Posts Tagged ‘Conspiracies’
Starting a busy, busy day, it’s got to be one of the quickest story acceptances for me thus far! The story, a reprint originally published in IT’S COME TO OUR ATTENTION (Third Flatiron Publishing, Spring 2016): “Chocolat.” Submitted this time at about 10 p.m. last night, the e-word came only about two hours later judging by the time signatures, even if only read by me early this afternoon: I am happy to include your story in the anthology. . . . Attached is a preview with your work in it.
The call was for conspiracy themed fiction and poetry for consideration, from Alien Buddha Press, publishers also of my AVOID SEEING A MOUSE collection. The anthology is to be titled THEY’RE CONSPIRING AGAINST THE ALIEN BUDDHA TOO! — and, for those interested, continuing to read submissions until the end of June — with a hoped for launch date of Independence Day, July 4. (Yes, they do a fast job of not just deciding on which stories to use, but also bringing the book into print.)
And then tonight, along with going over the story proof, and okaying it with one minor correction, tonight was Bloomington Writers Guild “Second Thursday Spoken Word Series” night (see May 9, April 11, et al.), with three featured poets, Jason L. Ammerman, the Writers Guild’s own Tony Brewer, and Joseph Kerschbaum, who up until 2024 — after Ammerman’s December 2022 diagnosis of having come down with Stage IV Colon Cancer (though still on his feet, at least for now!) — had often performed readings together as “the Reservoir Dogwoods.” And also back in the MC spot, recovering from an accident that had had her out of action for Guild events for some time, was Spoken Word Series co-producer (with Tony Brewer) Joan Hawkins.
Ammerman, who had originally formed the Dogwoods group even if they were doing solo gigs this time, a poet since 1989 with three published books as well as leading innumerable poetry readings and slams in the Indianapolis area in the late 1990s and early 2000s, plus with the Dogwoods through their final March 2024 show, a charity performance for “Man Up to Cancer” — an organization for males who are fighting or have fought cancer — led off with what he called “small stuff,” but were actually three longish poems touching on such things as earthquakes, ghosts, and the meaning of motherhood, along with details of the stories behind them. He was followed by poet and audio artist as well as executive director of the Spoken Word Stage at Bloomington’s annual 4th Street Festival of the Arts and Crafts, and with twelve books and chapbooks under his belt, Brewer, with two “guest” poems, one by Beat poet Ruth Weiss and a second by a poet he’d recently worked with designing a chapbook for it and printing it on a vintage letterpress, followed by a flurry of shorter poems of his own on a number of subjects, as well as brief explanations. Then Kerschbaum, another Bloomington poet with his most recent publications including MIRROR BOX (Main Street Rag Press, 2020), DISTANT SHORES OF A SPLIT SECOND (Louisiana Literature Press, 2018), and MIDNIGHT SUNRISE just out from Main Street Rag Press, came third with about a dozen poems of varying length, some very short (notably the one he opened with, titled “My Sex Life”), including a small clutch toward the end as if by Mattel doll Barbie’s “Ken.”
Music both at the beginning and just before the break, as well as at the close, was by trumpeter Kyle Quass and percussionist Julian Douglas, who’ve worked together some twenty years, as well as performing in many different ensembles, co-led several bands, and worked on multiple recording projects, these latter including Quass’s FRACTURED and Douglas’s TALAFAWA. Then, after the break, it was time for the “open mic” portion of which I came fourth of nine walk-on readers. And for which, it being itself only some 500 words long, the story I chose to present was . . . “Chocolat.”
Saith the press release: In the new anthology of short stories, FAKE NEWS, 13 authors each explore a different conspiracy theory, telling their tale as though the conspiracy had actually occurred. Available today as an eBook and shortly in hard copy, the book is edited by Joseph Cadotte and features the short story “The Country Doctor” by James Dorr.
“Was there was a second shooter on the grassy knoll? Are ancient aliens possessing you? What happens at Area 51? I wanted to explore all these ideas,” said Cadotte. “So I gathered some of my favorite contemporary authors and asked them if they had a story idea that may contain an alternate set of facts.”
The result is a combination of alternate history, fringe history, cults, and urban legends. In the baker’s dozen of stories within FAKE NEWS, writers explore the ramifications of conspiracies that never actually happened, and create some new ones along the way.
As noted, my tale on the table is called “The Country Doctor” (see September 14, August 31, et al.), originally published in BOOK OF DARK WISDOM in Summer 2005, about a possibly not-quite-human patient who showed up one night at a rural New Mexico physician’s office. But as for details . . . well, the accompanying military had the doc and his nurse promise they wouldn’t tell.
FAKE NEWS is available on Kindle now, which may be explored by pressing here, with a print edition as well planned for the near future.
Let us take a trip way down Memory Lane, to an anthology call for a book called FAKE NEWS (cf. February 4 2020; June 20 2019) and a story “tentatively” accepted for it, “Country Doctor,” of UFOs and ETs and other such letter combinations originally published in BOOK OF DARK WISDOM, Summer 2005. The FAKE NEWS call actually goes back as far as 2018, but the gears of publication sometimes grind intensely slowly. But then Sunday night came another glimmering! Cordelia has been working hard on the proof for Fake News. Here is what we have now. If you have ANY changes, please send them to me. I also need your final bios and answers to
the questions I sent you. The cover is also done, so this is the LAST stage before Cordelia and I put this together and send it off to the printer. The goal is to get it to the printer by mid-September so it can hit the market in October, during election season, when the phrase “fake news” and “#fakenews” should be trending.
So, burning the Monday post-midnight electricity I went through the story as it will be printed, finding all to be well, and sent my “okay” back along with the information requested, the latter in essence a repeat of material sent last February — this saga has multi-level chapters! But if all goes well, it looks like the FAKE NEWS may be hitting the (electronic, anyway) bookstores in not much more than another month!
FAKE NEWS, don’t we just love it! I don’t mean the term the President uses when he means “real news,” but really fake fake news. Conspiracy theories, that sort of thing, though it may seem real to those that believe it. But now it’s time for a trip into history.
Hie us back to the year 2018, to June 13 to be exact. A call from “a (very) small publishing cooperative” called Old Sins: Let’s write about conspiracies that have been debunked thoroughly but do so through the lens of Alternate History, where they have actually happened. Let’s write about the second shooter, chemtrails, the Illuminati, Lizard People, Greys, the Loch Ness Monster, Pope Joan, Templars worshipping Satan, and so many other rumored conspiracies throughout history as if they were real. As it so happened, I had such a tale, called “Country Doctor,” a reprint first published in BOOK OF DARK WISDOM for Summer 2005, one of UFOs and a strange humanoid creature being held by the military and needing medical attention. And so off it went.
The above itself was reported here about a year later (cf. June 20, 2019), along with more news. On August 27 2018 an email had come from Old Sins Editor Joseph Cadotte concerning possible minor changes, and that he liked it and “Country Doctor” 
was being forwarded to “his partner.” Not an acceptance but, what the heck, I sent some changes plus reasons for keeping some other things the same. Another exchange on October 25 about “Pending Acceptance,” and then on January 27 2019 an email titled “Re. Pending acceptance to FAKE NEWS” that said in part: We have a preliminary layout, and, if you are included in this message, you are on it. An acceptance then, yes? But it didn’t really, exactly say. But then on June 19, and hence the day the June 20 2019 post referred to, came an announcement explaining delays and concluding I will try to send you a contract soonish (which, by the way, I don’t recall subsequently receiving, but you get the idea — the wheels of artistry grind slowly as well as, sometimes, quite casually too) so, what the heck, let’s assume by now that it’s all official.
And then again silence until yesterday an email arrived, “FAKE NEWS News and Request,” and later that afternoon “FAKE NEWS News and request, part 2,” to send in a bio, etc., plus a small questionnaire about original inspirations (“which conspiracy,” e.g.), plus an announcement that “the whole text is going to our design person” (that is, if there are any story changes, to get them in quickly). So it seems, despite delays, the anthology finally is on its way!
Unless, of course, it’s all fake news.
Strange are the tales told of the Internet. Of stories presumed rejected that weren’t; of acceptances disguised as things they might not be. A magical, mystical place it is, of shadows and mysteries. And here is one such strange telling now.
Let us go first to June 13 2018, and a call for submissions from Old Sins, “a (very) small publishing cooperative.” Let’s write about conspiracies that have been debunked thoroughly but do so through the lens of Alternate History, where they have actually happened. Let’s write about the second shooter, chemtrails, the Illuminati, Lizard People, Greys, the Loch Ness Monster, Pope Joan, Templars worshipping Satan, and so many other rumored conspiracies throughout history as if they were real. So okay, let’s do. As it happened I had such a tale already, of UFOs on the road to Roswell or, at least, an odd 
wounded humanoid creature who may have come from a UFO, originally published in BOOK OF DARK WISDOM in Summer 2005, called “The Country Doctor.”*
So off it went, until on October 25 an email came from Editor Joseph Cadotte asking about some possible small editorial changes, and allowing that he had liked the story and was sending it along to his partner. Okay, so not an acceptance quite, but I sent a reply addressing the suggested changes (most of them having to do with italicization) and so time went on. But then a new email came on January 27 this year with the subject title “Pending acceptance to FAKE NEWS,” stating in part: We have a preliminary layout, and, if you are included in this message, you are on it. So that’s positive mostly, sort of, yes? Maybe a clearer confirmation (that is, not just “pending”) would be coming soon.
Which brings us to Wednesday afternoon, yesterday, not quite six months later, repeating the January 27 message, and with the same heading, but with an explanation above of how things are being delayed. The wheels grind slowly, but grind they still do, and concluding: I will try to send you a contract soonish.
So I’m going to call this an acceptance now of “The Country Doctor” for FAKE NEWS (or a similar title), and if perhaps still not 100 percent sure, we’ll find out together.
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*”The Country Doctor” has also been reprinted in the anthology AMERICA THE HORRIFIC (Bards and Sages, 2011), for which one can see below, October 29, 19 2011, et al.
jamesdorrwriter 