James Dorr's Blog, page 18

Frankenstein Bride, Vamps at Last Sunday Poetry

Horror icons dominated this afternoon’s Bloomington Writers Guild “Last Sunday Poetry Reading and Open Mic” (see August 27, July 30, et al.) at Morgenstern Books, with a Halloween theme. This even included small candy goody bags passed out to an audience of about 20 by Guild member and featured reader April Ridge, who was also costumed as the Bride of Frankenstein, as was moderator Hiromi Yoshida in an appropriately spooky hooded black robe. Not costumed as such, but wearing a shirt depicting a screaming figure and an appropriately black coat sweater, the other featured reader was . . . me.

An ardent lover of “all things Halloween, Poetry & Open Mic,” with work in such venues as SUBTERREANEAN, SARDONIC SPECTATOR, and BETWEEN THESE SHORES LITERARY & ARTS ANNUAL, among others, April led off with comments about the BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN movie speculating that had the Bride been given more respect, and not just consigned to die, we might have had a different picture of Hollywood horror, followed by poetry including tributes to both the character and the concept, as well as more general pieces on autumn and seasonal spookiness. Then I was second, following Frankenstein monsters with vampirism, reading ten poems from my (unfortunately) out-of-print VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE) on such aspects as the joy of flying, the drudgery of post-dining clean up, party vamps, vampire sports, and a “Night Child” still new to the unlife, but quickly learning.

After the break six or seven more poets joined in the “Open Mic” segment, including two who had come up from Evansville, to fill out a close to two hour session, and thus a good ending for what would be the last for 2023, there being no meetings scheduled for November or December because of the holidays in both those months. We will get back together again for Last Sunday Poetry on January 28, 2024.

Hawkins, Brower “Trigger Warnings” At Last On Way

We began this volume in 2017, shortly after Donald Trump was elected. We began working on it in response to the outrage we felt over the Access Hollywood Tape, in which Trump openly admitted that he randomly assaulted women. While previous presidential candidates’ campaigns had been derailed when sex scandals were reported by the press (Gary Hart, for example), Trump seemingly faced no consequences, even when multiple accusations of physical molestation and rape were made against him. His election and imperviousness to charges of assault seemed to signal a new step in the normalization of rape culture. . . . It was in this climate that we began soliciting stories, poems, essays and nonfiction pieces about the assault and attempted assault that is a striking aspect of so many women’s psychosexual histories. . . .

So begins a lengthy Amazon blurb for Bloomington Writers Guild Editors Joan Hawkins and Kalynn H. Browers’ long-awaited collection of accounts, revelations, essays, even in one case (mine) fiction, fully titled TRIGGER WARNINGS: WRITINGS ON NARROW ESCAPES FROM SEXUAL ASSAULT. A nearly entirely local production, all contributions, save for the introduction, are from Writers Guild members as well. Or to further quote from the Amazon blurb: All but one of the pieces in this anthology were authored by writers who belong to The Writers Guild at Bloomington, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting written and spoken word in Bloomington, Indiana and its environs. Most of us are published writers and all of us have other careers. Ruth Novaczek, the author of the Introductory piece in the book, is a London-based filmmaker and artist. We contacted her when she posted an earlier version of this story on her Facebook page. It was such a strong piece, we thought it would be perfect as a kind of thematic introduction. “Rape-escapes,” she wrote when she sent us permission to use her story, “are a good way to show that every young woman has probably had one, and we’re the lucky ones.”

And so, the announcement today from Co-Editor Hawkins has been a long time in arriving. It’s been a long haul, I know. After trying several publishers and having the ms tied up for lengthy reading times with each one, we finally decided to publish with Cephalod press. Anya Royce contributed photos for the wraparound cover and to use as section breaks throughout the volume, and Tony Brewer did the actual production/layout, so the volume looks lovely. Kalynn and I hold the copyright to the volume as a whole, but the rights to each individual story/poem/piece remains with the author. So you are free to use your work again in your own chapbooks and anthologies with the idiocy of paying rights to someone else etc.

I just sent off the payment today — so I should actually have books in a few weeks. When I have them in hand, we can arrange a book launch.

Thus it goes. My part in this, as a man, is a sort of outlier titled “La Fatale” — a pseudo-factual supposition that the novel DRACULA was originally based on true events, and that Mina Harker, against her will, had ultimately become a vampire herself. She flees to France, tries to minimize the effects of her new nature, but ultimately in warding off an attack on herself and several companions, discovers it’s possible for her to fight back.

Right Man OKed for Monster Within, Contract Signed and Returned

The call was more for crime than horror, but with a psychological horror tilt. The publisher, also — Zombie Works Publications — suggested at least a little darkness.

We at Zombie Works Publications are currently accepting twenty short story submissions. They will go into our THE MONSTER WITHIN: TALES OF A TORTURED MIND ANTHOLOGY. We are looking for short-stories that involve human killers and murderers. The depravity of the human mind can be worse than any mythical creature. . . .

We are asking for each story to be between 2000 to 3000 words in length and content must be between a Rated “PG-13” to Rated “R”. Please no NC-17 (Rated X) stories, they will be rejected as our contract with the printer does not allow us to produce that sort of content.

They didn’t say whether reprints would be accepted but, as it happened, I’d just been thinking of a story originally published in FEDORA III (Wildside Press, 2004) that I thought might be perfect. Well, one with a little twist toward the end, but. . .

But the thing is, sometimes when they don’t actually say “no” it can mean a publisher will at least look at reprints, that is if they’re good, so it seemed worth the chance. And sure enough, yesterday the word came from the anthology editor, Stephanie J. Bardy: Congratulations on making this year’s Zombie Works Anthology THE MONSTER WITHIN. The book will be released on October 31st. Contracts will be forthcoming before then.

And that would be that, but an October 31 release date means things would have to go extremely fast — and so, sure enough, the contract arrived after only about a half day. But . . . well, the hurry that short deadlines bring may cause mistakes too. Or in brief, a couple of silly glitches on either side caused an initial delay in signing, but, today and a new contract supplied, it was back to the “zombie works” early this afternoon.

Rabbit Hole VI In Time for Halloween? (Death and Vampire, Sirens Call Up Now)

RABBIT HOLE VI, with my story “Marcie and Her Sisters” (cf. October 12, September 18, et al.) is actually out for Halloween already, or at least for pre-order for electronic copies, but. . . . Well, let’s let Editor Tom Wolosz explain via this morning’s email:

The Rabbit Hole VI Destination:Journey ebook is available for preorder (October 31st release) from the following: Barnes and Noble Rakuten kobo Apple Books Scribd tolino OverDrive bibliotheca Baker and Taylor Odilo vivlio Borrow Box Smashwords Gardners.

Still waiting for Amazon. The book has been resubmitted since their initial block over one story being free online (it’s been taken down to conform with Amazon rules). I’ll let everyone know as soon as I do.

Hoping for the paperback to be available by the 31st, but I still haven’t gotten the proof copy.

Or, the imps of the internet have struck again — or is that only to be expected, given today’s closeness to Halloween. “Marcie and Her Sisters,” as a quick reminder, is the one about three not-so-old women who go to the zombie store to buy themselves husbands. It is being reprinted, having been originally published in REEL DARK (Blackwyrm Publishing, 2015).

On the other hand, the well-traveled Aimée of New Orleanian “Casket Girl” fame has already arrived, via the “mid 2021” WEIRDBOOK, in THE SIREN’S CALL special Halloween issue (cf. July 14). This one’s a freebie, for which you may press here.

Got it?

Okay, as you may notice it’s a LARGE issue at 344 tightly-packed, no-frills pages, with the story to find, “Death and the Vampire,” not until page 227. But worth the marathon scrolling, I hope (well, actually, I used an edit function with a “Find” button, but search for my name, not the word “vampire,” unless you’re okay with a LOT of stops in between). This is the one where Aimée, as she passes St. Louis Cemetery Number 1 on her way to the French Quarter, meets a tall man in a hooded black cloak carrying a scythe — and it’s too early, she notes, for Mardi Gras but also too late for Halloween.

Also, he may know more about vampires than it seems to her a person should.

Alien Buddha Fills Fast, 1st “Preview” Received

The call had been for love poetry and stories, with a deadline set for November 1. The anthology: THE ALIEN BUDDHA LOVES YOU (cf. August 8), to be published by Alien Buddha Press.

The call: [P]oetry, prose, flash fiction memoir and art that capture the essence of these themes:
Chapter One: The Alien Buddha Loves You (on the theme of love and all its nuances)
Chapter Two: The Alien Buddha doesn’t love you anymore (breakup stories)
Chapter Three The Alien Buddha Loves you after dark (just keep it publishable, Red says). So I sent them a “Tombs” story, set in the after dark milieu of TOMBS: A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH even if not in the novel itself (and as Alien Buddha seems to have decided, just dark-dark, not steamy-dark, ending it up in chapter 1, even if the tale’s love has been broken up by death as well — so go figure), “Crow and Rat,” originally published in the UK by Eibonvale Press in 2018 (see March 21, 18, January 13 2019, et al.), of two beggars in the slums of the New City, the lowest of the low, but whose love — at least of one — reached far, far higher.

And so, today, from Editor “Red” the attachment plus email: Here is the first preview of “The Alien Buddha Loves You”.

If you have any edits to request, please let me know sometime in the next couple days.

Or in other words, the Buddha’s LOVES seems to have filled up fast (including poems by two other Writers Guild members — at least that I spotted right off the bat). And, my “okay” having gone back this evening, more to be here as it becomes revealed.

Third Sunday Write a Downer? (as Well as, as Usual, Late)

A moment ago the Goth Cat Triana just jumped on the TV table, in front of the screen, the news on in the background. Silly cat! Had that happened before I responded to this month’s Bloomington Writers Guild’s “Third Sunday Write,” as is increasingly often (and through my own fault, not the moderator’s) about a week late (cf., September 24, et al.), it might have put me in a more amused mood.

But it was too late — what’s done had been done. The relevant prompts this month: first “In the midst of autumn flowers still bloom,” combined here with the second, a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, “When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?” And with me in a not amused mood, here’s what I wrote exactly* as it appears on the 3rd Sunday Facebook page:

.

(I try to be amusingly cynical, but not this time out. So, with an assist from Prompt #2)

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1. In the midst of autumn flowers still bloom.

.

Lilies, mostly, this October —

“When will our consciences grow?”

let’s be honest, never,

because is that not the way of the world?

The Bible says it: “an eye for an eye,”

that’s Exodus XXI, verse 24.

Is the Qur’an more gentle?

Or would it make a difference —

a deed for a deed,

an atrocity for the same,

it’s our animal nature, that’s all.

We could try to do better —

but not this October.

.

*Sorry (and a note, re. the italicized lines from “Lilies” to the one ending with “October,” just above, WordPress today seems to have decided that poetry cannot be printed single spaced. I disagree, so one must use one’s imagination).

Third Saturday Backspace Night Gallery Sparser than First

It may have been that today was the University’s Homecoming and, hence, more entertainments were being offered downtown. Or possibly not. But whatever the reason, this evening’s Backspace Gallery’s “Night Gallery” art, music, and spoken word event — the third of four weekends, for the October Friday and Saturday nights leading up to Halloween — drew relatively few people compared to Saturday’s two weeks ago (cf. October 7).

That was the one where, a reader having had to cancel the night before, I had premiered as the “spooky readings” performer, this time out partnering with three members — including the Writers Guild’s own Tony Brewer — of the musical group Ortet. And then another partnering too, informally planned at the Writers Guild’s business meeting at the County Library that afternoon, just two hours before. Thus at a little before 6:30, about halfway through the the three-hour 5 to 8 p.m. event, two more Writers Guild members showed up, Joan Hawkins who had been a reader the night before and Hiromi Yoshida who is scheduled to read next week on the closing weekend.

The idea: Joan had mentioned that she had read the Grimm Brothers’ “Snow White” Friday, while I had a story, “The Seven,” that relates the tale as it “really happened” from the diminutive miners’ point of view. So while I took a break, she took over the mike with, first, “The Robber Bridegroom” with Hiromi listening to gather some ideas of what to expect for her reading next week. Then, I having come back to read a few more of mine, at a little after 7:30 she took the stand again to read “Snow White” which, with my following with my rather more jaded “sidekicks'” version, pretty well closed out the hour.

Black Infinity 10, The Bala Worm Monday Arrival

Yes, it’s here at last, the Fall-Winter 2023 issue of BLACK INFINITY (see October 9). This is the CREATURE FEATURES edition and, for those who did not guess which Ray Bradbury story inspired the cover, it’s “The Fog Horn,” originally published in THE SATURDAY EVENING POST, June 23 1951, which is also the lead story in this 225-plus page, book-size magazine.

To quote the blurb in the Amazon listing: [the]10th giant volume celebrating monsters, aliens, insects and more. Stories and articles inspired by the old Creature Features movies of yesterday, including Ray Bradbury’s “The Fog Horn” and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. The Arthur Conan Doyle story that inspired Universal Studios’ The Mummy; the history of James Warren’s magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland; the cinematic forerunners of Ridley Scott’s film Alien, including Jerome Bixby’s It: The Terror from Beyond Space, Ib Melchior and Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires, Queen of Blood, and John Carpenter’s The Thing. Plus a comics story featuring Reptisaurus! Heavily illustrated with movie photos and art by World Fantasy Award winner Allen Koszowski. Blobs and globs, creepy spiders, man-eating plants, vampires, shapeshifters, mutants, dragons, demons, werewolves and other classic horrors that go bump in the night, happily haunting your dreams—or nightmares!

And, lest we should miss it among all the other content, my story is fourth in the contents listing, “The Bala Worm,” first published in BLACK DRAGON, WHITE DRAGON (Ricasso Press, 2008) as well as reprinted in my 2013 collection THE TEARS OF ISIS, one of thirteen stories in all, plus three special features, and even a comic! For more information/ordering, one may press here.

Scholars and Rabbits: Proof Copies Galore

Ahh, the writing life. And this time a double-header! First up, from Author/Compiler Dennis Wilson Wise:

Hwaet! The proofs have arrived, and I hoped you could take a look at your chapter to ensure that no errors have crept in through the layout process. I’d like all contributors to do three things:

Confirm that the line numbering is correct;

Verify that no errors have crept into your final text (I’ve already done the headnote and endnotes myself);

If you see an error, please either mark it on the PDF or email me the line, error, and correction you wish to see.

At this point in time, only minor changes can be accommodated. Focus on correcting errors, misspellings, or mistakes in the typesetting. Please refrain from stylistic changes, although I can consider those if justified enough. Get your revisions to me in one week’s time, by Thursday, October 19th.

As with its companion in a moment, that email sent actually maybe an hour earlier Wednesday morning, there turned out to be no corrections needed — although there was one thing I wanted to double check on a library computer Thursday. The publication, a scholarly one, SPECULATIVE POETRY AND THE MODERN ALLITERATIVE REVIVAL (see June 24, 2022; April 29, 2021, et al.), with two poems of mine in it, “The Westfarer,” originally published in DARK DESTINY: PROPRIETORS OF FATE (White Wolf, 1995) and “The Worm in the Wood,” STAR*LINE, May-June 2001, about viking exploration and werewolves, and Arthurian legend, respectively.

And then the “companion,” from Editor Tom Wolosz: Attached is the RH VI ebook set to be released October 31st. It is formatted for a kindle so if you look it over in google docs or some other reader the formatting might be a bit off. Please give your story one more look, and if there are any glaring typos let me know by October 20th so I can make last minute corrections. If you would like a PDF version, please let me know.

I did need the PDF as it turned out, which was quickly sent when I emailed back. The book this time: THE RABBIT HOLE, VOL. VI (cf. September 18, et al.), a charity anthology with proceeds to go in part to the Against Malaria Foundation, and my story in it, “Marcie and Her Sisters,” originally published in REEL DARK (BlackWyrm Publishing, 2015).

And again no corrections required, but by the time I’d finished it nearly midnight, it waited until today, Thursday, with both returned to their publishers this afternoon. With more to come here in each case when it’s known.

Black Infinity “Creatures,” Bala Worm At Last in Print

According to Amazon the publishing date was supposedly September 24, but apparently there was some kind of delay. In any event the announcement came today, October 9, from Editor Tom English via Facebook. BLACK INFINITY: Creature Features is NOW available for sale in the US. (Sigh, finally!) Availability in the UK, Canada, Italy, Germany, France, etc., etc. coming in a few days or less. This is probably the best, most attractive volume yet. Its was a labor of love, and it’s packed with cool stuff, some of which is listed on the cover.

The cover, also, can be shown here and, yes, it is a great one. Also, in the author listing on the cover, the name right at the top is Ray Bradbury — anyone want to guess which story of his is inside? (In fairness, of course, maybe there could be two. To really make sure, check it out/order it on Amazon via the link below.)

My part in the party is a saga of dragons and, at something over 7,000 words, long for stories I’ve published in BLACK INFINITY thus far. The story’s title: “The Bala Worm,” the tale of a dragon hunt in present day Wales (well, first published in BLACK DRAGON, WHITE DRAGON by Ricasso Press in 2008, as well as reprinted in my collection THE TEARS OF ISIS, and with an ambience probably more in the 1990s). But also with a gold hoard (of course!) and more lore about dragons — in Britain, at least, they seem to appear at only about 500-year intervals. Also, that vampires may have a connection.

And other stories, more creatures, are in the issue as well, more on which can be found in Amazon’s listing, for which press here.