Hi, LiveJournal! Miss me?

The last month or so has been pretty busy, which accounts for some of the lack of posting. But there's also that inertia that comes from not doing something regularly. It's like putting off writing a response to a letter; the longer you wait, the harder it is to get started on it, to the point where you de-prioritize it entirely. And while I've been trying to stop in occasionally to catch up with my f-list, that's been sporadic as well. So if something important has happened or you've written a post you think I should have noticed, please let me know in comments.

Dead Reckonings #5 has arrived on my doorstep, in all its lemony-yellow glory. I have two feature reviews in it: one of the anthology British Invasion (Cemetery Dance), edited by Tim Lebbon, Christopher Golden, and James A. Moore, and one of Paul Tremblay's The Little Sleep (Henry Holt). I'll try to post a short review of Paul's The Harlequin and the Train tomorrow, if time allows, since I didn't get it done for the issue. Here's the complete TOC, reflecting 94 pages of reviewing goodness:

The Vampire as Action-Adventure Anti-Hero ....... June Pulliam
[Rio Youers, Everdead]

A Mask Made of Exposition ..............................Michael Marano
[Gene Wolfe, An Evil Guest]

The Pathetic and the Mundane................................. Kevin Dole
[Quentin Crisp, Shrike]

Mythos and More Mythos ..............................Martin Andersson
[Richard L. Tierney, The Drums of Chaos; Asamatsu Ken, Queen of K'n-Yan]

Forget-Me-Nots? .................................................. Tony Fonseca
[Ronald Damien Malfi, Passenger; Peter Atkins, Moontown]

A New Jungle Book..............................................Hank Wagner
[Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book]

Abandon All Preconceptions, Ye Who Enter Here....Sherry Austin
[Ellen Datlow, ed., Poe]

Williams One, Clark Zero ................................... Robert Morrish
[Simon Clark, Vengeance Child; Conrad Williams, One]

Mini-collections from Major Talent.........................Matt Cardin
[Douglas Smith, Impossibilia; Mark Samuels, Glyphotech and Other Macabre Processes]

Ramsey Campbell, Probably: Listing Towards Horror

Paralyzed by Discomfort................................... Jack M. Haringa
[British Invasion, ed. Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon, and James A. Moore]

Passing the Baton ..................................................Ben P. Indick
[New Dark Voices II, ed. Brian Keene; Jeremy C . Shipp, Sheep and Wolves]

Genius Loci ............................................................John Langan
[Cherie Priest, Fathom]

Enter Ghost..............................................................Bev Vincent
[Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; David Wroblewski, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle]

The Lovecraft Cult......................................................S. T. Joshi
[Kenneth Hite, Tour de 5 Lovecraft: The Tales; Robert M. Price, Blasphemies & Revelations]

Two Unique Visions of Horror..................... Robert Butterfield
[Scott Nicholson, Scattered Ashes; Tony Richards, Shadows and Other Tales]

Living on a Powder Keg..........................................Bev Vincent
[Joe Hill, Gunpowder]

Can You Murder a Dream?...................... John Edgar Browning
[Jeffrey Ford, The Drowned Life]

Doing Your Homework .......................................Hank Wagner
[F. Paul Wilson, By the Sword]

Waking to Nightmares......................................Jack M. Haringa
[Paul Tremblay, The Little Sleep]

The Supernatural in Prose and Verse .......... Donald R. Burleson
[S. T. Joshi, Emperors of Dreams: Some Notes on Weird Poetry; S. T. Joshi, The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos; S. T. Joshi, Classics and Contemporaries: Some Notes on Horror Fiction]

The Perfect Museum Edition ......................... Darrell Schweitzer
[Henry S. Whitehead, Passing of a God and Other Stories]

The Weird Scholar ......................................................S. T. Joshi

Capsule Reviews.............................................Divers Hands



If anyone has a chance to read the issue, please let me know what you think. I was hoping to be able to attend Readercon with a box of them, but I have to be in Philadelphia for a work-related conference that same Sunday. A better bet for those jonesing for the new issue will be to order direct from Hippocampus or via Horror Mall, which I expect will have an order page up shortly.

After some delays with submissions, editing, and printing, the fourth issue of Dead Reckonings, Fall 2008, is at last available. S.T. and I have both received our contributors' copies, and issues are headed out to the reviewers after the long weekend. Here's the final TOC for #4:

A Grab-Bag of Perverse Delight .........................Donald R. Burleson
[THOMAS M. DISCH, The Word of God]

Edge-of-Your-Seat Suspense .........................Hank Wagner
[JOE R. LANSDALE, Leather Maiden]

An Epic and Long-Awaited Publication .........................Donald Sidney-Fryer
[CLARK ASHTON SMITH, The Complete Poetry and Translations, Volumes 1 and 2]

Dissecting Thomas Harris .........................Bev Vincent
[BENJAMIN SZUMSKYJ, ed. Dissecting Hannibal Lecter: Essays on the Novels of Thomas Harris]

A Slow-Moving Tsunami .........................S. T. Joshi
[CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN, Tales of Pain and Wonder, Third Edition]

Horror on the Ice .........................Rob Latham
[DAN SIMMONS, The Terror]

"The Weird Old Hole" and Much More .........................Sherry Austin
[JONATHAN THOMAS, Midnight Call and Other Stories]

The Nightmares That Cling to Us .........................John Langan
[RAMSEY CAMPBELL, Thieving Fear; RAMSEY CAMPBELL, Inconsequential Tales]

Sometimes You Just Have to Gush .........................Matt Cardin
[STEPHEN MARK RAINEY, Other Gods; MICHAEL SHEA, The Autopsy and Other Tales]

Ramsey Campbell, Probably

A Shadow Across the Heart.........................Jack M. Haringa
[JACK KETCHUM, Old Flames and The Book of Souls]

Faster Than You Can Read Them .........................Ben P. Indick
[BRIAN KEENE, Kill Whitey; BRIAN KEENE, Ghost Walk]

Torture, Cannibalism, and Necrophilia .........................Tony Fonseca
[BILL BREEDLOVE, ed., Like a Chinese Tattoo; NICK MAMATAS and SEAN WALLACE, ed., Realms: The First Year of Clarkesworld Magazine]

Everyday Horrors .........................Javier A. Martínez
[BENTLY LITTLE, The Vanishing; BENTLEY LITTLE, The Academy]

Nightmares and Dreamscapes .........................Robert Butterfield
[PATRICK McGRATH, Trauma; GREG F. GIFUNE, Dominion]

Confessionals .........................John Langan
[CHRISTOPHER CONLON, Midnight on Mourn Street; GRAHAM JOYCE, How to Make Friends with Demons]

Vampires Doing Good.........................June Pulliam
[TANANARIVE DUE, Blood Colony; JEWELL PARKER RHODES, Yellow Moon]

Only an Abundance of Horrors.........................Tony Fonseca
[WESTON OCHSE, Scarecrow Gods]

Erotic Fantasies and Necromantic Mysteries .........................Hank Wagner
[POLLY FROST, Deep Inside; SARAH MONETTE, The Bone Key]

The Departure of "Enigma" .........................Kevin Dole
[NICHOLAS ROYLE, The Enigma of Departure]

Ambitious Reading and Ambitious Feeling .........................Michael Marano
[STEVE RASNIC TEM and MELANIE TEM, The Man on the Ceiling]

Put-Downable, But Pick-Upable Again.........................Darrell Schweitzer
[ALEXANDRA SOKOLOFF, The Price]

A Gothic Landscape .........................Jim Rockhill
[JAMES DOIG, Ed. Australian Gothic: An Anthology of Australian Supernatural Fiction, 1867-1939]

Retropective Reviews: The Line of Terror.........................Arthur Machen
[WALTER DE LA MARE, On the Edge]

The Weird Scholar.........................S. T. Joshi

Capsule Reviews
Correspondence

That's 97 pages of reviews and essays on horror, dark fantasy, and suspense, and given that some of the small press material was also delayed, some of the pieces are even quite timely. As always, it's available directly from the publisher via http://www.hippocampuspress.com/journals/dead-reckonings-4.html or through the Horror Mall at http://horror-mall.com/DEAD-RECKONINGS-4-Magazine-Edited-by-S.-T.-Joshi-and-Jack-Madison-Haringa-p-18828.html

Last night I finally finished the last proofread of Dead Reckonings #4 (Fall 2008), which ran behind schedule for a whole host of reasons. However, it should be available before Christmas, and will make a great stocking stuffer for all your horror- and suspense-loving pals. Read it! It's swell!

And now to make up for that unabashed hucksterism, here are two articles from the Onion of horror, Up From the Underground:

Jack Haringa exposed as Hidden Influence on US Publishing, which is, obviously, about me. And it's funny...because IT'S TRUE!

and

Bring Me the Head of S.T. Joshi! If you don't get this article's satire, it may be about you.

I just got an email from S.T. that the new issue of Dead Reckonings is available, and I see that the cover image is posted at both Hippocampus Press and the Horror Mall. A little gravy for me: I finally made the cover by-lines (something I have no control over as editor). And the new cover color is...green!



DR3 at Hippocampus: http://hippocampuspress.com/journals/dead-reckonings-3.html

DR3 at Horror Mall: https://www.horror-mall.com/DEAD-RECKONINGS-3-Edited-by-S.-T.-Joshi-and-Jack-Madison-Haringa-p-17985.html

Go forth and order!

As promised, here's the table of contents for the third issue of Dead Reckonings. I hope to see this available in a few weeks via Horror Mall and the Hippocampus website.

DR3 TOC

Jim Rockhill on An Itinerant House and Other Ghost Stories by Emma Frances Dawson (Thomas Loring & Co.)

Michael Marano on Duma Key by Stephen King (Scribner)

June Pulliam on The New Weird, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (Tachyon), and Inferno, edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)

Stefan Dziemianowicz on The Grin of the Dark by Ramsey Campbell (PS/Tor)

John Langan on The Scalding Rooms (PS) and Rain (Gray Friar) by Conrad Williams

Mike Ashley on The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories, edited by Ian Alexander Martin (Humdrumming)

Rob Latham on One For Sorrow by Christopher Barzak (Bantam/Dell)

Bernadette Bosky on 5 Stories by Peter Straub (Borderlands)

Tony Fonseca on Sins of the Sirens, edited by John Everson (Dark Arts), and Five Strokes to Midnight, edited by Hank Schwaeble and Gary Braunbeck (Haunted Pelican)

Steven J. Mariconda on O Fortunate Floridian: H.P. Lovecraft's Letters to R.H. Barlow (University of Tampa) and Essential Solitude: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth (Hippocampus), both edited by S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz

Jack M. Haringa on Mad Dogs by Brian Hodge (Cemetery Dance) and The Unquiet by John Connolly (Atria)

Ben Indick on The Appetite by Nicholas Royle (Gray Friar)

Alan Warren on The Shallow End of the Pool by Adam-Troy Castro and Children of the New Disorder by Tim Lebbon and Lindy Moore (Creeping Hemlock)

Ramsey Campbell, Probably (column)

S.T. Joshi on Got to Kill Them All by Dennis Etchison and Slivers of Bone by Ray Garton (Cemetery Dance)

John Langan on Fangland by John Marks (Penguin)

Matt Cardin on Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti (Mythos) and Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)

Hank Wagner on The Painter, The Creature, and the Father of Lies (Earthling) and Mr. B. Gone (HarperCollins) by Clive Barker

Gary William Crawford on The Bleeding Horse and Other Stories by Brian J. Showers (Mercier Press) and Masques of Satan by Reggie Oliver (Ash-Tree)

Sherry Austin on Homeplace by Beth Massie (Berkley/Penguin) and The Worthy: A Ghost Story by Will Clarke (Simon & Schuster)

Jack M. Haringa on Now You're One of Us by Asa Nonami (Vertical)

Ben Indick on The Fate of Mice by Susan Palwick

Kevin Dole on Dark Hollow by Brian Keene (Leisure) and Firefly Rain by Richard Dansky (Wizards of the Coast)

Richard Bleiler on American Supernatural Tales, edited by S.T. Joshi (Penguin)

Scott Connors on Blue Devil Island by Stephen Mark Rainey (Thompson Gale) and Johnny Gruesome by Greg Lamberson (Bad Moon)

Capsule Reviews by diverse hands

...by someone I don't personally know! The genre is so tiny these days, and I've gone to so many conventions and conferences over the past 10 years, that this sort of thing seems to be a rare occurrence. In any event, Chris Perridas posted a review of the second issue of Dead Reckonings in the Indie Horror Spotlight over at the Horror Mall (where, incidentally, you can order copies--just follow the link at the end of the article). I don't know exactly when this article was posted, but I'm glad Mr. Perridas enjoyed the issue.

I have the final TOC of DR3 around here somewhere and will post that tonight or tomorrow.

But I managed to finish at last my feature review of Brian Hodge's Mad Dogs and John Connolly's The Unquiet for the third issue of Dead Reckonings. The piece came in at a little over 1700 words. The short version: both are worth reading.

Next, I need to complete my shorter review of Asa Nonami's Now You're One of Us. That should be under 1000 words. Oh, and capsule reviews of Piccirilli's The Fever Kill and Matt Ruff's Bad Monkeys. And there may be one more, if time permits. Other things are distracting me, of course, and it's back to work on Monday, too.

Thanks to everyone for the kind and supportive words. Tomorrow's going to be rough.

Appy polly loggies* for not being around in some time. I've been swamped with corrections and readings and materials-generation for my three courses, leaving me precious little time for anything other than hanging out a little with my family.

Had a birthday last week, and I take solace in the fact that I remain not only younger than but in a completely different decade of life from Brian Keene.

This weekend I'll be at the Rock and Shock Convention here in Worcester, MA. You can see the rest of the guests--primarily horror film celebs and semicelebs--at the website. Mainly I get to hang out with Jack Ketchum all weekend and have dinner with my friends in the HWA-New England chapter on Saturday.

If you're at the con, stop by the HWA table to say hi, and maybe I'll give you the soft sell on the first issue of Dead Reckonings. Unfortunately, neither the second issue nor Bandersnatch are yet available for me to flog relentlessly. Those of you going to World Fantasy in a few weeks may see both books before I do.

With luck, I'll post a brief report on Sunday.

*Yes, I'm teaching A Clockwork Orange right now in my Dystopian Literature class, which means I'm constantly fighting the urge to slip some Nadsat into my speech. Yes, I'm a total geek for that book.

I just finished up the line editing for the second issue of Dead Reckonings this afternoon. The issue clocks in at 117 pages, and once again I think it's a pretty stellar line-up offering a variety of voices on a very broad range of works. We even have a film review, though don't expect that to become a regular feature.

Sherry Austin--Ekaterina Sedia, The Secret History of Moscow

June Pulliam--Thomas Harris, Hannibal Rising

Ben Fisher--Christopher Conlon, ed, Poe's Lighthouse; James Robert Smith and Stephen Mark Rainey, ed., Evermore

Tony Fonseca--Thomas Tessier, Wicked Things; Philip Haldeman, Shadow Coast

Hubert Van Calenbergh--Clark Ashton Smith, Collected Fantasies, Vol. 1 and 2

Steven J. Mariconda--Clark Ashton Smith, Complete Poems and Translations, Vol. 3

Reggie Oliver--S.T. Joshi and Rosemary Pardoe, ed., Warnings to the Curious

Rob Latham--Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day

Brian Showers--Margaret Oliphant, The Library Window; Cheiro, A Study of Destiny

John Langan--Laird Barron, The Imago Sequence

S.T. Joshi--Michael Cisco, Secret Hours; The Traitor

Ben P. Indick--Sean Wallace and Paul G. Tremblay, ed., Fantasy; Scriptus Innominatus, ed., Zencore!

Ramsey Campbell, Probably

Darrell Schweitzer--Kim Paffenroth, Dying to Live

Donald R. Burleson--The Short Fiction of Ambrose Bierce: A Comprehensive Edition

Jack M. Haringa--Tom Piccirilli, The Midnight Road

Scott Connors--Caitlin R. Kiernan, Daughter of Hounds

Tony Fonseca--Peter Crowther, ed., Postscripts #10; Robert Morrish, ed., Thrillers Two (2, II)

Paula Guran--Elizabeth Hand, Generation Loss; Illyria

Richard Bleiler--Peter Straub, Sides

Jim Rockhill--Lucius Shepard, Softspoken; The Dagger Key and Other Stories

Michael Marano--Michael Marshall (Smith), The Servants; The Intruders

Matt Cardin--Richard Gavin, Omens

Hank Wagner--Mary SanGiovanni, The Hollower; Sarah Langan, The Missing

Van Viator--Lee Thomas, The Dust of Wonderland; John Farris, You Don't Scare Me

John Langan--Conrad Williams, The Unblemished

Alan Warren--Jeffrey Thomas, Deadstock; with Scott Thomas, Seas of Flesh and Ash

Sherry Austin--Steve Berman, Vintage: A Ghost Story

Ben P. Indick--Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policeman's Union

Jack M. Haringa--Michael Arnzen, Audiovile; Elizabeth Monteleone, ed., Dark Voices series; Gruesome (Giasone and Marcy Italiano), Johnny Gruesome

Darrell Schweitzer--Pan's Labyrinth

Stefan Dziemianowicz--The Darkling Plain (essay)

Capsule Reviews

As always, if you are the author of a forthcoming book or a contributor to an anthology, or if you are simply aware of a forthcoming book that you think would be of interest to DR, please let me know. You can leave a comment with contact info here or email me at uncletheobald _at_ yahoo(dot)com.

lokilokust has some nice things to say about the first issue at his livejournal.

He also started a thread at Shocklines that garnered some positive comments.

Has anyone else read Dead Reckonings #1 yet? Criticize the critics here.

My box of contrib copies of Dead Reckonings #1 finally arrived on Wednesday. There was much rejoicing. I actually wanted to spread them on the bed and roll around in them like Demi Moore in Indecent Proposal, but then no one would want one so I stopped. No, really.

This also means that S.T. and I are putting together the TOC for the next issue, which we plan (hope) to get out in time for the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs. Unfortunately, WFC falls right around the end of the first trimester, which is generally grading and comment hell week for me, and with the main hotel all filled up anyway, I doubt I'll be able to go. That's rather disappointing, as the theme this year of "Ghosts and Revenants" is particularly appealing and the con is within fairly easy driving distance.

I will be at Readercon this year, however, along with John Langan, who is also in the first issue of DR. And of course I'll be at Necon, which is sold out again this year. I have pretty packed July coming up.

Dead Reckonings #2 will actually be longer (about 40,000 words) than the first issue, and with some new reviewers as well. I've been pretty busy over the last couple weeks soliciting review copies of things, and some of the bigger publishers (e.g. Morrow) aren't exactly falling over themselves to get back to me. I'm hoping this gets easier as DR becomes established as a regular review venue, and hopefully we'll be able to increase the publication schedule to quarterly one of these days. Though even two issues a year is quite a lot of work.

Yesterday I watched (and by watched I mean fast-forwarded through at least half of) a cheap, independent exploitation film called Angst. Seriously not recommended; the director, Wolfgang Buld, seems to be the underground answer to Uwe Boll. Fiona Horsey, the lead actress who seems to be carving a niche for herself in these cheapie, shot-on-digital, direct-to-dvd Euro-turds, does what she can given the script, fellow actors' abilities, bad sound mixing, and ham-fisted direction, but what she does isn't nearly enough and it's not like she's going to valedictorian at RADA any time soon. It's not a pretty sight all in all, and I suppose you can learn all you need to know about the film from the name of the production company: Dark Black Films.

On tap for today is a complete viewing, at last, of Hard Candy. I've heard good things about it and have started it once or twice but never had the chance to watch it all the way through. Ellen Page, the girl who stars in it, played Kitty Pryde in X-Men III: The Last Stand, btw. I just learned that. And she was 18 when Hard Candy was filmed, for anyone who was eeked-out about any of the clips or descriptions they've heard about the film.