James Dorr's Blog, page 181

Monk Punk/Shadow Omnibus “In the Next Few Weeks”

Be the first on your block — or at least this blog – to check out the missive from Editor Aaron J. French:  “Announcing the release of MONK PUNK and THE SHADOW OF THE UNKNOWN in OMINBUS edition from Hazardous Press!  679 pages of Lovecraftian goodness!  Featuring all of the original stories as well as 11 that are brand new to this edition.  Available in the next few weeks in trade paperback and a Kindle edition.”  The announcement, on Facebook, also includes a table of contents not surprisingly rather too long for me to append below, but you can get it from, as it were, the horse’s mouth by pressing here.

MONK PUNK & THE SHADOW OF THE UNKNOWN, to give the exact wording from its cover, contains over 60 stories in all, of which about a dozen were written especially for this combined edition.  Mine, however, was in the original THE SHADOW OF THE UNKNOWN published in summer 2011 by Static Movement (see August 29 2011, et al.; for the omnibus edition April 9 2014), and first appeared in the Spring 2004 issue of  BARE BONE.  Titled “The Festering,” it’s more or less about what it sounds like, involving bad plumbing, ancient (and not so ancient) cities, and “What Lies Below.”

Dripping Nose Coming in Zombies Galore

It was originally to be called ZOMBIES GONE WILD (cf. March 27 2012), expected to be published by . . . well I really don’t quite remember who by now, but as these things sometimes happen, events intervened and the project kind of dropped out of sight.  But as a good zombie will, it kept tending to rise at least part way from the grave, maybe even shamble a few steps — the wreckage will be published by a new press, that sort of thing, then go back off the radar.  Rumors abounded — now it would be published as two books with my story to be in Volume 2.  The kiss of death?  But again it would rise, a new contract to be signed (see April 9 2014, something is lurching toward the present), perhaps a new editor?  And finally Tuesday afternoon came an email from Britain from Theresa Derwin:   “. . . at last, the final bio is in, the files are pre-formatted with a foreword and are now with the interior designer and the cover is with the cover designer.

“The book should be ready by the weekend for me to order for a local book launch Sat 30th Aug at Soutchart Books, Walsall 20-21 Lower Hall Lane, 12:00 – 15:00.”

So . . . if you’re in the neighborhood. . . .

Actually it took a little investigation on my part to see exactly what book was meant, but it can now be revealed.   What might have been ZOMBIES GONE WILD, Vol. 2 seems to have been rechristened ZOMBIES GALORE, edited by Theresa Derwin, and published now by Knightwatch Press (for more on which, the publisher that is, one can click here).  Should original intentions still hold true, it will be an anthology of zombie stories where the accent will be on humor.

My story in this is called “The Dripping Nose that Wouldn’t Wipe,” originally published in TOOTH DECAY (Sonar4 Publications, 2009), an ecclesiastical tale of young love, a French horn, and why it isn’t a good idea to bury a corpse on the church’s north side.  And hopefully out by the end of this month.

The Artist Cited in Latest Splatterlands Review

Today’s email brings an announcement from Anthony Rivera, via Facebook, of a new review on Amazon of the Grey Matter Press anthology SPLATTERLANDS:  REAWAKENING THE SPLATTERPUNK REVOLUTION (cf. June 19, et al.).  Under the rubric “Not for the Faint of Heart,” the August 14 review by Josh Wiles can be found by pressing here.  To quote briefly from it:  “As with any anthology, you get great stories, good stories, so-so stories and stories that don’t appeal to you at all.  This is true for this anthology as well.  Although it has a significantly higher proportion of great stories than is typical for most anthologies.”  Moreover, as Editor Rivera points out, “[t]he reviewer singles out the stories by J Michael Major, Jack Maddox, Michael Laimo, Ray Garton, Paul Collrin, Allen Griffin, James Dorr and Eric Del Carlo.”  My story cited is called “The Artist” and is a sort of working-class noir tale of a fancy butcher who sculpts centerpieces for banquets and the like out of meat.

So there’s good and bad but, once again to quote the reviewer, “This was definitely one of the best anthologies I’ve ever read.”

Then oddly,  just after that review there’s one from late June by Alan Wilson titled “A Lucky-Dip Experience:  Like Most Anthologies” that only gives the anthology three stars (11 of 15 reviews are five-star).  However Wilson sets his bar high, noting that “[t]o be excellent, in my opinion, a horror story has to be memorable.  A yarn that clicks a gear in your head in such a way that you never forget it because your world-view has been shifted.”  And given that standard, he still cites six stories by brief description as “real gems which did just that for me,” one of which is my “The Artist”  (or again quoting Wilson, parenthetically, “sell your veal shares now!”).

For Amazon’s overview of SPLATTERLANDS including ordering (as well as the reviews again, though not necessarily with the most recent first), one also can press here.

SFPA Dwarf Stars Vote Deadline Extended ; Girl At the End of the World Book 2

Members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association who failed to get their DWARF STARS votes in by Friday (see August 11), take heart!  The announcement came yesterday afternoon that they’ve extended the deadline for voting to the end of the month, August 31.  My poem in this is “The Werewolf Explains,” tucked in at the top of page 21.  Telling you in only four words all you need to know should you meet a lycanthrope, it’s also the shortest poem in the book (full disclosure:  if one counts in the title, making a total of seven words, there is an untitled haiku-type poem that comes in a bit shorter, but that takes three lines while my poem has just two).  But many of the poems are worth reading even if you’re not a member of the SFPA.

Nevertheless, if you are a member but failed to vote in time, you now have a second chance.  More information can be found here.

Also Fox Spirit Books has announced that Book 2 of THE GIRL AT THE END OF THE WORLD is now out in print format.  This is the one that takes up the happenings post apocalypse, while my story “The Borrowed Man” (cf. August 8, et al.), set in my far future dying-Earth world of the “Tombs,” is in the opening section of Book 1.  However, if you read that volume and enjoyed it, and yearn for more, it can now be obtained by pressing here.

October First Sundays Prose Reading Lineup to Feature . . . Me; JWK Best of Horror Received in Print

We may recall from August 3 that the Bloomington Writers Guild’s monthly First Sundays Prose Readings series is back after a two month summer hiatus.  So it happened Wednesday that I received an email from coordinator Kamil Khan asking if I would like to be one of the three featured readers next month.  This is an honor — I had done it once before, but that was over a year ago in February 2013 (cf. February 4 2013) — except just a week previously, on August 30 (see August 1), I would be doing a half-hour prose reading on the Spoken Word Stage at Bloomington’s Fourth Street Festival of Arts and Crafts. 

So I emailed back suggesting that I be scheduled the following month, for October 5, pointing out as well that it would be “[a] good month for a horror tale for Halloween too.”  Then the word came back, yes.  “I have you scheduled for October!”  And now preparations for two readings will be in progress, but separated enough that it shouldn’t cause any undue confusion.  I’ve pretty well decided (pending a final test timed reading) that for the Arts Fair I’ll read “River Red” from THE TEARS OF ISIS — more or less my standard 15-minute reading these days, also the one I read at NASFiC last month for instance — plus a light flash piece for a mood change, and end with the short vampire tale “Casket Girls” from DAILY SCIENCE FICTION (see April 17 and 10, et al.).  Now, for October when I’ll have about 15 minutes total, I’m tentatively looking at “The First Hundred Years,” a story based on a Jamaican legend except with zombies, that was originally published in my second prose collection DARKER LOVES:  TALES OF MYSTERY AND REGRET. 

Information and schedules for upcoming Writers Guild events can be found here.   

In other Wednesday news, the print edition of JWK FICTION BEST OF HORROR 2013 has arrived (see August 6, June 24).  This is the omnibus collection of what Editor/Publisher James Ward Kirk considers his company’s highlights of last year, in which my story “The Sidewalk,” originally published in TERMINAL FRIGHT #13, Fall 1996, appears third on the contents page, one of two stories representing the anthology GRAVE ROBBERS.  For more information and possibly ordering JWK BEST OF HORROR, click here. 

Vamps in Space: Blood Type, Cutting Edge Anthology Print Edition Near Final Release

It’s been a long time coming, but Nightscape Press announced Tuesday that the final proofs for the print edition of BLOOD TYPE (cf. December 9 2013, et al.) are at hand.  But let Editor Robert S. Wilson explain: 

”Weighing in at over 130,000 words and 455 pages, this is a big one!

”BLOOD TYPE:  AN ANTHOLOGY OF VAMPIRE SF ON THE CUTTING EDGE is predominately a collection of stories that represent the most cutting edge science fiction-based vampire fiction.  Think SF-based vampire fiction like I Am Legend and Necroscope and how they affected the vampire genre when they were first released. Dark Vampire SF that goes where the genre hasn’t before.

”It is not just an anthology of hard science fiction, however.  This book also contains examples of science fantasy as well as some classic vampire stories including an updated reprint from William F. Nolan.  Also includes brand new stories from Peter Watts (from the Blindsight/Echopraxia universe), Laird Barron, Tim Waggoner, Bram Stoker Award-winning author Benjamin Kane Ethridge, John Palisano, Jason V Brock, Peter Giglio, Jonathan Templar, Taylor Grant, and many more!”

My story in this is a relatively short one called “Eudora” about, as one reviewer has put it, “the kind of girl your mother warned you about.”  Also, BLOOD TYPE is a charity anthology with proceeds to go to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, more about which can be found by pressing here.  As for those who can’t wait even until next week, the Kindle edition has been available for some time, for which press here, while other e-versions can also be found in the Nightscape Press store along with pre-ordering information for the print version by pressing here.

First Poem Acceptance for August from Star*Line: Not Werewolves but Vampires; Dwarf Stars Voting Ends Friday

On July 29 I noted, bemusedly, that this summer has been a particularly good one for me for poems about werewolves.  Today has proved the exception as this afternoon brought an email from STAR*LINE (cf. August 5, July 10, et al.), the first poem acceptance for the month of August, for one about . . . vampires.  The poem is actually a prose poem of about 75 words called “The Vampire Inventor.”  However, in the spirit of full disclosure I should add that it does mention werewolves too.

Then, speaking of werewolves, for any members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association who may be reading this, don’t forget that the deadline for voting for the Dwarf Stars Award for best 10-line-or-less speculative poem of 2013 is this Friday, August 15.  Directions for voting are in the box at the bottom of page iv in the DWARF STARS 2014 anthology (note that “dwarfstars” in the address is one word, with no hyphen) and, if I may mention, at the top on p. 21 is my entry “The Werewolf Explains.”  More information on STAR*LINE, DWARF STARS, and the SFPA can be found here.

Girl At the End of the World Arrives

Another short note.  Today THE GIRL AT THE END OF THE WORLD (see June 24, May 18, June 11, et al.) arrived from Fox Spirit Books in England.  Or more properly speaking, THE GIRL AT THE END OF THE WORLD, BOOK 1, the project having been divided into two volumes — the first to cover pre-, during-, and not-having-anything-really-to-do-with-apocalypse tales, and the other to take up what happens after.

My story in this, “The Borrowed Man,” set in my own dying-Earth universe of “The Tombs” falls into the “not having to do with” category and hence is in third place in Part 1 (of three) of Volume 1.  This is a chunky enough book itself at a tad over 350 pages, but it will be followed by a second volume, continuing the action after The Event (whatever its nature).  For now the first volume is available on Amazon in print by pressing here or for Kindle here, while some background information from Editor Adele Wearing on both books (including why it wound up as two volumes) can be found here.

JWK Fiction Best of Horror 2013 Out on Kindle, ToC Posted

JWK FICTION BEST OF HORROR 2013 is a selection by Editor/Publisher James Ward Kirk of the best horror short fiction and poetry published last year under his imprint (cf. June 24) and, as of this week, is out on Kindle. According to James, proof copies of the print edition are to be in his hands Friday with, presumably, that to be available soon after.  In the meantime here are the contents as listed via Amazon’s Kindle page (with title of original anthology or collection in capitals).  There’s a funny story about my offering in this, by the way, having to do with how my story “The Sidewalk” was never supposed to be in the GRAVE ROBBERS anthology in the first place, but I’ve told it before.  (For die-hards, however, see March 8 2013, June 7 2012.)

 

SERIAL KILLERS ITERUM

Paula D. Ashe The Mother of All Monsters

William Cook Return of the Creep

GRAVE ROBBERS

James S. Dorr The Sidewalk

Chantal Noordeloos Angel’s Grave

HELL

Paula Ashe  Because You Watched

A Henry Keene Justine

SONGS FOR THE RAVEN

Julienne Lee The Gate

Paula Ashe Bereft

CHILDREN & OTHER WICKED THINGS

Pinprick Scathe meic Beorh

RICH ORTH POETRY GIRLS

Facsimiles! To My LoraLee

Wisping Words! 10/04/12 11:07pm

SEX DRUGS & HORROR

K. Trap Jones Chalk

Michael Lindquist Ashtray Kiss

BARNYARD HORROR

Greg McWhorter The Horror at Engle Farm

Kerry G. S. Lipp Misery

ROGER COWIN SUCCULENT FLESH

BELLA

SERIAL KILLERS TRES TRIA

Glenn Rolfe The Neighbor

Mike Jansen Brood Carnival

INDIANA CRIME REVIEW 2013

William J Fedigan Happy as Cotton Candy

Greg McWhorter The Twilight of Men’s Lives

BONES

Lily Childs The Ossillatrice Shift

Philip Harris The Bone Boy

CELLAR DOOR

Michael Randolph Luminescence

T. Fox Dunham Moving Past the Ashes

UGLY BABIES

Dan Dillard Henrietta’s Skirt

Essel Pratt Immaculate Deception

INDIANA HORROR REVIEW 2013

A. Henry Keene Delores

Glenn Rolfe  In the Basement of the Amazing Alex Cucumber

FRESH FEAR

Scathe meic Beorh God of the Winds

Anna Taborska Out of the Light

CELLAR DOOR II

Dona Fox The Door

Dona Fox Me and My . . .

Dona Fox Magur

Dona Fox The Wonder Cave

K. Z. Morano Wooden Lips

 

For more about the Kindle edition — with print presumably to be added soon – readers can press here.

SFPA Double Header Received Tuesday P.M.

Visiting my mailbox this afternoon was the waited for package from the Science Fiction Poetry Association containing not just the latest STAR*LINE but, with it, this year’s DWARF STARS 2014.  The latter is the anthology of nominees for best ultra-short poem published last year, of ten lines or fewer, for which I have one entry originally published in NIGHT TO DAWN called “The Werewolf Explains” (cf. July 12, June 27).  Then the former, the quarterly journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, is also graced with one poem of mine in it, also a small one of ten lines or fewer, called “Sign Me Up As Well, Quickly” (see June 1 ).

As for what they’re about, well, the werewolf one is sort of self-explanatory, that is after all what the title says, but the poem being only two lines long anything added would be a spoiler.  The STAR*LINE one is longer, though, a full three lines in length, and is sort of vampiry with implications of American ingenuity and, if only for the moment, the triumph of capitalism.

For more information on STAR*LINE, DWARF STARS, or the SFPA, one can press here.