Review -- "The Goat Parade" by Peter N. Dudar

The Facts: After a few years of not having enough time to read anything, I've basically insisted on carving out a few minutes a week to try and read anything for fun--basically anything that is not for class. Given my belief that most writers really do try to help out each other, I've decided to write reviews of everything I read in my particular genres: fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror at the moment. Maybe, at some point, one hopes, a little science fiction.

The Book: The Goat Parade by Peter S. Dudar (2018, Grinning Skull Press). I bought it from the author himself at the Moxie Festival in Lisbon Falls, Maine, this past summer. 

The Review:  The Goat Parade was both very different and better than I expected it to be. I went into the book expecting a good Satan-driven horror story, in the "booga-booga, devil's gonna getcha!" style, which frankly, given Dudar's storytelling skill, would have been pretty awesome.

Instead, what I got was a story about people, four in particular, whose lives were hurtling directly at each other, all due to the puppeteer's hands of a barely-glimpsed Satan. These people, of decidedly different moral and ethical stances, along with some others, find themselves manipulated in some cases, destined in others.

To what? Toward the ending, of course. I won't describe it, but it is not what you expect it to be. This is a violent, intelligent horror story that...

Possibly It's Time to Get Back to Using This Thing

The Writer's Washroom has been around for about a decade, and it saw regular use for about three years, irregular use for the lion's share of the time, and pretty much misuse and neglect for the last couple.

I have not treated it well. With Facebook as much of a player as it is when dealing with expressing one's news, opinions, thoughts, and pictures of cute animals, blogs are pretty much nothing anymore.

Yet a few people keep them. After discussing politics on my FB page a week or so ago and realizing that there is no way I will ever stop being political on Facebook, I'm trying to think about how to tweak things.

I do believe that politics are important, and I have no interest in segregating my writing life from my personal beliefs. I also have no interest right now in starting a separate author page because I don't want to maintain two FB presences.

And why not remind you that this anthology is still available?

(I'm even, as impossible as it is to consider, thinking about blowing the dust off the ol' Twitter account and seeing if it still works. Yes, this does have a lot to do with the previously-mentioned Diabolical Plots' upcoming publication of "Beldame." If a website does a lot of its promotion through Twitter, it makes sense to utilize it. Diabolical Plots has a large Twitter base, and fans of theirs might become fans of mine.)

Sorry for the fragmented feel of this post; I actually wrote it over a couple of days, unsure as to what I was saying, let alone doing.

I guess I'm going to try this out again and see if an "old-school" blog has a purpose. I promise to keep it free of politics. I'm also going to do my darnedest to keep it clean(ish). One other thing. Since this is about writing, I think I'm going to post reviews of things I read here. I'm not going to review everything I read--mostly because I don't have time to read much, unless it's for class--but I'm going to try to review everything I read in my genres.

I'm going to post this to Facebook... maybe to Twitter... and see if I get any response from the social media platforms.

Please do me a favor: if you come here from a link at one of those sites, would you let me know either here or there with a comment? I'd like to see if there is anything to this experiment.

Thank you!

"Beldame" Schedule at Diabolical Plots

"The way-ay-ting is the hardest part..." -- philosopher T. Petty

This is the shortest time gap between posts in years... and frankly, the most I've posted in a year in... um... years. I might need to do something about that. But I digress.

Diabolical Plots, the future home of my short story, "Beldame," has released its upcoming fiction schedule, so I know when "Beldame" will be published and in what form.

On or around March 2019, they will release their e-book anthology, Diabolical Plots Year Five, and then in January 2020, "Beldame" will be published on the website, along with fellow authors T.J. Berg and Mari Ness. However, their newsletter subscribers will get the fiction a month early, which means, yes... if you're a subscriber there, you'll get "Beldame" as part of your 2019 holidays goodie bags.

I'd like to say, "More information as it becomes available, but I think that's it." So to recap...

Aaaaaaaaaghhhh!

"Beldame" to be Published at Diabolical Plots

Aaaaaaaaaaaghhhhh!

It has finally happened. One of my short stories, "Beldame," a modern fantasy that is probably my most upbeat (so far) tale will see print in a major market, Diabolical Plots. From what I can tell, it should be published either online or in an e-book anthology sometime next spring.

Besides the fact that I'm over-the-moon excited to see one of my personal favorite stories reach the public, I feel a need to just brag for a moment:

Diabolical Plots is a major science fiction/fantasy zine and is actually an SFWA-qualifying market. This means that I will be able to join the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America as an associate member after "Beldame" is published.

So, to recap:

"Beldame." Aaaaaaaaaghhhh!

Diabolical Plots. Aaaaaaaaaghhhh!

SFWA. Aaaaaaaaaghhh!

Semi-Colonic Irrigation is No Longer a Thing

I'm sorry to say that I've just found out that the planned anthology, Semi-Colonic Irrigation, which would have been the home of my first published poem, "Scenes from a living room at 4 a.m.," will no longer happen.

These things happen, so I'm not upset. But what it means is I may have to find another market for this poem. It's not horror; it's really not any genre. It just is what it is.

Let's see what happens to it.