James Dorr's Blog, page 170

French Dracula Up on Susan H. Roddey Bloody Valentine Blog

What could be better for Valentine���s Day than the romance of Dracula for Mina Murray as presented, with music, in French?�� Well, maybe not quite — there���s still Jonathan Harker to be considered.�� But see for yourself as of noon this Valentine���s Day on blogger Susan H. Roddey���s all-day special�� “Bloody Valentine” outing via S.H. RODDEY’S HAUNTED HEAD, a DVD review of�� the opera DRACULA:�� ENTRE L���AMOUR ET LA MORT (slightly updated for the occasion from its original appearance here on May 31, 2012), complete with a link to find words for the songs in English translation.

If you haven���t seen it, the opera that is, IMHO it���s worth looking out for.�� As may be the review which can be found here.

Pour la Saint-Valentin, Recommended for Sexy SFF Reading (���You Must Be 18. . . .���)

It had to happen, and so here it is for Valentine’s Day courtesy of TOR.COM, ���SFF Sexier Than Fifty Shades of Grey��� by Leah Schnelbach and Natalie Zutter.�� Some books and authors may be familiar, some perhaps less so, but for brief descriptions (accompanied by links for exploring further and, perchance to buy for oneself) please to peruse . . . but recommended only for those who are 18 or over.

Good Friday the 13th News — A Robot, a Cyborg, and a Martian has Shipped!

One may recall A ROBOT, A CYBORG, AND A MARTIAN WALK INTO A SPACE BAR (cf. December 1, October 22 2014, et al.), the long-anticipated anthology of science fiction humor from Nomadic Delirium Press, as having suffered several delays (cf., especially, September 26, but then there was one this January too involving spoiled copies from the printer. . . .).�� Hard luck, one might say.�� But then — guess what — today, Friday the 13th of February, comes this news:�� “Print copies of A Robot, a Cyborg, and a Martian Walk into a Space Bar have shipped.�� All of the contributors have been sent their copies, and everyone who ordered copies have also had theirs shipped as well.�� Most of the contributors to the Kickstarter will have their books in the next week.�� . . .�� We hope you all enjoy the book, and we ask that if you do enjoy it, please post reviews wherever you can.�� Thanks!”

Go figure, huh?�� But be that as it may, I’ll be looking forward to my contributor’s copy!

NASA: Top Five Space Stories to Look for in 2015

This is from PENNY4NASA.ORG via SPACE ADVOCATES NEWS, posted by Curtiss Thompson, for science fiction as well as science fact fans:�� the top five advances in space science currently scheduled for this year.�� The fourth one, in fact, may have already happened (while I don���t recall seeing it, it may have appeared within a story about resupplying the International Space Station), a soft landing on a platform at sea for a SpaceX first stage which, according to this, was scheduled for January 6.�� But see all for yourself by checking here (and then, if inspired, consider using whatever strikes you to build a story or poem around).

The Good Work Accepted by Australian Antho Blurring the Line

Do you know what���s real and what isn���t?

There are many tales and urban myths of monsters that shouldn���t exist, of demons and devil possession, of serial killers wearing human skin, of ghosts terrorizing families . . .

But these tales also sound like fiction, don���t they?

We hope so.

But . . .

But what if . . .

So begins the description from Australian publisher Cohesion Press for their upcoming anthology BLURRING THE LINE, currently due out the third quarter of this year.�� And yesterday, late night by US clocks, the word came to me:�� a story of mine of witch hunters in Victorian England, ���The Good Work,��� will be among its contents.

But is it fiction or is it a true tale.�� Ah, that is the question — it could happen, couldn���t it? Stranger things have.�� The guidelines last fall noted that, for instance:

A man called Arnold Paole was accused of being a vampire in 1732 in Yugoslavia, after his body was dug up five years after his death and found with long pointed teeth and nails, with blood in his mouth.

The Mothman of West Virginia was a winged man-sized creature with glowing red eyes and huge moth-like wings sprouting from its back, seen repeatedly during 1967 and 1968.

In 1977, a dead creature that looked a lot like a plesiosaur was caught in the nets of a Japanese fishing vessel, the Zuiyo-maru, offshore east of Christchurch, New Zealand.

The sage Apollonius of Tyana, born in Turkey at the start of the first century AD, hunted demons, and once saved one of his students from a vampire who was going to drink his blood and eat his soul.

These are all supposedly true stories . . .

So to see for yourself this fall, check back here for more information on BLURRING THE LINE as it becomes revealed.

 

Airships & Automatons Due in March, Table of Contents Announced

Another thing coming (cf. January 3, below; also September 4 2012), its engines a-roar!�� First via the U.S. mail today in form of a counter-signed contract and check.�� Then through a ���tagged��� message on Facebook. Described in its blurb as ���Spanning the ages between ancient Greece and a far flung and dying future,��� itself, by some, feared to be perhaps dead.�� After a voyage of nearly two and a half years from its first acceptance of my own story, ���Raising the Dead����� . . .�� now appears in the distance the steampunk-through-the-ages anthology AIRSHIPS & AUTOMATONS!

But shall we let Editor Charles P. Zaglanis say it in his own words?

After much too long a time, here is the final ToC for my first anthology.�� I ‘ve personally sent out the checks to the authors and the book should be out in March.�� Thank you one and all for your incredible patience:

A COURTLY DIVERSION by Gary Cuba

THE DOG-FACED CANNIBAL by Christine Purcell

ALL THE KING���S MONSTERS by Megan Arkenberg

THE THING WITH FEATHERS by Cora Pop

MEMPHIS BBQ by Cat Rambo

A HORRIFIED MIND by Ferrel D. Ferrel Rick Moore

IN CHAINS LIGHTER THAN AIR by Nghi Vo

THE UNICYCLIST���S FATE by Michael J DeLuca

IRON & BRASS, BLOOD & BONE by Alma Alexander

THE TROUBLE WITH BOMBS by Jay Caselberg

TAKING FLIGHT by E.G. Gaddess

AN URCHIN, AN ADVENTREMAN by Eric Del Carlo

FLIGHT OF THE PEGASUS by Darin Kennedy

GRINDSTONE by Jay Lake

RAISING THE DEAD by James Dorr

My story in this, as may be gleaned from the ���through the ages��� passage above, represents the far-flung dying-Earth future as one in a series of tales set in the ���Tombs,��� a vast necropolis and its surrounds where people still strive to live and love, as they do today.�� For those familiar with my 2013 collection, THE TEARS OF ISIS,* think of ���The Ice Maiden,��� ���Mara���s Room,��� and ���River Red,��� also in the Tombs universe.

While as for AIRSHIPS & AUTOMATONS, adding what I���ve heard thus far of the other 14 stories in its contents, the wait should be worth it.

 

*And, if not familiar, one may press its picture in the center column.

Pre-Valentine���s Day Note: Once Bitten Love/Horror Contract Signed

This is the one about ���love turned sour��� (cf. January 20, below):�� ���We don���t like ���googly-eyed chicks’ and we don���t like paranormal romance.�� . . .�� As long as it combines a thematic element of love in a horror story.����� This is the one from British Publisher KnightWatch Press, the anthology ONCE BITTEN with my Poe-inspired story ���Bernice��� in it.�� And it draws nearer.

Today the contract arrived which I filled out and sent back this evening.�� Then will come the next steps, mainly the editor ���doing an overall proofread and complete edit to correct any small typos, punctuation errors (etc.) . . . .����� Those edits will then go back to the authors for final approval, and once that���s done it will go to the publisher and, thence, to the public.

So maybe it won���t be out quite in time for Valentine���s Day, but — significant others alert — it���s coming.�� It���s coming.

New Splatterlands Review Appears in Splatter Caf��; Second First Sundays Prose Reading

“Art: that which is raised to more than ordinary importance; that which, even if temporary, is forever after etched in the collective being of man.” ~James S. Dorr

The next story is “THE ARTIST ��� by James S. Dorr.�� This brilliantly written tale is about a man who loves his art and his wife, but his wife, unable to comprehend the beauty of art starts to drift away and into another man’s arms. . . .�� (SPLATTER CAF��)

Editor (with Sharon Lawson) Anthony Rivera has posted a second review of the 2013 anthology SPLATTERLANDS (cf. January 28, et al.) in the last five days, noting of this one from SPLATTER CAF��, ���[w]e freely admit that the work in SPLATTERLANDS is not for everyone, but it is for those who appreciate their horror extreme yet still intelligent and with (*gasp*) a PLOT!�� (And if that type of horror isn’t for you, we have plenty more volumes that are.) Apparently, this is exactly the type of horror that Splatter Cafe is looking for.�� ;-)

���Splatter Cafe:�� ���[Splatterpunk], the beast of revolutionary horror, has definitely been reawakened and it’s ready to ravage your psyche long after the last words have been consumed.�� [The] Bram Stoker Award-nominated editors at Grey Matter Press have created something special with this anthology.�� SPLATTERLANDS: REAWAKENING THE SPLATTERPUNK REVOLUTION is 13 deliciously horrific stories of serial murder, vengeance, religious fanaticism, sexual assault and so much more.�� SPLATTERLANDS will tear into your flesh, shredding chunks of your own morality, leaving you bloodied, violated and dismembered.���

���Splatter Cafe pays special tribute to illustrator Luke Spooner of Carrion House and authors Jack Maddox, Christine Morgan, Ray Garton, James Dorr, and J Michael Major. . . .���

And so, for a Super Sunday brag (to be read as one will) I���ve already quoted above part of what SPLATTER CAF�� reviewer L. D. Johnson says about . . . moi.�� And there is a bit more, as well as a lot of perceptive words about SPLATTERLANDS and publisher Grey Matter Press in general, which all can be found here.

I read this review at the public library less than an hour before 2015���s second Bloomington Writers Guild sponsored First Sunday Prose Reading at Boxcar Books, just a block east.�� The featured readers for February were Stephanie Haines who read humorous essays from a newspaper column she writes on topics such as dating at 40, ice cream, cheapskates, and Jane Austen, followed by Communications and Culture PhD student Eric Zobel who, with the assistance of three other readers, presented ���Adventures in Indifference,��� described as ���a prose piece for multiple voices.���

This was also the second in which a few open mike readers were allowed more time than the ���standard��� three to five minutes (cf. last month, January 5).�� I took advantage by reading a personal favorite of mine, ���Casket Girls,��� originally published in DAILY SCIENCE FICTION last April.�� If interested, those who haven���t read it (or wish a refresher) can go to the DAILY SF site and enter ���Dorr��� in the search box on the right for it and, at present, three more stories (with a fifth, ���Dead Lines,��� to come, probably this spring) that I���ve had there.

Fifteen Science Fiction and Fantasy Films to Look Out for in 2015; Also Ten for Horror

Here are two lists for the waning of the year���s first month, the first of which by Brandon Russell I just ran across today, courtesy of InConJunction SF and Fantasy Convention via Facebook, from WWW.TECHNOBUFFALO.COM, ���15 Science Fiction/Fantasy Movies to Look Forward to in 2015,��� some of which come complete with trailers.�� From a quick scroll down it looks (at least to me) like INSIDE OUT might be fun as might MINIONS if it doesn���t get too silly, while TOMORROWLAND could be intriguing.�� The extra outings in established series of movies excite me less, but should delight their fans.

Should some of these seem a bit too upbeat or jolly, though, here’s a list for those of us of a darker disposition, by Andy Crump at SCREENRANT.COM, ���Screen Rant���s 10 Most Anticipated Horror Movies of 2015.����� To check these out (and, yes, a few of these are retreads too) press here, or for the science fiction/fantasy list press here — and happy viewing!

New Review of Splatterlands Posted; Blight Digest Takes Reprint Story Strawberry Fields

Word came today that a new review of SPLATTERLANDS (see October 14 2014, et al.) by Matthew Andrew has been posted on Amazon.�� Or, as Editor Anthony Rivera put it, ���A full 67 weeks after its release (that’s almost 16 months!), the Grey Matter Press anthology SPLATTERLANDS has been an almost 60-week bestseller, today remains in the Top 10% of all Kindle sales at Amazon and is still receiving 5-Star reviews from readers.�� We never imagined this little-book-that-could with its selection of very nasty short horror stories with a point, would’ve been this successful. With an overall Amazon Rating of 4.6 out of 5.0, SPLATTERLANDS yesterday was called:

“���A Home Run of Splatterpunk���

5.0 out of 5.0 Stars���

The interesting thing, it occurred to me, is my story in this one is called ���The Artist��� and, while it didn���t make the contents of my collection — cited for its own new review just two posts down, January�� 25 — THE TEARS OF ISIS for various reasons (or really just one, it didn���t fit in with the specific multiple-story arcs that began to emerge as I was planning the contents out), it is an illustration of TEARS���s overall theme, the relationship between beauty and art vs. death and destruction.�� None of which, really, may mean all that much other than that particular theme may run through even more of my work than that cited — or may be so common a theme as to be trite.�� That���s for readers and critics to discuss.�� Or, more mundanely, maybe it���s just an excuse to suggest readers buy both books.

Be that all as it may, readers can find the new SPLATTERLANDS review by pressing here (and, as for THE TEARS OF ISIS, just scroll down to January 25 and press the link there).

In other news, relatively new magazine (their first issue was October 2014) BLIGHT DIGEST���s Managing Editor/Publisher Ron Earl Phillips emailed an acceptance of my story ���Strawberry Fields,��� originally published in Winter 2007-08 in BLACK INK HORROR.�� To quote their guidelines from last fall, what they seek are ���[w]ell written stories that play out the human experience against unimaginable and terrifying odds.�� Dark fiction that���s defined more by the story than the splatter.�� We are open to supernatural, psychological, and physical fear.���

���Strawberry Fields,��� about a house with a . . . well . . . unfortunate back yard, probably actually may contain a blood-drop or two of splatter — so I play both ends of the game, eh? — but tastefully muted.�� In any event, it is tentatively slated for issue 3 or 4 (issue 2 is just finishing up production, according to Phillips), for June or October of this year.