Sunday, June 15, 2014

J.G. Ballard--Crash & Something "Beautiful."

Oh, I know. Been too long. Time to get back in the proverbial saddle and ride the blog again. It kicks and rattles; it rumbles and tumbles. It makes me write odd sentences like the previous one.

So.

The lovely Ginger Nuts of Horror Website ran my The Book That Made Me post, for J.G. Ballard's Crash.  It was a tough, yet easy decision. I juggled it and Clive Barker's Books of Blood, Volume One, a real eye-opener for many of us, but I kept coming back to Ballard, so roll with it I did. You can find it via the hyperlink in red above.  It was way too much fun to write.  I hope you read it and enjoy it as much as I did writing it.


***


The Something "Beautiful" deals with the strange path of my story, "Beautiful."

From Editor/Writer Christine Morgan's Sabledrake's Lair website review for Autumn in the Abyss, the first two opening paragraphs:

"Side note just to say, I first encountered the work of this writer when he submitted a story for an anthology I was putting together, and I could not believe what I was seeing. I was sure it had to be a mistake, why something like that would be sent to ME.

Because, holy smokes, it was amazing. It blew me away. I about broke my fingers banging out an acceptance super-quick to lock it down in case there’d been a mistake. I mean, wow. Wow!"


Yeah, that's the reaction "Beautiful" gets.

So, it was published in that anthology, Fossil Lake, in January. 

Soon thereafter, writer/editor Ted E. Grau got in touch with me about the story, as I had initially sent it to him a year earlier. He loved it, but it was too short word count-wise, so he passed.  But it stuck with him.  Putting together a special issue of Strange Aeons to be sold excusively at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, he asked if he could use the story. Since the rights were mine, I said sure. It appears alongside some top-notch Weird/Horror fiction writers such as Richard Gavin, Jeffrey Thomas, Gary McMahon and more. Fantastic company.

But the path does not stop there!

Because of circumstances out of their hands, the initial edition of Fossil Lake barely made it out of the gate.  The editor, Christine Morgan, took the reins and directed a second edition publication of the book in April via her own publishing house, Sabledrake Enterprises.

Yes, you read that all correctly. In one year, in less than half a year, my story, "Beautiful," has been published three times!  Craziest path I've ever experienced with a story.

I wonder if there will be a fourth?  Ha, no, no, but the easiest path to pick it up and check it out now would be in the second edition of Fossil Lake.  So, please do check it out. That story...oh, my! Sometimes, well...  You just need to read it.

:-)

More blogs sooner than later.  More stories, poetry, madness, and, oh, yeah, have you bought Autumn in the Abyss yet? Check the reviews! Look Inside! We're rockin' 'n' rollin' and you should join us for the dark ride.

:-)

I would some day like to own every version of Crash ever printed. Every version. 


 








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