Month: September 2016

Review of World Fantasy Award nominee “The Neurastheniac” by Selena Chambers

/ L.A. Barnitz / Leave a comment

This is the fifth and final review of the nominees for the World Fantasy Award for best short fiction in 2015. Winners will be announced in October. Other reviews are here, here, here and here. 

If I wanted to read “The Neurastheniac” by Selena Chambers I had to order the anthology it’s published in, which I didn’t mind doing, but discovering that Cassilda’s Song was created to pay tribute to “The King in Yellow” put me off right from the start.

I like a good bit of weird fiction. I even like weird fiction that pays tribute to particular fictional mythos (See my review of “The Deepwater Bride” for example.), but I have my limits. All of us do. Weird fiction that requires me to delve into a mythos I don’t find particularly compelling has to be either stylistically interesting and conceptually fresh or stylistically fresh and conceptually interesting to hold my attention. In my opinion this story did not make that cut. Continue reading →

13 Questions with Mercedes M. Yardley

/ L.A. Barnitz / 1 Comment

Love Mercedes Yardley’s work, and I totally relate to the struggle for writing/life balance. See my review of Pretty Little Dead Girls @ https://wordpress.com/stats/day/labarnitz.wordpress.com?startDate=2016-09-24

Joan De La Haye's avatarJoan De La Haye

Hello my Freaky Darlings,

Today we have Mercedes M. Yardley in the interrogation seat.

Mercedes Aurthor pic

Mercedes M. Yardley is a dark fantasist who wears red lipstick and poisonous flowers in her hair.  She was a contributing editor for Shock Totem Magazine and currently works with Gamut, a new neo-noir magazine. Mercedes is the author of many diverse works, including Beautiful Sorrows,Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love, Pretty Little Dead Girls, and the BONE ANGEL trilogy. She recently won the Bram Stoker Award for her story Little Dead Red.  Mercedes lives and works in Las Vegas, and you can reach her at www.abrokenlaptop.com.

You can also stalk Mercedes on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

  1. What drives you to write? 

MMY: “Drives” is the right word. I don’t simply write for fun or because it’s a cheery little thing to do. I write because I’m…

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“The Heat of Us: Notes Toward an Oral History” by Sam J. Miller imagines the potential force at the nexus of rage, sorrow and love / “The Heat of Us: Notes Toward an Oral History” de Sam J. Miller imagina la fuerza potencial del nexo entre la rabia, la tristeza y el amor

/ L.A. Barnitz / Leave a comment

This is the fourth review of the nominees for the World Fantasy Award for best short fiction in 2015. Winners will be announced in October. Other reviews are here, here and here. The Spanish translation following this post is by Daniela Toulemonde.

“The Heat of Us: Notes Toward an Oral History” by Sam J. Miller relates an alternative history of the Stonewall riots in 1969 and the mix of tensions that led up to the initial rebellion. Employing a creative story structure that features passages from oral interviews with people at the event, Miller doesn’t focus on a new timeline, but explores the mystery of an imagined trigger event on a night in history that actually did mark a significant change in the LGBTQ movement.

Readers are introduced to several characters at the Stonewall that night. One of the primary characters is Craig Perry, a gay black man furious with a world that has imposed such tremendous loneliness upon him and injustice on the people he identifies with. The other central character is Ben Lazzarra, a cop who is unable to tell even his twin brother (also a cop) that he is gay. The story evolves as each character describes the events leading up to their decision to go to the club and what they experienced the night of the trigger incident. The compiler of these interviews, a former NY Times reporter, narrates the story from a distance, explaining the significance of the raid for the movement and the inability to authenticate the supernatural occurrences that witnesses reported, while also repenting for her own culpability in the oppression of LGBTQ people. Continue reading →

World Fantasy Award nominee “The Deepwater Bride” brings a comedic touch to impending doom / El nominado al Premio Mundial de Fantasía “The Deepwater Bride” aporta un toque de comedia a la tragedia inminente

/ L.A. Barnitz / Leave a comment

jellyThis is the third review of the nominees for the World Fantasy Award for best short fiction in 2015. Winners will be announced in October. Other reviews are here and here. The Spanish translation following this post is by Daniela Toulemonde.

“The Deepwater Bride,” by Tamsyn Muir, has found lots of fans this year. It’s been nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award, the Nebula, and a Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fiction as well as the World Fantasy Award (and who knows what else I’m missing).

“Bride” is a delightful piece of weird fiction–thoroughly infected with the Lovecraftian mythos yet confounding it at the same time. (You can read Muir’s comments on how this came about at the Fantasy & Science Fiction website.)

In a familiar, yet not-quite-normal small town, we are introduced to Hester Blake, a lonely teenager who has inherited the gift of prophecy. It’s part of her birthright in a family that has chronicled the ebb and flow of appearances by “the many-limbed horror who lies beneath the waves” for generations. She lives with an aunt at the edge of town and the edge of society, never quite fitting in with other people, who are slated for destruction, and resigned to the fate of not lasting very long themselves.

Be warned–spoilers ahead. Continue reading →