James Dorr's Blog, page 40

Asinine Assassins Up Early in Paperback (Kindle to Come)

Strange are the ways of the publishing biz. The following came to me roundabout via the Short Mystery Fiction Society (shhh, I think even Editor/Publisher Weldon Burge may not have known it until yesterday).

From Amazon: Synonyms: absurd, balmy, brainless, bubbleheaded, cockeyed, crackpot, crazy, cuckoo, daffy, daft, dippy, dotty, fatuous, featherheaded, fool, foolish, half-baked, half-witted, harebrained, inept, insane, jerky, kooky, loony, lunatic, lunkheaded, mad, nonsensical, nutty, preposterous, sappy, screwball, senseless, silly, simpleminded, stupid, tomfool, unwise, wacky, weak-minded, witless

The 24 stories in the ASININE ASSASSINS anthology involves characters (e.g., assassins, guns for hire) with the above synonyms in mind. ASININE ASSASSINS is an anthology of stories about inept, brainless, ridiculous hired guns, assassins, and murderers. This is the third in the “Assassins” series, which also includes UNCOMMON ASSASSINS and INSIDIOUS ASSASSINS. Here is crime fiction with a difference! And, while not scheduled for Kindle until September 14 (or so Amazon says), ASININE ASSASSINS, originally set for early next month (see July 19, et al.), appears to have been available in hard copy since last Thursday, August 19!

So that’s only a few days ago anyway and there’s no rule that says publishers can’t be early — the target, after all, could have been as soon as just ten days from now. My story in this, “Shooting Fish,” is a science fiction crossover of bungling an alien invasion of Earth — that is, if the titular aquatic creature fails to be put down — one of two dozen tales in all, all of which can now be ordered in paperback form by pressing here.

And that’s not a bad thing.

Flute and Harp Play in Combined Suite of Volumes

Another excursion down memory lane, this time to two years in the past with a story, “Flute and Harp,” accepted for a future copy of HELIOS QUARTERLY. It would be a reprint, originally published in WHISPERS AND SHADOWS (Prime Books, 2001) as well as part of my 2017 novel-in-stories, TOMBS: A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH, but there was one catch: due to backlogs it most likely wouldn’t appear until mid-2021 (cf. August 12, June 17 2019, et al.).

But of course things change. First, on July 26 this year: This is Olivia, the publisher behind Aurelia Leo (formerly Radiant Crown Publishing).

I’m writing to you all to ask if you’d be interested in having your work bound into a new anthology project.

It would contain the stories featured in the illustrated anthology projects UCHRONIA & HYPERION & THEIA, as well as MYSTIQUE.

The new anthology would be tentatively named UCHRONIA: ALTERNATIVE HISTORIES & ALTERNATE WORLDS, with new cover art by J. Querioz (unless our agreement falls through).

And now today’s (August 20) email: You’re one of twenty-three authors that expressed some interest in this reprint anthology (that will contain a handful of new stories that don’t fit properly anywhere in the publication schedule anymore).

Unfortunately negotiations fell through with J. Queiroz. However, I now plan to repurpose some of Stefan Paris’s illustrations used in the original edition of UCHRONIA. That or pay for 2-3 black and white illustrations to keep the feel of the older works. Send any recommendations my way.

You can share the cover, your story, and release date of January 4, 2022 now if you’d like! But if you give me about two weeks, I’ll have a pre-order up and an ARC ready that may be more useful to share.

Included: a contract, now signed and sent back, as well as the cover which is rather cool! And so, too, a hoped-for release date the first week of next year, with more details to come.

Water Turns Red Paperback Has Arrived

WATER TURNS RED is a collection of 21 chilling stories that explore the various shades of this ghastly color red. Within these pages lie the corpses of those killed in cold blood, the cunning minds of their killers, and the wits of detectives. Together they paint a disturbing image of the human psyche.

So says the back cover copy for WATER TURNS RED, The Great Void Books’ dark crime fiction anthology (see July 17, 10, June 23, et al.), which has now arrived in its more than 500-page glory in ye olde Computer Cave mailbox. Twenty-one stories are present in all with, at the number ten spot, my tale, “Madness,” of disenchanted office employees, visions of toothed creatures, and crazy love. Or is it just love, or perhaps something deeper, more ancient?

Well, now one can find out, the print edition actually available for a few weeks by now, as well as the e-book. A hefty read, as noted, with mine actually the longest story there, one of my few at novelette length*. Will it hold up taking nearly a tenth of the whole volume’s length?

For more or for ordering, one can check here.

.

*Editor Aditya Deshmukh seems to like to use some of my longer work, cf. “The Garden” at about 10,000 words in The Great Void’s UNREAL. This one is longer.

Crunchy With Ketchup Now Up in Print and Electronic Versions

It took until late Monday for the print edition to be there as well but, as promised (cf. just below, August 14, etc.), CRUNCHY WITH KETCHUP can now be ordered on Amazon, et al. This, of course, is the WolfSinger Publications “bad ass” dragon anthology or, to quote the blurb: It has been said that one should never meddle in the affairs of dragons — for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

Come enter the dragon’s lair.

Take your chances with other would-be heroes and heroines who decide to face off against one of the biggest, baddest predators ever.

Witness a dragon civil war.

Hear the true story of the Battle of New Orleans.

Find out what it’s like in the belly of a dragon.

Discover why cats can spell disaster when stealing a dragon’s egg.

Meet a group of dragon riders who protect us from nuclear devastation.

Follow legends of modern dragons, only to find something very unexpected.

And more . . .

And so, for 26 stories in all including my tale, “The Bala Worm,” of a modern-day dragon hunt in Wales, for ordering or for more information one need but press here. Or if preferred, go to the WolfSinger site by pressing here.

Upward! Second of Fifty-Four Sold; “Crunchy” Set for Monday Debut

A little journey down memory lane and how, as COVID-19 lockdowns began, I reserved a year’s worth of weekends, March-to-March 2020/21, for writing new (albeit mostly flash) stories. Fifty-Four stories resulted in all — the two extras super shorts that just “came up,” at least one, I recall, based on a Bloomington Writers Guild Third Sunday challenge — the first of which, “The Seven” (cf. July 25), sold only a few weeks ago to DAILY SCIENCE FICTION. Now there is a second.

From Editor Lori Michelle: Congratulations, your short story has been picked for publication in NIGHT FRIGHTS. Please respond to me with a YES! so I can get it sent to a story editor. The story, “Upward!,” was 15th in the series written around June, one “extra” having sneaked in just before it, and concerns what amounts to a conventional horror subject, but from that subject’s rather more rarely considered point of view. While NIGHT FRIGHTS is a special young adult edition of DARK MOON DIGEST, the quarterly flagship of Lori and Max Booth III’s Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing.

Then a crunchy quickie from WolfSinger Publications Editor/Publisher Carol Hightshoe: Everything is set up to go on sale on Monday 8/16. I’m going to approve the print files on Amazon today — so it may be available a little early, but I prefer that to not having it available when the ebook goes on sale. The publication is CRUNCHY WITH KETCHUP, the “badass dragon” anthology (see July 26, 5, et al.) with my story in it “The Bala Worm.”

More on both to be here (you know the drill) as it becomes known.

Another Refugees, Sidewalk Spawn Quickie

From Tom Easton, Monday: I have now finished going over the stories selected for SPAWN OF WAR AND DEATHINESS, looking for typos and occasional infelicities. Nothing major was found, but in the nature of things there are always more typos! Please go over your stories (attached) to seek such things, and perhaps even to make last-minute changes.

And so, proofing done, my okay went back just a tad after midnight with the next step, from Tom (cf. also just below, August 8), [o]nce all is in hand, I will assemble the book and hand it off to Bob Brown, who at some point in the near future will send out contracts.

More here as it’s known.

B Cubed Releases Authors, Titles for Spawn

Just a quickie: Saturday B cubed Press released an informal listing of contents for SPAWN OF WAR AND DEATHINESS (see August 3), the overflow anthology of reprints offered for its “war” and “deathiness” ALTERNATIVE anthologies. It’s not an actual order of the 25 stories as far as I know — I certainly hope my two entries, “The Sidewalk” and “Refugees,” end up with plenty of distance between them, with “The Sidewalk” (which I consider the better story) second of the two, nearer the end, though that’s a personal thing with me — but rather in alphabetical order by authors’ first names.

So, as a sort of partial preview:

SPAWN OF WAR AND DEATHINESS
Edited by Tom Easton

Dante’s Unfinished Business Alex Shvartsman
Sickle Claws Hesperonychus Monstrous Alicia Hilton
The One About the Last Prayer, Alma Alexander
Reading Coffee Anthony Panegyres
Dream Chair Bob Brown (Writing as Melvin Charles)
Mr Wetzel and His Wurlitzer Bruce Taylor
Motorway Maintenance Christopher M. Geeson
Dirt Moon Dan Koboldt
Starship Scion David F. Shultz
Caretaker in the Garden of Dreams David Tallerman
The Schrodinger War Dwayne Minton
Transgression Comes With A Time Stamp Selective Service Gerard Sarnat
The Inn of the Dove Gordon Linzner
After the Atrocity Ian Creasey
The Final Choice Phyllis Irene Radford
Godotât’s Eternal Taxi Service J. J. Steinfeld
The Sidewalk James Dorr
Refugees James Dorr
Daddys Girl Jennifer R. Donohue
Power of Attorney Louis Evans
The Soul Man Mike Murphy
Empathy for Others Patrick G Moloney
A Fresh Start Rob Butler
The Last Death Sarah Seddon
Wallflower Tom Easton

July 3rd Sunday Write In August: Worm Laden Apples

First off it’s late again, the Bloomington Writers Guild Third Sunday Write (cf. June 29, et al.), both for getting the prompts but also for my post. That is, I did post on Facebook July 28, at least the right month, but with much more interesting things going on, I haven’t gotten around to it for the bloggo until now.

So anyway, herewith, not one of my best. I love the way the prompts are handled, giving us in effect our choice of one out of four, as opposed to the “live” pre-COVID version where we’d stab at all of them, even if only one really “spoke” to us. Though one might argue, of course, that that’s the point — to find inspiration of some sort in anything that is offered.

But back to business, this is the July essay, the prompt being a poem from which we were to select just one line.

4. The Sunday Poem: “I Would Like” by Jane Hirshfield,
— “inhabit a fig or apple”

But what DOES inhabit a fig or apple? I close my eyes, see subdivisions in trees, split-level figs? Apple ranchettes? Does homeowners insurance cover picking? A surreal world, maybe, but in real-world apples aren’t actual inhabitants generally worms? I recall, for instance, an old joke from childhood: What’s worse than biting an apple and finding a worm? The answer: To find half a worm. But now are we to worry, we who eat the apple, about finding families, young couples inhabiting starter apples, moving up when the first wormlets arrive? Big apples. Small apples. Fitting all families. Or can, for a premium, one still find vacant fruit, new neighborhoods hung on freshly built branches? Such are life’s great mysteries — though, as for figs, I’ll say I don’t eat them that much.

Sidewalk Dies, Resurrected by Alternative Deathiness (Alternative War as Well?)

From B Cubed Press last February: B Cubed Press is pleased to announce an open call for ALTERNATIVE DEATHINESS. A fun filled romp into the concept and nature of Death.

Seriously what the hell is death, big guy with bones and a sickle? An ominous Tarot Card? Or is it simply the passing of one thing for another. A change in phase. Or, it is the ending of you, and just you, a personal FU from the universe that say oopsie, you’re out of here?

So be prepared to look hard at this topic, its rituals, its layers. Have fun. May as well, considering the end comes for us all.

The title to be ALTERNATIVE DEATHINESS and you may be sure it was one I would bite on. Another book, ALTERNATIVE WAR, was announced at the same time and, although perhaps not quite as fascinating, I submitted to it too, a reprint called “Refugees.” But of the most interest, a reprint as well, was “The Sidewalk” for the one about death. What would be its fate?

Well . . . it died. In a rather full fullness of time, July 20, the word was returned. It had been rejected (“Refugees,” however, was apparently still on campaign). And there the matter lay.

Until. . . .

Fast forward to this morning, August 3, from Tom Easton (who he?): Thank you for submitting “The Sidewalk” to SPAWN OF WAR AND DEATHINESS. We loved this and would like to accept it for publication. A note followed concerning bibliographic information and then, not much later, a second acceptance came for “Refugees.” Such is the life of the fiction writer, always interesting, filled with surprises. A little detective work however (aided by Facebook), provided the answer.

On B Cubed’s page: Breaking News: MORE STORIES BEING BOUGHT.

The Alternative Deathiness and Alternative War anthologies have drawn so many excellent submissions that we find ourselves facing a dilemma. These anthologies have drawn such a collection of quality reprints, far more than we could ever use, that something MUST BE DONE.

Our Solution? Bob has asked Tom Easton to pick the best of the reprints for both War and Deathiness for a single extra anthology.

NOTE: Some rejections will be Retracted (or at least we will try).

And there you have it.

Cicadas, Memories Spark Bloomington Writers Guild First Sunday Prose

It was an historical event, really, the first live post-pandemic Bloomington Writers Guild Event, though while great crowds were hoped for the actual turnpout (perhaps due to recent COVID delta varient misgivings — or maybe just a hardish to find local library room) was sparse. Not a record low, though.

The event was August’s “First Sunday Prose Reading and Open Mic” (see March 1 2020, et al.) with announced featured readers Kalynn (“K.H.”) Brower and . . . me, but due to a mixup Kalynn had to cancel at the last moment, causing coordinator Joan Hawkins to take her place. And despite a year and a half face-to-face hiatus the audience proved to be only two, poet and member Antonia Matthews (who we’ve met before) and one of her daughters, visiting from out of town. So, local plus visitor, not a bad mix, yes?

My reading was a story of insects, its choice inspired somewhat by last month’s cicadas, and returning memories and UFOs, “Waxworms,” originally published in Canada’s CHIZINE for July-September 2003, and reprinted in my 2013 collection THE TEARS OF ISIS as well as, most recently, BLACK INFINITY’s “Insidious Insects” Summer 2020 issue (c.f. August 20, et al.). This was followed by Joan with “French Lessons,” a creative memoir of how learning a language — with an excellent and dramatic teacher and using texts by absurdist playwright Eugene Ionesco — ended up proving to be life-defining.

Then a break, with cider and snacks, followed by “open-mic” poetry reading and chat made for a pleasant, if not large event, with the next to be scheduled not for September — when Bloomington’s annual Fourth Street Arts Festival will intervene — but for Sunday October 3. I plan to be there.