I just received word that my short horror story “A Tale of Hell” will be published by Fiction on the Web (www.fictionontheweb.co.uk) on May 24. Please check it out. “A Tale of Hell” is about a man who has a vivid dream of being in hell, but then strange things start to happen. Many thanks to Charlie Fish and all the other staff at Fiction on the Web who made this happen. “A Tale of Hell” was originally published by Midnight Times in 2006.
I just got the word that the wonderful folks at www.throughthegaps.com will re-print my story “Shapeshifter” in about a week. This is the third of my stories to be published by them in about a month. “Shapeshifter” is about a alleged werewolf sighting in France in 1601 during the height of the werewolf trials. I think it says something about human nature. The story was first published in 2003 by Ascent Magazine (www.ascentaspirations.ca). Please drop by Through the Gaps to add to their site visitation and readership.
“Through the Gaps” (http://throu
ghthegaps.com/art/decision/) has published my short story “Decision” about love and racism in the mountains of 1970’s eastern Kentucky. Many sincere thanks to the “Through the Gaps” staff for re-printing this, one of my favorite and most poignant stories. I love the illustration they chose, which has considerable emotional impact once you have read the story.
This story is definitely literary drama, not horror, but it is one of the first stories I wrote when I started writing and it demonstrates some of my basic principles in writing.
The “Through the Gaps” staff seem to have a real knack for picking illustrations. They did a superb job in picking the illustration for my story “Sudan”, which was published last week and, like the illustration for “Decision”, is particularly poignant once you have read the story.
Thoughts? Comments?
I am very pleased to announce that two more of my stories will be published very soon, albeit as re-prints: “Sudan” and “Decision”. Both will be published by “Through the Gaps” (http://throughthegaps.com/). On their About page, they describe themselves as follows:
“Benjamin Choi founded Through the Gaps in 2014 with the help of his associate Raghav Mathur. From there, the site expanded to include over twenty original contributors releasing content in several unique categories on a daily basis. Here at TTG, we are dedicated to expressing opinions and starting discussions in a nurturing environment.”
In their submissions guidelines for fiction, they also note:
“We accept fictional stories of all genres. However, above all, we are looking for stories with a powerful message. More specifically, we are looking for stories with powerful comments on the state of our society and/or the human experience. Stories with a political or social message are the best examples of such a story. We are even willing to overlook subpar storytelling or weaker character development if we feel the story’s message is powerful enough.”
As noted, these two stories are re-prints of stories I wrote and had published long ago.
“Sudan” was first published in 2002 by Canadian on-line magazine “Ascent Aspirations, where you can still find it (www.ascentaspirations.com). It was based on a story I heard from a former US assistant agricultural attaché to Sudan, whom I happened to meet when I was touring Luxor, Egypt in 1989. If I recall correctly, we were splitting a horse-drawn carriage ride from the Hotel Jolie Ville, where we both happened to be staying, to the Temple of Luxor. As strangers do when they meet while traveling, we fell into a conversation starting with a basic introduction of ourselves, our professions, and how we happened to be in that locale. From there the conversation deepened and she told me this story that she had heard from two English nurses she happened to meet (I think) in Khartoum. The story was so poignant, that I remembered it for several years and when I started to write fiction. It was one of the first I developed into a short story. I have always loved the story and recently decided to resurrect it along with several others of my first works to see what I could get re-printed. “Sudan” will be published in about a week on the “Through the Gaps” website.
“Decision” is a very poignant tale as well. It was first published in 2004 by “Spoiled Ink”, an English hard-copy magazine based in Denmark. It is not based on any actual event. Instead it was an idea I developed while thinking about racism and how feelings about race have changed since I was a boy. I based it in Kentucky simply because that is the culture I knew as a boy, although the story is set in eastern Kentucky and I grew up in central Kentucky (for those not familiar with the state). I wanted to write a story, in a sense, like Hemingway did in his early short stories using the culture and background with which he was familiar. He could bring out the crunch of leaves as one went hunting or almost make the aromas of the forest almost come alive. So I endeavored to do the same. I don’t know exactly how I came up with the idea for the hunt that takes place. I may have been inspired by “The Most Dangerous Game” or a similar tale. I don’t think you can find “Spoiled Ink” any more. It may be defunct. If so, this will be the only place you will be able to read this story. It will appear in two weeks.
If you get a chance, check out “Through the Gaps” even before my stories appear. It seems to be a very eclectic, nurturing site with a lot of positive energy to it.
Considering the description of what they want as stated on their submissions page, I feel very honored to have my works published on their site.
Thoughts? Comments?
I just signed and returned the contract for my short horror story “Ivan” to appear in the April, 2016 edition of “Infernal Ink”. “Ivan” is about a young serial killer in the making. I would like to thank the “Infernal Ink” staff for publishing my work. This is the first time I have had a new work published in over a year or more.
The idea for “Ivan” came to me while returning from Navajo Lake through an isolated stretch of road in a large canyon at sunset. It was a very spooky setting and I thought about what would happen if a family became stranded in country like that and, while looking for help, wandered onto the estate of a serial killer. The upshot of that story was that the serial killer trapped them in his basement only to discover he was trapped in his own basement with a family of werewolves. I submitted it to several publications, but was consistently turned down. One staff critqued the manuscript by saying that it was such a common story line, they were taking bets on whether the family would turn out to be werewolves or vampires at the end. I took my cue from that and gave my work an honest review and decided that they were right. So I changed the ending to one I thought would be completely unexpected, sent out the new manuscript to a publisher to which I had not previously submitted any work, and the story has been accepted.
Please note that the story will appear in 2016 vs. 2015. It will be worth the wait.
Again, many heartfelt thanks to the “Infernal Ink” staff, Hydra M. Star and Dave Lipscomb, for publishing my work.
Thoughts? Comments?
Good article on a technical aspect of writing: Standard Manuscript Format.
Great article. Over the next week I hope to post more writing tips from great authors as they appeared in Open Culture. They have a wealth of good advice that I would like to share.
I just finished watching an episode of the X-Files entitled “Chinga” [note to Spanish-speakers out there: I don’t know who chose the title, so please forgive my language] from Season Five and I noticed that it was written by Stephen King and Chris Carter (the creator of the X-Files). The story’s antagonist is a talking doll that can force people to injure or kill themselves in gruesome ways. Like many, if not most, of King’s stories, there is no explanation of how the came to exist. All the viewer finds out about it is that a lobsterman pulled it up one night in a lobster trap and his daughter comes to possess it after he meets his own gruesome fate.
I find in my own writing that I like to provide an explanation or background as to how things originate. This is just my nature. I like to know the origins of things. However, I have come to believe of late that, in terms of horror, that is a very nineteenth century concept.
Lovecraft said in his essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature”:
“A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; and there must be a hint, expressed with a seriousness and protentiousness becoming its subject, of that most terrible conception of the human brain — a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only daily safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space.”
For me, what Lovecraft is saying is that if the laws of nature are negated, then anything is possible and monsters like Cthulhu really could exist and are capable of doing us harm at any moment. Combine this with his statement that “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” and it becomes apparent that stories like “Chinga” derive much of their horror effect from the fact that the origin of the threat to a story’s protagonist(s) is unknown or that there is no explanation for the threat.
This would mean that one of things that provides to “Chinga” the element of horror that it has, is the fact that origin of the doll is unknown. Therefore, any of us when we are fishing or scuba diving or swimming in any body of water, could discover a doll that would turn his/her life into a nightmare. That is a scary thought.
Of course, this means that Stephen King would be one of the greatest practitioners of this technique, which I believe he is.
I think I shall try to experiment with this in the near future.
Thoughts? Comments?
I was searching for a market for one of my stories today, when I came across “Strange Horizons”‘s list of stories they see too often (http://www.strangehorizons.com/guidelines/fiction-common.shtml). This is an interesting and entertaining article on (in my humble opinion) not only the types of fiction that “Strange Horizons” prefers not to see, but also the types of stories not to submit to any quality magazine: the tired, the clichéd, the preaching, the didactic, the sugary-sweet, the unprofessional, the polemic, the ranting, and the diatribes among a host of others. The list is so extensive, one could almost create a list of the characteristics of good literature by simply listing the antitheses of the types listed here. Yes, this list is oriented toward sci-fi writers, but if one were to replace the sci-fi specific terms with those of another genre, one would have a list of examples of mediocre to poor writing for that genre. Of course, neither this list nor any other can be completely exhaustive of all examples of either good or bad writing, but it would be an interesting mental exercise.
Thoughts? Comments?
About 2:00 a.m. on December 6, on the drive home after visiting my sister and her husband, I was contemplating where I want to go with my current work-in-progress. I am loathe to give away the plot, so suffice it to say that it involves a scientist that travels to another planet and tours it with a fellow scientist from that planet. I have come to realize over the last few days that the original plot concept is boring, although in terms of literature it would be fairly intriguing, because of the internal struggles the main character would face and some social issues it would raise.
It occurred to me is that the critical question was not where to take the plot of the story, but where do I want the book to go in terms of its impact on the society/world. I am not so naïve as to think that it would have a earth-shattering impact like Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code or be controversial like Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer or Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World or even break out like Stephen King’s Carrie, but no matter how it is received publically or critically, it will make an impact, even if it is negligible one. The best I reason that I can do, is to try to make as big a splash as possible on its release and hope that it brings me some measure of success or at least puts me on the road to success. But what can I do to create that splash? What have been the characteristics of other initial successes?
I don’t know how the analogy suddenly popped into my mind, but I realized that what the story needs is thunder. Perhaps it was that a light rain had fallen sporadically over the last few days and the land was still wet with shallow puddles still lingering on the road in spots on this near-freezing night. Somehow this struck a chord in my subconscious that stirred echoes of similar post-thunderstorm summer nights. As I look back on that moment, though I wasn’t even thinking of those novels, it occurs to me now that they each have an element I would describe as “thunder”, something that resounds across the land striking a nerve in the public consciousness.
For some novels, like The Da Vinci Code, the thunder is an aspect that touches on a sensitive nerve within a large number of the public. In The Da Vinci Code‘s instance, this was deeply ingrained religious beliefs that, like the foundation of a house, if disturbed, shake the entire house.
For novels like The Tropic of Cancer, the thunder is something that disturbs the public’s sense of decency, which could be argued to be the image of itself that the public wishes to project.
Brave New World did not make as great an impact on its initial reception as it did later, when many of the technologies and issues it describes actually started to come into being. Then it thundered greatly.
Carrie did not rock the literary or moral or religious foundations of society, but it was a great personal thunder for Stephen King and brought him suddenly into the public view.
There are undoubtedly other forms of thunder, but these are the ones that spring into mind initially.
Once I recognized that my goal as a writer is to thunder, the next question became what type of thunder do I want to have?
For me, I want to ask a profound question (or questions) that demand answers. As stated, I don’t want to give away the plot of the novel(la), so I will unfortunately have to leave you in suspense for now, but check back with my blog periodically and let’s see if I can achieve this. Wish me luck.
Thoughts? Comments?
Just a little Christmas fun from Ottawahorror.com. Follow this link to their site and you can post this on Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, and others.Check out the following note to be found on their About Us Page:
Started in 2008, we are a blog and portal dedicated to all things horror in our nation’s [Canada] capital. If you are a filmmaker, musician, artist, or fan, this is the place for you. Also, recruit minions! When we travel out of town, we bump into more people and artists from home than we do when we hang around the batcave. It’s kinda cool, but kinda creepy. While we appreciate finding you wherever you are, finding you here is easier… because then we can send reporters and photographers after you easier.
I am happy to announce that as of today, July 10, 2013, my poem “Faust” has been reprinted in Blood Moon Rising Magazine. Please follow the link to view my favorite of all the poems I have written and to visit their excellent magazine.
I just received word that my poem “Faust” will be reprinted in the July issue (#53) of Blood Moon Rising Magazine. My many heartfelt thanks go out to Daniel Jones and the staff at Blood Moon Rising for publishing one of my favorite works. Please visit their website whenever you have the opportunity.
Since “Murder by Plastic” was published by Every Day Fiction on March 24, I have been getting some interesting comments on it: some critical, some laudatory. For those of you who haven’t had a chance to visit the site yet, here they are:
Overall, a very enjoyable read.
My work of flash fiction, “Murder by Plastic”, was published today at www.everydayfiction.com. Please read the story at your leisure and peruse the other literary works available at Every Day Fiction as well. My heartfelt thanks go out to the very patient, professional staff at Every Day Fiction, who brought this story to you. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher 