Some Reader Reviews:

Zippered Flesh: Tales of Body Enhancements Gone Bad!

You With Me by Christophe Nadeau: you can feel the horror coming on this one, like little flickers of light at the corners of your vision…. You don’t quite want to look the whole way! Nothing prepares you for the ending, but it is a good one! Nothing says I love you quite like this!

A Feast of Frights from the Horror Zine.

There are many in this book that are new writers to watch for success. Eric J. Guignard is really amazing and also Christian A. Larsen and Christopher Nadeau and Taylor Grant.

“Always Say Treat” by Chris Nadeau was a nod to one of my favorite Steven N. Marshall stories. 


Miseria's Chorale.

Highlights in this were The Cherry Tree by James S. Dorr, Becoming the Beast by Christian A. Larsen,
Give Me Convenience by Shaun Meeks, Evacuation by Jay Wilburn, From Suicide Station by Adam Millard, The Face of Death by Paul Kane, The Gatehouse by Anna Taborska, In Green Remembered by Christopher Nadeau 

An Anthology For Er'body.

Before I wound up working for libraries, I thought Amish Romance was a joke genre used by someone accepting submissions to their anthology to illustrate a point I had missed. The editor assured me it was a real thing, but it wasn't until a librarian backed up his assertion that I knew for sure.

Since then, I have seen some pretty off the wall stuff when it comes to anthologies. There is a big push, fortunately, to include marginalized groups and get away from the Western European dominance that long ago out-stayed its welcome in the world of genre fiction. However, every so often a description comes up that is so bizarre and, sadly, hilariously worded that I can't help but wonder at the state of mind of those seeking the submissions.

What did I see recently that prompted this post? In this case, a publication describing itself as, "a series of feminist bicycle science fiction anthologies." Yes, you read that right.

Feminist.
Bicycle.
Science Fiction.

I get feminist science fiction. I've read it and enjoyed it at times. Like anything else that advances a socio-political agenda, the stories can get a bit heavy-handed but to dismiss an entire sub-genre based on the tendency of some authors to preach is narrow-mindedness at its worst. And since I didn't want to simply point out the oddness of the subject matter, I decided to look into the subject a little more.

I'm a big Call the Midwife fan, believe it or not, so learning of the historical connection between female empowerment and bicycles was not altogether unsurprising. The depth to which it goes, however, was. It was literally the difference between constantly supervised movement and the ability to move about without being watched. You can read about it here.

Starting to make a little more sense? This isn't some casual reference to a hobby. The science fiction part is...unusual and the main theme is...Cats.

Okay.

A Peek Inside the Real Me.

I don't know if this is a poem but it felt like one as I was writing it a few minutes ago. It hasn't been edited except for spelling and repetition nor will it be. I also don't have a title. Anyway, this is me at my most raw:

The man who went to bed last night,

Is not the man who woke up in the same bed this morning.

The face in the mirror is similar, but

There is a shadow over it.

The eyes lack focus for they gaze long away,

To a place that is not a place, that

Cannot be seen by anyone else.

The man eats the same meals and

Performs the same menial tasks.

He says all the things he is expected to say,

Despite feeling nothing when he says them.

The man who went to bed last night felt things.

He found hope in the tiniest moments,

He looked for the bright spot in the darkest times.

He may have seemed cynical but he was secretly, embarrassingly,

A hopeless romantic burdened with the cruel presence

Of realism.

He was a fool.

The man who awoke knows this because

He remembers all of it as if having interrupted

A dream he suddenly controlled.

But dreams are lies we tell ourselves in order to

Not give in.

For there is a pit that awaits us all just outside our daily vision.

Neither malevolent nor loving, it simply waits.

Some of us never feel its pull. Some of us

Have enough inside to avoid it altogether.

But not the man who woke up in bed. He feels each day,

Each moment slipping away.

The pit widens and reaches for him because he is ready.

The man who went to bed is not the man

Who woke up.

That man was not awake.

This one wants to sleep forever.

It's Nice to be a Favorite

This reader chose my story in "The Best of the Horror Zine: The Early Years." as one of his four favorites.

Latest Short Story Released!

I'll be honest. I  received a rather painful rejection this time. Not because I worked "really, really hard" on the story, although I did, but because it was one of the stories I had that feeling about. I think most writers who have had their work published more than a few times develop it. Some stories just feel like they will be accepted by the editor. The last time I felt that feeling, it was after I finished editing, "Your Future for a Low, Low Price," which was recently published in this anthology. The time before that was once I'd completed, "The Last Big Gamble" for this one. Both times I just knew this was what the publisher was looking for, and I was right.

Sadly, that feeling isn't 100% effective. Sometimes I'm wrong. In this particular instance, the editor "thoroughly enjoyed reading" it but not enough to include it in the anthology. I must admit, it hurt a little. It isn't as if I wasn't prepared for the possibility, but I felt really good about this one. I still do. I hope to find it a home soon. That brings me to the celebratory portion of this post.

The story appearing in the just-released print issue of the Horror Zine was originally written for an anthology that chose not to publish my story. When that happens, I usually wait 24 hours before resubmitting my work to someone else. One day to lament, that's it. Since the one that was just rejected is so specific to the theme the rejecting anthology wanted, it might take a little longer, but that rule has served me well.

The proof can be found here.

Meanwhile, in Italy...

...some random online bookstore store has my first novel, "Dreamers at Infinity's Core" for sale,

And what appears to be an Italian university is selling my second one:

Anyway, how's your day goin'?

Check out the Horror Zine Magazine Cover!

Horror Zine Publisher and Editor Jeani Rector decided the previous cover she was going to use was "too intense" and went with the one pictured below:

I love it but I can't stop chuckling. Only in the realm of horror fiction would this cover not be considered too intense!


The Spring 2019 issue will feature my new short story, "The Time of Expansion," an odd one even coming from me. It really shows how influential Lovecraft was on the field; no matter how much of  a bastard he was in real life or how purple was his prose, the man's flawed brilliance bleeds over into modern work even when the author isn't consciously channeling him. Maybe I was channeling him, considering how ineffectual and uptight the protagonist is. He's a perfect symbol of Lovecraft's obsession with the English gentleman cliche.

It will be out soon!

THE SECRET FORMULA DISCOVERED!!!

Now, after years of writing and posting on this blog, I have finally stumbled upon the secret formula to receiving tons of views and, presumably, people reading my posts. The key doesn't lie in the quality of the writing or the point of view of the author. Nope! While those things have garnered me views in respectable number, the real way to get peoples' attention is to be a prick.

Yep, despite all my efforts to the contrary, herculean though they have been, when I let my inner A-hole out for a walk in the courtyard, people flock to this blog.

I get it. My response to an unnamed critic of my work whose point of view I found moronic and poorly rendered has now become my most viewed post. But what does this mean for yours truly?
Am I going to stop posting other things? Since my posts about my latest published work garner a tenth of the views of  the one about the reviewer, does that mean I will stop sharing that type of news? Well, no because that's this blog's primary function.

So maybe it means I'm going to tailor those posts to the people who seemed to gravitate towards the popular post. Again, nope.

Maybe it means I get it and I won't shy away from posting similar things in the future.

Yeah, let's go with that!

CONFIRMATION RECEIVED

My short story, "Time of Expansion" will be appearing in the Horror Zine's physical magazine in the Spring 2019 issue. This marks a return to publisher/editor Jeani Rector's award-winning publication  for me as I have not had a story published there in at least five years.

More on this as it becomes available!