Casket Vampiricon Proofs Received Sunday

Sunday dawned with a sprinkling of snow — just enough to make the world beautiful; all gone today.  A promise, however, in this morning’s forecast of possibly heavier snow about Wednesday, maybe beyond the “pleasant surprise” phase.

But more to the point, Sunday afternoon also brought a proof copy of Mind’s Eye Publications’ upcoming THE VAMPIRICON, with my story “Casket Girls” in it (cf. December 5).

Originally published in DAILY SCIENCE FICTION, April 10 2014, “Casket Girls” is the “origin” story about the young ladies, les filles à les caissettes, who arrived from France in a recently founded New Orleans  in 1728.  Their mission, from King Louis XV himself, was to marry the colony’s most prominent men, to give them reason to stay and work to make the city prosper.  But with one of their number, Aimée, they brought something more with them.  Something unexpected.

And so they remain to this very day, immortalized as a real-life urban legend.  While, as to the proofs, in a book of sorts of origin tales about vampires in general sprinkled with nonfiction (“Casket Girls,” for instance, follows an essay on the “Femme Gothic” as exemplified in Coleridge’s  “Christabel” and the movie, JENNIFER’S BODY) and poetry, too, for various reasons I had to wait till the small hours of night to give them my attention.  And that, too, to glance at the contents in general, poetry — and pictures — by people I know, plus the just-mentioned essay, and more stories with those: a book I’ll be waiting to see in print with large expectations.  But also, in my case, very nicely printed as well with only one error (that may have been my fault) along with a missing attribution, which I reported back that night.

And so, this morning, from Editor Frank Coffman:  Thanks for the prompt reply to my request for corrections.  I’ll get them made.