James Dorr's Blog, page 66

Anglo-French Vampiress On Way to A Home?

It’s another stop on the run-up to Christmas, and if not definitive still a pleasant one.  The subject a story, “La Fatale,” at about 1300 words about Mina Harker of DRACULA fame becoming a vampire after all and, having had a French mother, moving to France to try to sort things out.  And almost after I wrote it it was accepted by then-professional WHITE CAT MAGAZINE . . . which, then, semi-immediately went out of production.

So, these things happen, but there it languished, perhaps due in part to a sort of metafictional tie-in to Rudyard Kipling and Philip Burne-Jones, as well as Bram Stoker, perhaps more heady fare than the average short short.  Or, anyway, those places it went to seemed not to want it, and I had other pieces to market.  Until, fast forward to Friday last week, and an invitation from a Writers Guild friend to submit to a planned anthology, tentatively titled RAPE ESCAPES:  We define the word “rape” loosely and are looking for pieces — any genre — that describe escape from an unwanted sexual [image error]situation in which force (psychological or physical) would be used. . . .  And moreover a suggestion for me that a piece about a vampire escaping human violence (perhaps with a quick bite to the neck) would certainly warm the heart of at least one of the editors.

So, long story short, I thought at first of les filles à les caissettes, whose adventures I’ve been presenting at First Wednesday readings, suggesting a couple that might fit the guidelines.  But something seemed to be missing to my mind.  And then I remembered “La Fatale,” concerning a non-Casket Girl Anglo-French vampire and sent it Sunday in a second email noting that it might be more powerful . . . if the literary references don’t get in the way.

Then this morning, the answer:  James, I love this.  And yes, I think it is more powerful.  So, with your permission, I shall add it to the dossier.  It isn’t an acceptance, exactly — for one thing there’s a co-editor who will have to pass on it too — but it enters the fray with good credentials.  As for the next step, we shall see, but it seems to me RAPE ESCAPES should be an important book, good company to be in — and, again, a nice opportunity just before Christmas.

Woo Hoo! Steel Slats Is Up on Daily Science Fiction

Well, what a coincidence!  Wednesday I posted about an anthology, FORBIDDEN!  TALES OF REPRESSION, RESTRICTION, AND REBELLION, that had been delayed but was now finally released.  A collection, one might surmise, that might include musings on political topics, real or imagined.  Perhaps even a bit of political satire which, [image error]by its nature, would likely displease at least some of its potential readers.

So fast forward two days, and a here-and-now piece of satire, a tale I was hesitant to send out at first but at last took a chance on, a reflection of fast-moving current events — has someone just been impeached for some reason?  But not the ones described in this story! — a 1000-word flash piece called “Steel Slats” has just gone live on the prestigious and relatively high-circulation (and free!) DAILY SCIENCE FICTION (see August 23, 17; also April 21 2015, et al.).  A little bit of “if this goes on” one might say, but [image error]hopefully, too, with a touch of humor.

To back up a moment, I’ll quote from myself, from the email I’d sent submitting “Steel Slats” and which also appears now on DAILY SF:  There’s a certain class of stories I think of as “the devil made me do it” stories, when the news of the day starts sounding so wacky it seems to demand some kind of response.  This is one of those stories.  To read it for yourself — and remember, it’s free! — press here.

Forbidden Tales of Repression Repressed?

Quoting myself from a year ago August (cf. August 10 2018, et al.):  Subtitled TALES OF REPRESSION, RESTRICTION, AND REBELLION, FORBIDDEN is an anthology “about that which is disallowed, whether it be the law or custom of a society, a particular group, or even just a single individual.  Stories that illustrate the sense or insanity of that which is disallowed, all with an eye on adventure, world-building, and thought-provoking entertainment!”  Or so says Publisher Martin T. Ingham.  And this time by an odd chance of fate, I have two, not one but TWO, tales in this one myself.  Say what?

So, reminding myself, the citation above also includes a list of contents with two reprint stories by me, “Fetuscam” (see also June 9 2018) and “The Wind” (January 13 2018), and therein also lies a funny story.  Again quoting myself from that June, [o]n July 22 last year I sent a tale of loss of faith titled “The Wind” to Martinus Publishing, a reprint submission to an upcoming anthology, [image error]FORBIDDEN!  TALES OF REPRESSION, RESTRICTION, AND REBELLION.  Sounds intriguing, yes?  So much so, in fact, that exactly five months later, on December 22, having quite forgotten the first — and with a December 31 deadline fast coming — I sent another, originally published in Spring 1990 in PANDORA (and also reprinted two years later in MinRef Press’s ABORTION STORIES:  FICTION ON FIRE), “Fetuscam.”  And then about three weeks after that, an acceptance came for the original submission (“The Wind,” remember? cf. January 13). Oops!  So, long story short, two submissions wasn’t a no-no and eventually the other one was accepted too. 

Well, FORBIDDEN was shaping up to be quite an interesting anthology indeed in that, after the August 10 last year announcement, it also seemed to have disappeared.  That is, until today’s email from Editor/Publisher Martin T. Ingham:  I know it has been a long time, but the wait is finally over.  At long last, the FORBIDDEN anthology is ready to be released!  Expect it be available on Amazon by next week!

So the moral is that these things happen — we are only human, and life intervenes.  In fact, a quick check on Amazon shows it’s up as a Kindle edition now, for which one can press here, with a print edition presumably to follow for a complete pre-Christmas happy ending!

Novelette The Garden Accepted Into The Great Void

Attached is a 10,000 word submission, “The Garden,” about a mysterious garden in northern Massachusetts which conceals a cutting edge experiment in bio-chemistry.  An edited version has been printed as a chapbook (now out of print), by Damnation Books in 2009, with reprint rights in my possession.  I hope you will be able to use it in UNREAL and, either way, will look forward to your report and any comments.

So went my cover letter to Aditya Deshmukh and Great Void Books for the anthology UNREAL.  The call had been for Speculative Fiction.  Mix of genres is okay as long as the speculative element remains the main element.  Word count was 4,000 to 15,000 and, whi[image error]le no previous publication was preferred, reprints would be considered.  The story itself, “The Garden,” a bit of both, originally published in a version edited more heavily than was to my taste (cf. picture below in center column) but now out of print, but what I would send would be (with one change which had been by me), the original version.

Then yesterday, Monday, came the reply:  I really enjoyed reading “The Garden.”  At first, the story seemed to have real world elements and I wasn’t really hooked until the nematode part.  The ending blew me.  The plot develops slowly but the end is really well done.

Congratulations!  I’m accepting “The Garden” for UNREAL.  Will send you an email regarding the details next month.

So there it is, the second acceptance for December (the first, a flash vampire piece for Black Hare Press’s LUST, see December 8), and not a bad run-up to the Christmas season.

Scary Snippets: Christmas Edition Published; Read at Writers Guild Year-End Potluck

Featuring over 100 Christmas microfiction horror stories from around the World.  Christmas is near/bring holiday fear/to young and old/snippets to be told/proudly they write/of people’s fright/snippets of fear/Christmas is here!/Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas/Scary, Scary, Scary, Scary Christmas (slightly re-[image error]punctuated)

So goes the blurb.  And as of Thursday, SCARY SNIPPETS:  CHRISTMAS EDITION has been up on Amazon in print and Kindle editions (see November 14).  This is the one for stories from 100 to 600 words long of sinister nature relating to Christmas, Hanukkah, or other Yuletide holidays, from Suicide House Publishing, my part of which at a tad under 500 words is “He Knows When You’re Awake,” on the making Christmas presents and joy.  And now it’s available, possibly just in time itself for ordering for Christmas gifts; for more, press here.

Then Saturday brought the Bloomington Writers Guild’s year-end election meeting and pot luck Christmas party, at the end of which was an around-the-table “open mike” session.  So what did I read?  In that it’s just been published, “He Knows When You’re Awake,” of course.

Star*Line 42.2 Webpage Up, Editor’s Choices Announced

Wednesday night’s email brought a notice that the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association’s webpage for STAR*LINE 42.2 is up.  This is the fall issue (cf. December 5) which, in addition to being SFPA’s quarterly membership newsletter/perk is also available for purchase by non-members, details for which are on the webpage as well.  Available by pressing here, it also includes a list of [image error]poems in the magazine, in contents order, with six in particular listed in a hard-to-read green, the ones deemed by Editor Vince Gotera the “Editor’s Choices.”

So, no, while I have three poems in the issue myself, none of mine are among the chosen; for those interested, though, the “green” poems can be read as a sample of what can be found in the issue.  Just click on their titles.  And while as I say my poems, “Parents,” “Gourmet Warning,” and “Waste Not, Want Not,” can only be read in the issue myself, I was particularly impressed by the second of the ones Gotera did pick, “Bride of Frankenstein:  Our Lady of Rage” by Andrea Blythe.  And it can be read even by non-subscribers, as noted above.

A New Goodreads Review: The Tears of Isis

Maybe not that new, it actually was posted last May, but that just shows I don’t check Goodreads as often as I probably should.  The reviewer is James Agombar and what’s especially nice is he offers a detailed story by story description, though admittedly with possibly one or t[image error]wo spoilers.  Also some stories don’t go over as well with him as others — two going as low as two stars out of five! — though he admits that those might be a matter of taste.  And, best of all, his overall score for the book is a full five!

As he concludes:  . . . I love the way James Dorr crafts his stories and the strangeness fuses well with his style and clarity.  This mixture represents just what he is capable of in terms of diversity and I’d recommend this anthology to anybody if they are wanting something different to the run of the mill blueprint that publishers seem to want with short stories nowadays.  An excellent and strange journey awaits you in top literal form.  But see for yourself by pressing here (from which you can also click the book’s title at the top for its main Goodreads page, including links for purchasing should one so desire).

Sweet Lesbian Vampire Love Bought for Black Hare “Lust” Antho

The wages of sin are not large for Black Hare Press’s SEVEN DEADLY SINS anthology series, but reprints are accepted and it’s an interesting sounding venue.  So when the second in the series, LUST (the first, I believe, was PRIDE, but the deadline had already passed), opened for submissions I thought I had something that might fit the bill.  The theme was broad enough (although, of course, “lust” would be part of it too):  Speculative fiction.  Dark bias.  Can include comedy and romance elements.  Word count was up to 3000 words, with no minimum.  And so I had a slightly less than 1000-word tale (957 in fact, according to t[image error]he “official” count in the contract) of a lesbian vampiric seduction of, shall one say, a youthful new prospect, which seemed a reasonable one to try.

The story itself:  “A Cup Full of Tears,” originally published in MON COEUR MORT (Post Mortem Press, 2011), and Saturday the word came back.  Thank you for your submission to LUST.  We really enjoyed your story — A Cup Full of Tears — and would like to inform you that it has been accepted for inclusion in the publication.  Congratulations!  With it came more information, a link to Facebook, and guidelines for a couple of future projects, plus a contract which I filled and sent back yesterday afternoon.

And so it goes.  Word is they’re trying for a release date of February 18 2020 — in time for a late Valentine’s Day present?  Also that the next deadly sin to be tackled is SLOTH, perhaps not so exciting, but I might lazily take a look to see if there’s anything I have that might fit that theme too.

A Vampire Movie of Sorts — With a Twist

We had been thinking about “point of view” (cf. December 3, et al.).  Now imagine this.  Imagine a being from another planet disguised as a human, wearing a woman-suit, or a “skin,” but functionally a sort of vampire.  Her job* is to lure lonely men, men who will not be missed, into her lair where they’ll be “transmitted” to her home world (never mind the details, they just sink as it were into a dark pool) where they’re presumably considered food(?).  Ick!  But here’s the twist.  The film is shown almost entirely from the “woman’s” point of view, that of an alien who only gradually gets used to Earth and the ways of its people — who slowly becomes an Earth person herself, or at least learns the ropes, including becoming a victim in turn (yes, [image error]there’s some sexual satire here, but wait for the end).  As such the film moves slowly:  she’s slowly absorbed, one might say, into “Earthiness” just as in their own fashion her victims are absorbed through the dark pool into peopleburgers.

The movie:  UNDER THE SKIN, i.e., what’s beneath the Earthwoman surface, Saturday night’s science fiction fare (sorry) at the Indiana University Cinema.  To quote the catalog blurb:  Programmed by IU Cinema Lead House Manager Elizabeth Roell.  UNDER THE SKIN examines the human experience from the perspective of a mysterious young woman (Scarlett Johansson) who seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland, luring them back to her strange, dark lair.  However, a string of events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.  Contains explicit content, including sexual violence, strong language, and violence.  The trick, though, as a couple of Amazon reviewers have suggested too, is to see the movie as a kind of documentary, but one made for the aliens — to take for oneself an alien point of view and learn, with the woman, what’s going on with this strange new world.

But pay attention:  the film may move slowly, but even the smallest details are important.

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*With sometime assistance by a man with a motorcycle.

Print Copy of Fall Star*Line Appears

Well, technically winter doesn’t arrive for about two more weeks, but late or not the Fall STAR*LINE (cf. October 22, et al.) is here.  This is the magazine of the Science Fiction [image error]and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) with three short poems by me this time out, “Parents” and “Gourmet Warning” on (each in its own way) what might be termed family values, and “Waste Not, Want Not” on the virtue of frugal habits, to be found on pages 13, 15, and 28, respectively.  If interested, more on STAR*LINE can be found by pressing here, including links to the SFPA home page and related sf poetry matters.