My 2009 debut short story collection, FRESH BLOOD, filled with 160 pages of dark science fiction stories and twisted horror tales is now coming to PDF/e-Format.  You can get it from one of the largest RPG retailers on the Web. DriveThruRPG.com! Or, for just a few dollars more, you can splurge for the print copy and see what all of last summer’s buzz was about. Just do a search for “Sam’s Dot Publishing”.  It might take a while for the publisher’s page to go up.

Vampires * Zombies * Ghosts * Giant Lizards * Alternate Universes

FRESH BLOOD: TALES FROM THE SPECULATIVE GRAVEYARD

Published by Sam’s Dot Publishing

Author: Lawrence R. Dagstine

FRESH BLOOD in PDF/E-Format - ISBN: 978-0-9819696-2-6

Order the PDF or e-Version for upload to your readers at… DriveThruRPG.com:

www.drivethrustuff.com

For a little more, the softcover version at The Genre Mall:

http://www.genremall.com/anthologiesr.htm#freshblood

Fresh Blood by Lawrence Dagstine - PRINT VERSION

Other New Entries: “Books & Anthos”

Lydia Peelle was born in Boston, received her MFA from the University of Virgina, and now lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Her stories have earned her the O. Henry Prize as well as two Pushcart Prizes. She has twice been featured in the Best New American Voices anthologies. Her first collection of short stories Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing was published in the summer of 2009. The amazing debut collection features eight stories that weave together past and present while exploring our modern American detachment from our land, our history, and ourselves (read a full review here). Ms. Peelle recently spoke with us via email about her stories, our failing connection with the natural world, and writing in the shadow of the Southern literary tradition.

You’re writing stories about the American South, but you come from Massachusetts. With Southern literature having such a rich and almost mythic tradition, is it intimidating to be writing in such a heavily weighted genre? What are the challenges and benefits of being an outsider writing Southern (or any kind of) fiction?

Yes, there is a lot of weight to the term “Southern literature” – so much so that I don’t ever feel qualified to take it on.  It’s true that most of the stories in the book take place in the South, but I don’t think of it first and foremost think as a Southern book.  Tennessee is where I found myself, arbitrarily, about nine years ago, disoriented and rootless and not particularly happy here.  So I started to write about it as my own personal way of finding a connection with it. To dig down into the place where I was.  To walk around and explore abandoned farmhouses and parking lots.  And so I ended up with a book that mostly takes place in the South. 

A lot of people are surprised that I am from the North and chose to write about Tennessee.  But for me, the chance to explore other lives is the reason why I write.  I write to look at the world through another set of eyes, to imagine lives drastically different than my own – and by doing so ultimately to find the commonalities, the universal.  For me writing is very much an act of the imagination.  I spend a lot of time – and a lot of wasted paper – just trying to escape myself and inhabit another life: how would it truly feel to be this person?  In this time?  In this place?  In this particular set of circumstances? 

It didn’t occur to me until after I brought all the stories together, but most of the characters in my stories are outsiders to the place they’re in (like me) trying to find their way in a foreign landscape.      

Many of your stories seem to deal (if not always explicitly) with history. It seems like in this country we’re constantly in the process of erasing our past. One of the things that struck me so deeply in your stories was this underlying sense of the past continually being paved over with strip malls and Wal-marts. What we end up with is a strange sort of limbo where we have few real reminders of our past, yet we live every day with the legacy of the past. Why do you think we’re so willing and able in this country to eliminate our past? Do you find this to be the case more or less in the South than in New England or other parts of the country?

I was in Ireland once and the old man I was staying with really enjoyed making the point that there was an outhouse on his property that was older than my country.  It is amazing, when you think about it, how young our country actually is – and yes, how much we’ve managed to plunder and pave over and cut down in that short amount of time, but also how recent our past is.  And what a great opportunity that gives us to connect to it. 

In Massachusetts, where I grew up, we spent a lot if time in grade school talking about local history: so it was a lot about the Pilgrims, the Salem Witch Trials, the Revolutionary War, all that early colonial history (basically the stuff that made good field trips).  Because I got that all at such an early age, that’s what I grew up thinking about and tuned in to, almost to the exclusion of the ensuing 300 years of history. In Tennessee, people are still thinking about a much more recent history – the Civil War, in particular – and I imagine school kids here spend a lot of time on field trips to battlefields of that war.   I’ve never lived out west or in the Southwest, but I imagine there are similar cases there in terms of what’s remembered or considered important and what isn’t as much celebrated or discussed.  So I think every region has its different obsessions.  We’ve got such a big country, with such a dense story, it’s hard, I think, to step back and see the big picture.  But I do think you can still get in touch with all those stories, here in 2010, no matter how few scraps are left of them.      

Another powerful aspect of your stories deals with people and our growing disconnect from nature and land, soil and animals. Especially in the current economic situation, and with the specter of peak oil threatening to drastically change the way we live our lives and grow our food, these issues seem more relevant today than ever. We, as a collective people, have very little connection to the earth, very little in the way of skills or knowledge of how to grow our own food and survive or even to step out into nature and feel at home. What do you think of our current relationship in this country to the natural world?

In two words, not good.  We seem to think we exist physically separate of it, forgetting where the basic elements of our lives – food, water, air – come from.  We also seem to think we can exist morally and spiritually separate from it, and in a deep way, I think we as a culture are suffering from a spiritual malaise caused by our disconnection from place and land. 

For me, the natural world is where I go to seek mystery.  I believe that we, as human beings, need mystery in our lives.  Because only in mystery can we couch hope.  And hope is essential to our survival as individuals, and as a species, and as a world.  We need the unknowable places, and yes – the dangerous places – both physical and spiritual.  

But modern-day life really beats the mystery out of things.  You’ve got to search that much harder for it and find it any way you can – for me that’s out in the woods – or even just in a scrubby open lot behind the grocery store where I can watch a possum lumber up a tree and disappear in a hole.  I think we’ve all got to search it out: whether in the woods, or the mountains, or in church, in temple, in private meditation – anywhere you can get in touch with that sense of the unknowable, and be a part of something much bigger than your own life.

Your writing conveys a real sense of the loss of nature in our lives. Are you inspired to write by spending time in nature, or are you more inspired by being in a city where that lack of nature is palpable?

I actually do a lot of my best writing when I’m walking out in the woods.  I try to make that a daily practice – even if there’s an interstate just on the other side of those woods.  If I don’t get out, after a couple days I start to feel pretty lost.

Several of the stories in your book feature animals prominently, and in most of these cases the emotional power of the story is derived from a human-animal interaction. Most of the animals featured in your stories are used by humans  (as farm machinery, as scientific research tool, as food source, as art, as plaything) to one end or the other, yet somehow transcend this role and end up emotionally, or even spiritually moving the humans who come in contact with them incredibly deeply. What do you think about how our society treats and interacts with animals? Why is it that our bonds with our animals are often deeper than our bonds with other human beings?

I am very interested in our relationship with animals, and, for that reason, I am drawn to the culture of agriculture, where animals are not only companions but partners in work and sources of food. I am interested in the culture (mostly disappearing in this country) where that husbandry is a noble and whole enterprise, rather than the (unsustainable and inhumane) current practice of factory farming and monoculture.  

I agree that relationships with animals can be so much purer than the relationships we have with one another. Our domestic animals put ultimate trust in us (they have no choice), so there is great potential there for ultimate betrayal – as Charlie betrays the crippled kid in “Kidding Season.” For me, that signifies all the weight and responsibility of any human relationship.  How we relate (or don’t relate) to animals can represent a lot about our failure to communicate well other humans.

I think about the time, ages ago – before agriculture and domestication –  that we were much more in tune with all the other living beings we share the earth with. A time when we saw ourselves as part of that larger family, and therefore treated the land, other creatures, and each other with more respect.  If we can do whatever we can to get back in touch with the non-human – with the consciousness that surrounds us, right down to the squirrel on the sidewalk – I believe it will make us better humans. It will be a step towards healing the planet we’ve so far ravaged. I also believe it will make us more compassionate about all the human suffering around us. Seeing things as a whole. Not to say we should go out and try to talk to trees. But that we should try to be still, and aware, and in touch with all that surrounds us.  It’s a hard thing to do, in this day and age, but ultimately, we’ve got to fundamentally change our view of our place here on earth, get rid of this idea of utter entitlement.  Becoming more compassionate towards the fellows we share it with is the first step.

I saw a promotional video for your book online which featured modern day scenes of the American South, but with a soundtrack of old time music from the 1920s. The juxtaposition between the past and the present was very interesting, and seemed an extremely apt choice for your book in which your stories often walk that same line between present and past. I listen to a lot of very old American folk and blues music like that and it has the ability to move me like no other music I know, because it seems so haunted and strange and foreign even though it was made right here in this country less than a century ago. What does this music mean to you?

Southern American music from the ‘teens and ‘twenties, blues and folk music, really inspires me.  The rawness and mystery of a lot of those songs is something I strive for in my stories.  This music is so fascinating because it embodies the collision of cultures that happened in this place: it brings together the sounds and songs and instruments that enslaved Africans carried over and passed down through generations, and the sounds and songs and instruments that Europeans, especially Scotch-Irish, brought over and passed down as well. It’s truly American in that it all got traded around and mixed together to produce this entirely new, totally rich, totally unique form of music. 

Some of your characters (“The Still Point”, “Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing”) are practically crippled with dread, sometimes near-apocalyptic dread. These characters don’t see much point or hope in the world around them. Looking around at the world some days, it can be very easy to relate to that view. Yet despite this dread, these stories both end up at absolutely beautiful moments of hope and catharsis. Is writing a way for you to work through feelings of dread or anxiety about the world and to achieve some sort of catharsis in your own life?

Dread, anxiety, hopelessness, a feeling of helplessness  – yes, those things are always hovering at the edges of my conscience.  That’s why I go out into the woods and that’s why I write.  To quiet my mind.  To remind myself of the larger scale of history.  These days we’re bombarded by information.  There are so many voices out there, all saying different things, very few of which are really true, even fewer which hold any hope.  At the end of the day, the voice you’ve got to find and listen to and rely on – and trust – is your own.

Now Available on Amazon – 298 Pages, Only $11.95; featuring Lawrence Dagstine!

THE NEXT TIME: Anthology of Alternate Reality/Time Travel

Edited by Chris Bartholomew – Now Available!

The Next Time Anthology by Lame Goat Press

Order your copy today – I’m in it:

https://www.createspace.com/Customer/EStore.do?id=3424257

ISBN/EAN13: 1450519180 / 9781450519182

Author Line-Up: John C. Mannone, Mark Wolf, James P. Wagner, Shells Walter, Lawrence R. Dagstine, Kristin Aune, Kyle Hemmings, Ralph Greco, Pete Carter, Deborah Walker, Albert Melear, Sam S. Kepfield, John F. D. Taff, Lawrence Barker, Terence Kuch, Jo Thomas, Andrew Males, Edward A. Rodosek, David C. Pinnt, Michael C. Pennington, R.H. Reese, Christopher Jacobsmeyer, Joseph Carfagno, Sean Monaghan, John X. Grey, Mark Robinson, Jamie K. Schmidt, and Ken Head.

Other New Entries: “Books & Anthos”

   
   
“For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it must always be heard. There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.”
   
– James Baldwin, ‘Sonny’s Blues’ from Going to Meet the Man
   (Dial Press, 1965)

In a recent interview, Michael Chabon recommended reading Kelly Link.  His suggestion was good enough for me, and so I quickly got a copy of the short story collection Pretty Monsters from my local library.

I think the first thing I need to note is that Pretty Monsters is a young adult novel.  Meaning that, while there is some profanity and adult circumstances, the stories largely focus upon young adult protagonists and largely investigate themes important to young adults.

However, that is not to say that you should turn your nose up at this book if you are an old adult as opposed to a young adult.  (I’m 32, where does that put me?)  Link has one of the most imaginative minds I’ve ever run across.  While her stories dealt with aspects of horror, science fiction, and fantasy, each was completely original and refreshingly weird.  I mean that as a total compliment, by the way.  Oftentimes, I feel like authors aren’t willing to get flat-out weird enough.  I’m not talking perverse—I’m just talking weird in a fun and provocative way.  Link often took her stories in unexpected directions, and if you do manage to predict an outcome to one of her stories, be assured that she meant for you to do so.

My only complaint about Pretty Monsters, though, is the fact that each story tended to end on a rather abrupt, inconclusive note.  Some people really enjoy this, but I personally prefer more decisive endings.  Link charmed me, consequently, when she addressed this issue in—appropriately enough—the final story in the collection.  Somehow the fact that she’s cognizant of her trends makes it less irritating for me.

In particular, I recommend “The Faery Handbag,” “Magic for Beginners,” “Pretty Monsters,” and, by far one of the best short stories I’ve ever read, “The Surfer.”

For the 2009 holiday season, I decided to update my blog homepage and fill my fans and followers in on some of my gifts and achievements of the last twelve months, along with what to look out for and what will be under the x-mas tree this yuletide season (for the little one).  Regardless of the last year-and-a-half of dying markets and a bad genre economy, 2009 still managed to be my best year in the “earning” department, where I doubt I will ever be able to rival 2007 in the quantity and material department.  Some of these achievements range from smaller press and semi-pro fiction acceptances, minor proofreading, non-fiction writing and essays, resumes, my first official short story collection being released, my first Kindle title being released, making over 2000 friends and followers on Facebook, and just a lot revolving around the written word and The Spirit of Christmas.

Isn’t that a beautiful Christmas tree? The lights flash blue and white.  Progress-wise, this year I had very little time to blog/plug but got a lot of acceptances (some straight through 2011), let go of a lot of reprints, wrote 26 BRAND NEW short stories, wrote 8 BRAND NEW novelettes, wrote four unfinished novellas between 15,000 and 30,000 words in length — which I may make available on my blog to read next year.  I mean, why let good stories go to waste.  Or maybe I will get around to editing and finishing those novellas.  I have future eBooks & Kindle titles on the horizon.  I realized that, money-wise, it doesn’t pay to release a second short story collection.  I can earn more individually.  I was shortlisted a couple of times by some decent pubs, made second readings, almost made it into 4 professional level magazines/venues.  And that’s just the fiction department.  Oh yeah, did I mention the steampunk and satire offers?

Below you will find pictures of just half of this year’s gifts.  It’s mainly a Cybermen-themed Christmas this year, with David Tennant regenerating into Matt Smith and all.  And my son is now a Dr. Who fan and absolutely adores The Cybermen (he’s scared of the Daleks).  Oddly enough, he’s also more a Christopher Eccleston fan.  One of the items I searched the UK high and low for was The Cybermen Age of Steel 4-figure collection.  Collect them all, open up the packages, and you can build a fifth figure.  The Cyber Controller.  I also picked up The Next Doctor on DVD and ordered a Cyber Leader Voice-Changing Helmet to seal the deal.

Some of the other gifts, which are already wrapped, consist of model kits with glues and paints from my old man, though they say ages 8+ and 12+ on the packages.  So I guess the little one will have to hold on to them until he’s old enough to understand them.  Those are made by Revell.  There are also Bob the Builder videos.  Believe me, Doctor Who wasn’t the only stocking stuffer.  There are some other wonderful toys and gifts ranging from Super Mario to Toddler Costumes to Spongebob Squarepants-themed games, and, like last year, play food items.  Like “make your own pizza.”  The Spongebob game in the picture below is actually Connect Four, but obviously for a slightly younger age group.  Then there’s the one last-minute gift I just couldn’t put down.  The paint job was so realistic.  It reminded me of the Super Powers Action Figures of the 80’s.  Remember those? The Justice League of America Boxed Set: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern.  These figures are mint and pristine! And who doesn’t love the JLA?

Now that’s a big ass cup of coffee (by the way, that’s made of metal).  Just couldn’t resist.

In a reduced and very affordable fashion, I also treated myself to a few early-season gifts.  First, notice the non-fiction book above on Pompeii.  You got it.  It’s research time.  Lawrence Dagstine will be coming your way sometime in 2010 with a story set in Pompeii.  It could be before Volcano Day, it could be after.  It could be Alternate History or not the story you’re expecting.  But you know me when it comes to Historical Weird Tales.

Also, I can’t recommend enough WEIRD HISTORY 101 — published by Falls River, and if you’re a B&N member, you might be able to get it reduced now for $4.00 — in hardcover.  This tome is sooo awesome.  It’s like a mini factbook and reference tool for the writer, and just all around interesting to own.  If you’re a writer of historical tales, alternate history, steampunk, or period pieces, trust me and go to Barnes & Nobles and get this book.  Doesn’t matter what genre.  Author is John Richard Stephens.  You won’t find these kind of facts on Google, or between the pages of traditional historical reference books.

And if you look up above, I finally have a new computer desk.  Nice to have shelving and a drawer, but still unsure of what to fill it up with yet.  Now that the little one has gotten older, the bookcase units pretty much belong to him and his toys.  Now that I have a Kindle, most of my print books will be donated.  Those I wish to keep will be locked away in storage between two households (yeah, there’s that many).  But that desk above is situated in a new corner, it’s my new workspace, and it’s where I’ll pen that Pompeii tale for you Dagstine readers when the time comes.

With that said, I’ll probably only update this blog four more times before the New Year.  Stay with me in 2010.  We have many adventures to go on together, and much awaits.  Won’t you join me? To all my fans and readers…

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Lawrence R. Dagstine

Other New Entries: “About Me”

Anthony Boucher is best-known in the SF world as one of the founding editors of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. As a writer he’s better-known for his mysteries and reviews, but this is a collection of science fiction and fantasy stories.

The balance is mostly toward contemporary fantasy, but with a bit of a science fictional flair. The fantastic elements are presented as mechanistic and analyzable, and the story often resolves with the characters coming to a “logical” new understanding of whatever magic they’ve encountered. And the science fiction stories have an element of the fantastic, as the technology is so advanced, at least relative to the time of writing, as to achieve Clarkian magic.

Many of the stories are pessimistic, usually involving protagonists’ wishes being fulfilled, but not delivering the hoped-for satisfaction. In “We print the truth” a newspaper editor wishes that his paper will only print the truth, but doesn’t reckon on the truth only extending to the limits of his circulation. In “Snulbug” a captive demon’s ability to travel to the future doesn’t grant the summoner the expected power to benefit from predictive knowledge.

Most of the stories are clearly dated, with the formal but terse diction of the 1940’s, and the purely anglo American male cast of characters, with women appearing mostly as scenery and objects to be won as prizes. Only Molly of “We print the truth” really breaks this mold, though even she can be pigeonholed as the tomboy type, ignored by the hero to his great embarrassment when he realizes her feelings for him.

One exceptional story, that would stand up well today, is “They Bite”, a dark fantasy in which dangerous desert dwellers turn out not to be the legends the protagonist believes them to be. And even the other stories, though they show their age, clearly rank with the best SF (broad sense) of their era.

I was able to “sneak” in to the World Fantasy Convention here in San Jose last week in the guise of press. It was great fun to meet some local authors, and I got a post for Metblogs out of it. I also got to sit in on a couple of readings and about half of Gordon Van Gelder’s panel on 60 years of F&SF magazine. To come to the point, though, this collection from Night Shade Books and editor Jonathan Strahan was my take-home from the dealer room.

“The Pelican Bar”, Karen Joy Fowler A willful young woman (as they used to say) is sent away for to a tough-love camp in Mexico, which turns out to be particularly brutal, and from which she dreams of escape. The story’s well-written, and especially strong in exploring the Norah’s psychology and internal dialog, but I never quite caught on to the motivations of the reform camp operators — why they ran the camp as they did, what they were gaining from it, and why they eventually allow Norah her freedom.

“A practical girl”, Ellen Klages A girl growing up in the shadow of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton gets an impromptu math lesson from Grace Hopper. The story takes a magical turn when she uses her new knowledge of imaginary numbers to save a friend from an unwanted future. A sweet, nostalgic story.

“Don’t mention Madagascar”, Pat Cadigan This story takes the disorientation of long-distance travel to its ultimate extreme. Clever and entertaining.

“On the road”, Nnedi Okorafor On a visit to relatives in Nigeria, a Chicago policewoman learns that the old country is home to forces that the West has forgotten. The protagonist’s worldly attitude and her fantastic experiences are balanced perfectly.

“Swell”, Elizabeth Bear A strong story about gifts given, but returned.

“Useless things”, Maureen F. McHugh Only just science fictional, this story explores the limits of compassion. It’s a fine story, but maybe could have been tightened up. One scene, in particular, where the protagonist encounters a group of swaggering young men, struck me as only breaking up the story without advancing it.

“The coral heart”, Jeffrey Ford The only (so far as I can recall as I write) pure swords and sorcery fantasy in the collection, from an author who, as far as I can tell from reading his webpage but not being familiar with his work, rarely writes in that subgenre. About a hero so powerful he can’t recall all of his conquests, or, as it turns out, all of his mistakes.

“It takes two”, Nicola Griffith What a Seattle tech industry businesswoman named Cody initially thinks is a one night stand that might have some future to it turns out to be manipulation by someone she thought was her friend. The story takes a couple more turns from there, and finally leaves the reader asking one of the deepest questions of anything in this collection.

“Sleight of hand”, Peter S. Beagle Grieving at the loss of her husband and daughter, our protagonist meets a prestidigitator who can’t, he says, turn back the clock, but maybe he can do some stage magic that can grant her wish. A magical story, even if it explicitly denies its magic.

“The pretender’s tourney”, Daniel Abraham This story is swords without sorcery, so what I said about the Jeffrey Ford piece isn’t all wrong. Young Dafyd has just inherited his father’s Duchy following a devastating plague. With the king also fallen to the plague, and the kingdom in upheaval with the many deaths, he must decide whether to contend for the crown, eventually winning a moral victory over other dukes who scheme for the kingdom. One triviality that bothered me, even though the setting wasn’t strictly England, was the forms of address. As I understand it, in English (the language), as Duke of Westmont, Dafyd might be called “His Grace”, or “Westmont”, or “the Duke of Westmont”, but not “Duke Dafyd”, a form that’s jarringly used for a couple of his adversaries in the story.

“Yes we have no bananas”, Paul Di Filippo The story is a surrealistic riff on the looming (it’s been in all the papers) extinction of the Cavendish banana(Wikipedia link). Somehow the surrealism is something I expect from Di Filippo, though I can’t say I can recall any specific others of his stories I’ve read. It was effective here, amongst other stories that are mostly more straightforward, but I don’t know if I would be able to wade through a whole anthology of only Di Filippo’s stuff.

“Mesopotamian fire”, Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple A lighthearted story about a dragon that unexpectedly turns out to be real.

“The visitted man”, Molly Gloss An old man, newly alone in the world, is saved by the also aging Henri Rousseau (Wikipedia, again), who happens to live downstairs. A charming story about a misunderstood man who is full of understanding.

“Galapagos”, Caitlin R. Kiernan. This story screams to be called Ballardian, with its disjoint sense of time and space in the narration by an astronaut nearly driven insane in a close encounter in Jupiter orbit. I don’t know if J. G. Ballard ever wrote a story with a lesbian couple, both astronauts, as central characters, but the near-future space tech (thought the story date is actually 100 years from now) and the format itself, a series of dated journal entries by the recovering astronaut, also reflect what I infer as Ballard’s influence. And Kiernan’s effort stands up well to the high bar she’s set herself by following one of the acknowledged top literary stylists of the genre. Despite all the story threads in play, and the nonlinear narrative style, the entire thing holds together well, and doesn’t fail to delight.

“Dulce domum”, Ellen Kushner The story mixes up Kenneth Grahame (or some near facsimile), the AIDS epidemic (symbolically), vampires, and young love among the east coast upper crust. I’m not sure I can really assimilate all that to find a message in the story, and I can’t really relate to the aristocratic characters, so this wasn’t really the story for me.

Also reviewed by:

• Not if you were the last short story on Earth
• Bibliophile Stalker

STILL DANCING
By
Jameson Currier
Publisher: Lethe Press (December 1, 2008)
ISBN-10: 1590210484
ISBN-13: 978-1590210482

One of life’s pleasures, as any book lover can testify, is falling in love with a new author. Or, rather, the work of an author new to you. I recently discovered Jameson Currier and am head over heels in love with his writing. I have so far read only one book of his, Still Dancing, but have two others, Where the Rainbow Ends and Haunted Heart, waiting their turn. (I have so many good books waiting their turn I wish I were twins.)

There are twenty stories here, written over a time span of about 30 years. Not just any 30 years, but the three decades beginning with the mysterious and agonizing deaths of gay men in the mid-80’s to the present. Yes, these are AIDS stories. And yes, AIDS stories aren’t particularly popular now with either readers or writers. I suppose that’s because the average person thinks of AIDS as something in the past or something that is better ignored. Or perhaps in tough times maybe people just want escapism. I don’t know. But what I do know is that no one with a heart could read this collection and come away unmoved.

Jameson Currier is a master at the difficult art form of short fiction. Within the space of a few hundred or a few thousand words he can take out your heart and break it. I do not suggest that these are maudlin, pity-poor-us stories. Not at all. If they tell of death and dying, they tell equally of family, friends, lovers past and present, dead and living. The stories are gritty and honest, as real as IV tubes and funerals. Some also have a subtle meaning that doesn’t hit the reader until later. Currier’s stories don’t whitewash the physical ugliness of AIDS, or the pain, the fear, or the grief. Nor does he elevate the friends and caregivers to the status of saints who are never angry or impatient or resentful. The stories are elegant in their simplicity, and sublimely humane.

As I read the stories my favorites kept changing. “Still Dancing” was my favorite. No, “Ghosts” was my favorite. “Everybody is Always Somebody Else” was my favorite. Impossible choices. But I know I have to pick just a couple to draw attention to, so I chose “What They Carried” and “Winter Coats.”

“What They Carried” is deceptive. In less skilled hands it could have been a dreary laundry list of things taken to comfort a dying man: flowers, pajamas, books, etc. But because even the most mundane object carried to the fragile, beloved, and sometimes cantankerous Adam, are symbols not only of caring but also of helplessness, the story is unforgettable. The people in the story are not only carrying tokens of love to someone they are about to lose, but some of them wonder if they carry within their own bodies the deadly virus that will soon make of them objects of caring rather than givers. And some of them know.

“Winter Coats” is nothing short of charming, and that’s because Dennis, friend of the narrator, is charming. Dennis is handsome, talented, a dancer and actor, graceful, humorous, kind, and the embodiment of Je ne sais quoi. Shortly after burying his lover, for whom he was the devoted caregiver, Dennis, too, is losing his life to the virus. The narrator is Dennis’ friend of many years, and he is as much bemused by Dennis as anything else. At the end of the story, as if flipping the bird to frailty and his own mortality, Dennis can still spin a graceful, perfect double pirouette on a cold New York City street.

Jameson Currier is, simply, a remarkable writer who deserves to be read.

“HOW TO MAKE MONEY AT BOOK SIGNINGS”

AT OUTDOOR EVENTS & FOR THE INDEPENDENT/NEWBIE AUTHOR

by Lawrence R. Dagstine

A lot of people have been “hinting” recently on places such as Facebook and via email looking for advice.  They want to know how I did it.  They want to know how to make money selling books and magazines at functions and signings, especially if you’re an independent/newbie author.  As many people already know, I came out of a series of signings at Coney Island, New York this past summer with a decent intake on such titles as FRESH BLOOD (see Books & Anthos), and more.  Writing is pretty much an extra income field for a majority of us.  Once you learn to accept that, and not depend on fiction or look forward to fancy six-figure careers, you find your comfort zone.  The checks that come in repetitively or non-repetitively may pay for such things as utility bills, groceries, little odds and ends in places like Rite-Aid, CVS, or Walmart, co-pays on prescriptions, dinner and a movie, or something as simple as a gallon of milk or filling up your gas tank.  Of course, all of this might not come from fiction, but that’s okay.  After all, it’s a starving profession to begin with.  In this recession, every dime that comes out of the written word counts, because you never know how much your next electric bill or gas bill will be.  For example, right now I’m doing people’s resumes.  If you’re already an established, professional author with a couple of novels out, this information probably won’t help you, as you already make a nice income from being an upper midlist author or being able to relax on what royalties and advances you make from mass market paperbacks.  That, and some of your publishers may already foot the bill for some of your traveling expenses from signings.  But nowadays it’s very rare unless you’re a lead-lister.

However, if you’re an independent/micro-press author who lives in a big city or a pretty happening little town, whose been published in lots of print magazines, maybe a few anthologies, has a new book or collection available through a POD press, has access to a small newspaper (bonus points here), this information might help you better understand the kind of buyers that you want to attract, the places you want to sell, the performance you want to give when selling, how much to pay for dealers’ tables, number-crunching, and, what seems to work and not work “perception-wise” when selling to an audience outside of genre, because let’s be honest—that’s the consumer you’re gunning for, and they’re hard to reach.  At the end of the day they’re still a reader of Charlaine Harris, Dan Brown, or James Patterson.  You want to sell to both genre readers and non-genre readers alike.  Most likely, you work a day job, or maybe you’re on a fixed income.  You need to rely on a budget throughout, cut corners when necessary, because this article is recession-friendly.  People may perceive you as a hack, an amateur, people you know for years may perceive you as a pro, a super-pro, or even Superman! But no matter what kind of author you are, the moment you sat down at that table and sold a variety of stuff with your name on it, you were no longer just an author.  You also became a merchant and a bookseller, and you need to keep that mindset.

If you do live in a big city or a small town and haven’t been able to get signings in places such as Borders, Waldenbooks, or Barnes & Nobles, that’s okay.  In this economy, if you don’t expect family or friends to show up (or friends of those friends), chances are you’ll only sell less than twenty copies anyway and look like a schmuck at a table in the corner with a bowl of lollipops or cookies.  Somewhere away from the door if you’re not cozy with the store manager.  I chose Coney Island because it was a seasonal attraction—over five million visitors per summer—rather than a one-day gig, and I’d known about it almost a year in advance because I did some writing and research for one of their papers.  I knew people, and I made connections.  And if you can make connections, and you know the turnout is going to be big and profitable in advance, and it’s inexpensive to show up and conduct your little set-up, then what are you waiting for?

Fact: five-million people do not visit a Borders bookstore over the course of a summer — matter of fact, they’re closing stores, and I would be surprised at how many more survive — neither does that amount visit an independent bookstore, which I find to be a good way to do nothing, sell nothing, and just kill the day in a chair.  A world famous amusement park and tourist attraction is a whole other story.  Even little carnivals passing through town may attract more visitors.

Of course, there are always exceptions.

If you’re not selling in places like the chains, then you still want to add some diversity to your table, make it look pretty: business cards, flyers, postcards, magnets, or buttons made up cheap.  I recommend Vistaprint (www.vistaprint.com).  You can get stuff made up by them quite often for free.  All you have to do is pay the shipping & handling.  Some of the greatest places to sell books, and which attract crowds are book fairs, street fairs, flea markets (outdoor, indoor, churches and synagogues), carnivals, community centers, town halls, schools, festivals, bars… But mostly outdoor events in spring and summer.  Warm weather.

One writer asked me how much should he pay for tables (or, in some cases, booths).  I would say if you’re an independent author DO NOT pay more than a hundred bucks for a table (but that’s just me).  If you don’t come out of your signings making a minimum of 70 to 80% profit, don’t even bother reserving a spot.  Why? Because you need to first make the cost of the table back.  Then there’s the cost of gasoline, food and beverages (maybe even hotel and airfare).  Trust me, it adds up.  Make your signings LOCAL, and, if possible, try to split the table costs with fellow authors, too.  Oh yeah, you also want to hit up the smaller cons rather than the big cons.  Not that you shouldn’t attend the bigger cons, only that some of the smaller conventions are much easier on your pocket when it comes to the dealer’s area.  Sam’s Dot Publishing, one of my publishers, always seems to make a killing at these events.  They often sell out! Flea markets, churches, and festivals can go as low as $25 to $50.  I know this one church which holds a pretty popular flea market on Tuesdays and Fridays for twenty bucks, but you have to bring your own table.  Always packed.  Just sell a few used books, sports cards and comics on the side, you’ll make that back in no time flat.  Other genre wares should be meant to cover the cost of your table and traveling expenses.  This is a must!

When you go into a signing as an independent/newbie author, you need to go into it with the mind of a businessman or businesswoman.  You need to ask yourself: where do I expect to pick up the most sales and the best exposure.  The ice cream parlor, the town library, or the state fair (obviously the state fair).  If you need a license, get one.  They’re really not that expensive.  If you’re a newbie on a fixed income, you need to calculate all this in advance.  Don’t just sit at a table with your hands clasped, smiling and nodding at passersby.  Get up and be a regular PT Barnum.  Be jovial.  Prepare what’s called a pitch. For example: “Hello, Ma’am, you’re looking lovely today.  You must love to read.  Oh, don’t be shy.  I bet you have a soft spot for books reminiscent of Stephen King and JK Rowling!”—you get the gist (woman sees table filled to the rim with merch; friendly conversation is under way).  You need to stand up and introduce yourself.  You need to have confidence, charisma, personality, and a little humor doesn’t hurt either.  Books don’t sell themselves.  Hence why you need to be business-minded when you approach this, especially in these hard economic times, where the independent writer gets the short end of the stick.

Let’s talk about Coney Island now.  My very first signing on that very first day in June was a disaster.  Why? Because I had only brought Fresh Blood with me and a few used books by pulp authors.  Luckily, that first day I covered the cost of the booth (it was only $30 at the time), but I’ll never forget this one guy who came up to me and said, “Wow, so you like write stuff.  Man, I remember books.” I was astonished! Let’s just say the guy was a caveman who’d taken one too many bong hits.  How does someone forget about reading and books? Another girl just wanted her photograph taken with me because she never met an author before, yet she didn’t buy anything.  Not to mention I looked like a big tool just sitting there with one Dagstine-related item to my name when, back home, I had hundreds of print periodicals I could have toted with me.  Duplicate copies, too.  Yes, variety, along with ‘public perception’ makes for a very nice recipe, which I’ll explain in more detail in a moment.

After that first day I learned my lesson.  Between June and August there were supposed to be seven signings, but there ended up to be six due to a one-day rainout.  There would have been a few more had it not rained constantly between June and July.  And Flea by the Sea (the name of Coney Island’s summer marketplace), though covered by tents, was an outdoor event.  It was on top of the beach.  At times, the winds were horrible.  The circus was there, too, and one day there was a big hoopla going on because Ringling Brothers were abusing the elephants, but believe it or not a few of the animal rights activists picked up some of my goods.  So I can’t complain there.  But what I’m trying to say here is that, make sure it’s not going to rain on your parade on the day that you sell.  Mother Nature has a funny way of defying writers when it comes to selling outdoors.  By July and early August I was paying $40.00 for the booth and then $10.00 to rent the table, which came out to $50.00 for an entire weekend.  How could you beat that price? This is the price area you should be looking into.  Once again, a hundred bucks should always be your cap, and hopefully, you have more than one book to offer.  Speaking of which…

They say never judge a book by its cover.  Bullshit. When you’re selling in quantity to a non-genre and genre crowd, cover art I noticed makes all the difference.  In most cases it comes down to perception and appearances, or just the way people interpret merchandise.  I don’t care what anybody says.  They do judge a book by its cover.  And what people saw were stacks of magazines with extra copies, six different hardcovers and anthologies, and of course, a stack of Fresh Blood.  It was set up professionally and it looked pretty, like my own compact comic book shop.  All featuring something by ‘Dagstine.’

People were complimenting me because of the covers of the magazines.  Short lines and interested eyes gathered.  One person said, “So you must be Brooklyn’s SF Writer.”—I said, “Okay.” I just totally went with it.  Everything acted sort of like a cash cow.  One Dagstine publication led to the purchase or attraction of another.  Not only did one person spend $50.00 in one shot on me, but over the course of those signings I pushed $250.00 worth of old self-published hardcovers from The Year of the Flood, back when I didn’t know what the words ‘Vanity Press’ meant.  The point I’m trying to make here: I had a lot to choose from, my buyers had a lot to choose from, and so should you.  The cover art, the variety, the set-up, and “come one, come all” pitch made all the difference.  Even the shirt I wore! I got to autograph and sell my writing where, with only Fresh Blood, I probably wouldn’t have made what I did over the course of the summer: around $1200.00 – NET. And hey, I got my work and business cards out there.  Not bad for a hack, and my table investments had already been covered. 

If you’re a writer whose works have appeared in quite a few magazines, talk to the editor about getting extra issues at an author discount.  Always use media mail.  You might pay $4.00, $5.00, even $6.00 for those extra copies featuring your work in it.  You’re going to autograph them and sell them for $8.00 to $10.00… And don’t forget what I said, once you’ve included the cost of the table, food and beverages, gas or transportation to get to your selling destination, you need to make a minimum of 70 to 80% profit, otherwise it’s pointless.  Remember to invest in your work, invest in yourself, and before you attend that signing with more than one book or periodical, sit down with a calculator and crunch those numbers.  Make sure the location is going to be worth the time and effort.

In closing…

Whether you’re selling indoors in some chain, an artsy-fartsy independent that has velvet couches and serves Lattes and marble loaf in the back, or you’re giving the outdoor thing a whirl like I did, there is also another reason why you need to impress that passerby.  Besides cover art and quantity, nine out of ten times the general reading public will throw down cash on used books, non-fiction, children’s books, fast-paced thrillers, or romances before they will genres or subgenres known for killer slugs, planets with giant lizards, what the future would be like if everybody were pink, zombie stories, and heroic fantasy yarns.  If you’re a writer of genre fiction, you’re automatically at a disadvantage, so you need to think of ways to catch up.  That’s why the business model/bookseller mentality is so important.

Still, if I could do it with twelve hundred smackers, with a little initiative, so can you.

Until Next Time,

Lawrence R. Dagstine

TRICK OR TREAT

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2009

from Lawrence Dagstine

(I love scarecrows; had to go with a scarecrow theme this year)

However, in case you love zombies, werewolves, vampires, and lizards…

Still Available from Sam’s Dot Publishing & The Genre Mall:

http://www.genremall.com/anthologiesr.htm#freshblood

It’s been awhile since I last updated my Featured Blog. Partly because I’m slacker extrodinaire. And partly because fuck if I knew what to change it to. So a couple of blogs got an extended ride on the jundrawer67 Featured Blog spotlight, which must have brought them so many hits their hard drives started smoking. Oh yeah…….. I’m big baby!

Anyhoo… my NFB belongs to author Bonnie Jo Campbell, whose latest collection of short stories, American Salvage, was recently nominaged for the National Book Award.  I was totally blown away when I read about it the NY Times Sunday paper, which I’d put on hold some time back and it just started up again this Sunday. Of course, I probably would have learned this news eventually.

I was an MFA student at Western Michigan University at the same time as BJC. So it was particuarly exciting news. Although not all that surprising. BJC was, as I recall, one of what we lesser scribblers in the program called the Big Gun writers. You just knew she was writing great stuff, and that she was going places, writing-wise.

So a big congrats to Bonnie Jo Campbell. And here’s hoping you bring home the prize. And if not, fuck it, have damn good time while you there!

And just to add a small self-egrandizing kudos for myself. Of the five works of fiction nominated for the NBA I’ve read three. The novel Far North by Marcel Theroux, which I recommend; most of BJC collection, American Salvage, as well as Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips, who has long been a favored author of mine. Column McCann’s novel Let the Great World Spin was on my reading list as soon as it passed through my grimy  little paws at the library — no seriously, i’m not bsing. And, as for the story collection In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin I did pick it up and start it but filly admit to never finishing it and never getting around to returning to it.

I’m just saying that after picking three Pulitzer winner: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, and years back The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon,  plus some other, I’ve got a pretty good nose for prize-winners when I read them.

Impressive, eh. Yeah. I know. Not so much. But can’t you just let me have my little dillusion for a little while. It ain’t hurtin nobody.

Do Not Deny Me is one of those rare short story collections that actually gets better as it progresses.

I must admit that I picked this book up simply because it was a short story collection and, as a short story writer, I try to familiarize myself with successful authors’ styles and subjects.  When I read the author biography and discovered that Thompson only lives fifty miles away from me, well, I automatically wanted to like the book and support a fellow Central Illinoisan.

We got off to a rough start.  The first story in Do Not Deny Me, entitled “Soldiers of Spiritos,” began promisingly enough but then fell flat as it detailed a burnt out professor and an “emo” student.  “Wilderness” was not much of an improvement as it followed the stories of two middle-aged women—friends—and their troubled love lives.  The third story was almost enough to make me put down the book; “Mr. Rat” was the typical jerk at work story focusing upon an egocentric young man.

But then, with the fourth story called “Little Brown Bird,” things markedly improved.   From that moment on, nearly all of the following stories were extremely good.  In particular, I enjoyed “The Woman at the Well,” a story about a female prison Bible study group; “Escape,” a story about an elderly man still suffering from the ramifications of a stroke trying to gain his independence again; “How We Brought the Good News,” a story about a spurned lover discovering amazing art in her workplace and hunting down the artist; and, my absolute favorite, “Treehouse,” a story about a middle-aged man who just doesn’t much see the point of anything anymore, and so he builds himself a tree house as a coping mechanism.

Thompson excels at presenting identifiable, realistic characters that will most certainly remind us of people we know (if not directly ourselves).  While few of her characters are heroic, their idiosyncrasies tended to win me over (though not always), and it’s obvious they were as real to Thompson as the keyboard I’m typing upon is to me.  Her stories are well-plotted and her craftsmanship is faultless.  She succeeds in giving us just enough detail to satisfy our mind’s eye, but she does not overindulge as so many writers are prone to do.

There are five stories in this collection that more than justify the price of this book, and if you’re a fan of character-driven, convincing, adroitly written stories that reveal the hardships of the average person, then I whole-heartedly recommend Do Not Deny Me.

To wrap up my review of this collection, begun here.

“Driftglass” Cal Svenson is a former depth gauger for International Aquatic Corp, adapted with gills and webbed digits to work underwater. His career ended years ago in a major accident in the Slash, an underwater trench. He’s living as something of a beachcomber in a tropical fishing village near the Slash, when he runs into a younger Aquatic who tells him about new plans to explore the Slash.

The story explores themes of generational torch-passing and of living in the world as it is and not how it might ideally be. Its as poetically and dramatically told as any other in the collection.

“We, in some strange power’s employ, move on a rigorous line” Gila Monster is a mobile cable-laying machine responsible for keeping the world connected by power and communications cable. Blacky Jones has just been promoted from “line demon” to “section devil” in the Power service, as Gila Monster receives a special assignment to convert a previously unconnected community to the global network. Which is trouble because that community is an aerie of “pteracycle” riders, which is basically an airborne motorcycle gang, and they don’t want to be connected to the global power network.

This is basically “The roads must roll” rewritten for the New Wave. There’s not too much to the plot, and the pteracycle concept is just too clunky to hold the story together. But its good to see the golden age get turned on its head by a New Wave that can make the connection between Global Power and global power.

“Cage of brass” Jason Cage is a genius architect who’s locked up in an “inescapable” prison for murder. He happens to be put in one of only three cells where, due to a quirk of the prison’s design, the prisoners can talk to each other through disused plumbing.

The main story is Cage’s telling the two other prisoners he’s in communication with about his life before prison, and his crime. The secondary story is the other prisoners’ effort to get slightly mad Cage to use his architectural knowledge to help them escape. The story of Cage’s life as an architecture student in Venice is atmospheric, and well told. The fellow prisoners are likewise naturally depicted. The quirk that allows the prisoners to esape, though, feels contrived.

“High Weir” An exploratory expedition to Mars encounters some interesting artifacts, meanwhile nearly driving each other crazy. The theme of the story is connected to holograms and hologrammatic information storage. Unfortunately there’s not much to it beyond that, and the 40 years since the story was written have reduced the hologram from a gee-whiz new technology to an everyday item.

“Time considered as a helix of semiprecious stones” “HCE” is a thief who specializes in using disguises to stay anonymous and inconspicuous. He goes by a variety of aliases, always with the same initials. Nonetheless, he mixes with a very conspicuous crowd, including a top crime boss and a variety of “Singers”, celebrities who capture events and the mood of the public in song.

This story seems to get as much attention as any of Delany’s short works. But I must have missed something because it never hooked me. The 60’s era nightclub culture came across more like something out of Gordon Dickson, and the kind of lyricism or poetry found in the rest of these stories was much reduced in this one.

“Night and the loves of Joe Dicostanzo” Joey and Max are trapped in a surreal castle, only abstractly described, where they have some control over reality, able to create and destroy things and even other people.

Probably Joey and Max represent warring ideas within Joe’s mind, or the id and the ego, or something. But Freudian psychology just doesn’t fascinate me the way it fascinated so many SF authors in the ’60’s and ’70’s. I just couldn’t put the story together in my head well enough to “get” it.

Driftglass collects Samuel R. Delany’s first 10 published short stories. These stories were originally published in a four-year period from 1966 to 1970. Before any of these stories appeared, Delany had already written eight novels, but when he wrote the last of them he was still aged in his 20’s. I read a 1977 facsimile of the 1971 Signet edition. According to Wikipedia, all of these stories are also available in the 2003 collection Aye, and Gomorrah, and Other Stories.

The collection shows why Delany is often ranked with the likes of Gene Wolfe as one of the foremost literary stylists in science fiction. In a few cases, Delany’s style has suffered from age, for example when he uses contemporary slang, like “rumble” for fight. Otherwise, his prose is as evocative and compelling as any author in SF.

The Star Pit This story pretty much hits you right in the nose with its theme, which is our reaction to human limitations. The story starts with the narrator, Vyme’s, recollection of an ant farm he had as a child, and the central premise is that most people die if they attempt to leave our home galaxy. Only a limited few, known as golden, have the psychological make-up needed to survive travel to other galaxies. The flip side is that golden are all more-or-less psychotic, uninterested in the feelings of others.

Vyme lives at the Star Pit, a waystation on the edge of the galaxy, compelled to push the limits of his containment. There he encounters a variety of other societal misfits, some of whom turn out to be golden. Finally the golden discover aliens who can travel to places the golden cannot, and they too must face the limits of their containment.

Knowing Delany is one of very few African-American SF writers, its hard not to draw a parallel with the black experience in America. In the ’60’s even more than today, blacks faced constraints and limits that did not affect the whites around them. And whites by-and-large must have seemed as callous toward blacks as golden toward normal humans in the story. Realizing that whites face their own social limitations must be small consolation to those who were (or are) stuck in some narrow role dictated not by their own will but by uncontrollable forces.

And there’s much more to the story than just human limits. There’s Vyme’s lost family and others scarred by war; and there’s Vyme’s fatherly adoption of various young riff-raff of the Star Pit. There’s really as many intertwined themes here as you’d normally find filling out a novel. This is truly a fantastic piece of science fiction.

“Dog in a Fisherman’s Net” On a small Greek island the fishermen value their nets so highly that when a dog is caught in Panos’ net, his friends rush to kill the dog rather than let it tear the net. Indeed they are so intent on the dog that they don’t notice Panos himself has fallen on his knife and is mortally wounded. The story explores the relationship between Panos and his brother Spyro, the narrow world of the isolated island, and the seperate hopes of Spryo and an orphaned young woman to leave the island for greater things.

This is one of two fantasies in the collection; and what fantasy there is, is subdued, mostly in the minds of the islanders. Nonetheless, the tale is magical.

“Corona” A brilliant young girl, Dianne Lee Morris, is hospitalized, cursed with telepathy that mostly manifests in connections with people in moments of pain or fear, driving her to attempt suicide. In the hospital she meets (telepathically) Buddy, a young man with a limited intellect and a history of getting into trouble. Together they discover that the music of pop sensation Bryan Faust can give them enough joy to help them endure the other pain in their lives. Even after they’re separated, their moment of human contact remains to blunt their suffering.

Perhaps not the strongest in this collection, but still a quality story, and particularly evocative in the description of Buddy’s hardships and clumsy reactions to them.

“Aye, and Gomorrah” Spacers must give up their sexuality for their profession, to the point where its difficult to tell what sex they were born with. Among non-spacers certain maladjusted souls, frelks, have developed a sexual fascination with the spacers. Spacers, though they perhaps don’t understand the sexual drive of the frelks, take advantage of them for money. But our protagonist somehow hopes to connect with a frelk on a different level. He won’t taker her money, but hopes she’ll give him some thing of hers.

Originally published in Dangerous Visions (see Wikipedia), this story intentionally pushes the envelope of “acceptable topics” as they were in 1967, and probably could still be considered dangerous today. Mainly there is the parallel between the frelks seeking liason with spacers in back alleys and certain established corners of city parks with the necessarily circumspect arrangements made by gays in pre-Stonewall times (and later). This maybe doesn’t resonate so strongly in today’s relatively accepting climate, particularly with straight readers in urban America. But its likely to still connect with gays, and could potentially open the eyes of straights in more traditional societies.

This is an example of science fiction that is both a dramatic extrapolation into a possible future, and a sharp and thoughtful commentary on the present–both the contemporary present of the writer and today’s present.

Or… The BEST WEEKEND EVAH! Thank you sooo much to everyone who stopped by my booth and picked up copies of my books, pulp magazines, and other wares.  Many of you told me you’ve never read genre before, many of you took my card, and a couple of you even stood in line and actually waited.  You don’t know how good that made me feel.  Thank you again.  Here I thought folks don’t read anymore (well, that was before this weekend, assuming I now have new readers – I really hope you enjoy the tales and stay tuned to this spot). 

ISBN: 978-0-9819696-2-6

Good news: I’ll be back next weekend.  Some marketing, diversifying, and injecting the right pitches clearly doesn’t hurt, I see.

Bad news: If you’re new here, I’m temporarily sold out of Fresh Blood.  I only have five copies left, and at the moment I need to mail out to review venues.  I will, however, still have a few copies of other books and pulps on hand.  But these will be sparse.

Oh yeah, and I’m planning a contest too!

Order FRESH BLOOD direct from The Genre Mall:

http://www.genremall.com/anthologiesr.htm#freshblood

Check out some of the other goods:

http://lawrencedagstine.com/books-anthos/

http://lawrencedagstine.com/magazine-credits-dagstine/

Order the Post-Apocalyptic SATIRICA ANTHOLOGY:

http://lawrencedagstine.com/2009/04/27/satirica-anthology-nominated-for-ippy-award/

Some of the merch, some of the profits.

Fresh Blood scores BIG in Brooklyn, New York!

Even more merch; Dagstine bulk filled almost two big suitcases

It was a great few days.  My count may be off, but I pushed somewhere well over 130 mixed Dagstine titles: hardcovers, softcovers, magazines, etc.

With that said, I’m off to eat in my favorite sushi restaurant.  I feel like a kid living his dream.  Once again, thank you!

Lawrence R. Dagstine ;-)

The Wind’s Twelve Quarters collects 17 of Le Guin’s stories originally published in the ’60’s and early ’70’s. In a foreward, Le Guin describes the book as a “retrospective” collection. Even though we now know she had more than 30 years of writing still ahead of her, the description is apt as the stories show significant developments in her style between the earlier and later ones.

Le Guin’s first sale, “April in Paris”, is here, for example. It’s a somewhat run-of-the-mill time travel story that will certainly be remembered as a competent first sale, and not as a display of all of Le Guin’s eventual talents . Other early stories such as “Darkness box” and “The word of unbinding” are written in a stilted, archaic voice that detracts from the stories themselves. In “Semley’s necklace”, apparently one of the earliest Ekumen stories, the stilted language is distracting, but does have its use in distinguishing the local culture of a somewhat backward planet from that of the galaxy at large.

In later stories, though, the stilted language is somewhat smoothed out, and the themes become more abstract, leading to stories with nearly poetical qualities. “The stars below” and “The ones who walk away from Omelas” are probably the best examples of this development.

Overall its an enjoyable collection, showing the early stories in Le Guin’s two main sequences (Ekumen and Earthsea) as well as the development of Le Guin’s style in her first decade of publishing.

The 15 book thing has been floating around facebook for a bit, so I’m tweaking it. Because I feel like it. Here are (in no particular order) are 15 of my favorite short story collections. Or at least the 15 that come to mind at ll pm, anyway. You’ll notice me cheating as well.

1. The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, by Aimee Bender
2. I Sailed With Magellan, by Stuart Dybek
3. Love and Hydrogen, by Jim Shepard
3b. Like You’d Understand, Anyway, by Jim Shepard
4. The Imago Sequence, by Laird Barron
4b. Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters, by John Langan
5. Tumble Home, by Amy Hempel
6. The View from the Seventh Layer, by Kevin Brockmeier
7. Angry Candy, by Harlan Ellison
8. Pastoralia, by George Saunders
9. The Ladies of Grace Adieu, by Susanna Clarke
10. Magic for Beginners, by Kelly Link
11. Dreamscapes and Nightmares, by Stephen King
12. The Diving Pool, by Yoko Ogawa
13. A Better Angel, by Chris Adrian
14. How to Breathe Underwater, by Julie Orringer
15. Magic and Terror, by Peter Straub

Technically this should be part 2, but since it laps into the following week, I’ll leave it as is, because it will be 3.  I’m coming back! I’ll be signing copies of FRESH BLOOD at Flea by the Sea on the weekends in Coney Island, New York.  I’ll have copies of obscure pulp mags on hand (with stories of mine in it), hardcovers, other books, and you have Famous Nathan’s Hot Dogs just up the street.  So come say hi, pick up a book or two by yours truly, go to the beach or amusement park, and on the following dates below.

Transportation, Directions, and More Details:

http://www.fleabythesea.com/about.php

LAWRENCE DAGSTINE

Fresh Blood Signings!

July 25th & July 26th

August 1st & August 2nd

 Fridays, unfortunately, no… Saturdays & Sundays, YES!

11:30-12PM up until roughly 7-8PM (when I head out).

ISBN: 978-0-9819696-2-6

FRESH BLOOD: Tales From The Speculative Graveyard

PUBLISHER: www.samsdotpublishing.com

PURCHASE THE BOOK AT ‘THE GENRE MALL’:

http://www.genremall.com/anthologiesr.htm#freshblood

With that said, August 2009 will be a pretty low-key month.  That and my laptop screen is falling apart at the edges.  However, be here in September and October.  Autumn time, as usual.  Because I’ll have a plethora — and I do mean a handful — of new publications and new stories you’ll want to check out.  Own a Kindle? An iTouch? Or Sony eReader? Well, my first e-title debuts in September from DAMNATION BOOKS, and at Killercon 2009.

VISITATION RIGHTS – A different kind of ghost story

DAMNATION BOOKS:

www.damnationbooks.com

VISITATION RIGHTS: Coming Soon…

ISBN (10): 1-61572-008-1

ISBN (13): 978-1-61572-008-8

 

 
“For me, opera is a place where all the emotions can be fully felt yet safely contained. Certainly this has therapeutic value, but art is not therapy – at least not principally so: it is a profound engagement with life itself, in all its messiness, its glory, its fear, its possibility, its love.”
 
– Jeanette Winterson, Introduction to Midsummer Nights (Quercus Publishing, 2009)
 
In celebration of the Glyndebourne Festival of Opera’s 75th anniversary, British novelist Jeanette Winterson has compiled a collection of opera-inspired stories by contemporary writers. Contributors to Midsummer Nights include Alexander McCall Smith, Ali Smith, Andrew Motion, Andrew O’Hagan, Anne Enright, Colm Tóibín, Jackie Kay, Joanna Trollope, John Mortimer, Julie Myerson, Kate Atkinson, Kate Mosse, Lynne Truss, Marina Warner, Ruth Rendell, Sebastian Barry, Toby Litt and Jeanette Winterson.
 
Read Jeanette’s Midsummer Nights Introduction and story, ‘Goldrush Girl’.
 
Jeanette writes about the Glyndebourne experience for The Independent.
 
Read Lavinia Greenlaw’s review in The Financial Times.
 
Read Catherine Taylor’s review in The Sunday Times.

Work was absolutely painstaking yesterday.  Actually, that’s a bit of an overstatement.  For the most part, I like what I do.  It’s just that a BIG project got tossed at me around lunchtime yesterday.  I was up until after midnight finishing it.  And then the kids thought it was time to wake up at 5:30.

So groggily, I got up.  Got dressed.  Made a super-strong pot of coffee.  Took the 2 year old to Day Care and came back home with the 3 month old.  Normally, in that situation, I’d be zombie-like and drooling, tired, needing a nap as I stare at the computer.

But not this morning.  That’s because on the way to Day Care, the little red light on the top of my Blackberry was blinking, indicating that I had either a missed call or a new e-mail.  So I checked my e-mail.  It was the first response I’d had from an editor in over 3 weeks.  And I am still giddy over the response.

I am VERY excited to say that Library of Horror Press will be publishing my collection, Debris!

I know, it seems like a peculiar title.  But there truly is an assortment of different writing within.  Flash stories of 700 words and short stories of 8,800 words.  Horror stories, mild sci-fi stories and all areas in between.  There are even a few poems in there.  So yeah, it’s literary debris.

Most of the stories are previously published works from the past year and a half.  But there are some stories in there (2 in particular) that never found a home but garnered positive comments from publishers…comments that were usually followed by “but it needs to be about 4,000 words shorter”.

So yes, I am on Cloud 9 this morning.  I am actually thinking about hopping over to Cloud 10 soon because I am hungry and I hear they have some really great Chinese over there…

Come join prolific short story writer, Lawrence R. Dagstine – scifi, fantasy, horror and more! — at Coney Island’s Festival by the Sea.  Books, books, and more books.

 

 LAWRENCE DAGSTINE SIGNING:

June 26th – (unconfirmed)

June 27th and June 28th

Saturday and Sunday!!!

12pm to sundown…

FRESH BLOOD: Tales From The Speculative Graveyard

http://www.fleabythesea.com/about.php

Brooklyn Author, Lawrence R.  Dagstine will be signing copies of his new short story collection FRESH BLOOD, rare hardcovers, anthologies, and obscure pulp magazines and more at FLEA BY THE SEA!

For details on transportation by subway, bus, or car, see website above.  There will be amusement park rides, entertainment, food, and thousands of people are expected to attend.  There will also be arts & crafts, photography vendors, jewelry and clothing merchants, and tons of other stuff!

Hop on the train, grab a tan, and get some books!

Other New Entries: “Books & Anthos” 

Come join prolific short story writer, Lawrence R. Dagstine – scifi, fantasy, horror and more! — at Coney Island’s “Summer of Signings”.  Twice a week, every other week this summer at Thor Equities’ new DREAMLAND! — Festival by the Sea…

Ken Liu’s “Single-Bit Error,” published in the Thoughtcrime Experiments anthology, is related to Ted Chiang’s “Hell is the Absence of God.” (I discuss this relationship more extensively in yesterday’s post). Both stories are explorations of faith and atheism, using the concept of angelic visitations to drive the action and the philosophical discussion. To be clear, Liu lists the story’s influences as a note at the end, and got Chiang’s permission before publishing his take.

I enjoyed reading the two pieces as a conversation, and, in many ways, this is what literature is about. The flow of philosophical ideas from Plato to Aristotle to Aquinas, for example, is a part of the Great Conversation that makes it so worthwhile to be a reader of writer. That said, Liu’s piece is hard to classify, and I imagine it was incredibly hard to publish.

I think there is a kind of writing that exists that sits somewhere on the spectrum between fan fiction and an original story (if there truly is such a thing). When I get an idea like this, it’s not exactly that I want to write in another writer’s world, but that I want to use another writer’s premise for my own exploration. Sometimes, strong anthologies get created by giving lots of writers the same premise and putting the results side by side, but, for the most part, I groan when I get one of these ideas because I know it’s not going to be an easy road. For example, I love the premise of Catherynne Valente’s book, Palimpsest, and I want to play with it myself. The difficulties with doing this have stopped me, however. Unless I really, really care about the idea, I won’t write it.

That’s one thing that I love about the Creative Commons license. I think labels like that declare that it’s OK to experiment along those lines (as long as it’s not the non-derivative license, I guess). I think it’s good to create a space that truly allows conversation in literature. There’s a lot of healthy activity along these lines, but, for the most part it deals with older works that are out of copyright.

Take, for example, the many retellings of fairy tales, such as those in Ellen Datlow’s and Terri Windling’s Snow White, Blood Red anthology. Or several stories in Neil Gaiman’s Fragile Things anthology (for example, “A Study in Emerald,” which mashes up Lovecraft and Sherlock Holmes, and “The Problem of Susan,” which questions the treatment of Susan in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia). There’s also a huge and vital community devoted to developing the ideas of H.P. Lovecraft.

Liu’s story makes me wonder why that conversation doesn’t seem to happen as much around more current literature.

I felt this particularly keenly because I’m currently struggling to find a market for a piece that makes many references to Star Trek (particularly the Klingon language), and yet is not fan fiction and is not a Star Trek story. That limbo is an interesting place, but it’s not an easy place to be.

(Note: I wrote this post and then decided to contact Ken Liu to ask him about marketing his story and about influences. He kindly replied. Look for some thoughts from him in the next couple of days.)