James Dorr's Blog, page 169

Here���s That Homebound Girl Again: A Poetic Lagniappe

So it���s all kind of silly, but yesterday���s weekly Writers Digest poetry prompt (see November 1 2014, et al.) was to write a poem inspired by a movie.�� And one movie that I���d seen not all that long back is A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT (see January 19, 11, et al. this year), so why not, thought I, write my poem about that.�� Today I did so and going over the draft I realized that what I had was actually another review of the film, this time in verse.

So, having little sales potential outside of, say, a really eccentric film magazine, why not share it here — even before my critique partner (who does not read this blog) sees it?

 

A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT

On the bad streets of Bad City,

west of Tehran,

she glides rather than walks

on a stolen skateboard,

her chador billowed cape-like

behind her —

beware, young man, beware,

lost in a forest of pump jacks

and squalor,

despite your own Dracula cloak

and fake teeth,

keep your father inside and

the cat at home

lest your life change forever.

Birthday Greeting: Frankenstein 197 Years Old on March 11

This literary reminder comes from Kathy Ptacek via the Horror Writers Association on Facebook, that today marks the anniversary of the 1818 publication of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s seminal novel�� FRANKENSTEIN.�� So, courtesy of Kathy, read on.

 

In 1910, Edison Studios released the first motion-picture adaptation of Shelley’s story (Wikipedia).

 

Black Chaos II Proof Sheets Received, Contents Revealed; Exploration Anthology Slightly Delayed

Two bits of news to announce today, the first from Pig Pulp Publications Editor Bill Oliver on their upcoming BLACK CHAOS II:�� MORE TALES OF THE ZOMBIE (cf. January 10; March 8 2014).�� ���Attached is a proof of ���Cold, Lifeless Fingers��� for your review.�� Please verify that the story title and your byline on the copyright page, table of contents, author’s biography, and in the story are correct.�� If you wish to proofread your story, that is fine, but hopefully should be unnecessary.�� We’ve proofed the story twice and will have at least one more read-through of the entire publication before we go to print.����� This is the tale of a traditional Haitian zombie who, all in innocence, comes across a yard sign indicating that, if one wants to have the homeowner���s gun, he���ll have to ���pry it from my cold, lifeless fingers.���

But are not zombies��� fingers cold and dead too?

The answer, apparently, is on schedule for publication by the end of April and, if my story is an example, the proofreading should be quite good.�� So, for a little bit of a preview, here���s a copy of the table of contents as it appears on the proof:

 

BLACK CHAOS II:�� MORE TALES OF THE ZOMBIE

1 We Always Get Our Man by R.A. Williamson

12 Shackles of Death by Thomas Canfield

16 When It���s Not Love, It���s Hate by Dawn Wilson

25 Sweet Bird of Death by Gary Ives

30 Cold, Lifeless Fingers by James Dorr

34 Dave Vs. the Zombie Apocalypse by Angel Luis Col��n

43 Zombees by Gabriel Valjan

53 In the Storm They Came by Sean Ealy

65 The Zombie���s Lament by Steven Belanger

72 Daddy���s Home by Bo Balder

75 The Dead of Summer by Wayne Laufert

80 White Light, White Heat by William Johnson

92 My Mother-in-Law is a Zombie by Anna Sykora

95 Memories by Nu Yang

100 Lucky 43 by Joriah Wood

108 In Reynolds by J. Boone Dryden

115 American Refugees by D. Jason Cooper

121 The Not Tom by Ian Welke

126 Inhuman Resources by Brenda Kezar

136 The Zombie Mike Christmas Special by Terry Alexander

149 Bitter Inheritance by Jason Ridler

157 The Last Circus by DeAnna Knippling

166 In the Age of Resurrection by Deborah Walker

171 Dead Moon by Jim Cort

181 Newsfeed Zombies by Aislinn Batstone

 

Then shortly before, I received a note from Neil Baker of April Moon Books to the effect that their upcoming ILL-CONSIDERED EXPEDITIONS (see January 13) is currently running about a month late, but is still on its way.�� My story in this one is ���Ice Vermin,��� about a Russian expedition into Siberia at the beginning of the last century — and what it discovered!�� ���Ice Vermin��� is a reprint which also appears in my collection DARKER LOVES:�� TALES OF MYSTERY AND REGRET (Dark Regions, 2007) and was first published on CD-ROM in EXTREMES 5 (Lone Wolf, 2003), while ���Cold, Lifeless Fingers��� first appeared in the Halloween issue of GC MAGAZINE, October 1999.

Free Speech Roundtable Sunday Discussion

This Sunday brought�� a little bit different offering from the Bloomington Writers Guild (cf. February 1, et al.).�� Rather than poetry or prose per se., or open mike readings, today had a group of eight or ten writers discussing the questions of censorship and even, perhaps, the duty of writers.�� ���Since the CHARLIE HEBDO attack,��� the description began, ���questions have surfaced once again about free speech, censorship, self-censorship, and the possible consequences of putting words into print.�� . . . the meaning of free speech, its effect (both good and bad), and how it may affect our lives and future.���

There were no answers, just an informal chat for about an hour at a local coffeehouse.�� Quotes from writers were passed around, which we read in turn, as a sort of warming up session — mine, for instance, from Salman Rushdie, ended ���To read a 600-page novel and then say it has deeply offended you:�� well, you have done a lot of work to be offended��� — these in turn leading to questions, in this case perhaps whether there are times when a writer should seek deliberately to offend.�� There might be, for instance, as in the case of CHARLIE HEBDO, a time when one should take an especially ���in your face��� position as a way to force conversation about things people may be deliberately trying to ignore.�� But there could be dangers, too, as we learned in the case of CHARLIE HEBDO.

One thing pointed out, is that the danger of silencing need not always be in the headlines.�� Social pressure to prevent speaking out at a school board meeting against censorship of biology texts on evolution, for instance, may in its combined effect across multiple communities be even more dangerous in the long run than armed thug attacks against a single ���offending��� high-profile publication.�� But everything ends up, still, to a matter of individual circumstances and contexts and, ultimately, the writer���s individual decisions.�� As a horror writer in my own experience I don���t go out seeking windmills to tilt at, but in certain stories I do feel it���s needed to go in some depth�� into what lies beneath, and causes, the horror (in choosing stories for THE TEARS OF ISIS, as one example, I realized perhaps for the first time — though this time in terms of parallels between 1950s cold war paranoia and present day Islamophobia — how powerful the story ���Bottles��� may be especially now, as well as possibly understanding why the mystery magazine I���d originally written it for may have decided to turn it down even forty years after the time of the story).

In any event, it���s something to think about.�� Do I self-censor?�� Of course I do sometimes — even in horror there is such a thing as taste.�� But other times I might not, and at yet other times what I think a story might need is an extra twist taking it at a tangent from where it started (in THE TEARS OF ISIS perhaps in the reprint ���The Christmas Rat,��� or maybe ���Bones, Bones, the Musical Fruit���?�� Though others who read them may disagree).

Be true to one���s self, is that the message?�� I think so, maybe, but also to study who you yourself are.�� Be sure it is true, and be mindful of editors or, even if self-publishing, a need to attract readers to your words if they���re worth reading.�� Or does that start going around in circles?

To close, another quote I drew to read, this one from 1960s activist Abbie Hoffman:�� ���Free speech is the right to shout ���Theater!’ in a crowded fire.���

Retro Magic: 1980s Fantasy Movies, One Person���s ���Best��� List

���Long before Game of Thrones, there was a time in history when HBO stood for ���Hey, Beastmaster���s on!����� A time when, if you asked for a dragon, you got a puppet instead of CGI.�� A time when the words ���fantasy hero��� didn���t call to mind a pensive Viggo Mortenson or a bespectacled Daniel Radcliffe — nay, but a shirtless, bemuscled Arnold Schwarzenegger (or cheaper facsimile) dripping with oil.���

So begins compiler Leah Schnelbach via TOR.COM, continuing on:�� ���I have travelled back to that time to bring forth the Ultimate 1980s Fantasy Epic Ranking List Post!�� And By Crom, I swear I���ve gotten . . . most of them.�� Join me below to celebrate the 1980s fantasy epic, in all of its loincloth-wearing, phallic-sword-waving, secret-wing-unfurling, spandex-bulging, camel-punching glory.����� And thus introducing ���A Ranking of 1980s Fantasy That Would Please Crom Himself!,��� although with the caveat that the order of the eighteen entries within the list is the author���s personal opinion — as well as that, with apologies aforethought, it is possible one or more important and/or favorite films could have been missed.

Still, as a paean to times gone past, to simpler days when broad shoulders and semi-nudity might still be enough to guarantee a happy ending, it is a list worth visiting here.�� And then, should there be quarrels (in my case it could be I���ve seen far too few of these myself — though of those I have, I will always retain a special spot for THE LAST UNICORN), that���s what the following ���Comments��� section is for.

Jean Harlow, Horror “Almost-Icon” Birthday is March 3

A dull, wet, residually snowy day today in which, at least as far as news for this blog is concerned, the universe itself seems almost to have stopped.�� So it has been for the last few weeks, although not necessarily that odd — publications and writing seem somehow to need to wait for warm weather at times, much like groundhogs and March hares.

But there is one item that might be reported, a curiosity as it were even if a little peripheral in itself to horror.�� Today is the birthday of actress Jean Harlow, Hollywood���s original ���Blonde Bombshell,��� in 1911.�� Dying young of a cerebral edema, a complication of kidney failure in 1937, she was nevertheless one of Hollywood���s biggest stars in the mid-1930s, playing against such actors as William Powell, Spencer Tracy, Robert Taylor, and (six times) Clark Gable.�� Her film credits include HELL���S ANGELS (the World War I flying film from Howard Hughes, prior to her moving to MGM), THE PUBLIC ENEMY (with James Cagney), PLATINUM BLONDE, RED-HEADED WOMAN, DINNER AT EIGHT, BOMBSHELL, and THE GIRL FROM MISSOURI.

But then there���s the movie she did not make, the one that might have made her a horror icon as well.�� To quote the actress who did win the role:�� ���When [filmmaker Merian Cooper] learned that Willis O���Brien was doing animation with miniature figures at RKO, he began to entertain the idea of doing a homegrown studio-made movie and the thought of one great gorilla became bigger and bigger.�� This one would be discovered in a jungle and brought back to civilization — to his downfall.�� A girl (of course a blond girl) would be part of the discovering expedition.�� For a while he had thought of Jean Harlow but recently had decided they could put a blond wig on me.����� (Fay Wray, ON THE OTHER HAND, A LIFE STORY, New York, 1989, p. 125)

And there you have it, a tale of the almost-first girlfriend of�� KING KONG.

Aim��e the Illustrated Casket Girl Debuts in Night to Dawn

It was I and Marge Simon fooling around last spring following the publication in DAILY SCIENCE FICTION of ���Casket Girls��� (cf. April 17, April 3 2014, et al.), my alternate history flash of the coming of vampires to the New World.�� She wrote some lines, just goofing around, a few silly rhymes loosely inspired by the story; I wrote a few back; until at some point we called it done.

But that���s not all.�� To quote myself on April 17, ���[w]e tossed around a few places we might send it, I suggesting one that had published another sort of silly poem of mine with an illustration by Marge a while back (see ���Well-Dressed Vampiress Finds a Home,��� July 27 2012).�� So it is that yesterday Barbara Custer of NIGHT TO DAWN e-mailed Marge back, ���I���ve published James Dorr���s work before . . . [l]ove the one you did together and got a good laugh.�� I���d like to publish it in NTD 27.����� And not only that, Marge may be supplying an illustration to go with this one too!���

Fast forward to present and ���Aim��e, the Casket Girl��� has been published as well as illustrated by Marge on the following page in the April 2015 issue of NIGHT TO DAWN, received earlier this week.

Ten Top Human-to-Monster Transformations

I’m sitting at a borrowed computer as I type this — who knows if this posting will even work? — with, in the background, various items of medical machinery doing their various things.�� Lights blinking, beepers beeping.�� When, idly web-drifting through horror sites, what should I come across but “Top Ten Terrifying Human Transformations,” by Josh Millican?

Care for a look?�� Via THEBLOOD-SHED.COM, find out which favorites may lurk in wait here.

Surrealist Writing: Origins and Early Practitioners

Well, it interested me.�� I���ve had little work done this week because I���ve been down with a cold, and outside we seem to be into another of those ���polar vortex��� things — single digit temperatures at best.�� Two reportable items:�� the contract went in for ���Tit for Tat,��� the Little Willie poem for GHOSTS REVENGE with payment received very soon after and my author���s copy of A ROBOT, A CYBORG, AND A MARTIAN WALKED INTO A SPACE BAR arrived.�� Something to read during my convalescence.

And one thing to share too, come upon serendipitously while spending some idle time on the internet, an article by Alan Gullette on pre-surrealist and surrealistic writing.�� It���s largely an overview, but it names names and can offer a gateway to further exploring.

Ghosts Revenge Takes on ���Little Willie���; Bubba Claus Bought by Museum Anthology

On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 9:17 PM, James Ward Kirk wrote:�� ���Thank you for the poem, James.�� I loved it.�� I even chuckled aloud, something I can’t recall doing over a poem in a long time.�� I’ll be sending out the first batch of acceptances on Saturday.����� I thought it best to follow the publisher���s schedule on announcing the acceptance, which actually came latish Sunday evening along with a contract to print out and return today.

The poem in question is called ���Tit for Tat,��� one of a type sometimes known as ���Little Willies,��� about a naughty boy who either causes or comes to grief, resulting in the poet reacting with either glee, indifference, or sometimes drawing from it a tragically inappropriate moral.�� For more on Little Willies one can see below, February 6 2012.�� And what it was for is an anthology on vengeful spirits called GHOSTS REVENGE which, should Little Willie become a ghost, might be just the thing he���d try to get.

To be published by JWK Publications, GHOSTS REVENGE is still accepting submissions, both poetry and fiction to 4000 words (it will also have a section for flash up to 1000 words), but will be closing as soon as it���s filled, so speed may be called for.�� Guidelines can be found here.

And as for Little Willie, Publisher Kirk sent a follow-up email:�� ���Even though I chuckled, I admire the work.�� It’s perfect.���

Then even later Sunday night I got an acceptance from Joanne Merriam of UPPER RUBBER BOOT BOOKS for another fiction and poetry anthology to be published in 2016, again for a comedy piece although this time a story.�� As I introduced it in my cover letter last October, ���I hope you don’t mind a humorous, possibly crude in a few places, would-be swashbuckling SF submission for THE MUSEUM OF ALL THINGS AWESOME AND THAT GO BOOM — and with a chainsaw roar instead of a boom because the shotgun had the wrong shells — the attached ���Bubba Claus Conquers the Martians.����� It was originally published in HOUSTON, WE’VE GOT BUBBAS (Yard Dog Press, 2007) and also, one might note, offers a sideways tip of the hat to the holiday classic and perennial ���10 all-time worst movies��� listee SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS.�� Also zombies.���

So here���s the reply:�� ���Hi, James.�� Thanks so much for your submission.�� I’m accepting Bubba Claus Conquers the Martians for THE MUSEUM OF ALL THINGS AWESOME AND THAT GO BOOM, which will be published in 2016.�� I won’t announce the table of contents until I’ve received back all of the contracts, but you may feel free to announce your inclusion in the meantime.

���I’ll send along a contract in the next several days.”

This one, however, closed early last month.