October 2021 Notable Author: Thomas F. Monteleone

"Once you learn what good writing is, you’ll never just read for pleasure again" - Thomas F. Monteleone

Thomas F. Monteleone (April 14, 1946) was born in Baltimore and raised in Sudbrook Park, Maryland. He attended Loyola Blakefield, a Jesuit high school, where he had teachers that challenged him to examine how he looked at the world philosophically. “One teacher told me,” remembered Monteleone, “you can always ask the next question; don’t ever take any particular answer for your final answer. This allowed me to trust my instincts when writing a story.”

He was the first person in his family to go to college, earning degrees in English and Psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. “My grandfather came over here from Sicily when he was 15, and he had a bakery in New York,” said Monteleone. “My father worked Bethlehem Steel in a shipyard for 30 years. I came from one of those families.”

Monteleon turned professional as a writer in 1972 when “Amazing Stories” magazine published one of his stories. His novelist career took off in 1975 with, Seeds of Change, the lead-off title in the Laser Books line of science fiction titles. This led to Monteleone becoming a popular writer of supernatural thrillers.

His dad is responsible for Monteleone’s interest in the macrabe. He read pulp fiction as a young man, pulp magazines in the ‘30s and ‘40s, and he liked watching strange movies. His dad bought him comic books when he was young, and as he says, “There was a lot of strange, interesting stuff out there.” Father and son went to horror films on a regular basis.

Monteleone is an extremely versatile writer. His novels, The Resurrectionist and Night of Broken Souls, have been optioned for films. He and his wife, Elizabeth, are the editors of seven anthologies. He writes a column of opinion and entertainment, The Mothers And Fathers Italian Association, for “Cemetery Dance” magazine. Monteleone has written creatively for both stage and television with a script produced for American Playhouse that won an Gabriel Award. In non-fiction, he is the author of the bestselling, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing a Novel. He is also very popular with his books and stories being translated into twelve foreign languages.

At last count, his life’s work consists of more than 100 short stories, 5 collections, 8 anthologies and 36 books including his novel, The Blood of the Lamb, which was named New York Times Notable Book of the Year (1983). He is a 5-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Novel, Collection, Anthology, and
Non-Fiction. In 2017, the Horror Writers Association presented him with their Lifetime Achievement Award. He and his wife, Elizabeth still live in Maryland.

Genre: Horror

Literary historian J. A. Cuddon defined horror as "a piece of fiction in prose of variable length... which shocks, or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing."

Sample Reading List: Bram Stoker Award Winners - The Blood of the Lamb (1992), The Mothers and Fathers Italian Association (2003), Fearful Symmetries (2004), Borderlands 5 and 6.

Writer's Prompt - Fun With Words

Maryland Writers’ Association (MWA) invites you to have fun writing horror like Thomas F. Monteleone. With just 100 words, write a piece that shocks, frightens, or induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing in your reader.

Submit your Fun With Words response to: https://marylandwriters.org/Notable_Maryland_Authors by the 22nd of the month and receive an MWA Fun With Words submission certificate. Selected responses will be published with next month’s article as well as posted on the MWA website.

Submit Your FUN WITH WORDS Prompt

The MWA is a 33-year-old state-wide association (501c3) dedicated to encouraging and mentoring Maryland writers, poets, playwrights, and authors.  Go to:  www.MarylandWriters.org for more info.

Reader Responses: Last month readers were asked to write Sci-Fi like Jack L. Chalker. With just 100 words, they were to pick some characters, create a reason, and have them undergo a physical transformation. Here are their responses: