Hell and Paradiso
= The ForeWarner =
The Matthew Warner Newsletter
March 2, 2004
Contents:
1. Stalker Hell
2. Publications
3. Appearances
4. Contest Winner Announced
5. Recommended Reading
Opt-out instructions are at the bottom.
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STALKER HELL
Despite our love of horror, we horror writers (like everyone else) hope
to pass our days without encountering the real mccoy. Well, in January,
I had an uncomfortably close brush with it.
It started a couple years ago, actually. Jim Chubirka was a 260-pound,
bald, goateed white guy at my bus stop who had a thing for this cute redhead
who also caught our bus. Let's call her Tricia, although that's
not her real name.
I was on friendly terms with both of them, so when Tricia told me that
Jim was scaring her by following her around and repeatedly asking her
out, I volunteered to head him off at the pass. I soon discovered,
however, that Jim didn't have a conventional radar-fix on reality, so
I advised Tricia to stay away from him for her own safety. The situation
worsened until she was forced to move.
Although Tricia left no forwarding address, Jim discovered a year later
(last summer) where she was living and began engaging in such charming
behaviors as screaming at her boyfriend, vandalizing her car, placing
threatening phone calls, and following her home from work. Tricia
reluctantly went to the police, and before she knew it she was the prime
witness in a criminal stalking trial in Fairfax County District Court.
I also testified in that trial, which was last September, and Jim was
sentenced to a fine and a year in prison. He immediately exercised
his de-novo right of appeal to the Circuit Court, and in January we did
it all over again. A Circuit Court trial is more elaborate than
the whiz-bang traffic-court style of District Court, so it took two days
to impanel a jury and for the jurors to hear testimony, examine evidence,
and deliberate to reach a verdict of guilty. Pretty standard so
far, right?
Here's where the train derailed.
The judge who presided during the trial had left early, so the sentencing
phase was postponed to the following day. Since stalking is only
a misdemeanor in Virginia, the court freed Jim that night on bond.
I found this astounding. It was like saying, "Yeah, you're
guilty and might be locked up for a year. So come back tomorrow,
'kay?"
Guess who didn't show up for sentencing.
Imagine my impotent rage at reading an e-mail from the Commonwealth's
attorney advising Tricia and me to "act accordingly"--that is,
watch our asses--until the police found him. Incidentally, the jury
had sentenced him in absentia to a fine and only three months in jail.
The police spent the next several days searching for him, a time of uncertainty
that I realize was only a tiny fraction of the daily fear that people
in similar situations live with. Tricia, I know, was beside herself
with worry, and I stopped my daily routine of reading on the bus and subway,
preferring instead to look over my shoulder and scan the crowd.
I went to bed each night worried about myself and my wife, and I was torn
between the certainty that Jim was in Tijuana or that a brick would come
sailing through my window with a death threat rubber-banded around it.
This wasn't an exaggeration; I'd heard that Jim had a violent criminal
history, a record that I believe was suppressed during the trial.
I also realized that even if Jim was caught, it wouldn't be over; he would
just be back on the streets in a few months.
Five days after Jim was found guilty, a friend on the police force called
me with the news that they'd finally gone into his apartment to discover
that he'd killed himself. I don't know any of the details about
it, but my sense of cosmic irony imagines that he did the deed on the
same day he was found guilty--prior to what turned out to be a lenient
sentencing.
While several people have complimented me on my "bravery" for
coming forward, mine doesn't hold a candle to Tricia's, who lived with
this nightmare for over two years. She didn't ask for this situation
and certainly didn't wish for it to end the way it did, but I'd like to
register publicly how much I admire her for sticking up for herself.
She could have chosen to stay quiet, but she didn't, and most likely she
saved her own life as well as that of Jim's next victim. I also
admire the courage of the two other women Jim stalked and who showed up
at the courthouse ready to testify.
This cloud has a silver lining, though, at least for me. As a result
of the whole stalker saga, I learned more about the criminal justice system
than I otherwise would have. I made some interesting friends, and
one night I went on an all-night police ride-along, gathering details
that will be invaluable in my fiction. The assistant Commonwealth's
attorney who prosecuted the case even indulged me with an interview about
the fine points of the suspense novel I'm polishing.
Plus, a short story came out of this. My friend Will Ludwigsen (http://www.will-ludwigsen.com),
who's been published in such top-level markets as Weird Tales, Cemetery
Dance, and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, collaborated with me on
"Riders"--as in, bus riders. This story was just accepted
for the upcoming "weird romance" issue of Tales of the Unanticipated
(http://www.totu-ink.com/index.phtml).
You'll be surprised to learn that "Riders" is a dark comedy,
and as Will writes on his website, "This story brought down the house
when we read it at Horrorfind . . . people are still avoiding us because
of it." Hell, even Tricia enjoyed it.
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PUBLICATIONS
In addition to "Riders," coming in the next issue of Tales of
the Unanticipated (see above), check out the following:
--> "The Power Rolodex," science fiction short story, coming
in the Summer 2004 issue of webzine Quantum Barbarian (http://www.quantumbarbarian.com/).
--> "At Death We'll Not Part," horror short story, now online
for free reading at Blood Rose (http://www.bloodrosemag.com/notpart.html).
This story last appeared in the anthology TOURNIQUET HEART, edited by
Christopher C. Teague. Congrats to Chris on TH's recent nomination
for a British Fantasy Award.
Blood Rose also contains a new book review of THE ORGAN DONOR (http://www.bloodrosemag.com/books/organdonor.html),
which says in part, "It's a gripping tale . . . Matt accomplishes
the task of the writer admirably: he tells a hell of a story while teaching
something about China, bringing to the fore a social problem you may not
have known much about, and above all, making the reader think."
More reviews of THE ORGAN DONOR are on the way, including one in the next
installment of "Really Sexy" at http://www.reallyscary.com.
In her current column, Alexxus Young calls the novel "extremely promising,
what with some homage to Boileau and Narcejac."
Also, the TALES FROM THE GOREZONE anthology (http://store.yahoo.net/shocklines/tafrgobbykep.html),
which contains "Angel's Wings," is due out this spring.
Apartment 42 Publications will donate its net profits to the National
Association to Protect Children (http://www.protect.org).
Updated publication info: http://www.matthewwarner.com/pubs.htm
Updated book reviews and interviews: http://www.matthewwarner.com/media.htm
****************************
APPEARANCES
March 27
"Wordstruck" Literature Conference
Associated School Librarians of Fairfax County
Madison High School; Vienna, VA
http://www.aslfc.org/litconf.html
April 17; 2-4 p.m.
Booksigning to Benefit Parkinson's Research
Burke Used Books
7395-F Lee Highway
Falls Church, VA (corner of Lee Hwy & West St.)
Other authors include: F. Paul Wilson, Douglas E. Winter, Elizabeth Massie,
Steven Spruill, Brian Keene, J.F. Gonzalez, L. Marie Wood, and A.B. Wallace.
http://midatlantichorror.org/flyer.pdf
Updated appearances info: http://www.matthewwarner.com/appearances.htm
****************************
CONTEST WINNER ANNOUNCED
In the last issue of the ForeWarner, I promised to give a copy of Brian
Lumley's MAD MOON OF DREAMS to the first person who correctly answered
these questions:
1. In the CSI: Miami episode titled "Bait," what is the
name of the shooting suspect whose name matches a modern horror writer?
2. Two members of Butch Cassidy's Hole-in-the-Wall Gang shared names
with modern horror writers. One of them was Jack Ketchum.
Who was the other?
3. What horror writer's face is depicted in the drawing at http://www.deenawarner.net/angr.html,
which shows a man hammering a cover onto a well?
Michael Bland of Tallahassee, Florida, correctly answered (respectively):
Matthew Warner, Matt Warner, and Matthew Warner. Congratulations,
Michael! Enjoy your prize.
****************************
RECOMMENDED READING
I only recommend titles I've read and which I think are worth your time.
Listed in no particular order:
--> INFERNAL ANGEL, a novel by Edward Lee (Leisure Books, 2004)
In this addicting sequel to CITY INFERNAL, a young woman once again ventures
into Hell to find the soul of her departed sister and to battle the nightmarish
minions of Lucifer.
--> THE DIVINE COMEDY, by Dante Alghieri
Written between 1300 and 1321 by the Italian poet Dante, the COMEDY consists
of the legendary volumes Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, and is at
once an allegory of 14th-century politics and a love story of Dante and
the angelic Beatrice. The medieval definition of "comedy"
was a story depicting a progression towards goodness; in Dante's case,
this was a literal journey from Hell to Heaven. It contains some
of the coolest imagery in classical literature, and I recommend reading
it in tandem with Edward Lee's two novels set in Hell.
--> GRAVEYARD PEOPLE, a collection by Gary A. Braunbeck (Earthling
Publications, 2003)
I'm just getting acquainted with Braunbeck's emotionally disturbing fiction,
which consistently stabs at the heart like an ice pick. This first
of three volumes of collected Cedar Hill stories will leave you feeling
as wrung-out as a threadbare dishrag. Powerful, magnificent stuff.
The cover art and two dozen-plus interior illustrations are pretty cool,
too.
--> THE RISING, a novel by Brian Keene (Leisure Books, 2004)
The dead are rising, and they're not just hungry for human flesh--they're
driving cars and shooting guns. Jim Thurmond journeys across this
post-apocalyptic landscape to save his young son. The ending of
this hot-selling novel is just as controversial as its writer. A
sequel is reportedly in the works.
--> THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, a novel by Robert
Louis Stevenson (online at http://www.bartleby.com/1015/)
First published in 1886, this classic of horror literature is the story
of a British lawyer, Gabriel Utterson, trying to untangle the problem
of his good friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, whom he believes is being exploited
by a strange, cruel man named Edward Hyde. "Man is not truly
one, but truly two," Dr. Jekyll writes. It surprised me by
being a fast, fun read.
****************************
"Suffice it to say, we'll both be answering pointed questions about
this one when someone writes our biographies."
--Will Ludwigsen (http://www.will-ludwigsen.com)
in discussing our collaboration, "Riders"
Matthew Warner
Falls Church, VA
www.MatthewWarner.com
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