Authors to Showcase the Horrible and Bizarre

A small circus of the disturbing and bizarre comes to Staunton, VA, on September 15, 2006 at 7 p.m., when the Bookstack hosts authors Matthew Warner and John Edward Lawson for a book signing and discussion.

(PRWEB) September 7, 2006 -- A small circus of the disturbing and bizarre comes to Staunton, VA, on September 15, 2006 at 7 p.m., when the Bookstack hosts authors Matthew Warner and John Edward Lawson for a book signing and discussion.

In ring number one is Matthew Warner, 33, a Staunton resident whose most recent novel Eyes Everywhere is a psychological suspense thriller Publishers Weekly hailed as a “realistic look at a case of paranoid schizophrenia.” It’s the tale of Charlie Fields, a young father afraid of losing his job as a Washington, DC, legal secretary--a job Warner knows something about.

“I was one of the only two male secretaries at a large law firm until I moved to Staunton last year,” Warner says. He now works as a paralegal in Waynesboro. “The job was sometimes nerve-wracking, especially after 9/11. I was appointed one of my floor’s safety wardens in charge of escorting employees to a secure room in the event of a biological weapons attack.”

That experience inspired the opening scenes of his book in which the protagonist believes his new duties as a safety warden are part a conspiracy to get him fired. As the character’s sanity breaks down, he comes to suspect everyone around him--even his wife and children.

“I like to turn everyday situations on their heads and place them in the context of some greater social problem,” Warner says. His past books tackled such topics as organ donation, slavery, and divorce. “It only makes sense for me to write about another difficult subject like mental illness. I like to promote understanding of fear-inducing and complex issues.”

John Edward Lawson, 32, sees himself as part of an avant-garde literary movement coined “Bizarro” by its authors and publishers. “Basically, if an audience enjoys a book or film primarily because of its weirdness, then it is Bizarro,” says Lawson, a resident of Hyattsville, MD, where he co-owns Raw Dog Screaming Press with his wife, Jennifer Barnes. “Bizarro is a deeper shade of strange leaking into the art underground, a counterculture grope in the drawers of conformity. It almost always crosses genres.”

Its authors, however, primarily come from the horror genre. Carlton Mellick, Japanese writer Kenji Siratori, and British writer Mike Philbin are among those who have adopted the Bizarro label. Their works are commonly found in the catalogs of specialty publishers such as Eraserhead Press and Afterbirth Books. Lawson’s own books include Pocket Full of Loose Razorblades and a poetry collection, The Troublesome Amputee.

“Bizarro literature often gives intangible elements of our lives a physical manifestation,” Lawson says. Physically, he’s quite tangible himself, towering at a neck-popping six-foot-eight. “I’ve got a lot of social anxiety issues and a lot of boundary issues. If I couldn’t purge the Bizarro swirling around me 24/7 through my writing, I don’t know what I’d do.”

Warner and Lawson’s visit to the Bookstack will include readings from their works, book signings, and a discussion about literature and the writing business. Their websites are at matthewwarner.com and johnlawson.org. More information about the Bizarro genre can be found at mondobizarroforum.net.

For print-quality photos to accompany this article, visit matthewwarner.com/press.

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