An Introduction to the Undead Rat
I was born in the fevered imagination of a librarian assistant who needed a secret identity that would allow him to run around on the internet doing the good deed of scaring the cr*p outta people by hooking them up with really scary books - all in the name of his library.
Why a rat?
When the Readers' Advisory Team Services was formed in 1993, the team soon realized that the initials spelled RATS. Thus a mascot was born - the rat. When they sought to create a web presence, the library was uncomfortable with the team members using their real name, so each chose a name that described them in some way and added rat to it. As Greg loved horror fiction and was beginning to discover that there was more to the genre than Stephen King, he picked The Undead Rat as his nickname. That is how I was born.
He didn't think too much of The Undead Rat until he noticed his fellow librarians all knew the name and some even called him by it - and he was answering. After that realization, the identity of The Undead Rat fit like a comfortable glove. As he wrote: "Call me Undead Rat. Call me Greg. I answer to both."
Currently he manages a blog about horror books and another one on other genre books. Beyond that he has a number of Squidoo lenses and micro-sites mostly about some aspect of the horror genre.
What's in the future for the Undead Rat? Fame? Fortune? A Hot Movie Deal? Conquering the World with Undead Minions? Hey, the sky's the limit.
"Never apologize for your reading taste"
-- Betty Rosenberg, "Genreflecting"
The Undead Rat Takes Over the Squidoosphere
See just what I've been up to!
- Zombie Horror Novels Book List
- This Squidoo book list specializes on zombie novels and anthologies. Not surprisingly it features series of zombie books by Brian Keene, Kim Paffenroth and others. It also has a special segment talking about a new chapbook called Rot and videos of author Gary Braunbeck reading his zombie story at a convention. This lens has a mature rating only because of some four letter words in the story Gary Braunbeck read in the three part videos. The rest of the lens would get a G rating.
- Giant Monster Horror Book List
- Ever since I was a kid I have always loved giant monster movies. Recently, probably since the release of the movie Cloverfield, I've noticed a new trend in the horror genre -- the Giant Monster Story. And, although I would have sworn that giant monsters was a visual experience, these stories are working. Don't believe me? Take a look at some of the books in this list.
- Werewolf Horror Books
- Werewolves, lycanthropes, shapeshifters, these are the creatures of the night -- and the nightmare. And the books in this book list serve up a big batch of furry, fanged nightmare. If you enjoy reading horror novels and you'd like to sink your teeth into a rip roaring werewolf book, check out the titles in this list for a really good place to start.
- Ghost Horror Novels Book List
- This is a squidoo lens with an exciting ghost story book list. There is a book recommendation here for you whether you enjoy Victorian ghost stories or modern day horror fests. There is even a link to an Ohio author who is giving away downloadable copies of three published ghost stories in the Timmy Quinn series.
- Horror Fiction Books
- Created using the new Squidboo lens for Halloween, This lens is a list of literary horror fiction books that you might be surprised to find are considered horror fiction. Most were nominated for either the Stoker Award or the International Horror Guild Award.
- Halloween Stories
- Take a look at the number of wonderful books set on or around Halloween. We have Bradbury and Maberry, Earthling Publication's spectacular Halloween Series and many, many others. Drop in periodically because the list is growing.
- Richard Montanari Squidoo Lens
- This was my first Squidoo lens. Richard Montanari is an Ohio author of intense psychological thrillers who has reached bestseller status in England.
The Undead Rat Conquerors the Blogosphere
My early quests in world domination
- ...With Intent to Commit Horror
- My first website and blog. Horror is my favorite genre and here I make book lists of horror authors, series lists, thematic booklists and weblists. Oh yeah, I also run a blog about the genre. I'm making this your one stop shop for horror fiction.
- The Lair of the Undead Rat
- I began this blog at the request of my supervisors at the library. The liked what I'd done that they asked me to help set up blogs for the other reader advisers (RATS) including myself. I am passionate about Cleveland area and Ohio writers. The Lair is a website for these hard working, seldom praised authors with booklists and blog posts.
- The Gamer Rat
- I love role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, Gurps, White Wolf's Storyteller series, Kult, Dream Park (yeah, based upon the Nivens-Barnes novels), and Little Fears. Here I list them and write about them, with a special slant for librarians considering adding this material to their collection. This is also a new site.
Random Horror Fiction by Stephen King on Amazon
Sample The Lair of the Undead Rat
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byRandom Graphic Novels on Amazon
Sample . . . With Intent to Commit Horror
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byGreg "The Undead Rat" Fisher's Librarian Trading Card
New Del.icio.us bookmarks
Horror Fiction in the Blogosphere
- Murder and sex
- (Virginia Adams) Definition of Splatterpunk: describes a subgenre of horror fiction distinguished by its graphic depiction of violence.
- Horror Stories: a roundtable with the publishers and writers of ChiZine ...
- And when most people think of horror fiction, I think it's fair to say that's what they think of: luridly-packaged paperbacks filled with violence and ...
- Stephen King Reveals Plans To Release "The Shining" Sequel
- The horror fiction writer reveals that he began working on the new novel last summer. According to the Torontoist, the 62-year-old novelist was at the Canon ...
- King's 'Dome' to come to television with Spielberg's aid
- Renowned horror fiction writer Stephen King is teaming up with heralded film director Steven Spielberg to bring King's latest supernatural thriller entitled ...
by Undeadrat
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