior Achievement in Poetry

●       Hodge, Jamal – The Dark Between the Twilight (Crystal Lake Publishing)                             

●       Iniguez, Pedro – Mexicans on the Moon: Speculative Poetry from a Possible Future (Space Cowboy Books)                                               

●       Murray, Lee – Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud (The Cuba Press)         

●       Saulson, Sumiko – Melancholia: A Book of Dark Poetry (Bludgeoned Girls Press)

●       Wood, L. Marie – Imitation of Life (Falstaff Books)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

●       Beck, Scott and Woods, Bryan — Heretic (A24, Shiny Penny, Beck/Woods)

●       Eggers, Robert; Galeen, Henrik; and Stoker, Bram — Nosferatu (Focus Features, Maiden Voyage Pictures, Studio 8)

●       Fargeat, Coralie — The Substance (Working Title Film, Good Story, Blacksmith)

●       Perkins, Osgood — Longlegs (C2 Motion Picture Group, Cweature Features, Oddfellow Entertainment)

●       Schoenbrun, Jane — I Saw the TV Glow (A24, Fruit Tree, Smudge Films)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

●       Barron, Laird — “Versus Versus” (Long Division: Stories of Social Decay, Societal Collapse, and Bad Manners) (Bad Hand Books)

●       Bolton, Rachel — “And She Had Been So Reasonable” (Apex Magazine Issue 147) (Apex Book Company)

●       Brown, Sasha — “To the Wolves” (Weird Horror #9) (Undertow Publications)

●       Busby, R. A. — “Ten Thousand Crawling Children” (Nightmare Magazine January 2024) (Adamant Press)

●       Jakubowski, Raven — “She Sheds Her Skin” (Nightmare Magazine November 2024) (Adamant Press)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

●       Arnzen, Michael — “Screamin’ in the Rain: The Orchestration of Catharsis in William Castle’s The Tingler“ (What Sleeps Beneath)

●       Liaguno, Vince — “The Horror of Donna Berzatto and Her Feast of the Seven Fishes” (You’re Not Alone in the Dark) (Cemetery Dance Publications)

●       Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew — “Hidden Histories: The Many Ghosts of Disney’s Haunted Mansion” (Disney Gothic: Dark Shadows in the House of Mouse) (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.)

●       Wetmore, Kevin J., Jr. — “Jackson and Haunting of the Stage” (Journal of Shirley Jackson Studies Vol. 2 No. 1) (Shirley Jackson Society)

●       Wood, Lisa — “Blacks in Film and Cultivated Bias” (No More Haunted Dolls: Horror Fiction that Transcends the Tropes) (Vernon Press)

Superior Achievement in a YA Novel

●       Cesare, Adam — Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

●       Fraistat, Ann — A Place for Vanishing (Delacorte Press)

●       Parker, Natalie C. — Come Out, Come Out (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

●       Senf, Lora — The Losting Fountain (Union Square & Co.)

●       Wellington, Joelle — The Blonde Dies First (Simon & Schuster)

Note to nominees: If you would like to offer your work to voting members during the reading period ending March 15, please send a link to stokerchair@horror.org as soon as possible, no later than February 25. You may post the fact that your work is available to be read for Bram Stoker Award consideration ONCE, and only once, on the HWA Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Horrorwritersassoc/; and on the HWA Discord here: http://discord.gg/qXNWT2MCEK. If you had already posted your work in these places prior to the announcement of the Preliminary Ballot, you are entitled to post it again. The Discord and Facebook page are open to members and nonmembers alike. Nonmembers may also email stokerchair@horror.org for help with this.

February 28: The Final Ballot is dispatched. Please note only Active and Lifetime Members in good standing as of January 31 can vote. If you are an Active or Lifetime Member and do NOT receive your electronic ballot link by March 3, please first check your spam/junk mail filter, make sure your email address is updated in Wild Apricot, and then email ballotmaster@horror.org with a brief message about the issue. Note that ballots are sent to the same email address as the Newsletter and the Internet Mailer. It is the responsibility of each Member to keep their email address up to date in Wild Apricot or by advising the HWA Director at director@horror.org of any issues with their membership account. Late ballots cannot be accepted under any circumstances.

March 15: The 2025 Bram Stoker Recommendation form goes live and the 2024 Bram Stoker Awards Juries open to Submissions. Members should hold any Recommendations for works published in the calendar year 2025 until the form is live.

Members wishing to submit work published in 2025 to the relevant Jury should read the information at the Bram Stoker Awards website at http://www.thebramstokerawards.com/submissions/ before doing so.

March 15: The Bram Stoker Awards Final Ballot closes at midnight U.S. Pacific Time. Any ballots received after this cutoff will be discarded.

June 14: The 2024 Bram Stoker Awards will be announced during the Annual Bram Stoker Awards Banquet held during StokerCon® 2025 in Stamford, Connecticut. 

Bookings and information for StokerCon® are available at: https://www.stokercon2025.com/.

Note: Banquet Tickets are separate from the Convention Membership and will soon be available for purchase at Eventbrite. Click “Tickets” to see the Banquet option as an add-on to your existing registration or an option for a new registration.

Please direct any questions about the ballot to stokerchair@horror.org. Questions about StokerCon should go to info@stokercon.com. Questions about the HWA should go to director@horror.org. 

The 2024 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot Announced

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Preliminary Ballot for the 2024 Bram Stoker Awards®. The HWA (see http://www.horror.org/) is the premier writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with more than 2,000 members. We have presented the Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987 (see http://www.thebramstokerawards.com/)

Works on this ballot are not referred to as “nominees” or “finalists.” Only works appearing on the Final Ballot may be referred to as “nominated works” and their authors as “finalists.”

The HWA Board and the Bram Stoker Awards® Committee congratulate all those appearing on the Preliminary Ballot. Notes about the voting process will appear after the ballot listing.

If your work appears on this ballot and you would like to offer it to voting members of the HWA in the Internet Mailer to be sent on or about January 28, please see important information following the ballot.

The 2024 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot

Superior Achievement in an Anthology
Ajram, Sofia — Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror (Ghoulish Books)

Coleborn, Peter and Chinn, Mike — Shadowplays (PS Publishing)

Costello, Rob — We Mostly Come Out at Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels & Other
            Creatures (Running Press)

Grassmann, Preston and Kelso, Chris — The Mad Butterfly’s Ball (PS Publishing)

Gyzander, Carol and Taborska, Anna — Discontinue If Death Ensues: Tales from the Tipping
             Point (Flame Tree Publishing)

Murano, Doug and Bailey, Michael — Long Division: Stories of Social Decay, Societal Collapse
             and Bad Manners (Bad Hand Books)

Peter, Jessica and Bloom, Timaeus — Howls From the Scene of the Crime (Howl Society
             Press)

Ryan, Lindy — Mother Knows Best: Tales of Homemade Horror (A Women in Horror Anthology) (Black Spot Books)

Ryan, Lindy — The Darkest Night (Crooked Lane Books)

Yates, April and Knowles, Ray — Scissor Sisters (Brigids Gate Press)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Barron, Laird — Not a Speck of Light (Bad Hand Books)

Enriquez, Mariana — A Sunny Place for Shady People (Penguin) 

Ghosh, Puloma — Mouth (Astra)          

Maberry, Jonathan — Midnight Lullabies: Unquiet Stories and Poems (WordFire)

Mars, MJ — We’ve Already Gone Too Far (Paramonster)

Najberg, Andrew — In Those Fading Stars (Crystal Lake)

Pyles, Nelson W. — All These Steps Lead Down  (Cold War Radio)                           

Sylvaine, Angela — The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls (Dark Matter Ink)

Waggoner, Tim — Old Monsters Never Die (Winding Road Stories)                                   

Yardley, Mercedes — Love is a Crematorium and Other Tales (Cemetery Dance)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel
Alering, Alisa — Smothermoss (Tin House Books)

Coles, Donyae — Midnight Rooms (Amistad)

Drake-Thomas, Jessica — Hollow Girls (Cemetery Dance Publications)

Gish, Elliott — Grey Dog (ECW Press)

Ham, Yeji Y. — The Invisible Hotel (Zando)

Kiefer, Jenny — This Wretched Valley (Quirk Books)

Kim, Monika — The Eyes Are the Best Part (Erewhon Books)

Ryan, Lindy — Bless Your Heart (Minotaur Books)

Sandeen, Del — This Cursed House (Berkley)

van Veen, Johanna — My Darling Dreadful Thing (Poisoned Pen Press)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Erman, Matthew (writer) and Beck, Sam (artist) — Loving, Ohio (Dark Horse Books)

Ha, Robin (writer/artist) — The Fox Maidens (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Hetland, Beth (writer/artist) — Tender (Fantagraphics Books)

Horvath, Patrick (writer/artist) — Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees (Penguin Random
             House)

Maass, Dave (writer) and Lay, Patrick (artist) — Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis (Dark
            Horse Comics)

Peterson, Scott and Downing Hahn, Mary (writers) and Laxton, Meredith and Haralson, Sienna
             (artists) — The Old Willis Place (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Romesburg, Sam and Freeman, Sam (writers) and Vázquez, Rodrigo (artist) — Hound (Mad
            Cave Studios)

Tanabe, Gou (writer/artist) — H. P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu (Dark Horse Books)

Tynion, James, IV (writer) and Hixson, Joshua (artist)—- The Deviant (Image Comics)

Umber, Maggie (writer/artist) — Chrysanthemum Under The Waves (Maggie Umber LLC)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Ajram, Sofia – Coup de Grâce (Titan Books)

Cassidy, Nat – Rest Stop (Shortwave Publishing)

Fairclough, Gemma – Bear Season (Wild Hunt Books)

Gu, Congyun “Mu Ming” (trans. Kiera Johnson ) – A Well-Fed Companion (Reactor, March 20
             2024)

Hernandez, L.P. – In the Valley of the Headless Men (Cemetery Gates Media)

LaRocca, Eric – “All The Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn” (This Skin Was Once Mine and
             Other Disturbances) (Titan Books)

McLeod Chapman, Clay – Kill Your Darling (Bad Hand Books)

Olivas, M. M. – “¡Sangronas! Un Lista de Terror” (Uncanny, September 2024)

Royce, Eden – Hollow Tongue (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Watkins, Melissa A. – “Ol’ Big Head” (Lightspeed Magazine, December 2024) (Adamant Press)

Superior Achievement in Long Nonfiction

Bogutskaya, Anna — Feeding the Monster: Why Horror Has a Hold on Us (Faber & Faber)

Brewster, Scott and Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew — The Routledge Introduction to the American
            Ghost Story (Routledge)

Dauber, Jeremy —American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and
             Beyond (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)

Duns, Ryan G., S.J. — Theology of Horror: The Hidden Depths of Popular Films (University of
            Notre Dame Press)

Honeycutt, Heidi — I Spit on Your Celluloid: The History of Women Directing Horror Movies
            (HeadPress)
Hughes, Emily C.  — Horror for Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You’re
             Too Scared to Watch (Quirk Books)

McOuat, Allyson — The Call Is Coming from Inside the House (ECW Press)

O’Sullivan Sachar, Cassandra, ed. — No More Haunted Dolls: Horror Fiction that Transcends
            the Tropes (Vernon Press)
Riekki, Ron and Wetmore Kevin J., Jr., eds. — The Many Lives of the Purge: Essays on the
            Horror Franchise (McFarland & Company, Inc.)

Shultz, Erica — The Sweetest Taboo: An Unapologetic Guide to Child Kills in Film
            (Self-Published)

Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel

Alkaf, Hanna – Tales from Cabin 23: Night of the Living Head (Balzer + Bray, an imprint of
            HarperCollins Publishers)

Averling, Mary – The Curse of Eelgrass Bog (Razorbill)

Collings, Michaelbrent – The Witch in the Woods (Shadow Mountain Publishing)

Cuevas, Adrianna – The No-Brainer’s Guide to Decomposition (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Fournet, M. R. – Darkness and Demon Song (Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan
            Publishing)

Hassan, Rochelle – Nox Winters and the Midnight Wolf (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Oshiro, Mark – Jasmine Is Haunted (Starscape, an imprint of Tor Publishing Group)

Ottone, Robert P. – There’s Something Sinister in Center Field (Cemetery Gates Media)

Royce, Eden – The Creepening of Dogwood House (Walden Pond Press, an imprint of
            HarperCollins Publishers)

Ursu, Anne – Not Quite a Ghost (Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)

Superior Achievement in a Novel
Iglesias, Gabino — House of Bone and Rain (Mulholland Books)

Jones, Stephen Graham — I Was a Teenage Slasher(S&S/Saga Press)

Kiste, Gwendolyn —  The Haunting of Velkwood (S&S/Saga Press)

Leede, CJ – American Rapture (Tor)

Malerman, Josh — Incidents Around the House (Del Rey)

McGregor, Tim – Eynhallow (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Medina, Nick – Indian Burial Ground (Berkley)

Pelayo, Cynthia – Forgotten Sisters (Thomas Mercer)

Tingle, Chuck – Bury Your Gays (Tor)

Tremblay, Paul — Horror Movie (William Morrow)

Superior Achievement in Poetry

Anderson, Colleen – Weird Worlds (Weird House Press)                                                   

Blythe, Andrea – Necessary Poisons (Interstellar Flight Press)                                           

Hodge, Jamal – The Dark Between the Twilight (Crystal Lake Publishing)                             

Iniguez, Pedro – Mexicans on the Moon: Speculative Poetry from a Possible Future (Space
            Cowboy Books)                                               

Marinelli, Kayleigh – Medicine (Plan B Press)

Murray, Lee – Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud (The Cuba Press)         

Ness, Mari – A Few Mythic Paths (Porkbelly Press)                                               

Saulson, Sumiko – Melancholia: A Book of Dark Poetry (Bludgeoned Girls Press)

Tolian, Brenda S. – Bestial Mouths (Raw Dog Screaming Press)     

Wood, L. Marie – Imitation of Life (Falstaff Books)      

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
Beck, Scott and Woods, Bryan — Heretic (A24, Shiny Penny, Beck/Woods)

Eggers, Robert; Galeen, Henrik; and Stoker, Bram — Nosferatu (Focus Features, Maiden
            Voyage Pictures, Studio 8)

Fargeat, Coralie — The Substance (Working Title Film, Good Story, Blacksmith)

Lobel, Andrew — Immaculate (Black Bear, Fifty-Fifty Films, Middle Child Pictures)

McCarthy, Damian — Oddity (Keeper Pictures, Shudder)

McDonald, Ian — Woman of the Hour (AGC Studios, BondIt Media Capital, Vertigo
            Entertainment)

Perkins, Osgood — Longlegs (C2 Motion Picture Group, Creature Features, Oddfellow
            Entertainment)

Schoenbrun, Jane — I Saw the TV Glow (A24, Fruit Tree, Smudge Films)

Shields, Stephen and Busick, Guy — Abigail (Project X Entertainment, Radio Silence
            Productions)

Singer, Tilman — Cuckoo (Fiction Park, Neon, Waypoint Entertainment

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

Barron, Laird — “Versus Versus” (Long Division: Stories of Social Decay, Societal Collapse, and Bad Manners) (Bad Hand Books)

Bolton, Rachel — “And She Had Been So Reasonable” (Apex Magazine Issue 147) (Apex Book
            Company)

Brown, Sasha — “To the Wolves” (Weird Horror #9) (Undertow Publications)

Busby, R. A. — “Ten Thousand Crawling Children” (Nightmare Magazine January 2024)
            (Adamant Press)

Dawson, Emilie —“Snowblind” (NonBinary Review Issue #35: Old Friends) (Zoetic Press)

Forna, Victor — “like blood on the mouths of death” (Nightmare Magazine May 2024) (Adamant Press)

Greenwood, Gage — “Two Shows on a Saturday” (Levitating: Stories) (Tanner’s Switch
            Publishing)

Jakubowski, Raven — “She Sheds Her Skin” (Nightmare Magazine November 2024) (Adamant
             Press)

Jensen, Nayani — “Rescue Station”(Northern Nights) (Undertow Publications)

Matthews, Ben “Flesh of My Flesh” (Spawn 2: More Weird Horror Tales about Pregnancy, Birth
            and Babies) (IFWG Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

Andersen, Joceline — “Bad Blood: Serial Killers, True Crime, and the Racial Imaginary In
             Shadow of a Doubt” (Canadian Journal of Film Studies Spring 2024) (University of
            Toronto Press)

Arnzen, Michael — “Screamin’ in the Rain: The Orchestration of Catharsis in William Castle’s
            The Tingler” (What Sleeps Beneath)

Donner, Claire — “All is the Fear and Nothing is the Love: The Phantom of the Auteur in Dario
            Argento’s Opera” (Severin Films)

Kelso, Chris — “On Melting: Essays Against the Body” (Filthy Loot/Control)

Liaguno, Vince — “The Horror of Donna Berzatto and Her Feast of the Seven Fishes” (You’re
            Not Alone in the Dark) (Cemetery Dance Publications)

Markov, Haralambi — “The H Word: My Father, My Private Monster” (Nightmare Magazine, May 2024) (Adamant Press)

Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew — “Hidden Histories: The Many Ghosts of Disney’s Haunted Mansion.” (Disney Gothic: Dark Shadows in the House of Mouse) (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.)

Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew — “Those Who Eat and Those Who Get Eaten: Cannibalism and
            Capitalism in Melville’s Typee and ‘The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of
            Maids’” (Gothic Melville) (University of Wales Press)

Wetmore, Kevin J., Jr. —“Jackson and Haunting of the Stage” (Journal of Shirley Jackson
            Studies Vol. 2 No. 1) (Shirley Jackson Society)

Wood, Lisa — “Blacks in Film and Cultivated Bias” (No More Haunted Dolls: Horror Fiction that Transcends the Tropes) (Vernon Press)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Ancrum, K. — Icarus  (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Cesare, Adam — Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo  (HarperCollins Children’s
            Books)

Cobell, K. A. — Looking for Smoke (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Fraistat, Ann — A Place for Vanishing (Delacorte Press)

Kisner, Logan-Ashley — Old Wounds (Delacorte Press)

Kölsch, Freddie — Now, Conjurers  (Union Square & Co.)

Parker, Natalie C. — Come Out, Come Out  (G.P. Putnam Son’s)

Senf, Lora — The Losting Fountain (Union Square & Co.)

Vishny, A. R. — Night Owls (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Wellington, Joelle — The Blond Dies First (Simon & Schuster)

Our voting members will now vote on these Preliminary Ballots, with voting closing on February 15, 2025 (only Active and Lifetime Members in good standing are eligible to vote).

Works appearing on the Preliminary Ballot are NOT “Bram Stoker Award® Nominees” and authors, editors, publishers, and others should not refer to any of these works as such – doing so is a severe breach of etiquette and can lead to disqualification of the Work(s) involved.

The Preliminary Ballot will be sent to Lifetime and Active Members in good standing on February 2. If you are an Active or Lifetime Member and do NOT receive your electronic Ballot link by February 4, please first check your spam/junk mail filter, make sure your email address is updated in Wild Apricot, and then email director@horror.org with a brief message about the issue. Note that Ballots are sent to the same email address as the Newsletter and the Internet Mailer. It is the responsibility of Members to keep their email address up to date in Wild Apricot or by advising the administrator of any issues with your membership account at director@horror.org. Late Ballots cannot be accepted under any circumstances.

If your work (you are the author, agent, editor, publisher, or publicist) appears on the ballot and you wish to provide a link allowing Voting Members to read the work, there will be a SPECIAL PRELIMINARY BALLOT INTERNET MAILER issued on or about January 27. Please email the Internet Mailer editor at stokerchair@horror.org with a link to your work as soon as you can but no later than January 25. You may submit only a link, no description of the Work or other information. Anyone validly representing a work appearing on the Preliminary Ballot may submit via this method, whether or not they are HWA members (this includes the author, agent, editor, publisher, or publicist of the work).

Do NOT spam Voting Members, this is a severe breach of etiquette – Active and Lifetime (voting) members tend to notice such breaches and may consider them when determining which works to vote for on the Ballot.

You may also post the fact that your work is available to be read for Bram Stoker Award consideration ONCE, and only once, on the HWA Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Horrorwritersassoc/; and on the HWA Discord here: http://discord.gg/qXNWT2MCEK. If you had already posted your work in these places prior to the announcement of the Preliminary Ballot you are entitled to post it again. The Discord and Facebook page are open to members and non–members alike. Non–members may also email stokerchair@horror.org for help with this.

  • The Final Ballot will be announced on or about February 23.
  • Please direct any questions or corrections regarding the Preliminary Ballot to stokerchair@horror.org.
  • Any questions regarding your membership/account information to director@horror.org.
  • If you’re on the Preliminary Ballot and want to provide your work for the Special Preliminary Ballot Internet Mailer to go out on or about January 27, please send a link to your work to stokerchair@horror.org—no later than January 25.

Announcing the 2023 Specialty Award winners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Columbus, OH – The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its Specialty Awards. These will be presented on June 1st, 2024, during the Bram Stoker Awards® Presentation at StokerCon®2024 in San Diego, CA.

Specialty Press Award

The recipient of the Specialty Press Award is Thunderstorm Books.

The HWA Specialty Press Award is presented periodically to a specialty publisher whose work has substantially contributed to the horror genre, whose publications display general excellence, and whose dealings with writers have been fair and exemplary.

The award was instituted in 1997, largely due to the efforts of long-time HWA member and specialty press aficionado Peter Crowther.

Congratulations to Thunderstorm Books!

Paul Goblirsch established Thunderstorm Books in 2008. Specializing in collectible signed limited edition hardcover books, our goal is to showcase authors’ works in beautiful limited editions. From both new, up-and-coming authors to veterans of the genre, we publish some of the best in the field including: Brian Keene, Joe Lansdale, Christopher Golden, Philip Fracassi, Tyler Jones, Ross Jeffery, Chad Lutzke, Cynthia Pelayo, Jeff Strand, Hailey Piper, Paul Tremblay, Edward Lee, Kealan Patrick Burke, Jonathan Janz, Samantha Kolesnik, Gabino Iglesias, Adam Cesare, Kristopher Triana, Richard Chizmar, Gwendolyn Kiste, Wrath James White, and Ronald Kelly.   With approximately 40 titles released per year, we fulfill the desires of both hardcore book collectors and those who want to pick up the occasional special edition.

_______________________________________________

The Richard Laymon President’s Award

The recipient of the Richard Laymon President’s Award for Service is Brian W. Matthews.

The Richard Laymon President’s Award for Service was instituted in 2001 and is named in honor of Richard Laymon, who died in 2001 while serving as HWA’s President. As its name implies, it is given by HWA’s sitting President.

The award is presented to a volunteer who has served the HWA in an especially exemplary manner and has shown extraordinary dedication to the organization.

Congratulations to Brian!

Brian W. Matthews is the author of several books, including the popular Forever Man series. He’s also authored numerous short stories, the most recent of which have appeared in Weird Tales and Space & Time magazines. He has been a member of the Horror Writers Association since 2012 and has served as a trustee of the organization since 2020. Among his duties as a trustee, Brian has co-chaired three StokerCon® conventions, acts as the Bram Stoker Award® Show Coordinator, and organizes the Pitch Sessions for StokerCon. He has previously been awarded the Silver Hammer Award, now renamed the Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award.

Brian holds a graduate degree in clinical psychology and worked for twenty years as a therapist, primarily for children and adolescents. He currently works as a financial planner. He lives with his wife, Sue, in southeast Michigan.

_______________________________________________

The Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award

The recipient of the Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award is Lila Denning.

In 2022, the Horror Writers Association renamed the Silver Hammer Award to the Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award in honor of the tremendous amount of work Karen did starting the HWA.

Our physical award has also been updated. Instead of a hammer, a new stylized sculpture has been designed and cast by the same company that mints our Bram Stoker Award statues. We look forward to sharing the new design at StokerCon2023.

The HWA periodically gives the Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award to an HWA volunteer who has done a truly massive amount of work for the organization, often unsung and behind the scenes. It was instituted in 1996 and is decided by a vote of HWA’s Board of Trustees.

The award is so named because it represents the careful, steady, continuous work of building HWA’s “house”—the many institutional systems that keep the organization functioning on a day-to-day basis.

Congratulations to Lila!

Lila Denning is the acquisitions coordinator for the seven libraries of the St. Petersburg (FL) Library System. Lila has worked in circulation and reference and has done programming for children, teens, and adults. Beyond her current role in her library, she trains librarians nationwide on passive reader advisory. Her long, rambling road to the library included stops as a manager of a comic book store, a manager at Barnes and Noble, and a stint at a brokerage firm, among other adventures. In addition to her MLIS, Lila has an MA in Religious Studies with a focus on Holocaust Studies. 

_______________________________________________

Mentor of the Year Award

The recipient of the Mentor of the Year Award is Lisa Wood.

The HWA’s Mentor Program is available to all members of the organization. This popular program pairs newer writers with established professionals for an intensive four-month-long partnership. For new writers, the Program offers mentees a personal, one-on-one experience with a seasoned writer, tailor-made to help them grow in their writing and better market their work. For experienced writers, it is an opportunity to pay forward the assistance and encouragement other writers gave them when they were starting out. In addition, there is the added benefit of growing as a writer oneself through the act of teaching others. In short, the Program benefits all who participate, regardless of their roles.

Established in 2014, the Mentor of the Year Award recognizes one mentor in the Program who has done an outstanding job of helping new writers. The award is chosen by the current manager of the Program.

Congratulations to Lisa!

L. Marie Wood is the recipient of the Golden Stake Award for her novel, The Promise Keeper, a MICO Award-winning screenwriter, a two-time Bram Stoker Award® Finalist, a Rhysling nominated poet, and an accomplished essayist. Wood has won over 50 national and international screenplay and film awards. She has penned short fiction that has been published in groundbreaking works, including the anthologies Sycorax’s Daughters and Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noire. She is also part of the 2022 Bookfest Book Award winning poetry anthology, Under Her Skin. Her nonfiction has been published in Nightmare Magazine and academic textbooks such as the cross-curricular, Conjuring Worlds: An Afrofuturist Textbook. Her papers are archived as part of University of Pittsburgh’s Horror Studies Collection. Wood is the Vice President of the Horror Writers Association, the founder of the Speculative Fiction Academy, an English and Creative Writing professor, a horror scholar with a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and an MFA in Speculative Fiction, and a frequent contributor to the conversation around the evolution of genre fiction. Learn more about L. Marie Wood at www.lmariewood.com .

About the Horror Writers Association

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is a nonprofit organization of writers and publishing professionals around the world, dedicated to promoting dark literature and the interests of those who write it. Founded in the late 1980s, it now has close to 2000 members around the world and is the oldest and most respected professional organization for creators of horror fiction. The HWA encourages public interest in and appreciation of horror and dark fantasy literature and hosts an annual professional conference, StokerCon. HWA is also dedicated to recognizing and promoting diversity in the horror genre and practices a strict anti-harassment policy at all of its events. Please direct any questions regarding these awards to the Vice President of HWA. For more information about the Horror Writers Association, please visit https://horror.org/. For more information about the Bram Stoker Awards® and our other awards, please visit http://bramstokerawards.horror.org.

The 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award Winners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Columbus, OH – The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its Lifetime Achievement Award. These will be presented on June 1st, 2024, during the Bram Stoker Awards® Presentation at StokerCon®2024 in San Diego, CA.

Lifetime Achievement Award

The recipients of the HWA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for 2024 are:

Steve Rasnic Tem, Mort Castle, and Cassandra Peterson.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented periodically to an individual whose work has substantially influenced the horror genre. While this award is often presented to a writer, it may also be given for influential accomplishments in other creative fields.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is the most prestigious of all awards presented by HWA. It does not merely honor the superior achievement embodied in a single work. Instead, it is an acknowledgment of superior achievement in an entire career.

About the Horror Writers Association

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is a nonprofit organization of writers and publishing professionals around the world, dedicated to promoting dark literature and the interests of those who write it. Founded in the late 1980s, it now has close to 2000 members around the world and is the oldest and most respected professional organization for creators of horror fiction. The HWA encourages public interest in and appreciation of horror and dark fantasy literature and hosts an annual professional conference, StokerCon. HWA is also dedicated to recognizing and promoting diversity in the horror genre and practices a strict anti-harassment policy at all of its events. Please direct any questions regarding these awards to the Vice President of HWA. For more information about the Horror Writers Association, please visit https://horror.org/. For more information about the Bram Stoker Awards® and our other awards, please visit http://bramstokerawards.horror.org.

MORT CASTLE – A former stage hypnotist, folksinger, and teacher (every level from grade to grad school), Mort Castle has been a publishing writer since 1967, with hundreds of stories, articles, comics, and books published in a dozen languages. Castle has won three Bram Stoker Awards®, two Black Quill awards, the Golden Bot (Wired Magazine), and has been nominated for The Audie, The Shirley Jackson award, the International Horror Guild award and the Pushcart Prize. In 2000, the Chicago Sun-Times News Group cited him as one of Twenty-One “Leaders in the Arts for the 21st Century in Chicago’s Southland.” Poland’s, Newsweek magazine listed his The Strangers (Obcy) in the “Top Ten Horror / Thriller Novels of 2008” and there will a 40th anniversary edition of the book this year in Spain, Poland, Germany, and the USA. Castle and his wife Jane will celebrate their 53nd wedding anniversary this July. They live in Crete, Illinois.

Photo credit: Michelle Pretorious

CASSANDRA PETERSON – From the top of her beehive hairdo to the bottom of her stiletto heels, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark personifies the horror genre in one spooky, sexy, funny package.

As Queen of Halloween, her reign has now spanned 40 years and includes her long-running nationally syndicated television series, Movie Macabre and two feature films: Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and Elvira’s Haunted Hills.She has appeared in National ad campaigns for Pepsi and Coors, recorded five record albums and has written a line of young adult novels, a “Coffin Table” photo retrospective,and most recently, her memoir, Yours Cruelly, Elvira from Hachette Book Group.

The worldwide Elvira brand has generated thousands of products, including three pinball machines, four slot machines, eight Funko POP!’s, four comic book series, a line of NECA action figures, a Chia Pet, a Living Dead doll, a Monster High Skullector doll from Mattel, and the best-selling female costume of all time.

Elvira has appeared on hundreds of television shows including Happy Halloween Scooby Doo, Elvira’s 40th Anniversary Very Scary, Very Special Special for the Shudder Channel, and the Netflix & Chills Halloween ad campaign.

Played by actress-writer Cassandra Peterson, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark has carved out a niche in popular American culture that is sure to endure for decades to come.

Elvira.com

Instagram @therealelvira

Facebook @therealelvira

STEVE RASNIC TEM – Steve Rasnic Tem’s writing career spans over 45 years, including more than 500 published short stories, 17 collections, 8 novels, misc. poetry and plays, and a handbook on writing, Yours to Tell: Dialogues on the Art & Practice of Fiction, written with his late wife Melanie Tem. His collaborative novella with Melanie, The Man On The Ceiling, won the World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and International Horror Guild awards in 2001. He has also won the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, and British Fantasy Awards for his solo work, including Blood Kin, winner of 2014’s Bram Stoker for novel. Originally from the Appalachian region of Southwest Virginia, he now lives in Centennial Colorado. www.stevetem.com