James Dorr's Blog, page 6

Alien Buddha 2024 Best Of Arrives for New Year’s

Available, actually, as of December 11, THE ALIEN BUDDHA’S BEST OF 2024 (see December 5, et al.) has arrived, albeit a bit post-Christmas, and nonetheless what a jolly big book it is! And that’s literally meant, with 430-some magazine-sized pages, of which my portions grace pp. 41 and 46. But let’s quote the blurb:

From tender love letters to grotesque horrors, from surreal landscapes to blistering social critiques, The Alien Buddha’s Best of 2024 is a dizzying ride through the minds of today’s most innovative writers. A genre-colliding time capsule of the year’s literary heartbeat.

439 raw, poignant pages. Absurd and unnervingly profound. Funny throughout and defiantly rebellious to the end.

Featuring over 150 brilliant indie authors, this anthology is unpredictable, innovative, thought-provoking, subversive, biting, and otherworldly.

So what more’s to say? My parts are a story from AVOID SEEING A MOUSE AND OTHER TALES OF THE REAL AND SURREAL (cf. January 8, et al.), “Good Taste,” and the poem “Night People” from VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE) (December 4, et al.). But to see more for yourself and/or get press here — but note, this is for the black and white edition. There’s also a deluxe one that features some pictures of authors inside in full color.

Tunnels Out for Christmas in Last Girls Club

Let’s go Underground this winter. Genetic anomalies, kidnappings, cannibalism, aliens, feminist werewolves, and ghosts. No telling what you’ll find down here. Well, we went and looked down the rabbit hole. Our resident tombstone tourist will take you to Greece to visit the Necropolis. We have a new movie gemologist, who finds hidden horror gems to share with you. Our curator of chaos and books is back with an anthology that will take you into the red forest and leave you to gibber in terror. Our salty historian is on deck to whisk you back to a 19th century feminist movement you never heard of and our guru Sopurkh has intuited your energetic transits for the new season and given you a deep dive on the herb mugwort. Sealing the deal, our patron witch will teach you to summon and banish the four corners of your magical circle. Welcome to the Last Girls Club. Let’s Party through the darkest nights of the year and keep the monsters at bay. Grab a rocket launcher and comfy chair. The games are about to start.

Thus the blurb for the winter outing of THE LAST GIRLS CLUB, including my story, “Tunnels” (cf. December 3), originally published in the UK in LEAFING THROUGH on December 1 2004. Almost exactly twenty years back, though a few times since including at least one other overseas, UK bow. This, though, in the US where, yes, it has appeared too, including once as a podcast — and here and now also, for more information or ordering one can press here.

To recall, the guidelines began [s]ubmissions are now OPEN. LAST GIRLS CLUB Winter Issue Theme is Underground. Whether you’re hiding underground or what’s underground is coming for you or both; scare the bejeezus out of us over it. And the story, “Tunnels,” about (to quote myself, why not?) a post-apocalyptic subterranean civilization [of sorts] seen through the eyes of a pair of young girls.

And there you have it.

TRIANA WISHES TO ALL A HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

(She expects by Christmas Day she’ll be too partied out herself to move.)

Chaos Countdown Arrives in Mailbox in Time for New Year

For this one I can do no better than just quote the Amazon blurb:

Prepare for a wild ride as The Alien Buddha’s Chaos Countdowns drops next week—featuring an eclectic mix of horror, mystery, party comedy/adult romcom, sci-fi, and fringe fiction—all set on New Year’s Eve. From painful reflections on relationships that never were, to chaotic nights filled with infidelity, apathy, and self-destruction, these stories will make you laugh, cringe, and gasp.

In these pages…
A ruptured hemorrhoid turns a New Year’s Eve wrestling match into a bloody disaster in 2016.
A group of art school friends on the brink of the new millennium struggle with their boundaryless lives.
A mystical transformation of a disillusioned call center worker into a merman.
A man, overwhelmed by life’s mundanities, contemplates suicide and self-destruction.
A village and its succubus use supernatural rituals to erase people lost in societal disillusionment.
A gruesome midnight ritual where an Englishman is sacrificed in a foreign land.
A chaotic New Year’s Eve in Tijuana where two hapless friends attempt drug smuggling.
A family navigates the simplicity and chaos of life, finding joy in unexpected places.
The surreal journey of a dying child and a mechanical gorilla through a Victorian hospital.
An introverted woman’s quiet New Year’s Eve unravels into a chilling mystery that turns her world upside down.
And much more.

Whether it’s a New Year’s Eve adventure in London, a waiter trying to make sense of illicit desires and eerie encounters, or a sinister embodiment of broken resolutions, The Alien Buddha’s Chaos Countdowns is literary madness!

The book as said, already out now as of December 7, is THE ALIEN BUDDHA’S CHAOS COUNTDOWN via Alien Buddha Press, with my story in it , “Appointment in Time” (see November 20. et al.), the one about the Englishman and the “gruesome midnight ritual,” originally published in YEAR’S END: 14 TALES OF HOLIDAY HORROR (Untreed Reads, 2012). And now arrived here for me to read in time for my own New Years Eve pleasure.

For more on which, and for you to order too if you wish, press here.

Friday Acceptance for Catskinner Sweet, Contract Signed and Returned

Wow!  Even if it’s Friday the 13th, as this is being written, this afternoon’s email from Editor Rachael Clarke has to ne one of the _nicest_ I’ve received in a long time:  _Congratulations! I enjoyed reading your story, as it had such a wonderfully western feel to it. The creativity of bringing in cats to take care of the mice issue was humorous, and the ending was both fitting and satisfying.  I’d like to officially offer it a place within our FORGETTING SOMETHING? anthology as a reprint._

But then the call was (shall we say) enthusiastic as well:  ­Wow us with your funniest alien stories. Seriously, we want our cheeks to hurt from giggling. Examples of comical circumstances include first contact stories, abductions, interactions or curiosities, love, bumbling or blundering aliens, secret missions, capers, attacks (whether successful or foiled), and any other inter-alien or inter-species situations. Yep, humans can be in your story, too. . .

Stories can be set on Earth, other planets, a ship, or elsewhere in space. Be as creative as you like. We’re looking for all things lighthearted, rollicking, action-filled, sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek, quirky, cute, unique, twisty, romantic, oddball, unexpected, and just plain fun.

And, well, I had something that could do, a reprint (reprints were okay, as long as not most recently published within the last two years) originally appearing in NUKETOWN in March 2001, a tall tale set in Ye Olde West about a cow town aspiring to become a respectable city, but suddenly struck by  a plague of green mice. . . .

So enter a mule skinner, William Sweet,  who’s sweet himself on the town matriarch’s daughter . . . well, something’s just got to be done, don’t you think?  But then why say what here?  To quote again from the acceptance email:  ­The planned publication date for this anthology is February 28, 2025.

Readers, Music Galore at Second Thursday Spoken Word

It started with a little more than the usual music at the December “Bloomington Writers Guild Second Thursday Spoken Word” (see November 15, et al.) at Bloomington’s downtown Backspace Gallery, adding a couple of guest musicians to the musical opening by ORTET. Then the first featured reader, an always innovative PDVNCH offered five poems informed in part by rap rhythms, using his voice in places as almost an instrument through tone and pitch as well as just reading words. And the Writers Guild’s own Joan Hawkins, as second featured reader with an essay about the AIDS crisis in San Francisco, “The Plague Years,” in part in recognition of possible similar hard times ahead was accompanied by background music and sound, again by ORTET and guest musicians.

Then more music, a break, and a full twelve readers for the “open mic” section with me in the mix in spot number ten with a flash-length story originally published during the incoming President’s prior administration, “Steel Slats,” about Mexican walls — and a Zombie Apocalypse — as a possible portent of things to come. But with the walk-ons finished, all ending on a brighter note with ORTET again with a four-piece set and even more added-in guest musicians.

The Mostly Black Goth Cat Triana Wishes for All a Happy Friday the Thirteenth

Updated Blog Image for Vamps Here As Well

Quoth yesterday’s post: Changing gears now, one more correction, on this blog itself, but not wholly completed. In the center column, down past the fiction collections and chapbooks, is the picture for VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE), which now can be clicked to the Amazon entry for the new ALIEN BUDDHA edition. The incomplete part, though: WordPress has changed some of its rules, it would seem, and until I can figure out how to change it too (or possibly never, whichever comes first) the picture will remain that of the old, defunct edition.

That’s the bit at the end, past the initial entry about Alien Buddha Press “Best of” corrections. And now that change has been made too — the cover picture for my poetry collection, VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE) has been brought up to date as well!

See for yourself! Try it (that’s at jamesdorrwriter[dot]wordpress[dot]com if you’re reading this on Facebook)! Just look to the center column and scroll down, down, down, past prose collections, including the novel-in-stories TOMBS. Past chapbooks. Until one comes to the single word, POETRY, and there it is: the corrected image for the Alien Buddha Press re-edition of VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE)!

Which clicked still gets to its updated Amazon listing too.

2nd Alien Buddha Corrections Sent Back; Partial Blog Update on Vamps

From November 6: Yesterday’s email’s subject stood out: THE ALIEN BUDDHA’S BEST OF 2024 Preview. Hmmmm.

So, biting, I opened it. The message: Here is a first preview of our Best of 2024 anthology.

I understand that there being no TOC yet might make it hard to find your respective chapter. Everything is in order on how your names are listed on the back cover. But if you cannot find your section using that, I will be posting an updated draft with a table of contents sometime soon.

So moving along, just yesterday (well, the day before given my having to post these at the library), December 3: Here is the final preview of our best of 2024. And there had been changes since proof number 1, in my case especially an all new entry under my name. Where the November version included my AVOID SEEING A MOUSE story, “Good Taste” (cf., again, November 6), this one also included a poem, “Night People,” from VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE). And no mistakes that I saw in the pieces themselves, except that the now-included contents list itself pointed to the poem alone! Had the story, then, been bounced?

It was confusing — the contents were by author name only and, yes, the new poem was on the page listed for my name. A substitution?

Well, mystery solved quickly enough (I’ve gained sophistication in matters like this) by doing a word search on my name: the story was there, cleverly hiding in front of the since added poem. So back the proof went with my suggestion, just change the page number a few pages forward to where “Good Taste” began, and then all would follow.

Changing gears now, one more correction, on this blog itself, but not wholly completed. In the center column, down past the fiction collections and chapbooks, is the picture for VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE), which now can be clicked to the Amazon entry for the new ALIEN BUDDHA edition. The incomplete part, though: WordPress has changed some of its rules, it would seem, and until I can figure out how to change it too (or possibly never, whichever comes first) the picture will remain that of the old, defunct edition.

Vamps (A Retrospective) Re-Edition Released by Alien Buddha

Began the description, [i]t won’t have the wonderful illustrations by Marge Simon, and will have an entirely different cover, but this was to be a quick, “low-frills” republication of my long out-of-print poetry book, VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE), cf. just below, October 21. But the poems themselves will all be there, even if not all listed on a formal table of contents (see October 24). And now it’s out in a new edition by Alien Buddha Press, its Amazon description a simple quoted poem, also on the back cover of the book itself:

CRAVING

Is it so bad a thing,
this lust that haunts me?
A blood-washed sunset that courses a broken arch
through stone-rimmed casements,
presaging stars,
a moon-dimpled coquette, laughing as clouds
scud a midnight sky — ah!
The blue of Heavens’ depth, purpling
comet-lanced,
planets spinning in, yes
sanguine darkness
that wraps eternal. Now tell me
is it so bad, breathing the night air,
God’s own wind wrapping my arms
in another’s soul
sipping not stinking tavern Sauternes,
but finest claret?

If this one should tempt you to want to read more, the book contains over seventy additional poems, on vampire and vampire-adjacent topics from Max Shreck’s Count Orlock in NOSFERATU, in a dedicatory “Blood Portrait,” to a disadvantage to near-immortality as discovered by a “turned” Mina Harker in a post-Dracula “Chagrin Du Vampire.” But not all are movie or book vampires either, as entries also include a Medusa, an esthete, a vampiress complaining about blood-stained clothing, one “turned” on a European vacation, vampire hobbies, jazz, the list continues. . . .

There is one warning, as noted above it is a “no-frills” copy, missing such things as a table of contents which might have been handy (there is a list of acknowledgements up front, up to the book’s original 2011 appearance via Sam’s Dot Publishing, but after that — the poems themselves in a roughly chronological order, though with some exceptions — you’re on your own for a little over the book’s final quarter). But looked at another way, there’s some joy too in the “discovery” aspect of what amounts to a kind of forced browsing.

But to cut to the chase, you can go to the Amazon page yourself for more information by simply pressing here. While for more, the price listed is only $11.50.