Get bit: Chilling Tales 2 launch happening now online at Bitten By Books!

As promised, here is the live link for today's online launch for Chilling Tales: Alas, In Words, Drown I.   This is an opportunity to discuss writing, horror and hairstyling tips with the authors who contributed to the collection (I have a full batting order for the anthology two posts down) as well as a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift certificate. 

http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=66136

One topic on the slate is the state of horror post-zombie, vampire, etc. What is the next big monster? The family appears to be one of the early contenders, based on several of the stories Michael Kelly has pulled together for the anthology.

Have at it and get bit! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Chilling Tales 2 launches online with Bitten By Books

Chilling Tales 2 is having a special online launch at Bitten By Books starting tomorrow at noon, CST (Nov. 13) and running until noon, Nov. 14.  

This is a chance for readers to chat with the anthology's authors, who will be stopping in at various times throughout the day (I'll be there around 7 p.m. CST and will also check in later for the night people).  There's also a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift certificate--RSVP at the link below and you'll get 25 entries into the draw.  I'll be posting the link to the actual event here tomorrow.

http://bittenbybooks.com/66049/

This is the first time I've participated in an online launch. With the various authors in the anthology scattered to locations all over the map, it will be a great chance to connect with a lot of warped minds.

Chilling Tales 2 is here!

Chilling Tales: In Words Alas, Drown I has been let off leash by the fine folks at Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing and is now prowling the aisles of your local bookstores and online haunts.  

Editor Michael Kelly has put together an impressive line-up of writers for the second installment of this anthology series, and I couldn't be more thrilled (and humbled) to have my short story "Goldmine" appear within the same pages.

Here's the TOC at a glance:

• In Libitina’s House by Camille Alexa
• Gingerbread People by Colleen Anderson
• Meteor Lake by Kevin Cockle
• Homebody by Gemma Files
• Snowglobes by Lisa L Hannett
• The Hairdress by Sandra Kasturi
• The Dog’s Paw by Derek Künsken
• The Flowers of Katrina by Claude Lalumière
• Goldmine by Daniel LeMoal
• The Salamander’s Waltz by Catherine MacLeod
• The Slipway Grey by Helen Marshall
• Weary, Bone Deep by Michael Matheson
• Black Hen A La Ford by David Nickle
• Day Pass by Ian Rogers
• Fiddleheads by Douglas Smith
• Dwelling on the Past by Simon Strantzas
• Heart of Darkness by Edo van Belkom
• Fishfly Season by Halli Villegas
• Road Rage by Bev Vincent
• Crossroads Blues by Robert J. Wiersema
• Honesty by Rio Youers

I just cracked open my copy this evening, absorbing a few pages in between trick-or-treaters.  I'll be up for a few more hours at the very least...

Visit HERE for more information about CT 2 and where it can be purchased online.

Excelsior!

Dan

Real life horror stories: Crohn’s Disease and a Tale of Two Dans

The late Dan O’Bannon stands as one of my all-time favourite creative forces in the genre. One only has to glance over his body of work to see the impact he’s had on modern horror and fantasy: Alien, Return of the Living Dead, Heavy Metal, Total Recall and Dark Star are all part of that impressive resume.

            One biographical note on O’Bannon that I had been unaware of until quite recently was the fact that he suffered from Crohn’s Disease throughout his life.  In fact, the famous “chest-burster” sequence in Alien was inspired by O’Bannon’s many battles with the disease.  In my own struggle with Crohn’s, during the worst nights of cramping--with the food trapped in my gut and nowhere for it to bloody well go--I’ve often thought of that scene.  To find out the grim inspiration for Kane’s demise after all these years... I’m almost ashamed I didn’t make the connection sooner.  Women I’ve met who have also suffered from Crohn’s have likened the pain to being worse than childbirth. 

            Over the years, Crohn’s has sort of been like a series of sporadic slasher films, with the villain returning every so often to mess up my life.  I’ve had years with no symptoms whatsoever, only to have the disease come back and turn my stomach against me.  Gradually, every plate of food on the table turns to poison; you eat what you can hold down and hope it won’t double you over in pain for the rest of the day.  The human body can only withstand this for so long: eating less, losing weight, not getting enough nutrition to your body and brain to live a normal life.  The end result is always a trip to the hospital for surgery, followed by a lengthy recovery and the hope that you’ll get a good stretch with no symptoms. 

I lost count of the surgeries many years ago, but I had been on a good run of clean health up until the summer of 2012.  The symptoms started coming back with a vengeance, and I spent the next 12 months struggling through work and trying to have a semi-normal life.  Writing, unfortunately, took a back seat during all of this.  Most days involved me dragging myself through the day job, coming home and crashing immediately on the couch for the next 3-4 hours.  Hopefully, after a bit of sleep, I’d have enough energy to get a light supper in me.  I was spiraling the drain and knew that surgery was the only option.

            Finally, in September, I was able to get on the operating table and had a few sections of intestine removed (I didn’t mean for this entry to be an explanation of Crohn’s Disease, but my problems in short: the intestines bleed, scar and repeat until there isn’t enough room for a single pea to pass through...hence the severe pain and general difficulty with eating).  Ideally, I would have been out of the hospital after ten days.  But it was a rough operation--a lot of adhesions from old surgeries--that ended up taking seven-and-a-half hours.  My x-rays showed a gut that looked like it had been “beaten with a shovel” as my surgeon said. 

            Three weeks after the operation, I was still unable to eat properly.  All they can do is shove a tube up your nose and down into your stomach (to drain bile from your gut) and feed you intravenously.  I’ve read horror stories about people whose stomachs don’t start working again--they get fed intravenously for an indefinite period, the IV pole their constant companion.  I was seriously worried that I’d end up stuck in the same state.  What kind of life would that be?  It was a scary time for Nora and I both.  I wound up staying in the hospital for over a month, but thankfully, I’m now eating again.  Not a huge diet by any means, but just being able to enjoy a meal with family and friends is such a gift.  I met people in the hospital who had been stuck on the inside for seven months or more.

            I still think about Dan O’Bannon a lot.  They say Crohn’s can’t kill you, but that’s sadly inaccurate.  The disease did eventually kill O’Bannon, and make no mistake: it can beat you to a pulp, over and over. 

            I still have a long recovery ahead of me, but I’m getting better every day. One blessing from all of this free time is the amount of reading I’ve been able to enjoy...and with that has come the desire to start writing again.  I’ve always hated those periods where Crohn’s defines my life and circumstances.  I’m looking forward to those days when it’s just a minor inconvenience again.  I won’t think about the next relapse, the next trip to the hospital, the next recovery.  Fuck it, those are the future Daniel LeMoal’s problems. 

That poor old bastard won’t know what hit him!  

On Spec 90 and the End of the World

The latest issue of On Spec--the Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic -- is now on the stands! My short story "Destroyer" is part of their special apocalypse themed issue. So how will the world end? I put my money on genetic mutations in this particular case, but I figure Kevin Cockle's "econapocalypse" is probaby the most likely scenario.  

http://www.onspec.ca/currentissue

Growing up in the 80s, with the spectre of nuclear war hanging over our heads, I was hopelessly obsessed with the End of the World. Bands like Killing Joke, The Exploited and even pop-sensation Frankie Goes to Hollywood sang about the grim possibilities, while the TV movie The Day After painted a frighteningly-plausible ruin to mankind. Heck, even Judge Dredd had Mega City One under attack by the "Sovs."

At 14-years-old, I figured we had a couple of years left if we were lucky.  So what was I going to do if Big Red sent some heavy metal to Calgary?  Ride my bike to Cochrane and hope for the best? Try to track down my family across town?  Grab one last Slurpee with my school chums and toast our last few minutes? 

While I'd like to say I've outgrown my nuclear apocalypse paranoia, I've really only expanded the list of potential threats...viral outbreaks, superstorms, killer bees, etc.  And as always, while I'm great at worrying, I still haven't figured out much of a survival plan. So if the "fit hits the shan"...I'll see you in line at 7-Eleven.

Happy Halloween!

Hope you are dry, warm and have the lights on wherever you may be on one of the stranger Halloween nights in recent memory.

A few short stories are on the way, the first of which is appearing in the Fall 2012 issue of On Spec. "Destroyer" is my offering for a special apocalypse-themed issue.  I'm eager to see what the other authors have for end-of-the-world scenarios. Zombies?  Meteors?  Plague?  Spiders?  The possibilities are endless.  This is my third time appearing in the pages of the Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic and I couldn't be more thrilled.  For more info, visit www.onspec.ca .

Also on the way, in 2013, is "Goldmine" -- appearing in the pages of Chilling Tales Two: In Words, Alas, Drown I.  This horror anthology comes to you courtesy of Edge Science Fiction & Fantasy Publishing/ Hades Publications and editor Michael Kelly.

To whet your appetite for the anthology, check out Michael's horror magazine Shadows and Tall Trees.  Issue #4 features fiction from Robert Shearman, Alison Moore, Reggie Oliver and more.  For more info visit www.undertowbooks.com .  The magazine, which is Undertow's flagship publication, has been drawing great reviews of late.

As for Chilling Tales Two, more info can be found here.

Well, the last of the little monsters have left the front porch, time to go watch a few scary movies...

Adios amigos,

Dan

Manitoba is drowning...and we all live by the river.

Christmas came a little late this year...Friday, Jan. 13 to be precise. That's when I saw Chris Orapello's amazing cover for Title Goes Here #10. The image ("Death by Water") is a companion piece to "Highwater" -- a short story I have appearing in the issue.

"Highwater" weighs in at a giant-monster sized 7,404 words--too long for most markets--but thankfully it found a home at TGH.

This apocalyptic story was inspired by a question that comes to me every spring here in Manitoba. This is floodland; we endure a "flood of the century" every three or four years, it seems. You watch the Red River swell over its banks, keep a fearful eye on the basement and turn on the TV to see oversized lakes consuming the landscape and polar bears treading water. And every year, without fail, I'll wonder: what if the fucking water doesn't stop rising?

Digital and print versions are available here.