1. Can you please tell me a little bit about yourself and your work?
I live in Harrisburg, PA. I am 54 years old and single. I worked for the Commonwealth of PA for twenty-years but I’m currently a customer service representative for a small company in PA who contracts with medical providers, facilities and hospitals. I have no children and since I’m childish enough as it is, I don’t need any! I think this is a big reason I like to write fiction. I’ve always had a vivid imagination and I’ve always been able to make up stories. The only trouble I had then, was creating characters. Tough to try and get in someone’s head in 3rd person or to be someone else if you’re doing 1st person work. I lacked the motivation and the skills in my younger days and I had my share of distractions, usually the female kind, if you get me. But over the years I’ve dedicated myself to this art I’ve tried to give up several times. The need to write, whether I’m good or bad, is overwhelming.
As far as my work, I find myself sounding much like that old guy who sits around the living room telling ghost stories. I was raised in a small town, in an old building once a speakeasy and a ballroom in the early 1900s and I can tell you a ghost story or two. My mother, who passed away April 2, 2013, was a tarot card reader and a psychic. This is one reason I developed an interest in horror and the paranormal. My work centers around the supernatural and the myths and legends as days gone combined with contemporary times. As humans, we really don’t have a clue concerning this world's vast mysteries.
2. Can you please describe your work in Swallowed by the Beast?
Stories about spirits and creatures lurking in the swamps have been prevalent for centuries. Night Songs started out when I was at a hotel back in the early 90’s. It was late summer and there were crickets outside everywhere! Some jumped on my bare legs and arms and starting biting me! I looked at my girlfriend who was laughing at me and I said. “Holy crap! I didn’t know crickets could bite!” Later I envisioned a man, an intimidating bear of a man being killed by crickets and a story began to fruit. I published it as, The Songs of the Night in a magazine dedicated to Black Metal music called BLACK MOON in 1995 but it was a different version than the one in Swallowed by the Beast and I’m happier with this version.
3. What are you currently working on?
I have few credits at this time. I have been published in small press and in a few mainstream anthologies over the years. I am working on a cross-genre novel - Dyavol’s Fallen and a short story collection - All Things Truly Wicked.
4. Where can people find out more about you?
I’ve been published in two issues of BLACK MOON (December/ ‘95/’96 issues), one poem in GASLIGHT: TALES OF THE UNSANE (December ‘95 issue), and one short story in ABOMINATIONS MAGAZINE (October 2012 issue).
I have two Facebook pages. One under my own name and one under the name of, The Stoat's Lair. I also have a website with the same name but it is under reconstruction. I sometimes post previously published poems, short stories and excerpts from my novel on the Facebook page below.
The Stoat’s Lair: www.facebook.com/mymitternaucht.
Find me on Twitter @Apugliese3
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