James Dorr's Blog, page 115

Dystopian Checklist, Or, How Well Does Tombs Really Fit the Bill?

Well, life in the far future as depicted in TOMBS:  A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH is, to be sure, not exactly cheery.  And Amazon’s keywords do include the term “Dystopian,” as well as “Horror.”  But here’s a description from Erin Roberts’s “How to Tell If You’re Living in a Dystopia — And Why It Matters,” from TOR.COM:  Dystopian fiction, which comes from the Ancient Greek words “dys” (bad) and “topia” (place), lives up to its name by featuring worlds in which reality is cruel, suffering is extreme, and hope seems pointless.  But not [image error]every horrible place is a dystopia — the trope usually features a world in which society itself is the problem — and not every dystopia is horrible in the same way.  The social order is broken, but how?  The system has been corrupted, but by whom?  These futures may be bleak, but they are not interchangeable.  And so the question, are troubles in TOMBS primarily that of a social order (or orders) gone wrong, or is it more just a physically lousy place to live?  Or some kind of combination of both?

Ms. Roberts suggests four questions one could ask to determine whether one’s milieu is dystopic or not, mostly having to do with societal origins and hopes of relief, but as some of the comments after may suggest those might not be the only criteria.  But see for yourself by pressing here.  While as for TOMBS, for more information click on its picture in the center column, read the reviews, and perhaps buy a copy.

Untreed Reads Titles, More, in DriveThru Fiction Halloween Sale

Another sale, this one by DriveThru Fiction according to Untreed Reads Publishing’s Jay Hartman:  If you’re getting this email, it’s because one or more of your titles have been included in DriveThruFiction.com’s special Halloween sale.  They’re going to be offering 31% [image error]off all horror/ghost titles through the end of October.  And two of the titles offered are my short story Christmas horror chapbook I’M DREAMING OF A . . . and the Untreed Reads New Year’s Eve anthology YEAR’S END with its lead story by me, “Appointment in Time,” as well as my non-horror dystopian science fiction (and hence not part of the sale, but still cheap at only $1.50) novelette PEDS.  For more, press here, where you’ll find seventeen titles from various publishers (mainly anthologies with stories by me in them) concerning me, plus two, PRESIDENTIAL PULP and THE ADVENTURE MEGAPACK, that have nothing to do with me whatsoever.  Whereas for Untreed Read titles on sale only, including ones mostly not by me, one can press here.

Best Body Horror Included in G & H Halloween Sale, Oct. 25-31?; Society of Misfit Stories Vol. 1 in Print Thanksgiving

Tis the season, well into the run-up to Halloween.  Thus in today’s email, from C.P. Dunphey of Gehenna Publishing, [w]e are happy to announce that from the 25th-31st of October, we will discount all our titles to $0.99 on Amazon.  We may have some difficulty running the promotion for HINNOM MAGAZINE Issue 003, but rest assured, we will do our best to include the Halloween-themed issue in [image error]the lot.

We advise you to buckle up and prepare for one haunting Hallows’ Eve with these terrifying tales.

He says “all our titles” from which presumably not only the two already published issues of HINNOM MAGAZINE but YEAR’S BEST BODY HORROR 2017 ANTHOLOGY, including my story “Flesh” (cf. September 25, et al.), will be included along with HINNOM’s third issue; also given the low sale price cited it’s most likely for electronic format, but no matter the details it sounds like a sale worth looking into, in less than ten days time.  More details here as they are learned.  And for those who can’t wait, YEAR’S BEST BODY HORROR 2017 ANTHOLOGY is available on Amazon now in both Kindle and paperback editions for which, to take a look, one can press here.

Also received from Bards and Sages Publishing, a galley proof for THE SOCIETY OF MISFIT STORIES, Volume 1, with its lead story by me, “By Force and Against the King’s Peace” (originally published in ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE; see January 19, et al.).  This will be the promised print collection of stand-alone electronic chapbooks that came out last year under the “Misfit Stories” aegis, hopefully to be out “in both large format trade paperback and hardcover for libraries” in time for Thanksgiving.

PMMP Friday the Thirteenth Holiday Sale Includes Tears of Isis

Perpetual Motion Machine Publications has announced a Friday the Thirteenth sale, to be in effect the entire Friday the Thirteenth Holiday Weekend.  To quote their email:  We’re also celebrating [image error]this special day by marking all of our books in our webstore off by 13%.  Simply visit our webstore and enter code PMMP13 upon checkout.  We have . . . a lot of books available.  Please consider picking up one or two or twelve.  The discount code expires on Sunday.

That’s thirteen percent off today through Sunday by using the code PMMP13 when checking out, but more to the point one of the books you can get discounted is my Stoker Award(R) nominated collection THE TEARS OF ISIS.  To go to the PMMP site press here.  And, after you’ve added TEARS to your shopping “cart,” to order two or a dozen other titles click “SHOP” at the top which will bring you to a page for browsing through additional selections.

School Nights Revealed in Friday the Thirteenth Three Drops from a Cauldron; Another Rockin’ Royalty Received

Friday the Thirteenth proper has revealed more good news too, at least so far.  At least from the writing standpoint, with a Friday publication of THREE DROPS FROM A CAULDRON, for Samhain 2017, by Britain’s Three Drops Press.  Although largely a book of poetry, my ingredient in the inculcation is a very short story, “School Nights,”* [image error]originally published in GOTHIC BLUE BOOK IV:  THE FOLKLORE EDITION (Burial Day Books, 2014, cf. October 29 2014, et al.), about a young girl who . . . well . . . learns.  The book itself can be read for free by pressing here, with instructions also for purchase of a 74-page paperback edition for $7.32.

Then, speaking of money, another royalty has been received with again, as is my custom, neither publisher or amount revealed to avoid embarrassment.  Nevertheless, had it not been paid via Paypal anyway, the check would have covered the cost to mail it with some cash left over.

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*Oddly enough, the title seems to have been omitted from the contents page.  Look for the “School Nights” on page 22, following “Vampire Girls” and “House of Horrors.”

Mermaid “Haiku” Taken by Star*Line; Writers Guild Second Thursday at Players

Who knows what Friday the Thirteenth will bring, but yesterday, Thursday the twelfth, was rather nice despite a gloomy, Octobery day.  The highlight, a first poetry acceptance for me by STAR*LINE new editor Vince Gotera, for a “horrorku” titled “Wet Work.”  Horrorku?  Well, it’s sort of supposed to be horror plus haiku though it’s really more just a three line poem with a vaguely 5-7-5 syllable count (mine is 5-7-4) on a horror subject, which in my case would more likely be epigrammatic, although not always.  But to the point, even if lacking walruses (cf. October 1) “Wet Work” does have a mermaid.

Then Thursday night brought the Bloomington Writers Guild co-sponsored “Second Thursday Players Pub Spoken Word Series” (cf. June 8, et al.) with, this time, a special reading performance of PREMIUM [image error]TAFT, a two-act play by Tom Trent, with musical interludes by Jason Fickel.  PREMIUM TAFT is, to read from the Facebook description, “[a] fictional time-traveling comedy about William Howard Taft’s whistle-stop presidential campaign appearance at the Mitchell Opera House in 1908 . . .  or maybe 1958?”  Or science fiction meets farce, in this case with an Indiana small-town ambience with grifters, politicos, greed, and rock ‘n’ roll.  And lots of fun.

This was followed by “open mic” presentations of which mine came in fourth of six, to an audience of about 15 people.  Noting that it had been a gloomy, Octobery day, ideal as a precursor for Halloween, I read four poems from VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE), “Night Child,” “La Méduse,” “Moonlight Swimming,” and “Chagrin du Vampire.”

Zippered Flesh 3 Arrives in Computer Cave Mailbox

It is here!  ZIPPERED FLESH 3:  YET MORE TALES OF BODY ENHANCEMENTS GONE BAD (see September 26, et al.) arrived this evening, all 371 pages of it, and a handsome book it is too.  Or, to quote three opinions from the back cover:   In Zippered Flesh 3, Editor Weldon Burge has done a masterful job of combining work from well-known masters like Jack Ketchum and Graham Masterton with newer writers.  But it is the original work by newcomers like L.L. Soares and Meghan Acuri that stands out for me. …  Highly recommended. — Gene O’Neill, author of The Hitchhiking Effect:  A Retrospective Collection[image error]

“Closer” by Charles Colyott is a wonderfully poignant and romantic story. …  “Going Green” by Christine Morgan is so original, timely, and well-written it deserves special mention. …  Kudos to Burge for putting together another fine anthology of cutting-edge fiction. — Paul Dale Anderson, author of The Instruments of Death series

Hardcore horror that ranges from the socially relevant to the scatologically repulsive — the shock here is like “The Scream’ made flesh.” — Mort Castle, editor of On Writing Horror:  A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association

Mine in fact is one of the gentler pieces, “Golden Age,” a reflective science fiction tale originally published in MINDSPARKS in Spring 1994, one of seven reprints by authors such as Billie Sue Mosiman and William Nolan out of a total of nineteen stories, to end the collection.  But see for yourself — if you dare — by checking it out on Amazon here.

How About Another List — Movies Perhaps to Disturb One’s Sleep?

A disturbing film isn’t one that gleefully stands with its arms outstretched to embrace buckets of blood.  A disturbing film is something else, something more — an experience that’s undeniably unsettling whilst it plays out, but even more powerful in the lingering sting it leaves behind.  A truly disturbing movie doesn’t slap you around in your seat on first viewing — instead, it burrows its way into your brain and replays in your [image error]thoughts for weeks at a time afterwards.

There are plenty of lists out there that attempt to gather the most disconcerting films of all time in one place, but here at We Got This Covered we’re gonna evade your textbook entries on this occasion — A SERBIAN FILM, HUMAN CENTIPEDE, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST etc. — and go for a slightly different flavor.  These movies don’t simply disgust by serving as commendable pieces of exploitation cinema, but work in a rather different and more complex way to deeply, deeply disturb.  Watching them once will be more than enough. . .

So starts Gaz Lloyd’s “10 Deeply Disturbing Movies That You Need To Watch, But Only Once,” brought to us by WEGOTTHISCOVERED.COM.  To cut to the chase, to see the list for yourself press here (noting that a few of these specify the original movie, not the remake).  For myself, I think I’ve seen four of the ten, but will need to check further when I’m at home (I’m writing this at a library computer right now) to see if I still have two of the titles.  And, tonight, maybe watch AUDITION again?

Nah, maybe not.

Beginning the Space Race: Sputnik, First Satellite Launch Was 60 Years Ago Today

“Now comrades, I am finally convinced that a dream of mine — space travel — for which I have given the theoretical foundations, will be realized.  I believe that many of you will be witnesses of the first journey beyond the atmosphere.  In the Soviet Union we have many young pilots. . . (and) I place my most daring hopes in them.  They will help to actualize my [image error]discoveries and will prepare the gifted builders of the first space vehicle.  Heroes and men of courage will inaugurate the first airways:  Earth to Moon orbit, Earth to Mars orbit, and still farther; Moscow to the Moon, Kaluga to Mars!”

The square erupted in cheers, led by none other than the country’s leader Joseph Stalin.

Twenty-two years later, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite into space aboard the R-7 rocket.  After its flight into space on October 4, 1957 — 60 years ago today — Sputnik-1 quickly entered into legend, and struck fear in the United States about falling behind in the space race.  But such a momentous launch likely couldn’t have happened without [image error]Tsiolkovsky, a mathematician, founding father of modern rocketry, and a science-fiction visionary that even inspired Arthur C. Clarke.

Thus starts today’s anniversary internet gleaning, “How a Russian Scientist’s Sci-Fi Genius Made Sputnik Possible” by Matt Blitz on POPULAR MECHANICS.COM, on the Russian visionary Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, rocket pioneer and, yes, science fiction author, remembering the October 4 1957 launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik.  Some of us are so old we remember that day, even now when we’ve just celebrated a few weeks ago a space probe’s demise in crashing on the planet Saturn.  And some of us so young that we might live to see the first colony on Mars.  And some of us who became science fiction fans, or even scientists — or even writers — may share in a tip of the hat to those times, though Tsiolkovsky himself, born just over a hundred years before in September 1857, had died twenty-two years before the launch, on September 19 1935.

For more, one may press here.  And for even more than that, for the rocketry details also from POPULARMECHANICS.COM, please to peruse “The Rocket that Launched Sputnik and Started the Space Race” by Anatoly Zak by pressing here.

Vamps Poems Appear in Horror Writers Association News

As part of the HWA’s pre-Halloween run-up, three poems of mine have been published this month in a four-poet mini-anthology “Gallery of Poems” in the October issue of the HORROR WRITERS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER.  The poems, “Night Child,” “La Méduse,” and “Bon Appétit,” are all reprinted from my 2011 poetry collection VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE) along with two illustrations by [image error]Marge Simon, albeit erroneously attributed to me as well in the HWA NEWS.  Oops!  The poems themselves were also reprints when they appeared in VAMPS, with original attributions appearing in this current publication.

The HWA NEWSLETTER is, alas, a private publication so I’m not including a link to it here, but if you have friends in the HWA, by all means ask them to give you a look (as well as at those of the three other poets, Marge Simon, Jill Bauman, and Sandy DeLuca, with mine appearing last in the column).