James Dorr's Blog, page 186

City On Fire Bought for Nocturnal Press Premiere Antho; Poludnitsa Picture Link Also Updated

“City on Fire,” originally published in the premiere April-May 2005 issue of SHADOWS OF SATURN, has scored another first, accepted today for Nocturnal Press Publications’s initial anthology TORCHED.  Non-surprisingly TORCHED is a themed anthology, the theme being “fire” — but “City on Fire” is also a story set in my far-future, dying-Earth universe of the “Tombs,” about a dozen of which have been published in various venues including three, “The Ice Maiden,” “Mara’s Room,” and “River Red,” in THE TEARS OF ISIS.  (Yes, even if she didn’t quite bag the Stoker®, Isis basks in any attention she can muster.)  In this case, “bought” may be a little bit of a misnomer as TORCHED is a non-paying startup project, but the premise seemed interesting enough to give it a go and, who knows, if this one succeeds, hopefully future books will be more lucrative.

Hoped for publication for TORCHED will be July this year.

In the meantime, following the updated links for Untreed Reads books pictured in this page’s center column (see just below), I’ve also updated the one for perhaps the prettiest cover in the lot, POLUDNITSA.  This is one in a series of stand-alone short fantasies from Chamberton Publishing (cf. November 17 2012, et al.), with the link now leading more directly to its Amazon Kindle edition.

New “Old” Untreed Reads Store Restored

If you’ve recently received error messages clicking the pictures of three books in the center column, PEDS, VANITAS, and I’M DREAMING OF A. . . , this is because of a change in the set up of the publisher’s store back to its original, and superior version.  Among other things, you can now receive books in all three formats, Kindle, Nook, and PDF, without having to choose between them, send books as gifts, read excerpts before you buy and, in some cases, even reviews.  Basically what happened is they tried out a new web provider, but it didn’t work well.

So I’ve changed the addresses on the pictures to take you to the “new” original page with my Untreed Reads titles (plus a fourth title, YEAR’S END: 14 TALES OF HOLIDAY HORROR in which I have the first story, “Appointment in Time”) or, if you prefer, you can get there directly by pressing here.  Alternatively, to get to the Untreed Read Store itself, perhaps to explore around for a bit, for the opening page press here.

New Arrival on Goreyesque Issue Two, a Lagniappe of Sorts

To quote from the webpage for GOREYESQUE:  “Edward Gorey  (1925-2000) was an American writer and illustrator, noted for his unsettling narratives and pen-and-ink drawings.  He was the creator of THE GASHLYCRUMB TINIES, a gruesomely comic alphabet, as well as several other independent illustrated books such as  THE DOUBTFUL GUEST, THE HAPLESS CHILD, and THE UNSTRUNG HARP.  He is noted for illustrating numerous works by other writers — HG Wells, T.S Eliot, Lewis Carroll — as well as his work on THE NEW YORKER.  He won a Tony Award for costume design in 1978.

“He is a native of Chicago, where he attended The School of the Art Institute for one semester in 1943 before joining the Army.  ELEGANT ENIGMAS:  THE ART OF EDWARD GOREY will be the first major Chicago exhibition of his artwork.”

GOREYESQUE (cf. March 11) was itself born in conjunction with the exhibition, “an online literary journal featuring work inspired by the spirit and aesthetic of Edward Gorey.”  A rather more scholarly venue than one such as I might submit to, but submit I did.  It seemed like fun.  And so one of two poems that they accepted has appeared in its second issue, available here, titled “New Arrival” concerning the telltale signs of a vampiress new, as it were, to the business of undeath.

The poem itself, alone as a lagniappe (although the whole issue is well worth reading, as well as clicking on the “menu” at upper right and exploring the other parts of GOREYESQUE), can also be reached directly by pressing here.  While the other, self-explanatorily named “The Short, Tragic Love of the Lobster and the Crab,” will hopefully be in a future issue.

 

Rocky Road Taken by Daily SF; Girl at the End of the World Proofs Received

Two items to note on a sunny May Sunday.  The first is that my absurdist short short “Rocky Road,” which we’ve met briefly before (cf. April 6, March 2), about how one’s diet might affect dating patterns has been accepted by DAILY SCIENCE FICTION.  More on this as more is known, but judging from previous publications there, most likely it will appear sometime around earlyish fall.  For more on DAILY SCIENCE FICTION now, though, including archive access to my earlier stories “Casket Girls,” “Naughty or Nice,” and “Killer Pot” (for best results use my just my last name, Dorr, in the search box in the right hand column) press here.

Then, speaking of romance, “It’s the end of days.  The sky is falling, the seas are burning and your neighbour is a zombie.  It’s brutal out there.  It’s every man for himself and these heels are going to have to go; you simply can’t run in them!

“Across two volumes, THE GIRL AT THE END OF THE WORLD offers forty-one striking visions of the apocalypse and the women and girls dealing with it.  From gods to zombies, from epic to deeply personal, from the moment of impact to a future where life is long forgotten; bestselling authors and exciting new writers deliver tales you’ll still remember when holed up in a fallout shelter with one remaining bullet and a best friend with a suspicious bite mark on their neck.”

So says the blurb, and my story “The Borrowed Man” (see January 11 this year, October 25 2013) is third in the lineup for volume one, according to proof sheets received late last night.  This is a British anthology long in the coming, originally projected for January-February this year, then sometime in March, with corrections and/or comments now due by the end of May.  But it’s a big book with lots of stories, volume 1 taking in apocalypse-related, pre-, and during-apocalypse tales; volume 2 those of what comes after, and I expect it should be worth the wait.

WHC 2014 Friday Afternoon: Violence and Verse

The poetry panel at World Horror Con, Friday p.m.  May 9 with (l to r) Dan Clore, Michael Arnzen, James Dorr, Rain Graves (moderator), and Stephanie Wytovich.  Photo is courtesy of Dan Clore, via Facebook.

So for those not there, now you know what you missed (well, sort of)!

 

Isis May Not Have Copped a Stoker®, but She Did Get One Helluva Great Review

In fact, I wish this had been out before the voting, not that one review, even on Amazon, likely would have made that much difference, but this one’s a keeper.  It appeared Sunday — just in time for me not to see it until latish Tuesday, since much of Monday was taken up by the trip home from Portland — but, in itself, it is worth the waiting.

By William Cook, the review is titled “Beautiful depiction of the dark and tragic soul of humanity” and even covers the dedication (“The homage to Edgar Allan Poe that precedes the first piece should give you a fair indication that there will be darkness, requiring no less than a blood-red candle to light the way”) along with discussions of the first and last stories, the opening poem, and bits and pieces on two or three of the other tales.  The thing that especially pleases me too, though, is Cook’s close attention to the literary aspects of THE TEARS OF ISIS:  language, allusions, imagery, myth – as well as modernism and contemporary references.  Parable and psychological horror.  And if I may say it myself, I think a number of Cook’s observations are quite astute.

In full disclosure, it should be added that Cook is a book cover artist which he mentions too, including for the present edition, to which he adds “[t]hat is not to say I feel compelled to review those works but in this case I had to write this review upon reading Mr Dorr’s book as it left such an impression on me.”

To read William Cook’s review of THE TEARS OF ISIS, along with eleven other reviews (so far, and nine of which are nice ones ;-) ), along with [ahem] a chance to buy . . . press here.

 

Blood & Corpses: The 2014 World Horror Convention Closes

Convention over.  Saturday had also been set aside for wandering through the Dealers Room, chatting with editors and publishers, notably with Chris and Joe Morey at Dark Regions Press and Kim Richards of Damnation Books, in the one case about getting STRANGE MISTRESSES and DARKER LOVES back into print whether as they are now or possibly as a large single volume combined edition with even perhaps a new story or two added.  As for the other, THE GARDEN contract will expire this year and I’m considering the possibility of publishing a “director’s cut” edition of the tale as originally written, without the changes by Damnation’s editor (which would, among other things, emphasize the Gothic element more), so the question is whether Damnation would like to keep their edition in print as well.  Also briefly discussed was the possibility of adding a note to TELLING TALES OF TERROR (Damnation Books, 2012 — cf. January 7 2013, December 3 2012, et al.) to mention that the Introduction is written by a Bram Stoker Award® nominee (that is, me).

Then Sunday morning brought panel time with Nancy Kilpatrick, B. E. Scully, and me (having now lost a third panelist on the way) on “How to Suck the Best:  Writing Vampire Fiction.”  Nancy asked if there were new things to say about vampires, implying “yes” by noting she had recently edited an anthology of new vampire tales while I mentioned my two DAILY SF vampire stories, “Casket Girls” and “Naughty or Nice” (see April 17 2014, et al. and December 28 2011, et al.), and B. E. Scully mentioned Margaret Adler’s VAMPIRES ARE US as a recent nonfiction treatment; all of us brought up historical aspects (I mentioned the case of Mercy Brown, the last of the actual, or at least suspected, American vampires); English Literature (including Lord Byron and Dr. Polidori); “problems” that might beset modern vampires (one of which could be living up to the image non-vampires get from movies); and, getting back to the search for “new” stories, how to pick and choose from “known” vampire lore (some of it contradictory) and explain away the parts you don’t use.

That winds it down.  Following was the “HWA Member Meeting,” but this year I skipped it in favor of the guilty-pleasure “Smut, Gore, and More:  Romance and Erotica in Horror.”  After all, I still remembered the Bedlam Sisters’ circus.  And that was that.  The weather was warm and sunny (contrasted with the rain of Thursday and Friday) so I walked a bit, finding a grocery to buy Sunday’s supper and the next morning’s pre-travel breakfast.  Crossing the Willamette River just for the heck of it.  Stopping into the closing ceremonies.  And then, Sunday night, going on a “Beyond Bizarre Walking Tour” of the older part of Portland, with emphasis on ghosts and the seamier side of local history.  This was fun, even if not in my opinion as interesting as the similar tour of New Orleans’s French Quarter I took last year, but nevertheless an apt way to end a horror convention.

Poets, Vampires, & The Tears of Isis: World Horror Convention 2014

THE TEARS OF ISIS didn’t quite go all the way to winning a Stoker(R) this year, Isis now being free to resume her career as a major cthonic as well as maternal figure in the pantheon of Ancient Egypt, but otherwise — and despite rain on Thursday and Friday — World Horror Convention in Portland Oregon was fun.  For one thing the hospitality suite was hospitable this time (as compared to last year, see June 19 2013), and extremely so for which kudos go to the convention staff.  The programming was interesting and fun as well although there were complaints even before the convention started about the lateness in its being announced, including participants being told what panels they’d been assigned to — in fact at least two authors told me they’d have to miss Sunday’s vampire panel because they’d already had to make conflicting travel plans.  In my case, however, having found a bargain hotel about four blocks away from the convention, I’d already planned to stay over till Monday, more on which later.

I’m writing this before and between things on Sunday, so more will come.  My first “official” duty was a videotaped interview Friday just after noon. as one of several award finalists who agreed to it — results, if any, probably not to come for up to two months.  Then later Friday came “Violence and Verse,” the poetry panel, in which we dismissed the violence part quickly and just talked about poetry.  Moderator was poet Rain Graves who gave me the opportunity to tell an anecdote about our first meeting at WHC in Chicago a dozen years back, and why one’s poetry “shalt not suck.”  We also missed one panel member, Linda Addison, but due to a temporary indisposition, not a scheduling conflict (in fact, Linda and Rain were the first ones I met Thursday evening at or about the registration desk).

Panels I attended Friday were “The Short Form” on short stories, “That Is Not Dead — H. P. Lovecraft’s Contributions to Modern Horror” (possibly more on Lovecraft and cosmic horror in general rather than specific examples), “Victoria Price Presents the Life and Influence of Vincent Price” (one of the con highlights, a wonderful, fun presentation of the actor’s life — which also inspired me to buy a DVD of FROM A WHISPER in the Dealers Room the next day, an anthology movie with Price as host that I’d been unaware of), and a brief stop-in on “The Work of Edward Gorey” (mostly about setting up the not-quite-museum Gorey House in Massachusetts).  The evening also included the Mass Autograph Session (sold two poetry books, as well as getting my picture taken in the presence of money, which has shown up on Facebook — strange, these modern times!) and a fairly sparsely attended, at least when I stopped by, Gothic Masked Ball (I did like the music, even if canned).

Saturday was a free day for me until the evening, with panels attended being “How to Put Together a Great Anthology” (pretty much along the lines of my putting together THE TEARS OF ISIS, though I had the advantage of already having determined whose work would be in it), “Life After the Walking Dead:  Zombie Fiction Today” (fun), “The Art of Shameless Self-Promotion” (self-explanatory), and a late-running selection of short indie horror films.

Then came the Bram Stoker Award(R) Ceremony in which I and Mike Arnzen presented the one for Poetry Collection (my third time, inspiring my joke-du-jour of how I was beginning to feel like the Lord Chancellor in Gilbert and Sullivan’s IOLANTHE, “giving agreeable awards away”) with the half that was present of the four-part authorship of the winner, FOUR ELEMENTS, consisting of . . . wait for it . . . Rain Graves and a back on her feet Linda Addison coming up for hugs and trophies.  A complete list of awards is below.  ISIS, as noted before, did not win for Fiction Collection but as co-presenter Steve Rasnic Tem pointed out, with the sheer number of good collections published in 2013, she can still be proud to simply have been on the list.

Then, the awards having been completed relatively early, I was able to catch most of the alternate program across the hall, “Dedite Press Presents the Bedlam Sisters Sideshow,” a wonderfully decadent cabaret circus (and in my opinion another highlight of the convention) which, yes, included some “you must be over 21″ acts.  Though I came in just after the one that required sweeping broken glass from the floor, I did catch the worm-eating, the male striptease performed on a unicycle, the man on stilts/girl with strings attached human marionette act, the nail bed sandwich and gyrating woman on top with hula hoop act, the hanging inverted straitjacket escape, as well as several songs.  However I skipped the after-finale “attach money gratuities to the star’s body with a staple gun” session, being both squeamish and on a budget.

Then followed parties and overeating.

___________________________________________________

And here’s the “official” list, for those who might not have seen it already:

The winners of the Bram Stoker Awards® for 2013 were announced at the Awards Banquet on May 10, 2014, at the Bram Stoker Awards Weekend and World Horror Convention in Portland, Oregon. The winners for superior achievement in each of the categories are:

Novel

Stephen King – Doctor Sleep (Scribner)

First Novel

Rena Mason – The Evolutionist (Nightscape Press)

Young Adult Novel

Joe McKinney – Dog Days (JournalStone)

Graphic Novel

Caitlin R. Kiernan – Alabaster: Wolves (Dark Horse Comics)

Long Fiction

Gary Braunbeck – “The Great Pity” (Chiral Mad 2, Written Backwards)

Short Fiction

David Gerrold – “Night Train to Paris” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan./Feb. 2013)

Screenplay

Glen Mazzara – The Walking Dead: “Welcome to the Tombs” (AMC TV)

Anthology

Eric J. Guignard (editor) – After Death… (Dark Moon Books)

Fiction Collection

Laird Barron – The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and Other Stories (Night Shade Books)

Non-Fiction

William F. Nolan – Nolan on Bradbury: Sixty Years of Writing about the Master of Science Fiction (Hippocampus Press)

Poetry Collection

Marge Simon, Rain Graves, Charlee Jacob, and Linda Addison – Four Elements (Bad Moon Books/Evil Jester Press)

The following awards were also presented:

The Lifetime Achievement Award

Stephen Jones

R.L. Stine

The Specialty Press Award

Gray Friar Press

The Silver Hammer Award (for outstanding service to the Horror Writers Assn.)

Norman Rubenstein

The President’s Richard Laymon Service Award

JG Faherty

 

Something Cool for May

 

Once again I may be away from computers for a few days so, to leave with something appealing to tide one over . . . enter Caroll Borland (1914-1994) as “Luna” in the film MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935).

Hard Luck Amazon Addy Added

And for the link for HARD LUCK, including my lead-off story “The Winning,” on Amazon (see just below) press here!  (Note that this is also for the paperback edition, but when Kindle is added it should provide a link to that too.)