Posts Tagged ‘Horror Writers Association’
And here it is (cf. September 21)! My poem, “The Birdcatchers,” originally published — well, that info all appears under the poem — is now available to Horror Writers Association members in the just-published October NEWSLETTER. This is the monster (well, size that is) Halloween issue and I and it appear sixth of twelve poets in the “Gallery of Poetry,” way, way down toward the end of the contents.
So for those who’re not members — or just over anxious — please enjoy it here too as a lagniappe:
THE BIRDCATCHERS
They come from the plains outside the city
with cages and baskets,
a flurry of screeching,
to show off their wares.
These are the birds they have snared at first morning,
when dew is heavy:
the merlins, the windhovers, juggers and owls,
blue-and-white taloned birds, birds without feathers,
— all scales and sharpness —
the carrion eaters.
Birds of the night.
These are bought by the city’s young women
because, it is said, they make excellent pets.
Because, it is said, they crave only spun sugar,
molded in spheres,
to the shape of the eyes of one faithless in love.
[First published in The Tome, Summer 1992. It also appears as part of the story, “The Birdcatchers,” in my 2013 collection The Tears of Isis, as well as in my all-poetry Vamps (A Retrospective).]
October, the month of Halloween, an important time for us in the horror profession. This, then, was the call from HORROR WRITERS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Editor Kathryn Ptacek: i would really like to include poetry in the honkin’ huge october issue, as we did last year. you probably all know that i am a big supporter of poetry, and i think it’s important for writers to see what horror poetry looks like now!/ so, if you have ONE poem or maybe TWO [maximum 25 lines each] that you would like to send to me, i’d love to run them. it can be new or it can be old . . . just please do not send the one you sent last year, if you 
were in the poetry gallery. <g>
Okay, so which one? I decided on a 16-line sort of list poem “The Birdcatchers” (ah, but what kinds of birds . . . and why?), originally published in THE TOME as well as reprinted as part of the story “The Birdcatchers” in [*PLUG*] my collection THE TEARS OF ISIS, and in my all-poetry VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE). It gets around, yes?
So this is the reply received late Sunday — and about as terse as they come: thanks, james, for letting me use your poem! So, while not actually saying “acceptance” in so many words, I think I can assume is.
The question is raised: At a time when speculative fiction and fact seemed to have collided, three small magazine publishers have gotten together to discuss their viewpoints on the genre and the future of publishing. Join Scot Noel of DREAMFORGE MAGAZINE, John Linden 
Grant of OCCULT DETECTIVE QUARTERLY and me, Angela Yuriko Smith of SPACE AND TIME as we discuss how the pandemic is affecting publishing. The “questioner” is PUBLISHER’S ROUNDTABLE via ANGELAYSMITH.COM, and whether or not things end up seeming as dire as one might expect, it seems appropriate for the season. My thanks for this go to Ms. Smith via HORROR WRITERS ASSOCIATION on Facebook, while for the actual piece one may press here.
The illustration is by artist and poet and current Horror Writers Association trustee Marge Simon, who some years ago challenged me to write a poem about it. The result, titled “Émile’s Ghosts” (the title was also Marge’s, for the illustration), was published originally accompanied by the picture in ILLUMEN in Spring 2008 and also appears in my 2011 
poetry collection, VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE). And now it, still with the illustration at my suggestion if Marge was willing, has been published again in the HWA’s October NEWSLETTER, a special expanded Halloween issue, with a full dozen poets included, including such names as Linda Addison and Alessandro Manzetti, Michael A. Arnzen, Christina Sng, Stephane M. Wytovich . . . the list goes on. So for HWA members, just press “Gallery of Poets” in the October NEWSLETTER (fourth from the bottom in the issue’s contents), then scroll down and down until you see the picture, the only illustration that’s there, with the poem to its left.
It starts with a longish poem from Marge Simon, “Robert Browning and the Spider Poet,” and ends with a flurry of poetry by Christina Sng (a fun one, her second, “Catsitting on Halloween”). No, Triana, don’t get any ideas. But what it is is a “Gallery of Poetry” in a jam-packed October/Halloween edition of the HORROR WRITERS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER. And, between the two poets already mentioned, are three mini-poems (two haikuish, the third a four-liner) by me.
But for extra fun, the three I chose were all published first on this very blog, on February 14 2013 (yes, that’s Valentine’s Day) and February 14 and September 24 2017. And one at least, the first, is a love poem (well, sort of a love poem — a warning perhaps). The others, perhaps, a bit more on the dark-humored side. The poems themselves are titled “Best Appraise that Diamond Fast,” “The Vampiress’s Embarrassment,” and “Land of Milk and Honey,” and all may be seen (Marge Simon’s, Christina Sng’s, and mine) by pressing here.
a.m. Saturday, for which I’ve emailed back “I’ll take it!” (or words to that effect). So as of now, for those who wish to join me, I’ll be sharing the Saturday morning opening slot with Nathan Carson and Karen Bovenmyer.So in one respect the second part of this saves some worry, plus lets me get to StokerCon without likely to be unrealized expectations. Still TOMBS: A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH having missed the final ballot (cf. January 25, et al.) is a disappointment. So how about watching a movie inst
ead, maybe one not seen before, as listed in “11 Severely Underrated Horror Movies You Should Watch Tonight” via THE-LINE-UP.COM? The fourth on the list, in fact, has been reviewed here (cf. “With Snow on the Ground Casey Surely Was Freezing in that Miniskirt, Though,” December 27 2015). For the others, press here.
And for me, one thing that might cheer me up: If you’ve read TOMBS and feel, at least, it did deserve being on the preliminary ballot, perhaps you could post a review of it on Amazon, Goodreads, B&N, et al.
Thanks.
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).
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!
jamesdorrwriter 