Archive for January, 2018
DEADSTEAM is on the way and with my story “The Re-Possessed” in it (cf. January 16, 11). Scheduled for October 2018 and with a publisher, Grimmer & Grimmer Books, now announced, there is also a website for more information, including profiles on authors thus far. As well as a definition of “Dreadpunk” and tidbits on what to expect: DEADSTEAM is an anthology of dreadpunk, gaslamp, and dark steampunk. These are tales of the ghoulish and the gothic, chilling stories of haunted streets, of vampires and demons stalking the city from fog-drenched alleyways lit only by gas lamps.
17 chilling stories of the monsters lurking around every corner, the ghosts haunting the 
darkest streets of Victorian London, and the dead things crawling out of their graves to consume the flesh of the living.
Featuring stories by David Lee Summers (Owl Dance, The Brazen Shark), Jen Ponce (The Bazaar, Demon’s Cradle), Wendy Nikel (The Continuum), Karen J Carlisle (The Adventures of Viola Stewart), Jonah Buck (Carrion Safari), DJ Tyrer, Jay Seate, Lawrence Salani, James Dorr, Lori Tiron-Pandit, Rob Francis, Ross Smeltzer, CC Adams, Alice E Keyes, Steve Carr, E Seneca, and Bryce Raffle (The Complications of Avery Vane).
And maybe more stories and authors to come? To find out, check here.
For those going to StokerCon at the beginning of March this year, the program (or at least a preliminary version of it) has been published. Or more to the point for me, I’m listed on two panels. Thus, the first of these is on Friday afternoon: Dark Poets Face to Face Redux (Moderator: Marge Simon), 4:00 PM, A select panel of talented contemporary horror poets read and discuss each other’s works. The audience is encouraged to participate and will be given copies of the poems for comments as well. Panelists will be asked for three poems, 50 lines max per poem. I will share all the poems with everyone in advance and they pick another poet’s poem to read to the audience. They must pick 3 poems by different poets on the panel. After reading it, they will state why they chose it, and/or what sparked their feelings about it. Audience will have copies of all poems read. The round continues until time is up, so every poet will have at least one or two poems read aloud and discussed.
And then, for Saturday: Vampires: The Next Generation (Moderator: James Dorr), 4:00 PM, Sparkly vampires are dead! Long live ugly vampires! With the popularity of young adult vampires in books, such as the TWILIGHT series, and television shows, such as THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, finally waning, where do vampires go next? There are plenty of vampire romance novels. But there’s also a swing back to the vampire as a monster, as seen in THE STRAIN books and television series and Justin Cronin’s PASSAGE trilogy. What’s next for horror’s favorite undead bloodsucker?
As for this second, I don’t at this moment know who the other panelists will be, but insofar as, going back at least to the lamiae of ancient Rome, allure has traditionally been one of the vampire’s deadliest weapons it’s possible that not all vamps we’ll discuss will be physically ugly — albeit still dangerous. For instance, I’m kind of into mermaid vampiresses at the moment, including the film THE LURE (see below, April 25 2017, but also in poetry in the current STAR*LINE), as well as, to continue with films of the past few years, Ana Lily Amirpour’s survivalist (sort of) A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AFTER DARK (see January 11 2015) and the gorgeous, if nevertheless unsparkly, ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE (June 26 2014). Any ideas that you could add too?
And then, finally, for the “well, mostly” part of the headline, I will hopefully also be doing a short reading from TOMBS, but, since airline schedules have me arriving by nearly evening Thursday, and leaving around dawn Sunday morning, I had to pass up the first time slot offered. Hopefully though one will be found for me (as set up, I believe, these will be hour sessions with three readers each, giving us about fifteen minutes apiece, so it may possibly take their finding some other already scheduled reader who’ll be willing to trade for a Thursday or Sunday slot).
If you have a chance to see a movie called AS BOAS MANEIRAS, or in English GOOD MANNERS, do so. It’s a long film at about two hours and fifteen minutes and, as confessed by the docent introducing it at the Indiana University Cinema Thursday night, almost anything you can say about it would be a spoiler. So, at the risk of spoilers, here’s what the IU Cinema catalogue says: Mysterious and wealthy Ana hires Clara — a lonely nurse from the outskirts of São Paulo — as housekeeper and nanny to Ana’s soon-to-be born child. Against all odds, the two women develop a strong bond, but a fateful night changes their plans. Oliver Lyttelton from THE PLAYLIST perhaps best articulates the you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it AS BOAS MANEIRAS as “the year’s best Brazilian lesbian werewolf musical melodrama.”
Lesbian werewolves, what more could one ask for? Except that’s not really what the film is about. Also, toward the end, there’s what one recognizes as the classic torch-bearing peasants storming the castle – in this case a São Paulo slum apartment – scene, except that’s not really what it’s about either. In a way,
in fact, it’s really two films and, yes, what girl-on-girl action there is falls in the first part. Except maybe one of them’s really sleep-loving. But then the second part is very different. And if there’s a theme it may be about innocence — that of children and mother’s love — and trying to do the next right thing when dealt a weirdly bad hand by life.
Except that there is a werewolf too, and maybe someone should have known better. But what’s one to do, especially if one’s from the lower classes and almost anything one might try isn’t likely to end well? And how much truth should one tell a child? And, even with werewolves, could something like all this really happen — I mean, there are secrets, but maybe some have just too many loose ends? So, probably not, but the final scene is both sad and heroic — and brought applause when the audience realized the film had ended.
To my best knowledge, the film’s not available on DVD, at least not yet, but if you should have a chance to see AS BOAS MANEIRAS, I think there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy it.
2018 may be an unusual year. One might recall the CAMPFIRE TALES windfall only a few days ago (see January 19, below), of more than ten dollars — this for a single anthology story. A second royalty has just arrived in Wednesday’s mail from Elder Signs Press for more than six times that amount! And while one may also recall last July 23 and a check that would cover a decent romantic dinner (although without drinks) for two, for two separate stories in two separate books aided perhaps by the fact they’d both received a brief showing on actual bookstore shelves, today’s 
check is for considerably more than that amount too. And here’s the thing: This one does not include the anthology stories (which happened to have no payout this period due to returns) but, also published by Elder Signs Press, covers only the first sales for TOMBS: A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH. I’ll also add that if you might be interested in buying TOMBS, you can click its picture in the center column; or if you’d just like to read some reviews for 
now, press here.
Then, speaking of TOMBS, voting also started Wednesday to pick the official 2017 Horror Writers Association Stoker(R) nominees. Five can be voted for in each division with, I believe, eleven titles in all in “Fiction Collections” with TOMBS. And one more item going back to the notice above, with Amazon and Barnes & Noble both still offering substantial print copy discounts which may be a factor, print sales for TOMBS in the previous six months appear to have outstripped electronic copies by more than ten to one!
caissettes were game, urban legend-based though they may be (see March 6 2016, April 28 2015, et al.), and so late on Monday the word came back: Thank you for submitting to ARIEL CHART. We enjoyed reading your story, “Casket Girls,” and would like to reprint the piece in the upcoming February issue. It is a well-written piece of prose that keeps the reader engaged throughout. And of course, who doesn’t like a good vampire story? Who doesn’t, indeed!Some days just aren’t one’s day. Voting members of the Horror Writers Association will have just received, as of about the last hour, a “Special Internet Preliminary Ballot Mailer with Links” listing all books and authors in the various Stoker categories, with direct links or instructions for obtaining reading copies of the works. As readers may know, one of these in the Fiction Collection category is my mosaic novel TOMBS: A CHRONI
CLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH (cf. January 18, below — why a Fiction Collection and not a novel? That’s how the categories work). But, oops, one little problem on the links part of this. When I looked up TOMBS, the link under it is for a different book altogether, Michael Hanson’s poetry collection WHEN THE NIGHT OWL SCREAMS.
So it goes. I’m assured, however, that an updated list, to be sent Tuesday night after the actual ballots have been sent out, will have the correct information — so any HWA members reading this blog need not despair yet. Or, better, to run around the system, if you’re a HWA voting member and wish to obtain a PDF copy of TOMBS to read, drop me a note to that effect with an email address to send it to under “comments” here.
So still not huge, but enough to purchase a modest dinner with maybe a glass of sweet tea on the side. Thus, this the announcement from Editor “Mr. Deadman”: It’s pay day. The royalties for CAMPFIRE TALES BOOK ONE comes to $96.00. Split between the authors would mean $11. CAMPFIRE TALES BOOK ONE gets hits every so often, and I’m actively promoting it via social 
network and writing groups. . . . Thank you all for considering Deadman’s Tome for CAMPFIRE TALES. It was a different sort of animal, and the way CAMPFIRE TALES came to be was unusual. I wish to work with you all in the future.
My story in this is “In The Octopus’s Garden” (see July 15, et al.), originally published in 69 FLAVORS OF PARANOIA, March-April 1999, and later lead story in my collection TEARS OF ISIS (for more on which, press its picture in the center column). Also, for more on CAMPFIRE TALES BOOK ONE (yes, there’s a second book too, but that’s not the one that has my story), press here.
Then in other news, I’ve received the contract for “Got The Wash Day Blues” (see December 28), the tale of a laundry cop and a giant pile of animate dirty clothes, which has been signed and sent back late Thursday afternoon to Third Flatiron Publishing. It will appear in their Spring anthology MONSTROSITIES to be published in March, more on which as it becomes available.
It’s not an official nominee, that’s the first thing to say, but TOMBS: A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH has made the preliminary ballot from which the nominees will be selected. Also, while TOMBS is a novel-in-stories, the ballot it’s on is for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection, because that’s the way the Horror Writers Association’s Stoker Award(R) rules work. So big deal — if you’re an Active or a Lifetime Member of HWA, which means you can vote, please vote for it! And it is a big deal, t
his being the premiere annual award for Horror, equivalent to the Nebula for science fiction or mystery’s Edgar — the Oscar, if one will, for fearsome print. And while you’re at it, please buy a copy, spread the word, feature TOMBS on your blog (if you have a blog), and, if you think the book is at all worth while, please write a review for Amazon,Goodreads, B&N, et al.
Every bit helps in this, the cutthroat world of publishing, where books routinely disappear without leaving a ripple. So even making it onto a preliminary ballot is super worth while!
So, here’s part of the official HWA announcement, while I will sit here being quietly proud:
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Preliminary Ballots for the 2017 Bram Stoker Awards®. The HWA (see http://www.horror.org ) is the premier writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with over 1,300 members. We have presented the Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987 (see http://horror.org/bram-stoker-awards/#about ).
Works on this ballot are not referred to as “nominees” or “finalists”. Only works appearing on the Final Ballot may be referred to as “nominated works” and their authors as “finalists”.
The HWA Board and the Bram Stoker Awards® Committee congratulate all those appearing on the Preliminary Ballot. Notes about the voting process will appear after the ballot listing.
And now you’ve heard it too.
Just a very, very short entry. Yesterday saw the arrival of a preliminary proof copy of DEADSTEAM, the steampunkish Victorian anthology of tales centered around the dead, which recently accepted my story “The Re-Possessed (see January 11). Letting no grass grow under his feet, Editor Bryce Raffle requested corrections, if any, to edits, comments on questions (including in some cases minor rewriting), plus bios and photos, etc. And so the beat goes on: I, seeing only a few very minor changes plus really only one comment to address, was able to get the package together and off it went back this afternoon. Publication to my best knowledge is still scheduled for fall (thus authors who might have been asked for rewrites should have time to complete them) with, among other things, a proposed series of author interviews to be conducted as part of a pre-release publicity campaign — and which I was delighted to agree to! More to be here as it becomes known.
jamesdorrwriter 