"General Slocum's Gold"

In this exclusive video, Nicholas Kaufmann reads from his 2007 Stoker-recommended novelette, "Generel Slocum's Gold," published as a chapbook by Monica Kuebler's Burning Effigy Press.

The story:

Sackett is no ordinary thief. He was born with strange abilities, powers he uses to pull off dangerous and unusual heists. Fresh out of Rikers and eager to get back in the game, he's got his eye on a fortune in gold rumoured to be buried on a deserted island in New York's East River. It should be the easiest job he's ever pulled. But North Brother Island isn't as deserted as he thought. The dead are waiting beneath the waves, waiting for Sackett, waiting to protect their treasure.

The Author:

Nicholas Kaufmann is the critically acclaimed author of General Slocum's Gold (Burning Effigy Press) and the collection Walk in Shadows (Prime Books, out of print). His fiction has appeared in Cemetery Dance, The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 3, City Slab, The Best American Erotica 2007, Playboy and others. His non-fiction has appeared in On Writing Horror (Writers Digest Books), Annabelle Magazine, Fantastic Metropolis, Hellnotes and others. He has also served on the Board of Trustees for the Horror Writers Association.

You can also visit Nick at Live Journal.

Professionally immersed in books his whole life, he's been the Publicity Manager for a small literary press, a pitchman for a widely respected PR firm specializing in TV and radio author appearances, a bookstore clerk, an independent bookstore owner (the late, lamented Tell-Tale Books), a manager for Barnes & Noble, and a manager for a small indie video store. Nick lives in Brooklyn, NY.