Michael Picco, Author

I am proud to announce that Scenes from the Carnival Lounge received First Place  (Horror Category) in the 25th Annual CIPA/EVVY Awards! There were nearly 420 entries in this year's competition (although, not all in Horror). I am thrilled to be recognized by the Colorado Independent Publishers Association (especially given how stiff the competition was). The CIPA EVVYs is one of the longest-running book award competitions on the Indie publishing scene, running for nearly 26 years. The annual contest is sponsored by the Colorado Independent Publishers Association (CIPA), along with the CIPA Education and Literacy Foundation (ELF).  The CIPA EVVYs receive entries from all over the world, including England, Belgium, South Africa, Russia and Dubai. The judging is tough—the way a book competition should be. Judges are selected through CIPA’s judging qualification process and include teachers, business leaders, authors, critics, editors, readers and others. ...

Scenes from the Carnival Lounge is on the finalist list (horror category) for the 25th Annual Colorado Independent Publishers Awards! The CIPA EVVYs is one of the longest-running book award competitions on the Indie publishing scene, running for nearly 26 years. The annual contest is sponsored by the Colorado Independent Publishers Association (CIPA), along with the CIPA Education and Literacy Foundation (ELF). Award Ceremony is the 17th! Wish me luck!

I am happy to announce that my short story, "Hey Nonny Ding Dong, Alang, Alang Alang" will appear in Craig Spector's latest anthology, Freedom of Screech (Published by Crossroads Press). The story appears alongside stories from GIANTS in the horror genre including: Chet Williamson, Elizabeth Massie (a two-time Bram Stoker Award Winner), Thomas Monteleone, Richard Christian Matheson, David N. Wilson and a ton of others. I must say that I am thrilled and humbled to be in such revered and talented company.  Of course, the BEST thing for me, personally is the chance to work with my idol , Craig Spector! He's the author who started me down this path, and I am enormously grateful for his advice, direction and inspiration. If you are unfamiliar with Craig, do yourself a favor and pick up either The Light At The End , or The Scream . Not only are the both excellent, but both have given my nightmares for years. Here's his brief but exceptional bio: You ca...

I am happy to announce the launch of the Corpse Honey Facebook page! I've been working on compiling posts and graphics for the last couple of weeks, but didn't send out invitations until yesterday. You can find the page here: Corpse Honey, Facebook This page will be used for updates, excerpts of works in progress, things that may have inspired a particular story and posts for general interest. The book is going to be a follow-up to Scenes from the Carnival Lounge , and will follow the same general format and theme (horror/odd tales), but will likely be shorter (containing ten stories instead of fifteen, and no essays or poems). It's my hope that this improves reader satisfaction with the book, and will make it a little less daunting to read.  A tentative list of stories is as follows: "Out of the Eater Came Forth Meat" So far, all I have is  the  title for this story. ;-P  BUT, I will say that is will be the "title story" for the bo...

The latest revision of the cover from the publisher. I am happy to announce that my Italian Sonnet "The Vampyre's Last Dawn" will be included in the 2018 collection of poetry ( Speculations ) from the Weird Poets Society!  The volume is due to be released in January or February of this year!

My contributor copies for  Stranded: Lone Survivor Deserted Island Horror Stories   arrived in the mail yesterday!  This anthology from Dark Regions Press, contains my flash fiction short story, "Isle for One?" — which took Fourth Place in their writing contest this last summer!  Considering that there were "over 1,000 entries" in the contest, I consider this a pretty big deal (like in the 99.5 percentile!)!  It's great to be a part of this anthology — especially from such a well-respected publisher. 

I felt that this story would've been a good capstone to Scenes… but, due to deadlines and space, I didn't quite have time to squeeze it in. Like the story All of Yesterday's Yesterdays , it deals with the unaware dead and the afterlife — particularly as it relates to the notion of the Bardo {from Wiki: “Used loosely, the term "bardo" refers to the state of existence intermediate between two lives on earth. According to Tibetan tradition, after death and before one's next birth, when one's consciousness is not connected with a physical body, one experiences a variety of phenomena. These usually follow a particular sequence of degeneration from, just after death, the clearest experiences of reality of which one is spiritually capable, and then proceeding to terrifying hallucinations that arise from the impulses of one's previous unskillful actions.”}.  I found the idea of the Bardo similar to the Christian idea of Purgatory, except that in th...