James Dorr's Blog, page 116

Speaking of Saturn — Hyperion and Theia Contract Arrives; Pre-Halloween Barnes and Noble Discounts for Tombs

A time of revelry and reversal, Saturnalia represents the breakdown of what has been deemed the natural order.  HYPERION AND THEIA’s inaugural volume wants stories and poetry that runs the gamut of genres and turns expectations on their heads.  Submit a fantastical murder-mystery set in the biggest carnival in Atlantis.  Wow us with a sweeping romance in space where gods and goddesses serve their creations after a bloody war. . . .

Such had been the call some months ago and, last December, came the acceptance (cf. December 9 2016).  My “epic” poem DREAMING SATURN, originally published in the anthology DARK DESTINY (White Wolf, 1994) would not only be in the inaugural volume, but tentatively would be set as the opening item.  A contract would follow.

So you know how it is.  Life intrudes, delays happen.  But then, yesterday:  Sorry for the long wait!  I have attached the final contract for you to sign.  I will contact you again on the 27th of October with the cover and other promotional material.  Suffice to say, the signed contract went back in the email this afternoon.

In other news, a run through the e-bookstores this morning unearthed a 33-percent discount for TOMBS:  A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH on Barnes and Noble, at $9.99 — and that’s just the “official” price, with individual sellers’ new copies as inexpensive as $8.98.  There’s no indication how long these prices may last, so best take advantage soon!  Amazon, also, while listing the full price of $14.95 on its site, also has several individual listings in the $10 to $11 range.  If interested, check out Barnes and Noble by pressing here; while Amazon can continue to be found, including several substantive reviews, by clicking TOMBS’ picture in the center column.

Animals, Tombs Feature of Early Halloween First Sunday Prose Reading

The crowd wasn’t the hugest, even including the homeless guy asleep in the back row, but was gratifyingly enthusiastic for this month’s “First Sunday Prose Reading and Open Mic”(cf. August 7, et al.), co-sponsored by the Bloomington Writers Guild and Boxcar Books, and anyway it had to compete with a lovely late-summerish afternoon outside.  And, yes, this was October.  Be that as it may, it was also our starting-the-buildup-to-Halloween special, with featured readings beginning with Frida Westford and two short shorts, “That Which Remains” about a displaced bog spirit paired with a fairy tale brought up to date in “The Eve of All Hallows,” and ending with Joan Hawkins and Tony Brewer performing brief excerpts from the screenplay for Ken Russell’s never-produced film version of DRACULA, with the title [image error]character an aesthete who specializes in biting artists about to die in order to give them eternal life to continue producing.

My reading came in between these two with a presentation from TOMBS:  A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH somewhat paralleling that of the previous month at the Bloomington Arts Festival “Spoken Word Stage” (see September 3), this time with the book’s back-cover blurb plus the ghoul-poet’s tale from Section III to introduce the chapter-story “Carnival of the Animals,” and seemed to me to be well received (snoring homeless guy in the back notwithstanding).

Then after the break, with banana bread and ginger cookies, four readers, all of whom we’ve met before, offered open microphone presentations to cap the afternoon:  Tonia Matthews, Shayne Laughter, and (this time separately) Tony Brewer and MC Joan Hawkins.

The Walrus: Another Silly Lagniappe

So, okay, this is another teeny horror/dark humor poem I read at the Bloomington Writers Guild’s “Last Sunday Poetry” last week (cf. September 24), but this being the afternoon of October’s “First Sunday Prose” (more on which later this p.m. or [image error]Monday morning), why not?  Actually it came up while perusing “Bloodizabeth’s Meat & Greet Dinner Party” on SLASHERMONSTER.COM and seeing one comment mentioning The Beatlles and “I Am the Walrus.”  So having this variant, as it were, in the quiver, why not shoot it into the “Comments” section as a comment upon the comment?  (And thus here, as an “extra,” for you.)

I AM A WALRUS

I have a walrus mustache,

& am hot for mermaids

New Royalty Season Starts With a (Small) Bang; Post Office Fun Fact

This is the time for second quarter royalties to (as it were) come home, and the first report was received this week.  One may recall that royalties for individual short stories in an anthology, for instance, or possibly as stand-alone chapbooks are rarely large, and it’s been my custom to avoid embarrassment on both sides by declining to identify either the publisher or the exact amount.  So let it suffice just to say a [image error]significant recipient this time around will be the US Postal Service for selling the stamp to send the check to me.

Then, continuing on the topic of matters postal, I stopped by the post office this afternoon needing to buy stamps for myself, and, having been tipped off, asked for two sheets (in this case of twenty stamps each) of the one honoring last month’s solar eclipse (cf. August 22).  The tip?  If you press your thumb on the stamp’s picture of the occluded sun, rolling it a bit perhaps to assure that all has been warmed by its touch, and then remove it — voila!  The picture you’ll see is now one of the moon!

Aimée, Flightless Rats Reappear in Print in Fantasia Divinity No. 14

Let us recall last July and a special dispatch from NASFiC at a happier time in San Juan Puerto Rico, and the news that Casket Girls tale “Flightless Rats,” originally sent as an anthology submission, had just received an acceptance instead for [image error]FANTASIA DIVINITY #14 to be out in September (see July 7).  Then came September’s announcement that, lo, it had appeared, in fourth position out of five on the FANTASIA DIVINITY website (see September 5, et al.).  And now, albeit a few days late, please to be informed that vampiress Aimée’s adventure concerning a date gone bad in 19th Century New Orleans is now available in a print edition as well (with, it is promised, much nicer formatting) which can be found by pressing here.

Originally published in T. GENE DAVIS’S SPECULATIVE BLOG on Jan 12 2015 as well as, in print, in MOCHA’S DARK BREW (Mocha Memoirs Press, Jul 2016) it can still be read, too, on the FANTASIA website for free by pressing here.  But (fourth out of five, remember?) only after a lot of scrolling down.

And If That Weren’t Enough, Zippered Flesh 3 Is Now Published in Paper

What horror anthology on body enhancements wouldn’t include gross-out fiction?  This book has it in spades.  But, this collection of stories goes far beyond that.  Here you will also find science fiction, surreal fiction, fantasy, and even a full serving of dark humor.  Disturbing, perverse, often gut-wrenching (pun intended) stories — all between the covers of this anthology![image error]

Nineteen chilling tales by some of the best horror and suspense writers today.  Definitely not for the squeamish!

What anthology is it?  It’s ZIPPERED FLESH 3:  YET MORE TALES OF BODY ENHANCEMENTS GONE BAD (see September 19, August 5, et al.) which, according to Weldon Burge of Smart Rhino Publications has now been published, as of September 22, in paperback format.  For more information/ordering press here.  ZIPPERED FLESH 3 is the “other” body horror anthology (cf. just below) and, at 388 pages, also a hefty book, my part of which is the final story, “Golden Age,” a less “gut-wrenching” than some SF story of reasoned reflection, but possibly just right to cap the anthology.

Introduction for Year’s Best Body Horror Unveiled

The human body has long been the enemy of horror films.  One only has to look as early as THE INVISIBLE MAN or THE WOLFMAN for manifestations of physical forms undergoing irrevocable change.  But the body horror genre encompasses three distinct variations of organic terror:  invasion via disease or decomposition, violation through mutilation or penetration, and transformation from a reconstitution of biology.

Body horror?  Yes, today’s email includes an announcement from Gehenna & Hinnom Editor/Publisher C.P. Dunphey that Shane Ramirez’s “Deconstructing Body Horror,” part of which is quoted above, as originally published in SOUNDONSIGHT.ORG and POPTOPIQ.COM has been selected as[image error] the introduction for YEAR’S BEST BODY HORROR 2017 ANTHOLOGY, the contents page for the rest of which has appeared below (cf. August 10, also September 18, 13, et al.).  This is a large book at 400-some pages, with forty-plus stories, expected out on September 30 and available for e-copy pre-order by pressing here.  And my cut in the carnage?  A story called “Flesh,” the surrealistic tale of a man of means and a nightmare-based need of a weighty nature.

Cats, Bears Lagniappe Share in Writers Guild Last Sunday Poetry

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 [image error]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. . . .

The Equinox Cat: Between Two Computers

According to Monroe County Animal Shelter records, the Goth Cat Triana was born on the autumn equinox, September 22 2016, although her Official First Birthday will be celebrated October 1.  However she was willing to pose for an informal picture earlier Friday evening.

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Here she is in one of her favorite spots for early evening relaxation, between the Computer Cave’s two online computers (the offline computer, on which most original story composition is done, is in a separate room, although she has a spot next to it which she uses too, as well as a comfortable daybed which she shares with dictionaries and other reference materials).  One can see part of the keyboard for the desktop machine to the right, with the laptop (on which this blog is being written) catercornered to the left.  Also to right, behind the keyboard is a telephone (both computers have dial-up connections) with an answering machine just to left of it.

Video Stars Proof Copy of Zippered Flesh 3 (Warning: Best Not Be Eating When You Get to the End)

Well, I couldn’t resist it, and I do have a story in it, an actually gentle science fiction musing called “Golden Age” at[image error] last place in the contents.  But Smart Rhino Publications’s ZIPPERED FLESH 3: YET MORE TALES OF BODY ENHANCEMENT GONE BAD (cf. August 5, June 19, et al.) promises, overall, not to be a book for the squeamish, as you may find out too by pressing here.

But — WARNING! — best not be eating when you get to the part, after you’ve gotten a view of an advance copy of the book itself, at the very end.