Our Stories Define Us

A few pieces of bright writing news surfaced in the middle of last week's morass:

My short story, "Scar Tissue Wings", will appear in this year's Triangulation: Morning After anthology (pending a few edits). Thanks to Stephen Ramey and the crew for including my work again. "Scar Tissue Wings" was written as a response to my time in the hospital with Max back in December. Funny how stories give us perspective.

I received a contract from the incomparable Jodi Lee for "The Monster Game" which will appear in Return to New Bedlam. Jodi kindly asked if I'd like to include Aimee's name in the dedication. Thanks, Jodi.

My books are slowly resurfacing in Amazon.com's Kindle store. You can now find digital copies of Echoes of the Dead and The House Eaters with more on the way. All the "also boughts" are gone, but the books are there. Two weeks ago, this seemed like the most important thing in my life.

I was young and foolish, then.



The world is absurd. Just absurd.

Thanks for sharing it with me.

WIP Wednesday: Four Projects of the Apocalypse

Since this is a blog about writing (for the most part), I'll start with my latest WIP...the now-desperate-for-a-title YA ghosty-type story. I've only just begun in earnest, adding at least 1K words a day for the past few. The flip flop between brother and sister's POV (all 3rd person, of course) is making for an interesting narrative with nice parallel stories. I'm pleased.

An excerpt (from Phoebe's storyline):

Lunch in the cafeteria was hell. Phoebe gathered her brown bag from her locker, shut it gently, and slunk through the bustling corridors toward the auditorium. No one would be there between fourth and fifth period. The auditorium had been her secret, her hiding place, her sanctuary...

I've had a number of older stories I'm pretty pleased with, so, as most of you know by now (via Twitter, etc.), I put together an ebook collection. The free version of The Bottom Feeders and Other Stories includes ten previously published pulpy-horror tales. I wanted to release a Kindle edition, and since I can't offer a free version there, I added four stories, including two previously unpublished. I can't have people paying for the same thing they'd receive for free elsewhere. Because we live in an era of choice, I'm offering the "bonus edition" via Smashwords for 99 cents. If you like pulpy-horror tales, please give it a look. I consider this an experiment in 21st century storytelling. I'll let you know how it works out...



And I'm reading, of course. I took a break from Darkness because a used copy of Michael Moorcock's The Black Corridor landed in my mailbox the other day. I picked up the book after reading a mention of it in The Book of Lists: Horror under "the ten best sci-fi horror novels". I can't say I'm disappointed 50 pages in...more to come. The Black Corridor is out of print (the only copy I could find was via Half.com, but it was a quite affordable book club edition). Courting Morpheus also landed in the ol' mailbox on Monday, and I'm salivating for a crack at that. One book at a time, dear Aaron.

Finally, Barry Napier's chapbook, The Final Study of Cooper M. Reid, is available for preorder at Strange Publications. Strange will only produce 26 hand-lettered copies, all signed by the author (guess I should get him those signature sheets, huh?), and the price is too affordable to miss. As with all Strange chapbooks, it includes two previously published stories by Mr. Napier. You can also purchase a "subscription" to the first three chapbooks in the series for a considerable discount.

Recipes for Kids

A dangerous post title for a guy who's been known to write horror and dark fantasy, but this is important.

Jodi Lee, an author/editor from Canada (I share The Black Garden TOC with her, and she has a story, "The Lion Roared" in Tainted's TOC) has a proposal.

Well, her daughter is looking for ways to raise money to replace the old handicapped inaccessible playground equipment at her school. They are putting together a benefit cookbook. So...(and I quote from http://www.jodilee.ca/?p=301):

"I was thinking of a “scratch our back, we’ll scratch yours” kinda thing. Any author, editor, reporter, actor, etc. that would like to byline themselves with their favorite recipe, for a good cause, let us know, and we’ll send a form out by email. I’m spam-guarding the email address, but you just have to remove the guard, and add the appropriate bits. recipes jodilee ca"

(That would be recipes(at)jodilee(dot)ca, with an @ and . in place of the parentheses and words)

What do you say folks? Let's see how we can help. I have a pile of delicious recipes, none of which calls for children. (I only write about the weird stuff.)