Technicolor Zombies

Yesterday, I finished reading Bits of the Dead, the zombie anthology I’ve mentioned here. Although it has hits and misses like any anthology, I thought the majority of the stories were pretty good. And I’m not just saying that because I have a piece in it. Since all the stories are short, flash fiction pieces of 1 to 3 pages, it also doesn’t take long to finish one you don’t particularly enjoy and move on to one you do. Especially in these days when concern about Gustav is always in the back of my mind, I appreciated the short pieces. They took me away for moments at a time from my worries, but didn’t require the lengthy concentration a novel would have. I actually wish I had a few more of these flash fiction anthologies around for just this reason.

The stories were salient enough so that last night I dreamed of zombies. I don’t remember all the details, but the gist of it was that people who were pretending to be zombies were attacked by real zombies. The real zombies had your standard gray, monochromatic appearance while the pretend zombies were done up beautifully in Technicolor hues. The fake organs and intestines they’d glued on were brilliant reds and pinks. They had bold slashes of yellow across their faces, and the pure white of fresh bones showing artfully through the fancy rags of their carefully selected costumes. The strangest part was when the pretend zombies were bitten and became real zombies, and how they hunted people now with their faces made up like zombie hookers. Outside, they were works of art; inside, they were gray and empty of all but hunger. I remember one, in particular. He was trying to eat his own fake intestines. He’d shove them in his mouth and bite down, then make a face and spit them out. Only to try a fresh bite moments later.

Cool Stuff, at least to me

Language sure is fun. Just in the last couple of days I’ve heard new words, new to me at least, which seemed obvious after I heard them.

Velvis: A term for a velvet Elvis. I thought to myself, how stupid not to have thought of that. How perfect.

Fourgy: A term for an orgy between four people, particularly two couples.

Probably many of you have heard these terms but they were new to me. Sometimes I’m amazed at how much creativity is left in language.

Another thing, cool to me at least, is the publication of Bits of the Dead, a collection of flash fiction zombie stories from Coscom Entertainment. My story “Once Upon a Time with the Dead” appears therein. It begins: “Alkali dust under the white blaze of the Mexican sun. Riders are coming. To a village standing idle on a ghostly quiet day.”

Some of the more famous authors in the book include Piers Anthony and Nancy Kilpatrick. It's available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon, of course.

Last night, Lana and I watched The Spiderwick Chronicles and we both thought it was good. I think I liked it better than she did. At first I didn’t really care for the primary kid character, and I never did really come to like him, but the story itself was fairly compelling and the special effects were great. There was a lot of action for what is essentially a kid’s movie.

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