How to use this Page

Hi all you crazy cats out there in the wilds "O Blog." I know it's been awhile but between fighting the evil forces that threaten good reading and patrolling the good land of "Blog," man I have been one busy Library Ninja!!!! I even had to hunt down this part of a blog I wrote that the forces of no goodness had made disappear. But enough whining on my part, let's talk good reads!!!!!!

Teeth:Vampire Tales Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling - I recently finished this anthology and was quite impressed. Many different authors contribute to this anthology of vampire stories inspired by many different cultures and their vampire mythos. It ranges from stories that are down right scary such as "All Smiles" by Steve Berman, "Sit The Dead" by Jeffrey Ford," and "Slice of Life" by Lucius Shepard to those that are funny and fascinating in a morbid sort of way such as "History" by Ellen Kushner and "In The Future When All's Well" by Catherynne Valente. There are even those that show vampirism as just being another way of living (or non-living), that are as mundane or more exhilarating than living as a human, but are as the Beatles said:


"Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, yeh!
La la la life goes on...
Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, yeh!...
La la la life goes on."


I highly recommend this book because the stories are as far from the majority of typical vampire tales out now as can be and the authors involved really have written some phenomenal stuff. Because of language, that sex thing and other activities that teens can and sometime do get involved in (part of growing up), I would recommend this book for older teens. I really enjoyed this one!!!!! P.S. Neil Gaiman contributes a poem (gotta to mention Neil wherever he shows up!!!!).

Peace all and good reading,

Bill

Add a Comment

I woke this morning to an email from Shock Totem's editor-in-chief Ken Wood. It seems "Wanting It" from Shock Totem #3 made Ellen Datlow's list of Honorable Mentions for Best Horror of the Year Volume 4 (2011).  I took a gander at the full list, and it seems two other tales of mine, "Molting Season" from Polluto 7 and "Ngiri's Catch" from Historical Lovecraft, also made the list. An honorable mention hat trick.

Thanks, Ms. Datlow. And thanks as well to Ken Wood and the Shock Totem staff, Adam Lowe and Victoria Hooper of Polluto, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles, editors of Historical Lovecraft.

Aimee always told me she wished I could stay home and write full time. I just wanted to tell stories, good stories. I wanted her to be proud, too.

I've made "Wanting It" available to read as a PDF for free. Simply click the link below. It's one of my favorite stories, and one which really strikes at the hurt which has burrowed into my chest.

Download "Wanting It"

I hope you're proud, Ziggs. These are for you, especially "Wanting It"; every night now I feel like I'm alone on the farmhouse floor, waiting for you.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Yesterday was professional development at school. For those of you outside the education system, "professional development" means someone who doesn't know any more than you do comes and tells you how to do something you probably already knew how to do.

That sentence needs editing.

Anyway, I stopped into my classroom during a bathroom break, and (like any good junkie) checked Twitter. It seems one of my little tales made Ellen Datlow's honorable mention list for Best Horror of the Year. Practical jokes aren't fun, but this was for real. I checked. Double-checked.

Yes, "Cargo" from Dark Pages volume 1 was on the list, next to my name. Yes, I've checked it each year since I started writing. Yes the list is very long. This is one of those things folks outside the writing loop don't quite understand. What a lovely early birthday present.

Thanks to Brenton Tomlinson, Alan Baxter, and Blade Red for taking my little story about a strange little girl at the end of the world. And thanks, Ellen, for the mention.

I'm off to Topeka for my first signing today. I will have candy, so at least somebody will talk to me.

Have a glorious day.

Display Comments Add a Comment

In the comments to a previous post here, Ellen Datlow mentioned that she's got hardcover copies of her excellent young adult anthology Alien Sex available for sale.  Contact her if you're interested.  Here's the table of contents, if you're curious.

I can tell you from experience that having a book with such a title on your shelves in a place where visitors can notice it is a great conversation starter!

Display Comments Add a Comment

Some things I captured while trawling the net...

Ellen Datlow has posted a list of anthologies she has received for consideration for Best Horror, Volume 2. If an anthology you're in isn't on the list, you might want to consider sending a copy along to Ms. Datlow or contacting your editor. Well, if you love your story that is, and if you don't, hide it under your bed.

It's time for the annual Cafe Doom short story competition again. I loved reading the entries last year and choosing my favourites, it gave me a feel of how a slush reader works. All you have to do to enter is join the forum (oh, and of course write the story). They want dark stories up to 3,500 words and the deadline is 30th October 2009.

Display Comments Add a Comment

The hilarious, talented and insane Marshall Payne inspired this post. His blog post on Tuesday reminded me that a blog shouldn't be all me, me, me (except of course when it's about me) and that I should set some blog time aside to pimp others. Hence the birth of Somebody Else Saturday TM. Now let me introduce my first victim, ahem, I mean someone you should take a little time to stalk. Oh dear, that doesn't sound any better...

I am fortunate enough to remember Simon Bestwick from way back when he was the editor of the anthology, Oktobyr, in the 1990s. An anthology that attracted the likes of Simon Clark, Jonathan Aycliffe, Tim Lebbon and me. Grins and promises she's not pimping herself, she's only proving that as an editor he attracted the outstanding, the famous (who are also outstanding), and took pity on an unknown because he was kinda cool like that.

This week marks the publication of Simon's short story collection, Pictures of the Dark, published by Gray Friar Press, and the collection was put together by Gary Fry. Hey, how did Gary slip in here, if it can't be about me, then it can't be about him. Boo! :o Maybe I should take away the boo, I shouldn't really antagonise people higher up the food chain than me. Okay, that's everyone. Nice boo!

Here's the blurb from the back of the book:

There are dark places everywhere.
The world outside your front door, and the one inside your head. Dreads and longings. Pasts and futures.
Loneliness and relationships. Love and hate. Life and death . . . and what might lie beyond.

And then there’s the place the stories come from.
The council estate where the dead walk . . . The farmhouse attic filled with mummified corpses . . .
The old tramp’s blanket, and what slept in it at night . . .

Tempted. I was, hence the picture of the collection standing just behind Mr. Grim (out of shot, because it's not about him either). Oh dear, my too read pile is set at wobble.

And if the above hasn't tempted you to check out Mr. Bestwick. Perhaps the fact that his novella, The Narrows, has made the British Fantasy Awards 2009 shortlist, or that, The Narrows, has also been selected by Ellen Datlow (I refuse to boo Ms. Datlow for appearing here, instead I'll curtsey) to appear in Best Horror of the Year #1.

Now go stalk him, or buy his book, or lick the copy of Best Horror when it arrives later this year.

Display Comments Add a Comment

The resident reviewer of all things feline (and catcher of all things rodent) at Mumpsimus Central is Ms. P. Martha Moog, whose incisive review of Predator vs. Aliens many readers will remember. She recently decided that the recent Wildside Press reissue of Ellen Datlow's Twists Of The Tale: An Anthology of Cat Horror made for good bedtime reading, as you can see:


Ms. Moog does caution readers that the stories (from such writers as William S. Burroughs, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, and many others) are sufficiently frightening that it's probably a good idea to do as she did and sleep with a crate of small arms ammunition beside you.

Display Comments Add a Comment

I wrote this review for School Library Journal, April edition. The rest of the grade 5 and up reviews can be found here. Preschool to grade 4 reviews are here.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Ellen Datlow and Gavin J. Grant & Kelly Link have announced that 'The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror' has folded.

It's not all bad news, Ms. Datlow will be editing an anthology of the year's best horror for Night Shade Books.

Display Comments Add a Comment