World Horror Convention 2007 is proud to announce that, for the sixth
consecutive year, Mort Castle will be teaching a Creative Writing Workshop at WHC.
A writer for close to four decades, and a writing teacher for almost as many years, Castle developed
and edited Writing Horror in 1997 and the expanded and revised
edition, On Writing Horror, published in 2006 by Writer's Digest.
"No one seriously interested in writing or reading horror will fail to gain something from this (book)."
–American Library Association Booklist
Around 2,500 of the students Mort Castle has taught and workshopped with over the years have published
novels or have seen their stories, poems, and articles appear in such books and magazines as Masques,
Oyez Review, Space and Time, Cemetery Dance, Tense Moments, Seventeen,
Penthouse, and numerous other titles. Many of them have also won or been nominated for such
awards as the Writer's Digest Best Self-Published Book competition, the National Foundation for the
Advancement in the Arts, the Weird Tales Writing Contest, and others.
Cited along with blues diva Koko Taylor ("Wang Dang Doodle") and Broadway and Hollywood
actor Etel Billig (the "Project Greenlight" film Stolen Summer) as one of "21 Leaders in the
Arts for the 21st Century in Chicago's Southland", Castle is an adjunct faculty member of the fiction
writing department of Chicago's Columbia College. He is also the author of seven novels, two short
story collections, and around 500 "shorter things"; a screenplay based on his horror novel
The Strangers is currently in development at Whitewater Films with producers
Jeff Balis (Waiting) and Rhodes Rader (Dodgeball).
World-renowned poet and scholar Lucien Stryk (The World of the Buddha;
Collected Poems) writes that Mort Castle, "is the real and rare thing, a writer who not only
has a remarkable gift for story telling but a profound sense of what makes humans tick. As just
about the best, really best 'teacher' I know, Castle is a winner."
Novelist Deborah LeBlanc (Grave Intent; Family Inheritance) says: "Mort
does an exceptional job with this (WHC) workshop". And horror guru and HWA Lifetime Achievement
Award winner the late J.N. Williamson said, "Mort Castle knows writing as well
as anyone I've ever met. He knows it and respects it . . . If you pay attention to Mort, you
will sell a story or know why you haven't".
Held over the Friday and Saturday afternoons and costing CDN$46.00 or US$40.00
per person, space is strictly limited to just 25 attendees, so prior registration for this two, two-hour
session event is required. Participants need not bring manuscripts with them—"Our workshop is about new
ways to approach writing," explains Castle, "not revising old writing"—but you should be
prepared to write new material in what Castle calls, "a loosely structured" format.
MANUSCRIPT CRITIQUE
Here is something new for World Horror Convention 2007—Mort Castle will critique your short story
manuscript and discuss it with you in a personal and informal 10-15 minutes conference.
Whether offering possibilities for a complete structural overhaul or tweaking your almost-right words
into exactly the right phrase, Castle's critiques are honest and thorough and provide a complete
grounding in the crafting of short fiction.
Only a maximum of eight (8) manuscripts will be accepted on a first-come basis. The
cost of an individual critique is only
CDN$29.00 or US$25.00. Deadline for submission of a short horror
story of 5,000 words or less is February 1st, 2007. Please double-space the manuscript, put your name,
address and e-mail information on the first page, insert page numbers, and use a 12-point font.
You will be given details about where to send your manuscript when you register, and you will be
notified about the time and location of your critique prior to the convention.
