Meet Armand Rosamilia

I met Armand Rosimila through the Masters of Horror Facebook group. If you are a writer in the horror genre and you haven't joined this group, the question is why? Its a great group, very supportive, very caring and informative. But back to Armand. Armand is not only a writer, with several books, stories and anthologies under his belt; he's also an editor and publisher. He works with Rymfire Ebooks. And the more I get to know about Armand, the more I like him. You can read my review of the latest anthology he's edited, Undead of Winter, over at See Spot Read.

1. How long have you been writing?

All of my life. I wrote horrible stories as a kid that I would subject my mother to, trying to compete with her love of King and Koontz. I had a couple of horror short stories published when I was younger but they never amounted to much and I never kept the momentum going. Within the last  four or five years I've taken this a bit more serious, with being a publisher and an author.

2. How long have you been publishing?

I did a magazine in the mid-90's called Black Moon Magazine for a couple of years, then I didn't do anything until 2005 when I started Carnifex Press, which had some great books released but a horrible manager (me). It was What Not To Do As A Publisher 101, and it taught me a lot. When I started helping out Rymfire eBooks in 2009 I never dreamed I would be taking it over myself, but I'm glad I did.

3. What got you started in the publishing business?

 I was/am a huge Heavy Metal fan, and I read every cheesy fanzine back in the day and always wanted to do it myself. I decided to do it. The same thing with horror: I thought about the books and stories I was interested in reading, and when i didn't find them I created them.

4. Have you always been a fan of the horror genre?

I grew up reading my mother's huge horror paperback collection. I'm more of a horror reader than movie guy. I love the written word to get you scared more than some slasher film.

5. For your anthologies, what is the average number of submissions you receive and how long does it take you to sort through them?

On average we get over a hundred submissions, and each anthology takes 6-8 weeks to sort through... I read bunches of stories in spurts, putting them into different 'piles' until i find the best stories.

6. What led you to the indie scene?

 For me, the best stories always came from the indie scene, the same with Heavy Metal music. Reading Dean Koontz was great as a kid but I wanted to read more and fins something a bit more extreme and something that wasn't cookie-cutter writing. I'm on a constant search for the hungry authors out there, willing to push the envelope with their work.

7. What scares you personally? Any silly phobias?

They aren't silly to me, haha... I have an irrational fear of dogs, afraid of heights, midget zombie strippers...

8. What authors would you say influenced you the most?

As a kid it was definitely Dean Koontz and Robert E. Howard... the guys that inspired me in recent years and showed me that I could write what I really wanted to write were Brian Keene, Scott Nicholson, John Everson, Gord Rollo, Douglas Clegg... I could keep going...

9. How did you come up with the current anthology, Undead of Winter: An Extreme Undead Release?

Seriously, I've always wondered how the cold would affect zombies and these stories answer that question! The anthology got its original start because I wrote a story with the same name about Darlene Bobich, a character I've explored in several short stories ("Anything But Lucky" in Daily Bits of Flesh 2011 by Pill Hill Press and "Rear Guard" bonus short story in "Highway To Hell" extreme zombie novella from Rymfire eBooks) and she stars in the extreme zombie novella "Dying Days"... I decided that the concept of zombies in winter was a cool one, and figured I'd throw it out there and see what happens... and i was pleasantly surprised at the amount of great stories that came in! Choosing the eight that made it with my story was tough...

10. What advice would you give to newbie authors or publishers?

Write, write and write some more... realize that you need practice... finish that book and then start on the next one and never give up... find people that you trust to read and edit your work and have them be brutally honest... and then write some more...

Armand is a NJ native who's living in Florida right now. He lives with his three children, fiance Kim and her son and way too many pets. You can visit him on the web:

Armand's website
Armand's Facebook
Armand's Twitter

Hope you've enjoyed meeting Armand as much as I have!
Stacey