Joseph McGee, an up and coming horror writer, passed away on Thanksgiving. The exact cause of his death isn't known at this point, but Joe did suffer from diabetes, and the search for a cure for diabetes was one of the charities he was involved in. It's a sad irony that Joe passed away on this particular holiday, for which he actively pursued raising money to help feed the needy.

If you're unfamiliar with Joe's name or work, I can tell you that many of us are reeling from this news. I primarily knew Joe as many horror writers know each other: through message board posts (and I lifted the above photo from Shocklines). But I did meet him in person once, at Rock and Shock in Worcester, MA two years ago. He was bright, energetic and young (23, I believe). I remember that we had a very friendly conversation at my vendor table, and he mentioned our meeting during an exchange we had on the Horror Writers Association bb during the recent HWA election.

Joe was serious about his writing and the career he wanted. To survey his published work, including his novel, Snow Hill, and recent novella, The Reaper, visit his website. He had a number of projects in development, including a collaboration with Eric Enck at Snuff Books, so it's likely his work will continue to appear in print.

Our condolences to his friends and family.

UPDATE: Joe's sister posted the following blog on his MySpace page:

From the family of Joseph McGee


On Thursday, November 27 my brother Joe passed away

unexpectedly due to complications from diabetes.

We know how much Joe treasured his friends and fans on Myspace and wanted to post this to inform those of you that may not have known. We're sure many of you have special memories of Joe and we invite you to post them all.

Joe was Joey to us and he was literally the BEST son, brother, uncle, grandson and nephew. There was nothing he wouldn't do for someone he loved. His love for writing was matched by his love of family, music, movies, Christmas and the Boston Celtics. Our hearts are broken and we'll miss him forever!

Joe's obituary and service info will be in Sunday and Monday's edition of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. www.telegram.com.

A friend of Joey's made this tribute for him please feel free to check it out

As some of you may know, Joey collected contributions to help feed needy families on Thanksgiving. It has been brought to our attention that he was also planning on doing the same for families on Christmas. We want to honor Joey's wish and collect and help these families for him. So, in his memory we are asking you to donate as little or as much as you'd like.

You can send donations via PayPal to BlueDiamond1002@aol.com and please write in the note section that it is a Christmas Donation; Checks and Money orders can be sent to:

Christmas Donations
C/O Karin Conte
PO Box 70514
Worcester, MA 01607

Because of the time, we must cut off online/internet and mail-in donations by December 19, 2008.

My brother will forever be missed but will stay in our hearts forever.

Thank you.

Karin Conte