Gothic-Horror.com

The Twisted Biography of the author

ANTON VON STEFAN

Part twelve  - and onto the innocent, unsuspecting public the gothic horror tales are to be released!  

The Millennia has passed since the mountains of Sun Peaks Resort last heard the spoken ‘Gothic Word’ of ANTON VON STEFAN’s tales of horror.  Our author has relentlessly toiled on his 'Tales of Terror and Imagination' since that fateful weekend.  At times, overcome by the sheer volume of thought pouring into his feverish brain, all the while attempting to live amongst his fellow creatures as a seemingly unaffected citizen of our society, he sought deliverance by extracting himself from the daily grind.  Seeking refuge in the most remote of locations the province of British Columbia offers an overwrought individual, he sequestered himself close to the roots of his curse.  Solitude was gained, and many a story finished, on the very banks of Arrow Lake, the body of water whose cable ferry had unwittingly provided its name to our author’s first eerie, gothic story, 'The Passing of Mr Needles'.

Year after year, ANTON VON STEFAN drove over that same route eastward from Vancouver, into the remote mountain passes, and crossed Arrow Lake.  Near the lakeside town of Nakusp, the healing waters of Mother Earth spill forth in unchecked quantities, finding myriads of rifts and cracks in the globe’s outer crust from which to spew nature’s gift to mankind.  Each location is unique in what it offers; and, although our author has spent weeks at many of these, few will be named herein so as to keep them as the well guarded secret of naturalists the world over.  It will suffice to say that three of these naturally occurring spas; those just outside of Nakusp, those at Halcyon and those just outside of Halcyon, were the ones our engrossed writer frequented most.

Once our author arrived, it was impossible to say when, if ever, he would return to urban life.  What is an unequivocal truth is that he would set up his tent, move into a cabin, or book into a motor inn.  There, he would pull out his collapsible chairs, his portable table, his dictionary, his leather-bound synonym finder, a ream or two of blank paper, and his quill.  Placing these in the full sun, near the water’s edge, he would become incognisant of the world surrounding him.  Enshrouded in a world of fantasy and fiction, pouring out copious quantities of ink as each gothic tale took shape on the pages before him, he would spend his entire day.  The joy and pleasure of writing these horrific stories is something that he has been unable to fully describe; yet, once the final word of any particular tale’s ink had almost dried upon that page, he has always experienced the identical euphoric emotions.  Temporarily freed of the bonds that fettered him to his makeshift desk, in a peaceful corner of the world, the elation and rapture of knowing that a particular story has been put down in its full form, that his life, at least, had gained some inner bliss from this laborious task, and that possibly one other human individual would one day read the tale and glean some enjoyment there from, was an ecstasy only those that create an original work will ever experience.

One cannot compile even a Twisted Biography of ANTON VON STEFAN and not at least mention another blissful corner of the province our writer lives in.  On the western fringe of the City of Vancouver lies a beach which is unique in many ways.  Officially now part of Pacific Spirit Park and claimed as territorial land by the Musqueam Natives of southern British Columbia, this part of the Fraser River’s estuary has been part of the author’s life since the mid 1950’s.  Once a part of Canada’s defences in the Second World War, it has been added to in an attempt to keep the North Arm of the Fraser navigable.  The beach has also been named as one of the 10 most beautiful natural beaches in the world.

Not a single Gothic Tale was ever conceived at Wreck Beach.  Yet, over the summer and fall, year after year, our author has carried his load of manuscripts and books down the long, winding, stepped trail to a sunny spot to the left of one of the many access routes that lead down to the pristine sand of this beach.  There, in the very midst of good friends, work colleagues, ski club members, tourists, artists, musicians and thousands of others, he has been able to work in natural bliss.  He is able to turn to his work, tune out all of these people, their activities, their sound or any other human interruptions to spend hundreds of hours working through his already typed documents.  Reading through each in detail, making notations within the typed text, each year our author spends most of his free time editing his gothic stories. 

Over the past years, ANTON VON STEFAN also takes three to four of his previously written manuscripts to a rented dorm at the University of British Columbia.  Spending several weeks at a time at the university, he selects one gothic story each day and heads down the trail to Wreck Beach.  His books are often strewn over his large blanket and beach towels which cover the warm sand adjacent to a comfortable log.  There, he is seen to be riveted to his chosen location with his head and sunglasses buried deep in his texts.  At other times, with pages flapping in the light breeze and the hot sun radiating from above, he picks up his papers and wanders the shore.  With the tide out, there are miles of sand to cross while reading through the pages of his work, pen in hand.  Tirelessly streamlining the words, adding or altering descriptions, removing awkward or redundant words, deleting sentences or even whole paragraphs, and replacing them, if necessary, with new ones, our writer works until each Gothic Story is fit to be read out loud.  Those sunny days pass all too quickly, but have produced some incredible horror stories.

At this current transition in his life, ANTON VON STEFAN finds himself at the threshold of a new beginning, a new life.  Sitting upon a veritable mountain of documents, with the sites:

 Gothichorror.net, and AntonVonStefan.com,

operating since the mid 2000s, he has now launched

Gothic-Horror.com,

the site you are currently on.  From this site, you will soon be able to read a short background to each story’s creation followed by the first page of each of his nefarious tales, beginning with his first book, “Tales of Terror and Imagination”.  “A Very Strange Christmas Story, Indeed” will also be published in the very near future. 

Please brouse through the gothic fiction of ANTON VON STEFAN.  If you see a tale that you would like to read in full, you will shortly be able to click on the PayPal tab and order your book.  For now, this has been our author’s Twisted Biography.  More will come as the months and years pass, and new pages will be added to the site as publishing progresses.

Be sure to order your first edition, illustrated, hardcover copy of one of his books and become part of the learned world of Gothic Fiction.  If you love these stories, be sure to pass that information on and support Canadian Authors as a whole.  For now, the author says, “thanks,” as he nods his head and returns to the massive pile of paper at hand.

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