Meet Christophe Maso, BSFW Host and Organizer: Manhattan

What's your day job?
Full-stack web application engineer...when I'm actually doing the job thing. Which isn't now. 
 
Tell us about the event or Meetup you host or are planning to host.
 I host a monthly novel group meetup in Harlem, as an option for members living/working in Manhattan.
 
 
How did you get involved with BSFW and which events do you attend? 

 I found BSFW while searching on Meetup.com, and first came to Brad's novel group (or at least, it was at his place). I've attended Cam and Marcus's novel groups, and try to attend Readercon with BSFW every year.
 

What have you found most helpful about this writing group? 

Aside from thoughtful critique, I've found the group very helpful in becoming a better reviewer, finding markets, suggested authors and reading (esp. beyond my beloved dark/supernatural fiction genre), and overall inspiration.
 

What stories have most influenced your writing style? 

 No specific stories, as I typically find an author I like and try to find and devour everything they've ever written. I hear the influences of many writers in my own style - Stephen King, Clive Barker, Caitlin Kiernan, Poppy Z. Brite, Christa Faust, Laird Barron, Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman, Anne Rice, Ray Bradbury, Stephen Crane, Jack London.
 

How do you find time to write? 

Writing for me is half fun, half addiction, and a dash of brazen surety that what I'm writing is worth reading for someone, so it's not that difficult to find time. Everyone has the same 24 hours to spend as they choose. I often binge write, but I'm working on carving out a specific time every day, and generally following the 11 commandments of Henry Miller.
 

What are you working on now? 

 Now working on a short that may expand into a novella, "There You Shall Long to Return", about a would-be suicide drawn to skydiving, who encounters things not-of-this-world at 13K feet.
 
 
If you could submit a story to your dream anthology what would it be about and who else would be in it?
 
In the anthology would be Stephen King, Clive Barker, Caitlin Kiernan, Neil Gaiman, Poppy Z. Brite (now Billy Martin), Laird Barron, and John Langan. And, of course, Teri. :) And while we're indulging in fantasy, the anthology would be Cemetery Dance.
 
Publications? 

Nothing pro yet, but serial "Lynxharrow: Path of the Witch" (https://www.wattpad.com/story/44919053-lynxharrow-path-of-the-witch) on Wattpad. Also currently submitting my novella "Scream of the Butterfly" to horror markets. 

"The Sobibor Retrievers" - an old story of mine about Sobibor (an extermination camp in Poland during the Nazi regime, and the only such camp where prisoners ever successfully revolted), and a dark immortal being who comes there in the guise of a young SS officer. The being is drawn by the abnormal abilities of a group of women prisoners, and tries to force them to to recover an object from an unearthly realm called the "Ephemerum".