Mysterious Dave Rides Again

Hopefully...

A few years I wrote something for a project Ron Shiflet was working on. Sadly, the project seems to have folded and I haven't been able to get ahold of Ron. I hope he's well. He's a talented writer and a heck of a nice guy.

Anyway, I put the story, "Decently and Quietly Dead" into my metaphorical trunk for a bit on the chance an opportunity would throw itself at me. This weekend it did.

My friend Win Scott Eckert sent me an email introducing me to Laura Givens who is working on an anthology called SIX GUNS STRAIGHT FROM HELL for Science Fiction Trails Publishing. I think it'll be a great fit, but am keeping my fingers crossed until I see if they agree.

Waiting

It has been too long since I updated anything here! This time (he said again) I will do my best to update things at least once per month.

Status of stories...

Accepted but not yet out:
"The Inside Man" for Moonstone's GREEN HORNET CHRONICLES
"Trail of the Brujo" for TALES FROM THE CAULDRON
"Zorro and the Bruja" for MORE TALES OF ZORRO
"Invisible Empire" for THE AVENGER CHRONICLES II

Submitted:
"Adrift on Other Seas" for HIGH SEAS CTHULHU II
"The Cwoss-Time Twaveler" for TIMES OF TROUBLE
"The Adventure of the Ethical Assassin" for Moonstone's Sherlock Holmes Anthology

In Progress:
"Kumiho" for Moonstone's Kolchak, the Night Stalker Anthology
"Like Magic" for MORE TALES OF ZORRO

A Fistfull of Hollars

The final title for the silly western anthology is A FISTFULL OF HOLLARS, OR HOW THE WEST WAS SILLY. I just got the galley proofs and it looks like a great (though very silly) book. I was especially pleased to see that the'd done a full page illustration of a scene from my story, "The Tragic Tale of Tyrannosaurus Tex". Seeing the great dinosaur gunfighter in all his glory took my breath away.

I hope to have a copy of the illustration I can post here, pronto!

Robots Beyond

I just found out that Robots Beyond from Permuted Press is now available at Amazon. This was a fun one ot work with, largely because editor Lane Adamson and a lot of the contributors are friends of mine. I had the chance to see some of the stories in the workshop stage and there is some seriously great stuff in here.

The table of contents is:

- Electric Crown by Thom Brannan
- The Last Protector by Billy Wong
- Franchise Hell by Ren Holton
- Burning Down the House by Paula Stiles
- Tinman by Jesse A. Lynn
- Crocus by William Carl
- Narrative Device by Alistair Bishop
- Other Dreams by Dave Dunwoody
- The Strange Affair of the Artisan's Heart by Joshua Reynolds
- Surveillance by R. Thomas Riley
- Primero by Richard Mosses
- The Cure by Christopher Donahue
- Hothead by Mark Patrick Lynch
- How Coyote Made Robot by John W. Oliver
- Again, Iabrochium by Joel Sutherland
- Be Swift, My Soul by Lane Adamson
- A Robot Named J35U5 by Matt R. Jones
- Nano-Domini by Matthew Baugh
- Are You Lonesome Tonight? by Doug Wojtowicz

Meeting the World's Giant Scaled Anteater Needs

I heard last night from Richard Crawford that Daikaijuzine would like to publish "Panzersloth" in their June 21, 2009 issue!

In his words:

There are not nearly enough stories that feature giant scaled anteaters, and I'm glad to see you have addressed this critical shortage.

This was a fun one to write, largely because it was a silly send-up of the giant monster movies of the 1950's. Mostly though, it was fun because it was a chance to work with my friend Leah Clarke. It's her second sale, the first having come just a couple of days earlier, and well-deserved. She is a writer to watch and a delight to work with.

And, just in case you were wondering what the giant creature that menaces Chicago in the story looks like. I present Pansy (normal-sized version).

The Avenger Chronicles

I got my contributor copies from Joe Gentile today!

Joe and I share that we read this series when we were young and loved it. The Avenger is Rivchard Henry Benson, a pulp hero who is the combination of super athlete, super inventor, and super detective (think Batman without the spiffy costume). His wife and daughter were presumed murdered by criminals and he vowed to protect others from the same sort of loss. The terrible shock of losing hs loved ones also turned Benson's hair and face white and gave him an odd paralysis that allows him to mold his flesh like clay. This makes him a natural master of disguise.

I haven't read the stories yet but an impressed by the talent they have brought in. I'm excited to have my story "In Forgetfulness Divine" (many thanks to Richard for the title and overall help with this one) alongside the sotries of such talented authors. The list is:
Tom DeFalco
Win Scott Eckert (an old friend!)
Joe Gentile (A newer friend!)
Clay and Susan Griffith
Ron Goulart (Who worked on the Avenger paperbacks in the 70's!)
CJ Henderson
Howard Hopkins
Paul Kupperberg
Max McCoy
Christopher Mills
Will Murray
Mel Odom
Gary Phillips
Martin Powell
Robert Randisi
James Reasoner
Richard Dean Starr (A friend and colaborator with all kinds of Moonstone projects!)
& Dan Wickline.

It's strange and humbling to work on a character I loved as a kid! It's amazing to see it out in print.

My Stories To Date

A friend recently asked about what I had in print and I realized I wasn't sure. Record keeping isn't exactly my best thing. It made sense to do something about that, and the blog seemed a good place to do it.

Many thanks to Win Scott Eckert for helping me to figure out how to make the cool slideshow feature work on this blog! I’m insufferably pleased with it!

For anyone who is curious, here is the tally for the moment:

STORY APPEARS IN...
"The Legacy of the Fox" (essay) MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE
"The Mask of the Monster" TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN – VOL 1
"Ex Calce Liberatus" TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN – VOL 2
"The Heart of the Moon" TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN – VOL 3
"Captain Future and the Lunar Peril" TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN – VOL 4
"Fool’s Gold" HELL’S HANGMEN
"The Cold Comes South" “In Lovecraft’s Shadow” Issue 1
"Mysterious Dan’s Legacy" ARKHAM TALES
"Clown Fish" HIGH SEAS CTHULHU
"Snake Oil" FRONTIER CTHULHU (Origin Award Semi-Finalist)
"Fire Lilies" A FIELD GUIDE TO SURREAL BOTANY
Enemy of My Enemy (With Mike Bullock) TALES OF ZORRO

IN FRENCH
TITLE APPEARS IN...
"Le masque du monstre" LES COMPAGNONS DE L'OMBRE (Tome 1)
"Ex Calce Liberatus" LES COMPAGNONS DE L'OMBRE (Tome 1)
"Le masque du monstre" LES NOMBRUESES VIES DE MAIGRET
"La voie de la grue" LA SAGA DE MME. AROMOS (Tome 4)

ACCEPTED BUT NOT YET IN PRINT
TITLE WILL APPEAR IN...
"The Way of the Crane" TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN – VOL 5
"In Forgetfulness Divine" THE AVENGER CHRONICLES
"Nano-Domini" ROBOTS BEYOND
"Decently and Quietly Dead" “In Lovecraft’s Shadow” Issue 2

Have You Ever...

Ever written something and thought... "Well, at least I'm done" and then gotten back an amazing response?

I finished my most spiritually ambitious piece of writing this week. "Nano-Domini" is the story of a medical nanobot and his developing relationship with the scientist whose body he shares. It's meant to parallel the relationship of God and humanity from an unusual perspective.

I was worried about it being too preachy (it might stll be just a bit) and it felt clunky as I was writing it. I ran it past my writer's group thinking I would probably get some kind words about how not every story can be your best.

The responses I've gotten back have been better than to anything else I've ever submitted there(!) I'm floored and surprised (very pleasantly so) to get the comments I'm getting, and from people whose opinions I really respect and value!

Something went right and I'm really tickled about it! Now I get to be nervous about my story making the ROBOTS BEYOND cut.

Leah says that things look hopeful for her story (a wonderfully creepy/funny Lovecraftean tale with robots) and I got an advance look at the rewrite of Bobbie's Civil War robots story (which was very good before and is amazing now). It would be so cool if we all made it!

The Avenger

I'm doing a couple of other colaborations for Moonstone's THE AVENGER CHRONICLES with Richard Starr. These weren't meant as colaborations originally. Richard was pressed for time so I helped him with his story "Tides of Justice" and he returned the favor with my story "Images of Yesterday".

I'm looking forward to this collection with great anticipation! I'm also enjoying all the opportunities that Moonstone is talking about coming up. They're publishing new adventures of many of my all time favorite characters and that's very exciting to be involved in, plus Richard and Joe have been great to work for. :)

Panzersloth

I'm doing my first intentional colaboration on a short story. "Panzersloth" will be a submission for the Giant Creatures anthology that Permuted Press is putting together. I'm working with Leah Clarke who is a delight to work with. (Note to self: Choosing a writing partner who is very talented, has a compatable sense of humor, and is fun to work with is a good strategy!)

The story involves a giant pangolin (that's a rare mammel that looks like a cross between an anteater and an armadillo) that attacks Chicago. It's (mostly thanks to Leah) the funniest story I've ever worked on.

Frontier Cthulhu Review

The estimable Matthew Carpenter who posts lots of reviews on Amazon has weighed in on Frontier Cthulhu. His review cam be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/2wkgv6 and scroll down the page a bit.

Here's what he had to say about my story:

"Snake Oil" - Matthew Baugh has been busy with stories in Arkham Tales,
High Seas Cthulhu (the excellent "Clownfish"), Hell's Hangmen and In
Lovecraft's Shadow issue #1. I wonder if Dave Mather, descendent of Cotton
Mather, will become a fixture in Mr. Baugh's stories? Dave Mather is a
deputy marshal in Nevada who gets mixed up in some mysterious goings on. As
you might surmise from the title, this is the Yiggiest story in the book.

(It's nice to be the Yiggiest)

One small correction. My story is set near Las Vegas, New Mexico. I think Mr. Carpenter (understandably) thought of Nevada when he saw the name.

mixed reviews

I got a nice mention in the review of HIGH SEAS CTHULHU http://tinyurl.com/23w8bm and there's a new review of TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN 4 that says some nice things about my story http://tinyurl.com/2ynfw5. (I'm also excited that I've finally figured out how to make links in my blog!!!)

That's the good news. The bad is that "Fox Hunt" was declined by Cat Scratch Books for their anthology. When they asked for a supernatural/gothic story up to 17,000 words long I didn't think it was for me. However, the challenge stuck in my head and I came up a story I really liked. The editor at CatScratch said she liked it too and it made it through at least one round of readings. In the end though it didn't make it.

Anybody know a good market for supernatural/gothic very long short stories?

Four into the Void

I've sent four more stories out into the outer reaches of internet publications. Several of them were rejected earlier and the (hopeful) improved versions are back into the fray.

"Fox Hunt" is away to the as-yet untitled ahthology that Cat Scratch Books is putting out. This is a gothic romance(!) with fantastic elements. In my case it's the story of a young woman who goes to live as the companion of an elderly woman in a secluded estate in the interior of Alaska. There are shape-shifting animals and people as well as connections to two other stories, "The Cold Comes South" and "Kumiho." It was very different for me for a number of reasons, not the least that it's 17,ooo words long which is almost twice anything i've done before. It was a fun exercise. I hope they like it.

"Trail of the Brujo" was recently rejected by Weird Tales but is now on the way to the anthology CROSS-GENRE CTHULHU. It's a Mysterious Dave western with a villain and a supporting character I particularly like. The editor is John Sunseri, who I know likes weird westerns. (He had a story in HELL'S HANGMEN.)

"Kumiho" is a horror offering based on Korean legends about a nine-tailed fox. I usually don't write straight horror. I tend to like adventure stories with fantastic elements much better. Good horror has an air of hopelessness and meaninglessness. That's what makes it so frightening. Unfortunately, I'm not much interested in hopelessness and meaninglessness. However, I have really enjoyed Asian fox tales for much of my life and enjoyed writing one. It's gone off to an anthology called LYCANTHROPE: THE BEAST WITHIN. They said they wanted lycanthropes other than werewolves so this may suit their needs. (What would you call a were-fox anyway? A vulpanthrope?)

Finally, "Horse Latitudes" is a high seas adventure featuring the same protaganist as "Clown Fish." It's a strange story that starts out like a high adventure then takes a strange turn through an unseen world. It was inspired by some beautiful stories by Lord Dunsany I read a while back. It's going to CLOCKWORK PHOENIX which is collecting stories that, "...stories that sidestep expectations in beautiful and unsettling ways."

"Horse Latitudes" is inspired by an old Jim Morrison poem about a part of the Atlantic where ships were often becalmed and horses were sometimes thrown overboard. That image has always stayed with me.

Crushed Again

My story "Trail of the Brujo" was just rejected by "Weird Tales." That's discouraging of course, it's a story I felt rather proud of and this is two rejections. I wonder how I'll go on.

I console myself however with the fact that I'm being turned down by such an impressive market.

Crushed by the Machine of Death

I just heard today from the editors of MACHINE OF DEATH. They wrote a nice rejection letter for my submission to their anthology. (I really do appreciate it when people take the trouble to write a polite letter. So many don't.)

They didn't criticize my story except to say that it didn't fit what they had in mind for the volume as well as many other submissions did. They had about 700 submissions so they got to choose what was going to fit together best.

I can understand that. I read an essay by Marion Zimmer Bradley awhile back that said that most rejections are for that reason. The story can be conceptually brilliant, stylistically flawless, and deeply compelling and still not be a good fit for a collection. That's a comforting thought...

The editors said that I was free to submit the story elsewhere and wished me luck. I appreciate that, though I doubt it will be practical. Their anthology is about a world where there is a machine that can predict the manner of a person's death. You just head down to the local convenience story and drop some money in the slot and it will crank out a technically accurate (but cryptic) sentance like "auto accident."

The machine doesn't tell you how long you've got, or any of the sepcifics of the death. A person who got the "auto accident" might give up driving only to slip on a child's toy car and break his neck.

My submission was titled "Act of God." It was meant to be an ambiguous story highlighting people's attitudes about the existence of God. If this guy's going to die because of an act of God, does that mean that God exists? What does that say about the character of God? In the end the poor guy's death doesn't resolve anything. Atheists and fundamentalists alike stick to their own interpretation of events and belief in God remains a matter of faith rather than hard evidence.

It wasn't my best story, but I liked it. Maybe I will submit it elsehweresomeday, but if it doesn't fit in the MACHINE OF DEATH I don't have a clue where it will fit.

It's no big deal though. I've learned to bear rejection with grace and equanamity. Now please excuse me while I go curl up in the foetal position and feel sorry for myself :(

Yasuke

Micah Harris just looked over this story and gave me some good suggestions. This is my take on the Golden Age SF stories and (I hope) will read like Northwest Smith's adventures on Barsoom. (If you don't know Northwest Smith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Smith or Barsoom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barsoom you have a treat ahead if you check them out!)

This is my first story with a female protaganist. I hope it's a reasonably successful attempt. The heroine, Cat Morgan is an homage to C.L. Moore, one of the greats of Depression era Science Fiction and one of the first women in the field. The story had been accepted for an anthology called "The Big Black" but that went away when G.W. Thomas was forced to fold Rage Machine books. (I hated to see that happen to a struggling small press, and especially to G.W. who is a good guy.)

Anyway, it's a quick polish with Micah's suggestions and off to a new home (I hope) with "Intergalactic Medicine Show" which is a neat looking magazing I've only just become aware of. Wish me luck!

Avast!

I just heard that my story "Clown Fish" has officially made it into HIGH SEAS CTHULHU!

That be no bilge matey, arrr!

http://www.esp-books.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=221

More Submissions

I've been submitting mostly to anthologies to date and haven't cracked the professional magazine market. I recently sent "Trail of the Brujo" (Mysterious Dave again) to Weird Tales http://www.ralan.com/sfpro/listings/weirdtales.htm so I've got my fingers crossed. It's a revival of the great Weird Tales of the pulp era that gave people like Robert E. Howard, Seabury Quinn, and H.P. Lovecraft their start in writing. It would be a thrill to be published under that title.

I'm revising "Yasuke," which is my stab at old fashioned space opera, to sent to Intergalactic Medicine show http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=content&article=submissions. It's a long story (9,000 + words) that was accepted to an anthology called "The Big Black II." Unfortunately that anthology went away when Rage Machine books folded.

There's a story a wrote a while back called "Horse Latitudes" inspired by the Jim Morrison poem. It's starts as an adventure story but moved to something unearthly and dreamlike. (I haven't done that before. I hope it comes across the way I want it to. There's a new anthology called Clockwork Phoenix http://www.clockworkphoenix.com/ this might be good for so I'll be polishing it for that.

Submitting stories is getting easier but I still have a big hollow feeling in my story every time i do it.

Shadowmen

Jean-Marc Lofficier just posted the cover for TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN vol 4 on the Black Coats Press website. http://www.blackcoatpress.com/talesshadowmen04.htm

In addition to the story I mentioned earlier, he is including a flash fiction piece of mine. This is part of a series of flash stories by different authors build around a villainess named Madame Atomos. She is a sort of female Fu Manchu type created by French author André Caroff. Unlike so many Aisan supervillains who just wanted to rule the world, Madame Atomos had a more compelling motive. She was seeking revenge on the United States for the destruction of Niroshima and Nagasaki. http://www.coolfrenchcomics.com/atomos.htm My story reflects on the desire for revenge and what it does to a person.

Cthulhu Frontiers

I just heard from William Jones that it's okay to mention that CTHULHU FRONTIERS is being released by Chaosium Press this month. (No link yet) This is a collection of horror in the grand tradition of H.P. Lovecraft set in the wild west. My story "Snake Oil" is going to be included in that and I'm very excited!

I've been writing weird westerns for a while now. Snake Oil will be the 4th story of Mysterious Dave Mather to see print. Dave was a historical gunfighter and a lawman in New Mexico and Kansas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysterious_Dave He was also a descendant of Cotton Mather, the Congregational minister famous for his involvement in the Salem Witch Trials. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_Mather

I couldn't have created a character more perfect for this kind of story. He has come alive in my mind and I enjoy writing about him more than any other character.

The other thing I'm free to mention is that my story "Captain Future and the Lunar Peril" has been accepted in vol 4 of TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN which Black Coat Press will be putting out near the end of the year. It's my homage to the wonderful days of early SF when we knew very little about the solar system and anything was possible. As Douglas Adams said, "It was a time when men were real men, women were real women, and small furry creatures from Venus were real small furry creatures from Venus."