James Dorr's Blog, page 28

LOLcraft Contract Signed, Faxed, Returned; First Contact Black Infinity Out

The start of fall is proving to be a busy time. Bloomington Writers Guild activities will include poetry and more fiction readings in about a month, while the “writing life” nuts and bolts of the publishing game are catching up too — at least for the moment.

For instance, yesterday’s email from Editor/Publisher Michael Cieslak: It’s finally here, the e-mail you have been waiting for.

Enclosed please find the contract for the upcoming publication LOLCRAFT: A COMPENDIUM OF ELDRITCH HUMOR. Please pay careful attention to the name, address (so you can receive your author’s copy of the book), and preferred byline portions of the contract.

The contracts may be returned via e-mail to editor@thedragonsroost.net (preferred) or by printing and sending. . . .

And so it went, with new information on payment, requests for bio updates, prior publication details for reprints, Paypal addresses, etc. All pretty standard, but for me the contract return would require my printing it, filling in details and signing it “live,” then faxing to email, which meant a visit to the public library to use their resources. But, no problem, that was accomplished today and it, and the rest, emailed back to Dragon’s Roost Press this afternoon, with my story in this, “The Reading,” originally printed in 2013 in UNIVERSE HORRIBILIS (see April 27, et al.), now that much closer to re-publication.

And then, this one from two days ago and already noted on my Facebook page, BLACK INFINITY’s FIRST CONTACT issue, including my story “The Country Doctor” (cf. September 8 2021, et al.) has been published. More will be here when my copy comes, but for now information (including ordering) can be found here.

Spooky Prose “Zooms” at Writers Guild First Wednesday Spoken Word

A trip back in time, of sorts, for the Bloomington Writers Guild’s “First Wednesday Spoken Word” (see March 4 2020, and before). It went on hiatus because of Covid, and hasn’t come back yet as a live event — but it has had an electronic rebirth through the “magic” of Zoom. It’s still not been reported here, there’s something about Zoom that, for me, is still off-putting and so I haven’t sought to attend these new sessions. Though admittedly there are advantages too, one being that since participants don’t have to be physically present, readers don’t have to be local or near-local, but can be recruited from anyplace, technically, in the world.

But comes Halloween and, as a local horror writer, I was invited to be one of three readers at an all-prose (well, plus musical interludes which are, traditionally, a part as well) spook-fest, joining with Louisville, Kentucky writer and Jefferson Community and Technical College English instructor Josh Conrad and San Francisco-based Dodie Bellamy, the former with a story culminating with Halloween and the latter with memoirs including a recollected viewing of the movie of Stephen King’s CHRISTINE. And between them, me with a tale in the far-future “Tombs” universe but not in the TOMBS novel, “Crow and Rat,” originally published in HUMANAGERIE (Eibonvale Press, 2018), and interspersed throughout electronic music via Ed Pettersen, weird and spooky in its own way.

The First Wednesday Series is sponsored in part by the Indiana Arts Commission, Bloomington Arts Commission, and the Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association, and was fun in a new sort of way, though I’m probably unlikely to re-become a regular quite yet — there’s something about the electronic format that, for me, still seems lacking. But there is still one more advantage, and that is these sessions are being live-streamed and, for tonight’s, by probably about the end of the week it should be on You Tube.

To see for yourself, and enjoy some pretty good stories, et al., too, in a few days press here.

Writers Guild First Sunday Prose Resumes for October

Having skipped a month for Bloomington’s Fourth Street Arts Fair, it was time this month to resume the Writers Guild’s (mostly) monthly “First Sunday Prose” at Morgenstern Books (cf. September 3; August 7, et al.). First in the featured readers lineup was IU Hutton Honors College Extracurricular Coordinator/Academic Advisor Zilia Balkansky-Sellés with an exciting essay on her trip this August climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. She was followed by Bloomingtonian and Director Of Creative Arts Productions for GHETT-HEALTHY production @ GHp studios PDVNCH with five creative prose/poetry essays, “Poetry as Therapy” sessions 1-3 and “The Writing on the Brick Wall” chapters 1 and 2.

Keeping an audience of about thirteen or fourteen people, the session continued after the break with its usual “open-mic” session. Here the turnout was relatively good with five volunteers, albeit with more mundane presentations (with one possible exception, however, Writers Guild member Tonia Matthew with an essay/remembrance of England’s recently deceased Queen Elizabeth II), in which I was second with “The Flavor of the Jest,” the opening segment of “Casket Suite,” my January prize-winning entry in Defenestrationism.Net’s 2022 Flash Suite Competition (see January 17, 3; December 14 2021, et al.*).

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*For those interested, the section is one of five mini-stories based on the New Orleanian urban legend of the “Casket Girls,” and which, combined, form a larger story which may be seen in its entirety by pressing here.

Sept. 3rd Sunday Write Only One Week Late

But another three days until posted here. Still, that’s not bad for me! The actual call went out September 20, well technically third Tuesday but only two days off, and my response actually hit the Facebook page on the 25th. The fourth Sunday, that is.

So this is the Bloomington Writers Guild’s “Third Sunday Write” (see September 5, et al.). As to what it’s about — the “Third Sunday” idea, that is, not the topic for this month’s particular outing which will be announced with the essay itself — group moderator Shana Ritter supplies four potential prompts each month, of which members may pick one as inspiration for a poem, or essay, or story . . . whatever, to post on the Facebook site with members then picking a line to re-quote by way of a comment. This is, anyway, the post-Covid answer to what had originally been live sessions with respondents writing, lickity split, responses to all prompts for reading out loud, face-to-face, to the others in turn.

But what is, is. So, quoting from Facebook, here is my response to what was the first sample prompt, as quoted as well:

1. Autumn Equinox is upon us, a moment when day and night are equal. What does balance look like to you?

Balance looks like a ball spinning on a seal’s nose. That’s “classic” balance, the kind we all saw in circuses. Elsewhere. But beneath the circus an orca waits, lurking. A potential fourth ring. Or maybe more desperate — orcas do eat seals — to rip through the fabric of canvas and sawdust, consuming elephants. Acrobats also. Its hunger reaching as high as trapeze bars.

That’s “balance” as it appears in the real world. On the TV, a Russian dictator reminding he has nukes should Ukraine offend him. Which it does already.

A balance of terror?

Or mirth in the absurd: A deposed U.S. President threatening violence should crimes be investigated, but is not the violence in itself a crime? An orca-devouring shark that bites its own tail. My cat has a birthday on the Autumn equinox —

She’s in it for the fish.

Pre-Halloween Visit for Last Sunday Poems

Morning meetings are hard for me to get to, which cuts down my participation in the Bloomington Writers Guild’s monthly “Last Sunday Poetry” — not that it’s excessively early (not starting, in fact, until 11 a.m.), just that, for me, before noon in general is bad. Nevertheless, I do get to some — last year, for instance, I was even one of the featured poets for October, Sunday that year being Halloween (and I do write horror), as I’m scheduled to be next Last Sunday too. And this month also marked the first meeting MC’d by Hiromi Yoshida, taking the reins from founding MC Patsy Rahn, so it seemed an opportune time to check in and at least re-acquaint myself with the turf.

The featured poets this time were award-winning WIDER THAN THE SKY (Diode Editions, 2020) and LIGHT INTO BODIES (University of Tampa Press, 2017) author Nancy Chen Long, a multi-published poet and reader for the literary journal GUESTHOUSE as well as working at IU’s Research Technology division, with three poems from a new manuscript in progress; followed by well-traveled and published Jessica Reed, with a poetry MFA and a BS in physics leading to teaching science poetry in China and Saudi Arabia as well as throughout the US (currently: a seminar on physics and the arts at Butler University), reading selections from her first two chapbooks, STILL RECOGNIZABLE FORMS (Laurel Review Greentower Press) and WORLD, COMPOSED (Finishing Line Press).

Then, after the break, I came fourth of five open mic readers with a single poem, “Medusa’s Daughter,” as a preview for next month’s Halloween eve when “the veil separating the real world from that of myth and legend becomes exceedingly thin.”

A HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TRIANA!

(b. September 22, 2016)

Rights (Edited?) Up for Post Roe Alternatives

It’s a new story, although a fairly slight one. Only 400 words and more snarky than profound. But there is a certain kind of tale that I sometimes call a “the devil made me do it story”– one where the madness of some aspect of the world outside gets to me enough that I have to react, even if the result only ends up languishing in my file cabinet. Its title is “Rights.”

But then, funny thing, B Cubed Press Editor/Publisher Bob Brown had possibly a similar feeling — and thus this announcement: Roe V. Wade has happened. The question is what is next? What happens in our country? What happens TO our country? what freedoms are next? Do we resist? How?

There will be consequences. What are they? Who stands up? Who caves?

This is a look at the consequences of a SCOTUS who reserves rights for the Rich, the Corporation, the Badged and the Powerful.

The anthology title, POST ROE ALTERNATIVES, and the submission window was short, as could be the stories, and “Rights” seemed to fit. So in it went with nine days to spare. And today the answer came: Thank you for submitting “Rights” to POST ROE ALTERNATIVES. We loved this and would like to accept it for publication. Although with a caveat: Couple of things. I’d like to see the cop be a woman. And there will be edits.

I’m usually not a great fan of editors’ changes, at least major ones, but with “Rights” it’s the idea and not literary niceties — and POST ROE is to be a charity anthology too, with proceeds earmarked for the ACLU. And I don’t object to the sex change either, so I sent back my “okay” this afternoon with a note that I’ll look forward to seeing what Bob and his designated editor will have in mind.

And Now for Something A Little Bit Different . . .

STRANGE WEEDS again today, not that having items three days in a row isn’t strange enough all by itself. But for today, courtesy of Editors Donnie and Meghan: Here is the full wrap image for STRANGE WEEDS. Feel free to share! The final paperback is mass market sized.

In addition, I’d note, to the mass-market size, I assume the “scuffed” look on the picture above is actually printed in, it with the size a reminiscence of times going back to the 1960s when all was illegal and one felt “underground” by definition. A book about weed? No doubt printed in haste by the cheapest means of production, furtively pulled out of the back pocket of the jeans that one would be wearing. Or if a woman, perhaps from one’s purse, self-consciously hidden under that packet of pills, itself a new thing and a symbol of freedom.

But time moves on, however slowly, and as the back cover reminds us STRANGE WEEDS is a charity anthology with proceeds to go to The Last Prisoner Project, to raise awareness for people still charged with crimes concerning marijuana. Also, the electronic edition is already up for pre-order on Amazon with an October 2 release date listed, as well, one supposes, with the print version soon to follow.

Another Proof Copy Received: The Country Doc

Or, great editorial minds think alike (or at least on similar schedules)? So, hot on the heels of yesterday’s proof of “Killer Pot” for STRANGE WEEDS, today brought an email from BLACK INFINITY editor Tom English with a proof of my story, “The Country Doctor,” for their upcoming FIRST CONTACT issue (see September 8 2021, et al. — yes, September a year ago, partly delayed because of new magazine NIGHTMARE ABBEY in development from the same publisher, cf. this year’s July 27, et al.).

As with “Killer Pot” (originally published in DAILY SCIENCE FICTION, August 9 2011), “The Country Doctor” is a reprint, in this case first appearing in Summer 2005 in BOOK OF DARK WISDOM, as well as about a sort of medical topic. This time, though, with a more horrific, more science fictiony premise concerning a doctor in the American southwest — northern New Mexico more precisely — and top secret doings involving a (maybe) not-quite-human patient.

And, well, sometimes doctors, in practice a long time and set in their ways, may tend to cut corners. . . .

In any event the proof copy was perfect, also like “Killer Pot,” with my okay going back this evening. More to be here later as it becomes known.

Strange Weeds on its Way, Proof Received and Returned

Pot aficionados rejoice! The word came today: We’re only a few weeks away from the launch of STRANGE WEEDS!

Attached below is the current formatted proof of STRANGE WEEDS. Please read over your story (we encourage you to also check out the other featured stories) and let us know if you have any issues with what ended up in the proof.

We feel really great about how this looks, but we will give it one final pass before uploading the manuscript for paperback and digital distribution.

If my story, “Killer Pot” (see August 10, June 6), is an indication the editing and typesetting are perfect, with word from me going back to Editors Donnie and Meghan this afternoon. And add one more note: Amazon is already open for advance orders for the Kindle edition.