James Dorr's Blog, page 36

Appointment In Time Part of Untreed Reads Holiday Bundle Special

So, Thanksgiving over it’s time for Christmas story sales, yes? Or rather, maybe, books for the whole year’s end holiday season. And so, if it’s for offerings from Untreed Reads Publishing, YEAR’S END: 14 TALES OF HOLIDAY HORROR (cf. March 7 2018, October 17 2012, et al.) will most likely be on it.

Thus came today’s announcement from Editor/Publisher Jay Hartman: I’ve put together a special short story bundle at DriveThruFiction that contains all of the following:

Year’s End: 14 Tales of Holiday Horror

Tangled

Christmas Baby

Christmas, Past and Present

Little Dumber Boy

XXXmas

Saint Nicked

Outlaw Pizza

Peaches and the Queen

Hanukkah Gelt

Separately, the stories would sell for a total of $10.79 but this bundle is specially priced at just $5.

And the very first story of YEAR’S END, that is of the very first volume listed, is one called “Appointment In Time” by . . . me!

So, long story short, for a bundle of cheer as the nights grow longer — at less than half price! — check out DriveThruFiction by pressing here.

Triana Says Please Remember Your Shelter Cat Friends

(So they can have a Happy Thanksgiving too!)

“Flash Suite” Competition: Casket Suite Scheduled for Dec. 10-14

Word has come on “Flash Suite Contest 2022” (see November 8) — the competition between groupings of flash stories, three or more of less that 1000 words each — for which Aimée and her fellow filles have a five-tale entry. And now we have dates for when it will be published. One of seven finalists, “Casket Suite” has been officially scheduled for December 10 through 14.

As with the others, the story-components will appear one per day, thus “The Flavor of the Jest” on the 10th, “A Surfeit of Poe” on the 11th, “Reflections” the 12th, “Shades of Difference” on lucky 13th, and “What’s In a Name?” the 14th. It comes third in the series of entries and starts on a Friday, thus spanning the weekend to end on a Tuesday. One can reach it each day by pressing here, or (as I would do it myself) wait until the last day to click on and read all five parts in succession to get the full impact of the “suite” as a whole.

Other story-suites range from a minimal three parts to seven, and of course any can be read any time after they’re published using the same link. Then, it being a contest, voting will open . . . well, to quote the official word: Fan Voting will begin January 1st and last until the stroke before midnight (EST) on January 15th. This Fan Voting works American Idol style, and anyone may vote as many times as they choose — without sharing email addresses or any information at all. So rally all fans, friends and family, students and teachers, and still infatuated ex-lovers, now.

Winners will be announced January 17, MLK Day, while other links, info on the judges, the authors, instructions for voting when the time comes, etc., will be at the same e-address as the stories (i.e. the link in the second paragraph above). And as for the “fans, friends . . . ex-lovers,” etc., for voting as noted just above, that means you.

Angels, Last Girls Club Contract Signed for Planned December Release

The beat goes on. Today word came from Editor Eda Obey of THE LAST GIRLS CLUB: I’m so glad you’re a part of the Winter Issue. Here’s the contract. Please sign and return. You can print and sign then scan it or sign digitally using the draw menu in word then email that back. When I get it back I’ll pay you. Please send an author pic, short bio, and PayPal account address to pay you.

So the items requested went out this evening, to lead to a December 21 release if all stays on schedule. The story in question, “How Many Angels” (see November 15), with more to be reported here as it becomes known.

Spawn of War and Deathiness Published in Kindle, Paper

Well, it’s more like November 7th for the paperback, but just the 16th for Kindle according to Amazon. The Book: SPAWN OF WAR AND DEATHINESS from B Cubed Press (cf. October 26, 25, August 10, et al.), B Cubed Press’s “overflow” anthology of stories originally sent for its ALTERNATIVE WAR and ALTERNATIVE DEATH titles, but with the additional endorsement that all were originally published elsewhere. That is at least two editors, and sometimes more, have considered these stories worth publication.

Quoting the blurb: When War and Deathiness get together, the odds of a happy ending are diminished.

So, you can fight it, or you can go with the flow. And in this case, the flow resulted in a great outcome.

SPAWN OF WAR AND DEATHINESS brings the best of both concepts in a creative selection of wonderful short fiction.

Great authors on topics as old as humanity who still find ways to bring new and interesting approaches.

Be that as it may, my tales in this tome are “Refugees,” a medieval take for the WAR part of the mix on the siege of a castle, and “The Sidewalk,” a musing for DEATH on the endings of things beyond just life. First publication for these, respectively, are A HIGH SHRILL THUMP (Third Flatiron Publishing, 2012) and TERMINAL FRIGHT, Fall 1996. So sidewalks have been around for some time (and perhaps have popped up in more places than one).

But, bottom line, both stories can be found now in the same book, for more on which — and for ordering — one can press here.

Last Girls Club Accepts How Many Angels

. . . Winter Issue Theme is DEVOUT: Martyrs, Cults, and Madness. What do you find frightening about deeply religious people and social movements? What does it feel like to be “possessed” by a god or goddess? What is it like to commit acts you would never believe possible?­

What indeed? I’ve been making a point of looking to some really old stories to see if they’re good for one more trip into the light, in this case retrieving one I actually wrote as my “class exercise” for a long, long ago Writers of the Future story assignment. It then took several years more to get published, having its moment in the sun, finally, in the July 1997 CREATIO EX NIHILO. The story, titled “How Many Angels,” had to do with the “dancing mania,” an actual medieval psycho-social phenomenon considered by many at the time to be a form of divine madness, and seemed like it might fit the above prospectus.

The magazine: THE LAST GIRLS CLUB.

And today came the answer: Congrats James! Your piece “How Many Angels” has been accepted for the Winter issue of LAST GIRLS CLUB. A contract and further instructions will be emailed to the email you provided. After you return a signed contract you will be paid by PayPal for your work. Please confirm your PayPal account address when you return the contract. Once the issue is assembled, a PDF copy of the magazine will be sent to you. Thank you for your particular slice of creepy. I appreciate your vision.

Casket Girls In Finals for Defenestrationism 2022 Flash Suite Contest

The call itself seemed a little bit goofy: What is a Flash Suite, you may ask.

Our team defines, albeit loosely, a flash suite as follows,

“A series of at least three flash fiction works that correlate, and build to something greater. Recurring characters, extended motifs, harmonious subject matters, and/or sustained narrative are such correlations– but we encourage innovation and new ideas.”

Go crazy with it, kids, flash your faces off.

Nevertheless, it seemed like fun. A “suite” of three flash stories or more. And, truth to tell, I have a mounting inventory of tales of New Orleanian urban legend-inspired Aimée and her fellow “Casket Girls” (cf. July 9, et many al.), some harder to market than others, of which thoughts of possible chapbook publication in bunches has crossed my mind. And this, headlined FLASH SUITE Contest-two cash winners | Defenestrationism.net, spoke of contests, and judging, and . . .

These finalists are then published daily, before winners are announced, followed by at least two weeks of Fan Voting.

Winners are selected by our panel of four Judges, with Fan Voting counting as an additional judge vote.

And relatively small money prizes, for just one winner and one runner up out of (judging from the past few years) a field of about eight finalists, most likely more mainstream than genre fiction, but . . . what the hell, why not! So off to the stock of unsold stories (one story could be published before, by the rules, but part of the idea is to clear inventory — and, often more character studies than killer thrill pieces, many of these are hard sells by themselves) and, long story short (ahem) I composed an approximately 3300-word suite of five tales of varying lengths from 120 words to about 1000 (the upper limit).

Thus “Casket Suite,” composed of five parts: “The Flavor of the Jest,” an alternate “origin” story of Aimée and the others’ original 1728 coming to the New World from France; “A Surfeit of Poe,” a mid-1850s placing of les filles in their literary context, as led by the “poetic” casket girl, Yvonne; “Reflections,” in which we meet glamor-casket girl Lo in a musing on vampiric superstitions, and which ones are wrong; “Shades of Difference,” also not anchored to a specific time, the shortest tale depicting an amusing conversation on the color red; and “What’s In a Name?” with Aimée again, and relations with humans both there and in France.

Then off it went five days before deadline, and today the reply came from Contest Editor Paul-Newell Reaves: Yes, Chantelle and I quite like your Flash Suite, “Casket Suite,” and would be honored to publish you along with the other finalists in our 2022 FLASH SUITE Contest on Defenestrationism.net.

Finalists will post across December, followed by two weeks of fan voting — which will count as an additional judge vote, to combine with our four Contest Judges’ votes to select the winners. Winners will be announced MLK Day, US — which is January 17th.

And there you have it.

Upward! Makes “Mystery” 1st Sunday Prose Debut

That is, two mystery writers were featured for November’s Bloomington Writers Guild “First Sunday Prose Reading and Open Mic” (cf. October 3, et al.) at its new Morgenstern Books venue, Joseph Walker and Ray Zdonek. Zdonek, also known to local WFHB listeners as a long-time co-host of the “All That Jazz” radio program, led off with an excerpt from his sixth book in a series of novels about “with it” Indiana sleuth Lee Kosak, this one actually taking him out of state to help solve a San Francisco murder. Then Walker, with stories under his belt from ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, ELLERY QUEEN’S, MYSTERY WEEKLY, etc., followed with “One Tossed Match,” originally published in the anthology CEMETERY PLOTS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

In all about sixteen people attended, most of whom remained after the break for the “walk on” portion for which, unfortunately, there were only three participants. I was second for this, reading my recently published “Upward!” (see November 2, October 10, et al.) from DARK MOON DIGEST’s special young adult oriented NIGHT FRIGHTS 2 edition which, even if not a mystery itself, does have a shooting at the end.

25 Gates of Hell Gains Amazon #1 Rating

This was the facebook announcement today from Editor Rookie Burwick: 25 GATES is back at #1 yet again!!! It spent all year in Amazon’s Top 100 for Horror Anthologies, and now it’s skyrocketed to the throne once more. Thank you to everyone who’s giving it a chance! Pick it up for FREE on Kindle until November 8th!

Or, from Amazon’s blurb: Once, in another age, the gates that guard the fiery inferno that is hell creaked open in the dark and unleashed, upon this earth, every drop of terror that could be wrung from beyond them. A group of storytellers banded together to chronicle the tsunami of evil that ensued. Their scribblings depicted events so horrific, the manuscript was hidden away.

Now, dear reader, you seem to have stumbled upon it.

And yes, I happen to have a story in it, “The Re-Possessed” (see December 9, October 20 2020, et al.) — slightly differently titled in the book itself as “The Repossessed” (no hyphen), but otherwise the same tale. Originally published in CEMETERY RIOTS (Awol From Elysium Press, 2016), “The Re-Possessed,” with or without the hyphen, is a useful guide to the undertaker’s trade in 19th century London, especially prior to the passage of the Warburton Act (a.k.a., the Anatomy Act of 1832) by Parliament. Or in any event, a primer on why honesty — especially by the bereaved — could be the best policy at any time.

So if you haven’t read it, it can be found here and, at least for the next few days, may be free on Kindle. Or better yet one might consider its purchase in paperback, for which we authors can look for a royalty (a.k.a. every bit helps).

Night Frights 2 In Print, Authors Copy Is Here

In the second issue of Night Frights magazine, we have stories by Christa Carmen, Greg Cypress, James Dorr, Gina Easton, Alyson Faye, Ken MacGregor, Donna J.W. Munro, Matthew Stott, and Roger Venable. Also includes a classic short story by Edgar Allan Poe and an article all about Halloween!

Thus the bare bones description via Amazon both in its ebook version (see October 10) and, actually for a few weeks now, in print as well. And today it arrived in the Computer Cave mailbox, complete with illustrations for all stories (at least as based on a quick view-through) by Editor Lori Michelle, and my story, “Upward!” The issue, officially, is NIGHT FRIGHTS #2, the special younger and young adult readers oriented annual edition of DARK MOON DIGEST, from Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, and my story in it a point-of-view based reversal on a horror cliche. Or something like that.

For readers, anyway, who like me prefer print on paper, the issue can be found for ordering here. Based on PMMP’s other publications (well, okay, including my THE TEARS OF ISIS, although that one is technically out of print), especially for those still new to horror, I’d recommend it.