Archive for November, 2023
This is the pitch I sent Alien Buddha Press just one Sunday ago (cf. November 21): At a bit less than 40,000 words, AVOID SEEING A MOUSE, AND OTHER TALES OF THE REAL AND SURREAL offers twelve stories set in times that range from the mid-part of the previous century to a heat- and pollution-baked far-future Earth, but all in worlds a bit askew from what we might be used to. These range from a city-wide celebration-to-come where only the dead may be asked to attend, to the title tale of a 1999 pre-New Year’s Eve Memphis, Tennessee, where contemporary fears that the changing of dates to the 21st century could bring about worldwide computer failures combine with an ancient Egyptian curse to engender a horrific alternate history. Also included: an anti-Communist who collects bottles, an eater of corpses learns sophistication, news coverage of the 1980s Voyager space probes’ approach to Saturn with strange implications, a high school science fair gone berserk, and six more visions* – two to be published here for the first time – of the (hopefully) unexpected, but all mind-bending. I hope you enjoy the attached manuscript and decide it’s one you would like to publish and, either way, will look forward to your decision and any comments you might wish to offer.
And notice — sneaky me — the note the asterisk points to. *One of which you’ve recently seen already, “Crow and Rat,” appearing as well in THE ALIEN BUDDHA LOVES YOU.
That is, one story they’d seen before and accepted. Sneaky me as I say. And it worked (or in fairness the pitch itself worked, wordy though it may be) as we saw two days later! And so things have continued to go very fast with the text itself subsequently accepted, a contract signed and sent back, and — still just the day after — what amounted to a proof copy received: Attached is the first revision as both a PDF and a word document, and also a cover.
Feel free to go into the word document and make a revision of your own. I only ask that you leave the press pages, paper size, and margins all as is.
So the cover, with back copy and its own blurb, appears above. But now due to the local library being closed over Thanksgiving, we had one delay. The veteran cave computer here balked at leaving “paper size, and margins all as is.” Until Saturday, yesterday, at still just a week — and with the library reopened — I was able to copy twenty some tiny, but pesky corrections via an up-to-date operating system into a correctly sized word document, convert that to PDF, and zip it back to the Alien Buddha.
And that is that. The cover is here and — though outside scheduling with its own delays, plus a reluctance to publish a book only days before Christmas (distractions, anyone?) come into play too — AVOID SEEING A MOUSE is all but completed, with a tentative release date set for early January, 2024.
for good friends, full stomachs, and warm, soft places for taking naps
Things move very fast sometimes. This one started actually in early October with a call by a different publisher for queries for a short fiction collection, from 40 to 60,000 thousand words (for a point of comparison, 60,000 words is the absolute lowest I was allowed for THE TEARS OF ISIS, some ten years ago, and books if anything are trending longer). But — speak of the devil — I’d just pitched TEARS to yet another publisher a few months before, to try to get it back into print, and the thought now of attempting a new, shortish book as a kind of backup if TEARS was turned down was at the least tempting. Or even more so if TEARS wasn’t turned down. So I put together a 43,000 word potpourri of “weird,” answering one theme of several this new call cited, and sent it on in.
Within about a week it was turned down.
But on almost that same day, connected obliquely to Alien Buddha Press’s having taken my story “Crow and Rat” for ALIEN BUDDHA LOVES YOU (see October 24, August 8), I had run across a notice: Alien Buddha Press is now accepting submissions across all genres, for poetry chapbooks, novellas, short story collections, nonfiction books, and more. With a note that “short” manuscripts were preferred. So I tinkered a bit with the MS I had back, removing one story I thought didn’t quite fit and swapping another for a slightly shorter piece I thought worked better (this with a sort of Lovecraftian tinge which for the earlier call would have been a “no-no”), bringing it down to 38,000 words, and under the title of its final story (originally published in ZOMBIE JESUS AND OTHER TRUE STORIES, cf. June 14 2012; also August 11 2018, et al.) combined with a brief overall description, AVOID SEEING A MOUSE, AND OTHER TALES OF THE REAL AND SURREAL, and noting as well that “Crow and Rat” was one of its stories — that is, that I already had a sort of foot in the door, since I knew they liked that one — I sent it in Sunday.
Yes, November 19! And yesterday, Monday, I received an answer from Editor/Publisher Red Focks: I am enjoying your collection, and would be happy to work with you. . . . Attached is our standard publishing contract. If the terms are agreeable for you, give it your digital signature, then send it back, and we can get the ball rolling.
Then, wrestling with Adobe to figure out how the “signing” thing worked, sent that in later yesterday afternoon with, shortly afterwards, this reply: Attached is the first revision as both a PDF and a word document, and also a cover.
Feel free to go into the word document and make a revision of your own. I only ask that you leave the press pages, paper size, and margins all as is.
Let me know what you think of the cover art and review on the back.
So, for the last I sent back an enthusiastic “yes!” and will share the cover here in time. Whereas for the PDF and .docx I promised to get back before the week’s end.
And that’s where we are now.
Thus, from the book’s introduction: As we worked on the book, sexual harassment, rape, and the brutalization of women continued to serially dominate the news cycle. Even though Trump himself remained immune to prosecution, other powerful men-many in the media industry-were fired or resigned in the face of the newly emergent #MeToo Movement’s revelations. Every time we sponsored public readings of contributions to this volume, audience members would approach us to say that they, too, had a story, and ask if we were we still accepting submissions. And listed by Amazon with a publication date of August 31 2013 (but still cited as “Currently unavailable. We don’t know when or if this item will be back in stock”), the book is TRIGGER WARNINGS, Edited by Bloomington Writers Guild notables Joan Hawkins and Kalynn Huffman Brower (cf. October 28, below) who also have articles in the volume, it has finally appeared in physical form — at least here in Bloomington.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: WRITINGS ON NARROW ESCAPES FROM SEXUAL ASSAULT, to give its extended title, is a nearly entirely local production. Quoting again from the introduction: All but one of the pieces in this anthology were authored by writers who belong to The Writers Guild at Bloomington, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting written and spoken word in Bloomington, Indiana and its environs. The one exception, a sort of preface, is reprinted by request from a piece by London-based artist and filmmaker Ruth Novaczek. And so, at least at the Writers Guild’s business meeting today, several of us with work in the book received authors copies. Yes — it exists! A fairly slim volume at only about 110 pages, it should receive one or more official launches at local venues in the near future, so those who have not already received copies should keep eyes open for it.
While as for Amazon’s “supply chain” problems, these things sometimes happen, but in the meantime the book can be found on Goodreads by pressing here, where a quick check a moment ago indicated both Barnes & Noble and AbeBooks do have it.
The subject was STORMWASH: ENVIRONMENTAL POEMS, a project sponsored by the Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington, and the Writers Guild @ Bloomington. And this was the call, via Facebook from Writers Guild member Hiromi Yoshida: As global warming continues to trigger severe climatic patterns, consider how we can manage the harm that results from the continuous release of carbon emissions, and enable the survival of future generations. Nature today is neither simply pretty nor merely furious. Instead, it is something that requires judicious management and legislation, while it begs for consecration through the arts.
Email up to 5 poems, no more than 40-50 lines each, in a single Word document . . . by 23 December 2023. Selected poems from the anthology will be choreographed by Joanne Shank, and performed by Windfall Dancers, Inc. at the Flex Space, Arts Alliance Center in April 2024, National Poetry Month.
It was by then an extended deadline. And noting a sort of solarpunk ambience — that is to say, aimed toward a hopeful sustainable future — I mentioned that I might be interested myself, though rarely writing new poetry these days, except that in general I don’t do “hopeful.” This was to Hiromi who noted that reprints might be okay, and maybe something on past disasters could be worth considering. So, thinking, I mentioned I might have done something in 2005 on New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
So, cutting to chases, I searched over the next few weeks for earlier work, and found it along with three other poems (I especially liked the one about roses turning carnivorous, “American Beauty,” originally published in STAR*LINE in March-April 2010, but that might have been a bit more drastic an environmental change than STORMWASH was looking for — in fact, as we’re about to see, the New Orleanian one is really the only that probably was truly suitable) which I sent along with it. And then, yesterday evening, came the result: Thank you so much for your interest in submitting to STORMWASH: ENVIRONMENTAL POEMS. I am pleased to notify you that I would like to publish “The Drowned City.”*
.
(*Originally published in THE MAGAZINE OF SPECULATIVE POETRY, Spring 2006)
Another one of these quicker than quick publications, THE MONSTER WITHIN: TALES OF A TORTURED MIND (see November 1, October 27) arrived today, granted with extra fast shipping. Or at least so said Amazon. Also, says Amazon, the release date for both electronic and print editions is Halloween, October 31 (see again, that last post here, the okaying of the proof November 1 — how’s that for stretching it!).
But let’s not quibble. A little fudging, sure, but the thing is it’s physically here, my story a reprint originally published in FEDORA III (Wildside Press, 2004), “The Right Man,” in number five spot in a contents list of nineteen stories, the majority relatively short (the entire anthology comes in at just under 200 pages). Or to quote the blurb:
WARNING! Do not read this alone at night.
The stories contained in this anthology bothered test readers deep in places no one wants to go. It revealed the darkest of desires, the depths of depravity that no one wants to talk about but that do exist in the very real world. Which is exactly what we put a call out for.
Keep something warm and fuzzy handy. But, also, if you are disturbed, triggered or upset in any way, please reach out, talk to someone. Some of these stories can bring up some painful emotions.
Be that as it may, to see for yourself and perhaps to order, it can be found here.
It’s sort an in again, out again kind of thing, I suppose. My post for THE RABBIT HOLE, VOL VI (cf. October 25, et al.) — or THE RABBIT HOLE WEIRD STORIES DESTINATION: JOURNEY, as it’s being called now — had touted a late October publication date. But then things got scattered, or at least seeming to be, which might be appropriate for trips to white and/or other-hued bunnies. Some book markets had it, while others were waiting. Or seemingly so. Or was that hard copy, or maybe at least early orders for e-versions?
Whichever, I haven’t yet seen a copy myself. This was the one that has my story “Marcie and Her Sisters,” originally published in BlackWyrm’s REEL DARK in 2015, about zombies and marriage. And possibly unreliable narrators. For (from the original call) 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. And distributors possibly unreliable as well?
So enough of waiting. The book can be found, in some places and some forms: on Amazon it can be bought in e-form, “officially” published on Halloween, October 31. While for paper copies it’s presently “out of stock” — which I understand to mean not yet in stock. But should be coming soon.
And so, let’s just say it: if Kindle is your pleasure, you can get to that by pressing here. And from there there’s a link to a hard copy site where, presumably, it should be available any day (week?) now.
We had a special guest featured reader of sorts in the number two spot for November ‘s “Bloomington Writers Guild First Sunday Prose and Open Mic” (cf. October 1, August 6, et al.), at an otherwise not overly-crowded session. An almost freakish for the season warm and sunny afternoon (as was the case too with October’s meeting), combining perhaps with some time-change confusion may have made the difference.
But that’s the loss of those who missed it, and an only a few days reunion with past treasurer/Writers Guild member Annette Oppenlander — living in Germany the first half of her life and recently having moved back with her husband — a novelist with some twenty-five titles divided between books in German and English, and specializing in well-researched historic fiction often aimed at young adult readers. Thus this Sunday’s offering: several excerpts from her latest novel, WHEN THE SKIES RAINED FREEDOM, centered around the end of World War II and the 1948-49 Berlin airlift when supplies had to be brought by air to the English, French, and U.S. sectors of a then-divided city, blockaded by Russia from Western Europe. This followed the curtain-raiser, me (ever notice that I, specializing in short dark fiction, tend to be tagged as a featured reader around Halloween?) with a story-chapter from TOMBS: A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH, “The Last Dance,” as a homage to the Mexican/ Mexican-American celebration of death in the often actually multi-day Dia de los Muertos. Plus, as a small bonus, a chance to announce that TOMBS is now available, as has been for some time THE TEARS OF ISIS, in the “Local Author” section of host venue Morgenstern Books.
And, after the break, an also not overly-long “open mic” slot brought two more readers, plus conversation in what proved to be a pleasantly laid back session ending.
jamesdorrwriter 