Posts Tagged ‘Femme Fatales’
April’s Bloomington Writers Guild “First Sunday Prose and Open Mic” (see March 3, et al.), at the Juniper Gallery on West Kirkwood Ave., deviated from the usual pattern of two featured readers, a break, and an open session for walk-on participants. In view of a soon-ending spring school semester, coordinator Molly Gleeson opted instead for a special program honoring local students and teachers. Thus seven readers (truncated from nine, as two were unable to make it) with short presentations comprised the first part, with (as it turned out, due to limited time) a segue, sans break, to three audience readers.
Thus the program began with Writers Guild member Tonia Matthew discussing her role with Bloomington’s VITAL– Volunteers In Tutoring Adult Learners — program at the Monroe County Public Library; followed by three high school students, Percy Patterson, Maci Day, and Allister Farrell, with poetry; Guild member Erin Strole on her path to becoming a teacher at Bloomington North and on teaching in general; another high school poet, Mya Coleman; and “70-year-old Ivy Tech student” Andre Deloney on, among other things, his work with county jail staff on helping inmates improve reading skills.
This then was followed, as noted, by we three walk-ons, with me coming last with a very short story combining the theme of teaching and learning with one of darkness, the latter in view of tomorrow’s upcoming solar eclipse (participants also found eclipse glasses on their chairs when they came in, courtesy of MC Gleeson), “School Nights,” originally published in Gothic Blue Book, October 2014, on the journey of a possibly naive young girl to her realization that she was a vampire.
This the dedication, on p. 11:
To the woman pushed to the edge by a world so cold,
Wielding power, not for grace, but to break the mold.
Amidst the allure & indifference, your strength unfolds —
A testiment to the fire in your souls, untold.
The book, FEMME FATALE FLASHES (see March 4, February 24, et al.), published by Wicked Shadow Press, in West Bengal, India. Yes, it did take awhile to arrive. But today, March 4, it arrived in my mailbox, some 280 pages, with 56 stories, including my “Dinner Date,” starting on p. 144.
And as the title implies, these are all flash-length stories, all under about 1000-words each, brief snapshot-like glances at women to . . . well, watch out for, mine unsurprisingly one of those feisty New Orleanian vampiresses, les filles à les caissettes, the normally shy and retiring Hélène.
To quote the blurb (this from Lulu, not Amazon — so it goes): _Welcome to the shadowed corners of intrigue and peril. Wicked Shadow Press presents “Femme Fatale Flashes”, a captivating anthology of flash fictions, each one casting the spotlight on the elusive femme fatale, a figure at once dangerously seductive and imbued with an undeniable strength.
Dive into narratives where mystery and malice dance closely, as these women tread the fine line between morality and desire. From the straightforward journeys of beguiling yet sinister characters whose beginnings are as veiled as their intentions, to the intricate tales of those sculpted by the harshness of society, the sting of betrayal, or the tumultuous twists of love, this collection delves into the myriad hues of what it means to embody the femme fatale.
“Femme Fatale Flashes” beckons you to explore the complex realm of these mesmerising women through stories that are as concise as they are profound. Brace yourself to be captivated by the lethal allure of the femme fatale, in a collection that promises to enchant, entangle, and ultimately, redefine your perception of power, vengeance, and seduction.
For more, see post for February 24 for separate paperback and ebook links.
Not necessarily because of a temporary 7-8:30 p.m. evening time at Morgenstern Books, but because I had the flu (so you get your fall shot, a new kind comes along . . . lucky me!) I missed February’s Bloomington Writers Guild’s “First Sunday Prose and Open Mic” (cf. January 7 2024, et al.). So today was this year’s first, excepting January’s which in some ways seemed more a holdover from last year, and at an all new, hopefully more or less permanent time and place, from 2-3:30 p.m. at the Juniper Gallery on West Kirkwood Avenue just off downtown. A small gallery this, it was more or less packed at maybe a tad over 20 attendees (including some at snack bar tables, a sort of holdover from the original Morgenstern’s ambience as well), and enjoyed, it seemed, by all.
The first featured reader was IU Professor Emerita, storyteller, actor, researcher, writer, and theatrical producer Gladys DeVane, with a moving passage from her book COME SIT WITH ME: MY LIFE IN POETRY, PROSE, AND PLAYS, in part in the voice of major champion for the right to vote for Blacks in 1960s Mississippi — as well as survivor of beatings and worse — Fannie Lou Hamer, and ending on a note for present-day America, a “country still in need of spiritual healing.” She was followed by retired art-museum worker and IU education teacher and present-day tour guide for the Exotic Feline Rescue Center, whose “writing has gotten quite free-wheeling since she’s no longer writing for professional journals,” Beau Vallance, with three short essays: the first “kind of serious,” “Reading for the Incarcerated”; a self-described “lighter” second, “Prom Dresses”; and a “silly” third, a eulogy for a “Yellow Fit,” a much-loved Honda sub-compact that, victim of a crash, had finally had to be given up as being too far damaged to be repaired.
After the break, seven readers lined up for the “open mic” session, with me number six with a piece just published in FEMME FATALE FLASHES (see February 24), “Dinner Date,” about one of the shyer of the New Orleanian vampiresses, the Casket Girls, and how she was able to find a way, when the chips were down, to act as her idol, Aimée, would.
Then, speaking of vampires, harking back to the post just below, February 29, METASTELLAR has officially published the non-Casket Girl Christmas story, “Naughty or Nice,” today as promised. To read it, press here.
Another fun little “femme fatale,” or sometimes things do move fast (see, e.g., February 24). In this case the call was exactly one week back, February 22: Our editors are looking for previously published flash fiction and short stories that fall into the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Flash fiction should be up to 1,200 words, . . . Brownie points if your work can make us chuckle.
The magazine was METASTELLAR and reprint flash doesn’t pay, but [a]ll reprints are eligible for inclusion in our “best of the year” anthologies and are considered for our You Tube story time channel, and you will be contacted if your story is selected. Well, no results on the latter possibilities quite yet (the story, however, takes place on Christmas so there’s still plenty of time), but this word came today: Your short story “Naughty or Nice?” is scheduled to be published on Mar. 3, 202. [I’m assuming that final number is meant to be “2024.”] A link which will be live then was included along with a very nice illustration for my approval (which it got, and is reprinted here), plus bio information and links — again all done quite well — and a contract, that last signed and sent back this afternoon.
The story itself is one I’m fond of, the second (I think) that I’d sold to a then very respected ezine, DAILY SCIENCE FICTION, and published December 21 2011. The story title is “Naughty or Nice” and the femme, noted above, a lady who calls herself Mignonette, an immigrant to Paris from a land farther east who is just getting used to Western customs — in this case that of sending a wish list for Christmas to Saint Nick. (But the setting out of milk and cookies too? . . . so many details!)
And in three days the link I was sent will go live, so stay tuned to be able to read it yourself this Sunday!
Some things move fast (one might say, in a flash?). Two months from submission to acceptance of a story is fairly common (cf. February 18), but from there to publication in just under a week?
Apparently so. The word came this evening from Editor Parth Sarathi Chakraborty: In the luminous glow of anticipation, woven with a sense of thrill, we are delighted to unveil FEMME FATALE FLASHES, now gracing the catalog of Wicked Shadow Press.
Enclosed, you will discover a print replica PDF, an invitation to peer into the anthology that has blossomed from stories of captivating danger, narrated in succinct, powerful flashes. This journey, rich with the fruits of our collective labor, finds its roots in the depth of your imagination, for which we remain eternally grateful.
But . . . (ah now, the catch) the replica PDF is for me, as one of 43 contributing authors (of 56 stories — some of us authors more busy than others), but for others the book can be ordered via Lulu. And judging by the blurb (and, yes, the PDF too), it looks like a winner: Welcome to the shadowed corners of intrigue and peril. Wicked Shadow Press presents FEMME FATALE FLASHES, a captivating anthology of flash fictions, each one casting the spotlight on the elusive femme fatale, a figure at once dangerously seductive and imbued with an undeniable strength.
Dive into narratives where mystery and malice dance closely, as these women tread the fine line between morality and desire. From the straightforward journeys of beguiling yet sinister characters whose beginnings are as veiled as their intentions, to the intricate tales of those sculpted by the harshness of society, the sting of betrayal, or the tumultuous twists of love, this collection delves into the myriad hues of what it means to embody the femme fatale.
FEMME FATALE FLASHES beckons you to explore the complex realm of these mesmerising women through stories that are as concise as they are profound. Brace yourself to be captivated by the lethal allure of the femme fatale, in a collection that promises to enchant, entangle, and ultimately, redefine your perception of power, vengeance, and seduction.
Of which my lady, not least of the lot (ah, now), is the “Casket Girl” Hélène of the vampiresses of New Orleans, les filles à les caissettes, arrived in the year 1728 and taking a bite out of history since then. The story, “Dinner Date,” a brief romantic adventure.
But for the whole bunch one can see for oneself, for information and possible ordering, by pressing here (for paper) or for ePub here.
jamesdorrwriter 