Release Date for “Dope” Anthology Set for Oct. 2

For today’s entry let us hark ourselves back to just over two months ago, and the headline “And Speak of the Devil. . . .” (cf. June 8), for the tale of a mystery acceptance only a few days before but the word to be held until the contents were finalized. The anthology, now revealed, to be titled STRANGE WEEDS with the story in question, originally published in DAILY SCIENCE FICTION on August 9 2011, “Killer Pot.”

The subject, not surprisingly, was to be marijuana: We’re looking for weed-centered horror stories of any sub-genre [this from the initial call]. How you interpret that, is honestly up to you. Any idea is welcomed as long as it is not demonizing the substance or its users. And the proceeds, moreover, would be for charity, The Last Prisoner Project, which meant that payment would be only token, but that would be okay. And so I submitted the story in question, a tale of ex-lovers but still on good terms, and a bonding achieved, along with other things, with assistance by the substance in question.

So today came the e-word from Editor Donnie Goodman: 1) We’ve spent the summer working on edits and the layout — we’ve moved through 12 of the 20 stories and hope to have a full .pdf ready to share by the end of the month to clear everything with you all. It’s going to have a Mass Market size to really give off a “Paperbacks from Hell” feel. In general, the changes to the stories we have placed in the layout so far are very, very minor, as the stories were all incredibly dope.

2) We currently have a release date set for 10/2/2022

And thus does the Writing Life continue on a pleasant, lazy summer afternoon.