In the beginning it was movies like Night of the Living Dead and Alien that sent John Palisano into the deep realms of horror. Later it was comic books and magazines like Fangoria. By the time John was in middle school he was already involved in publishing; he made a magazine for his classmates called Castle Gore and charged twenty-five cents per issue.

He says, “I was really into reading Fangoria at the time and wanted to write for them. Castle Gore allowed me an early creative outlet. I wrote about movies and books and in most of the early issues I put one of my own stories inside. These were usually less than a page long.” When he was thirteen, John wrote his first piece of longer fiction, a novella about a time-traveling teenager (in a flying go-kart) who saves the world from a monster bred in a Victorian scientist’s lab.

After college John interned with Ridley Scott. He says, “When I first moved to Los Angeles, I scored an internship with Ridley Scott and Associates in Beverly Hills. I loved it. Of course, I did a lot of grunt work, but I got to learn how commercials go from storyboard to scene, learned about locations, and learned about the benefits of a positive attitude! It was amazing working with those people. It led to my first real Hollywood job, as a director’s assistant on the Arnold Schwarzennegger film End of Days; I learned everything there. It was unreal. Casting. Script revisions. Art department. Producing. Locations. I actually worked for Marcus Nispel, who ended up leaving the project, but when on to do the Friday The 13th and Texas Chainsaw remakes. The guy is brilliant.”

In addition to his writing and screenwriting credentials John’s also a musician; he’s been in bands since he was thirteen years old and has toured all over the country. His current band is called Lemonball; they’ve been together in various incarnations for over ten years. Their sound is greatly influenced by such bands as: The Stones, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Guns n’ Roses, Neil Young, etc. John says, “Sometimes I feel like Batman because I have two sides-the introverted artistic person and then the hellraisin’ rocker.” You can find out more about Lemonball here:
http://www.lemonballrocks.com/

The most amazing thing about John Palisano is his super-cool-five-year old son named Leo. John smiles and says that Leo’s doing good but it’s been hard. He says, “Leo was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm a few years ago at the age of three. He was walking to the bus with his class when his eyes rolled back and he passed out. After two operations, he was finally out of the hospital. Last year, they found a second vessel that had ballooned up and he went through another surgery to put a stint in it. Right now, there should be nothing further. At least that’s what we’re hoping.”

Because a brain aneurysm is so rare in a child so young, folks who are part of the Brain Aneurysm Foundation asked John to share the story with others.

You can read Leonardo Palisano Vs. the Evil Brain Aneurysm here:

John has creativity coursing through his body; it’s in his DNA or possibly a wild animal with super-creative powers bit him when he was very young. In addition to his writing, screenwriting, music and the most awesome creation known as Leo, John’s created music videos, short films, and book trailers.

In 2009 John won the Reader’s Choice Black Quill Award for the work he did for Gary A. Braunbeck’s book trailer: Far Dark Fields. You can find the trailer on his website or you can watch it on YouTube. John’s short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and you can find links to them on his website. Recently his poem Mother You Can Watch appeared in Christopher Conlon’s book A Sea of Alone: Poems for Alfred Hitchcock. 

Yes, John has been publishing work steadily for years but the coolest news is that his first novel, Nerves published by Bad Moon Books is finally here! It’s available for pre-order now, and it will be in stock on Feb 26^th.  

Here’s a sample of Nerves:

Something strange has changed in Josiah. He has awoken with the power to give life to the dead. And he isn’t the only one with an amazing new ability. Halfway across the world, his brother Horace discovers his very presence can kill.

The brothers’ powers are not a secret to everyone, however. The vampiric witch Ogam plans to claim them for his own. The only hope for the brothers’ safety is to escape to the otherworld known as Alta, where they can realize the true power of their supernatural gifts.

Will they be able to defeat Ogam ,or will he take their love, their family, and their very souls?

John Everson, the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Siren and The Pumpkin Man says this about Nerves:

“Think X-Men meets Lovecraft, and you have a taste of the action-packed bizarre and fascinating world that lives behind NERVES, and its dark tale of life-givers, death-bringers, and the balance that must be struck between them…and who will pay that price in that bargain.”

Bad Moon Books link to pre-order Nerves by John Palisano.

As a side note:

One of the last things I talked with John about was how much we both love Richard Matheson. Here’s a picture of John and Mr. Matheson. It was taken at the original Dark Delicacies bookstore on Magnolia Boulevard in 1998.

John says “Richard Matheson was one of those writers I felt an immediate kinship with as a reader. His stories are so rich and imaginative. I’d seen several of his works early in life before I even knew his name or who he was, so when I learned more about him, I was blown away. It’s hard to imagine his stories not being there. He’s inspired so much of the pop culture in story telling being used today. He’s a masterpiece!”

Yes I agree, and I think the gods created a masterpiece with you too John Palisano–can’t wait to see what you do next!

John Palisano is well known to readers of Horror Library, Darkness On The Edge, Phobophobia, Harvest Hill, Halloween Spirits, the Bram Stoker nominated Midnight Walk, and many other dark publications. NERVES is his debut novel and he brings to it a bucketful of fear, terror, and pathos. You can visit him at www.johnpalisano.com where you can learn about the writer and his upcoming projects.

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