A Writing Dare

Okay—so I am harried, in a good way. Chuffed, really. 

In addition to having a paying editing gig, a historical fiction novel, as of last week, my publisher asked me to look at cover options for an upcoming anthology.  I opined.  In the end, he chose the same cover I chose.

And hot on the heels of that exchange, he dared me to write 1,000-word horror fiction for a particular market, particular as in I-dare-you-to-write-this-and-I-may-publish-it-if-I-like-it.  He would need it by mid-April.

Thinking on it, but not for long ....

Looking at a Novelette, got a Paying Editing Gig

In between  getting my literary rocks off drafting my "Full Moon Addiction/Rehab" work-in-progress, I received important business news. 

My publisher checked in yesterday. 

Had I started looking at his novelette, which he sent the other week?

I hadn't.

But, being a self-respecting writer, I didn't tell him that, of course. 

First, I perused the first two chapters over my lunch break. He sent nine, which I had already stored in a file. Then I could honestly reply soon after that, yes, I was looking at it. What format did he prefer? He had emailed a mix of Word and Rich Text Format files. And how deep or into-the-weeds should I get with my comments and edits?

This news seemed to ... please him? 

Yes—it must have. He immediately offered me a bona fide, paying, editing gig on a historical fiction novel.

I had hoped, from how well things went editing the anthology of queer fairy tales starring hirsute and hefty gay men, that he might send me some work down the line. But this soon? Fantastic.

This marks my first official editing gig on a novel, so there is  that.

St. Paddy’s Day Viewing Recommendations

Here are some Irish flicks that I have discovered in my search for great cinema from the country of my ancestors. Some are more recent, some old. Admittedly, I have a soft spot for both a good Irish horror film and/or an Irish comedy.

Standard St. Paddy’s Viewing: Imbibing, Action, Shenanigans, Etc.
Boondock Saints
Hard-working, hard-drinking Irish-Catholic Bostonians Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus (aka Daryl Dixon of The Walking Dead fame) star as fraternal twins Connor and Murphy MacManus who become vigilantes. It’s violent, silly and crazy, while also raising uncomfortable questions such as, Who will stop rampant crime, if not local law enforcement? At times, the tone borders on histrionic and the sublime, and then chases that drink down with the absurd. Willem Dafoe has far too much fun playing queer (and rather brilliant) FBI special agent Paul Smecker, investigating crime scenes and eviscerating less competent investigators with his rapier wit. Comedian Billy Connolly features in a baroque paternal role. Some genuinely hilarious moments emerge from this joyful mess of a film.

Horror
Sea Fever
This is an Irish horror film, a genre I admittedly have a soft spot for. In this often beautifully shot tale of fatalism, young marine-biology student, Siobhán, sets out from port with a fishing trawler crew only to discover aquatic life that has not yet been undocumented. It is a biologist survivalist. But to us, the creature is a nearly incomprehensible horror. The production overcomes its budgetary constraints with effective acting, exemplifying that sometimes, as in the best fiction, less is more. A word of warning: this is a quarantine film, however. In Sea Fever, the range of Irish accents you might need to acclimatize to, but it’s worth this strange trip.

Supernatural Comedy
Extra Ordinary
This cute premise doesn’t take itself too seriously, providing many laughs and fun moments. Protagonist Rose Dooley (a genuine and quirky Maeve Higgins) can see ghosts and can help send them on their way. She tries to help single dad Marin Martin (Barry Ward), a sort of a handsome, Irish ... Hugh Grant?, who is being tormented by the ghost of his ex-wife. Replete with a witty repast of dialogue and plenty of double entendres, Higgins and Ward charm the viewer. Will Forte astonishes as foppish and theatrical occultist bad-ass Christian Winter.

Suspense/Thriller/Noir
A Good Woman is Hard to Find
In this slow-burning number, struggling single mother and widow, Sarah Collins (portrayed by the hypnotically suffering Sara Bolger), tries to get by in Belfast. What happens when a local drug dealer tries to run his operation out of her home, where she is trying to make ends meet with her two small children an everyone is judging her? Excellent pay-off and a view of Belfast life. Brutal and raw, some say. In many ways, A Good Woman is Hard to Find is a Taxi Driver set in Belfast.

Musical
Sing Street
The music alone is worth the price of admission. Conor “Cosmo” Lawlor (played by the multitalented (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) the hero, tries to woo older girl by shooting a video, but he has no band and has only strummed guitar and sung songs. Cosmo struggles with bullying at a new school because his parents rock marriage means budget cuts. The band, young and audacious, tries out new fashions each week, from pop to rock to glam, in tremendously fun and understated scenes showing the kids wearing new styles. The range of Irish accents can prove challenging, even to someone getting their Irish on, such as myself. Aiden Gillen portrays the father, Robert, trying to hold his crumbling marriage together, which is a 180-degree change from his days as man-slut Stuart Alan Jones on the original and seminal British Queer As Folk. Consider it a spiritual descendent of The Commitments. 

Queer Comedy/Drama
Handsome Devil
At an elite, rugby-obsessed, all-boys boarding school in Ireland modelled on Castleknock and Blackrock, ginger-haired Ned develops feelings for his new roommate, rugby star Conor. A very fun narrative voice drives the story, imbued with a great sense of humor even in the face of difficulty and angst. Great performances from a cast of relative unknowns round out the works as well.

Burly Tales: Finally Fairy Tales for the Hirsute and Hefty Gay Man

Been working hard, editing Burly Tales: Finally Fairy Tales for the Hirsute and Hefty Gay Man. I am excited to announce it is pre-orderable from Lethe Press.
 

Burly is chock-full of goodies, with 12 contributors from far and wide—nine stories, one poem, a preface by Matthew Bright and an afterword from Jeff Mann. I owe thanks to publisher Steve Berman for making this all happen and including me on this wild, queer, fairy-tale-land ride. I am honoured to stand with my fellow contributors. What a blast! If this anthology is half as fun to read as it was to work on, Burly should be a hefty amount of entertainment. 

Burly includes my story "Three, to the Swizz'!" In my hopeful piece, set in the (hopefully) not-too-far-flung future, three longtime, goateed friends, Dave, Reece and a big fellow (a bear) named Tom celebrate the end of the pandemic by walking from Gatineau to Ottawa and go bar-hopping at Swizzles, a local bar. 

You can pre-order Burly Tales: Finally Fairy Tales for the Hirsute and Hefty Gay Man here from the Lethe Press site. 

Table of Contents:

Introduction by Matthew Bright

"Three, to the Swizz'!" by James K. Moran

"The Red Bear of Norroway" by John Linwood Grant

"Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue" by Jonathan Harper

"The Three Little Prigs" by M. Yuan-Innes

"Snow Melt and Rose Bloom" by John T. Fuller

"A Giant Problem" by Charles Payseur

"The Most Luxuriant Beard of All" by B.J. Fry

"The Man Who Drew Cats" by Alysha MacDonald

"Heft" by Mark Ward

"El Muerto’s Godson" by Evey Brett

"Lesson Learned" by Rob Rosen

"Bears Move In" by Ann Zeddies

Afterword by Jeff Mann

I am thrilled to finally announce that Lethe Press will publish Fear Itself, my collection of speculative-fiction stories, this summer. I am ecstatic that these ten horror, sci-fi and fantasy pieces will at last see print. Thank you kindly, Duke (aka Steve Berman), for taking on my tales, seizing the day and providing this cover art as a wonderful birthday present, just like with Town & Train ("I had a tradition to uphold," Berman told me.). Thank you, also, amazing Matthew Bright, for the layout.

It is now available for pre-order on the Lethe Press site. 

Getting solicited or asked to write some fiction

So a good friend asked about my following vague-posting about getting solicited.

Feeling kinda' chuffed - got solicited for the first time in years and didn't have to be walking down Somerset Ave. in our fine LGBTQ1+ village, wearing a tight black T and denim to get solicited. And it's the (marginally more) respectable kinda' solicit, involving writing fiction.

Here's what happened.

I am trying out an editing gig and decided to be clever. I joked that Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) rules say that 33 per cent of the anthology I am looking at should be Canuck content.

The person I am working with replied, 'Well, you did not write me a story."

I answered that I may have missed the submissions call. Or did they ask for the stories from the authors? This is a common practice for editors in the business to ensure they curate a collection of quality work.

"The call for submissions was on the website for a year!" they exclaimed.

The Internet shook.

Then they flipped the script on my joke and asked for a 2,000-word piece of fiction on a particular prompt, with a real deadline and everything, kiddies.

Not long after, I even got the call from the person I am working with, likely chewing on a cigar in their glassy skyscraper office in another city.

"Just write it, in get met the story by next week!" they exclaimed.

It was like J. Jonah Jameson had assigned me work.

So, I had no idea my sense of humor would land me in this position, which is rather interesting and arguably enviable.

And that, fair readers, is as specific I can get until the ink dries on the contract.

Notes on Revising Second Horror Novel

Spoiler Alert: This post is all about revising my second horror novel, Monstrous. For those who may not want to know the juicy details, you might want to skip those. But for those who an inside peek at the writer's craft, including struggles and revelations, it might be interesting and useful.

Haven't returned to revising my second horror novel quite yet, but I have been gifted several epiphanies about the antagonist's burden, inhering a multimillion-dollar estate from his grandfather who has a deadly design on my protagonist (let's call him John Newman for now). What I have finally realized is that William McMammon 5 has inherited not only the unwanted responsibility of an empire, but also a diorama of the inn that ol' granddad was retrofitting for five years, leaving William to decide how to get back at Newman for wronging him when they were teens. 

So, William gets a diorama and unlimited financial resources to get back at John. But there's more than that, of course. William was in line for some sort of weird transformative experience in the woods that ol' granddad set up near one of his Pfizer factories, but William failed to make the grade because John and his other pals interrupted young Billy (William) messing around with another boy. So, John and his buddies accidentally stumbled upon this tunnel in the woods that more or less changed them, using autumnal magic. John became a werewolf. His good friend became a genius guitarist. Another encountered a phantom train. Still another friend learned they could see ghosts, and physically manipulate them as if ghosts were corporeal. 

In the book, William (and John et al.) will learn this at the opening of the codicil, or a change to a last will and testament, in a videotaped testimony from Robert McMammon 3. Robert feels that William failed to pass his test as a kid and sort of prove himself to his grandfather, but he also blames John Newman and the others for taking what was supposed to be rightfully William's. William has turned out to be a single, queer, partying, trust-fund kid, while John et al. have either gifts or curses, depending on how you look at it. Robert aims to rectify this perceived unfairness, and leaves it to William to do whatever he sees fit to John and the others.