Issue #20 (May 2012)

The Epitaph

Journal of the New England Horror Writers (NEHW)

The NEHW Committee:

Tracy L. Carbone – Co-Chair
Stacey Longo – Co-Chair
Dan Keohane – Treasurer
Jason Harris – Director of Publicity/Webmaster
K. Allen Wood – Director of Publications
Scott Goudsward – Director of Events
Danny Evarts – Art Director
Tim Deal (alternate)
T.J. May (alternate)

NEHW SIGNINGS AND READINGS:

South Windsor Strawberry Fest

The NEHW will have a space at the South Windsor Strawberry Fest June 16 in South Windsor, Connecticut. Participation will cost $15. Contact Jason at dudley228@gmail.com if you wish to participate.

NECON 32

The NEHW will have a table at NECON. Participation will cost $10. Members will be responsible to man the table for a couple hours if you choose to sell books. Contact Scott Goudsward at screaming602@gmail.com if you wish to participate.

Rhode Island Comic Con

The NEHW will be at Rhode Island Comic Con on November 3 and 4. The cost will be $25 per member to participate. Contact Jason at dudley228@gmail.com to be at the table.

Tantasqua’s Holiday Craft Fair

The NEHW will have some tables at the Tantasqua’s Holiday Craft Fair at the Tantasqua Regional Sr. High School in Fiskdale, MA. from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on December 1. It’s $10 to participate.

NEHW WRITING OPPORTUNITIES

From Scott Goudsward and Rachel Kenley:

Over the river and through the woods does not always lead to grandma’s house or happy endings—especially if grandma’s house is infested with zombies, or if grandma is really a Lovecraftian being in disguise. Once Upon an Apocalypse is a two volume post-apocalyptic anthology laden with the undead and otherworldly mythos crossing into the realm of fairy tales, nursery rhymes and other timeless stories. Editors Goudsward and Kenley, along with publisher Chaosium, are currently open to submissions for these two books of mixed-up retold fairy tales.

What we are looking for:

For both volumes, we want stories with strong narrative lines, stronger characters and a clear blending of the theme and the fairy tales.

For Volume One, imagine Cinderella arriving at the ball and discovering it filled with zombies. Or how different the story would be if it was Snow White and the Seven Zombies. Give us new horrors with Alice in Zombieland, and a prince who climbs Rapunzel’s hair to get away from and find a way to defeat—you guessed it—zombies.

In Volume Two, we want a strong dose of Lovecraft thrown in. What happens to the townspeople in The Boy who Cried Cthulhu? Pinocchio is going to have a much harder time getting out of the Old One than the whale; a wolf would have been preferable to Little Red Riding Hood and the Byahkee and the Little Mermaid has so much more to worry about then her legs and a missing voice when she faces a Deep One.

Once you choose a story to change it’s your call how far you will take it. Make the apocalypse clear and give some meaning as to why the dead are meandering through the streets and munching on the breathing or why the Elder God has paid the town a visit. Plague, pestilence, bio warfare, meteor shower, tail of a comet…be creative.

Because we don’t want duplicates of themes, you will be able to follow the progress of the anthologies on our blog (http://onceuponanapocalypse.com) or Facebook page (www.facebook.com/OnceUponAnApocalypse) where we’ll keep a current list of themes/tales accepted. For example, if we get a Sleeping Beauty story and it’s awesome, that will be it for the book. Stories should be 2K – 4K in length (please query for stories under or over our limit. We will consider them if they are of exceptional merit.) The only true way to have similar stories is A Snow White and the Seven Zombies in one and Snow White Star Vampire Slayer in the other.

What we are not looking for:

We all know these are dark fiction anthologies, but gore for the sake of gore is un-needed. This is not splatterpunk or extreme horror. Sex? If the story calls for it, fine, but keep it to an R rating (maybe even PG-13). We don’t to hear about insertions and spurting fluids, unless its blood from a bite wound or a gun shot. Try to keep the violence towards animals at a minimum. In some mythos, zombies chew on animals and that’s fine, but we don’t want redneck zombies killing all of Bo-Peep’s sheep for a pie. Finally, though we shouldn’t have to mention it (but we will, given the theme)—go easy on the child-related violence, please. And no pedophilia—that’s just skeevy.

Reading period: now through July 31, or until filled.

Pay rates: pays $.03 per word, no royalties, and three free books and additional copies at 50% off cover.

Email subs to: ouaastories@gmail.com

Format:

Stories should be an attachment to your cover letter email, NOT copied and pasted into the body of the email. The cover letter should include a single paragraph synopsis of the story and your publishing history. The submission should be in RTF or DOC format (no DOCX). Left aligned, 1/2” indentation for paragraphs, single spaced. Double space between scenes and use five stars (*****) for breaks in the story. Contact info should be on the first page of the story with word count.

Please do not query for your story until we’ve had it for at least 12 weeks. Publication is expected for the first half of 2013. No reprints and no simultaneous submissions. If we turn you down feel free to try again with a new story, but give it a few days between submissions.

And please, when submitting, be specific which book you are submitting to. We’re reading for both simultaneously. Subject line of the email should be Name, Story Name, Which book.

NEHW MEMBER NEWS:

From K. A. Laity:

A new dark fiction blog, http://aknifeandaquill.wordpress.com, can use some reviewers and reviews: not just horror but also dark fantasy and noirish crime.

Contact email: Luis_Vera05@yahoo.com

From Dan Foley:

Foley’s novel, Death’s Companion, is available at www.neconebooks.com.

From Tony Tremblay:

Tremblay’s story, “Song,” was accepted for the upcoming anthology, Eulogies 2. It will be published under his pen name, T. T. Zuma.

From Don Franklin:

The Reaper’s Walk: Hellstone, Franklin’s first novel in a five-part series, comes out in October in e-book and paperback. The novel is being published by Greyhart Press.

From Dale T. Phillips:

Phillips has published Apocalypse Tango as an e-book (print will be out soon).

It contains 5 stories about the end of the world:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/164257

He’s also one of the writers featured at the Chelmsford Library Local Authors Day, Saturday, June 9th, at 2 p.m. For more information, check out the library’s website,

http://www.chelmsfordlibrary.org/programs/programs/local_authors.html.

From Dave Chrisom:

Chrisom’s latest tale of suspense will appear in a fantasy/horror anthology by the Indie Book Lounge which will be handed out at the Phoenix Comic-Con. His story, “For Want of a Nail,” is a chilling account of a band of thieving Celtic warriors being haunted by a lethal Banshee hell-bent on revenge.

He is honored that his previous stories have appeared in Northern Haunts by Shroud Publishing, Zombiality: A Queer Bent on the Undead by The Library of Living Dead, Ante Mortem by Belfire Press and Horrorology by The Twisted Library.

From L.L. Soares:

Soares novel, Life Rage, will be coming out this September from Nightscape Press. More details can be found at http://www.nightscapepress.com/books/novels/.

The Collected Cinema Knife Fight: Volume One (2004 – 2009) by Michael Arruda and Soares is now available on Kindle, Nook, and other e-readers from Necon Ebooks (http://www.neconebooks.com/cinemaknifefightv1.htm). Volume One collects all of their early columns that appeared in the Hellnotes newsletter and the website Fear Zone.

His story, “The Gulch,” will be appearing in the anthology, Welcome to Hell (An anthology of western weirdness) edited by Eric S. Brown, coming soon from E-Volve Books.

From Paul Tremblay:

Tremblay is one of four horror authors teaching a four-week online horror writing workshop, Master the Elements for Constructing a Better Horror Story. The other three teachers are authors F. Brett Cox, John Langan, and Sarah Langan.

The workshop is from June 4 through 30. The price is $397. There is a 15 student maximum for the workshop.

The authors, who are currently members of the Shirley Jackson Awards’ Board of Trustees, are donating their proceeds to support the Shirley Jackson Awards.

For more information about the teachers and the course or to sign-up, click here.

From Michael Arruda:

The Collected Cinema Knife Fight: Volume One (2004 – 2009) by Arruda and L.L. Soares is now available for purchase at NeconEbooks.com.

He also reports that Necon Ebooks will publish an E-book collection of his movie column, In the Spooklight. The book will feature 114 columns from 2000-2012. It’s due out later this summer!

From Daniel R. Robichaud:

Robichaud has been working with indie role playing game company, Spectrum Games, on their new dominoes based RPG Macabre Tales. He wrote the first released sourcebook for the game, an adventure module called, “The Secret of the Dead Man’s Satchel.” It peaked at number seven on the indie game bestseller list at DriveThruRPG.com and has netted a couple of good reviews.

Currently, he is working on a lengthy sourcebook for the game, The Sinister Stranger and Other Tales of Terror, which includes a trio of adventures.

From Eric Dimbleby:

Dimbleby’s debut novel, Please Don’t Go, has won a 2012 Maine Literary Award for Speculative Fiction. His novel can be published in hard copy and Kindle version by visiting http://ericdimbleby.com/buyme.html.

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS:

Chris Samson (MA)
Jim Valente (MA)
Kimberly Dalton (CT)
Derek Wiggins (MA)
Alexis DeCoste (NH)
Jennifer Allis Provost (MA)

– Jason Harris, Editor, the Epitaph: Journal of NEHW
– Stacey Longo, Assistant Editor, the Epitaph: Journal of NEHW