James Dorr's Blog, page 33

The Goth Cat Triana Wishes for All A Happy and Joyful Mardi Gras

(But try not to drink too much)

Appointment in Podcast Up February 12

Hark us back to December 23 last year (cf. also, December 16, et al.) and the publication of my new year’s opus, “Appointment in Time,” in CURIOSITIES. It was a reprint, having debuted in YEAR’S END: 14 TALES OF HOLIDAY HORROR by Untreed Reads in 2012. But that’s not the whole story.

Flash forward to now, and an email from CURIOSITIES Editor Kevin Frost: It’s really late, but it’s up!

Hope you like it.

Because, you see, there was more to the deal than just reprinting “Appointment” in the magazine. There was also the podcast, under the aegis of GALLERY OF CURIOSITIES, and that, as of Saturday February 12, has come to fruition.

You can hear it for yourself by pressing here.

But best to listen to it after dark. It’s that kind of story — not a nice story with flowers and unicorns and sunshine. Rather a story of dark of night and the old year’s turning, of modern nations and old ex-colonial customs that still must be obeyed. Of the old and the new.

But wait for darkness, or at least close your eyes as you listen to narrator Alasdair Stuart’s reading — and listen, especially, for sounds in the background as it nears the end. As the great clock chimes. . . .

I think you’ll like it too.

Surprise! Seven In Daily Science Fiction Today

Speaking of snow . . . and surprises! DAILY SCIENCE FICTION, a much-esteemed market for flash length speculative fiction, has usually given its authors a few weeks notice on dates when stories are set to appear. But customs change, or perhaps the Internet Monster swallowed it up this time, but the notice I got that my story “The Seven” (cf. July 25) is up came from fellow author RJ Sullivan on Facebook this morning! But hey, that’s okay — publication is publication — and, yep, it’s been published! Coincidentally, my seventh for them.

To see for yourself, simply press here. (Then if curious about the other six, just enter my last name only, “Dorr,” in the search box and — voila! — they will appear too.)

“The Seven” is a riff on fairy tales, notably “Snow White,” but from the point of view of the seven small people whose names may not quite be what you remember. But then some of their stories may be different too. And the tale itself may be open to several interpretations: Existentialist fiction or satire? A comment on modern times and/or mores or metafiction? Folklore or horror? And, written from a sort of communal point of view, is there even a meaning to truth itself?

As my Author Comments appearing with “The Seven” imply, it’s not the first thing I’ve written inspired by fairy tales either. Or even by “Snow White,” my all time favorite there, perhaps, being one called “River Red,” second-to-last story in my collection THE TEARS OF ISIS, which translates it into the world of my mosaic novel TOMBS: A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH (for descriptions of both books click on their pictures in the center column).

But this is the one we have today and it can be read for free on DAILY SCIENCE FICTION, so why not give it a try (and if you should like it, perhaps give a comment)?

Snow Solo Walk-On for First Sunday Prose

Wednesday and Thursday brought our first winter storm of the season. Rain followed by snow — fortunately it was light on the ice that was predicted with it — then ending on Friday, leaving Sunday afternoon with lots of white still on the ground.

So it was for February’s Bloomington Writers Guild “First Sunday Prose Reading and Open Mic,” with clear, even sunny, skies, but cold and to some extent getting sloppy, meaning a walk both a little difficult but also pretty to Morgenstern Books. This possibly led to a little bit sparser than usual turnout this time for featured readers Alan Balkema and Jane Goodman, with well-published Balkema leading off with the beginning scenes of his novel, LIGHTNING ROD, detailing a dysfunctional family. This was followed by IU cultural anthropology professor Goodman with a personal essay, “Apple, Table, Penny: A Meditation on Word and Verse,” based on a Women Writing for Change workshop project.

After the break, the second “Open Mic” part brought a surprise of sorts. Even though the turnout wasn’t that low (about nine or ten although, with spillover from Morgenstern’s coffee bar, it’s often hard to tell exactly), there was only one reader. Me. So I read an unpublished tale called “The Softening,” science-fantasy sort of with a shade of horror, on weather, winter, shoveling sidewalks, a leveling off of seasonal differences as well as a generally wetter climate, and . . . snow.

Untreed Reads Sale Through February 11: Three Chapbooks by Me, One Antho, Plus Combos

The announcement came yesterday afternoon from Jay Hartman of Untreed Reads Publishing (cf. December 1, et al.): In celebration of my 50th birthday on February 10th, we’re running a 50% off sale on all ebook titles between now and February 11th at both Smashwords and DriveThruFiction. This includes several titles by me, mostly in electronic chapbook format.

The announcement continues, [f]or DriveThruFiction, there’s nothing special that anyone needs to do to receive the discount, and all titles (including short stories) are included. That is, one just need go to the site and enter author and title for the book(s) desired, to find it/them listed with discount applied — no coupons, no special procedures needed. So for mine, the chapbooks are one novelette, “Peds,” and two stand-alone stories, “Vanitas” and “I’m Dreaming of A. . . ,”plus one more story “Appointment in Time” in YEAR’S END: 14 TALES OF HOLIDAY HORROR. Then added to these are two multi-book specials, both also including the YEAR’S END anthology.

To check it out for yourself, just press here, and of course, if interested in other titles from other authors one can take that as a starting point, and continue to DriveThru’s other offerings from Untreed Reads or from other publishers as well (though the latter, of course, are not part of the sale). Or alternatively, click on the pictures of any of the chapbooks noted in the center column to go to Untreed Reads’s own listings, although, depending on where one goes from there, discounts may or may not be applied.

But remember, the sale will end February 11.

Casket Suite Prize Payment Ends January; “Mystery” Contract for First Day of Feb.

And . . . just in time for closing the ledger on January 31, Aimée and les filles came through once again, this time via PayPal with the receipt of first prize for the 2022 Defenestrationism.Net Flash Suite Contest (see January 17, et al.).

So ends the first month of 2022, on its final day. This was for my entry “Casket Suite,” an approximately 3300-word story in five parts, each of these a complete flash fiction tale on its own (yes, even including number four, “Shades of Difference,” at only 120 words), together forming a portrait of the New Orleanian sorority of “casket girls” who arrived from France in 1728, and their founder/leader the aforementioned Aimée. Based on an actual New Orleanian urban legend, the Casket Girls were the New World’s first vampires, but more than that became a group of closely-knit friends and, in their own way, pioneers as well.

Then to start a new month, yesterday, Tuesday, the contract for my “mystery” new acceptance arrived (cf. January 30) and, signed, went back later that afternoon. A mystery in that the story in question is to be in a new magazine, details on which are not yet available to the public, but with a hoped for publication date in late spring.

More to be revealed here as it becomes known.

Third Sunday Write Revealed Now to End January; New “Mystery” Acceptance on 27th

Cold weather slows me down, I think. In any event here are two items, both late, to close the first month of the New Year out.

For the first: The Bloomington Writers Guild’s “3rd Sunday Write” had skipped December, given Christmas week, but for January was right on time, on the 16th. But I, being late, didn’t go to it until nine days after, on the 25th, and then only now am I reporting it here. January 30. The prompts this time included quotes from poets, bell hooks first with “THERE CAN BE NO LOVE WITHOUT JUSTICE” (caps and lower case as given here), and second Joan Didon with “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” There was a third quotation plus a fourth topic, to make a “found” poem with more quotes from the three, but I was content to combine the first two.

Thus: A CONUNDRUM (prompts 1 and 2)

There can be no love without justice. But does that not contain its own contradiction? Justice is truth. But to keep love alive, do we not minimize our loved one’s faults, magnify what we find good? In our own minds, that is — one can, externally, still be realistic, but winning the game involves our own reactions. And that is not justice.

Reflect: Even good manners involve some injustice. To treat as deserving those we know are not so. How much more, then, to not just be polite, but to praise, to embellish, to LOVE? Without nudgings of this sort, even in small matters, telling ourselves stories, not the bare truth. Both large and petty. Finding ways to excuse, more ways to cherish, to make these tales our truths, passing that on as such to the ones we love, even if in a strict courtroom sense it’s an arrant injustice!

For is not love life itself?

And so, in justice, we tell ourselves stories in order to live.

I would need to add that there seems to be a falling off over the past few months of interest in Third Sunday Write, in particular this month with only one other, Tonia Matthew, taking up the full challenge. For myself I hope fellow Guild members will perk up again as the year progresses, this being perhaps the only monthly “meeting” that — for me — actually works better with COVID restrictions as opposed to live. The ability, for instance, to pick the prompt(s) that best speak to one, rather than putting down something for all even when unmoved, as well as to wait until a quiet time sometimes to start (not to mention to “cheat” by taking a little more time as needed, though even with the face to face meetings what you might get here would still be after editing — or, on a “bad” month, maybe nothing at all), is one that fits well.

Then a quick second item: Thursday, January 27, has brought my first story acceptance for 2022 (other postings this month have been for releases, appearances, payments, etc., but with actual acceptances in December or before). But there is a catch. This is also for a new publication hoped to premiere in May, but to quote the editor/publisher (anonymously for now), “[u]ntil then, please keep the title a secret.”

So stay tuned till spring, when all things may catch up.

Rockets and Spacesuits Arrival in Saturday’s Mail

That’s ROCKETSHIPS AND SPACESUITS actually, to give BLACK INFINITY #8 its full subtitle (cf. January 11, 1, et al.), and it’s another big 230-plus page issue with lots of stuff in it. Including, to be sure, a story by me.

The story, to get it out of the way, is “Hanging Vines,” originally published in September 1994 in that year’s World Science Fiction Convention’s CONADIAN SOUVENIR BOOK, and as it happens this isue of BLACK INFINITY may speak especially to old-time science fiction fans as well. As Editor Tom English has it in his introduction, “The Romance of Rocketships,” celebrating particularly the 1950s and ’60s: For the science fiction enthusiast, the world had become a pretty cool place. All eyes were raised to the heavens, as people from all walks of life hoped in the future and dreamed of foreign worlds.

So this was reflected both in novels and film, the latter especially noted in English’s introduction — as well as in the issue itself, with a special feature by film historian Justin Humphreys on 1950’s groundbreaking movie DESTINATION MOON, almost in itself worth the issue’s price. But there’s also an article, for younger fans, on “Revisiting SPACE: 1999”; another, “Threat Watch,” on the dangers of space exploration; and of course the stories, fifteen in all this time, including classics by writers like Randall Garrett, Robert Silverberg, Poul Anderson, and three by one of my personal favorites, Ray Bradbury. And authors to watch for in the future too.

For more, or for ordering, one need but press here.

“Casket” Cops 1st Prize in Flash Suite Contest

It was weird. Results are now in for Defenestrationism.net’s Flash Suite competition (cf. January 1, December 14, et al.), and out of four official judges, none counted “Casket Suite” first. But two did vote it second. And in the fan voting, to count as a fifth “judge” as well as being the tie-breaker if needed, it wasn’t first either — but also came in second.

So, out of four judges’ totals where firsts counted 2 points, and seconds 1, no two judges agreed on a first, so that meant four separate 2-point stories. But two also had seconds from other judges for 3 points as well, with “Casket Suite” with its two runner-up votes getting 2 points plus another 1 as the fan vote second. So 3 points there too. And none of the other four was the one that came first in the fan vote.

Which means that les filles, as they do in their stories, slowly, seductively, wormed their way past their less toothy rivals — and grabbed onto the prize to take back to New Orleans!

Or, to quote the official contest page: ­And the Winners Are. . .

January 17th, 2022

Lord have mercy, what a contest!

Some of our finest flash fictionateering, ever,
ending in a three way tie for both prizes,
decided by the Fan Vote.

Not one to Waste Time, the Winners are:

the grand prize
“Casket Suite” by James Dorr

and runner-up
“Storm Surge” by Laurinda Lind

Yes indeed, a three way tie for both prizes.
The top contenders by judge votes were
“Clouds” by Ilhamul Azam, along with “Casket Suite” and “Storm Surge”.
As you may recall, a draw is decided by the Fan Vote:

“The Toll” by Stephen Page
won the Fan Favorite vote with over 30% of the 228 votes,
followed by
“Casket Suite” by James Dorr
with over 15%.

Of the top contenders, “Casket Suite had the most votes,
followed by “Storm Surge” by Laurinda Lind with almost 14%.

So it may not be the most elegant win ever, but Aimée and the Casket Girls will take it — as will I. And a special thank you to all those who voted in the fan contest, it was you who put us over the top!

And for any who may not have read all the stories, they still can be found by pressing here.

Two New Firsts for the New Year: Payments Received for Vultures, Vines

So, yes, one is “firster” than the other, the payment for “Hanging Vines” received from BLACK INFINITY (see January 1, December 11, et al.) for their just-published ROCKETSHIPS AND SPACESUITS issue recorded on January 8. But it being by PayPal which has a policy of not telling people when they’ve gotten money, I didn’t find out until yesterday, the 10th. But the only reason I checked up on PayPal was my receipt of the second, by check from Fahrenheit Books for “The Christmas Vulture” for AUTOMOBILIA (see December 10, et al.), yesterday as well.

So that’s two stories, the second not quite published yet but expected this month, with two payments, just two days apart. (And, yes, at the start of the 22nd year of the second millennium, but one can take this “twos” thing too far.) But that’s still pretty close and it’s worth celebrating, both being reprints (“Vines” from CONADIAN SOUVENIR BOOK, September 1994, and “Vulture” from the Fall 2010 issue of UNTIED SHOELACES OF THE MIND) but with a combined payout of enough to buy groceries for a whole month. Or perhaps even two.

But the thing is, also, that we all can use reasons for celebrations in these, the years of the COVID pandemic, however large or small, or coincidental. And for a writer, the first cash acquired in a new calendar year is quite reason enough!