Another Reprint: The Calm Accepted for Nightmare Abbey 2

In the midst of preparations for getting the next BLACK INFINITY out, the call came from Editor Tom English that it was time to be thinking of submissions for a second issue of NIGHTMARE ABBEY (cf. May 21, et al.). So the first one I sent this time didn’t go, perhaps being too fantasy-like as opposed to quiet horror (a problem that may come up again now and then, my horror tending sometimes to be a bit noisy), so what to try again with? My choice this time was another reprint from the late 1990s, “The Calm,” a tale of the Taconic Mountains during the French and Indian War originally published in NEW MYTHOS LEGENDS (Marietta Publishing, 1999).

The thing is, there’s this village . . . but let’s not dwell too much on that yet. The important thing is that the word came back from Editor English yesterday afternoon: I really enjoyed this story. It’s creepy and has a great idea. I would like to include it in the second issue of NIGHTMARE ABBEY.

So it happens. A contract will be coming in the near future and, as things progress, they will be revealed here. While as for the village, if really, really curious about it, “The Calm” also appears in my first collection from back in 2001 from Dark Regions Press, STRANGE MISTRESSES: TALES OF WONDER AND ROMANCE, albeit unfortunately out of print (though occasional copies can still be found on Amazon*, et al.). Or, as noted, soon in the upcoming NIGHTMARE ABBEY 2.

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*As can, it turns out, a few copies of NEW MYTHOS LEGENDS, though as “collectibles” and a bit pricey. The listing also includes two reviews with this from the first, by Matthew T. Carpenter: The Calm – James Dorr – This is unusual for a mythos story in that it is set in colonial America. I think there are a few such stories in FRONTIER CTHULHU but otherwise is an unexplored era. Some British soldiers and colonial militiamen have an unpleasant encounter at the time of the French and Indian War (elsewhere known as the Seven Years War). I think this may actually have been my favorite story in the whole book. Mr. Dorr [also] wrote The Candle Room in HORRORS BEYOND. (In the spirit of full disclosure, however, Mr. Carpenter later discovers another tale to name as his true favorite — also that his opinion of the book as a whole is not that high).