Posts Tagged ‘Speculative Fiction’
There being no intervening news (curse you, COVID-19?), this is an addition to the post just below, “Great Void Interview Info Sent Tuesday Night,” for July 22. The interview answers went in, and today Editor Aditya Deshmukh’s reply arrived. We will publish the interview on 2nd October. I’ll send you the link one week before, and if you have any changes, I’ll make them within a day or two. Let me know if the date works, or if you have any questions.
The second of October will be a Friday which should be okay — time to savor it all weekend long before a new interview distracts the following Monday. Or, anyway, maybe. In any event, let’s mark calendars now, then watch these pages for a reminder at the end of September.
Ah, interviews. As part of its publicity for UNREAL (cf. July 9, 8, at al.) The Great Void Books will be presenting a series of author interviews starting about August 10. And these look to be fairly extensive matters, with (if the publishers get their wish) detailed comments on individual writing practices (the process, that is, of making an idea become a story), tips for new writers (again in some depth), and the geneses of the anthology’s individual storie
s (in my case “The Garden,” on advanced biochemical science in a gothic setting). Added to these are the more usual general interest questions on, e.g., inspiration, goals, free time interests and hobbies, diet, even thoughts on “the current picture of the world,” some nineteen or twenty topics in all, though we could skip two or three if we felt so moved. So, anyway, after about a week and a half, checking, rewriting, at last I was done, and in the questionnaire went last night, along with some pictures, back to The Great Void.
More information (like when and where will we be able to see it?) to come.
Quoth the blurb: UNREAL celebrates the sheer awesomeness of Speculative Fiction! Each of the twenty stories is set in its own independent world. So this single book is your ticket to twenty diverse lands where mind-bending things happen! The book is the start-up anthology UNREAL (see March 28, 22, et al.) from The Great Void Books 
and, albeit with some delay, is finally out on Amazon in both kindle and print forms. To continue the publisher’s description: Speculative Fiction is a vast genre, but we have got delicacies from almost every subgenre. There’s AI, magic, monkey gods, time travel, vampires, scary organisms, strange hidden-dimension particles, pirates, oppressive governments, ancient temples, weird futuristic tech . . . and of course aliens!
These short stories (by the way, none of these are very short) are some really serious works of art. And since this is an anthology, you’ll get to meet a bunch of some really terrific authors. Also, lest one forget, included is my novelette “The Garden,” originally published in 2009 as an edited chapbook by Damnation Books, a tale of cutting-edge biochemistry in, for the first time here, its “author’s cut” form.
Appetites whetted? For more information, ordering press here.
This one’s a short note, a bit of an early taste of UNREAL (cf. March 22, 19, et al.), the The Great Void Books anthology that includes my novelette “The Garden.” Quoth the blurb: In these 20 short stories and novelettes, there’s magic, time travel, a gravity defying machine, resurrection, selkies, pirates, a talking monkey-god, aliens, vampires, unknown particle physics, AI and so much more! Each story also comes with a brilliant illustration. The special price is valid for only a limited time. So get your copy now!
Intrigued? Press here.
It’s been awhile. The issue was actually published on New Year’s Day (cf. Jan 24, 2; Oct 7 2019, et al.), and today the copy arrived in my mailbox, a longish time later though not a record. The publication is HOUSE OF ZOLO’S JOURNAL OF SPECULATIVE FICTION, VOLUME 1, with an original call: HOZ are looking for literature that explores possibilities for the future. We want challenging short stories that are character driven, 
that reimagine the world and our place in it. We are looking for radical authors, feminist authors, LGBTQ2S authors, authors who experiment. Themes that thrill us: transhumanism, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, new systems, resistance, activism, queer perspectives, feminist perspectives, nature. My own story in this, “Golden Age,” a tale of extension of life through bio-mechanical transplants was originally published in MINDSPARKS in Spring 1994 (also reprinted in ZIPPERED FLESH 3, see February 3 2017, et al.), and is one of thirty-two items, both prose and poetry, in a hefty three hundred plus page book — a fair bit of reading to help fill the hours while confined to one’s home. Or to see more for yourself, press here.
The process continues, with UNREAL (see March 19, just below) and my story “The Garden” available now for pre-order on Kindle, for which one can press here. Also the contents have been revealed, or as Amazon has it:
UNREAL is the inaugural anthology of The Great Void Books celebrating the sheer awesomeness of speculative fiction.
The twenty stories featured in this anthology have been selected after careful consideration. Each story is set in its own independent world. So this single book is your ticket to twenty diverse lands where mind-bending things happen.
Speculative Fiction is a vast genre, but we have got delicacies from almost every subgenre. We have got AI, magic, talking monkeys, time travel, oppressive governments, ancient temples, weird futuristic tech . . . even aliens!* These short stories (btw none of them are very short) are some really serious works of art. And since this is an anthology, you’ll get to meet a bunch of some really terrific authors. . . .
The stories featured:
A Door For Miriam by Jeff Sullins
The Hidden Entity by John Campbell
Monaro Goes On A Walkabout by Steve Carr
The Runners by Lorenzo Crescentini
Blood Of The Swan by Vonnie Winslow Crist
The Wizards Of Snails And Woodlice by David Donachie
The Garden by James Dorr
Camp Napanoo by Angelique Fawns
Checkpoint by Elana Gomel
Undo by John Haas
The Monkey’s Tale by Carlton Herzog
Dark Wings by Tom Jolly
The Alien Emissary by Shawn Klimek
Dottie by W. T. Paterson
Full Integration by Sophie Jupillat Posey
Beyond The Spires by Frank Sawielijew
Abrama’s End Game by David Shultz
Sunbringer by Abiran Raveenthiran
The Gale At Quiet Cove by Austen Worley
Food For The Moon by Todd Zack
And finally a new request came today for a biographical statement and picture, items not expected to be needed quite so soon. Or as Editor Aditya Deshmukh emailed: Please send me your bio and author photo ASAP (like today, if possible). Sorry for such a short deadline. I was thinking of putting together a Who’s Who booklet of accepted authors, but found a better way to do this within the anthology.
So, not to worry, these things were on hand and off they went this afternoon, with more to come here as it becomes known.
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*Also, not to forget, cutting edge invertebrate biochemistry.
A short note on the Writing Life, and a “cave computer” coda. The first is a new update on The Great Void Books UNREAL anthology, featuring my biochemical horror novelette “The Garden” (cf. March 7, et al.). To quote Editor/Publisher Aditya Deshmukh, I’m currently formatting the first edition. Will send it in a day or two. Amazon listing has also been made. It’s currentl
y under review and should go online in next 72 hours. (I will email again when it’s up.) So new news should come around the weekend and, internet connections (and the struggling cave computer) holding up, will be reported here.
Then a second note, while I now have to cut and paste blog reports onto Facebook myself, they still presumably go automatically to my LinkedIn page. I say “presumably” because, through the mysteries of technology and “older” computers, I’m unable to get onto LinkedIn myself and most likely won’t until the public library, with its current century computing equipment, reopens. So those who may be reading this on LinkedIn, and others, an apology. I’ve received several requests lately to join my network, but I’m unable to act on them, so if you’ve been trying to do so and I haven’t responded that’s why. But once post-coronavirus conditions have hopefully normalized somewhat, please just send LinkedIn a new request then.
The best laid plans, and all that. Right? We know by now that stuff happens, books are projected for certain release dates, but. . . . So the email came from Aditya Deshmukh of The Great Void Books Saturday, about their upcoming anthology UNREAL (see February 6, December 17). Publication had been expected in a week, on March 14, but . . . therefore we are postponing the schedule . . . and ask for your understanding.
So that’s the bad news, but the good news is this. It’s for only two weeks, with pre-ordering still coming on the 14th and the book itself to be out March 28. And looking to the near future beyond that, I’ll also be running a series of interviews to feature our authors. I’ll send you the interview questions soon.
So my part in this is a 10,000-word novelette, “The Garden,” first published in an edited version in chapbook form by Damnation Books in 2009, more about which — plus interview info — as it becomes known.
So sometimes several things come all at once, such is the magical life of the writer. And so today, Thursday, there are three new items under the aegis of “The Writing Life.” (1) For starters, an authors proof copy arrived from publisher Things in the Well for BURNING LOVE AND BLEEDING HEARTS (cf. February 5, January 20, 15) in which my story “A Saint Valentine’s Day Tale” appears in number three slot in the table of contents. So says the publisher: We’ve wound the stories and poems — all 60 of them — into a bit of a narrative. You’ll find no two are alike, in any way. It’s so wonderful to have such a diverse representation of dark or dangerous love. We are delighted with how it has all come 
together, and hope you are too. (2) Then second, for Black Hare Press’s SEVEN DEADLY SINS: LUST anthology, I received an edited copy of my story, “A Cup Full of Tears” (see December 8), to be checked over. (3) And then, last, a contract came from The Great Void for using my novelette, “The Garden,” in their upcoming UNREAL anthology. So. . . .
A flurry of reading, okaying the proof for an already announced February 14th Kindle edition, with paperback following in its time, for vampiress Claudette and “A Saint Valentine’s Day Tale”; more reading to check out Black Hare Press’s edits and find them okay for “A Cup Full of Tears”; and a gimlet-eyed poring over the contract for UNREAL and “The Garden,” with a hoped for publication date of March 14 — all of which I have okayed, approved, and signed and sent back to their respective recipients. Or, in a word, just another day in the Writing Life lived.
The announcement came Thursday night, that the HOUSE OF ZOLO’S JOURNAL OF SPECULATIVE LITERATURE, VOLUME 1 (see January 2, et al.) has now been released in all formats, print and Kindle on Amazon and e-book format on its own site, as well as being listed on Goodrea
ds. Delving into themes of post-humanity, future-shock, and the consequences of climate change, these short stories and poems fearlessly explore what it means to be human. Alternately dark and hopeful, heartbreaking and humorous, this volume contains stories and poems to spark the imagination and inspire new perspectives on the future.
My page in the poke is a reprint originally published in Spring 1994 in MINDSPARKS (also more recently in ZIPPERED FLESH 3 from Smart Rhino Publications, cf. February 3 2017, er al.), “Golden Age,” about what it means to grow old in a society in which death may be becoming practically unknown. For more information or purchase, links to Amazon and to the House of Zolo can be found in the January 2 post below, while for the new Goodreads page and its links one can press here.
jamesdorrwriter 