mariness

1. My flash fiction piece, "Seaweed," the next in the series of fairy tale vignettes, was sent out to Daily Science Fiction subscribers today. I'll have more on this next week when it goes up on the web.

2. Meanwhile, over at Tor.com, the Heyer reread continues with April Lady. Not a favorite...but Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle, is coming up next.

3. And over at McSweeney's: What to Expect When You're Expecting Cthulhu. This could not be more unlike the "Seaweed" piece: you've been warned.

Mythic Delirium #25 is here! Purchase information at the link, and yes, you want to purchase, you do, because this particular issue has a couple of poems by me and also includes poems by such luminaries as Catherynne Valente (catvalente), Sonya Taaffe (who incidentally also has a new poetry collection available from Papaveria Press, Rose Lemberg (rose_lemberg), Mary Turzillo, Rachel Manija Brown, and others.

One of these others is Ann K. Schwader, who I mention because this is the first time I've ever appeared on the same table of contents with the same person twice in more or less one month -- she also has some excellent work available in Future Lovecraft. That's either awesome, or further proof that Cthulhu's influence is spreading. Let's go with the explanation of awesome. Much safer that way.

Some surprising news about Cthulhu.

Oz blogging continues up at Tor.com, as I discuss Captain Salt in Oz - a book I have a hard time calling an "Oz" book, since, well, it's not actually set in Oz. But it's considered one of the canonical Famous Forty, so, there we go.

Meanwhile, the marine biologists at Arkham University have a small announcement to make.

I've been asked if I have a plot for this series, and the answer is, although I didn't when I first started out, yes, yes, I do have a general plot in mind now, admittedly one subject to change. (For instance, an upcoming episode will probably mention the ongoing BP oil disaster, and if extensive amounts of oil enter the Gulf Stream, as opposed to where the oil is mostly swirling now as it slowly drifts towards the Florida Keys, that may become a minor plot point as well.) What I don't have is any sense of how long it will last (or, for that matter, how long the editors will tolerate it). That, like many of the activities of the Great Old Ones, must remain a mystery.

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,
Cthulhu was stirring, not quite like a mouse
The stockings were hung by the altars with care,
in hopes that the Great Old Ones soon would be there.
The cultists were nestled all snug in their beds,
while visions of chaos danced in their heads,
And Alhazred in his tower, and I with my cap,
were preparing our brains for Cthulhu post-nap –
When out in the temple there arose such a clatter,
we sprang from our knees to see what was the matter.
Away to the altars we flew like a flash,
And tied up some cultists with a lovely red sash,
The moon on the marble polished like bloody snow,
gave a sickly lustre to the objects below –
When what to our wondering eyes should appear,
but tentacle creatures riding reindeer.
With a large slimy driver who made us feel sick –
A feeling that told us this could not be a trick!
More rapid than rockets his tentacles they came –
And he whistled and cursed and called us by name!
"Come cultists! Come Bokrug! Come Atlach-Nacha!
Come Dweller of the Gulf, and Mother Hydra!
To the depths of the seas! To the crest of the ice wall!
Come devour, devour, come devour all!"
As cute little aliens dotted the sky,
And slimy things tried to learn how to fly,
Up to the cities and the glaciers they flew,
With chariots full of fire, and destruction too.
And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof –
the clawing and pawing of a slimy hoof!
As I drew in my head and was turning around –
Down the chimney Cthulhu came with a bound!
He was covered in tentacles, head to foot,
And he gave off the stink of sulfur and soot,
Slime and evil wafted from his back –
And we don't want to know what he held in his pack.
The stump of a leg he held tight in his teeth,
And tentacles curled round his head like a wreath –
He had a broad face, and a large round belly –
That shook when he moved, just like evil jelly –
Chubby and plump, exactly unlike a cute elf;
I shuddered at the sight, in spite of myself.
A wink of his eye, a twist of his head –
Oh, did we have something to dread!
He sprang to the skies, with a horrific whistle –
It felt like my skin had been dragged over a thistle.
And I heard him exclaim as he stormed out of sight,
"Oooh, I love Christmas! Consumption tonight!"

-- ok, I could have just stuck with the traditional seasons greetings.

Merry Christmas, Joyous Noel, Happy Kwansaa, Happy Hannukkah, Ecstatic (and belated) Solstice, Glad Yule, bland Seasons Greetings, and a happy New Year to all, and tuna for cats.

The Shadows on the Reef story continues, as a new director named Dennis arrives.

********

Indirectly, this reminded me that I had forgotten to post a link to the Shine Anthology competition. I won't say too much about it, except to note that if you are a long time reader of this blog, or if you are chuckling at the thought of a director named Dennis in a Cthulhu tale scribed by moi, you have a bit of a head start here.

"Shadows on the Reef" continues, as the marine biologists head out to one more survey before winter conditions make diving completely impossible.

(That part isn't mentioned in the article; when this section was originally written I had vague thoughts of summer/early fall in mind which ended up not working with the real life publishing realities. Later bits have been slightly readjusted to correspond somewhat more closely to the actual calendar. And if you are thinking that diving the North Atlantic in November is evil and cruel regardless, well, yes. Cthulhu!)

For the curious, the stuff about the corals is more or less accurate. The stuff about the dolphins...

:: cough ::

As always, blame Cthulhu for any technical inaccuracies.

The Devil's Reef story continues here.

Previous installments:

Part one.
Part two a.
Part two b.
Part three.
Part four.

********

No in jokes in this one.

In other publishing news, Innsmouth Free Press has just published part three of my meandering serial tale, "Shadows on the Reef." You can read parts one and two here, here and here.

In mildly related news, anyone else think that just possibly the Great Old Ones are behind this continued failure of fall to make an appearance? (Not that we exactly get fall here, but it's 91 degrees. In October. This just Feels Wrong. I blame Cthulhu.)

This has been an utterly hellish day, so much so that I nearly missed a couple of publications that came out today:

First, Innsmouth Free Press has published part two of my ongoing Devil Reef tale here and here. If you're confused, you might want to catch up on part one here.

Second, Nanoism has published another little twitter story of mine here. We'll call this one "Gone."

Now, to go hunt down the Haagen-Daas ice cream in the freezer - the Mint Five flavour. I've been neglecting that relationship for longer than I should, and as we know, neglecting relationships is never healthy.