Strange, Sudden, and Unexpected

I have to share this. Today on Bernita's blog she talked about the "Doom Dog," a spectral dog seen on occasion in the wild places of the British Isles. The dog is almost always black in color. I commented about a legend I've heard in the US of a black dog. This is what I wrote: "I've heard of the black dog legend that truckers talk about. I'm guessing it's a transplant from overseas."

When I posted my comments I was thinking particularly of a 1998 movie starring Patrick Swayze called "Black Dog," which I saw years ago. This evening, as I'm flipping through the TV channels, guess which movie was playing. Not only that, but less than a minute after I flipped to the movie one of the few scenes of the black dog actually played. It has been a very long time since that movie was shown on TV. I haven't seen it in years and it wasn't very popular even when it was released. How weird is that?

In other news, the Flashing Swords Summer Extravaganza issue is out,("Special Edition Summer 2008), and it's twice the usual size. I have a story in it called "Worms in the Earth," a humorous fantasy tale, and there is also an interview with me in the magazine. It's available as download or in print. If you want to check it out you can do so here.

And in other, other news, CrazyCath was kind enough to present me with Arte De Pico award. Here's the criteria:

inspire others with their creative energy and talents.
This can be through writing, artwork, design, interesting
material or contribution to the bigger community.
It is a special honour to receive it.



That was very nice of CrazyCath and I greatly appreciate it. Thank you!

Year's Best Fantasy. Not!

I’ve been reading (slowly) a collection called The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories: 9, edited by Arthur W. Saha. This was published in 1983 by Daw Books and I have to say that I’m disappointed with nearly every story in the anthology. In the first place, none of them seem to have much fantasy in them, at least not the kind I like to read. There’s a story about a guy who wakes up “in” the book Moby Dick (which won a Nebula, btw), a deal with the devil tale, and a tale about a modern guy who inherits a castle in Ireland and has to use voodoo to keep it.

That last story is “Square and Above Board,” by R. A. Lafferty and the editor introduces it with “…depend on the unique and puckish talent of R. A. Lafferty, himself of the Irish, to spin a tale that is anything but ominous.” That says it all, if you read “ominous” like I do to be “spirited,” “energetic,” “powerful.”

The problem with these stories has nothing to do with the writing, which is uniformly polished and professional. It has to do with subject matter. The writers here are, it seems to me, desperately striving for either literary merit or to provide a lighthearted distraction that doesn’t trouble anyone too much, that is for a feeling that is “anything but ominous.”

But I don’t read fantasy to avoid being “troubled.” I don’t read it simply for a light chuckle with my after dinner sherry. I read it for power, for emotion, for something damn well ominous.

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In writing news, I’ve sold a zombie western tale to the Bits of the Dead anthology, and my silly fantasy tale, “Mirthgar,” was published in Strange Worlds of Lunacy, which is out now, in print, and also as a much cheaper download. I just got my contributor copies and haven’t had time to read the other tales yet. Looks pretty good, though. Another of my humorous fantasy stories has just been published in Flashing Swords: Special Edition Summer 2008, but I don’t think it’s available for general purchase yet. The story is “Worms in the Earth: Barbarian’s Bane.” I’ve posted about both these tales before so forgive me if this sounds redundant.

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I’d also like to call everyone’s attention to Ello’s blog post on The Lolita Effect. This is an important work on how the media, and our entire culture, sexualizes girls at younger and younger ages. Ello will have the author, Dr. Gigi Durham, as a guest on her blog on Wednesday and she’ll be answering questions. Although I didn’t have a daughter, I see the kind of harm this pervasive influence is having on young women and I hope you’ll stop by for a moment to lend Ello and Dr. Durham your support.

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