James Dorr's Blog, page 166

Rhysling Anthology, Bubba Claus Contract Received

Two quick items for today, the first being that THE 2015 RHYSLING ANTHOLOGY has arrived.�� This is the book of nominees for the Science Fiction Poetry Association���s annual Rhysling Award for short (50 lines or less) and long poetry, in which I have one entry in the short category, ���Beware of the Dog��� (see March 16, et al.), a tale of werewolves and working-class values originally published in GRIEVOUS ANGEL in September 2014.

Then, in the electronic mailbox, the contract came for ���Bubba Claus Conquers the Martians,��� a jolly Christmas tale (with zombies) to be published in Upper Rubber Boot Books���s upcoming ���anthology of fiction and poetry,��� THE MUSEUM OF ALL THINGS AWESOME AND THAT GO BOOM (see February 16).�� ���Bubba Claus Conquers the Martians��� originally appeared in Yard Dog Press���s HOUSTON, WE���VE GOT BUBBAS in 2007.

Movie Anthology Reel Dark Cover, Contents Revealed

From Editor L. Andrew Cooper (with Pamela Turner) comes the news that REEL DARK (cf. April 17, March 24, 13) is now listed on Amazon, albeit perhaps not physically available until its debut at World Horror Con later this week.�� To quote from the back cover, “Welcome to a macabre cinema for the imagination, to screenings of twisted tales projected not on a movie screen but on the page.�� In REEL DARK you’ll find stories and poems by authors ranging from new voices to bestsellers to Bram Stoker Award finalists.�� From the battle for recognition between a child actress and a vengeful, long-forgotten film star in ‘Whatever Happened to Peggy . . . Who?’ to a madman controlling a student �� la The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in ‘Caligarisme,’ to a hapless Dreamist, whose talent propels him into a nightmare of jealousy and revenge in ‘The Dreamist,’ the authors have created worlds filled with madness, twisted desires, and broken dreams.�� . . .�� As David Lynch puts it, ‘This whole world is wild at heart and weird on top.’�� As Karen Head writes in her poem responding to Lynch, ‘In the movies/ everything is illusion.’�� But in a world with cameras everywhere, how do you know whether you’re in a movie?”

My own pup in this picture show is a saga of sisters, “Marcie and Her Sisters” to be precise, who may have had too much exposure to zombie films in their youth — but then again, who can believe what they say.�� Nevertheless, we do now have an image of the cover and, outstripping Amazon, an almost official (word has it that there may still be two almost unnoticeable punctuation errors) table of contents for which one may see below:

DriveThruFiction All-Month Science Fiction Sale Includes Peds, A Robot. . . .

Credit goes to Jay Hartman of Untreed Reads Publishing for announcing this one, with my novelette PEDS one of the books on sale.�� But let���s let DriveThruFiction say it in their own words:�� ���To celebrate Science Fiction Month, this title has been marked down by 15% through all of May!������� And that���s not all, Nomadic Delirium Press���s anthology A ROBOT, A CYBORG, AND A MARTIAN WALK INTO A SPACE BAR with my tale of a lovelorn toaster, ���Toast,��� as one of its offerings is also part of the DriveThruFiction May sale.�� To check them out, for PEDS click here, or A ROBOT, et al. here.�� And then, to be sure, you can explore around for other science fiction bargains as well.

May 3rd Double Header: ���Last��� First Sunday; an Evening in Space

A very pleasant early May outing began with the month���s Bloomington Writers Guild ���First Sunday Prose Reading��� (see April 6, February 1, et al.), co-sponsored by Boxcar Books.�� Featured readers were Alyce Miller, award-winning author and Indiana University Graduate MFA program teacher and Director of Admissions, reading humorous essays on death in California and, having moved from there to here, the difficulties of becoming a ���Hoosier���; poet, essayist, and MFA graduate Doug Paul Case with a series of ���little prose poem micro-essay things,��� humorous and ironic; and incoming THE INDIANA REVIEW Editor-in-Chief Peter Kispert with a first person story-essay on failed aspiring actors and reconstructed Netflix FATAL ATTRACTIONS episodes ���where exotic animal owners are victimized by their pets.����� Although running late, the audience stayed for five open mike presentations that followed, of which mine, third in the lineup, was a recent as yet unsold story, ���Medusa Steps Out,��� about . . . well . . . an exotic animal owner of sorts who is also victimized by her pets (although, unlike the onlookers in this case, survives).

This was also the last ���First Sunday��� reading of the 2014-2015 season, the series now going on summer hiatus until August 2.�� Other presentations will also be winding down as the month continues, but even now plans are also developing for 2016, including a possible multi-disciplinary joining with the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra for a concert next February.�� Along these lines, Writers Guild members had also been offered comp tickets for a production this evening of Gustav Holst���s THE PLANETS, Op. 32, by the Symphony Orchestra (joined at the haunting end of the final movement, ���Neptune, the Mystic,��� by the Bloomington Chamber Singers Women���s Chorus).�� This, too, was a mixed media performance, accompanied by a slide show of the planets with NASA and ESA images put together and introduced by Indiana University Astronomy Professors Gabriel Lubell and Richard Durisen, thus perhaps to help us, the writers, stretch out imaginative wings.

In any event, it was a great show.

Yet Another List, or, Magical Realism: It���s More than Just Gabriel Garc��a M��rquez?

Yes, yet another list (cf. April 30, 28 just below), but this one seemed to me particularly interesting, especially in that the two final entries never had really struck me that way — but, yes, it makes sense.�� The list:�� from Tony Puryear courtesy of TOR.COM, ���Five Books About Magical Realism,��� and findable here.

Only Six Months Until Halloween — but While We Wait. . . .

Yes, with the last day of April finally upon us, songbirds flitting through new-leaved trees, a freshness of growth and the promise of summer, it���s six long months until next Halloween.�� But while we wait, courtesy of Terry M. West and HALLOWEENFOREVERMORE.COM, a little nostalgia from days not that far past.�� To let him explain:�� ���When I was a kid and there were only a few television stations, it was always a thrill when a made for TV horror movie or mini-series was announced.�� I was a horror junkie before I hit the age of ten.�� But there were many movies I was not allowed to go see at the drive-in.����� And so, herewith, Terry���s rundown of ���five top Made for TV Horror films,��� for which one need but press here.

How many have you seen?

Tales Within Tales: Dead Lines, Casket Girls in Daily SF Archives; the Vampiress’ Fifteen Sexiest Sisters

I don���t think DAILY SCIENCE FICTION even has the one week wait any more to add stories into their archives, but whether they do or not, here is the New Orleans mystery-horror story ���Dead Lines��� (see April 21, et al.) permanent address.�� Does the lady Lo know anything more than she professes, or is it just that she���s a bit scatterbrained at times?�� And is the first thing she says in the story really purloined from Edgar Allan Poe?

Well, for the second, you might need to check out the ���author story comments��� by plunking the link at the end of the story, but it���s all there now — as well as another button at the end of the comments paragraph that can take you to “Casket Girls��� (cf. April 17 2014, et al.), last spring���s tale of Aim��e and her voyage from France that started it all.

And then, just for fun, our New Orleanians not being the world���s only bloodsucking women, for those of us who are partial to lists please to peruse, courtesy of HORRORNEWS.NET, the ���Top 15 Hottest Sexiest Female Vampires��� by pressing here.

Poetry, Research, Autographs, Urban Fantasy, a Sunday Reading: World Horror Convention Programming Announced

I don���t know if this is quite carved in stone yet, but there is a schedule now for panels and other intellectual goodies at next month���s World Horror Convention in Atlanta GA.�� For me, I���m on two official panels and also expect to be part of Linda Addison���s Thursday night informal Poetry Open Mike reading.�� A warning, however, one of my panels is at 9 a.m. and I also have a prose reading at 9 a.m. on Sunday, so please plan not to party too late the nights before.�� My other panel is at a more comfortable 5 p.m. Friday (pack in a sandwich for dinner if needed, I won���t mind) and I���ll also be at the autograph session more or less just after on Friday at 6:30 p.m. (just enough time for me to sneak in a sandwich for myself).�� The entire schedule as it exists now can be found here, while for easy reference to where and on what and when I���m scheduled, see just below.

THURSDAY:

8-9:30 PM�������� Reading:�� Horror Poetry Open Mike ��� INNSMOUTH

Moderator:�� Linda Addison.�� Various attending authors.

FRIDAY:

5-6 PM���������������������� Panel: SCAREBIZ:�� Just the Facts, Monster:�� How to Dig Deeper than the Internet for Accurate Storytelling���� ��� R���LYEH

An incorrect fact or detail in a story can pull a reader right out of your narrative and destroy the impact of an otherwise excellent piece of fiction.�� Writers who also are research professionals (librarians, archivists or journalists) share their insider tips to help you avoid the factcheck trap.�� Topics covered will include Net and bricks-and-mortar resources you may not know about, how to approach experts, how to vet sources, maximizing a trip to an archives or library, and more?�� What was their greatest research challenge and how did they solve it?

Moderator:�� John T. Glover.�� Panelists:�� Courtney Alameda, James Dorr, Cynthia Lott, Loren Rhoads, Matthew Weber

6:30-8 PM������������ Mass Author Signing ��� THE BARRENS

Convention guests and attending authors will be available to sign their books.

SATURDAY:

9-10 AM������������������ Panel:�� TERRIFYING TROPES:�� Urban Fantasy: It���s Selling Like Hellcakes,�� But Is It Horror? ��� DUNWICH

When is a vampire not a vampire?�� When is a werewolf more of a beast or less of one?�� Should witches be sexy or scary or both?�� A lot of the same creatures and processes are used in writing the tales but are the lines just blurred or are they really separate genres?

Moderator: James A. Moore.�� Panelists:�� James Dorr, Yvonne Navarro, Jana Oliver, Lucy A. Snyder, James R. Tuck

SUNDAY:

9-9:30 AM������������ Reading: James Dorr ��� INNSMOUTH

Untreed Reads Earth Day Sale, Half Price Off for Wednesday Only

To help save the trees, Jay Hartman of Untreed Reads Publishing has announced ���[o]n Wednesday, April 22nd, we���ll be offering 50% off all of our ebook titles for the day in honor of Earth Day.����� The discount will be good both at the Untreed Reads Store and DriveThruFiction, but again for only one day.�� They further announce that several of their other distribution partners may also participate, ���so be on the lookout for those promos as well.���

My titles at Untreed Reads are the chapbooks VANITAS, I���M DREAMING OF A. . . , and the novelette PEDS, all of which can be ordered by clicking their pictures in the center column, plus the lead story, ���Appointment in Time,��� in the New Year���s Eve anthology YEAR���S END:�� 14 TALES OF HOLIDAY HORROR which can be reached by pressing here.

Comment ��a Va? ��a Va! Dead Lines Up on Daily Science Fiction; Black Chaos II, Cold, Lifeless Fingers Available Now for Pre-Order

What about those casket girls anyway?�� Les filles �� les caissettes (see April 17, 10 2014, et al.) are at it again with�� Aim��e���s amie ���Lo��� starring in her own story, the Poesque ���Dead Lines.����� Mystery along the Mississippi!�� For more, if a subscriber check DAILY SCIENCE FICTION by clicking here; if not, you can subscribe for free at the same site or just wait a week and find it by searching for ���Dorr��� in the archives.

In other news, ���Black Chaos comes again in 25 MORE frightful — and frightfully funny — tales of the zombie, from the wilds of 19th century Canada to the farthest edge of the galaxy, and from college dorms to Wal-Mart.�� You may think you know zombies, but not these!����� So begins the blurb for BLACK CHAOS II, with my story ���Cold, Lifeless Fingers��� (cf.�� March 10, et al.), now available for pre-order in ebook form from Smashwords and Amazon.�� And, as with the ebook, the print edition should be out soon from publisher Big Pulp or ���through any bookstore.����� More will follow as it becomes known.