James Dorr's Blog, page 23

New Story Accepted for Tales From the Womb

A few years ago, when I first wrote it, one of my writers group’s members said that while some of my past stories may have been in poor taste, this one was in the worst taste by far. Well, it is a bit on the absurdist side too. But for whatever reason it has been a story that hadn’t yet sold.

Could it be the part about the killer fetuses?

But then in late January this year, the call came from Editor Jessica Mielke of Planet Bizarro Press: In June of 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, causing severe damage to reproductive health rights across the country. In protest of this decision, and to support those organizations that fight to bring affordable health care to all, the TALES FROM THE WOMB anthology was conceived. All profits from sales of this collection will be donated to the Planned Parenthood organization, which has been at the forefront of the fight for women’s bodily rights. . . .

We are seeking horror stories that fall under the umbrella of ‘weird fiction’. So please no stories of serial killers or ghosts (unless they have a creative twist). Examples of acceptable subgenres are bizarro, cosmic horror, surreal and abstract horror, and splatterpunk. More traditional genres of horror will also be considered, so long as the stories have an element that qualifies them as weird fiction.

All stories should follow the themes of pregnancy, the unborn, and new motherhood. Babies are okay, so long as they are newborns. We’re especially interested in exploring the darker sides of pregnancy.

So, if there’s also a junior sexton, a fetching witch, a pastor perhaps too concerned about his church’s finances, a parade of baby carriage pushing angry anti-abortion protesters, and . . . oh, yes . . . the Grim Reaper sleeping one off in a tavern dumpster. . . ? The story’s title is “Let Us Prey,” and it seemed worth a try.

Today came the answer: Thank you for your submission to TALES FROM THE WOMB. I am happy to inform you that your short story has been accepted for publication in the anthology.

March 3rd Sunday Write Addressed 5th Sunday

Or actually today, Monday, the fifth Sunday plus a day, but the prompt this time wasn’t till the fourth Sunday — March 26 — although still in the same month. So then a week later, April 2nd, I drafted my opening, answering the third of a quartet of springtime (more or less) oriented suggestions.

Thus, for March’s Writers Guild’s “Third Sunday Write” (cf. February 27, et al.):

3. a perfect picnic. . .

It’s the ants that did it. Picnics are generally fraught with danger, they being outside. Wandering skunks; the occasional zombie, in season; one’s freeloading neighbors. And trees, of course, squirrels pelting us with acorns. But what saved us was ants.

Ants are nature’s miracles, small, unobtrusive, but with wee biting parts that are embrued with fire. And a vacuum cleaner with an extra-long extension cord were the tools to capture them. Those who did not have vacuum cleaners could borrow from their wives. But with millions of ants captured now in dirt-bags, we had our weapons.

It took only starving them a single season, and then they were ready.

So, picnics restarted, we bided our time, vacuum cleaners humming, our thumbs hooked and anxious, hovering over the machines’ “reverse” switches. We waited. . . Waited. . . The menaces slowly approaching our blanket.

And then it was time! Thumbs toggling blowers, a fire-hose stream launched — of ANTS! Gnawing through skunks, zombies, like they were Jello. Taking down neighbors, shredding treed squirrels. And when they were done, generously sharing with us the leftovers.

A perfect picnic. . .

Ecology, Essays, and Mermaid Redux at 1st Sunday Prose

Time again for The Bloomington Writers Guild’s “First Sunday Prose and Open Mic,” at Morgenstern Books on a lovely, sunny, warm afternoon (as opposed, say, to Friday night’s tornado warning — such is spring weather in Indiana), though this time not adjacent to the coffee house but relocated to a conference area in the store’s back. Nevertheless, with a healthy audience of, for the main part, about twenty people.

So, first up this time was cultural anthropologist and IU International Studies professor Stephanie C. Kane, currently specializing in research on the political ecology of water and ice (though earlier publications include THE PHANTOM GRINGO BOAT: SHAMANISM AND DEVELOPMENT IN PANAMA and AIDS ALIBRIS: SEX, DRUGS, AND CRIME in the 1990s) with several selections from her latest book, JUST ONE RAIN AWAY: THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF RIVER-CITY FLOOD CONTROL (2022). Her readings were followed by human bevavior observer and essayist Darrell Stone with four writings on the recent and not-so-recent past, “Birth Announcement,” “The Box,” “Ode to a Squirrel,” and “The Visitor,” combining poignancy, humor, and a keen eye into the workings of the world around us.

Following these there were five walk-on readers out of about ten remaining for the post-break “open mic” session, with me next to last. My part was the second of three tales, begun last month with “The Mermaid Vampiress” (cf. March 5), “Mermaid Vampiress Dates Octopus.”

Royalty Received No April Fool Joke

So it is April 1st, but one part of the writing life is keeping the books. You do it for money, that makes it a business. And one part of that is to look up PayPal to see if any last-minute payments came in which, following their custom, they don’t bother telling you when they actually arrive.

So, closing for March, nothing new to report — but wait, what is this? There, starting off April — the first almost-full day in — lurked a two-figure amount, with an explanation. A royalty from a story first published in 2020 (and that as a reprint, some stories keep earning!). Though the celebration can still be modest, stories in anthologies earn just a share of the book’s actual take, the rest meted out to the other authors, the editor, possibly cover artist, et al. But still, money is money.

As is my custom, I’ll mention neither the story nor book — brags may be brags but these, of necessity, are just small ones (and, yes, I even got a royalty once of exactly one penny — cf. March 13 2019). In part for that reason, most anthologies just give a single payment up front, and, moreover, subsequent sales for anthologies usually taper off quickly. But there are exceptions.

And so this one is, even if still just a two-figure sum, it’s enough to buy dinner at one of the better local restaurants. That is, if one’s gotten back to eating out post Covid-19.

Triana Wishes To All A Blessed St. Patrick’s Day

(Her cousin, however, may have celebrated a little too much)

Great Man/Nightmare Contract Signed and Sent

Ah, the writing life. We may recall a headline around a month and a half back: ­Nightmare Abbey/Great Man Reprint First Sale for 2023 (cf. January 30). The story, “The Great Man,” a reprint first published in THE STRAND MAGAZINE, Spring-Summer 1999. And now accepted by Editor/Publisher Tom English for the third issue of NIGHTMARE ABBEY.

But it’s never just that, the publishing game — acceptance today, magazine or book in hand next Tuesday. Tomorrow. Whenever. It has its own rhythm, this writing life does: acceptance, agreement, editing, proofreading. . . .

And so, another step advanced today. Late yesterday evening the contract arrived, dated for today, Monday, March 13, for the literary work entitled: “The Great Man.” These things work their own ways, mine for this a trip to the public library and their equipment — more than I have at home — to download, print, physically sign the contract, FAX the result to my own email, then attach and send that back to the sender. Another day in the Writing Life.

Then to look ahead, a new day will bring an edited copy, a round of proofreading . . . eventually the completed magazine, for all of which keep posted here.

Another Mystery, But This One’s for Me

It came late this morning, under the tagline A Hero of a Different Stripe contributor copy. The message: Here’s the USPS tracking number for your contributor copy of A HERO OF A DIFFERENT STRIPE: [tracking number redacted, but it said that “it,” whatever it is, would come today]

Thank you again for contributing to the LTUE Benefit Anthologies!*

Say, WHAT!

So a little detective work on my part — these mysteries aren’t as rare as one might think — and the tale led to a another “mystery” of sorts, but one published by me, a year and a half old entry here for October 6 2021 (yes, 2021, books sometimes take unexpected time to be actually published), under the headline Mystery Acceptance: Contract Signed, Scanned, and Sent Back.

The email came earlier this afternoon, but with one deviation from how these things usually go. It was an acceptance, but what it was an acceptance for was to remain a secret.

Thus: We would like to use your submitted story _____ in the _____ anthology. The contract is attached to this message. Please read through it carefully and let us know if you have any questions or concerns. If you do not have any questions, please sign it, scan the full document, and send it back ASAP.

Please do not publicly announce any specifics regarding this yet. . . .

And that was that. Hearing nothing else, I more or less assumed at some point the project was cancelled — these things happen too. But, by golly, a check with Amazon revealed it has indeed now been published, on February 16 2023, by Hemelein Publications, Joe Monson and Jaleta Clegg, editors. The Amazon blurb: Not Your Standard Hero

We all know what heroes are like, right? Brilliant smiles, superpowers, above average beauty, love to pose for the cameras and bask in the limelight? The heroes found here are not your standard hero. Here you’ll find shapeshifting (but ditzy) detectives, considerate sidekicks, avid romance readers, lunar garbage collectors, and more!

In other words, the unsung heroes, the unappreciated sometimes but who do the real work. With my story in it (a reprint originally published in NIGHT LIGHTS by Geminid Press, cf. April 1 2016, et al., as well as SPACE OPERA LIBRETTOS, Digital Science Fiction, February 28 2020): “The Needle-Heat Gun,” the comic tale of a sidekick, yes, but not only just unsung, but also the one who, at every step, pulls the “official” hero’s fat from the fire.

And who also has his own tastes in music (while as for the book and this morning’s message, yes, as of 6:00 p.m. it has arrived!).

.

*LTUE stands for the Life, The Universe, & Everything Symposium, an annual conference in Provo UT aimed at authors and artists new to the SF/Fantasy field.

Memoir, Mystery, and Mermaid at March First Sunday Prose

It seemed like a relatively small, but attentive crowd at this afternoon’s Bloomington Writers Guild “First Sunday Prose” at Morgenstern’s Books (see February 5, et al.), despite a high-powered lineup of featured readers. But then it was also a sunny and not-too-chilly afternoon starting a week forecast to get colder, so that may have provided a competing draw.

Of the featured, first up was poet, story, and essay writer John Irvin Cardwell, with multiple books as well as a career as (among other things) a policy advocate and member of numerous private boards and public commissions, with two stories: the first, “Misery,” exposing the plight of the urban homeless, followed by “Hanging Out with Frank,” a memoir of times spent with one-time Indiana Governor Frank O’Bannon when he’d led the Indiana Senate Democratic Caucus, as illustrative of the meaning of friendship. Then he was followed by multi-published short fiction mystery writer, as well as Edgar and Derringer Award nominee and Bill Crider Prize, et al., winner, Joseph S. Walker, with a just released piece in the current ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, “Moving Day.”

After the break, the “Open Mic” portion was also small, with Walker drafted in as third of three readers with another brief story, “Kindling Delight,” following usually final place MC Joan Hawkins, with me — also unusually — leading off with “The Mermaid Vampiress” (who, as we found out, does not wear a seashell bra). Also of the mermaid, taking a lead from my “Casket Suite” of five related-tale readings on successive months at the Guild’s “First Wednesday Spoken Word” (cf. March 2, below), this was the first of a three month series to be continued in April and May.

Poems, Poet Laureate Precede Casket Saga at March First Wednesday

And music too. Opening March’s multi-co-sponsored (cf. February 1, et al.) Bloomington Writers Guild’s “First Wednesday Spoken Word” at the downtown Backspace Gallery, singer/guitarist/songwriter Nathan Dillon presented groupings of songs under a general theme of “collaboration” — songs, that is, that he and one of a number of other local songwriters created together — interspersed with descriptions of methods of collaboration and idea creation for songs in general.

Then came first featured reader, poet and live sound effects artist Tony Brewer with longer works, including from two of his published books, PITY FOR SALE and HOT TYPE COLD READ, bracketing a flurry of shorter poems from “Poetry on Demand” tables at various events. Then, following, came multi-award winning and current Indiana Poet Laureate Matthew Graham with poems from his most recent book, THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOME, as well as “a couple of new ones,” ranging in subject from early school “Dick and Jane” reading texts, things (as from his father) that combine to define us, New Orleans and music, and, ending, new poems from various parts of Indiana as part of his being appointed Poet Laureate.

Then intermission, snacks, and seven (of fifteen in person, but with the session also being livestreamed, an unknown number “attending” from home) “open mic” readers, including me just past the middle with Aimée and the Casket Girls — speaking of New Orleans! — in “A Surfeit of Poe,” the second of the five-part “Casket Suite” which began last month, and in which we also meet the poetic Yvonne, the jokester Claudette, and the always glamourous Lo.

3 Poems Accepted by Ryder — Or Was That Just 2

Lots of numbers, 4 and 3 Monday, now 2 and another 3. But if course different contexts. So for today’s, let us take the wayback machine to summer last year, with the publishing of two poems by me — “Don’t Always Believe Everything You Read” and “The Vampiress’ Soliloquy” — in local Bloomington magazine THE RYDER (see July 12, June 13 2022, et al.).

It seems that THE RYDER is at it again.

It actually started in late December when, answering an e-call by the Bloomington Writers Guild’s Tony Brewer, I sent three poems for a planned 2023 THE RYDER Poetry issue for the coming spring, “Existential Vamp,” “Let’s All Go to the Movies,” and “Last, Shoemaker Stick To.” That is to say, to cover philosophy, nostalgia, and Olde Maxims (or, maybe, logic-based mayhem), respectively. Until finally, today, the decision arrived: Hi, James, thanks again for submitting. I would like to include all three poems in the issue — they are short enough together I think we can make it work, although I may need to drop one for space. So. . . three poems or two?

Well a sale’s a sale (although this one is for glory, not money, but it is a local publication), but I do greatly hope all three get printed. Unlike last year’s two poems on “familiar” monsters (a zombie for the first, a vampire for second), these three poems are purposely widely divergent — which in itself defines a pattern — whereas with two the selection, whichever chosen, would seem (and in this case in fact would be) just random. That is, if asked myself, I would have no means to make a choice — but as Tony notes they are purposely on the short side too. So hopefully there won’t be any problem.

In any event we should find out together, at least those of us local, in just a few months. As the email concludes, [t]he issue should be on the street by the end of April. There will be a showcase reading of poets in the Ryder poetry issue on Wed May 3 at 6 pm at Backspace Gallery on the square. Let me know if you can make that. Thanks again.