Stephen Studach interviewed Brent Hayward for his first novel, Filaria, which is ChiZine Publications' (http://chizinepub.com) first title. It's up at Cemetery Dance right now:

http://www.cemeterydance.com/page/CDP/FREEREADBrentHaywardInterview

Stephen also reviewed the book for Australia's HorrorScope:

http://ozhorrorscope.blogspot.com/2008/05/review-filaria.html

ChiZine Publications (http://chizinepub.com) is looking for someone to help out with marketing and promotions of the press. If you have the time and (preferably) experience, shoot me an email with some credentials and such.

Payment: peanuts (probably a copy of each TPB, plus a small percentage of whatever each book makes)

The email is:

ChiZine Newsletter (May 2008 edition)

~~~~~
Table of Contents

1. 36th issue of ChiZine is still live!
2. Current members tally
3. 14th ChiZine/Leisure short story contest opening June 1st
4. Film reviews
5. Member news
6. New Leisure Books horror titles
~~~~~

The 36th issue of ChiZine is still live!

Featuring fiction by:

"The Dude Who Collected Lovecraft" by Nick Mamatas and Tim Pratt
"Dry Rain" by Grant Palmquist
"Small Monuments" by An Owomoyela

With poetry by:

"California Noir" by Bruce Boston
"On a Beach" by A.M. Muffaz
"Fairy Tale (3)" by Jana Phipps
"You must go to the ocean and jump in" by Cary Tennis

Go here to access the new fiction and poetry:
http://chizine.com/fiction.htm

There's also a new column by David Niall Wilson here:
http://chizine.com/dnw.htm

+++

NEW MEMBERS:

Fábio Fernandes . . . São Paulo, Brazil
Jamie Grove . . . OH, USA
Sean Baron . . . IL, USA
Nancy O. Greene . . . MD, USA
Bridget Morrow . . . CA, USA
Michael Laemmle . . . NM, USA
Christopher M. Cevasco . . . NY, USA
Michael Johnston . . . Ireland
Nadia Bulkin . . . NE, USA
Chaz Siu . . . CA, USA
Terry Ray . . . AL, USA
Jennifer Oliver . . . ON, Canada
Jeffrey Redmond . . . MI, USA
John Arkwright . . . GA, USA
Neil Davies . . . Wirral, UK
Alison Littlewood . . . West Yorkshire, UK

The Chiaroscuro is 1,887 members strong in 47 countries.

+++

14TH CHIZINE/LEISURE SHORT STORY CONTEST

Here is your final 14th ChiZine/Leisure Short Story Contest judging
line-up:

Nancy Baker
Claude Lalumière
Derek McCormack
David Nickle
Cherie Priest
Peter Straub (tie-breaker)

The contest opens June 1st and closes June 30th. Details will go up at
the ChiZine site sometime later in May.

+++

FILM REVIEWS:

Phil Brugalette reviews THE RUINS and THE ORPHANAGE.

http://www.chizine.com/potshots.htm

+++

**MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS**

From James S. Dorr:

A new story by James S. Dorr, "All One Wants for Christmas," has just
been published in the electronic flash fiction journal POSTCARDS
FROM..., while reprints "Invisible People" and "Sunrise Revival" have
come out in SPECFICME'S FEATURED FICTION and DEMON MINDS respectively.
Dorr has also published three new poems, "What's A Zombie to Do?" in
Spec House of Poetry's print anthology SFPA POETRY CONTEST - 2007:
SONNETS and, electronically, "The Fox" in RAVEN ELECTRICK and "The
Assignation" in MOUTH FULL OF BULLETS.

+++

And now a word from our sponsor . . .

Available this month from Leisure Books:

THE 5TH WITCH
by Graham Masterton

A new and powerful crime alliance holds Los Angeles in a grip of
terror. Anyone who opposes them suffers a horrible fate . . . but not
by human hands. Bizarre accidents, sudden illnesses, inexplicable and
gruesome deaths, all eliminate the alliance's enemies and render the
crime bosses unstoppable. Every deadly step of the way, their constant
companions are four mysterious women, four shadowy figures who wield
more power than the crime bosses could ever dream of. But at the heart
of the nightmare lies the final puzzle, the secret of . . . The 5th Witch.

BLOODSTONE
by Nate Kenyon

A man on the run from his past. A woman taken against her will. A
young man consumed by rage . . . and a small town tainted by darkness.
In White Falls, a horrifying secret is about to be uncovered. The town
seems pleasant enough on the surface. But something evil has taken
root in White Falls—-something that has waited centuries for the right
time to awaken. Soon no one is safe from the madness that spreads from
neighbor to neighbor. The darkness is growing. Blood is calling to
blood. And through it all . . . the dead are watching.

Leisure Books
http://dorchesterpub.com/Dorch/Genre.cfm?L1=1&L2=0

Until next month, stay dark,

Brett Alexander Savory
Editor-in-Chief

ChiZine: Treatments of Light and Shade in Words
http://chizine.com

**Next ChiZine Newsletter will be June 1st, 2008

Cemetery Dance has run an interview with CZP's premiere author, Brent Hayward, about his novel Filaria. It was conducted by Stephen Studach.

http://www.cemeterydance.com/page/CDP/FREEREADBrentHaywardInterview

There are only 9 copies of the hardcover left. Click on the book cover at the interview page to order yours!

Goddamn. Gotta love the cover for Tesseracts 12. Pub date is September 1st, but you can pre-order your copy now at Amazon.ca:

For those with interest (and that should damn well be all of you!), here's ChiZine Publications' schedule up till the middle of 2009:

June '08: Filaria by Brent Hayward (novel)

October '08: Untitled short story collection by Robert Boyczuk

January '09: The Tel Aviv Dossier by Lavie Tidhar & Nir Yaniv (novel)

April '09: Monstrous Affections by David Nickle (collection)

Quick note that Tesseracts 12, edited by Claude Lalumiére, is up for pre-order now at Amazon.ca:

http://www.amazon.ca/Tesseracts-Twelve-Claude-Lalumi%C3%A8re/dp/1894063155

____________
Book Description

First in the Tesseracts Series in which all stories are novella length!

Cavemen and woolly mammoths invade the Yukon! Mythological creatures cause havoc in ancient feudal Japan! Women with power over love and death stalk the streets of Montreal! A modern Scheherazade seeks to understand love in a Toronto suffused with magic and fable! A small town in Alberta is rife with pagan rituals! Super-heroes tackle Korean politics, maniacal super-villains, and corporate downsizing! As the world faces environmental collapse, reality-TV adventurers battle giant beasts from the ocean depths!

Tesseracts Twelve features all-new exciting and imaginative work by: E.L. Chen, Randy McCharles, Derryl Murphy, David Nickle, Gord Sellar, Grace Seybold, and Michael Skeet & Jill Snider Lum.

With a foreword by Brett Alexander Savory, author of In and Down, one of Quill & Quire's "Books of the Year" for 2007, and editor of the Bram Stoker Award winning horror website ChiZine.

Quick note to let you all know that Burning Effigy has its own order page at Horror Mall now:

https://www.horror-mall.com/Burning-Effigy-Press-p-1-c-376.html

Currently, there's very limited quantities of books by Nick Kaufmann, Gemma Files, and me and Gord Zajac (actually, my and Gord's book is sold out at the moment, but Horror Mall will be getting new copies in very soon).

Go here to listen to me prattle on about video game violence and Stephen King:

http://angryrobot.ca/2008/04/10/robout-sounds-14

Even if you're not an angry robot (which I suspect several of you to be).

ChiZine Newsletter (April 2008 edition)

~~~~~
Table of Contents

1. 36th issue of ChiZine is live!
2. Current members tally
3. Special Announcements
4. Film reviews
5. Book reviews
6. New Leisure Books horror titles
~~~~~

The 36th issue of ChiZine is live!

Featuring fiction by:

"The Dude Who Collected Lovecraft" by Nick Mamatas and Tim Pratt
"Dry Rain" by Grant Palmquist
"Small Monuments" by An Owomoyela

With poetry by:

"California Noir" by Bruce Boston
"On a Beach" by A.M. Muffaz
"Fairy Tale (3)" by Jana Phipps
"You must go to the ocean and jump in" by Cary Tennis

Go here to access the new fiction and poetry:
http://chizine.com/fiction.htm

There's also a new column by David Niall Wilson here:
http://chizine.com/dnw.htm

+++

NEW MEMBERS:

William T. Vandemark . . . TX, USA
Travis Dant . . . MO, USA
Rochita Loenen-Ruiz . . . Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands
Deanna Bell . . . NJ, USA
Jason Duke . . . AZ, USA
Valerie Cunningham … RI, USA
Matt Reed … CA, USA
Richard Wright … Scotland
Jenny Blackford … Victoria, Australia
Gerald Budinski … NY, USA
Gaila Swindell … PA, USA
Jamie Lackey … PA, USA
Keith Sutherland … NY, USA
Colin McKay Miller … CO, USA
Chandler Kaiden … IL, USA
Dustin … KY, USA

The Chiaroscuro is 1,871 members strong in 47 countries.

+++

*** SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS ***

"DAEMON" by Harry Shannon

The final book in the 'Night' trilogy is now in trade paperback!

"At the top of his game. Honest, cutting and just plain talented as hell."
–Hellnotes

Delirium Books, March 2008
http://www.myspace.com/daemonnovel

Check out the book trailer for"DAEMON"
http://www.youtube.com/v/qSPS05VCIZY

FIRST CHIZINE PUBLICATIONS TITLE NEARLY SOLD OUT IN HARDCOVER!

I thought I'd just do you all a favour by pointing you toward ChiZine
Publications' (http://chizinepub.com) very first novel, Brent
Hayward's FILARIA, coming out at the end of May in a beautiful limited
edition hardcover. Of the 100-copy print run, only about 10 remain, so
you'll want to snag one up ASAP. They're available only at Horror
Mall; here's a direct link:

http://horror-mall.com/FILARIA-by-Brent-Hayward-p-17732.html

Cover art by Erik Mohr. Foil stamp artwork by Brent Hayward. Sure to
be a collector's item, so grab yours before they're gone!

+++

FILM REVIEWS:

Phil Brugalette reviews 10,000 B.C. and THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES.

http://www.chizine.com/potshots.htm

+++

BOOK REVIEWS:

Ray Wallace gives reviews David Jack Bell's THE CONDEMNED, Kim
Paffenroth's DYING TO LIVE, and David Niall Wilson's DEFINING MOMENTS.

http://www.chizine.com/raysreviews.htm

Stephen Studach gives us his thoughts on Gerald Kersh's NIGHTSHADE &
DAMNATIONS, and FROM HELL, by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell.

http://chizine.com/stephensreviews.htm

+++

And now a word from our sponsor . . .

Available this month from Leisure Books:

QUEEN OF BLOOD
by Bryan Smith

It was known as the House of Blood. It sat at the entrance to a
netherworld of unimaginable torture and terror. Very few who entered
its front door lived to ever again see the outside world. But a few
did survive. They thought they had found a way to destroy the house of
horrors . . . but they were wrong. A new house has arisen. A new
mistress now wields its unholy power—and she wants revenge. She will
not rest until those who dared to challenge her and her former master
are made to pay with their very souls!

RAVENOUS
by Ray Garton

A corpse gets up and walks out of the hospital morgue. Minutes later,
a policeman is killed outside the same hospital . . . and partially
eaten. Something deadly has come to the coastal California town of Big
Rock - something that's leaving mangled and devoured bodies in its wake.

Sheriff Arlin Hurley refused to believe the wild talk of werewolves.
Then a tuft of wolf's fur was found on one of the victims. But there's
more than one werewolf on the prowl. It's quickly becoming an
epidemic, the curse passed on not through blood but through sex. As
the sheriff and his men set out to stop the spreading terror, they'll
learn that many of the old werewolf legends are just myths. The
reality is far worse.

Leisure Books
http://dorchesterpub.com/Dorch/Genre.cfm?L1=1&L2=0

Until next month, stay dark,

Brett Alexander Savory
Editor-in-Chief

ChiZine: Treatments of Light and Shade in Words
http://chizine.com

**Next ChiZine Newsletter will be May 1st, 2008

Seventy-five copies of Filaria have sold in the past three days, leaving only 25 copies of this limited edition hardcover. Get yours before they're gone!

https://www.horror-mall.com/FILARIA-by-Brent-Hayward-p-17732.html

Well, as hoped, Brent Hayward's Filaria, the first title from ChiZine Publications, is selling really fast. Shane at Horror Mall suspects the 100 limited edition hardcovers will be sold out by the end of the weekend. So if you want a copy (sure to be a collector's item, since it's CZP's first title), you might want to scurry over and snag one up before it's too late:

https://www.horror-mall.com/FILARIA-by-Brent-Hayward-p-17732.html

Here's the mostly final cover (only a few minor tweaks might happen at this point) of Brent Hayward's Filaria, the limited edition hardcover of which which will be available for pre-order very soon. It's the first title from ChiZine Publications.

Artwork by Erik Mohr.

Jacket copy:

Four inhabitants of a crumbling world:
- a drug-addled boy, living in dank recesses, sets out in an ancient car to find his ex, who has mysteriously vanished overnight;
- a privileged girl, obsessed with the past, and exiled by her esteemed father, learns more about her long-vanished ancestors than she ever could have wished for;
- an old man, on his hundredth birthday, deserts his quiet post as an elevator operator, climbing the great shaft in hopes of seeing the fabled topmost level before he dies;
- and a fisherman seeking answers to why his once-vibrant wife is now chronically ailing and wasting away begins a quest to find and confront the god of all gods.

Following Brent Hayward's novel, Filaria, coming in June of this year, ChiZine Publications' second title will be an as-yet-untitled 60,000-word short story collection by Robert Boyczuk. Projected pub date is September '08.

Woot! My short story collection is on her list.

http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/bestbooks/ellen_datlow.html

My editors and I have finalized the line-up for ChiZine issue #36 (April–June):

• "The Dude Who Collected Lovecraft" by Nick Mamatas and Tim Pratt
• "Small Monuments" by An Owomoyela
• "Dry Rain" by Grant Palmquist

APOLOGY
940 words
by Brett Alexander Savory


They say Death comes swiftly, but today he’s taking his sweet fucking time.

I’ve been laying here in a pool of my own blood for nearly three hours, with no end in sight. Shotgun to the gut. Hurts more than words can convey, yet here I sit beside a garbage dumpster in a dimly lit alleyway, watching rain dribble out of a nearby drainpipe.

Not that it matters, but my name is Jack Haringa, and I did nothing to deserve this.

As much fun as bleeding to death is, I’d sure rather be elsewhere, doing something other than this. Many years ago, I came to terms with the fact that my life would essentially amount to nothing meaningful, and was pretty relaxed with the concept, all told. I mean, so what if I never invent anything that revolutionizes the way people do business. Big deal if I never write a New York Times bestseller. Who gives a rat’s ass if I never get married and raise a Harvard graduate.

A blip on the radar. Time swallows us all up anyway.

I know, a defeatist attitude. Shameful. But then, I’m the one who’s gutshot, aren’t I.

The sky cracks and gives birth to thunder. Boom. How anti-climactic. How fucking cliché. Dying in a dark alleyway. In the rain. Beside a dumpster. With the skies unleashing hell.

Pah. Life is made up of such dreary moments.

Fucker cornered me, ambushed me. Accused me of sleeping with his wife, of ruining his life. Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. I’m not accountable to him. Pretty bad attitude, I know, but then you aren’t me, and have no idea how I ended up this way. Bitter. Callous. Uncaring. Maybe I had a hellish childhood. Maybe daddy was a belligerent alcoholic and mommy a crack-addicted gutterslut. Destined to a life of ridicule and trauma.

Who is woe? Woe is me.

Again: pah. Like I buy any of that shit.

The first trickles of blood connect with the puddle I’m sitting in. I’m completely drenched, shivering. But my life isn’t slipping away like it should be. How much longer? Jesus H. You always see those war movies where some poor bugger gets shot in the stomach and he lies there cold, just wanting to close his eyes and drift off, but the guy’s buddy keeps slapping his face, trying to keep him awake, ’cause he knows that if his friend goes to sleep, it’ll be forever.

Well, there’s no one here slapping my face. No one here to give me reason to live, tell me that I gotta hold on for little Timmy, who’ll grow up fatherless, and for my lovely wife, who can’t raise the boy on her own, so I gotta hang on, I just gotta keep awake, ’cause help’s on the way, a medic will be here soon, and everything’ll be okay, everything’ll be sweet and rosy again, if I can just hold on, for Christ’s sake.

Not here. Nothing here but falling water from a disinterested sky, a few scattered cardboard boxes, discarded soup cans, and, of course, some squeaking rats. Gotta have the rats. What’s a death scene in an alleyway without rats?

So what did I have going for me? I had a job that paid well. The job itself was shit. Multinational corporation fucking the weak, sucking up to the strong. The way things get done. No pissing around with lofty morals, pointless ideals, or anything else that might make me stop to think what I’m actually doing. Just money, hand over fist. Big house, fast car, the respect of my peers.

Glorious.

But in the end, fucking street whores just doesn’t cut it. Loneliness is every rich man’s downfall. You want what’s not yours, and you’re so used to just taking it, there’s not even a moment of indecision. And there shouldn’t be.

I have no regrets.

Fuck the bitch I crammed up the ass, and fuck the guy I stole her from.

There is no punishment meted out after death. No heaven, no hell. Not even a limbo or purgatory. All that crap just makes it easier to make it through the day, gives people a reason to get up in the morning and face their daily allotment of bullshit.

Nothing but silence awaits. Silence and maybe the fading memories of what you did with your life.

Same old story, I know. But I’m dying, and it’s the only story I’ve got.

I take a deep breath, and finally things seem darker, the streetlights dimmer, the sounds more like they’re underwater. I’ve lost feeling in one of my arms, and the other feels like a big stick of ice. I lift it, bang it against the wall at my back, try to shatter it. But it just thuds wetly, falls beside me in a muddy puddle.

The rain falls harder, and the sky rips open again with close thunder. Lightning crisps everything in my vision. Snapshots of drabness, mediocrity. Failed potential.

And even though I’m guarding against it, this, of course, is my weakest moment, so it intrudes, barrels through my crumbling wall of bitterness. Siphons off whatever small piece of humanity might be cowering somewhere deep inside me.

This thought, this fucking non-truth:

I’m sorry.

For everything.

My eyes close and I drift away, seething. Feeling betrayed by my own mind.

The sky opens up once again, but this time there’s only silence. . . .

Or at least I hope that’s what Jack thought when I shot him and left him to die in that alleyway.


© 2007/2008 Brett Alexander Savory
All Rights Reserved.

Here is your final 14th ChiZine/Leisure Short Story Contest judging line-up:

Nancy Baker
Claude Lalumière
Derek McCormack
David Nickle
Cherie Priest
Peter Straub (tie-breaker)

The contest opens June 1st and closes June 30th. Details will go up at the ChiZine site sometime in May.

Nancy Baker

Outline? What outline? Was I supposed to have done an outline??