mariness

My short story, Death and Death Again, just went live up at Nightmare Magazine.

Since I've been yelled about not warning people about this sort of thing before, warning: this story is pure, unadulterated horror. Like horror movie style horror. Not one of my usual indulgences, but sometimes fear and terror just has to crawl out.

There's also an interview here where I chat about my inability to come up with character names. This has actually reached the point of being a pretty bad joke, but in this case, it happened not because I couldn't figure out the right names (the usual problem) but because I was writing in a fit of pure irritation, and quite honestly reached the end before realizing that I'd done it again. Ah well.

Anyway, enjoy!

Just honestly have not been in much of a blogging mood. I'm popping in now mostly to note that my happy little cannibalism story, The Woods, Their Hearts, My Blood, which many of you objected to on the basis of "Ugh", "What were you thinking?", "You know, I think you should stick to snarking about movies" "Ok, that was freaky" "Chilling", "Oh my god", "Wow," "Disturbing" "Strange and dark and lovely" and "Why don't you write funny stuff?" just picked up an Honorable Mention from Ellen Datlow in her Best Horror of the Year, 2011. This is pretty unusual for me -- I don't write much horror, and what I do write typically goes unnnoticed -- but I suppose I can now start calling myself a horror writer of sorts.

Other Jabberwocky stories also made the list, as did several friends, which was pretty awesome. Congrats to all!

And in other publishing news, I've just received the welcome news that Shadows of the Emerald City, which contains my story, "The Fuddles of Oz," is available for sale here at Amazon.com..

I know, I know. Some of you are gulping at the idea of an Oz filled with horror. But let's face it, horror was never too far beneath the surface of the Oz books - it's why those Winged Monkeys were so terrifying, why years later we can still remember Princess Langwidere and her collection of heads, the moment when the Tin Woodman encounters his own old head, the evil creatures marching on Oz hungry for destruction -- and underneath that, the horrors held in any fairyland. As soon as I saw the guidelines - posted by the ever helpful catrambo - I knew I had to submit; about ten minutes later the story was in my head, and was completed that afternoon, type type type - hands down the easiest story to write all year, which just suggests how strong that link is between horror and Oz.

I was also delighted to find out that I would once again be sharing a TOC with the always marvelous camillealexa, known for her inability to write anything less than utterly brilliant. And while I still haven't gotten the chance to see a copy myself, the book is garnering excellent reviews from Apex Magazine, Senses Five Press, M-Brane SF, and Innsmouth Free Press, among others. So go, buy, read.