DOUGLAS SMITH | Writing the Fantastic

My story "Nothing" has been reprinted yet again, this time in an anthology of flash fiction entitled, er, Flush Fiction, from the nice and talented people who publish Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.

The antho is subtitled "88 Short-Short Stories You Can Read in a Single Sitting." Not sure why 88, unless perhaps Uncle John keeps a piano in his bathroom.

Anyway, you can check it out here on Amazon. Go on—buy a copy and keep it in your bathroom. Even if you don't like the stories, you never know when some extra paper will come in handy (just don't use pages 156-159, please).

My urban fantasy (well, okay, it's more of a wilderness fantasy) "Spirit Dance" will be reprinted in the upcoming anthology Blood and Water from Bundoran Press, edited by Hayden Trenholm. "Spirit Dance" was my first published story and was a finalist for the Aurora Award in 1998. A French translation of the story won the Aurora in 2001. It was included in my 2008 collection, Impossibilia. Check out the draft cover for Blood and Water to the right. Here's a description of the anthology from Bundoran:

"Conflicts over oil and diamonds marked the latter half of the twentieth century but the fights of the next century will be more visceral. You can live without oil or diamonds but try surviving without more basic things: fresh water, safe food or clean air. Try surviving while deserts form in Africa and the heartland of America; while oceans claim back coastal cities and Pacific islands. Blood and Water will gather the stories of the new resource wars that will mark the next fifty years – stories of conflict and cooperation, of hope and despair – all told from a uniquely Canadian perspective."

Judging from the authors listed in the table of contents, this is going to be a great anthology:

• Drowntown by Camille Alexa
• Bubbles and Boxes by Julie Czerneda
• Phoebastria by Jennifer Rahn
• Hard Water by Christine Cornell
• Rabbit Season by Fiona Moore
• Not a Drop to Drink by Stephanie Bedwell-Grime
• Scrabbling By Isabella Hodson
• Bad Blood by Agnes Cadieux
• We Take Care of Our Own by Kate Heartfield
• The Parable of the Clown by Derek Künsken
• Blue Train by Derryl Murphy
• The Cow’s in the Meadow, the Blood’s in the Corn by Margaret Curelas
• Rash of Flowers by Ryan McFadden
• This is the Ice Age by Claude Lalumière
• Storm by Gerald Brandt
• Little Canada by Kevin Cockle
• Spirit Dance by Douglas Smith
• The Great Divide by Brent Nichols
• Digging Deeper by Susan Forest
• Watching the Human Garden by Jean-Louis Trudel

I'll post again when the anthology is published and available for purchase.

My story "Nothing" has been reprinted again, this time in the charity flash fiction horror anthology, Slices of Flesh, edited by Stan Swanson. I was very happy to have a story of mine selected and to be able to contribute to a good cause. However, when I got my contributor's copy and saw the cover, I was even more thrilled. Check it out at the left.

Recognize that style? Familiar, yes? That's because the cover artist was none other than Mike Mignola of Hellboy comics fame. A very cool surprise bonus to having a story picked.

Net proceeds from the Slices of Flesh anthology go to a variety of charities chosen by the publisher, Dark Moon Books, including various reading and literacy programs, the Horror Writers Association Hardship Fund, and the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation. The anthology is available for purchase at Amazon.

My translated collection, La Danse des Esprits (Dreampress, France, 2010), which earlier was a finalist (yeah, past tense – I lost) for France's juried Prix Masterton, was also a finalist (yeah, past tense again – I lost this one too) for another French juried award, the Prix Bob Morane.

The Prix Bob Morane Award was established in 1999 by well-known French editor Marc Bailly to pay tribute to one of the most well known French fictional characters. Created in 1953 by Henri Vernes, Bob Morane first appeared in books, but then spread to comic books, television series, cartoons, and even video games. His adventures spanned multiple genres, including science fiction, fantasy, fantasy, and espionage thrillers.

Although I ended up not winning either, it really was an unexpected thrill for me, an English writer, to have my collected stories nominated for two awards in the same year in another language and another country.

Whoa, I'm way behind in posting updates and news here, so I'll be trying to catch you up on some recent sales and publications over the next week or so.

To clarify the title line above, actually quite a bit is published in White Cat Magazine, an excellent online fiction magazine that "is all about encouraging writers to keep writing, readers to keep reading and to inspire a sense of elegant possibilities in the creative community."

White Cat published my short-short story, "Nothing," in their January issue, and you can still read it in their archive for a while or get your own copy here.

This story first appeared in my collection Chimerascope in 2010. It's the shortest piece I've ever written at about 1,000 words, and as you'll see from some future posts, it's currently rather popular.

On June 9-10, 2012, I'll once again be participating in the Enbridge "Ride to Conquer Cancer", a 2-day major cycling event that raises money for The Princess Margaret Hospital, one of the top 5 cancer research hospitals in the world. If you're interested, you can see some pictures and read my story from last year's ride on my personal RTCC page here.

I'll be cycling over 200 km that weekend, with thousands of other riders. This time, I'm reversing last year's route, starting in Niagara Falls on the Saturday and finishing up at the CNE grounds in Toronto on Sunday.

I just posted some additional updates to my Foreign Market List.

I'd blogged earlier (here and here) about my recent translated collection, La Danse des Esprits, that was published in October 2011 by Dreampress in France. I've just received news that the collection has been selected as a finalist for the 2012 Prix Masterton.

The Prix Masterton is a juried French award established in 2000 by Marc Bailly to pay tribute to Graham Masterton, "a writer who has left his mark on fantasy literature since the late 1970s." The prize is awarded in three categories: Best Novel in French, Best Translated Novel, and Best Short Story Collection, all within the literature of the fantastic.

La Danse des Esprits, which includes an introduction by the multi-award winning Canadian fantasy writer Charles de Lint, contains thirteen of my previously published fantasy stories, including five Aurora finalists, a Best New Horror selection, a new Heroka story ("Dream Flight"), and the Aurora-winning "Spirit Dance" that gives the collection its name.The complete 2012 ballot is as follows:

Novels (French):

Sire Cedric : Le jeu de l'ombre, le Pré aux Clercs Fabien Clavel : Le Miroir aux vampires, Baam Jean-Philippe Depotte : Les Jours étranges de Nostradamus, Denoël Viviane Etrivert : Masky, Argemmios Emilie Witwicki-Barbet : Les Insoumis, Val Sombre

Novels (translated to French):

Aliette de Bodard : D'obsidienne et de sang, Les Chroniques Aztèques, Eclipse (translated by Laurent Philibert-Caillat) Gail Carriger : Sans âme, Orbit (translated by Sylvie Denis) Kotaro Isaka : La Priere d'Audubon, Picquier (translated by Corinne Atlan) Georges Mann : Les Revenants de White Chapel, Eclipse (translated by Pierre-Paul Durastanti) China Mieville : The city & the city, Fleuve Noir (translated by Nathalie Mège)

Collections (both French and translated):

Serge Delsemme : Service des rebuts, in Galaxies, La filière belge Patrick Eris : Docteur Jeep, Rivière Blanche Frédéric Livyns : Les Contes d'Amy, Edilivre Douglas Smith : La Danse des esprits, Dreampress (translated by Rose M Guillaume and Benoît Domis) Lisa Tuttle : Ainsi naissent les fantômes, Dystopia (translated by Mélanie Fazi)

The jury will announce the winners sometime in March. Wish me luck!

I've posted a bunch of updates to my Foreign Market List, so check them out if you're a writer interested in submitting to foreign language (i.e., non-English) short fiction markets.

Update: This event will begin at 6:30pm, Jan 30, 2012

Five years ago, on December 13, 2006, my dad passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer's. I was therefore very pleased to be one of the authors invited to attend the inaugural "Authors Fight Alzheimer’s" book signing fundraiser. The event has been put together by Canadian authors and publishers in conjunction with the Alzheimer’s Society, and will be held on the evening of January 30, 2012, at the North York Central Library Auditorium, 5120 Yonge Street, Toronto.

If you can, please show up, meet an author, buy a book, get a book signed, or just show your support in the fight against a disease that steals us from the memories of our loved ones and takes them from us before their time.

From the organizers:

Authors of various genres will be present to sign their books with the proceeds going to fight Alzheimer’s disease. The theme "Read…Think…Remember" promotes keeping the mind active through reading, an important defense against the disease.

Author Attendees (as of December 18) include:

• MuseItUp Publishing – Joanne Elder, Sandra Clarke, Kevin Craig, Nancy Bell, Helene Prevost
• Double Dragon Publishing – Deron Douglas, Anne Grobbo
• Chizine Publications – Doug Smith (two-time Aurora Award winner), Caitlin Sweet
• Dragon Moon Press – Erik Buchanan, Jessica Frey
• Dark Dragon Publishing – Karen Dales
• Crime Writers of Canada – Melodie Campbell, Rick Blechta, Joan Boswell, Alison Bruce, Sheila Dalton, Alex Markman
• The Writers Community of York Region – Malcolm Watts, Heather Lambert
• And - I.J. Schecter, Peter Dennis, Mark Pezzelato.

Guest Speaker – Dr. Sandra Black, Director, LC Campbell Cognitive Neurology Research Unit, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Professor, department of medicine (neurology), University of Toronto

Thanks to Deron Douglas for publishing a commemorative book for this event.

Authors interested in participating in the event or for more information, please contact the Event Organizer:
Joanne Elder jelder1@rogers.com

CORPORATE SPONSORS:
Borden, Ladner, Gervais LLP
MuseItUp Publishing, Sunrise of Aurora, Edward Street Bistro