Monthly Archives: March 2021
A clever present!
I love presents. I love giving them (there are people who will tell you I do it too much), and I love getting them, too. While any present is magical no matter what it is, sometimes you get one that just stands out.
With COVID having shut down our day-job office except for a couple of us holding down the fort (yes, I’m one of them), our holiday celebrations weren’t happening. One of my co-workers, though, brought me a really interesting gift:
“There’s weed in the food” towel accompanied by “roach clips.”
…get it? WEED and ROACH CLIPS? She’s only a little older than me. What cracked her up the most was that she had to explain to her twenty-something children what a roach clip was (I guess kids now are all into edibles. Just … I’m sorry, not as much fun). “Ah,” she said, “the good old days!” Heck—I remember when we wore them in our hair in the 1980s. I was 12. My parents weren’t happy.
Anyway, I love my roach clips, and I think this is just about one of the most creative presents I’ve ever gotten. My husband the exterminator? Not thrilled. Doesn’t enjoy opening up the cabinet and seeing them crawling on the chips … which means more for me, right?
CEMETERY DANCE lauds WICKED WOMEN; “Arbor Day” gets a shout-out!
Cemetery Dance’s stellar review of the most recent NEHW anthology, Wicked Women, included a shout-out to my short story “Arbor Day.”
You can read the full review here: https://www.cemeterydance.com/extras/review-wicked-women/
If you’ve not picked up Wicked Women, you’re missing out! There’s fantastic fiction by 21 talented women, including Hillary Monahan and Jane Yolen, and Patricia Gomes’ poem “Tree Limbs Block the Road” was nominated for a Rhysling award by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association. Now’s the time! You can get your copy here: https://bit.ly/WWArborDay
Breaking: NECRONOMICON 2021 moved to 2022!
Earlier this week, NecronomiCon Providence—a celebration of Lovecraft and Cosmic Horror which takes place every other August in the city of Providence, RI—announced that it was postponing this year’s event. It will now be held August 18-21, 2022.
NecronomiCon is just plain awesome. It’s four days of Lovecraft-related panels, performances, art, short films, walking tours, writing, and unique parties like the Eldritch Ball and the Cthulu Prayer Breakfast. While I know that there are many people who are disappointed, since the event typically draws a couple of thousand people (possibly more), I think this is just a smart thing to do at the moment—although another issue is that this intricate event takes a lot of advanced planning, and with the world still in its uncertain place, Read the rest of this entry
Congratulations are in order …
I just learned that Deborah L. Davitt’s poem “A Hand Against My Window,” which appeared in 34 Orchard’s Inaugural Issue, has been nominated for the 2021 Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association’s Rhysling Award! Congratulations, Deborah!
“A Hand Against My Window” scared the crap out of me—on the same level as the missing prologue from King’s The Shining that was published in TV Guide in 1997, It Follows, and John Wayne Comunale’s “Trenchman” (which I also published in 34O’s initial issue). I couldn’t be more proud to have given this visceral, terrifying piece a home.
Check it out for yourself in 34 Orchard Issue 1 here. https://34orchard.com/issues/issue-1/
If you’d like to learn more about the SFPA and the Rhysling Award, you can do that here: https://www.sfpoetry.com/index.html
Making tiny newspapers…
I’ve long loved dollhouses, and a 1978 TOMY Smaller Home and Garden, which I had as a kid, figures prominently in a recent short story I just finished.
As the story’s really personal and takes place between the Challenger and Chernobyl disasters–a pretty intense, very sorrowful and terrifying time for any teenager, let alone one who’d just lost her mom–I’ve decided I’m not going to try to place this. It’ll be this year’s holiday chapbook instead.
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