Interview with TexArcana Author J.C. Alegria

This is an interview with J.C. Alegria, one of the authors from our upcoming anthology, TexArcana! J.C. Alegria wrote the short story, “Buck and a Half.”

Alexis: Tell us about yourself! What would you like readers to know about you?

J.C. Alegria: Retired airline pilot with a passion for reading and storytelling. Seven publishing credits

so far: two aviation articles and the rest are spooky short stories. I live quietly in the

woods of western Pennsylvania. With the owls.

.Alexis: Owls are amazing creatures! I love seeing them on my walks. So, what book or books have most influenced you as a writer?

A picture of a beautiful barn owl!

J.C. Alegria: Better to list authors: Ray Bradbury, E.A. Poe, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Robert

McCammon, Elmore Leonard, Donald E. Westlake, et al.

Alexis: That’s a great list! I particularly like Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allen Poe, and Stephen King. Dean Koontz’s Watchers is one of my all-time favorite sci-fi/horror books, as well. I loved the idea of a hyper intelligent dog! If you write horror, what are some of your biggest fears, and how have they inspired your writing?

J.C. Alegria: The frailty of sanity and how easily our minds can deceive us and blur reality, and how comfortable evil seems to be curled up in the human spirit. I think these are things that frightens us all at some level.

Alexis: I agree. It’s always so disconcerting how easily evil seems to get into everything in the world, isn’t it? So what do you like to do other than read or write? Do you have any interesting hobbies?

J.C. Alegria: I am an avid scuba diver.

Alexis: Interesting! What TV shows/Movies do you like to watch or stream?

J.C. Alegria: I enjoy well-written horror stories that focus more on psychological and supernatural elements rather than violence and gore. “The Lady in Black” (2012) is a good example: a terrifying movie that was rated PG-13. I also enjoy good crime stories along the lines of Elmore Leonard.

Alexis: “The Lady in Black” is truly terrifying. What’s your favorite animal?

J.C. Alegria: I’m a dog person.

Alexis: Do you like playing video games? What’s your favorite game right now? Has a video game ever influenced you as a writer?

J.C. Alegria: The last video game I played was about 40 years ago. It was “GALAGA.” Joy stick and two buttons to destroy alien spacecraft. Booth-type machine in the lobby of a movie theatre. Cost twenty-five cents, and I kicked butt.

Alexis: Sounds like fun! Do you have pets?

J.C. Alegria: I’ve had dogs most of my life but do not have any now. However, I frequently dog sit for friends and enjoy the company of two wonderful German shepherds. I thus get a weekly dose of canine affection, a necessary inoculation against a crazy world.

Alexis: What advice do you have for other writers or people just getting started in writing?

J.C. Alegria: Whatever you do, read these two books: Make Your Words Work, by the late, great Gary Provost, and, of course, The Elements of Style. Then study how authors you enjoy construct sentences and paragraphs to deliver clear prose. In my opinion, the best style is clarity. Learn how to combine sentences without using conjunctions and know that adverbs are not your friends. Learn how to express a character’s thoughts without constantly using “he thought.” Imagine a scene and write it down, remembering that you are playing a movie in your reader’s mind. That’s a privilege. And have fun telling a good story.

Alexis: How do you choose what books you want to read?

J. C. Alegria: Previous experience with authors, themes, and I may skim through reviews, but I never read a synopsis; I don’t want to know the story before I read it.

Alexis: Do you like Greek/Roman/Norse/Asian/African mythology or folklore? What’s your favorite myth?

J.C. Alegria: Icarus.

Alexis: Thank you for talking to me! To learn more about J. C. Alegria, check out his author bio below!

Author Bio for J. C. Alegria

J. C. Alegria, a retired airline pilot, was raised in both Latin America and the United States. His previous publishing credits include two cover-feature aviation articles for FLYING magazine and the horror short stories Ghoul is my Copilot (Murky Depths, 2008), Cathedral (Tell Tale Press, 2019), and The Strange Death of Ebenezer Scrooge (Silver Shamrock, 2019). He also has two novel-length manuscripts ready to fly; the first is a horror/thriller with wickedly ruthless characters and the other is an aviation-based adventure story set during the Sandinista Revolution of 1979, a tale which takes a hard, unflinching look at greed and the cold brutality of Man. An avid reader and huge fan of spooky tales, he lives somewhere in the woods of western Pennsylvania, where he is currently working on his next story. Usually at night.

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Book Spotlight: The Wizards by Louis Corsair

Welcome to the tour for The Wizards by Louis Corsair! Read on for details and a chance to win a $50 Amazon e-Gift Card!!!

The Wizards

Publication Date: October 4th, 2020

Genre: Urban Fantasy

At the end of the original Absolution, the Executor went back in Time and altered Reality, setting in motion a plan that will destroy him, along with all of Creation. It is a titanic crime that does not go unnoticed. There are some who discovered the crime in the Past, and are trying to do something in the Present to prevent an unimaginable Future. And these men and women are, were, will be the Wizards.

The Wizards is more than just a collection of short stories. It is a multigenerational composite novel that delves into the lives of the Wendells, a patchwork family of orphans brought together by Wendell the Great. These too-human men and women struggle with mastering the Power as much as they do with one another and the landscape of Southern California. From the 1940s to the Present, The Wizards goes back and forth across Time to tell its story.

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Excerpt

In the Beginning

Let us imagine a period sometime in the Past. Yes. Many years in the Past, but not so many that I cannot remember it. And let us imagine men and women with... with… well, see, this is a point we could not agree on. The things my siblings and I could do, can still do, they could be called “talents,” like Mozart’s talent. Yet, that implies biology, which hardly influences the extent and potency of our abilities.

Our Father, a man I will later call Wendell, and Anita, who I came to love as a Mother, called it, “the Power.” I suppose now you are wondering why we can wield such might.

Indeed, for what purpose are humans born who can wield the Power? Ah, but that mystery is at the heart of our story. We never figured out why. And so, we are the burdened. Regardless of the why, let us consider the who.

Who are these men and women, you ask? Well, during my childhood in El Salvador, we called them los magos del oeste. Ah, but that is an inadequate title for my tale, for it was the silliness of childhood. Here in America, there are many names for these individuals, thanks to mythology and literature. Let us pick one.

How about wizard? I have always been fond of that title, though it belongs in the realm of fantasy and myth, now inherited by popular culture. The nomenclature is important to me because it was the name that Isis picked for our little gang. She called us the Wizards. Do not worry about Isis now; I will soon introduce her.

In the beginning--that glorious beginning!--there were three of these Wizards. The first was the man who rescued me from the conscript army in El Salvador. I knew him as Wendell, a name that served “both for Christian and surname,” as EB might have said. He was a statuesque African, for it was easy to tell when he spoke that he was from that continent.

Let us go now to a specific place in the beginning, to the first time I entered Anita’s home in Beverly Hills. Up until then, I had been constantly awake with worry as we traveled through different cities, always looking, looking. And finally worry became wonder as we entered this great metropolis. Drinking up the lights of Los Angeles in great gulps. Drowning in its people. Every sight mesmerized me.

“Now, Quique,” he said to me in broken Spanish when we reached Anita’s door. I had not yet mastered the English language. “I will speak with my colleagues about you. But I am confident we will find you a place.”

This was a sentiment that bothered me. I still had family in El Salvador, my mother and sister. At that juncture, I feared for their safety. The civil war was brutal, you see, and casualties were plenty. I let Wendell know this and he gave me that potent smile that could convince you to take his side.

“They are well.”

That was all he said regarding their fate, and I believed him at once. He was a man who used words to shape truth. It was a skill I often tried to emulate with poor results. Wendell’s words could take physical shape too when performing magic. The mechanism for this art he took with him, for it was missing from his many lessons.

Ah, Wendell! That cloud of mystery never left you while I was under your care.

With my heart easier knowing my family was well, I followed him into the house. And there I met his associates. One man. One woman.

The house belonged to the woman, who was White and Wendell’s senior by more than twenty years, or so I heard. But Wendell made up for that gap in height; she hardly reached his chest. This was Anita Sendler, a Jew who had survived the Holocaust. The experience served to strengthen her, though; she was hardly a victim. Anita noticed me first and like a hawk blocked our way in.

I am unsure of what passed between the two. My understanding of English prevented me from keeping up with their debate. What I was sure of, then and now, was that Anita was upset that Wendell had brought me, all willy nilly (as some might say).

My childish scorn for her amuses me now, as it did the other man in the room. He was a carbon copy of Wendell, for they were brothers. This was Gathii Ra, a title he had given himself.

Gathii Ra smiled when he saw my frown. He said something to the two and then went up to me. After messing up my hair, a behavior that became a habit with him, he stomped the floor with his heavy foot.

This created some effect I hardly understood, but could hear. Gathii Ra’s words had become soothing, pleading, asking all of us to use our better judgment.

“¡Mago! ¡Mago!” I cried. Quickly, I ran behind Wendell’s legs.

And while I hid, too scared to open my eyes, I saw… It was my first memory of the Stream. The glowing Anima of Gathii Ra ventured from his body and approached me. Scared out of my wits, I screamed and covered my face with my arms. But…that did something. I heard the adults gasp. Uncovering my face, I opened my eyes and saw that Gathii Ra and his Anima had been re-joined. I had banished it!

Anita’s hard face pruned and her lips formed a crooked smile, eyeing me differently. Gathii Ra laid a rough hand on Wendell’s shoulder, laughing all the while. It was enough to break the tension and give them a chance to speak.

And they did. For hours. At the end of that conversation, the three came together in a circle and shook hands. Something had been decided. Something important.

Anita offered me a simple meal of milk and some cake. The adults, all the while, drank wine and danced to some music, she taking turns with each of the brothers. After an hour of this, she caressed my cheek. And it was a happy time, one of my most cherished memories. The energy in that room, my friend, crackled.

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About the Author

Louis Corsair is an eight-year veteran of the United States Army. Currently living in Los Angeles, California, he spends his time reading books, going on walks, writing, and enjoying the occasional visit to the beach–while trying to earn an honest buck. As a Los Angeles writer, he feels the weight of famous Los Angeles novelists, like Raymond Chandler, John Fante, Nina Revoyr, among others.

In 2021, he hopes to finish the Elohim Trilogy and its connected novels, including The Wizards Collide, and Apotheosis: Book Three of the Elohim Trilogy.

Louis Corsair

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Book Spotlight: It Calls From The Sea

The days may be getting warmer but this anthology is sure to chill you to the bone. Welcome to the tour for It Calls from the Sea, a collection of tales from the high seas by a fantastic group of authors! Read on for details, an exclusive excerpt!

It Calls From the Sea: An Anthology of Terror On the Deep Blue Sea Publication Date: May 21st. 2021 Genre: Anthology/ Short Stories/ Horror/ Paranormal Prepare to die. The sea awakens. Within the Mariana Trench, a research vessel’s crew is threatened by a mysterious force. A father and daughter’s holiday by the ocean turns deadly as a sinister creature stalks them. A group of friends learn that some things should remain in the ocean. Filled with a sense of wonder, a young biologist discovers a new species of kelp, but with disastrous consequences. It Calls From the Sea is an all-original anthology of twenty brutal tales of horror from the deep blue sea. Eerie River brings you another round of insatiable horror. There is no end to the terrors we have in store and there is nowhere left to hide. Get comfy, this is going to be a wild ride. Add to Goodreads

Dead Ships by Georgia Cook

It washed up at dawn, drawn in on the morning tide from around the curve of the bay; a fishing boat, small enough for a cabin and a crew of three, but of no make or name we recognized. It curved gently towards the beach, its path haphazard and aimless, engines silent and windows dark. By the time it hit the shingle and plowed to a juddering halt a small crowd of us had gathered on the dockside to watch.

There’s something about an empty boat--something dragged in off the tide like that, all slow and sedate--you get to feeling it after a certain time at sea, like a second sense. That’s why none of the old fishermen made a move when it finally came to rest; they already knew what we’d find. Perhaps it started with the snow.

Great, driving fistfuls were we got that month; merciless, relentless, day after day. A frigid wind howled it down off the clifftops, swamping the roads and transforming the surrounding hills into impenetrable, white monoliths. Nobody arrived in town, nobody left; that’s how things go around here come winter.

There’s a saying in these parts that it takes a special kind of madness to move here from out of town, and another kind to stay. The seas and the cold breed a particular type of person--it settles in the bones, then squeezes the lungs; sharp and cloying in every breath. This far north the cold is bitter. Or perhaps it started before that, and none of us noticed.

Some of us tried to sail that week, but only made it as far as the curve of the bay before we were forced to turn back. Battered by the gale and the driving snow, there was no thought of casting our nets. Cutting through the snow was like cutting through ice; nothing in either direction but tumbling flakes and shifting, black sea. We watched the snow fall, watched it settle on the water and sink, and out of it all we watched the boat arrive. Philip Abernathy was the first to climb abroad, shimmying up the side like a boy climbing a drainpipe. Twenty-three that May--newly promoted, the youngest Constable in a town of sturdy fishermen and grey-faced old men--possibly he felt it his duty to take charge, or at very least be the first to check. He was, after all, vastly on his own up here until the snows cleared and the mountain roads became accessible again.

He’d been our Constable for all of two months, and up until then had contended with nothing worse than the odd Drunk and Disorderly on a Saturday night. It was too cold, too dark, to expect any trouble worth hurrying for. He disappeared inside the captain’s cabin, calling nervously, then stumbled out a moment later and was violently sick over the side.

The old fishermen knew, and now we knew too: no ship so silent has ever been manned by the living. Once he’d been helped down, pale and trembling, Abernathy directed a few of us up to find the body. It was slumped across the wheel, he said, tilting back and forth with the rock of the ship, its boots dragging in a slow, steady rut across the floorboards. It might have been a man once, but that was an estimated guess. It no longer had a face, just a slumped, desiccated skeleton.

Its hands, Philip whispered, its hands were clasped so tightly to the wheel. So tightly he couldn’t pry them open. We found the rest of the crew below deck. There’s a reason so many fishing communities boast smokeries and salt houses; salted things keep. Salted things keep for a long time, and add to that the conditions of an arctic winter...

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Featuring Stories By:

Chris Bannor“Euphoria”, Chris Hewitt “Reef Encounter” Christopher Bond “The Ocean Sings Softly”, Dan Le Fever “Xook” David Green “Into The Depths”, Georgia Cook “Dead Ships”, Holley Cornetto “Heaven’s Lake”, Julie Sevens “Shoney’s Revenge”, Lin Darrow “Cry of the Hunger Fish”, M.B.Vujacic “Jelly”, Mason Gallaway, “The Sea Reaches Up” McKenzie Richardson “The Hunter and the Prey”, R. L. Meza “Long Pork”, S.O. Green “The Shadow Over Innsmouth High”, Steve Neal “Hostile Territory”, T. M. Brown “Buoy 21415”, Tim Mendees “Fronds”, Trey Dowell “Abyssal Horror”, Watt Morgan “Please Leave”

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June 7^th

Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://readsandreels.com

The Consulting Writer (Review) https://theconsultingwriter.wordpress.com/

@jypsylynn (Review) https://www.instagram.com/jypsylynn/

Jessica Belmont (Review) https://jessicabelmont.wordpress.com/

June 8^th

Books, Rambling & Tea (Spotlight) https://booksramblingsandtea.com/

Lunarian Press (Spotlight) https://www.lunarianpress.com/

Jennifer Mitchell, Bibliolater (Review) https://jennifermitchellbooks.com/

Banshee Irish Horror Blog (Review) http://bansheeirishhorrorblog.com/

Rambling Mads (Review) http://ramblingmads.com

June 9^th

The Invisible Moth (Review) https://daleydowning.wordpress.com

Stine Writing (Review) https://christinebialczak.com/

Phantom of the Library (Review) https://phantomofthelibrary.com/

Catz Luv Coffee (Review) https://catsluvcoffeez.blogspot.com

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Breakeven Books (Spotlight) https://breakevenbooks.com

@tiny.bibliophile (Review) https://www.instagram.com/tiny.bibliophile/

Musings of a Final Girl (Review) https://musingsofafinalgirl.wordpress.com/

@dreaminginpages (Review) https://www.instagram.com/dreaminginpages/

June 11^th

Sophril Reads (Spotlight) http://sophrilreads.wordpress.com

@happily_undignified (Review) https://www.instagram.com/happily_undignified/

@amysbooknook8 (Review) https://www.instagram.com/amysbooknook8/

I Smell Sheep (Review) http://www.ismellsheep.com/

Liliyana Shadowlyn (Review) https://lshadowlynauthor.com/

On the Shelf Reviews (Review) https://ontheshelfreviews.wordpress.com

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Interview with Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer Mark Rice

My next author interview is with Mark Rice, author of The Cabin Incident and Heathen Howff, a collection of Scottish stories inspired by Aesop’s Fables, but for adults.

What book or books have most influenced you as a writer?

Mark Rice: The big one was The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.  I first read it when I was ten.  It was the book that made me think, ‘I want to do that.’  The book that made me want to infuse my writing with humour was another I read as a kid – Wee MacGreegor by JJ Bell, one of the funniest books ever written, and very Scottish.  The dialogue in that is pure gold.  As a teen I mostly read sprawling fantasy novels by the likes of Robert E. Vardeman, Victor Milan, JRR Tolkien, Piers Anthony, Raymond E. Feist…that sort of epic stuff. The books that have most influenced me as a grown-up are The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, the entire literary output of Kurt Vonnegut, and – just recently – Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.

Alexis: Wow, it’s cool that you read so widely, from humor to epic fantasy to some very intense and thoughtful modern works. I remember finding The Satanic Verses such an incredible and powerful book, and I still love The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Who is your favorite character in your book? What do you like about them?

Mark Rice: My favourite characters are usually the non-human ones (the same is true in life). In Metallic Dreams my favourite characters are a rabbit named Fluff and a little girl called Sunshower, partly because those characters have innocence that the others, to some degree or other, have lost (or never had in the first place).  Sunshower was a gift from the literary gods.  Most characters in fiction are either based on real people or they’re cobbled together Frankenstein’s monsters featuring a trait here and an idiosyncrasy there.  Sunshower wasn’t like that.  She fell out of the sky, fully formed, and landed in my mind ready to live her story.  I could see her more vividly than I see people in real life.  As I said, a gift from the literary gods.  The same thing happened with the character Tam the Bammus in my short(ish) story Revelation Was Wrong.  Tam stomped into my mind, fully formed, grumpy and ready to tell his tale.  I didn’t even have to put effort into that story – it told itself.  I just acted as a conduit.  Other characters I really enjoyed writing (and still enjoy writing in the sequel) are DT, Pete, Paul, Oz, Iain, Archibald, Brian, Ted and Manie in Metallic Dreams.  They’re based on friends I’ve known and loved since childhood, which makes them extremely easy to write: I know exactly how each one would act in any given situation.  And the Devil was/is fun to write.  Worryingly easy too.

What do you like to do other than read or write? Do you have any interesting hobbies?

Mark Rice: I’m obsessed with 3D digital modelling.  I first got into it nine years ago when I created the cover for my story Revelation Was Wrong.  This year I created the cover for my bear-heavy story The Cabin Incident using the same 3D modelling software.  In addition to those book covers, I’ve done hundreds of high-resolution 3D renders, some as possible future book covers, but most of them just for fun and creative satisfaction.  It’s a whole other Universe which I find immersive and fascinating, and I learn more about it every day.  Most book covers are formulaic.  I approach cover art in a different way.  I grew up buying vinyl records and marveling at their cover artwork.  This has led me to view book-cover design in that way – why use a generic cover when you can create original art that stops people in their tracks?  In that sense, my book covers are more like album covers.

Music’s a big pastime – listening to it and making it (if cranking out loud riffage on electric guitars counts as making music).  I grew up in a house that had no television, but it had an abundance of music, musical instruments, books and animals.  That sums up how I became what I am.

Exercise is important to me.  I swam competitively from ages 7-22, so the habit of hard daily exercise was set then.  When I donned my wetsuit recently and plunged into the sea, my wolfdog sidekick pulled me out by my flipper…twice. On the second instance he ripped off my right flipper with his teeth, ran half a mile up the beach with it and buried it in the sand.  He obviously figured I was an idiot who didn’t realize that the sea is dangerous.  After hinting at it once (and me not getting the message), he felt that more drastic action was necessary to prevent said idiot from making a third venture into the ocean.  I ride my mountain bike through a nearby forest each day while the wolfchild runs at my side.  I enjoy lifting heavy things.  I’ve been weight training since back in my competitive swimming days.  I lift heavier these days…because there’s more of me.

Alexis: I love that your wolf dog tried to “rescue” you while you were swimming! I had a golden retriever who use to do the same thing when my sister and I went swimming. She’d grab our hair in her mouth and try to pull us back to shore! Otherwise she loved the water, though she clearly didn’t trust us in it.

Cover of The Cabin Incident by Mark Rice

Tell us about a mystery/urban legend from your hometown (or another place you’ve lived).

Mark Rice: I live on the mainland of Scotland but have spent a lot of time on the Scottish islands of Skye and Lewis in the Outer Hebrides (my dad was from Lewis, as was his mother, and so on back ad infinitum).  One of my cousins in Lewis showed me a piece of footage filmed on Skye.  In it, an English interviewer spoke to a local crofter about a supposed ghost sighting. 

The interviewer said, “I understand you saw the ghost of a woman walking down the road.  Can you tell me about it?” 

The crofter replied, “Yes.  I saw the ghost of a woman walking down the road.” 

That was it.  Not another word.  The interviewer waited and waited, expecting more, but none came.  My cousin and I were in tears laughing.  I think that’s the best ghost story ever told.  That crofter understood the beauty of brevity.

What TV shows/Movies do you like to watch or stream? 

Mark Rice: Justified, Deadwood, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, South Park, Game of Thrones, Shetland, Twin (Norwegian drama), Borgen (Scandi drama), The Bridge (original Scandinavian series), just about any other Finnish or Scandinavian drama noir – I love their dark ambience, and the production values/writing quality are phenomenal.  I also can’t get enough of Captain Caveman or Scooby-Doo (that’s not a recent development, I should stress).  The greatest TV show ever made, I reckon (I believe that George RR Martin nicked loads of his story ideas from it) is Chorlton and the Wheelies, ostensibly a children’s show about a kingdom under a black spell due to a Welsh witch (who lives in a kettle), until a dragon called Chorlton (a happiness dragon) blunders into the realm one day and breaks the spell, after which he inadvertently foils all the witch’s evil schemes just by being his happy, authentic self. What a powerful message that is. Even though it was intended as a children’s show, there’s a lot of adult subtext.  For example, the queen’s always grumpy because she doesn’t get enough attention from the king, who is perpetually distracted by his love for Chorlton.  So there’s a sexually frustrated queen and a gay would-be bestiality practitioner king who’s in love with a dragon.  In addition, one of the Wheelie people – a male called Zoomer – clearly has drug issues: he can’t concentrate on anything for more than a couple of seconds as he zooms around day and night, which leads me to conclude that he’s on speed and/or cocaine.  It’s all there in Wheelieworld.  And I’ll watch anything with Fran Drescher in it.  In a parallel Universe she and I met and married in the ‘90s.

What’s your favorite animal?

Mark Rice: I love all animals, from the biggest ones right down to the tiniest insects. That’s why I don’t eat them, wear them or buy any products that cause them suffering.  To pick a favourite species is an impossible task.  The four particular animals I’ve most resonated with are a white rabbit who lived with me for her whole life, starting when she was a baby small enough to fit on my palm (the rabbit in Metallic Dreams was based on her), the aforementioned wolfdog who is my training partner/sidekick, a female camel I met in the desert while living with Bedouins (she and I fell in love at first sight), and an octopus I made friends with while scuba diving off the coast of Cyprus (he rested his head on my left hand and wrapped his tentacles around my left arm while I stroked his head with my free hand and we looked into each other’s eyes, really saw each other; when the oxygen in my tank ran out and I had to reluctantly surface, the octopus didn’t willingly let me go – I had to (again reluctantly) prise his suckers off my arm; they left circular marks that remained there for hours; I hoped they’d never fade, as they were reminders of a transcendent experience; the sentience I saw in that creature was unique and unlike anything I’ve experienced on dry land).  I have an affinity for horses, bears and elephants too.  And pigs.  Mustn’t forget the pigs.  And sheep.  And goats.  I could go on all day…

Alexis: That’s an amazing story about the octopus—they’re fascinating creatures, and supposed to be incredibly intelligent.

Do you like playing video games? What’s your favorite game right now? Has a video game ever influenced you as a writer?

Mark Rice: I love first-person shooters but haven’t played them much recently (only because they take up a lot of time that should be spent writing).  Back when Quake I, II and III came out, along with Half Life, Unreal and Unreal Tournament, I spent ludicrous amounts of time playing them – days and nights on end, sometimes.  Great fun, but they don’t pay the bills.  No video game has influenced my writing – its influences come more from mythology, lore, music, legend and real life.

Do you have pet(s)? If so, share a picture of your pet!

Mark Rice: I’m right-hand man to a wolfdog, but he’s no pet – very much a wild animal.  A force of nature.  Our current daily training session is 34 miles through a forest – I ride my mountain bike, he runs.  We also play-fight a lot.  The mutual trust is absolute.  He bites me hard enough to get a reaction but not hard enough to cause major injury.  My arms have a lot of bite marks but those are love bites, really.  If he wanted to cause real damage he could do so with ease.  He bites through large frozen branches as though they were overcooked spaghetti, so a human ankle, wrist or neck would be nothing by comparison.

What advice do you have for other writers or people just getting started in writing?

Mark Rice: Write every day, even when you don’t feel like it.  Sometimes that’s when the best stuff comes out.  Other times it acts as exactly the therapy you need.  If you feel inspired, write.  If you don’t feel inspired, write.  If you feel good, write.  If you feel terrible, write.  Just write.  No excuses.  This means learning to say “no” to people, to put your solitary time and your writing before the dramas and nonsense of others.  But that’s what you have to do.

How do you choose what books you want to read?

Mark Rice: I prefer books that are innovative, clever, funny, groundbreaking or all of the above.  If they feature mythology or folklore, whether established or new, even better.  I also read a lot of autobiographies by musical artists/bands I like.

Do you like Greek/Roman/Norse/Asian/African mythology or folklore? What’s your favorite myth?

Mark Rice: I love folklore and mythology.  When I was a kid my father had a HUGE book of mythology – the sort of book that would collapse most coffee tables.  It was split into chapters by world region.  That book’s now on my (reinforced) bookshelf.  I’ve bought a lot of Scandinavian, Finno-Ugric and Celtic lore/mythology.  They resonate more with me than most other mythologies do.  Perhaps that’s because my ancestry is Norse and Celtic.  Maybe on some deep genetic level those tales are already known in me, so reading them feels like going home.  One favourite story, Celtic in origin, tells of Oisín’s journey to Tír na nÓg, the Land of the Young. I won’t tell any more about that – wouldn’t want to give away spoilers!  Also, the story of Cúchulainn is captivating.  My favourite character from folklore/mythology is, by a country mile, Cernunnos the Horned God.  A bronze Cernunnos adorns the wall of my music room.  A poem I wrote called Cernunnos tickled the fancy of my favourite metal band, so much so that it led to a collaboration.  The band created sublime music to go with my lyric/vocal.  It’s not released yet, but I have a copy of the original recordings and they sound amazing. Best guitar tone ever.  It’s an honour to be part of that project.

Mark and a friendly camel!

More about Mark Rice!

Books: Metallic Dreams, The Cabin Incident, and Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Eejit

Social Media: Twitter, Goodreads, Wordpress, and Facebook

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Review: Black Thorn, White Rose

One of the great things about having a nice long Christmas break is that I finally get the time to read through all the books I’ve steadily accumulated over the year. This Christmas, in part because Covid has kept us from going out or doing many parties/activities/concerts, I have read a lot of books!

One I read recently is Black Thorn, White Rose, a collection of fairytale retellings edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. I’d read a couple of other books in their collections of retellings (The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest and Black Swan, White Raven) quite a while ago, and I was interested to read more. Black Thorn, White Rose is the second book. Like other books, I didn’t love every story, but most of the stories were entertaining and fun to read, and a couple were brilliant little gems. I loved Godson by Roger Zelazney, Tattercoats by Midori Snyder, and The Black Swan by Susan Wade. Godson is a dark and clever tale with plenty of funny little twists to keep it interesting. Tattercoats is a sweet and touching story about a married woman reconnecting to her husband by exploring her dark, mysterious, and wild side. I loved that this story shows that even a happy marriage takes work, and that sometimes exploring and freeing ourselves is the best way to connect with another person. The Black Swan is something of the opposite of Tattercoats—it’s more of a haunting fable about the consequences of someone molding themselves to shape the desires of the people around them, and maybe about the subtle and heart breaking consequences of not recognizing that a true love would never want a change like that.

Cover of Black Thorn, White Rose

The only story I could not get into was The Sawing Boys by Howard Waldrop, which had maybe just too much dialect and too many characters with complicated names. I got confused and skipped over it.

I also had mixed feelings about Peter Straub’s Ashputtle. It was a very intense and horrifying story, but some of the madness and violence felt like it came out of nowhere. I could quite grasp the main character’s intense hatred of her stepmother or the child in her care, and some of the rest of the story felt too bizarre to really make sense. It did, however, have some visceral and powerful imagery.

There were also several stories I enjoyed, including Stronger Than Time, Words Like Pale Stones, Ogre, and The Brown Bear of Norway. Both Stronger Than Time and Words Like Pale Stones were haunting tales, while Ogre was a charming comedy about community theater. The Brown Bear of Norway was a strange and sweet romance about adolescence and change.

Overall, like their other collections, I’d recommend Black Thorn, White Rose to anyone who enjoys fairytales and fantasy short stories. It’s fun and quick to read, and I always love seeing a creative spin on beloved stories.

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October 1-7, 2020 Book Sale: Sapience and Saints & Curses

Both of my books, Sapience and Saints & Curses, are going on sale this week for $0.99! Sapience is a collection of dark science fiction short stories, many of them set on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Saints & Curses is a collection of dark and light fantasy short stories, featuring a mix of Christmas elves, vampire cats, and dark fae evils such as the Erlking.

I’m also happy to have gotten some lovely reviews of both books recently! The Most Sublime did a great review of Saints & Curses, and Miles to Go did an excellent review of Sapience. Reviews are so helpful to writers, so if you’ve read either of my books, please don’t forget to write a review on Amazon or Goodreads!

It’s been an exhausting year, but we’ve gotten through it so far, and I think there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I know it’s easy to get caught up in the news cycle and feel like everything is a disaster, but the truth is, we have more power than we think. We can choose to wear masks and practice good hygiene, and when enough people do that we can stop this terrible virus. We can also vote. We are Americans, and we will decide the future of this country. Check out Vote Save America for more you can do!

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Review: Blood Child and Other Stories by Octavia Butler

I’ve been meaning to read Octavia Butler’s books for a while now. She’s one of the great masters of science fiction, and I think it’s important for writers to read the greats of their genres. I also think it’s necessary now more than ever for everyone to read books by diverse authors, and Octavia Butler is also one of the first black women to become famous for writing science fiction. So I recently bought a copy of Blood Child and Other Stories, to check out some of Butler’s short fiction.

In the forward to her book, Butler writes that she doesn’t consider herself much of a short story writer, but I think she must be being incredibly modest or her novels must blow your socks off. These are some of the most powerful, shocking (in a good way), and imaginative science fiction short stories I’ve ever read. It’s hard to put into words how radical and incredible her ideas are. To much science fiction reads like badly updated Star Wars or Star Trek novels (I mean, I loved Star Wars, but I don’t think most people really improve it much with their thinly veiled rip offs). In stories like the titular “Blood Child” or “Amnesty,” Butler depicts aliens in an entirely original and unique way. And the relationships she imagines between humans and aliens are complex, fraught, and uncomfortable in ways that are alternately hopeful and horrifying. It’s hard to explain without giving too much of the stories away, but it’s incredibly powerful and unlike any other science fiction I’ve read.

Blood Child and Other Stories by Octavia Butler, reviewed by Alexis Lantgen of Lunarianpress.com

Other stories that vividly stand out to me are “Speech Sounds” and “The Evening, the Morning, and the Night,” both of which refer to pandemics. They hit home (also, I heavily suspect that at some point “Speech Sounds” was the inspiration for the movie Bird Box—some of the parallels are too uncanny). “The Evening, the Morning, and the Night” explores the concept of not trusting your own mind and the fear that genetic diseases like Huntington’s or Alzheimer’s, with a terrible homicidal/suicidal twist. Yet, for whatever terrors both of these stories inspire, in the end, they have hope.

One of the things I loved about all of Butler’s stories is how many of them had hope even in desperate and nightmarish scenarios. While I haven’t yet read Butler’s novels, I know that one of her most famous, Kindred, explores the horrors of slavery. I wonder if stories like “Amnesty” aren’t influenced by this historical awareness, the understanding that many people survive even the most unimaginably horrifying situations. The understanding that to a certain extent, losing a war against aliens is only the beginning. After that, we can find a way to survive, or not.

I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who loves science fiction or cares about the future. The book also has two essays that writers, especially science fiction writers or writers of color, should read. Her writing advice is thoughtful and usable. And her stories are mind-blowing, visceral, and incredibly powerful.

What good is science fiction’s thinking about the present, the future, and the past? What good is its tendency to warn or to consider alternative ways of thinking and doing? What good is its examination of the possible effects of science and technology, or social and political direction? At its best, science fiction stimulates imagination and creativity. It gets reader and writer off the beaten track, off the narrow, narrow, footpath of what “everyone” is saying, doing , thinking—whoever “everyone” tends to be this year.

—Octavia Butler, “Positive Obsession,” from Blood Child and Other Stories

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Saints and Curses is on sale this week! Also, Fall Fairy Tales and a New Review!

Well, it’s been an insane week at my regular job, but I’m so excited about all the things going on with my books right now! In particular, Saints and Curses is on sale this week for $0.99 (until Saturday, Sept. 28)!

In addition to the sale on Saints and Curses, I’m also having an Amazon giveaway for my first book, Sapience! You can enter to win a free copy by clicking the link and following my Amazon author account.

I’m also excited because Saints and Curses got another great review, this time from from writer and book blogger Jessica Belmont. My favorite quote:

The one thing all of these stories have in common? Beautiful settings, gripping plots, and believable characters.

Thank you to Jessica for her lovely and thoughtful review!

Check out these free, $0.99, and Kindle Unlimited Fall Fairy Tale Books!

Saints and Curses is also part of the Fall Fairy Tales Book Sale, hosted by Emerald Dodge. If you’re interested in books inspired by fairy tales, these books are all free, $0.99, or free in Kindle Unlimited until at least September 25!

I also have a new author interview available at Book Reader Magazine, so check it out!

I think I’m inspired by science, folklore, fairy-tales, and history. It’s amazing how much history reads like an unbelievably true novel. Right now, I’m listening to Ian Mortimer’s Edward III: The Perfect King on audible. It’s amazing how much Edward III’s life is like a fairy-tale, but a very dark, Hamlet-influenced one.

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Review: The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest

The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest is collection of fantasy short stories and poems that I found at the library. It was edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, the same duo who had edited another book I enjoyed, Black Swan, White Raven, so I decided to check it out. I loved the theme of the book, and since I just returned from a trip to the Redwood Forest, it felt like the right book for me to read. I'm glad I did, because while I didn't love all the stories, many of them were haunting and unique, and I'm looking forward to reading more from those authors.

Some of my favorite stories were "Grand Central Park," by Delia Sherman, "A World Painted by Birds" by Katherine Vaz, and "Joshua Tree" by Emma Bull. These stories captured the theme in beautifully imaginative ways, but each one was as different from the others as water from fire. In particular, I loved the coming-of-age theme in "Grand Central Park," as well as the heroine's kindness and generosity even as she "wins." Vaz's story is as gorgeous and lush as a canvas, yet as sorrowful and haunting as a poem by Frederico Garcia Lorca. I loved her imagery, and how the worst characters had some humanity in them, even the selfish General's Wife. In contrast, Bull's "Joshua Tree" was spare and understated, yet the germs of hope and freedom her main character discovers in the desert felt as tough as the trees in her title. It was a reminder that there's a beauty even in harsh, hard-to-survive environments, like high school and the desert.

Other notable stories included "Fee, Fie, Foe, et Cetera" by Gregory Maguire, "Remnants" by Kathe Koja, and "The Pagodas of Ciboure" by M. Shayne Bell. I loved Maguire's matter-of-fact take on fairy tales, where Jack has to contend with taxes and bureaucracy as much as a giant. Koja's "Remnants" on the other hand, had one of the darkest takes on the theme in the anthology. The forest of trash is both a refuge and perhaps a trap for the main character, who seems both magical and deeply disturbed. The dark secrets she uses the forest to conceal lurk beneath her supposedly sunny outlook, and the enemies she fears might be people trying to help her, if perhaps ineffectually. It's a story that definitely sticks in your mind, and raises uncomfortable questions about society and the "trash" we throw away. In contrast, "The Pagodas of Ciboure" is a charming, lovely story about the imagined childhood of one of my favorite composers, Maurice Ravel. I loved, loved, loved the pagodas, which are not Chinese temples but a type of French fairy creature made of porcelain, jewels, and crystal. The lovely little creatures and their relationship with a kind but sickly boy made this story one of the most enjoyable to read.

Overall, I'd highly recommend this book to anyone interested in fantasy stories. Like many anthologies, there's such a wide variety of voices and approaches to the theme that it's easy to find stories to love.

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Review: The Emerald Circus

I’ve written about Jane Yolen’s books before, which I have really enjoyed, especially her short stories. like Sister Emily’s Lightship. With that in mind, when I saw a new collection of Yolen’s stories, The Emerald Circus, I decided to take a look (I actually checked it out of the library!).

This book has some reprints of earlier stories I liked, including Sister Emily’s Lightship and Lost Girls. But I especially enjoyed reading some newer stories I hadn’t read before. In particular, I loved “A Knot of Toads,” which was a creepy, modern-gothic story set on the coast of Scotland. I loved the origins of the story and the references to history, but the characters really shine through, and I love how the main character’s views of the people around her are suddenly upended. Likewise, “The Quiet Monk” was passionate and romantic and beautiful, and the ending had a kind of quiet devotion that I loved. “Evian Steel” was another Arthurian -inspired story I enjoyed. It had a great twist ending, and gave a really fascinating perspective on familiar characters.

“Blown Away” was a dark and disturbing retelling of Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, form the point of view of one of the farm hands on Dorothy’s Uncle’s farm. It was strangely creepy and bleak, and the ending was both haunting and “off” in a fascinating, if not exactly satisfying way. The unreliable narrator and the constant uncertainty about who is telling the truth about Dorothy’s strange disappearance made it feel like there were terrible family secrets welling just beneath the surface.

Overall, I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in Jane Yolen’s writing, or in reading fantasy short stories, particularly reinterpretations of fairytales and legends.