ED- We are most honored to have with us the famed American author, Raymond Benson. Raymond, you are one of the most prominent authors that we have had the pleasure to introduce to our legion of fans. Please tell us how you began your writing career.

RB- I became a writer because there was no money in theatre (LOL)! I was a theatre major, specializing in directing. After college I went to New York and spent over a decade there in the off-off and off-Broadway scene, directing plays and composing music for shows. But it was like beating your head against a brick wall. In the early 80s I started thinking about doing a book about James Bond—a non-fiction coffee-table book that was a history of the 007 phenomenon, a biography of Ian Fleming, and analyses of all the books and films thus far. It took three years, and during that time I went to England for research. I met members of the Fleming family and his business people, as well as many of Fleming’s friends and colleagues. This book became THE JAMES BOND BEDSIDE COMPANION (first published 1984).

ED- Your interest in piano at a young age led you to composing music for theatrical productions later in life. Please tell us about this aspect of your career.

RB– The composing really began during my college years at the Drama Department of the University of Texas at Austin. Usually I would collaborate with a playwright who had written the book and lyrics for something new and I would add the music, or I would compose incidental music for an already existing play. I continued this practice in New York, where I received ten ASCAP “popular music” awards for my work. One of my musicals, THE RESURRECTION OF JACKIE CRAMER (written with Frank Gagliano), had no less than six productions in New York and around the country. (more…)

ED- Our magazine, The Eerie Digest, is thrilled to introduce author Bryan Cassiday to our readers. Bryan does a great deal of writing that our readers cherish dearly. Bryan tell us a little about yourself.

BC- Hi.  I’m Bryan Cassiday.  I write thrillers.

ED- We understand that your book, ‘Blood Moon’, captures the tales that our readers thrive on. Please tell us something about it.

BC– My new book “Blood Moon: Thrillers and Tales of Terror” is a collection of thirteen and one of my stories from the dark side; including, thriller, horror, suspense, mystery, and noir tales.  For instance, my story “I Kill for Your Blood” is about a CIA director who is informed that one of his agents is a vampire or thinks he is.  The director dispatches another field operative to find out what is really going on and to clean up the matter. (more…)

ED- We are excited to be sharing our interview with author Michael McCarty with our readers today. Mike we understand that you have been a Bram Stoker Finalist three times, along with a David R. Collins Literary Achievement Award from the Midwest Center in 2008. This is quite a feat. Tell us something about your work.

MM – I am a writer. Short enough? (Laughs)

ED – It can be longer than that. Go on. For our readers love stories in your genre. How many books have you written along these lines so far, and what are the titles?

MM – I am a writer and I write many different types of books.

I am the author of three novels: Liquid Diet: A Vampire Satire (Black Death Books), Monster Behind The Wheel co-written with Mark McLaughlin (Delirium Books, but is going to be re-issued from Medallion Books as a trade paperback sometime in 2010) and Out of Time (Lachesis, in Canada) co-written with Connie Wilson.

I am the author of four short story collections: Dark Duets (Wildside Press), All Things Dark and Hideous co-written with Mark McLaughlin and published in England (Rainfall Books), Little Creatures (Sam’s Dot Publishing), A Little Help from My Fiends (Sam’s Dot Publishing.) My fifth short story collection A Hell of A Job is going to be published this summer from Damnation Books.

I’m the author of four interview books Giants of The Genre (Wildside Press) and More Giants of The Genre (Wildside Press), Modern Mythmakers (McFarland & Company) and Esoteria-Land (Bear Manor Media). My fifth interview book Masters of Imagination should be coming out sometime late 2010 from McFarland & Company. (more…)

ED- We are very pleased today to introduce author Jeremy Shipp who is the embodiment of the genre our readers enjoy. His work will absolutely blow the minds of the established genre of today’s horror/fiction writers. Jeremy, tell us a little about your self and how you chose this particular genre.

JS- Thank you kindly! I’m a weird writer of weird fiction, and my tales are often classified as Bizarro, horror, and dark fantasy. I write strange tales, because I think strange thoughts, and I always have. Even as a kid, my brothers and I would play pretend, and our usual cast of characters included the grim reaper, an exceptionally lucky wrestler, three Neanderthal sidekicks, and a floating mouth that could swallow people and transport them into other dimensions. As a writer, I’m still playing pretend every day.

ED- We have learned that you live in a moderately haunted farmhouse in Southern California with a yard full of garden gnomes. Are they part of your writing too?

JS- The yard gnomes often appear in my tales. For instance, they show up in my novel, Cursed, and there’s a whole story about them in my upcoming story collection, Fungus of the Heart. Also, the yard gnome shamans use their magic sporks to bless my writing career. (more…)

ED- We are now interviewing Cat Connor of New Zealand for our readers interest. Cat you write thrillers, something that attracts our readers to our magazine. Tell us about your first novel, ‘killerbyte’

CC– Thank you for having me over. I’m a big fan of The Eerie Digest so this is quite a thrill for me.

As tempting as it is to put in the tag line and leave it at that – I shan’t because there is a funny little backstory with killerbyte. The idea behind this book came from actual death threats in a real chat room, and asking “What’s the worst case scenario?”, the result a fabulously gruesome novel and a warning – do you really know who is sitting on the other side of your screen?

Killerbyte: A killer with a gift for inventive and macabre deaths…

An FBI Agent with an equally unusual imagination and sense of humour…

“FBI Agent Gabrielle Conway is no stranger to death threats. She seems to get them daily and from a poetry chat room of all places. Although she thinks it strange how people will get so worked up online that they would resort to such actions, she never really took any of the threats seriously. That is, until someone from her chat room showed up on her doorstep with murder on his mind. The police manage to chase him away, and Ellie believes that the incident is over until a dismembered body shows up in her trunk accompanied by a cryptic and poorly-written poem. (more…)

ED- We are very excited to introduce actor Marty Ryan to our readers. Marty, you have a long and prominent career in acting You’ve been in such Television shows such as Monk, Boston Legal, and ER. Please tell us how your career started.

MR– I had a career going in the International Freight Forwarding industry working for a Swiss multinational in New York. I was geared up for a career in international business having obtained an MBA with an emphasis international marketing from the Thunderbird School of International Management and speaking Italian and Spanish. After working and succeeding at the job for several years my creative side started to do battle in my brain with my practical side. I had also gotten an English degree from Santa Clara University and still fancied myself a man of arts and letters. By some alchemy I decided to quit my job and become an actor. I had had no previous training, inclination, nor interest in acting but somehow the Muses set me on this path. I moved back to my hometown of Portland Oregon and began taking acting classes and joined a theater company. I guess I was thick headed enough to think I could succeed as an actor and moved to Los Angeles in late 1996 without any real credits or experience apart from the excellent theater training  I had received in Portland. (more…)

ED- We would like to introduce our readers to actor Moe Irvin. Moe, can you tell us about your role on Grey’s Anatomy? This is one of the popular shows that has been on television.

MI– I play a character called Nurse Tyler. He’s a pretty sarcastic dude and he knows his work well so he gets frustrated with the interns whenever he has to answer “dumb” questions or fix mistakes. It’s a fun role. It’s crazy to see how much has happened since we shot the pilot in 2003, and what an impact the show has had on people’s lives and careers. It’s the luck of the draw with pilots. You just never know what’s gonna grab audiences. Thankfully luck and good writing were on our side.

ED- Tell us about some of the other roles that you have played.

MI-Oh, man I’ve played cops, pimps, hustlers, business men.  I played an alien once. That was hilarious because the contacts I wore kept making my left eye water so we just shot it with one contact. It looked ridiculous. The film was really low budget so they ended up blurring the alien faces in some weird CGI blur which looked even worse. But it was good times. Lots of fun.  I like playing guys that are ultra cool but in reality they’re total idiots. I don’t know why I relate to them so well. Maybe that says something about me. (more…)

ED- We are interviewing actor Comedian Erik Passoja for the readers of The Eerie Digest. Erik, The Eerie Digest and its readers really like to know about the various fields of the Entertainment Industry, and you truly wear many hats. Tell us about your acting career.

EP– It all really started in second grade, when I played the title role in “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”  The previous year, I played a rock or a tree in another play…I can’t remember which…but it didn’t ignite my passion for acting the same way.

I was actually quite frustrated at having been cast as Charlie Brown, because nobody likes Charlie Brown.  I wanted Snoopy, but Joshua Martinson was just plain going to be Snoopy.  This was my first glimpse of favoritism in the acting world, so my world-weary cynicism started at about six or seven years old.

Since then, I’m lucky to have worked a lot.  I have done CSI, CSI: Miami, Without a Trace, played Charles Manson in an ABC movie about the Beach Boys, and done a bunch of fun, creepy roles in films.

I’ve studied a whole bunch of places, from Yale to the Actors Studio, and I’d say my roots are in the Method.  But I absolutely adore Shakespeare and have nothing but awe for British actors like Judi Dench and Ian McKellen. (more…)