Burt Creations Publishing
29 Arnold Place
Norwich, CT 06360

Steve Burt, author/publisher 860-405-5183
Jolyn Joslin, Director of Marketing 860-405-5182

Press Release
www.burtcreations.com for photos and info
more info, contact Steve Burt 860-4050-5183 or passtev@aol.com

Small-town Pastor Pens Award-Winning Thriller

New York City ( June 11, 2010) – A Connecticut small-church pastor’s first novel, FreeK Camp, has won the 2010 Beach Book Award (www.BeachBookFestival.com) for Best Teen Book.

The Rev. Dr. Steve Burt of Norwich, Connecticut, accepted the honor at the New York Book Festival’s awards ceremonies (www.NYBookFestival.com), held at New York’s famous literary landmark, the Algonquin Hotel, on June 11. In presenting the award, festival director Bruce Haring of JM Northern Media told the audience that, of all the category winners, FreeK Camp most destined for a movie.

A 280 page paranormal thriller, FreeK Camp is a “crossover” mystery, meaning it satisfies the appetites of a wide audience--adults, teens, and tweens. The story revolves around Free Camp (the K is graffitied onto the camp van), a former church camp in rural Maine that’s been re-tooled to help “special kids” discover and develop their psychic abilities. The action pits 11 teens and their three adult mentors (former circus side show workers) in a battle of wits with a psychotic militiaman who has kidnapped and imprisoned half the kids with the intent of sacrificing them.

Dr. Burt, a small-church minister for more than 30 years, was profiled in a Connecticut Magazine article, “The Sinister Minister” (Feb. 2009) and is no stranger to dark fiction or writing awards. His weird tales collection, Even Odder, was runner-up to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for the 2003 Bram Stoker Award for Young Readers, horror/dark fiction’s top prize, and in 2004 his Oddest Yet beat out Dean Koontz to win it.

Asked about his success with dark fiction, Dr. Burt shrugged, smiled, and said, “I can’t explain it. Who says God doesn’t have a sense of humor?”

Contact: Wendy Burt-Thomas
(719)527-8225
WendyBurt@aol.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Writer’s Digest to release new book for writers
who want to get published

“The Writer’s Digest Guide to Query Letters” hits stores this December

Co. Springs, Colo., October 14, 2008 – Writer’s Digest Books, an imprint of F+W Media, has signed Wendy Burt-Thomas to write “The Writer’s Digest Guide to Query Letters” for its collection of writing-related books.

The how-to book, which is geared to beginning and intermediate-level writers, offers:

• A collection real queries that landed article assignments, agents and book deals
• Tips and instruction on how to write a great query to catch the attention of a magazine editor, agent or book publisher
• Special considerations for book queries by genre (romance, mystery, thriller, etc.)
• How to write a novel synopsis, cover letter and book proposal
• Understanding the different types of rights to your work and how to make money selling the same pieces to different publications
• The 10 commandments of query DO’s and DON’Ts
• What editors/agents/publishers like – and don’t like
• Tips for choosing – and working with – an agent
• Frequently asked questions from writers
• Tips and examples of other forms of correspondence
• Important resources for writers

Sprinkled with humorous anecdotes, funny “don’t-write-this-at-home” examples, and entertaining commentary from an author who has also worked as an editor, “The Writer’s Digest Guide to Query Letters” goes beyond the typical reference book to make a smooth read from cover to cover.

“I really wanted this book to be entertaining while being informative,” says Burt-Thomas. “Sometimes how-to books can be so heavy on instruction that they’re difficult to actually read. You end up using them more as a reference manual. I wrote what I’d want to read: a book with real examples – some serious, some funny, some outright silly – and real stories of how to drive editors crazy. Here’s a hint: don’t tell them your mom thinks you’re a great writer.”

About the author
Wendy Burt-Thomas has more than 1,000 published pieces to her credit, including articles, short stories, essays, reviews, poems and greeting cards. She has worked as an editor, columnist, staff writer, copywriter, freelance writer, writing teacher and public relations specialist.

Her first two books, “Oh, Solo Mia! The Hip Chick’s Guide to Fun for One” and “Work It, Girl! 101 Tips for the Hip Working Chick,” were written for McGraw-Hill with co-author Erin Kindberg.

Much of “The Writer’s Digest Guide to Query Letters” includes topics that Burt-Thomas taught in her class, “Breaking Into Freelance Writing” for eight years. She lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado and is a successful full-time freelance writer, editor and PR consultant.

Connecticut Magazine Features The Sinister Minister

October 15, 2008 Lyme, CT

After prize-winning journalist Dave Holohan of Hadlyme won the state’s top journalism award for his feature on a Stonington “character” in 2007, he started searching for another “character.” In early summer of 2008 he heard about the Rev. Dr. Steve Burt, a pastor and author known affectionately as Lyme’s Sinister Minister. (Lyme, Connecticut is known for two things, Lyme Disease and The Sinister Minister, both of which must surely be classified under the Strange and Weird.) Holohan heard at the local store that the author wrote church leadership books, devotional materials, inspirational books and stories for the likes of Family Circle and Chicken Soup for the Soul series—but he had also just won the Bram Stoker Award for Young Adults, the world’s top horror and dark fiction prize. And the ordained minister had done it by beating Dean Koontz and tying Clive Barker, who along with Stephen King, make up the horror genre’s Big Three in worldwide sales. Further digging revealed that one of Rev. Burt’s other collections had been the Bram Stoker runner-up the year before—losing out at the last to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Dave Holohan knew he had his next “character” for a Connecticut Magazine feature article. The story is scheduled for the December issue, due out in November.

Creepy Tales Contest Open Again

October 1, 2008 Norwich, CT

Once again author Steve Burt, Lyme, CT’s Sinister Minister will be the judge for high school horror entries in the Norwich Bulletin’s annual Creepy Tales contest. Dr. Burt, a popular short story writer of young adult tales, has won the Bram Stoker, Ray Bradbury, and Benjamin Franklin Awards for his work. This is his fourth year judging one of the contest categories, which include writing and illustrating in three age categories. For more information, check www.norwichbulletin.com.

Sinister Minister on TV and Internet

September 6, 2008 Norwich, CT

Channel 14’s top-rated Friday night cable show, “Ghost Chat New England: History, Mystery, Ghosts and Legends” devoted an entire show to Connecticut’s legenday Sinister Minister, Steve Burt. Zany talk-show hosts Cindy Corriveau and Nancy Krissoff, whose recent interview with actor/comedian Gene Wilder (Young Frankenstein) drvoe the show’s archived Internet piece to #6 on Google, chatted with Steve in the locations that speak to both his “callings.” He appeared in a cloud of smoke at First Congregational Church in Lyme, CT where he is the pastor (Rev. Dr. Steve Burt), and at the end of their interview with him in a local cemetery, Steve the world’s top young adult horror writer (Bram Stoker Wsinner in 2004 and runner-up to Harry Potter in 2003) turned and disapparated into a giant gravestone. The show also featured footage of The Sinister Minister on one of his many summer camp visits, this one with 85 teens around a campfire at Camp Claire on the Connecticut River at Hamburg Cove. The show is hokey and fun, and can be viewed on Google at www.video.google.com/videoplay?docid=934302529059006777 or by going to www.freewebs.com/ghostlady40 and search Season II episodes for the Sinister Minister episode. For more information about Steve Burt’s books or to schedule a school visit, program, or appearance, call him at 860.405.5183.

Minister wins highest honor in horror

Rev. Dr. Steve Burt takes home the 2005 Bram Stoker Award for Young Readers

Norwich, Conn., June 26, 2005 – Steve Burt has been called many things: “The Rev,” “Storyteller of the Heart” (for his non-horror stories), “New England’s Best Storyteller” and “The Christmas Story Pastor.”

But perhaps his favorite title so far came from the Horror Writers Association’s Saturday night awards ceremony in Los Angeles: Bram Stoker Award Winner for his book “Oddest Yet: Even More Stories to Chill the Heart.” That’s the world’s top horror prize.

The event, which regularly hosts some of the biggest names in horror and frequently awards the top prizes to such luminaries as Stephen King, Clive Barker, Dean Koonz, Anne Rice and J.K. Rowling, is considered to be the Oscar Night of the horror genre.

“I had to preach on the East Coast in my Hartford pulpit on Sunday morning, so I couldn’t make the event in Los Angeles,” says Burt. “My publicist, Ellen Reid of Smarketing, called me in the middle of the night to say that for the first time in history they had a tie in that category: Clive Barker … and me. I was in shock. It took me three hours to get back to sleep. I was pretty groggy in the pulpit later.”

Although Burt is the first ordained minister to win horror’s top prize, this isn’t his first brush with honors in his genre. In 2004, the Horror Writers Association named his second collection, "Even Odder: More Stories to Chill the Heart,” a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award (won by J.K. Rowling’s fifth book, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”). And his first dark fiction collection, “Odd Lot: Stories to Chill the Heart,” won Sole Honorable Mention for Best Horror Book of 2001 at the ForeWord Magazine Awards. Then it grabbed the Publishers Marketing Association's silver Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Mystery/Suspense Book of 2001. In 2003 Writer's Digest's named it runner-up for Best Genre Fiction Book. Six of its nine stories were honorable mentions in Year's Best Fantasy & Horror. Now the fourth book in the series, “Wicked Odd,” is out.

So why is a minister writing dark tales?

"It's fun," says 56-year-old Steve Burt, a 27-year ordained minister with the United Church of Christ. "I grew up on Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Weird Tales, and loved those strange stories. And as a church camp director, I often told the scary stories around the campfire in the evening. First I told the old classics I knew, then I started making up new ones of my own.”

How do Burt's parishioners feel about having a best-selling horror writer as their pastor? "Most of them have read my books and love the stories. Many folks have been in the audience when I've shared them aloud before Halloween. These are not violent, blood-and-gore tales, not slasher fare; Freddy doesn’t meet Jason, no Friday the Thirteenth or Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street. These are fun, they're imaginative. They rely more on tension and weird ideas than on guts and lopped heads. Teachers and parents constantly tell me they inspire kids to read and write. What more could I ask for?"

About the Bram Stoker Awards

The Stokers, the horror genre's answer to Hollywood's Oscars, are given annually in 12 categories for excellence in horror writing. Past winners include Peter Straub and 7-time winner Stephen King (Burt's former neighbor in Bangor during his seminary years). For a complete list of Stoker winners: http://www.horror.org/stokers.htm#winners.

Visit www.BurtCreations.com to learn more.

Photos of Steve Burt or covers of his book are available upon request.

# # #

To schedule an interview, contact Steve Burt at 860-889-1865 or PasStev@aol.com.