Tag: weird fiction

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SIGNAL BOOST: Indiegogo Campaign for the Outer Dark

The Outer Dark is running an Indiegogo Campaign to help fund its second annual Symposium on the Greater Weird on March 24. There are many MAGNIFICIENT rewards to those who contribute.

From their website:

The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird is the world’s only conference focusing on contemporary Weird fiction, film and art. The 2nd annual symposium will gather more than 25 writers, artists, filmmakers & editors on March 24, 2017 at Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA., one of the USA’s Weirdest places. Hear all the readings and panels on The Outer Dark podcast, which airs on This Is Horror, reaching thousands of listeners who are readers of Weird and speculative fiction.

OD 2018

 

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“Looming Low” Anthology on Tor.com

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Tor.com featured the Dim Shores’ Weird Fiction anthology Looming Low as one of the recommended  5 Horror Reads for Fall. My story “Mirror Bias” (referred to as “Mirror App”) gets a brief shout-out.

Looming Low, which features a who’s who of newer Weird Fiction authors, is now available as an eBook.

 

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BOOK RADAR: “Strange Is The Night” by S.P. Miskowski

Critically acclaimed weird/horror S.P. Miskowski has a new collection out from Journalstone, called Strange Is the Night.   Miskowski has been nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award many times.

 

Strange is the Night

BACK COVER COPY:

Over cocktails an executive describes to a friend the disturbing history of a strangely potent guardian angel. A young mom tries to perfect and prolong her daughter’s childhood with obsessive parenting. A critic’s petty denouncement of an ingénue’s performance leads to a theatrical night of reckoning. A cult member makes nice for a parole board hearing years after committing an infamous crime.

A multiple Shirley Jackson Award nominee, S.P. Miskowski serves up an uncompromising collection of thirteen modern tales of desire and self-destruction. Strange is the Night offers further proof that Miskowski is—as Black Static book reviewer Peter Tennant notes—“one of the most interesting and original writers to emerge in recent years.”

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The Great God Pan, an Opera in 2 acts, by Ross Crean

A week or so ago, a Facebook friend of mine in the composer world shared an image of CD he’d recently received, called The Great God Pan: An Opera in 2 Acts. I ended up chatting with Ross Crean, the composer of the opera based on Arthur Machen’s work. I had just come home from NecronomiCon, where there was a panel on Machen’s work. I missed that panel, but people who had attended mentioned that a panelist spoke about the “psychedelic nature” imagery that shows up in Machen’s work.

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Crean’s opera uses unorthodox instrumentation (prepared piano) to bring Machen’s trippy masterpiece to life.

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Link: Lovecraft’s Legacy by Paul St. John Macintosh

Over at Greydogtales, a weird fiction blog, author/critic Paul St. John Macinktosh has an essay that examines the latest kerfuffle in the weird fiction community. (Lovecraft’s racism and the legacy of his fiction in many ways mirrors the current culture war over Civil War monuments). In the essay, he highlights POC writers (N.K. Jemisin, Victor Lavalle) who subvert/revise/challenge the subtextual xenophobia in HPL’s work in addition to calling out the denialism/minimizing that many aficionados use.

If there was a huge racial component to Lovecraft’s definition of “unknown,” then you could almost read into such remarks a frustrated longing to engage with other unknown peoples, as much as fear and distaste towards them. That’s as plausible an interpretation as any claim that Lovecraft’s mature work is some kind of systematic dog-whistling for underlying racism, with Deep Ones and ocean-going cultists standing in for black Americans and Catholic immigrants.

Link: Lovecraft’s Legacy

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First Patreon post up!

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My first Patreon post is a draft of a weird story called HAIR-NEST. It’s about race, gender and the politics of black hair. Influences/inspiration: Kara Walker, Angela Carter. And one of the characters was inspired by a certain actress/wellness guru with initials GP.

https://www.patreon.com/craiglaurancegidney

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Southern Gothic: Pictures from the Outer Dark Symposium on the Great Weird

I’m still recovering from my weekend hanging out with weird fiction writers and fans. I will talk more about the panels I attended/moderated at a later time. In the meantime, here are some pictures.

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Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird Schedule

The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird happens this Saturday (March 25, 2017) in Atlanta/Decatur. I will be moderating the following session:

 

11:55-12:40 PM
PANEL: Other Weird Tales: Unraveling Paradigms as the Protagonist Shifts Away from the Cis White Male
Weird fiction, like SF/F/H, has predominantly centered on CIS white male protagonists mostly written by CIS white male authors. One of the most dynamic aspects of the contemporary Weird Renaissance is that this is no longer true. Non-CIS-white-male writers are not only altering the concept of what the Weird is as a literary form but also pushing its boundaries and defying editorial and publishing expectations. How does the narrative shift when the protagonist is a woman, a person of color, LBGT and/or disabled? What are some examples of good contemporary, or older Weird tales with Other protagonists that exemplify these different qualities? What challenges have the authors on the panel personally faced in approaching the Weird from Other perspectives–cultural, gender, orientation, etc.? Finally, how are new writers, new perspectives and new audiences opening up the Weird and spec-lit in general to new markets, and conversely how are new markets (small press, self-publishing) facilitating exposure to different voices?
Moderator: Craig Laurance Gidney
Panelists: Mike Allen, Gerald L. Coleman, Valjeanne Jeffers, Damien Angelica Walters

I will also be doing a reading at 1:50pm

And there is a Mass Signing at 5.15pm

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Listen to me speak about writing on The Outer Dark podcast! And “The Nectar of Nightmares” is up for preorder!

Scott Nicolay interviewed me for The Outer Dark, a podcast about weird, dark and horror fiction. Thanks to Scott for having me on–the conversation was wide ranging and touched on the Negritude movement, surrealism and Rihanna!

Craig Laurance Gidney: Writing the Beautiful Mess

Also, The Nectar of Nightmares is up for preorder!

 

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BOOK REVIEW: Lyrical Phantasmorgia in “Dreams of Shreds & Tatters” by Amanda Downum

Dreams of Shreds and TattersDreams of Shreds and Tatters by Amanda Downum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An ambitious, if uneven update of the King in Yellow set in modern Vancouver. The plot has echoes of Orpheus and Eurydice, with the ‘underworld’ being the surreal, doomed dreamscape kingdom ruled by an eldritch abomination. Graduate student and lucid dreamer Liz and her boyfriend Alex search for her missing friend, the artist Blake in Vancouver. They find themselves enmeshed in a sinister drug and magic fueled underworld.

Pros: The characters are for the most part, skillfully drawn. Kudos to the portrayal of the sexuality spectrum. Liz is an asexual in a loving, if complicated relationship with her boyfriend. Blake was involved with a male lover. All of these facts are presented in an organic manner. The writing is lovely and full of atmosphere. The nightmarish imagery of the liminal world of Carcosa, with its strange constellations and ruined, sky-piercing towers, is worth the price of admission.

Cons: The plot was a bit muddled, and a couple of characters—particularly the gun toting badass monster killer Lailah—was a bit of a false note. It felt like she belonged to a different story. The novel is short; I would have liked to linger in the author’s world a bit more. The loose ends the author leaves dangling would make an excellent sequel.

Recommended for fans of weird fiction, Caitlin R Kiernan, Shirley Jackson and the music of CocoRosie.