Archive for May, 2023
Messing with minds — mine, or yours? We go weeks without any new news of note, then, Bang!, two acceptances on the same day. Ah, the writing life.
So, no time to waste, both with contracts attached, signed and sent back this p.m. The first from British publisher Hawk & Cleaver for THE OTHER STORIES PODCAST plus possible year’s end anthology in print and/or electronic. The email (from Editor “Kez”) was thus: We loved this story. Fun and bonkers and gory!/ We’d love to run it on the main feed./ I’ve attached your paperwork. Could you also confirm your Paypal email address?
The story a reprint, “I’m Dreaming Of A. . . .,” originally published by Untreed Reads in December 2011, and met again on these pages just last month re. the Hurricane Ian relief anthology MONSTROM (see April 22, et al.). The tale, perhaps to come out around Christmas?, is as implied in the wording of its acceptance about mad, bad weather. As well as gory.
Then for the second, another reprint originally appearing in BlackWyrm Publishing’s 2015 cinema/horror anthology REEL DARK, “Marcie and Her Sisters” (cf. April 28 2016, November 15, May 19 2015, et al.). The call for the Writers’ Co-op’s annual THE RABBIT HOLE anthology, this year’s (Volume 6) theme “Destination: Journey,” explained, [i]n a simple sense, the journey itself being the destination can be taken literally or as a metaphor for life. On the other hand, as a non-sequitur it can mean almost anything — think Kafka, Bierce, Serling, or Lovecraft — and we’re really looking forward to your interpretation, because falling into the Rabbit Hole is always a strange and different experience. What we’re looking for are odd, unusual stories where the journey can be the destination, or the destination the journey, anything at all — happy, sad, good, bad, or even indifferent. Stories can emphasize whatever floats, or sinks, your boat. Just remember to keep it weird as befitting a trip down the Rabbit Hole.
That seems simple enough! (THE RABBIT HOLE also, I might add, like MONSTROM with a tie-in to charity, this one with option for royalties to go to the Against Malaria Foundation.)
And as for mind-melting, “Marcie and Her Sisters” decide one day they might marry zombies — or do they? In any event, the journey (ah, now!) is not one wholly filled with flowers and butterflies. Oh, no! Nor is the narrator entirely reliable. . . .
The bottom line, from Editor Tom Wolosz: Congratulations. The editorial committee has reviewed your story, “Marcie,” and would be very happy to include it in our upcoming anthology, THE RABBIT HOLE VI. I must say, we all enjoyed it very much.
14 chilling tales of terror featuring haunted houses, tormented souls, and the creeping unknown! Featuring the macabre art of Allen Koszowski; a photo-illustrated article revisiting Night of the Eagle, aka Burn, Witch, Burn; two classic ghost stories and much more!
Such is the modest blurb today on Amazon. And the publication? Issue number 3 of Dead Letter Press’s semi-annual weird fiction anthology, NIGHTMARE ABBEY, as of Memorial Day, May 29 — and with it my story, originally published in Spring-Summer 1999 in THE STRAND MAGAZINE, “The Great Man” (cf. April 25, March 13, et al.).
The story, then, a saga of post-Revolutionary France, and a story-within-a-story told by a veteran of Napoleon’s army in the years that followed. A story of science, and adventure — and executions. And a behind-the-scenes manipulator named only as, in that he could still be living, “The Great Man.”
So I’m looking forward to my author’s copy, and not just for my story alone — the earlier issues of NIGHTMARE ABBEY thus far have been keepers! More here as it becomes known.
So, okay, it’s really Friday the 12th. But then the first story I’d sent, a comedy about a large load of festering laundry that came to life, was rejected — a near miss, too.
The call, toward the end of last month, had been this: The theme of BLACK INFINITY 10 will be CREATURE FEATURES. Think 1950s or ‘60s SF movies. I need stories with monsters, beasts, insects, man-eating plants, etc. — some type of “creature.” Do you have something to fit this fairly broad theme, 2000 to 12,000 words? You’ve yet to let me down, so please send something.
So what the heck, I sent them a lighter, perhaps more absurd piece, “Got Them Wash Day Blues,” initially appearing in Third Flatiron Publishing’s MONSTROSITIES anthology, but was reminded as it were that BLACK INFINITY (cf. October 6, 8, et al.) doesn’t really do “light.” So it goes. But now with a request for a replacement submission, decided to take a chance with a 7300-word dragon story — sort of a separate sub-genre in itself, to my mind, but technically, really, a Creature Feature too, a giant-size monster in a (in this case) contemporary setting in early 21st century Wales. The story: “The Bala Worm,” originally published in BLACK DRAGON, WHITE DRAGON (Ricasso Press, 2008) as well as appearing in my third collection, THE TEARS OF ISIS, sent out earlier this afternoon.
And so, the reply just a few hours later, Thanks for sending “The Bala Worm.” I was hoping to get a dragon story for this issue, and yours fits the bill nicely. I can pay . . . for this one. Let me know if acceptable and I’ll send a contract soonish.
More to come as it’s known.
A stormy morning and gloomy, if pleasantly warm afternoon may have kept the crowds down for this month’s “Bloomington Writers Guild’s First Sunday Prose” (cf. April 2, March 5, et al.) in the back conference area at Morgenstern Books. But, even if mostly confined to nine or ten listeners in all, the quality of the work read was high.
First up was a Bloomington fixture of sorts, retired Unitarian Universalist minister and peace (and other causes) activist Bill Breeden with two essays from his ongoing memoir, BILLY PILGRIM AND THE BLACK FEMALE JESUS, on a visit by Batman to Owen County and, at age 13, learning the true meaning of pacifism. He was followed by fiction, memoir, and history author Wendy Teller, currently working on the third of a novel trilogy set in Hungary, reading her earlier Richard Eastman Prose Award winning short story, “Dusting the Towels,” along with an excerpt (also touching in part on pacifism) from her coming-of-age novel BECOMING MIA.
Following a short break, a majority of the rest of us — five in all — filled the “open mic” session, of which I was fourth, reading the final of my own short story trilogy, “Mermaid Vampiress Unlucky In Love,” followed by essayist/MC Joan Hawkins to close the session for spring. Then, after a three-month summer hiatus, the next “First Sunday Prose” will be in August.
The Bloomington Writers Guild’s First Wednesday Spoken Word usurped for a “RYDER MAGAZINE Poetry Issue Showcase” (cf. April 18, February 28)? Well, not really insofar as reading poetry comes legitimately under the “spoken word.” And it could be all poetry for other reasons too, e.g. that on a particular Wednesday poetry was all they got.
But this is special. And if celebrations end up translating to more readers for the magazine (hint: To see an electronic edition press here, but paper copies are free as well at various kiosks locally), why not? The more the better. And for the poets, also, it’s one more opportunity to introduce one’s work to the public.
And so, okay, I’ve got work in THE RYDER too — three poems in total: “Existential Vamp” (the philosophic), “Let’s All Go to the Movies” (nostalgic), and “Last, Shoemaker Stick To” (surreal). So I, too, was in line in what functionally was a giant-size “open mic,” only lacking a formal, invited readers session first. Or maybe, rather, the “price” being no more than having poems there, we were all invited.
Or maybe who cares? A lot of us read to, at a tad over thirty attendees at peak, a reasonably hefty crowd at downtown Bloomington’s Backspace Gallery and that may be celebration enough!
jamesdorrwriter 