I grew up with a mountain in my front yard -- a small one as mountains go but I was smaller. It was also distant, dark and mysterious and I was just arms and legs below my eyes. The mountain was a lure. I learned to walk distance, climbing it. Climbing took you to where the stars began.  A disappointment!  The stars were farther off than the ridge of Mount Penn. I learned to read sitting on my grandfather's lap and watching his finger scan the words as he read aloud.  I learned to love reading resting on tombstones in a wide, dark cemetery with meandering paths among old trees that buzzed with bugs and crackled with small critters -- a good spot in which to live in the imaginary places of the universe and be reminded of the final end to all of us. Stop by my blog: http://blufftoninthedriftless.blogspot.com/ Stop by my new site: http://www.santororeads.com/home.html I've got a novel, JUST NORTH OF NOWHERE, 2007, and a collection, DRINK FOR THE THIRST TO COME, 2010.  A second novel is in the works.

In 2000, my novella, "God Screamed and Screamed, Then I Ate Him," was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award by the Horror Writers Association.

In April, 2003, my audio adaptation of Gene Wolfe's THE TREE IS MY HAT was also nominated for a Stoker.

The production starred Neil Gaiman, P.D. Cacek and a passel of Chicago pro-actors and features live music and sound effects created especially for the production. A CD is available.

"Catching" one of my "vile tales" -- pieces I wrote because I had to and which I always considered unpublishable -- was published in the anthology, SEX CRIMES, in 2005. Last year Ellen Datlow gave it an Honorable Mention in her YEARS BEST FANTASY AND HORROR.