Posts Tagged ‘Lagniappes’
Exciting times! A story of mine is running neck and neck in Carrie Ann Golden’s latest A WRITER AND HER SENTIMENTAL MUSE competition, this one for a tale of 100 words or less as prompted by the picture just below. And as 
of last notice there were two entries in the running, each with exactly fifty percent of the total vote. Or most likely, each has just one vote.
Should you wish to tilt the odds, you can find stories “A” and “B” in their entireties, the picture again, and a link for voting in the poll here. And as a bonus, scroll toward the bottom and there’s a link to an interview Carrie Ann did of me on her blog back in 2016. See early comments on my as yet to be published novel-in-stories TOMBS, as well as some dish on THE TEARS OF ISIS and on New Orleans’s filles à les caissettes. What better to read on a warm, sunny Wednesday?
And, as for which of the stories is mine, well, you know me. It’s likely to be the more “horrible” of them.
“No Place to Hide,” a tale of interstellar war and the horrifying fates of some who fight it. Space opera, maybe, but also a tale that fit the bill as described above — or at least so was the decision of the ASTOUNDING OUTPOST editors! But there was a catch concerning payment, that all dogs in this fight would not be equal. Or as the acceptance email put it: “The voting to determine prizes will occur during the first week of December. Be sure to let your friends and family know so they can vote for your story.”
Such was the post here November 13. My story, “No Place to Hide,” originally published in SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW dated Summer 1991, had been reprinted in ASTOUNDING OUTPOST’s “Neural Nets, Uplinks, and Wetware” issue. And now it is time for readers and fans to vote for their favorite story in the issue (e.g., *hint* “No Place to Hide”) because, to quote the publisher: 
Remember the top three fan favorites win cash and treasure.
What does that mean [to continue the quote]? If you’re a fan pick your favorite story. IF YOU’RE AN AUTHOR LET YOUR FANS KNOW ABOUT THE POLL. Share it on social media, harass your neighbors, and beg your family to vote for your story. We’re all family here, aren’t we? But do not tarry, voting is only open for one week, ending next Thursday December 7.
So to vote for “No Place to Hide,” one need but press here, scroll down until you find the title, and vote, vote, vote (actually I don’t know what happens if someone tries to vote more than once, so why take a chance, ask your friends to vote too instead). Remember . . . sufficient votes mean “cash and treasure,” pour moi! (Not a lot of cash and treasure, maybe, but easily outstripping the average mammoth royalty individual stories of mine in other publications tend to receive. And anyway every bit counts.)
Also, if you haven’t yet, to read “No Place to Hide” yourself press here.
We live in an amazing time, technology and humans are coexisting in a way we’ve never seen before. It also can be a terrifying time. What if humans and technology can’t coexist? What if the A.I. take over, or the computer viruses jump off of the net and into our biology? What if we’re just all living in a matrix? These are just some of the questions and ideas that have shaped science fiction and this call. Give us your visions of how it all plays out.
Send us your best 7500 word or less story that relates to Neural Nets, Uplinks, and 
Wetware. . . .
Such was the call (cf. November 2) and my response was to send them a rather short story, “No Place to Hide,” a tale of interstellar war and the horrifying fates of some who fight it. Space opera, maybe, but also a tale that fit the bill as described above — or at least so was the decision of the ASTOUNDING OUTPOST editors! But there was a catch concerning payment, that all dogs in this fight would not be equal. Or as the acceptance email put it: The voting to determine prizes will occur during the first week of December. Be sure to let your friends and family know so they can vote for your story.
That’s right: Vox populi est vox pecuniae. Or, the tale with the most votes will get the most cash. And now “No Place to Hide” has been published, and may be read by pressing here!
(So the moral is: Read and enjoy. Then on December 1 and for six days after please read it again and vote, vote vote! Heck, this is America, have your friends vote too for “No Place to Hide.” Your parents, your children. Significant others. Family pets. . . !
(And in the meantime, if you enjoy it scroll down to the end and please also consider leaving a comment.)
An unseasonably warm sun-drenched day greeted September’s “Last Sunday Poetry Reading & Open Mic” (cf. May 29, et al.). Co-sponsored by the Writers Guild at Bloomington and the Monroe County Convention Center, four local writers were featured this time, Jenny Kander, Thomas Tokarski, Doris Lynch, and Roger Pfingston, billed as “The Tuesday Poets” and offering a variety of styles and subject matter. After the break, four walk-ons stepped up to read, offering a symmetry of sorts as well as a similar range of styles, of which I was the last with a series of very short, horror-related pieces, on 
tracking zombies, mermaids and vampires, Erzebet Bathory, and other such subjects, the best received of which — why not? — I’ll present here as well:
LAND OF MILK AND HONEY
It wasn’t bad
till they released the bears;
the cats came
of their own accord.
And so the autumn season begins. . . .
slinking cat in storm
creeps beneath the bed to hide —
“There you are, Wednesday!”
So that’s the kind of day it’s been, this first day of May, off-and-on thunderstorms as we look forward to a very warm next few days. Wednesday is in the kitchen now, eyeing her dinner — mine comes later. Then as it happens I’ll probably be away from computers the next couple of days — some new equipment coming into the computer cave among other things, nothing fancy, just backup stuff after a virus scare two weeks back.
So life continues, students away from the local campus anticipating Summer Session to come next week. A few new submissions to round out April. Some time to read — finished TORN REALITIES (except the Clive Barker, which I’m saving) and am getting back to NEW DAWN FADES where I left it off, I don’t remember when. I wrote two new short poems today (three counting the one above), yesterday I sent proof corrections for my poem reprint in THE SPIRIT OF POE.
A new book arrived today to read, MORTICIAN DIARIES (“Tales from Behind the Funeral Parlor Curtain”). And, more thunder coming, Wednesday’s back you-know-where.
jamesdorrwriter 