Forgotten Reprint Dirt Cheap!

An anthology I'd nearly forgotten about popped up in my history earlier and I thought I'd pass it along. The Ripple Effect by Thirteen O'Clock Press was an anthology whose proceeds went to Greenpeace. It featured, among others, my reprinted short story, "Across the Pond." I don't believe it was ever released as a print copy but it is available via Kindle, currently selling for $1.30.

All proceeds go to Greenpeace, so if that's a problem for you, it's probably not something you want to order.

"The Handmaid's Tale"- The Struggle was Real!

When I was much younger, my mother was my source for literature. She was my internet, albeit a far more learned and well-read source than most of the ones I encounter virtually. She introduced me to science fiction, Stephen King and Ray Bradbury. And even when my own tastes formed and I started branching away from what I considered her safer, more by-the-numbers interests, I never stopped respecting her opinions, as they were informed and well-expressed. I have, in fact, tried to live my life in a similar fashion.

So when I finally decided to give Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" a chance, I found myself struggling with that respect in the worst sort of post-mortem way.

"What the hell, Mom?" I said to her memory. "Were you drunk?"

Realizing that was a horrible thing to ask a diabetic even if she's no longer among the living, I retracted that question and instead said, "Dude, seriously?" because nothing thrilled my mother more than being addressed as "Dude."

In fact, she loved it so much she appeared in my family room seconds after I said it.

"What's your problem?" she said.

"Nice to see you, too." I held up the copy of "The Handmaid's Tale" I'd borrowed from work and shook it in her direction. "But since you asked, this is my problem. Excuse my Swahili, but what the hell were you thinking?"

"You didn't care for it, I presume?" My mother's eyebrows were always thin and fine, yet somehow they became darker and bushier when she raised them in disdain.

"You presume correctly, Doctor Nadeau. You talked this book up throughout my teen years, made me think it was an untouchable, brilliant masterpiece of social commentary, and--"

"And?"

"And I'd like to know if you were still in the process of getting your meds adjusted at the time."

She crossed her arms and sighed. "You know damn well I never took anything except Insulin and pain meds later on in life."

Nodding, I said, "Which brings us to the real issue, then. I mean, I know we disagreed on matters of taste when I got older. You kind've settled into a comfort zone, most likely due to your health issues and all."

She shrugged. "Probably a safe assessment. I always said you should have gone into psycho-analysis."

"One shrink in the family was enough. But my point is, setting aside the clearly intriguing concept, this is one of the dullest books I've read in years."

"All right." She uncrossed her arms and took a seat across from me. "Why?"

I sat as well. "For starters, the writing is bland and self-conscious."

"How much of it did you actually read?"

"I got through the first two chapters."

A heavy sigh. "Christopher,is it possible you'd like it more if you stuck with it?"

"Yes. It's also possible I could learn to like electrocution if I keep my feet dunked in water."

At this point, her image shimmered as if someone had flicked the lights off and on. I asked her if she was okay and she smiled. "What else didn't you like about it?"

I went into greater detail then. I told her how even though it accomplished the requisite task of establishing its universe early on, it never felt genuine. It felt, in fact, like a preachy commentary piee with a thinly disguised parable as its artful dodge. I concluded with the fact that the entire concept is wrapped in a cozy cocoon of white middle class feminism that presumes only gender divides stand between people and freedom.

"Okay, fair enough," she said. "But are you sure it's the book you're upset about or is it the fact that you're disappointed in my praise of it?"

I dropped the book onto the floor and stomped on it twice. "The book."

She grinned, telling me I hadn't lost my flair for the dramatic. "It's okay that you didn't care for it. If I taught you nothing else, I hope it was to develop your own tastes and be able to defend them. You've done that. So, why am I here?"

"Isn't it obvious? It's been years since I've had the opportunity to berate you. I've missed it."

She smiled that smile I can only recall in spontaneous memories or maybe sometimes find in an old photograph and said, "I miss you, too."

I watched her shimmer again, this time fading a bit. Our time was nearly up, then. "I love you, Mom."

"I love you, too, sweetie."

"Book still sucked, though."

And as she faded, I'm not entirely sure, but I think she flipped me off~

They Love me in Other Countries?

Something that's probably only of interest to me and possibly one as yet unrevealed stalker out there in the literary hinterlands, here is a snapshot of my stats randomly chosen from a recent date. It doesn't interest me as much to know how people are finding this page (Hell, Facebook!) but where they're from when they find it does.

I'm not ashamed to admit I had to Google "Belarus."
'

Quote of the Week brought to you by anti-Millenial Bashing

"Baby boomers reaped the rewards of an economic system that was geared towards middle class families and as they grew up into power and money, they changed the system to favor the wealthy and themselves."

                    -From a Comment on a Bernie Sanders Post

Amazing what one finds when typing in the title of one's own story to try and remember where it was published. While looking up my short story, "And What's Left of the World's a Better Place for it," I discovered its inclusion on the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. In addition to that one story, ten others are listed dating back to 2011.

So, if you're ever looking for a quick, non-Amazon way to find some of my work, this link will provide it.

I Rate the MCU: Phase Three

And now we come to the end as of now. Since Phase 3 is still in progress, I'm obviously stopping at the most recent film but I will add to it as the later ones are released. This time around, you'll likely notice a diminished enthusiasm and a creeping annoyance in my tone.

Captain America: Civil War- The Law of Diminishing Returns is, as the hipsters say, a "thing" and nowhere is it more obvious than this third Captain America outing. Hats off to Marvel for making a dozen films before this became the case but damn! They really saved it all up for this disappointment. My criticisms are numerous, yet the real irony is that I can still find enough enjoyment in this movie to watch it from time to time. Still, it's an over-crowded mess filled with sub-plots galore, absurd contrivances and easily the most anti-climatic showdown in the franchise's history. The much touted battle royale between titans is reduced to little more than a stalling action for the main plot and a parking lot brawl with little actual consequence. Iron Man 2 is often maligned for being an obvious franchise bridge yet for whatever reason this one gets a pass? Fanboys, I disdainfully shake my head at you!

Doctor. Strange- A brief restoration of sanity and quality to the MCU, this long-awaited origin film featuring Benedict Cumberbatch as the Sorcerer Supreme almost feels like a DC movie, and that's not an insult coming from me. This is a wonderfully absurd piece of thoughtful filmmaking that provides a nice rest for all the obnoxious franchise building going on in the other films. Ironically, this nice break would continue with

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2- Something happened on the way to the GOTG sequel. I sat in the theater and loved every minute of it! How, after my unimpressed reaction to the first movie, this one was such a great experience is either a testament to my incredible open-mindedness (Doubtful!) or the fact that James Gunn et. al. improved upon every single criticism I had of the first film and delivered an incredible sequel. I am now a fan of this franchise.

Spider-Man: Homecoming- And here endeth the honeymoon! Marvel spent years trying to finagle the rights away from Sony (who was absolutely destroying Spider-Man with those awful Andrew Garfield movies) and they finally got him, recast him, made him a kid again and threw him awkwardly but enjoyably into the mix in Civil War. Expectations were high for a movie that finally got the character just right and delivered the MCU goods in new and exciting ways. And on paper, it was all there to happen. Tom Holland is a great Peter Parker and Michael Keaton's Vulture was the most refreshing villain since Loki. But then a hit and miss script seemingly more concerned with the trials and tribulations of teenage existence was chosen and what could have been the best MCU movie since the Avengers turned out to be enjoyable but shockingly mediocre.

Thor: Ragnarok: An enjoyable threequel, this Thor installment eschews the melodrama of the previous installment and builds on the humor of the first with mostly satisfying results. Chris Hemsworth knows his character well enough to poke fun at him, although the poking gets a tad obnoxious at times. Tony Stark's influence aside, I often had difficulty with the wacky line deliveries but the story worked and the interplay of the characters sold the film's minor shortcomings.

Black Panther: I really enjoyed the first three fourths of "Black Panther" but the Third Act was a bit of a mess. It didn't make it a bad movie but I do find it mildly overrated. It went from potentially great to sort of hackneyed and cheesy. One thing Marvel keeps doing that bothers me is handing these important films to directors who have never made a big budget film before. Sometimes it pays off, usually it has mixed results and this one was no exception.

An Unexpected Positive Review of Sorts.

Michael Cieslak of Dragon's Roost Press recently re-posted a glowing review of the for charity horror anthology Desolation: 21 Tales for Tails and, while it doesn't single out any particular contribution or author, but the reviewer certainly seemed to enjoy herself.

My short story was "Beautiful Libby & the Darkness," a peculiar story even for me that takes place in a Concentration camp where experimentation on a young woman results in immediate disaster for the Nazis involved and long-range disaster for the victims of her appetite through present day.

Read the review here.

...THEY KEEP PULLING ME BACK IN!!!

I received the following email last week:

Hello, Christopher. Due to the overwhelming success of ERIE TALES, there has been an uptick in demand for previous issues.  We are very excited; however, this presents us a new challenge:

We’re running out of table space! While we’d love to have all ten issues of ERIE TALES, we simply don’t have the room. ERIE TALES 1 through 4 are only available in ERIE TALES: OMNIBUS (Vol. 1). We will be doing the same for ERIE TALES 5 through 9, as we begin to phase out production. ERIE TALES 5 has been out of print for over 3 years.

As we begin to consolidate, we are aware that there may be no contract signed for previous anthologies and we did not want to wade into a gray area of copyright without consulting our authors first.  Without your consent, our options are to pull the anthologies completely, robbing future readers of your stories, or excising specifically your story/poem. We’d really rather not do that.

We would like the opportunity to reprint your tale “Jeremiah's Malady” from ERIE TALES 5. We are confirming non-exclusive reprint rights of your story/poem for the print and digital editions of ERIE TALES: OMNIBUS (Vol II). Aside from the corrections of the typographical errors and general formatting clean-up, this stories may be identical to previous versions. There is no payment associated with the reprint of this anthology and no contributor copy is offered. In the event of space constraints, we may not be able to print all confirmations we receive, but we will let you know either way.

Your response (a Yes or a No) to this email is all that is necessary.  If you would like a new bio added, do send that along as well. 

Please respond by June 1, 2018.

Regards,

Peggy Christie, Secretary
Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers

Naturally I gave my permission. They're a good group and I was once a member and, honestly, I'd forgotten that story even existed! It was about a sentient virus that an entire bloodline had to carry lest it escape and infect the human race.

So once again somebody emerges from the ether and pulls me back into the writing world.

Kaiju.

My second novel "Kaiju" is technically out of print but it's still available through the Barnes & Noble website. One independent seller is actually selling it for $1.99! I suppose I'd find that mildly insulting if not for the description of the book's physical condition. 

I'm planning to re-edit this novel at some point in the not-too-distant future so I suppose this could become a collector's item or at least a good comparison to whatever Version Two is like. 

The Greatest Compliment.

Any positive review of my work is appreciated, of course. When you're a relative unknown, most of the comments you receive come from readers as opposed to critics. It's rare that a reader will take the time to review something they read, especially when it isn't a famous work. And while many of the reactions I've received have been favorable, I don't think there is a greater compliment than this.

"Insightful

Raving Review.

I may have posted this before but it was nice to run across this reader review of my short story in the "Shadow Masters" anthology from a few years ago. Scroll down to the bottom for mention of yours truly.