Chantal Boudreau's Blog, page 20

April Submission Blitz – A Fresh Start

 

Today marks the first day in this year’s spring submission blitz – although with this weather, you could never tell. I sent of my first submission to a podcast and looking at what I have available for submission, I have 23 other items I could send out right now. That means I won’t be rushing to finish a bunch of flash fiction to hit my quota, just a handful of stories to add to the pile to get in my 30 submissions. I may just edit the two latest novels in my existing series and submit them as well.

Anyway, time to start hunting up other venues. Wish me luck!

Progress Update

My apologies for my recent absence, but my world is a busy blur at the moment. Along with trying to meet a March 31st deadline for two pro-rate submissions as part of my current writing/submission goal, I’m also working on Dominion, book #6 in my Fervor series, revving up for my April Submission Blitz and trying to finalize this year’s Wicked Women Writer submission. This month also saw the release of the print version of The Blood Flows True, the last installment of my Snowy Barrens Trilogy. So this progress report will be brief.

Released this month was an anthology I’m happy to be a part of – Let’s Scare Cancer to Death. This is one of several charity anthologies to which I’ve contributed, but this one helps in the fight against cancer and my story is dedicated to my dear friend Barb McQueen who lost her battle with cancer almost a year ago. I purchased a copy and I encourage others to do the same. It contains stories written by a great group of horror writers and supports a cause that’s close to my heart.

I did manage to complete and send off those two pro-rate submissions. So far, all I’ve had is more rejections, but the last one said my story was “quite excellent” and had made it to the final round of selections before they decided not to go with it. I’ll keep trying and maybe at some point, I’ll get that elusive pro-rate acceptance. I’ll be sending many more submissions out next month.

Volume 5 Contributors

chantellyb:

Here’s the list of contributors from an upcoming anthology containing one of my short stories (along with an excerpt from that tale.)

Originally posted on Postscripts to Darkness:

Illustration by Tomasz Wieja

Stalks of corn sprang up from the earth and shed mounds of silk, which threaded together with spider webs into a shimmering translucent sheath. It clung to her body in a way that left little to the imagination, showing off her curves in all their glory. The strands of gold and silver also worked their way into her flaxen hair, surrounding her face with a majestic halo of luminescent tresses. Her footwear flowed up from the ground, a splash of water that adhered to her skin and froze there, looking like shoes of glass. [...] The dust from moth wings powdered Ella’s skin and crushed rosehips coloured her cyanotic lips and cheeks, disguising their bluish cast. Adornments of ice pellets, shining like diamonds, encircled her neck and clung to her ears. [...] Frosted morsels of rotting pumpkin from the garden’s pumpkin patch, silvery-orange chunks of ice, assembled themselves…

View original 180 more words

Time Will Tell

Originally posted on Guild Of Dreams:

by Chantal Boudreau

I had a reader thank me the other day for including my gnomish character Cerissa June, or “Reeree” as she is better known, as a heroine in my Masters & Renegade fantasy series. “Finally, someone like me,” she said. “Someone my age – someone who thinks like I do.”

Cerissa June, you see, is a plump, middle-aged woman who prefers to think things through rather than act on impulse. She is intelligent and educated, having spent the better part of her life working as a schoolteacher, but she also has the experience and wisdom as a result of her advanced years, an advantage not shared by her younger wizard cohorts.

While you may see a grizzled veteran sidekick or mentor on occasion, the main characters in speculative fiction are rarely the very young, unless a story is intended for children, or older people. Perhaps because of a…

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Horror in the Green

I was inspired by a Horror Addicts blog post to write about my own experiences with Irish horror for St. Paddy’s Day. I have to confess, I love Irish horror flicks. I think the average lower budget Irish horror movie is superior to comparably financed ones from other English-speaking countries.

I’m not just talking Irish-themed movies as discussed in “EVIL St. Patrick’s Day Watching?” (although I have watched Leprechaun, as well as Grabbers, Citadel and Shrooms which they included in that post and many of the flicks mentioned were filmed on the Emerald Isle). I’m specifically talking films I’ve enjoyed that were filmed in Ireland by Irish filmmakers and that have nothing to do with Leprechauns or Little People.

There’s something about Irish sensibilities that seem to make their scary stories scarier.

The first Irish film that really “grabbed” me was “Grabbers.” It sounded hokey at first glance, and I watched it as a lark, but it turned out to be a pretty good horror movie – quite scary with reasonable cinematography and acting. I suspect the same film made in North America would have turned out campy and formulaic with less flavour.

“Citadel” was startling and had me cringing and jumping, but I hadn’t even realized it was Irish. I didn’t enjoy it as much as “Grabbers”. The plot wasn’t as solid and there were slow points, but it was still worth the watch and better than many other lower budget films I’ve wasted my time watching.

“Shrooms” was a little more like your typical slasher/serial killer movie with an Irish setting. It had the suggestion of the supernatural and a fair amount of gore, with an entertaining twist (but not entirely unexpected.) It had plenty of moments that made me jump but it was likely my least favourite of the Irish horror fare I’ve experienced.

Last night, I watched “Dark Touch,” absent from the Horror Addicts list, about a girl who seems to be associated with some sort of malignant spirit and/or has telekinetic powers. There were many moments in this movie that were chilling and disturbing.

Now that I know I have this preference, I’ll be watching out for other Irish spooky delights, and I’ll likely go looking for the others included on Horror Addicts list. I just might find some more horror gems in the green.

Women in Horror – Celebration across the Internet

With only a couple of days left for WiHM, I thought I would share some links to great sites also celebrating wicked women writers out there. Here is a small list I’ve compiled:

http://www.examiner.com/article/february-is-women-horror-month-92-horror-authors-you-need-to-read-right-now – this has been edited to 93 since posting. I was fortunate to have been included on the list.

http://www.graveyardshiftsisters.com/2014/02/its-black-history-women-in-horror-month_24.html – this is a great site that celebrates black women in horror and their fans. Sumiko Saulson offers a sizable list of women of colour involved in the genre and is planning an anthology that explores their work http://sumikosaulson.com/2014/02/19/nineteen-more-black-women-in-horror-writing-list-3/

Annie Neugebauer’s post really impressed me, with her powerful voice and message -http://annieneugebauer.com/2014/02/17/why-women-in-horror-month-is-important/

Rob McBlaze does a great job of showcasing female horror writers on his blog (he was kind enough to include me last February) – http://www.blazemcrob.com/ as does the Jezri’s Nightmares blog, starting February 1st with Lindsay Goddard – http://www.lisamccourthollar.com/2014/02/women-in-horror-lindsey-goddard.html

And of course, I can’t forget the official WiHM site at http://womeninhorrormonth.com/

There are plenty more out there, too many to list here, but if the topic interests you try browsing around a bit. It’s uplifting to see so many sites applauding female contributions to the horror genre.

Women in Horror – Support and Inclusion

In amongst the many sites and blog posts celebrating women in horror in February, you’ll hear the odd grumbling about how having such a month is unfair or existing only for the sake of self-promotion. In some cases, it’s more than just a begrudging aside but instead a loud and hostile attack denouncing Women in Horror month. Every time I see these vicious reactions, I consider it exactly the reason to continue celebrating horror of the female persuasion. And rather than acknowledging the ignorant, I think it best to counter with a positive message, loud and clear.

The fact that the question as to whether or not women can write “good horror” continues to float around the industry, and you never hear the same question directed at men based on their gender, suggests that we need to make extra effort to let women know that despite the naysayers out there, the horror genre can be receptive to female contributions. As participants within the genre, it is our responsibility to encourage female readers and writers (and film-makers, actresses, poets, etc.) to join in on the genre if so inclined. I see it as my own personal responsibility to try to counter the negativity and bias that exists out there.

When I speak of bias, I’m not just speaking based on what I’ve heard or read from others, but on personal experiences. I fight hard to get the opportunity to share my stories, as do all newer writers. I’ve had some small successes, and I usually get good feedback, but I can provide a few examples where I felt the sting of discrimination. Some of it was unintentional, people actually saying “Wow – what a great story! I didn’t expect something like that from a woman.” It wasn’t intended to be negative in anyway, but it certainly showed the prejudice that existed before giving my writing a chance. In another case, I’ve had a submission editor tell me they didn’t like my story because it used patois, only to use a male writer’s tale rife with the same supposedly disliked patois not long after that rejection. Was it because I was a woman, or because the other writer had name recognition, or some other reason altogether for that factor that made my story unacceptable to be forgivable in the other story? I’ll never know. The possibility that my gender might be part of the reason will always be there – and it shouldn’t be.

I’ve chosen to ignore the bad out there, shrug off any prejudice, intentional or otherwise, and use Women in Horror month to support both established and fledgeling female horror writers. I’ll continue to do so when the opportunity arises throughout the year, not just in February. If someone else out there with a bug up their butt about this issue wants to criticize me for it, let them go right ahead.

I’m going to do it anyway.

Women in Horror – Inspiration

I didn’t start out reading horror when I was younger. My earliest inspirations when I was a child were writers of fairy tales and classical mythology. I grew up on the Grimm Brothers, Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and Edith Hamilton.

My first real introduction to horror was a cross-genre book offering up horror versions of fairy tales written by Tanith Lee – Red as Blood. My treasured hard cover copy still sits on the shelf (the one with the Michael Whelan cover pictured here – now a collectible.) I’ve read it cover to cover several times. That was what hooked me when it came to horror.

After reading that I went looking for more of her dark work, most of it fantasy that delved into horror, The Gorgon and Other Beastly Tales, Tales of the Flat Earth and others. I loved every bit of it.

I’ve read plenty of horror since, some of the popular writers like Stephen King and Anne Rice, lesser known greats like Frederic Brown and oodles of small press authors, but Tanith Lee was the lady who bridged that gap for me, luring me into horror along a pathway of dark fantasy. If you think my writing is edgy and merciless, at least at times, you can thank her.

I’ve even tried my hand at a couple of horror versions of fairy tales myself, one of which has been accepted for an anthology (more details to follow at a later date.) I can only hope that someday I’ll have the opportunity to share pages with her in an anthology…I had a close call once with a “maybe” that unfortunately turned into a “no.”

She remains the woman in horror who serves as my biggest writing inspiration.

Women in Horror – Spotlight: Ekaterina Tikhoniouk

The exotic-looking lady in today’s spotlight wrote the short story “Emily” in The Grotesquerie. Her writing experience includes being an author at the UCD University Observer and she made it onto the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year shortlist for 2013 for her short fiction. Her “Zombies VS Serial Killers” has been accepted for Horrified Press’s upcoming Tales of the Undead – Undead in Pictures anthology. Hopefully, we’ll see much more to come in the horror genre from Katia.

Women in Horror – Spotlight: Violet Tempest

My spotlight shines today on the author of The Grotesquerie short story “Deceitful Innocence”. Violet says she likes to research the strange and unusual (with a notable interest in ghosts,) that’s why she likes to write short stories and novels in the horror and paranormal genres.

You can find out more about Violet and her research into things mysterious on her blog – http://violettempest.wordpress.com/.