Author/publisher Michael Aloisi (pictured) of AuthorMike Ink revealed the untold story of Jason performer Kane Hodder with last year’s autobiography UNMASKED, and now he’s preparing to bring us new books on the original FRIDAY THE 13TH, the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET films and more, via his Dark Ink imprint. Read on for the details and a peek at early cover art.

At Pennsylvania’s Horrorfind convention this past weekend, Aloisi spoke to Fango about his upcoming projects, starting with that FRIDAY tome. “It’s called ON LOCATION IN BLAIRSTOWN: THE MAKING OF FRIDAY THE 13TH,” he tells us, “and it’s a complete book about the making of the first movie, from its conception to the writing of the script to hiring everybody to day-to-day things on set. It’s written by David Grove, who wrote MAKING FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE LEGEND OF CAMP BLOOD, and it’s incredibly extensive. He interviewed something like 200 people, literally every single person who was on the set, right down to the guy who was cooking and handing out the food and the people working at the hotels. I think the only one we didn’t get so far is Kevin Bacon, and we’re still trying to get him for a last-minute quote. So it’s incredibly detailed, and very involved.”

While Peter Bracke’s CRYSTAL LAKE MEMORIES covered the making of the FRIDAY franchise in great detail, Aloisi promises that ON LOCATION IN BLAIRSTOWN will contain “so much more” about the one that started it all. “It’s all about the day-to-day life on the shoot, who did what, different events that happened—everything from Tom Savini getting into fights with his girlfriend at the time and leaving the set to Sean Cunningham arguing with this person or that person. There are one or two stories we’re holding back on for now, because the people involved found out, and we‘re working with them to get releases and say, ‘This is true, it’s in there, is it OK?’ We don’t want to ruffle any feathers, but there’s plenty of great stuff in there that fans will be interested in.”

All those tales will be accompanied by never-before-seen photos from various sources, one in particular. “There are several that Savini gave to me that are really cool,” Aloisi says. “It’s funny, because he and I were just going through stacks of these pictures at his house, and he was like, ‘Oh, look at this!’ and throwing pictures at me that no one has ever seen—personal photos he took on set, like Kevin Bacon on the bed laughing, and I was like, ‘These pictures are amazing!’ I believe there will also be original script pages in there that are different from what you see in the movie, with notes from Sean and a couple of other people. I would say it’ll probably come out probably early next year.”

Further down the road will be a salute to another classic slasher series. “We’re doing a NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET book that’s kind of like CRYSTAL LAKE MEMORIES, a big coffee-table book covering the entire series,” he reveals. “It’s going to be written by Thommy Hutson, who did the NEVER SLEEP AGAIN documentary, so he has exclusive photos and interviews already. That’s probably going to come out in 2014, and I’m excited about that, because CRYSTAL LAKE MEMORIES is one of my favorite books, so to be able to do the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET version is gonna be awesome.”

Aloisi promises that this volume will have plenty new to offer those who’ve seen the lengthy NEVER SLEEP AGAIN: “Even though it was a four-hour documentary, he still has hundreds of hours from all those people, so it’ll be much more in-depth. And I think he’s going to get a little bit more here and there, a couple of things he might not have been able to get before. What we want to do once that comes out is try to do appearances with a star from each movie here and there, and really promote it.

“We’re also doing a similar book on the PSYCHO series,” Aloisi continues. “That’s being written by Robert Galluzzo, who did the PSYCHO LEGACY documentary, and he’s doing a bunch of new interviews and stuff, and he’s approaching it a little bit differently from PSYCHO LEGACY to get a bit more in-depth. He actually—and I’m really excited about this—just got access to the HITCHCOCK movie they’re making with Anthony Hopkins [about the making of PSYCHO]; he was able to go on the set, and he’s going to include that in the book. That’ll probably come out late next year.” All three of these, Aloisi adds, “will probably come out in hardcover at first, and then go into paperback.”

Coming a little sooner, on October 15, is TALES FROM A MORTICIAN, a collection of short stories by the appropriately named Michael Gore. Finally, Aloisi has a project in the works that reps a rather unusual marriage of author and subject: “We’re teaming up with Tiffany Shepis, and while it’s not 100 percent official yet, she’s working on a children’s book.” Although the actress is well-known for her sexy and often villainous turns in numerous fear films, “There’s nothing horror-related here; it’s just a straightforward illustrated kids’ book for around the 5-to-12 age range. She has a great idea for it that’s really fun and cute, and it could be a whole series. It’ll be interesting to see how we end up marketing it, because we’ll kind of have to stay away from the horror element, but then, hopefully her horror fans will also buy it for their kids. She’s writing it right now, and when she’s done she’ll send it to me and we’ll start talking about the illustrations from there. So that should be pretty fun.” You can keep up with Aloisi’s books at AuthorMike Ink’s official website. 

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