I did not intend to publish two stories about death in less than two weeks, but I have. “This Strange Way of Dying” just got the audio treatment at Podcastle and now Expanded Horizons has published “Memory” in its Issue 33. Last month AE also published “The Gan Wait” and that one is also about death (in a way). This reminds me I should update my bibliography.
Future Lovecraft has invaded Smashwords, Amazon and other stores. You haven’t bought it? Shame on you!
PodCastle has recorded an audio version of my story “This Strage Way of Dying” which is set during the time of the Decena Tragica, as the Mexican Revolution is going to blow up into a huge conflict.
This is a great excuse to talk about death in Mexico. The easiest way to explain it is visually, with the etchings of Jose Gualdaupe Posada (here’s a piece I wrote about him). As you can see, Death in Mexico is represented as being a very lively creature. It drinks, it parties, it misbehaves. The Day of the Dead features the use of colorful flowers (orange, yellow and a deep red), altars with food and incense.
In Mexica (a.k.a. Aztec) cosmology life is but a brief instant, an almost insignificant occurrence. But, hey, don’t despair, because existence is cyclical and as we move out of one existence we enter another.
The Mexican Revolution can be a symbol for this cycle, as it was a time of deep changes. The classical Porfirian structures gave way to a different mindset and eventually a different country. Women, instead of sitting prim and proper in their homes, were suddenly taking up arms, marching as soldaderas with their rifles.
“This Strage Way of Dying” is a brief slice of this change: a rich, sheltered teenager suddenly faces Death, though this death is more enticing than the Grim Reaper of European stories and she is suddenly taken with the fantastic vitality of him.
“It would be beautiful,” he told her.
Death wove a silver necklace around her neck with vines and birds. The dove fluttered back to life and landing on her hands transformed into a hundred black pearls which spilled onto the floor.
It was all wonderful.
He leaned forward, smelling faintly of incense and copal, of candles burning on the altars. His eyes were so very black, so very deep, and she thought she’d never seen eyes like that; eyes that were dark and quiet as the grave.
She wondered if his lips might taste like sugar skulls.
Georgina, who has until then assumed she will marry a rich man of her father’s choice, suddenly discovers love. How old were you the first time you looked into someone’s eyes and just stared in fascination, drawn by a something you could not explain? That moment, when you smiled a shy smile and misplaced your heart is what this story is about.
It’s loose! Future Lovecraft is now on pre-sale with a yummy 20% discount. Or, buy the Kindle version.
You can’t go wrong with an anthology containing stories and poems titled “Inky, Blinky, Pinky, Nyarlathotep” by Nick Mamatas, “Go, Go, Go, Said the Byakhee” by Molly Tanzer or “Exhibit at the National Anthropology Museum in Tombouctou” by Andrew Dombalagian. The book also has four interior illustrations by Nacho Molina Parra and Chadwick Saint John, a cover by German artist Markus Vogt, and much Lovecraftian fun.
If you don’t believe me, believe the blurb:
Listen to the stars that whisper and drive a crew mad. Worship the Tloque Nahuaque as he overtakes Mexico City. Slip into the court of the King in Yellow. Walk through the streets of a very altered Venice. Stop to admire the beauty of the flesh-dolls in the window. Fly through space in the shape of a hungry, malicious comet. Swim in the drug-induced haze of a jellyfish. Struggle to survive in a Martian gulag whose landscape isn’t quite dead. But, most of all, fear the future.
Featured authors include: Nick Mamatas, Ann K. Schwader, Don Webb, Paul Jessup, E. Catherine Tobler. A.C. Wise, and many more.
Buy one for every member of your family! Or at least tell someone about it.
And remember: On Saturday, Dec. 3rd, from 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., the Friends of the Merril Collection will be holding a book launch for the Future Lovecraft anthology at the Friends’ annual Christmas Cream Tea. Several local authors whose stories appear in the anthology (Michael Matheson, Helen Marshall and Ada Hoffman) will be on hand to read from their work.
What do we have here? You guessed it. Another uncorrected fragment of Sound Fidelity, the novel I’m working on. The last fragment was set in 2009. In this chapter we are back in 1988. Meche, Sebastian and Daniela have learned how to use magic and bought themselves new outfits for a party.
Towards the end, Meche says she wishes they would play “Il Mondo” by Jimmy Fontana.
The lyrics say:
Gira, il mondo gira
Nello spazio senza fine
Con gli amori appena nati
Con gli amori gia finiti
Con la gioia e col dolore
Della gente come me
which translate to…
Spin, the world turns
In the endless space
With love newborn
With love already finished
With the joy and with pain
Of the people like me
How can I put this? I’m tired! I’ve got to deal with the Future Lovecraft anthology (Want a review copy? Ask!) and then on top of that I’m slugging through Sound Fidelity about 1980s Mexico, magic and music. So, I’ll keep it brief.In the following fragment we see Meche in 2009. It’s also the perfect excuse to show a video of Miguel Mateos:
