And, the same day the “Let There Be Darkness” podcast appeared, literary adventure fantasy webzine Beneath Ceaseless Skies bought a short story from me, a dark tale (imagine!) called “The Ivy-Smothered Palisade.” A slew of awesome people helped me polish this tale before I submitted it anywhere, and it sold the first place it went to. My sincere thanks to all of them: Sally Brackett Robertson, Sonya Taaffe, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Erik Amundsen, Alexandra Seidel, Jennifer Crow, Rick Herndon, Elizabeth Campbell and Virginia Mohlere. And of course, Anita Allen!

The story was inspired by this set of artwork shown to me by buddy Patty Templeton. I consider it the “spiritual sequel” to my novelette “Stolen Souls” that just got reprinted in Fantastique Unfettered. But while “Stolen Souls” was an example of how far my imagination could push its limit in the 1990s, “Twa Sisters” is about how far I can push it now. In other words, considerably farther out.

The story contains zany visual formatting (not dissimilar in places from what Kendall Evans, David C. Kopaska-Merkel and I did in our poem “Rattlebox III.”) I’m grateful John’s willing to tackle it, multiple text columns and all.

First, the poem that I co-wrote with Sonya Taaffe and Nicole Kornher-Stace, “The King of Cats, the Queen of Wolves,” selected by Catherynne M. Valente for publication in Apex Magazine last year, has been nominated for a Rhysling Award. I can’t help but be pleased, as of all the new things I had published in 2011 this piece is hands-down my favorite.

Second, the Fantasy Literature blog has posted a review of Phantasmagorium issue 2, and bless Terry Weyna for once again taking the time to also review the poetry, a duty most reviewers shirk. She writes this about my poem “Budding”:

…about parents troubled by the apparent artistic talent of their baby, who seems to be painting like Francis Bacon while still in her crib. Those parents are proud as can be, but worried – maybe even scared. It’s a successful horror poem with some nice imagery (“sketched houses with screams for doors,” for instance).

Madman Tony C. Smith invited me to contribute a monthly column to Tales to Terrify. I just finished recording the first installment. I’m calling it “Tour of the Abattoir.” Said abattoir being my brain, as many of the characters from my stories could attest.

I hope folks enjoy it. I’m also grateful that Tony is a patient madman because (ulp!) it’s two weeks late…

Well, scratch that plan. Much to my delight, and with immense gratitude to Jason Sizemore: Apex Publications is going to do it. And it will be available in trade paperback too. Official press release here at the Apex blog.

The tentative table of contents (nothing set in stone yet, of course) looks like this (Anita helped me figure it out.)

• The Button Bin
• The Blessed Days
• Humpty
• Her Acres of Pastoral Playground
• An Invitation via E-mail
• The Hiker’s Tale
• The Music of Bremen Farm
• Stone Flowers
• Let There Be Darkness
• The Quiltmaker

That’s a lot of concentrated evil in one book.

I should note, the Papaveria Press special hand-bound hardcover edition of “The Quiltmaker” (the novella-length sequel to “The Button Bin”) is still a go. (And still seeking fabric.)

Saturday, January 28 at 9 a.m. on the Hollins University campus, I’ll give a presentation called “The Last Redoubt: Writing Short Stories for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Markets” as part of the weekend-long Roanoke Regional Writers Conference (click here for details). My presentation is followed at 10 a.m. in the same room by fellow Roanoke writer Rod Belcher’s “Selling the Sense of Wonder: Writing, Marketing and Surviving Science Fiction/Fantasy and Horror.” (Rod has a novel on its way from Tor.) I chose the title “The Last Redoubt” based on the idea that speculative fiction is the last commercial genre where the short story scene remains important.

Now, to figure out what I’m actually going to say….

Myths and Delusions • Editorial • 2
Plutoid • John Philip Johnson • 3
Lost In the Static • G.O. Clark • 5
Grant Proposal • Lyn C.A. Gardner • 6
The Dark Flow • Kendall Evans and David C. Kopaska-Merkel • 7
The Sisters • April Grant • 8
Kin • S. Brackett Robertson • 10
The Journeymaker in Kestai • Rose Lemberg • 11
The Daughter of Lir • Sandi Leibowitz • 12
Home • Lyn C.A. Gardner • 14
Desert Stories • Larry Hammer • 15
The Forest King • Alexandra Seidel • 17
Under the Ashpodel • Erik Amundsen • 19
She Knocks • Amal El-Mohtar • 20
Tryptich: an Offering of Fruit • Dan Campbell • 22
Barbara Newhall Follett welcomes home • J.C. Runolfson • 24
Time to Grow Up Where There’s No Time At All • Jason Sturner • 25
Scythe-Walk • Sonya Taaffe • 26
Sleeping Furies • C.S.E. Cooney • 27
A Different Scheherazade • Alexandra Seidel • 28
The Woman Who Lived by the Ocean Was Lonely and Tried to Make Herself a Husband • Carma Lynn Park • 29
Mrs. Grendel • Noel Sloboda • 30
This Illusion of Flesh • Virginia M. Mohlere • 32

 

Interior art by Paula Friedlander, 4, 13, 23;
Don Eaves and Terrence Mollendor, 9;
Daniel Trout, 16; Anita Allen, 18 

Cover art and design by Tim Mullins

 

If you don’t want to miss it, subscribe to the paper version here at MythicDelirium.com or the electronic version here at Weightless Books.