My short story in SOLARIS RISING 2 now out

/ Thursday, March 28th, 2013 / 2 Comments »

Pandora is assisting me with book promotion today.

Dora_books 002
Ian Whates’ anthology Solaris Rising 2: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction came out Tuesday. I’m really excited about being in this book, with the likes of Vandana Singh, Norman Spinrad, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Eugie Foster, Allen Steele and many, many more.

And I’m amused by what Ian had to say about my story “Still Life with Skull” in his introduction.

I initially crossed paths with Mike Allen when submitting for his first Clockwork Phoenix anthology. He declined my effort with an encouraging “I really like this, but…” rejection message. Tempting though it was to respond in kind, his madcap and frenetic “Still Life with Skull” proved too good a piece to turn down. Damn!

Hee! It is true. (For the record, I did indeed say nice things about Ian’s story. My actual message said “I think what you’ve written is quite publishable but it’s not what I’m after.” Ian, however, has done quite well for himself without my help! And I’m grateful he still found my story irresistible.)

Like my story “Twa Sisters” from last year, “Still Life with Skull” is inspired by the art of Alessandro Bavari, first shown to me by Patty Templeton — specifically his “Sodom and Gomorrah” series.

The main character of “Twa Sisters” is a supporting character in “Still Life with Skull,” though s/he goes by a different name; likewise, the secondary antagonist in the first story is, under a different name, the main antagonist in the second. I have an idea for a third story, that would be called “The Hierophant’s Daughter” — someday, hopefully, I’ll actually have time to write it!

2 Comments

  1. […] thrilled my bizarre “Still Life with Skull” story gets to be part of […]

  2. […] an obscure world. It is a world that Allen has worked with before, in his “Twa Sisters” and “Still Life with Skull”, so it will be interesting to see just how these works could flesh out this surreal poem even […]

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