July 2010 Summary

Fiction
Completed stories: None
Submitted stories: 6
Accepted stories: 4

Poetry
Completed poems: 5
Submitted poems: 5
Accepted poems: 3

Nonfiction
Completed articles: 9

• How to cope with memory loss
• How to live a healthy lifestyle
• Ringo Starr brings show to REH
• Curtain Call: “Nunsense” scores big on fun and puns (theater review)
• Crowded House heading to REH
• Curtain Call: Comedy kicks off Early Bird’s season (theater review)
• Plant, Band of Joy plays REH
• Curtain Call: Olson directs clever ‘Seafarer’ (theater review)
• August concert lineup

Submitted articles: 9
Accepted/published articles: 10

Reprints
Submitted reprints: 13
Accepted reprints: 11

Totals
Number of words written this month: Approximately 6,000
Number of submissions pending response: 80

Comments:
Not bad as far as submissions and acceptances go, but next month I plan on boosting my output dramatically. I have a number of stories I’ve left in limbo far too long … and I intend to get through all of them in the next few weeks!

Space Horrors

According to editor David Lee Summers, Space Horrors – the fourth installment of the Flying Pen Press series Full-Throttle Space Tales – is due out Oct. 1, 2010. The finalized version of the cover is shown here, and following is the description of the book which will appear on the back cover:

What horrors lurk among the stars?

If you dare venture into space, you will find planets where the rain will dissolve the flesh from your skeleton in a matter of minutes. There are undead stellar corpses that warp the very fabric of reality. There are bursts of radiation that will cook you alive within the walls of your spaceship.

And those are just the terrors we expect to face when we leave Earth.

In this volume you’ll find seventeen tales guaranteed to send a shiver down your spine. You’ll meet cold and dispassionate aliens—some so large they’ll swallow your starship whole, others so small they’ll turn your blood to dust. The prospect of encountering undead creatures such as vampires and zombies on Earth is frightening enough. Imagine meeting them while trapped during an interstellar flight. You’ll join men and women as they dare to explore haunted spaceships. In the end, you may discover that the most frightening creatures we’ll encounter among the stars are humans themselves.

We invite you to peer into the darkest reaches of space with Ernest and Emily Hogan, Sarah A. Hoyt, Dayton Ward, Danielle Ackley-McPhail and a dozen more new and veteran writers.

Here is the book's table of contents:

Introduction — David Lee Summers

Part I: Man’s Own Inhumanity

Poetic Justice — Alastair Mayer

Listening — Anna Paradox

The Walking Man — Glynn Barrass

Part II: Alien Menaces

Natural Selection — Simon Bleaken

Oh Why Can’t I? — CJ Henderson

Last Man Standing — Danielle Ackley-McPhail

Part III: Seductive Vampires

Anemia — David Lee Summers

Chosen One — Dana Bell

Sleepers — Selina Rosen

Divining Everest — Patrick Thomas

Part IV: The Spirit Realm

Into the Abyss — Dayton Ward

Salvage — David B. Riley

The Golem — Judith Herman

Part V: Shambling Zombies

In the Absence of Light — Sarah A. Hoyt

A Touch of Frost — Gene Mederos

Wake of the White Death — Lee Clark Zumpe

Plan 9 in Outer Space — Ernest and Emily Hogan

"They like me ... "

I was happily surprised recently to find a complimentary PDF copy of the July 2010 issue of Golden Visions Magazine, edited by Christine Lajoie Golden – particularly since I didn’t have any fiction appearing in the issue.

As it turns out, I received the copy because I was chosen by readers of the magazine as one of the top five favorite writers for 2009. Readers were asked to vote for their favorite authors whose work appeared in either the print or online version of Golden Visions Magazine in 2009. Following is a list of the top five authors, as printed in the magazine:

TM Hunter
Guy Belleranti
Fran Jacobs
Lee Clark Zumpe
Gustavo Bondoni

My short story “The Blacktide” appeared in Golden Visions Magazine, Issue 8, Oct.-Dec. 2009. It was my second appearance in GVM, preceded by the story “From Dark Shores,” Issue 2, 2008.

Authors don’t often get to hear applause. For me, satisfaction comes from completing a story, having a story accepted for publication, seeing a story in print and receiving payment for a story. Knowing that a number of readers, having read my work, took the time to show their approval by voting for it is infinitely more fulfilling.

I am grateful to those who participated in the voting and I am delighted my work was so well received by readers of Golden Visions Magazine.

Shameless Self Promotion No. 15

Chances are, you've never heard of Hadoth Creek.

Henry Bickleworth certainly wasn't familiar with the isolated community situated on a dirt road in rural north Florida - not until an unfortunate detour forced him to meet some of the town's eccentric residents.

I invite you to join Bickleworth on his journey as he discovers Hadoth Creek's unconventional past and comes face to face with the unsettling secrets and ancient horrors found there.

"Jars in the Cellar," a 6,125-word short story, has been published by Damnation Books. If you like weird yarns with a Lovecraftian slant, I hope you will consider purchasing the story.

Movie Review: Red Cliff

Armchair historians, strategy game buffs and those who enjoy spectacular cinematic epics will love John Woo's Red Cliff - assuming, that is, they can find it playing at a theater without having to drive 500 miles.

Rival warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan form an alliance to confront the power-hungry general Cao Cao, who is determined to annex both their territories. My introduction to these historical figures happens to go back to the early 1990s when I became addicted to a Nintendo game called Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Anyone who played this - or any other strategy game based on this conflict - will find the film intriguing.

For more information, check out my review at Tampa Bay Newspapers:
… Visually stunning, Woo delivers a spectacular masterpiece combining dazzling landscapes, larger-than-life battlefield scenarios and mesmerizing diplomatic and tactical sequences that showcase the art of subtlety ...

Shameless Self Promotion No. 14

The Anthology of Dark Wisdom: The Best of Dark Fiction is now available from Elder Signs Press. Editor William Jones has selected some of the most horrifying and fantastical tales from the eponymous magazine along with previously unpublished works and award-winning short stories. As the publisher reports on its website, these tales "fearlessly venture into the hidden world of the supernatural, where strange creatures stalk the night and eldritch investigators search for the unknown."

The collection includes my short story "Plague of Fire" along with works by Peter Straub, Alan Dean Foster, Tom Piccirilli, John Pelan, Richard A. Lupoff, John Shirley, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Wendy Leeds, Gerard Houarner, Chirstopher Welch, Sam W. Anderson, C.J. Henderson, Paul Melniczek, Richard Wright, Deanna Hoak, Christopher T. Leland, Bruce Boston, Lee Ballentine, Sherry Decker, Gene O’Neill, James Argendeli, Patricia Lee Macomber, David Niall Wilson, Christian Klaver, Tim Curran, Neddal Ayad and Rachel Gray.

To tempt discerning readers into ordering a copy for the holidays, following is a brief excerpt from my story:

"Outside, the twilight shuddered with bursts of sporadic lightning. Spidery bolts erupted from beyond the horizon, scattered across the sky and invaded Obaid’s apartment in flashes of crimson and blue. The thunder growled with the whisper of the hidden horrors.

A pack of tormented sirens howled through the dusk, scrambling toward a dull, red glow smoldering in the besieged Florida night. Obaid temporarily abandoned his studies and peered through the breach in the curtains covering the window. In the distance, some vast conflagration illuminated the sky, reminding him of burning oil rigs in the desert."

Shameless Self Promotion No. 13

To read my story "Newfound Gap," check out the anthology Grants Pass, recently published by Morrigan Books.

Within, you'll find some excellent end-of-the-world fiction revolving around a central theme: In each of the tales, survivors struggle to reach Grants Pass, Oregon, rumored to be the last bastion of civilization. Grants Pass was edited by Jennifer Brozek and Amanda Pillar.

In addition to my contribution, this collection features the work of Kayley Allard, Scott Almes, Jennifer Brozek, Ivan Ewert, Ed Greenwood, Stephanie Gunn, Carole Johnstone, Pete Kempshall, Jay Lake, Martin Livings, Seanan McGuire, Shannon Page, Jeff Parish, Amanda Pillar, Cherie Priest, James M. Sullivan and KV Taylor.

In his review on HorrorScope, Chuck McKenzie calls Grants Pass "a remarkable, disturbing, and worthwhile read, and one that is likely to stay with the reader for some time to come."

In another review, posted on LiveJournal, the reviewer wrote "I’ve only held onto one anthology for more than a year in my entire life. Grants Pass will make it two."

Yet another LiveJournal reviewer wrote specifically about my story, "Newfound Gap," saying it "had me with hope, that desperate kind which pushes people forward. Sometimes that drive pays off and sometimes it doesn't. My need for Kleenex was based out of one of those two ends. I'll let you read the story and find out which."

There are several positive reviews posted on the Goodreads website, too.

Grants Pass may be purchased online at the Morrigan Books website.