Douglas Hackle's Blog, page 16
October 11, 2011
Green Ireland, a new story
Sometimes when envisioning, discussing and writing about "foreign" lands and unfamiliar cultures, it is difficult to escape the traps of exoticization and ethnocentrism, particulary when all we know about the foreign land or culture in question is what we've imbibed from television, books, the internet and other media. To avoid this pitfall, it is usually prudent, time and finances permitting, to physically visit that place and culture—to experience these things firsthand. That is why, before sitting down to write one word of my latest flash fiction piece, "Green Ireland," I spent two decades in Ireland taking detailed sociological, anthropological, and topographical notes.
The story was published at The Mustache Factor. Read it here: Green Ireland
September 28, 2011
New Story Up: Incident at Klown Burger
Hey, did you guys hear? There was an incident at Klown Burger.
Go to here to read about it: Incident at Klown Burger
September 16, 2011
Catholic School Playgrounds
So you got another weird one published: a little absurdist/comical exploration of otherness and alienation you penned called "Catholic School Playgrounds." It's up at The Mustache Factor. It's also your first stab at writing a story in the second person, which might explain why you're presently writing in the second person, though not necessarily.
You are me.
You click here: Catholic School Playgrounds
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Grandparents Day
I never knew National Grandparents Day existed until well into my adulthood. As such, I never wished any of my grandparents a "Happy Grandparents Day" or purchased cards for them saying as much on any first Sunday after Labor Day. I'm fairly certain none of my grandparents knew about the holiday either. The last one to pass away, Grandma Kiefer (how I miss her!), died over a year ago. Thankfully, on the one-year anniversay of her death, she did not return from the grave zombified to murder me and my family as an act of revenge for me never wishing her a "Happy Grandparents Day!"
The protag in my short-short story "Grandparents Day," however, was not so lucky.
"Grandparents Day" will appear in Pill Hill's forthcoming Daily Frights 2012: 366 Days of Frightening Flash Fiction, scheduled for release in November 2011.
On a related note, Daily Frights 2012 will also include my story "Actors and Actresses (and Others) Wanted" as a reprint.
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September 12, 2011
Citizen's Rejection!
So I just made a Citizen's Rejection!
"What the heck's a Citizen's Rejection?" you say.
Well it's sorta like a citizen's arrest, only it's a rejection.
To see what I mean, go to Three Minute Plastic and take a look at the third story down ("Kranlin Thistlenut Adds Mustard to His Colostrum-Meconium Milkshake: A Sonnet-Fable" by Joe Jablonski).
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August 20, 2011
"That Ass and the Vein Poppets" @ The Mustache Factor
My flash piece "That Ass and the Vein Poppets" was published at The Mustache Factor.
In this poignant coming-of-age story, a young working-class boy and his estranged drifter of a father come to live together after the sudden death of the boy's mother. Both father and son soon discover as much about themselves as they do about one another as they stumble together towards redemption and healing, brought together not only by their shared loss, but through their mutual love for the game of baseball.
I'm kidding. That's not what the story is about. At all.
http://mustachefactor.blogspot.com/
Published by Dustin Reade, The Mustache Factor is a new webzine for bizarro fiction, cut-ups, surrealist and absurdist texts, dream narratives, and experimental lit.
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August 13, 2011
"Actors and Actresses (and Others) Wanted"
My flash fiction piece "Actors and Actresses (and Others) Wanted" was published in Issue 1 of Three Minute Plastic, a new online journal of dark humor and bizarre fiction of 400 words or less published by Joe Jablonski. Issue 1 also contains strange-cool flash fiction from Dustin Reade, Jake Johnson and Wol-vriey. Check it out—you can probably finish reading the entire issue in about five minutes.
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August 4, 2011
OK, so this one probably won't win me an O. Henry Award or anything…
…but it's another pub cred!
My flash fiction piece "Even Colour-Out-of-Space Boys Got to Shout: Baby Got Back!" is now up at The New Flesh Magazine. Think Sir Mix-A-Lot and big butts and white boys. Think Lovecraft's indescribable Colour from outer space (and yes, think of it written using the British spelling). Think unbridled stupidity.
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July 12, 2011
Like Frozen Statues of Flesh (Joe Jablonski, Editor), an anthology of bizarro fiction, is now available
This book, which includes my short stories "The Case of the Green Box" and "The Final Gift is Webster," can be purchased at:
http://www.pillhillpress.com/shoppe-static-movement.html
cover art by Jesse Marie Roberts
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July 4, 2011
Forget about that can of off-brand spam you were gonna pick up at the dollar store…
Collabthology: Kindle of the Dead is now available for 99 cents at Amazon and Smashwords! Buy that instead!
This ebook contains a variety of horror stories and poetry, as well as the first five chapters of a not-yet-titled zombie apocalypse novel being written by twenty talented writers. Sales of the ebook will help fund production and marketing of this novel. Collabthology includes my short story "Bully," an absurdist horror tale about a bully so relentless that even death offers no escape for his lifelong target.
Here's the link: Collabthology: Kindle of the Dead
And the paperback version of the book, Collabthology: Collaboration of the Dead Presents, is also available at Amazon:
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Collabthology: Collaboration of the Dead Presents
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