| Greetings, and welcome; my name is Manny, and this is my site. I shall try not to bore you with personal information, but I would like to take this opportunity to try to explain why I write the things I do. I'm not quite sure what started me off, but, as far back as I can remember, I've always had a fascination with all things macabre and fantastic. My mother says that I used to watch Dark Shadows with her during the closing years of its initial run (circa 1970) and that I had a thing for the beautiful witch, Angelique. Having seen it again, in recent years, I can understand this attraction as well as the possible affect of this show on my formative personality, but really all I could recall, at first, from the show was the stairwell at Collinwood. Not a single character did I recognize from my youth. On the other hand, I do recall watching the Addams Family, fairly regularly, and I definitely had my first inklings of sexual attraction when I saw Morticia. It was beyond a crush, but somewhat innocent as well (after all, I was only a little boy; what did I know of such things?). I still hold her responsible for my morbid fixation with Goth Girls, which has been a bane throughout my adult life; I love them, but they don't like me! (O, to be tall, pasty, and sickly...but I digress.) As a young boy, I subsisted on a steady diet of Universal and Hammer Horror films, which I used to see on Creature Feature and Thriller Theater (or was it Chiller Theater?). When other kids idolized pop stars and sports heroes, my idols were Boris Karloff and Vincent Price. When other kids wanted to be like Superman, I wanted to be the Frankenstein Monster! When I was a teenager, I started reading a lot, and I always was on the look out for books on the macabre. Mostly, I just read reference books, encyclopedias of witchcraft and demonology, and lurid books on the supernatural, or picture books on horror films. When I was about 13 years old, however, I made a discovery which changed my view on fiction and writing for ever. I found out about Edgar Allen Poe. His tales blew my mind, and his poetry moved me to read more from this genre, and even try my hand at some myself. I have read many other writers over the years who were influenced by him or wrote in a similar vein. I checked out everyone from Charles Baudelaire, to H.P. Lovecraft, and even though I enjoyed them all immensely, none of them really came close to moving me the way Poe did, and still does. Now, with this site, I attempt to throw my own works to the pile of pastiches. I have stopped trying to emulate him, but he does seep in through my subconscious occasionally, mixed in with the Grimm Brothers, and Edward Gorey. I don't claim to be on par with any of these masters of storytelling, but I only try to pick up their respective torches and carry their traditions into the 21st century. I hope that, in my own meager way, I have succeeded somewhat in doing so. |
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| Well, I took the quiz, and the results are in, and it seems I am a Vampire Goth. My cousin Jason would probably beg to differ on that one, however. |
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