Thursday, June 25, 2009

"Living by the Highway" / Cemetery Dance #60 / June 2009


Moving this from from the original posting from 2007, when the story was sold since the issue has just been released! In 2007, Robert Morrish bought that my third short story for Cemetery Dance Magazine. To say I'm thrilled is, well, true. :-)


I wrote this piece in early '06 actually, during what I'll refer to as my "blue period." I wrote it on and off over the course of a couple of months, late at night. I started with the title. Years and years ago, about nine to be exact, I wrote another story with the same title. It was OK, not great, but I was a newbie writer and earning my chops. After I retired the story and tucked it in mothballs, the title kept itching my brain. I knew one day I'd write a completely new story with this same title. As it is, a few others pop into my head now and then that would go well with it, but this one is what I wrote. Inspired by the homes I see as I roll onto Interstate 290 in my home city, it's a moody piece, and has gone through a few iterations over the last year and a half. It garnered an Honorable Mention in the Chi-zine 2006 short story contest (was not published, however, only the winners got that honor, which in the end worked otu well). I revised it pretty extensively. And, well, the rest is history... at last.

Friday, January 2, 2009

"Deux Poissons pour Nourrir les Foules" (French translation of "Two Fish to Feed the Masses") / Borderline #11 (France) / October 2008


My short story, "Two Fish To Feed The Masses" has been reprinted in the French horror magazine Borderline. The theme of the issue is zombies and this story fit right in. Funny, because the editor, Lionel Bernard, solicited the story from me (which originally appeared as an original piece in my old collection Christmas Trees and Monkeys) over a year and a half ago. Never heard back, so I assumed nothing happened with it. The other day, a slick magazine appeared in my mailbox from France, issue 11, with my story as the headline. Pretty nice! Anyway, if you can read French, check it out.