James Dorr's Blog, page 85

Goodreads 384 Best Horror Anthos (First 100) Plus Post Death Review

It hasn’t been an exactly zippy last few days, but here’s something that has come a bit serendipitously, although with help from THE SMART RHINO PUBLICATIONS MISCHIEF-MAKING SYNDICATE (which has some books on the list as well) on Facebook, or, every little bit of notice counts no matter how second-hand.  The item:  Goodreads’ LISTOPIA BEST HORROR ANTHOLOGIES with, by their count, 384 multi-author collections of dark short fiction.  So 384 is a pretty big number, but I did skim through the first one hundred and, the news of the day, I have work in at least three titles, numbers 24, 50, and 97.  More specifically these are THE BEST OF CEMETERY DANCE VOLUME 1 & 2 OMNIBUS (CD Publications, 1998) with “A Christmas Story,” SLICES OF FLESH (Dark Moon Books, 2012) with “Bones, Bones, the Musical Fruit,” and AFTER DEATH (Dark Moon Books, 2013) with “Mall Rats,” the first two of these reprints and the third an original publication.  One may note also that the farther down on the list, the more recent the publication is, which may make some sense if the [image error]positions are based on Goodreads member recommendations, the oldest thus having been on the “ballot” longer.

But now, one extra:  the titles are “live” in that one can click them to go to their Goodreads pages (and thence to Amazon et al. should one wish to) and, checking to confirm their contents, I ran across a review of AFTER DEATH  with a flattering mention of my story, “Mall Rats,” that I hadn’t seen before.  Thus, from Goodreads reviewer Kenneth Cain (well, it is flattering):  After reading the anthology Guignard edited last year, I simply could not pass on this one.  And the theme for this one appealed to me, so much so that I wish I would have sent something in.  The stories are fantastic, a wide range of interpretations of death or what lies beyond or otherwise.  Fantastic stories that leave you wondering, which is why the theme alone is so wonderful.  The opening two stories pack a punch. “Someone to Remember” offers a beautiful detailing of love everlasting and “Boy 7” comes back at us with a brutal story of hope.  I’m also quite fond of “I Will Remain,” and especially “Mall Rats” which had a spooky feel throughout.  But all of the stories were good, and those fascinated with the after life will thoroughly enjoy this effort.

To check out the Goodreads list in its entirety, one can press here.  (“Bones, Bones, the Musical Fruit,” incidentally, is also reprinted in my own collection THE TEARS OF ISIS.)

New Wednesday Evening Spoken Word Series: Poetry at Bears

Second Thursdays now traded for First Wednesdays and housed in its new Bears Place location (see March 3, February 22), the “Writers Guild Spoken Word Series” featured an (almost) all-poetry program, plus music by North Carolina singer Calib Lail.  The main speakers were Charles Culp with a modified improv poetry program (audience members suggest broad subject areas, he finds an already written poem appropriate to it), Writers guild founding member and past chair Patsy Rahn with poems mostly from her just published THE GRAINY WET SOUL, and Paul Smedberg with often wryly humorous poems from his [image error]EVENT HORIZON collection and elsewhere.  This was followed by five open mike readers, the first two also with poetry, with me fourth with my New Orleans urban legend-based flash story “Casket Girls” — with a nod to Mardi Gras the day before — of the coming of vampires to the New World (cf. May 2, April 3 2018; March 6 2016; April 28 2015, et al.).

The Goth Cat Triana Wishes All a Happy Mardi Gras

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Actually Triana has celebrated the entire “Carnival” season which lasts from Epiphany, January 6, to Mardi Gras itself, the day before Ash Wednesday and the starting of Lent, the period of fasting and atonement leading up to Easter.  Triana will not be celebrating Lent.  For a bit on New Orleanian Mardi Gras tradition, she recommends that one press here, while for the traditional Mardi Gras parades (most over by now, of course, that run all through Carnival from the first one as early as 6 p.m. January 5), with routes and times, press here.  She also notes that the French Quarter proper, with its narrow streets and sharp corners, only hosts marching parades, while the major parades with their multiple floats mostly run just upriver (southwest) on St. Charles Avenue in the Uptown and Garden District.

This Time Some Ghost Stories Not Found on Film

So take these at face value . . . or not . . . from THE-LINE-UP.COM staff, [f]rom altercations with Bloody Mary herself, to a friendly entity fond of borrowing a homeowner’s jewelry, to the restless spirits of an insane asylum, these real-life ghost stories all have one thing in common:  They hint at what may lie in the world beyond this one.  Below are some of The Lineup’s most spine-tingling [image error]real-life horror stories.  Brave enough to read them?  Then settle in for a sleepless night.  The title, “12 Spine-Tingling, Real-Life Ghost Stories,” wherein may be found out of body experiences, Trans-Allegheny Asylum inmates, “shadow people,” a clairvoyant conversing with Marilyn Monroe . . . although [DISCLAIMER] when I scrolled down to the end of the list I’d only counted eleven myself.  Could number twelve be in another realm?

In any event, to see for yourself press here and, believe them or not, for the authors among us herein may lie seeds for our own horror stories.

Early First Sunday in New Bear’s Place Location

On a light, scenic, but wet snowy afternoon the Bloomington Writers Guild sponsored “First Sunday Prose Reading and Open Mic” (cf. February 3, et al.) met at 1 p.m. instead of its usual 3 p.m. time, at a new location and host-to-be for the now First Wednesday “Spoken Word Series” (see February 22) as well, university area tavern Bear’s Place.  The featured readers were Kalynn Brower with a script from a radio series “The Secret Life of Fungi” on “Mushrooms In Space” and excerpts from her forthcoming ecological science fiction novel MISSION TO BLUE GRANNUS; Shana Ritter with excerpts from a forthcoming (as yet untitled) novel on the expulsion of the Jews in 1492 Spain; and “AppalAsian” writer and poet Lisa Kwong, who we’ve met several times before, with the first part of a draft Keynote speech she will be making at the upcoming 17th annual Vietnamese Interacting As One (VIA-1) Conference, at Indiana University on March 22-24.  For the following open session I was first of four with a rerun of “The Vault” (cf. September 7 2014), a possibly cautionary fable of a vampire and an invalid who share space together.

How About Some Ghost Movies to Finish the Year’s Shortest Month?

How about it indeed!  Here’s another entry from THE-LINE-UP.COM, “20 Haunting Ghost Movies That Will Send Chills Down Your Spine” by Aliza Polkes, or, quoting the author, [s]pirits, poltergeists, otherworldly visitors:  Hollywood ghosts go by many different names.  Whether they’re possessing people, haunting houses, orphanages or schools, or just [image error]generally terrorizing those around them, these souls have a bone to pick with the living.  Inexplicable events, angry demons and psychological games are just some of the things these movies have to offer.  Additionally, there is something about having unforeseen forces terrorizing people in places we deem safe that is truly frightening.  And, yes, we have the “usual suspects,” PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, POLTERGEIST, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, but there are some good movies, even a bit off the beaten track, that are on the list too.  THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE, THE ORPHANAGE, THE OTHERS, THE INNOCENTS (1961), and even some that are just plain fun like William Castle’s THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) — the original one with Vincent Price!
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For more, press here.

Bête Noire 27, Even Odds Proof Received, Returned

Another voice from the past received (cf. December 11 2017) with today’s email:  It’s been a long time coming, but issue 27 of BÊTE NOIRE is finally coming together. Attached is your poem as it will appear in our magazine.  If you could, please take a moment to look it over and let me know if everything looks okay.  Publication originally had been planned for [image error]October 2018 but, as we know well in the writing biz, delays sometimes do happen.

Looking back to the guidelines,  BÊTE NOIRE specializes in fiction and poems that are well written, character driven and have a dark bent to them.  We are open to most genres as long as they have a dark side.  This includes horror, dark sci-fi, dark fantasy, crime, mystery or dark humor.  For myself I think of “Even Odds” as falling into the “dark humor” category there, but it’s also a bit on the nihilistic side (being  as it’s about the end of the world and such) which might suggest a gloomy tinge too.

But to the point, corrections (just a small one and that in my biographical note) went back this afternoon, with more to be here as it becomes revealed.

Last Sunday Poetry With Second Poe Reading (This One for Virginia); Gehenna and Hinnom Kickstarter in Final Week

February’s Bloomington Writers Guild “Last Sunday Poetry Reading and Open Mic” (cf. January 27, et al.), co-sponsored by the Monroe County Convention Center, saw a rather small turnout this time, perhaps in part due to a rare sunny, bright day, even if windy and still chilly.  The announced readers were Writers Guild newcomer Joe Betz with five poems from a working manuscript plus one just drafted, followed by Tony Brewer, past Guild chairman and general “old hand,” with a selection of poems and an explanation of the title of his upcoming book HOMUNCULUS.  After the break I was second among four open mike readers with “The White Worm: On the Death of Virginia Poe, by Consumption,” the second of my two poems from the ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT (Unnameable Press, 1995) Edgar Allan Poe based anthology, as a follow up to “The Resurrection Man” from last month.

Then another short note, the “other” Kickstarter we’ve been following for Gehenna and Hinnom Books (see February 16, 1) will be ending this Saturday, March 2.  Those interested in helping a good cause — as well, perhaps, in some tasty rewards — are invited to press here.

Second Thursday on Third Thursday This Month

After a hectic afternoon including finalizing the PDF for A JAMES DORR SAMPLER (see February 21, below), yesterday evening saw me arriving a half hour late for the “Players Pub Second Thursday Spoken Word Series” (see December 15, et al.), co-sponsored by the Bloomington Writers Guild but on the third, not the second Thursday and not at Players Pub this month but, temporarily, Th[image error]e Blockhouse, another downtown Bloomington bar.  So not to worry, due to a problem involving the band “The Paperback Riot” the program started late as well with featured readers Ian Uriel Girdley and Tony Brewer reading poetry and Joan Hawkins with an elaborate reading of an imagined dialogue between William S. Burroughs and his wife, “William and Joan in the Bardo.”  This was followed immediately by four open mike readings, with the musical part just after, in which I was last with a reprise of my January “First Sundays Prose” (cf. January 6) reading of my building walls satire-with-zombies “Steel Slats.”

Next month the series will move again, this time to a new night, Wednesday, and a newer location at the university area pub Bear’s Place.  More as it develops.

Last Itty Bitty Kickstarter Day: New Reward Added Includes “James Dorr Sampler”

Say what?  Yes, the Itty Kickstarter (see February 3, January 31, et al.) for funding ITTY BITTY WRITING SPACE — as well as its authors! — will end at midnight EST tonight.  That’s the book of one hundred flash fiction stories, by one hundred authors, all genres, all styles, including my epic “The Junkie” of (un)life as a zombie on the mean streets of the city.  And Editor/Publisher Jason Brick has added a new reward, an “Ebook Extravaganza” (also included in the “Book Me + Ebook Bundle” option, plus two at the $60 level and one at $85), to wit:  You get everything in “I Love Living In The Future” PLUS a collection of 12 full-length ebooks by our authors!  How cool is that?  It’s like getting a book for a buck twelve times!  How cool indeed!

The authors included are Ahmed A. Khan, Craig English, Randy Attwood, Cathy Smith, Halli Lilburn, Jean Harkin, Ian Jedlica, Karen Eisenbrey, Russell Nohelty, James Dorr, Ali Lauderdale, Melissa Dull, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lisa Love, plus Jason Brick according to a recent email, actually a few more than

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“At midnight it all turns back into a pumpkin.”

12 if I have it right, but there is one disclaimer.  My entry, anyway, is in the just over 30,000-word range which is a bit short of novel-length by most standards, so if it counts as a “full-length ebook” may be in the eye of the beholder.  The title is A JAMES DORR SAMPLER:  SEVEN STORIES OF FANTASY, SCIENCE FICTION, AND HORROR, and it consists of one story each from my early collections STRANGE MISTRESSES and DARKER LOVES (for more on all of these click the book’s picture in the center column), two from my Stoker(R) nominated THE TEARS OF ISIS, two from my novel-in-stories TOMBS:  A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH, and one uncollected extra, all in a somewhat “rough and ready” PDF format.

Seems like a pretty good deal to me, bit then I do have a rat in the race.  But check out the kickstarter for yourself by pressing here — and remember to hurry, it all ends at midnight!