This week Twilight Tales and Killer-works.com bring you a special event: Beach Blanket Blood Bath! It’s not just an excuse to show off your dark side: it’s also a contest (cash prizes), a raffle, and whole lot of bloody fun. So we asked Jill Cooper, the Killer-works Headmistress of Horror, her thoughts about the event coming up on Monday, July 28. We got back some interesting replies. Have a look and a laugh, fire up that PC or pen, and join us on the blood spattered sands of summer.

Let’s start with the basics… Tell us a little about Killer-works.com.

Jill: Killer-works is an online review/recommendation site for all things dark and disturbing. This includes but is not exclusively horror. One of the things that differentiates us from similar sites is that we are constantly looking for disturbing content in all areas - be it books, films, art, artifacts, events…There is definite overlap with the traditional horror genre, but we aren’t restricted by labels. Basically if there is something to disturb the masses and it’s well executed, we’re interested in it! Our goal is to become the destination to find “…the best dark and disturbing things for your mind.” (our tagline) and to be able to actually buy everything we recommend from our site. …There are more origin details in the “about killer-works” section of the site.

What first drew you to horror?

Jill: Vast quantities of Dr. Seuss and night-time monsters in my closet - age 3.

What kinds of things do you hope will be featured or killed at the up > coming Beach Blanket Blood Bath and contest?

Jill: Men in Speedos (or not in Speedos…I’m not picky).

You’ve turned the evening into a contest with cash prizes, publication on the Killer-works.com web site, and possibly in an anthology. Is this a new kind of venture of Killer-works.com?

Jill: This contest is definitely a new venture for Killer-works and we’re looking forward to hearing lots of beach-y gore! Publication on our website is a relatively new venture, we have been posting a monthly Flash Fiction piece since April of this year. We coined Flash Fiction to be under 1000 words (you can find submission details online as well) So far the entries have been fantastic and we’ve actually published some Twilight Tales peeps. At the end of a full year of online publications (i.e. April 2009) we will be publishing a print anthology with all of the submissions plus any extras we decide on. The contest winners from Beach Blanket BB will be part of this anthology as well as being featured online at Killer-works. We decided to give writers a bit more word play than the Flash Fic - 3000 words max - as well as a bit more cash. We want to see lots of bloodshed!

We hear there’s going to be a raffle as well, how many rolls of pennies should the attendees bring along with them so they can score some killer swag?

Jill: Well, Killer-swag (a very cool item with our logo on it) will be free for writing your email on our signup sheet to get our free weekly newsletter. Our snazzy blood bath beach gear will be raffled off at 2$ a ticket. You don’t want to miss out - some very unique stuff! (We’ve contacted a mortuary novelty shop…I shall say no more.) Proceeds to go to Twilight Tales - the lovely NPO that it is!

Other than sign up for Killer-works.com, is there anything else you’d like to tell us about the contest or Killer-works.com in general?

Jill: Yes, besides looking for entries for our monthly Flash Fiction, we’re now open to guest writers for our weekly articles. We’re looking for our writers to develop a “voice” of their own for readers to get to know and relate to (and I always add my two cents!) You can find all the writer’s guidelines here: http://www.killer-works.com/write_guidelines.asp.
We are also currently running a short horror film contest! We’ve only just started promoting this one (we’ll be extending the current Labor Day deadline) and will be featuring it (as well as Flash Fiction) at the up and coming Festival of Fear (part of Fan Expo Canada) in Toronto the end of August. Killer-works will have a wee booth - we’re very excited! If you plan on being in Toronto from Aug 22-24, you should come visit me there…
Thanks! Jill

Come one out and meet Jill and her merry minions of mayhem this Monday July 28th at 7:30 pm at the Mystic Celt 3443 Southport in Chicago.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 10:53 pm and is filed under Interviews, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.