Mort Castle is an American horror author and writing teacher, with more than 350 short stories and a dozen books to his credit, including Cursed Be the Child and The Strangers. Castle's first novel was published in 1967. Since then he has had pieces published in all sorts of places ranging from traditional literary magazines to more off-the-wall or risqu� markets. He has been nominated four times for the Bram Stoker Award for Short Fiction. A dedicated writing teacher, Castle has been a working musician, a standup comic, a stage hypnotist, a high school English teacher, and a magazine and comic book editor. He is currently writer-in-residence for three high schools, and teaching "Researching and Writing Historical Fiction" and "Story In Graphic Form" at Columbia College Chicago. He is a frequent keynote speaker at writing conferences, and has given over 800 presentations to writers, would-be writers, and teachers of writing. His latest book, Writing Horror, for which he served as editor, has become the "bible" for aspiring horror authors. It also includes interviews with some of horror's top stars, such as Stephen King. 

January 1st, 1946 in United States of America (Age 78)