James Dorr's Blog, page 183

Untreed Reads Plus in Christmas in July Sale on DriveThruFiction.com

Untreed Reads has announced a 25 percent off “Christmas in July” sale at DriveThruFiction to last through Monday.  The sale covers primarily science fiction, fantasy, and horror titles, so, of my Untreed Reads titles, one can find the near-future novelette PEDS, my Christmas horror short story “I’M DREAMING OF A. . . .” (this one at a bargain basement 38 cents!), and the Untreed Reads New Years anthology YEAR’S END with my lead story “Appointment in Time,” but not my other novelette VANITAS which, albeit with steampunk overtones, would most likely be classed as a mystery.

To take advantage, go to DriveThruFiction by pressing here, then search on “James Dorr” in the box at the top.  And then prepare yourself for a surprise:  the first book listed is not one of the Untreed Reads titles noted above, but Bards and Sages Publishing’s AMERICA THE HORRIFIC:  AN ANTHOLOGY OF HORROR with a tale by me of UFOs and little gray men called “Country Doctor.”  Appropriate for the 4th of July, not that long ago, eh?  But not to worry, the other three follow, and not only that, to add a little more weirdness to one’s life, there’s even a fifth book at the bottom, THE ADVENTURE MEGAPACK, that has no story of mine in it or any other conceivable connection!

Keeps one on one’s toes, it does.

But while I can’t recommend that final item, the others represent pretty good deals from now through next Monday, July 28.

The Incredible Shrinking Horror Panel, and Other Tales from NASFiC/Detcon1 (Part 2)

THE POET CONFESSES

I’m a scientist, er,

a technician I might say,

a scientist of sounds

and words –

always delightful –

to find the equation

that puts these together

in form of a poem.

 

Pretentious?  Or just bad?  Well, it may not be great shakes as a poem, but it came out of the other Kaffeeklatsch I attended, although this one with Deanna Sjolander and Sean Davis was actually something rather different.  Called “Poetry Corpse” — and the only poetry programming at this year’s NASFiC — the billing explained it as “[l]ike magnetic fridge Poetry. Without the fridge. Or the magnets.”  That is, there on the table was a pile of cards, each with a single word printed on it, from which we drew a “hand” and attempted to use this to inspire a poem.*  I wrote nine in all, most slight little things with perhaps some mild humor, more of which may be published on this blog (as is the first of them just above, derived from words including “scientist,” “technician,” “delightful,” “equation,” and even “er,” all picked without looking at them as I did it in order to maintain a random selection).  But the thing is, it was fun, we had a full table including non-poets, but all of whom created at least some poems and were willing to read them by the time the hour ended.**

Then there was my reading earlier Friday, sharing the hour with two other horror writers, Laura Bickle and Cath Schaff-Stump, for as far as I know the only readings that featured the dark side.  I ended up a sort of de facto moderator (I was nearest the clock, for one thing) and we read in the order our names had been listed, Laura with pages from a novel with an Amish setting which was rather interesting, I with a short story from THE TEARS OF ISIS***, and Cath who originally thought she might read from a somewhat dark-humored novel deciding, as a result of my reading’s relative intensity, to take a chance with a more serious passage from a story that included child abuse.  The session went well, albeit with an audience of only three people, including one friend of mine, some years back a member of my writing group (but no ex-girlfriend who, as noted in Part 1, either never got to the con or remained uncannily well-concealed).

And I had one Friday panel as well, this one that I think surprised us in how well it went, “Maps in Fantasy” with Shanna Swendson, Stephen Leigh, me, and moderated by Kevin J. Maroney.  We talked some of actual fantasy maps (famously the one for LORD OF THE RINGS, but also Eddison’s THE WORM OUROBOROS, etc.), some of fantasy worlds that used maps but that weren’t published with them (Fritz Leiber’s “Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser” stories, e.g.), and the use of maps by authors in creating stories.  While maps in a book are prestige items — for the publisher to agree to (or suggest) using one can indicate that an author has “made it” as well as the work itself possessing some “epic” qualities — much of our most interesting conversation went into discussing actual maps and the geographical, historical, and economical features they illustrate (e.g. the distance between towns as that of a day’s journey by oxcart, the location of cities by navigable rivers because that’s how goods can be shipped in bulk).  Also discussed, how an author might use features on actual maps, perhaps modified, as inspiration for his or her world building (my example here being my far-future dying-Earth “Tombs” stories****, set on a great river that could be only one of three on the Earth as it exists in the present).

Duties over, Friday also involved settling in, including checking out the Dealers Room and the ConSuite, the latter of which had good roast beef sandwich makings at noon, and potato soup, but was a bit more sparse for dinner.  But also, through a set of intricate moves around the 3rd level donut, one could find a down escalator to the 2nd level, which then led to other escalators down to a basement level food court that provided nourishment of a fast-food sort for less than ten dollars.  Entirely through my fault, however (well, that and the fact it was sort of tucked behind the dealers), I never did get to see the Art Show.

 

NEW LISTING ON THE NYSE

Saturnian,

dead,

the zombie stalks,

its smell not delightful

especially in hot weather,

ready to negotiate

for your brains.

 

NOTES:

*Technically one could fish for verbs as well as nouns, etc., and assemble the entire poem from words picked, but most (all?) of us interpreted the “rules” more gently, to pick six or eight words and use four or five in a poem that they would suggest.  In my case I might even change a word form as the emerging poem might require, as in one example substituting “Jovian” for the word “Jupiter.”

**Deanna, in fact, went even further actually publishing several of hers on Twitter as soon as she wrote them.  At the end of the session she defined them as being successful insofar as several had already been re-tweeted.

***The story, the next-to-last in the book, was “River Red” which times to just under 15 minutes, thus giving me a chance to display both the old and new covers of THE TEARS OF ISIS while making sure that everyone knew it had been a Stoker® nominee (that is, the “horror equivalent of the Nebula, or if you’re into mysteries the Edgar”).

****One of which I might add is “River Red,” noted just above, that involves in part a trip up that river.

Forty-Five Years Ago Sunday . . .

One session I attended at NASFiC Friday was on “Why the Soviets Lost the Moon Race,” presented by Diane Hall of the Warren Astronomical Society.  Then today, back home, via a Science Fiction Poetry Association message by Ann K. Schwader leading us to a poem she wrote for the occasion, came a link from the Smithsonian Institution reminding us that . . . forty-five years ago Sunday we won the Moon Race.  Press here and enjoy, then if you also wish check out yesterday’s SFPA Digest as well as Ann’s poem by pressing here.

The Incredible Shrinking Horror Panel, and Other Tales from NASFiC/Detcon1 (Part 1)

How’s this for an omen?  I just got home tonight, Sunday, and on the steps leading up from the sidewalk there lay a dead bird.  Then when I got to the front porch there was evidence the cat sitter had not come that day, not entirely unexpected in that she had said she might have travel problems that day.  But there was the answer:  combined the signs indicated that the resident cave cat, Wednesday, was hungry.  This was augmented by the fact she was waiting for me just inside the front door.

 So that mystery was solved, but there had been other strangenesses dogging my trip to NASFiC.  One was the trip itself, in that, it turns out, the easiest was to get from Indianapolis to Detroit by air, a distance normally of less than 300 miles, is via Atlanta.  So after some research, I decided to travel the way of our pioneer ancestors — and much more cheaply — by Greyhound bus.  And of this, some observations, the first being that the true adventure of such trips is discovering how to get to and from the Greyhound terminals, often to be found in arcane locations in the eerier parts of a city, although in Detroit as it turned out (in fact, it was this initial discovery that suggested traveling this way in the first place) still within longish walking distance of the convention hotel (with my hotel within easier distance of the con but yet farther on, on the other side of the renovated new business district and once more in one of the eerier districts, one in which at some point after midnight the hotel staff puts up bulletproof glass in front of  the front desk, with a little slot to shove credit cards through and receive your key*, but the cost was less than half of even the discounted rate at the con hotel).  Indianapolis was more complex, one still having to first take an airport bus to that city, but then transfer to a city bus to get downtown, then walk six or seven blocks through a progressively seedier cityscape to an ancient, decaying combined Greyhound/Amtrack station.  A travel tip:  when boarding the bus it’s considered appropriate among experienced long-distance bus travelers to spread your hand luggage across the seat next to yours to discourage potential seatmates.  And, even if listed on the timetable, assume that scheduled “rest stops” may not be (the bus will sometimes run a tad late and this is a way to make up time) so pack a lunch.

The convention hotel was a marvel also in a silly sort of way, but able to be gotten around in once one got used to it.  Imagine a stack of 70-some donuts, arranged in a square with three other stacks and a fifth stack placed in the square’s center.  One of these corners is your hotel though, within the complex, it’s not always clear which.  But once you are in the right stack, and have mastered the locations of escalators vs. elevators (both “high” and “low” and with special lobby elevators that only go between levels 1 and 3 — we speak not of  “floors” in the meeting room section), it’s best to think of room locations in terms of how far they are “around the donut,” with function rooms on the third and fifth donuts and a good, if not perfect, ConSuite open continuously on the 69th (a Con Committee member explains:  it’s a matter of corkage, that food isn’t allowed in function rooms unless it’s catered — one exception, coffee and tea could be had in the Green Room, though maybe I’m not supposed to say this** — but in the top-floor hotel suites there’s nothing wrong with having a 24-hour private party with approximately 1300 invited guests).

Also it may be well to remember that in this particular part of the world, to go to Canada one goes south.

But meanwhile it’s late here, the cat is still lonely, my last “meal” was on the bus, and there’s a Godzilla movie starting on TV that I haven’t seen yet (GODZILLA VS. DESTROYER, 1995, with Takuro Tatsami and Yoko Ishmo), so more tomorrow.

 

NOTES:

*A running joke was my explaining I had to leave parties early because I wanted to get to my hotel before the drug dealers came out.

**And so, yes, the scheduled “Kaffeeklatsches” were coffeeless, but I imported mine down from the Green Room (one-eighth around the donut to the main elevators — used this time instead of the preferred escalators on function levels for fear of sloshing — then two levels down half way farther around and to the level 3 hotel lobby, turn left then right then left again, and look for table 2).  But then no-one came anyway, which was not an unusual thing (I’d been to the information desk and seen the sign-up sheets — those with good tallies tended to be locals, or people at least with many attending friends***, or very well known “stars” — so, for official statistical purposes (as “moderator” I had to note attendance) I put down “3” including (1) the slow mover from the previous Kaffeeklatsch who was still sitting for a few seconds after my time started, (2) the person who stopped by to say hello about half way through but was in a hurry and couldn’t stay, and (3) me.

***An ex-girlfriend of mine was listed as an attendee so I had planned to at least buttonhole her and her present husband, but as it turns out I don’t believe they actually made it to the convention.

Just for Fun – “Gomez Addams” at Age 84; Rejection for Present, Acceptance Deferred?

Well, it was one of my favorite TV shows in its time (I do have the whole series on DVD).  So, while I may be away from a computer for much of the weekend, I thought I might leave folks with something to read, a Baltimore Sun piece about John Astin who played Gomez Addams against Carolyn Jones’s Morticia on the original 1960s THE ADDAMS FAMILY, which can be found by pressing here.  And should you care to tarry on this page, something nice to contemplate as well.

Then in other news (or life goes on), when is a rejection not a rejection?  Well sometimes it happens along lines like this, via Mark Parker of Scarlet Galleon Publications:  “Mr. Dorr, I wanted to tell you what an honor it was to have you submit ‘The Hole’ to my inaugural anthology, DEAD HARVEST.  I regret having to pass on it at this time, but would guarantee it a spot in a future ‘Harvest’ anthology I have planned, ZOMBIE HARVEST.  In truth, I feel it would fit that one so much better.  I don’t know if that would be of interest to you, but where it’s a reprint, perhaps you’d consider that.”

As noted, the story is a reprint that originally appeared in FRONTIERS OF TERROR by Marietta Publishing in 2002 (also, incidentally, First Runner Up for that year’s Darrell Award for short fiction set in the Mid South, in this case Memphis Tennessee) so, while we agreed that should another opportunity for “The Hole” come up I could withdraw it, why not?  And, insofar as it is about unreconstructed Confederate zombie soldiers seeking to reunite with the corpse of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, buried in Memphis, it probably would work better in ZOMBIE HARVEST.  This would mean a publication in autumn 2015 or possibly early 2016, the “Harvest” motif to become a sort of annual series, assuming things go as planned.

For more information on Scarlet Galleon Publications and, although now closed to submissions, DARK HARVEST press here.

Pour Le Quatorze Juillet – Les Vampires Français

Happy Bastille Day, a mostly pleasant and sunny day here, though interrupted by a brief, hard rainstorm at about 5 p.m. For the Fourth of July we re-reviewed a film, ZOMBIES OF MASS DESTRUCTION (a.k.a. ZMD: ZOMBIES OF MASS DESTRUCTION) so, just for fun and along the lines of our recent post on “Dracula Fun Facts and Fancy”(see July 1), why not some lore on the Vampires of France?  So herewith two entries, discovered semi-serendipitously, beginning with a fairly straight history of French hemophages by pressing here.  And then let us move to an appreciation of Jacques Sirgent, author of LE LIVRE DES VAMPIRES, combined with a visit to le Musée des Vampires and a stop at Cimetière Père Lachaise, by pressing here.

ISIS’ NEW CLOTHES: The Tears of Isis New Cover Revealed!

As announced last month (see post for June 27) THE TEARS OF ISIS has gotten an all-new wraparound cover from Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, noting at the top that the book is a 2013 Bram Stoker Award® nominee for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection.  Also the back cover matter has been changed, in part to feature a new photo of (ahem) me, taken just this spring at a local prose reading.  Taken, in fact, the first Sunday in April (cf. April 6) depicting me explaining “bizarro” just prior to reading my short short “Rocky Road.”  So we see how things connect, “Rocky Road” in turn having since been bought by DAILY SCIENCE FICTION (cf. May 18).  As for the interior of THE TEARS OF ISIS, however, it remains exactly the same regardless of which cover edition you have.

But enough of that, here is the new cover.  More information including ordering can be found on Amazon by pressing here (including a peek at the back cover with, replacing the previous long blurb, four review excerpts — whereupon one can then check the readers’ reviews section to match the quotes to their original context) or Barnes & Noble here.  Also it can be ordered directly through Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing (though still with a picture of the old cover as of this writing) by pressing here.

Playing With Fire? Torched to Be Published July 26; Proofs for Summer Star*Line Received

Billed as “The debut anthology from Nocturnal Press,” TORCHED is, um, set for a July 26 release date, according to Editor Eden Royce.  But let her explain:  “Our relationship with fire is an intimate one.  From the intrigue of the warmth to the draw of the light, it spans history — yet who tamed the beast was never recorded.  From the Norse funeral to the Pagan celebrations, fire has burned its way through our lives, a passing mark on some, an indelible scar on others.  Within this tome lie 18 authors from across the globe, each with their own burning tale to tell. . .

“HAVE YOU SEEN WHAT BURNS?”

My flambeau in this fire pit is the story “City on Fire” (see May 23).  Originally published in SHADOWS OF SATURN for April-May 2005, this is one in my series of “Tombs” stories set on a far-future, dying — and in this case apparently inflammable — Earth.

For more on TORCHED one can visit the Nocturnal Press Publications website by pressing here, or for their Facebook page (including, right now, a link to a trailer for the book) pressing here.

Then in a bit of fast work, proof sheets for the Summer edition of STAR*LINE arrived today with my shortie poem, “Sign Me Up As Well, Quickly,” ensconced on page 12.  This, we may remember from June 27th’s posting, below, is a three-line ode to insurance . . . and blood.  More on STAR*LINE and the Science Fiction Poetry Association can be found by pressing here.

NASFiC/DETCON1 Panels Announced; Girl at End Coming Out July 15

For those going to NASFiC, the North American Science Fiction Convention at Detroit later this month (cf. June 27, March 24), also known this year as DETCON1, it looks like I’ll be on two panels plus several other events including a mass Friday evening Meet the Authors and Autograph Session at 8 p.m.  This is the convention put on in lieu of WorldCon in years the latter is held overseas to give fans who can’t afford the passage a more local destination to go to.  But, ah, to get to Detroit from Indianapolis, the nearest airport to where I am — so near and yet so far! — that may be a story in itself.  Suffice, for now, to say that the cheapest airfare is via Atlanta and takes at least four hours airport to airport.

So how I will get there may be revealed later.  But once I am in Detroit, look for me on the Friday program at 11 a.m. where I and two other authors, Laura Bickle and Cath Schaff-Stump, will be sharing the hour to do a reading, followed for me by a 12 noon panel on “Maps in Fantasy.”  Then on Saturday I have a panel on “The Darker Side of Science Fiction and Fantasy” at 12 noon while, for those who’ve signed up at the convention information desk beforehand, there will be a Kaffeeklatsch starring me at 2 p.m.  So be sure to sign up — I don’t much fancy sitting around talking to myself  — but also, if we’re lucky, there may even be free coffee (but probably not French roast and beignets).  And, yes, that last is an inside joke, but all may be explained then if you ask, as well as how I really got to Detroit, as well as the latest in intimate facts about THE TEARS OF ISIS.

Who would want to miss that?

Also a short note from Adele Wearing of Fox Spirit Books concerning THE GIRL AT THE END OF THE WORLD arrived Sunday with a proof copy of Volume 2.  My story, “The Borrowed Man” (cf. June 24, et al.) is actually in Volume 1 so the proof was mostly just sent as a preview, but the news to be added is that, as of now, the expected release date for Volume 1 will be July 15.

Film Review Rerun for the Fourth of July: Zombies of Mass Destruction

A Happy Fourth of July to all — and try not to blow yourself up with fireworks!  The best horror stories are in books and movies, not real life.  So along these lines, and because it’s summer, I thought we might celebrate with a rerun, a movie review originally posted here on April 16 2011, for what could be a patriotic film if you look at it right, ZOMBIES OF MASS DESTRUCTION.  In the spirit of full disclosure I should note that I watched the film again myself earlier this year and concluded it’s still one of those that doesn’t really improve with a second viewing.  However it’s quite good enough the first time and maybe that’s all one need ask of a movie.

So, setting the dial on the Wayback Machine . . .

. . . Last night instead of watching a DVD I decided to see what the cable company had “On Demand” in their free movie area and ran across a sort of interesting one, ZOMBIES OF MASS DESTRUCTION.  These were like the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD zombies (although the movie is played for comedy), flesh-eating shamblers whose bite infects the victim turning him/her into a zombie too (a slow process involving eyes starting to bulge out — think Peter Lorre — and successive darker and more disgusting layers of makeup), in this case caused by a disease introduced by Evil Mideastern Terrorists.

Fortunately (or through terrorist bad planning?) the affected town is on an island, allowing for easy quarantine, with a selection of semi-stereotyped denizens including:  buxom, dark-haired college girl Frida whose father came to America from Iran; the neighbor family headed by a redneck who a) keeps calling Frida an Iraqi, b) when they’re holed up in his basement and the TV announces the Mid-East connection, immediately ties her to a chair and when she protests that she’s a born American tests her by making her answer questions and sing the Star Spangled Banner (of which she gets all the words right, which he says is more than most high schoolers could do, concluding that therefore she must be an enemy agent because they would have made her memorize them), and c) prepares to torture her because that’s what “real Americans” are supposed to do; Frida’s over-strict father; her would-be rock artist/composer boyfriend (the complete orchestral version of his song “Frida” is played over the closing credits); two gay guys who’ve come to visit gay guy #1′s mother because gay guy #2 insists it’s time for #1 to come out of the closet and confess their love; a pro-business conservative mayor and a wishy-washy liberal schoolteacher-and-disliker-of-guns who’s running against him in the upcoming election; a well-meaning but zealous minister who keeps a cure-people-of-gayness machine in his church.  Some survive, most do not, and after — did they say it was “28 days”? — the disease, if not guns, clubs, knives, some kind of power tool, etc., has killed off all the zombies, the military decrees the survivors clean and the quarantine lifted, and everyone parties at the first annual we survived the zombies festival.  What fun!

Actually it is fun and, while it’s not on my list of DVDs to buy [full disclosure:  I subsequently got a good enough deal on a used one that I bought it anyway], if it should pop up on your TV I  recommend giving it a look.  (Prepare plenty of snacks to enjoy while the zombies make their own snacks of the local populace — it’s one of those that have gore effects but do a good job of making them comic.)