Author Brian Moreland

TAEM- Writers are one of the mainstays for The Arts and Entertainment Magazine, and their work is also a great inspiration to film and television alike. One of the newest writers is Brian Moreland whose creations are right up our alley. Brian, we learned that in your youth you loved scary movies, and they were the basis of your desire to write. Who among the writers that you followed inspired you the most?

BM-Like most horror writers I’ve met, I was first influenced by Stephen King, because his books dominated the horror market when I was growing up and they were popularized even more by the movies based on King’s fiction. One of the first fiction books I read just for fun was Stephen King’s Night Shift. I devoured every one of those short stories and discovered that reading fiction can be even more fun than watching movies. Stephen King taught me how to create a sense of dread in a scene. He would focus on the details of something that spooked him until he had you spooked too. That’s important in horror fiction. Sometimes you need to slow the tempo down and focus on the darkness until the reader is so curious about what’s lurking beyond that curtain of blackness that they can’t stand it any longer. The two other authors who had the greatest impact were Dean Koontz and Robert McCammon. I discovered their books while in college and learning to write my own fiction. Both were masters at creating loveable characters, scary monsters, complex plots, and high-octane action that propelled you to keep turning the pages. I badly wanted to write like them. I wanted readers of my novels to feel the same adrenaline that you feel when you read Dean Koontz or Robert McCammon. I studied their novels like they were textbooks on how to write fiction. I dissected their books chapter by chapter, paragraph by paragraph, analyzing exactly how they structured a scene to give me the rush of feelings I was feeling. I also studied their prose, the words they used and added to my arsenal of descriptive words. I emulated both their styles in my early writing until I finally developed my own writing voice. Other notable influences were H.P. Lovecraft, Richard Laymon, and Clive Barker. Now, I study every horror author I write. I’m always learning and honing my craft. (more…)

Child Actor Michael Thomas

TAEM- One of the great things that The Arts and Entertainment Magazine does, is to introduce new talent to our readership. Actors get their start in various ways. Some by accident, others by desire, and some from a very early age. Actor Michael S. Thomas is one such personality who fits in the later category. Michael at what age did you first begin your acting career, and how old are you now.

MST- Hi! I started acting shortly after I turned 4 years old. I am 8 and ½ years old now.

TAEM- We learned that your first step in your career was in the film shorts: ‘TheNew World’ and ‘Chekhov’s Children’. How exciting was this for you. 

MST- Well, actually my very first film and my first speaking role was in the movie Holey Balls. But due to some technical difficulties during editing it has not been released yet. But the director said she hopes to have it out before I turn 18.

The New World (my second film) and Chekhov’s Children were both fun sets to work on. I made a lot of new friends on both sets and have worked with some of the actors again on other film projects. (more…)

TAEM- History has a lot to say in writing a story and it is a big part in every author’s work. Deirdre Marie Capone is one such author, and the history around her novel is not only well known, but personal. It is about Al Capone.

Deidre, tell us about your early life and about your family relationship to this historic figure.

DMC-I am a Capone. My grandfather was Ralph Capone, listed in 1930 as Public Enemy #3 by the Chicago Crime Commission. That makes me the grand niece of his partner and younger brother, Public Enemy #1: Al Capone.

For much of my life, this was not information that I readily volunteered. In fact, I made every effort to hide the fact that I was a Capone, a name that had brought endless heartache to so many members of my family. In 1972, when I was in my early thirties, I leftChicagoand my family history far behind me, reinventing myself inMinnesotaand making sure that no one in my life other than my husband Bob knew my ancestry. I succeeded—even with our four children.

But the truth about who I was hovered at the edges of the reality I had created, and I was terrified of it—terrified of revisiting the shy, wounded girl who grew up friendless, shunned by classmates, forbidden to play with a mobster’s child; terrified of once again hearing those dreaded words, “You’re fired,” and seeing another employer’s doors close to me because of my name; terrified of reawakening the grief of losing both my father and brother to suicide, collateral damage of the Capone legacy; and, above all, terrified that if my children learned they had “gangster blood” running through their veins, they’d be exposed to the same pain I had experienced. (more…)