James Dorr's Blog, page 104

Attn. Science Fiction Folk, What’s It Really Like Living in Space?

Let’s let this one speak for itself:
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Tim Peake is the UK’s very own space hero:  only the seventh UK-born person to venture into the great beyond and a member of the International Space Station for six months between December 2015 and June 2016.
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A machine of a man, he ran the London Marathon while aboard the ISS, participated in the first spacewalk outside the ISS by a British astronaut and, while aboard completed approximately [image error]3000 orbits of the Earth and had covered a distance of 125 million kilometres.
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This is a man who has ventured beyond.  He’s been out there.  He knows things.  So we wanted to ask the tough questions, the ones you always wanted to know the answers to.  The biggies.

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Do aliens exist?  And how exactly do you go to the toilet in space?
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This is what he told us.
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The article is “We Spoke to Tim Peake to Find Out Everything You Wanted to Know About Space but Were Afraid to Ask,” by Dave Fawbert on SHORTLIST.COM, and for more press here.

Aimée, April Sirens Call Live Today, a 186-Page E-Zine Lagniappe

So call it two days late, THE SIRENS CALL #38, dated April 2018, is an enormous issue, some 186 pages in all with work crammed in it by forty-eight authors and poets.  With my part in this potpourri, [image error]“Casket Girls” (cf. April 3, et al.), not even listed until the top of the second contents page, there noted to start on page 137.  And not only that, you can read it for free!

“Casket Girls” is the origin story, as it were, of the coming of the vampiress Aimée — and “conversion” of les filles à les caissettes aboard the ship with her — to the New World from France, and is based on a New Orleanian urban legend.  Originally published in DAILY SCIENCE FICTION on April 10 2014, this latest spotting just goes to show that you can’t keep a bad girl down, especially should she have a desire to wander.

So even if you’ve met Aimée before, if you’d like to say “bonjour” again (and remember to scroll way, way down to page 137), press here.

May Starts with Reprint Story Acceptance

Hark, the call:  It seems like everything’s finally settled down, fifty years into the twentieth century.  War is over.  The economy’s booming.  People are on a long exodus from the city.  It’s all settling.

But the occult lurks everywhere…

In sleepovers, as teenagers intone, “Light as a feather, stiff as a board.”  Or stare into the mirror, calling upon Mary.  They scream, convinced something looks back from inside the glass.[image error]

New music dominates the airwaves, discordant and wild.  They say it’s the devil’s music.

Strange lights dominate the sky.  Are they Russians?  Little Green Men?  Or something altogether stranger?

Perhaps things are not as settled as they feel. . .

So the job was to recall the 1950s with an occult flavor, the anthology to be called SOCKHOPS AND SEANCES.  Reprints would be okay.  It just so happened I had a story, “Bottles,” originally published in CROSSINGS (Double Dragon 2004; also reprinted in THE TEARS OF ISIS), set in 1958 Cambridge Massachusetts.  Historical accuracy would be insisted on (I lived in Cambridge from late 1959 to mid-1964).  But also with vampires, perhaps a bit chancy, or at least someone who believed in vampires combined with a period fear of Communism.  Still, why not, thought I?

And so today, May 1, International Labor Day, the reply came back from Editor Nicole Petit of publisher 18th Wall Productions:  Thank you so much for your submission and your patience as I deliberated on the stories sent in for SOCKHOPS AND SEANCES.  I am excited to tell you that we will be accepting “Bottles” into the anthology.

More to appear here as it becomes known.

And Speaking of Movies . . . a Land-Going Jaws?

Did I mention last post, about Le Grand Méchant Renard, that the one sane character in the entire barnyard is a pig?  So, speaking of pigs, in my visit to family (cf. April 24) we spent our first night together with Netflix on the TV with the feature selected (“Let’s do ‘Creatures,'” I suggested as we explored the menu) a Korean horror movie called CHAW.  Of which this on Amazon:  Chaw is the name for a man-eating wild boar with a body length of 2m and approximate weight of 410kg.  Sameri is a quiet village on the foot of Mt. Jiri in South Korea where no incidents have occurred in 10 years.  One day a mangled human wrist is found and the village of Sameri is placed in fear and severe anxiety.  Shortly later another body part is found and then footprints are discovered with bloodstains.  Former hunter Il-man Cheon (Hang-Seon Jang) lost his granddaughter and he now suspects her disappearance is tied to the man eating boar.  Il-man then [image error]gathers some residents to find the boar including Sun-kyeong Kim (Tae-woong Eom), professional animal hunter Baek (Je-mun Yun), and Hyeong-sa Shin (Hyeok-kwon Park).  Animal ecosystem researcher Su-ryeon (Yu-mi Jeong) is also enlisted in their hunt.

CHAW or CHAWS?  That is, one niece suggested the film unfolds much like a land-based version of JAWS, with an oversized porker instead of the fish.  And she was right if you think about it — a story unfolding, horror by horror escalating, until there’s finally an all-out attempt to destroy the critter.  But also an ending suggesting such horrors might still exist.  Perhaps it’s not all that unique a plot-line but the success is in how it’s carried out, with (in this version) a fair bit of humor as well.  Or to quote viewer “Adamo’s” review on Amazon:  Jung Yu-Mi is so adorably cute in her role as the eager college student trying to research large boars.  ‘Chaw’ (pronounced ciao, means trap in South Korean) is some sort of mutant boar terrorising a local village.  It goes for about 2 hours and I watched it over the course of two nights and really it doesn’t seem to drag too much, it’s witty and tongue in cheek without being ridiculous and pays respect to the creature feature genre.  These movies are [image error]notorious for horrendously dodgy looking creatures but even the boar looks and moves realistically, for the most part.

I laughed out loud when right at the end when the camera pans away the serious straight cop pulls his jacket up so you can see the outline of his ass in skin tight brown leggings.  A perfect example of the spirit CHAW was made in.

I honestly don’t remember that little touch at the end, but it seems likely enough and in general I think the review is a fair one.  And, even though he only gave it three stars, I enjoyed the film enough myself that I’ve ordered a copy for future (re)viewing.

At the Movies: It’s Not Easy Being the Big Bad Fox

Whoever thinks that the countryside is calm and peaceful is mistaken.  In it we find especially agitated animals, a Fox that thinks it’s a chicken, a Rabbit that acts like a stork, and a Duck who wants to replace Father Christmas.  If you want to take a vacation, keep driving past this place.  So says IMDb and the place is France, or at least in the 2017 cartoon, based in turn on a series of Franch graphic novels, LE GRAND MÉCHANT RENARD ET AUTRES CONTES in a U.S. sneak preview this afternoon at the Indiana University Cinema.  And the fox (le renard) no relation to those we met in the comments in the [image error]post just below (April 24), the would-be harassers of beleagured cat Arlo, but funny and just a little bit scary (violent, at least, enough to for one father to have to leave with his upset child) as he attempts, under the tutelage of the big bad wolf, to steal if not chickens, three freshly laid eggs which, when they hatch, might provide them both lunch.  The only trouble, when they do hatch, the first thing the chicks see being the fox they immediately bond with him as their “mother” — and hence, of course, he bonds back.

So which are they, prey or predators, foxes or chickens, in what unfolds as an examination of identity and the meaning of family (restored to the farmyard, the chicks get in trouble in school, e.g., for trying to bite their fellow pupils)?  Combine with this two other tales, “Baby Delivery” and “The Perfect Christmas,” under the frame of the “Honeysuckle Farm Players” (of whom our fox is a principal actor) presenting a play for our enjoyment — in French, to be sure, but with English subtitles.  Its distribution in the U.S. has been delayed for a month or two, however, according to the IU Cinema docent, to the point where they almost didn’t want us to see it this early, but it isn’t silly (despite its premises) and it is funny as well as in some places just a bit touching, a lovely Saturday matinee should you get a chance when the time comes to see it.

A Travel Delay Seems a Kind of Thing This Year

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig.  Yes, the writer has come back from a visit to family, nieces and sister, in the Washington DC area to a computer cave much as it had been before.  No exciting new news, no exciting bad news, one rejection when the time came to check email, another story advanced to a publisher’s second round, but not yet (if ever to be) accepted.  And one comes home late:  It seems a thing, this current year of traveling adventures, that there will be a delay of some kind connected with airplanes.  Stokercon in Providence last month (see March 6) involved a flight cancellation, finding a new flight out of Boston, a $60-plus ride via Uber (still cheaper than an extra hotel night) and finally home only three hours late.  This time the plane left the gate on time, but an “issue” came up regarding equipment and back to the gate to replace a part.  But they did feed us snacks.  And then a new takeoff and home again, home again only two hours late.

So life in the computer cave resumes, a happy and healthy Triana welcoming me last night (now resting behind the couch, enjoying a little alone time).  This night’s supper cooking, and so it goes.

Triana Takes Over Computer Cave (For the Next Few Days)

Yes, the Goth cat Triana will be in charge of the computer cave by herself for a few days.  It hasn’t been an overly exciting week newswise for writing in any event; editors, publishers, all may be getting a second wind for a possibly finally coming spring.  Things go like that sometimes.  So I may be away from the computer cave for a day or so, leaving Triana to take care of things here, albeit helped by a friend who’ll be stopping in now and then to make sure she gets her suppers on time.  You know how it is.  If something comes up I may be able to get in a post or two anyway, but possibly not (I’m getting my second wind as well).

So, if not before, see everyone next week.

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Something a Little Bit Different for Sunday: Emily “Winner” in One-Sentence Story Challenge

This is one that can’t really be classified — is the story horror, romance, fantasy?  It doesn’t even have a title, though its protagonist’s name is Emily so probably that will have to do.  After all it was only allowed to be one sentence long.

So Emily (we’ll say) was published today as the “Winner of April 6th Story Prompt Challenge” on Carrie Ann Golden’s blog, A WRITER & HER SENTIMENTAL MUSE.  Full disclosure:  Emily may have had an advantage since [image error]she seems to have been the only entrant.  But technicalities, technicalities, what’s important was the story had to be based on the picture to the right, and be only a sentence long.  Or, from the official rules (in fact, the only official rule):  “Since this is a one-line story, there is no limit on the word count; however, be creative and use your words and punctuation wisely.”

To read it for yourself, press here.  And as for the competition, since she was an early entrant perhaps Emily (or her circumstances) frightened potential rival contestants away.

A Friday the 13th Blog: Psychological Horror in Film

So let’s give Haleigh Foutch the introduction in “9 Psychological Horror Movies That Will Seriously Mess with Your Head” on COLLIDER.COM via THISISHORROR.CO.UK:   you won’t see titles like SILENCE OF THE LAMBS or LES DIABOLIQUES — they’re some of the best movies ever made in the psychological horror genre, but their effect is different.  What you will find here are a [image error]whole bunch of mentally taxing freakout films that will prod at your psyche and put you through the ringer.  It’s . . . obviously nowhere near a comprehensive list, it’s an assortment of my favorite (or perhaps most dreaded) movies that mangled my mind.  Along the same train of thought as my list of visually stunning movies, sometimes I just like to celebrate a few of my favorites without getting into qualifiers and rankings.  Think of this as a starting ground, a conversation starter, and a few of my personal favorites, and be sure to keep that conversation going sound off in the comments with the movies that messed you up the most.

So which movies are they?  Well, starting with JACOB’S LADDER, and ending with THE VANISHING (the original foreign language version, NOT the 1993 remake in English), highlights include some I’ve seen like the two just mentioned, but several I haven’t as well, so I know how I may be spending my evening.  It is, after all, Friday the 13th.  So, for those who would like to share the misery — or at least enjoy some of it for oneself — for the rest of the list press here.

Spring Star*Line Contents, Cover Revealed; Triana’s Big Adventure

It’s skinny and long (it’s a lot of poems) but here it is, the contents list for the current STAR*LINE (see March 29) with four, count ’em FOUR, poems by me.  Well, they’re very short poems (on a very long list) and spaced out through the issue, but see if you can find them all!  Hint:  The final two have VERY long titles, the fourth perhaps the longest of all (but the first two are shorter).

Departments

Dragons & Rayguns • Vince Gotera

President’s Message • Bryan Thao Worra

From the Small Press • Herb Kauderer

Stealth SF * Flying Blind * Denise Dumars

XenoPoetry: Japanese Scifaiku and Tanka • Shouko Izuo (translated by Natsumi Ando)

Poetry

[spewing] • Roxanne Barbour

[spray of rocks] • Roxanne Barbour

Workshop Exercise 21/08/2337: My Earliest Memories • David Jalajel

UFO • David Barber[image error]

[multiple moons] • David J Kelly

[life sentence] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel

[their drone ship came to Earth] • Lauren McBride

The Fallen Angel’s Ace of Wands • Mindy Watson

Why aliens shun India • Arjun Rajendran

[huckster moon] • Greer Woodward

Never Trust a Vampiress • James Dorr

[that] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel

It’s Universal • Marsheila Rockwell

Transported by Song • Herb Kauderer

[easy mole removal?] • F. J. Bergmann

A Cinephile Steps On-Screen • Alberto Sveum

Symbiosis • Chris Galford

[Striped gaiters, breather] • Denise Dumars

Stone Clutched to Chest • Laura Madeline Wiseman & Andrea Blythe

The Holy Firmament of Venus • Mary Soon Lee

Measure • Banks Miller

[alien worm—] • Susan Burch

Widening Gyroscope • F. J. Bergmann

[rising] • Roxanne Barbour

Cost-Benefits Analysis of Being a Zombie • James Reinebold

Till Death Do Us Part • Kathleen A. Lawrence

[a GoFundMe account] • Beth Cato

If Only I Could Sleep • G. O. Clark

Hermes • Jonel Abellanosa

Friends of Traitors • Matthew Wilson

[bottle trees on Mars] • Sandra J. Lindow

When Semi-Benevolent Aliens Conquer Earth • R. Mac Jones

Cosmic Roshambo • John Richard Trtek

[we’re leaving] • Robin Wyatt Dunn

Oh No She Didn’t? • James Dorr

[revealing] • Roxanne Barbour

Archaeopteryx • Robert Borski

[Terrans scooping gravel] • Lauren McBride

Wolf Moon • Susan McLean

[FTL propulsion achieved] • Lauren McBride & Jacob McBride

[cosmology] • Katrina Archer

Flight of Fantasy • crystalwizard

[no need] • Susan Burch

[we buried] • ayaz daryl nielsen

alien sea beams • David J Kelly

A Leaf Fairy Feels Under-Appreciated • Sharon Cote

The Return • Ken Poyner

The Cold Spot • Kimberly Nugent

From the Zombie Hunters Field Guide: Tracking the Zombie • James Dorr

[summer waits for him] • Holly Lyn Walrath

[vampire job fair] • William Landis

Data Value • Patricia Gomes

[close encounter] • Susan Burch

[Irresistible panhandling] • F. J. Bergmann

From Antartican Vibranium Tankas • Eileen R. Tabios

Ghazal • Joshua Gage

Elixir Stores Open for Business! • Ronald A. Busse

[the sound of black holes] • Alzo David-West

Lost in the House of Hair • John W. Sexton

[end of the road] • Greg Schwartz

The Music of the Spheres • Mikal Trimm

Come Embrace Space • Lauren McBride

E pur si muove • Deborah L. Davitt

[nothing’s so beautiful] • Alzo David-West

[red shift] • David J Kelly

[alien pool shark] • F. J. Bergmann

Second Life • Davian Aw

[eruption] • Roxanne Barbour

[for sale: sweet cottage] • F. J. Bergmann

Illiteracy • Scott E. Green & Herb Kauderer

[outside the greenhouse] • Greg Schwartz

The Young Transylvanian’s Guide to Dating: Taking Your Date Home • James Dorr

[alien teenagers] • Susan Burch

[prohibited] • Roxanne Barbour

The Ghost Diet • Robert Borski

Everything started with the Big Bang, they say • Juanjo Bazán

[held to my ear] • F. J. Bergmann

Red in the Morning • James B. Nicola

[the prospect recedes] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel

[heat death of a universe] • F. J. Bergmann

Missouri City, Texas, in a Far Tomorrow • José Chapa

Intruders • Cindy O’Quinn

[Looking at each star] • William Landis

The Plague • Matthew Wilson

Mermaid Warrior • Darrell Lindsey

[star party] • Lauren McBride

[Stiff with chill] • Denise Dumars

Exfil • WC Roberts

[class four body dies] • Holly Lyn Walrath

[guys on a float trip] • William Landis

Shapeshifter Taxonomy • A. C. Spahn

Illustrations

Low Rounders • Denny E. Marshall

First Time on a Swing • Christina Sng

Squirm • Denny E. Marshall

And then a second very short item, the Goth cat Triana had her annual checkup yesterday at an all new vet’s, a bit closer than the one she went to last year, and (the [image error]question local people who know her all asked) she conducted herself like a perfect, if apprehensive, lady.  Or more to the point, she didn’t bite either the vet or his assistant!  GOOD Triana.  (There had been some discussion when I had first gotten her of giving her a name with vampiric connotations, but the decision had been that that might be too much of a red flag — cf. February 12 2017.)  And, pending test results on certain, er, organic samples, her health is good.

Well, with one possible exception to the last, something I’d sort of noted myself as I took her and her carrier to the vet.  She may be getting a tiny bit chubby.