DOUGLAS SMITH | Writing the Fantastic

I have a brand new story out in the equally brand new issue of the long-running and most excellent Canadian speculative fiction magazine, On Spec. This is their "Apocalypse" issue, which forms the perfect lead-in to the coming end of the world this December--or at least the end of the Mayan calendar. Great timing by the On Spec folks, I'd say, getting the issue out just before the real apocalypse. Well done. Well done on the issue, too, starting with the typical top-notch cover art, this time by Andrew Czarnietzki.

My story, "The Walker of the Shifting Borderland," is a multi-verse spanning surreal fantasy love story (another neglected genre) where our heroes fight to save our universe on the last piece of real estate still in existence--a coffee shop. From the opening:

The universe ended at noon.

Again.

A very particular universe--the one that held prisoner the creature the Walker loved most in the entire Continuum. The one that held her.

At ten minutes before noon, the Walker strode out of the Shifting Borderland and into that universe. He landed, a phase shift to the left of local reality, beside a dusty two-lane highway running through a remarkably unremarkable town in a northern landmass on a planet called Earth.

...

This marks my third appearance in On Spec (the others being "The Red Bird" and "Memories of the Dead Man").  You can pick up a copy at many major retailers this month, or go for a subscription at the On Spec site. The magazine is close to offering ebook format subscriptions as well, so I'll soon have this great magazine on my Kobo.

I'd blogged earlier about the upcoming circus-themed fantasy anthology coming out from Prime Books and edited by the multi-talented Ekaterina Sedia. The anthology is now out and available. I know because I have my contributor copy in hand with its beautifully creepy cover.

My story "Scream Angel" is included along with stories by such luminaries as Peter Straub and Howard Waldrop. The book is available at all the major retailers, including Amazon.com.  

"Scream Angel" is SF, not fantasy, but there are definitely some fantasy elements to the story, and regardless, I'm extremely happy to be included in such a fine lineup of writers.

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The movie review site Hacked in the Head (gee, do you think that maybe they focus on horror movies?) has a new review of Anthony Sumner's indie movie based on my short story "By Her Hand, She Draws You Down": 

"A haunting tale of hunger,depression and subtle vampirism. … Fantastic and compelling performances elevate the bleak and unsettling plot into a short film demanding of your attention. Both leads create characters filled with despair, desperation and a yearning for a better life and this comes across all too well. … A horror film not to be ignored."

Very nice to see that the little flick is still getting attention, and positive attention at that. You can read the whole review here.

And it doesn't stop there. The film is being given a special screening on November 11 at the New York City Horror Fest. And (hopefully), the DVD anthology, The Gallery of Fear, which includes By Her Hand..., will be released in 2013, once a distribution deal is settled. 

Derek Newman-Stilles has posted a wide-ranging interview he did with me recently on his Speculating Canada site. Derek's questions covered writing, the creative process, the power of speculative fiction as a genre, its future as a genre, the value of short fiction, the genesis of stories, growing an idea for a story into the story itself, and ever so many other topics. His questions were fun and thought provoking for me, and I hope that my answers managed to be the same. Take a look at it here.

My Japanese martial arts romance epic fantasy (now there's an underappreciated sub-genre), "The Red Bird," will appear in the Catalan language magazine, Catarsi, in their 9th issue next month.  Check out the very cool cover for the issue, inspired by my story.  And if you're wondering:

"Catalan is a Romance language named for its origins in the historical region of Catalonia in the northeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula and adjoining parts of what is now France. It is a co-official language of the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian. It also has semi-official status in the city of Alghero (where the Algherese dialect is spoken) on the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken with no official recognition in the autonomous communities of Aragon (in La Franja) and Murcia (in Carche) in Spain, and in the historic Roussillon region of southern France." (source: Wikipedia)

Catarsi has also included an illustration with the story (see left). And both the cover and the illo show me that the artist actually took the time to read the story. 

"The Red Bird" first appeared in the Canadian magazine, On Spec, in 2001. You can read reviews of the story and pick up a copy of the story as an ebook at my store here. And, assuming you can read Catalan, you can also check out excerpts and illustrations from the issue at the Catarsi site.

Derek Newman-Stille has an article on "Canadian Werewolves" in fiction on his Speculating Canada site, in which he cites eight examples of Canadian stories and movies of the genre, a list that includes tales from Margaret Atwood, Charles de Lint, Kelly Armstrong, and my own short story "Out of the Light."

"Out of the Light" is my take on what sort of shape-shifter might adapt to life as a predator in the big city. If you're interested, you can pick up an ebook copy of the story from any of the major ebook retailers. Hope you'll check it out.

A final pic and post from TIFF. We saw "John Dies at the End" on Sunday to close out the fest. A Midnight Madness flick and much fun. Think of "Buckaroo Bonzai" crossed with "Sean of the Dead".

Sort of. Kind of. Okay, actually completely different. I won't even try to describe the plot, not because it would ruin it (it would) but it's rather indescribable.

The highlight was discovering that, despite this being the last day of the festival, the director Don Coscarelli (of Bubba Ho-tep fame) was there for the Q&A after the film. He hung around the lobby talking to fans after, and I snapped this picture of Don and my movie fanatic son, Chris. We talked about Bubba Ho-tep and the possibility that he may still do a sequel to that one. Fingers crossed!

Derek Newman-Stille has a nice review of my collection, Chimerascope, up now at his Speculating Canada site. A sample extract:

"Douglas Smith’s short story collection Chimerascope is a chimerical creature itself, a creative hybrid of diverse genres of the fantastic ranging in temporality, theme, characters, and the questions it evokes."

Great to see that the collection can still attract reviews since its publication in 2010.

I'll be re-issuing a special ebook edition of Chimerascope shortly, so keep your eyes out for that.

Read the full review here.

Writer friend and editor, Mark Leslie, recently informed all of the contributors to his 2009 horror anthology, Campus Chills, that the book is currently required reading for the third year English 333 course "Horror in Literature" at Hilbert College in New York state, along with Dracula, Frankenstein, and the works of Poe. Pretty cool company!

The course, "The Literature of Horror," is taught by Herb Kauderer and "will explore the themes of horror and the grotesque inherent in the horror genre by examining some of the seminal texts of horror fiction... The course will trace the ways in which symbolic and thematic elements have been reinscribed in later works of fiction and film. The course will explore the manner in which these texts reveal cultural themes, values and ideologies."

My story, "Radio Nowhere," appeared in Campus Chills, and was a finalist for the Aurora Award in 2010. If you're interested, you can pick up an ebook copy of the story at any of the major ebook retailers.