I chased them back.  Still do. 

On my 18th birthday I moved to Minneapolis.  In college I majored in Latin simply because I love the language, the portentious history of Rome, and the language skills Latin fosters.  After a few years of Ciceronian oratory with sidewards forays into Chaucer, Hitchcock, and Shakespeare (and a miserable failure at learning Greek) I sallied
 forth from school and ended up in unpleasant circumstances, some of which informed the writing of stories such as "Strays" and "Tools of the Trade."  Work, perseverance, and really dramatic underworld situations of which I can't speak got me back on my feet.  Later, eventually, my brother got me into a U-Haul and trucked my butt
 back South.  I now live in a cobblestoned coastal city, and I don't want to leave anytime soon.

 Thanks go to my folks for letting me read whatever I wanted - most parents wouldn't approve of The Exorcist as fare for a 10-year-old - and to my brother DJ/Bubba for killing spiders for me.  Thanks and deepest grumpy love to Julian Danger Myers, my Siamese twin, who gets a lot of fond blame for how I turned out.  Huge thanks go to
 Robert, who tells me what sucks, and is always right.  And vast thanks go to Tony "Whiskey Dick" Beasley, for skinning roadkill for me, for catching Robert's contact lens when my high-five went hideously awry (glad Robert's poor gouged sclera healed after a week of cherry-eyeballed nastiness) - and for being the everlovin' best man around. 

 Now, regarding my name: it's "meh HITta bell." Or just plain "Bel" for short.  I generally go by Bel, even though that's a lot daintier-sounding than suits me.

Frequently Asked Questions
In no particular order:

• Is that your real name?    Yup.  Just to confuse you further, it is not the original name on my birth certificate, nor the name which replaced it three days later.  It is, however, the name my mom had picked out for me before I was born.  The name is an ancient Persian name, "Mehetabel" was the name of a Queen of Edom, and one of Lilith's daughters (wed to the demon Asmodeus) was referred to as "Mehetabel" or "Mehitabel."  I found this:
They found it stated in those Chapters that Samael, the great prince of them all, grew exceedingly jealous of Asmodeus the king of the demons because of this Lilith who is called Lilith the Maiden (the young). She is in the form of a beautiful woman from her head to her waist. But from the waist down she is burning fire--like mother like daughter. She is called Mehetabel daughter of Matred, and the meaning is something immersed (mabu tabal). The meaning here is that her intentions are never for the good. - Joseph Dan, ed. The Early Kabbalah, (New York: Pauilist Press, 1986),
There are a couple "Mehitobels" in our family tree, but most of them use an "a" instead of an "o."  Bel, for short, works just fine.  And my intentions are always for the good, and from the waist down I'm more bruises than fire, since I'm a clumsy, clumsy kitten.
 
• What's that shit on your arm?  Snow leopard spots, modeled on those found on the cat's foreleg.  They are tattooed in half-tone (gray) ink and were done with shading needles only.  People have thought they were drawn on, or bruises, or lipstick prints, or bite marks, or "that I was attacked by an octopus."  Apparently if you're a drunk Subway counterman, you can read Arabic curses in the spots if you look at them just right.

 
• What's up with the Leopard trip?  I'm berserk over spots and leopard fur.  When I got my arm inked over ten years ago, I honestly felt more complete, like I'd peeled off skin and found spots underneath.  I identify with snow leopards, too:
Snow leopards are solitary, nocturnal, and secretive cats. Because of their solitary and secretive nature, most snow leopards go unnoticed, and so are not bothered. There is very little known about their lifestyle. They are very agile and prefer the rocky cliffs, where they can better stalk and hide from their prey. There is nothing known about the snow leopard's breeding habits.  Snow leopards stalk their prey like other leopards, and strangle them like cheetahs, because they have relatively short rounded canines. In the event that humans encroach on a leopard's territory, it "retaliates" by changing its dietary habits to include the human's livestock or dogs.
I didn't know any of that when I chose snow leopard spots for my arm, but it's entirely fitting.  My clothes are generally leopard or golden jaguar, though.  There's a fine line between glamor and trash, and I don't care if I cross it as long as I'm drenched in fake fur.  Also, I'm a Leo, which probably contributes to the big cat obsession as well.
 
• How do you find the time to do so much?  First of all, I don't do nearly enough.  Second, I choose to work all the time, and have absolutely no social life.  I like it that way.  I'm a hermit.  I'm still not as focused as I need to be; there's a lot more I need to be doing.

 
• Why isn't there much fiction of yours online/on your site?  I write very, very few short stories.  If they end up decent enough that I'd be willing for you to read them, I might as well sell them.

 
• Why did you leave Minneapolis?   Because it was freakin' cold.

 
• What's your relationship status?   None of your business.

 
• Any tips for writers?  Wear a hat.  I can't write fiction without wearing a hat. Be professional, cut your editors slack, weigh suggestions and criticism seriously, be patient, be serious, and be honest.  If you're feverishly serious about writing, if you read Writer's Digest and all those other "tips" (inspirational, cheerleading) mags, you'll see professionalism screamed at you from all sides.  Take that seriously, but "be professional" doesn't mean "act like a corporate hardass."  If an editor screws up, relax, don't wig out and threaten a lawsuit while posting to all manner of newsgroups about how evil the editor is.  If you get a bitchy rejection letter, don't take it too personally .  Remember that people working in the industry have lives.  Give them a chance to redeem themselves before freaking out.  And with regards to the small press, remember that the editors usually are also trying to write, hold day jobs, handle advertisers, printers, distribution, contributors, postage, social lives, families, etc., without making any money.  If all else fails, blame it on the printer - everyone else does.

 
• Why don't you update your site more often?  This site is not a priority.  I want it to work, I want it to look nice and be interesting and useful and entertaining, but it's not anywhere near the top of my list of Things To Do.

 
• Why did you quit reviewing?   What's the most polite answer for this?  "Because I needed to devote more time to my own work," or "Because I found that reading horror fiction felt too much like a job," or "Because -- ah, fuck it.  You know why?  Because for every book decent enough to move me to review it, there were, literally, thirty that fucking sucked.  I was miserable.  I started to hate books.  There came a point when I was more looking forward to reading the Loretta Lynn autobiography I'd swiped from a friend's floor than I was to reading current horror books, and what the fuck does that say?"


That last one isn't polite.  Let's just say "I got tired" and leave it at that, then.
 

• What sort of shit do you like?  I'll just be honest here, and be sorry later.

 
• I like: steak.  Pool.  Leopard stuff.  Karloff as the Monster.  Dan Post boots.  Jack Daniels.  Pabst Blue Ribbon.  NASCAR: Kasey Kahne's gonna do it.  Nearly all seafood.  Buffalo meat.  Dragon rolls.  Bluegrass, punk, country, Hong Kong rap, funk. Tekken and Soul Calibur.  I love DRAGNET: THE MOVIE, JOE DIRT, and The Dick Van Dyke Show.  I'm addicted to Pilates, padparadsha sapphires, and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance.


My critters: two German Shepherd Dogs (Eike, the German/Czech sable, and Krueger, the American silver/black rescue), 2 parakeets, 2 cats (Hazel and Tony's cat), and Chinese & Japanese Goldfish - I have a couple thousand gallons' worth of aquariums & a pond, and all of them are devoted to fancy goldfish.  It might be telling that I'm not a member of any horror/writing group & don't hang out on any of the boards, but that I'm on dog & goldfish boards a lot. 

See, I enjoy critters and critter enthusiasts.  I do not enjoy the politics of horror, and all the dicking around people do.  I care too much about horror to be able to stand watching the gimps.
 

• Dream life: to live in a house (or doublewide) on land beside a pond (or river) with an Airstream parked by the waterside.  The Airstream'll be my office; it'll have a deck under which my dogs will seek the shade.  I'll drive a hella-yellow '73 AMC AMX Javelin with leopard upholstery.

 
• What sort of shit don't you like?

 
• Easy: just about everything else.

Wait, no it doesn't, here's a big one:

• Can you tell me anything, anything at all, about goth, goth music, goth goth goth?  No.  Over the past handful of years, publications that cater to goths started to publish horror fiction.  This most likely was a result of a vampire crossover, but now most goth magazines publish dark fantasy and/or horror fiction.  Goth audiences read it, so these magazines also print reviews of genre books.  Those of us that sell this type of fiction and review those sorts of books, therefore, sometimes market our work to these publications.


I can't believe I still get this shit.  Isn't goth dead YET?  For fuck's sake.

I don't listen to goth music.  I like country, funk, Elvis, Thin Lizzy, the Clash, taiko drumming, Cantonese rap, and, yes, still lots and lots of punk and metal.  Yes, I worked for Gothic.net 1999- 2001, but the place of one's employment does not dictate one's tastes.  I don't know how else to explain this.  I'm not part of any subculture, just an irascible slob.