Peter N. Dudar, A REQUIEM FOR FLIES—Landscape of Death

Peter N. Dudar. A Requiem for Dead Flies. Nightscape Press, June 2012. ARC.

 

Growing up, I spent portions of every summer—and one summer entirely—at my grandparents’ farm in southern Idaho. They lived in a two-story house built by my grandfather in the 1940s, electrified in the late 1950s, and plumbed for running water only after my grandparents retired and sold it.

The second story was unfinished, the roof beams exposed, with old pieces of furniture stored away in dark corners. One of our favorite games was ‘treasure hunting’—rifling through drawers and cabinet shelves to see what had been hidden away, sometimes for years.

My most vivid memories of the old house, however, are not the treasure hunts, nor playing with the tiny antique tea set stored in a miniature bureau, nor any of the other typical childish pastimes my brother and sisters and I devised.

They are of the flies.

The attic had two tall windows, one on each end-gable, presumably for ventilation although I never saw them actually open. The sills were heavy with dust, quite unlike the rest of my grandmother’s immaculate home. And embedded in the dust—rather like archeological artifacts, were the flies.

Dead bluebottles, large, blue-black, and somehow threatening.

When I read the title to Peter N. Dudar’s novel, A Requiem for Dead Flies, those dead bluebottles were the first image that sprang to mind. Vivid, disturbing, somehow offensive. And I wondered how a novel might be able to live up to the intensity of that image.

Well, this one did.

Following the death of their grandmother from the effects of Alzheimer’s, Les and Gordon MacAuley return to the family farm to—of all things—try to breathe new life into the old homestead by brewing bourbon. Being there stirs old memories, horrific memories, of a summer fifteen years earlier, when the two boys had been sent to live with their widowed grandmother following their mother’s miscarriage…and their discovery that their grandmother, enmeshed in unspeakable secrets from her past, is not only moving into insanity but is also homicidal.

The set-up is intriguing; Dudar’s choice to develop the narrative by slipping seamlessly back and forth between present and past is brilliant; his handling of the two independent but ultimately parallel narratives is flawless; and the story that results is taut, engaging, and satisfying.

From the first pages, with their tantalizing suggestions of sexual abuse, mental and physical torture, and the frenzy of insanity, A Requiem for Dead Flies never allows readers to pause. Each chapter, each section, each paragraph provides some tiny bit of information that leads inexorably to the discovery of a portion of the truth. Seemingly unrelated elements—the desecration of an old family cemetery, Gordon’s increasing obsession with his hand-made still (named “Sally” after his stillborn sister), Les’s equally incremental fears of the old house with its bricked-in fireplace—all ultimately become individual threads in a complex tapestry of death, betrayal, murder, madness, and, when the reader is prepared for the intrusion of the supernatural, ghosts.

And throughout, there is the omnipresence of flies, living and dead. Flies coming apparently from nowhere to infest the empty farmhouse. Flies—dead flies—arranging themselves into terrifying messages: “KILL HIM.” Flies that may or may not be in collusion with the dead. Flies that permanently and devastatingly alter the relationship between the two brothers.
 

My grandmother never held late-night conversations with dead flies over the obituary section of the newspaper. She never became a threat to her grandchildren when they visited. And my grandfather, unlike the Macauley brothers’, was very much alive.

But the house.

The house.

And those dead bluebottles on the attic windowsills.

Dudar captures perfectly the essence of the haunted house and does so through the simplest of mediums (no pun intended)—dead flies. They lend authenticity to the setting; they allow characters to reveal their inner turmoil, terrors, and desires; they become a warning sign, adumbrating horrors to come.

And, in the end, they live up to the challenges of the title: A Requiem for Dead Flies.

 A strong book, well-handled from beginning to end, and highly recommended.

 * * * * *

Michael R. Collings is a Professor Emeritus at Pepperdine University and Senior Publications Editor at JournalStone Publishing (journalstone.com)

Brett Talley's THE VOID--Another Fine Novel

Some weeks ago, Christopher Payne, the publisher at JournalStone, asked if I would be interested in writing the introduction to Brett Talley's new novel, The Void. Without hesitating, I accepted, and shortly thereafter, when JournalStone previewed the novel at World HorrorCon 2012, I was proud and delighted to see my words on the opening pages of a fine novel.

Rather than write a separate review of The Void--which would end up necessarily redundant and slightly embarrassing (since my name is associated with the book and, since the first of June, with JournalStone itself), I am going to reprint the introduction here, and add to it only this--I was immediately impressed with the quality of writing and thinking I found in That Which Should Not Be when I read it and was not surprised to find that it was a prize-winner already. The Void meets--if not exceeds--that same level of quality. For any further personal reactions to it, please see the final line of this introduction:

“What Dreams May Come”: An Introduction to Brett Talley’s The Void.

When I was first approached to write an introduction to Brett Talley’s new novel, The Void, I had two reactions.

First, I felt an immediate sense of…well, of inevitability. After all, a little over two years ago I had published In the Void: Poems of Science Fiction, Myth and Fantasy, & Horror (Wildside, 2009), and here was a new opportunity to explore the mysteries of that fascinating, that frightening place. Since my expedition had been by way of poetry, surely Talley’s prose would introduce new possibilities…and perhaps new terrors.

Second, I had already met Talley’s work through the mediation of his first novel, the Bram Stoker Award-nominated That Which Should Not Be (JournalStone, 2011), a more-than-creditable H. P. Lovecraft pastiche that brought new life to conventions long considered stale and passé. The book had not only captured the essence of the Lovecraftian Chtulhu mythos in its quartet of tales-within-a-tale but did so with sufficient ease to allow loving sidelong glances not only at Lovecraft’s typical people, places, and things but also at suggestions of Bram Stoker, H. G. Wells, and other fantasists. Reading it had been, in fact, a delight.

So, of course, I agreed. Who could pass up an opportunity to enter the unknown with an author who had already demonstrated not only his capacity as a writer but his mastery of his craft?

Then I read the first line of The Void: June 18, 2159.

What’s this? The future? Where is the darkness, the mystery, the horror? This sounds like Science-fiction, which, though I enjoy and appreciate, is not what I anticipated from Talley.

But I had agreed, so I continued reading.

Wise choice.

The Void is science-fictional. It takes place in the near-future, in a universe in which star travel has become possible through the invention of a warp drive that, triggered near the outer reaches of the Solar System, enables ships to move almost instantly to distant stars, systems, quadrants. Earth’s entire economy—and, of course, the economies of all of the colony worlds—has become dependent upon the new technology. As a result, star flight has become so commonplace as to become almost mundane.

Almost….

Because there is one, small—infinitesimally small, actually—problem. To pass through the warp and remain sane, passengers and crew must all submit to a stasis-sleep…and in that sleep, come the Dreams.

Everyone has them, without exception. For each individual the Dream is always the same, no matter how often the dreamer enters stasis. More than that, the Dream remains with the dreamer, upon waking, haunting, pervasive, foreshadowing images that must inevitably recur the next time, on the next flight.

Even more than that, the Dreams terrify. And occasionally, they drive certain dreamers to madness. Or to death.

Ahhh, here it comes, the horror. Talley plays his cards close to the chest, so the reader is well immersed in an ostensible science-fictional narrative before—word by word, phrase by phrase, image by image—Talley reveals the darkness beneath the technology, the threat that presents itself first through the Dreams and then by its determination to intrude into this world.

His language occasionally feels Lovecraftian, but his version of the Great Old Ones, Lovecraft’s survivors from a previous, highly advanced stage of the universe, is not; his terrors are his own. There are no eldritch horrors in The Void; no monolithic buildings employing skewed, crazed architecture; no tentacles fungoid monstrosities waiting for some misled magician to chant arcane passages from the Necronomicon and invite them again into our world.

The shadows in the Dreams are far worse, because in part, they reside within each of the Dreamers.

Talley reveals the truth with masterful pacing and precision. At time he rivets us in this reality through his use of hard-edged, solid, scientifically-oriented prose. At other times, he urges us to see beyond this reality by lengthy passages that are poetic in their fluidity, their movement, their ability to conjure images of time and space and possibility. Yet throughout the book, he continually returns to the Dreams, the Dreams, and their impact upon the dreamers.

I’m tempted to go further, to disclose more of the secrets that the small crew of the Chronos must uncover for themselves as they struggle with their Dreams…and with their life-threatening encounters with Black Holes, with nameless shadows and whisperings, with treachery and betrayal, with the enigmas contained within the derelict ship Singularity…and within their own imaginations.

I’m tempted… I will, however, restrain myself, and conclude with these few words.

Read on. Enjoy. But be afraid to Dream.

* * * * *

Dr. Michael R. Collings is an Emeritus Professor of English at Pepperdine University and Senior Publications Editor for JournalStone Publications.

Lincoln Crisler, ed. CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY?--Acton Proven True Again

Lincoln Crisler, editor.  Corrupts Absolutely? Dark Metahuman Fiction. E-book edition: Damnation Books, 28 February 2012. 636 kb. $5.95. ASIN: B007GE8RLC. Print edition: Damnation Books, 1 March 2012. 216 pp. Trade paperback, $20.25. ISBN-10: 1615726152; ISBN-13: 978-1615726158.

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

Yeah, right.

Sometimes. 

But sometimes, with great power comes…other things.

For one character in Lincoln Crisler’s enjoyable anthology of tales about warped, convoluted, perverted, and otherwise twisted superheroes, with great power comes great revenge…the ability to wreak destruction and devastation on the families, cities, and nations of those who killed his wife and unborn child. And when he is finished, and all about him is in ruin…he can do it again!

For another, the self-appointed task of patrolling the streets of Hollywood leads him to a perfect opportunity…to satisfy a need for malevolence that has been building over decades, and along the way fulfill his role as the new avatar of The Shadow.

For yet another, possession of a unique mental power gives him the chance to fulfill his potential…and, unfortunately for him, to realize what that potential actually implies.

And thus it goes through the twenty-one stories of Corrupts Absolutely? Each begins with the introduction of a superhero, either already fully cognizant of his or her powers or on the cusp of discovering them. Then comes a time of trial, of exploration, of growth, of discovery—often at the instigation of other superheroes with other powers. And finally, a moment of decision, of revelation, of final understanding…or so each thinks.

Midway through Weston Ochse’s “Hollywood Villainy,” one character takes a moment to lecture his soon-to-be victims:

There are three types of heroes. There are those who have something done to them that gives them power. There are those who actively seek out heroism, most often, but not always, attaining their powers through technology…. And of course, there are those who are born that way.

But more crucial to the story—and to all of the stories in Corrupts Absolutely?—is his response to the question, well, if there are three kinds of superheroes, are there three kinds of villains. No, he answers:

No matter the power, no matter the ability, no matter the technology, the single factor that decides if someone is a villain or not is their desire to do evil.

Here is the crux to each of the stories in this admirable anthology. At some point each individual chooses; and that choice releases the great power…for good or, more frequently, for evil.

The stories range from the graphically horrific to the comedic (although, given the premise of the collection, even such comedy as one finds in Jeff Strand’s “The Origin of Slashy” is likely to be blood-soaked and gore-laden). In most, the superpower functions directly to save or destroy; in a few, as in Joe McKinney’s “Hero,” it is deflected to serve evil purposes, even as the original ‘hero’ suffers torment and horror. In some, society itself has turned against the superheroes, licensing them or limiting them in stringent ways, until the heroes set their powers against their oppressors…who in some senses are the readers themselves. In all, Lord Acton’s famous apothegm—“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”—is tested and found true.

Few anthologies are evenly excellent—there are one or two stories in Corrupts Absolutely? that, while well written and cogently told, failed to capture my interest. Still, the large majority of the stories establish intriguing conditions, insert equally intriguing characters, add appropriately devastating consequences to either action or inaction, and let the chips—or bodies—fall where they may.

Recommended.

* * * * * Michael R. Collings is a professor emeritus at Pepperdine University and Senior Publications Editor for JournalStone Publications.

90 MINUTES TO LIVE--Intriguing Premise, Powerful Stories

Joel Kirkpatrick, comp. JournalStone’s 2011 Warped Words: 90 Minutes to Live. JournalStone: San Francisco, December 2011. 260 pp. Trade paperback, $12.95. ISBN-10: 1936564335 ISBN-13: 978-1936564330.

* Hardcover, $27.95. ISBN-10: 1936564343 ISBN-13: 978-1936564347

* Ebook edition: JournalStone, December 2011. 506 kb. $2.99. ASIN: B006KEB6KI

Many years ago, when I first started reading Science Fiction as a teenager (as I recall, it was just after the demise of the last dinosaur), I came across a remarkable short story. Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations” (Astounding Magazine, August 1954) takes place in a ship bearing emergency medications to a plague-ridden planet. A stowaway is discovered, and the captain realizes that the additional weight means that there will be insufficient fuel to reach their destination. He has three options: turn back, which means that everyone on the plague-planet will die; divert to another planet and taken on more fuel, which means that everyone on the plague-planet will die; or jettison the extra weight—the stowaway—and save the planet. There are no villains in the piece, just the laws of physics. And in the end, after discussing the problem via communicator, the stowaway willingly steps out the lock and into empty space.

It was perhaps the first story I read that emphasized that the science in Science Fiction could become in essence a character—implacable, objective, neutral, and unbending. After nearly five decades, I still remember the chill that accompanied the conclusion of the story.

And now I’ve had a chance to renew that sense of inevitability.

* * * * *

A lock of hair.

And ninety minutes to live.

Two elements that connect these thirteen tales science fiction, fantasy, horror, and the paranormal.

This is the intriguing and promising set-up for JournalStone’s latest Warped Words anthology, 90 Minutes to Live, and the volume more than lives up to that promise.

The first three tales—placing First, Second and Third respectively in the submissions competition—set the tone. Each is polished, engaging, and entertaining.

John La Rue’s “Dead Already”—the First Place Science Fiction tale—is a lineal descendant of Godwin’s “The Cold Equations.” Science Fiction may seem to emphasize the individual, the larger-than-life character whose actions change the course of worlds, galaxies, even empires. But as La Rue reminds us, underlying the sense of epic grandeur possible in Science Fiction are the cold realities of physics. He carefully defines the physical situation that makes inevitable and essential the death of one of his characters, and does so with precision and sympathy. The man has done nothing wrong…is in fact estimable in every way. But in the end, he must die.

I felt the same chill as I read John La Rue’s First Place Science Fiction story, “Dead Already.” And the chills never ceased coming until the final page of 90 Minutes to Live.

Brad Carpenter’s Second Place story is just as powerful even though it moves in entirely different directions. This one is horror. In fact, it is about creating horror—horror movies. When an octogenarian special effects master is granted the opportunity to watch a B-movie named Godforsaken, he finds himself inextricably enmeshed in a series of events that leads to…well, to his realization that he has only ninety minutes to live.

The Third Place tale, “Acapulco Blue,” by Bruce Golden, has as its primary characters another aging man, nearing death; and his favorite companion, a perfectly maintained 1965 Ford Mustang. His final wish is to be buried in it. And he gets his wish.

The remaining ten stories are strong and compelling. Bram Stoker Award winner Brett J. Talley contributes a neatly faceted jewel in “An Eye for an Eye,” a horror piece based on how long a  man can remain alive after being buried in a coffin—as he thinks initially, alone. It’s no surprise that he lives only ninety minutes, but those ninety minutes are an eternity in hell. Timothy Miller’s “City of Fire” is a tautly written story of apocalypse, in which escape—if such is even possible—must be timed to the second. Peter Orr’s fantasy, “The Glade,” is a finely crafted re-creation of betrayal, trust, and ultimate redemption. The final tale, Jennifer Phillip’s “In the Shadow of the Banyan Tree” is an almost gentle meditation on life and death as a bed-ridden patient awaits the arrival of a tsunami that is rushing toward Indonesia, bearing a toxic cargo of illicitly dumped waste…and, in ninety minutes, death.

Throughout, the writing is strong, the imagination satisfying. Each story—including those I haven’t mentioned by name—kept my attention from beginning to end, even though I knew from the first to watch for those two key elements: a lock of hair and ninety minutes. And it was fascinating to discover how differently each of those worked its way organically into the various stories.

One more point about 90 Minutes to Live. It is dedicated to HWA President Rocky Wood, and the book description at Amazon carries the additional note: This anthology is dedicated to Rocky Wood who has been diagnosed with ALS. All of the proceeds from sales will be donated to Mr. Wood to be used to purchase much needed medical equipment

The book is well worth getting for the stories it tells, the ideas it generates, the emotions it stirs; it is doubly worth getting for the good it will do.

Highly recommended.

* * *
Michael R. Collings is an Emeritus Professor of English at Pepperdine University and Senior Publications Editor for JournalStone Publications (journalstone.com). This post is also available at: http://journalstone.com/2012/06/08/90-minutes-to-live-a-dr-collings-review/

Jeff Strand, A BAD DAY FOR VOODOO

Jeff Strand. A Bad Day for Voodoo. Sourcebooks/Sourcebooks Fire, 1 June 2012. $8.99, Trade paperback. ISBN 9781402266805.

When I first read Dean R. Koontz’s Ticktock (Bantam, 1996), I thought it was probably the funniest horror novel ever. It had everything that the 1930’s ‘screwball comedies’ had, and then some. There is the crudely made rag doll that suddenly appears on Tommy Phan’s porch…and reveals itself as much more than it seems. There is the stereotypical American male (even if  he is Vietnamese-American) with fast cars and beautiful women--the first being the aqua Corvette he has wanted all his life, and the second being the stunning waitress he seems accidentally to meet…who, it turn out (Surprise! Surprise!) is really an immensely rich heiress in disguise. There is the madcap chase through the night streets, ever one step ahead of the gruesome monster that is not only pursuing them but that is growing larger by the moment. There is the Asian curst that truly works! And on and on.

What made Ticktock so memorable was not that Koontz was attempting to blend overt horror with slapstick comedy—although that in and of itself would be enough to engrave the book in memory—but that he succeeded brilliantly, with never a false step. Re-reading the novel, even listening to it on audio tapes did not lessen the enjoyment; in fact, know the ‘secret’ made reading even more entertaining, watching for the clues that Koontz scattered throughout that things were not at all what they seemed.

In fact, my wife and I enjoyed the book so much that when it was released as a hardcover, we bought that as well, since the original paperback had become a bit worn.

[And no. I know what you are probably thinking, but I haven’t made an error and mistakenly begun a review of the wrong book. Because….]

Jeff Strand’s delightful romp, A Bad Day for Voodoo does for voodoo dolls, zombies, religious fanatics (whose fanaticism has long since passed into full-out insanity), chop-shop thugs, rat-infested sewers, and maniacal taxi drivers high on Red Bull what Ticktock did for…well, for everything mentioned above.

And more significantly because perhaps the task was inherently more difficult, he does it for a Young Adult audience, which means that the exploding body parts, menacing creatures-in-the-dark, hoodlums and bullies—to say nothing of the zombie and the voodoo priestesses—have to function on two levels simultaneously. On one, they must be menacing, vivid, frightening if not terrifying, and carry throughout an appropriate degree of explicitness; on the other, they must not be too menacing, vivid, frightening, etc., in order to be age appropriate.

Strand manages the dual levels flawlessly. He contrives a number of ways, for example, to let us know that at certain key moments his hero—Tyler Churchill, victim of a voodoo curse—does not say “O golly gee, that hurt” or some other paraphrasis geared toward social acceptance; neither, however, does he let loose with language that would not be unfamiliar to most adults and probably to most sixteen-year-olds. Tyler lets us know that he said such things, but we don’t actually read them.

Beyond this, Strand treats his first-person narrator and his array of other characters with deftness and skill. Tyler, his best friend Adam, and his straight-A, hyper-rational girlfriend are at one level standard figures in high-school stories. On the other…they are definitely not. Tyler’s requisite coming-of-age involves voodoo dolls that seem to have super powers. When he pricks one doll to get back at his history teacher for an undeserved “F” he is as surprised as anyone when the leg not only hurts, but flies across the room like a bloody torpedo…literally (read the book to get the joke here). When someone doll-naps the doll meant to resemble Tyler and sticks a needle in its toe, Tyler’s toe flies off as well. Clearly, the magic implicit in the doll and in the curse represent a force beyond the control of atypical sixteen-year-old. Yet Tyler rises to the occasion. Toeless, in mortal peril lest other body parts explode without warning, he nevertheless pursues the dollnapper—there are actually several of them—and does everything in his power to deactivate the doll before all Hell breaks loose…literally.

Throughout, Strand constantly plays games with the reader, ostensibly in Tyler’s voice, which makes some of the jokes even more hilarious. At one point, Tyler realizes that his presumed readers are probably stealing time from the high-school English homework to read his book, so he helps them out by identifying relevant literary tropes as he goes, including moments when the speaker [narrator] tales the easy way out [cliché]. An entire paragraph is missing due to an editor’s error…so we have to make do with her ecstatic responses and partial recollection of what the chapter—a Pulitzer prize-winner at the least—contained. And finally, the novel ends rather like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with the narrator coming out (not quite in his bathrobe) and asking “Are you still here?”

Thinking back over the experience of reading A Bad Day for Voodoo, I can’t think of anything that rang falsely, or that seemed non-sequiturial, or that did not move the novel to its satisfying conclusion…or was it a non-conclusion. Oh well. Characters, settings, dialogue, all work well.  Highly recommended.    

My Good News--A Position as Senior Publications Editor for JournalStone Publishing

I said the other day that I had good news coming.... And here it is.

For immediate release:

JournalStone Publishing Announces Hiring of Renowned Author-Scholar Dr. Michael Collings as Senior Publications Editor

SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2012 –JournalStone Publishing President, Christopher C. Payne is pleased to announce the hiring of the renowned Dr. Michael Collings, Professor Emeritus at Seaver College, Pepperdine University, in the position of Senior Publications Editor.

Dr. Collings has published over 100 volumes of poetry, novels, short fiction, and scholarly studies of such contemporary writers as Stephen King, Orson Scott Card, Dean R. Koontz, and Piers Anthony. Recent works include:

The Art and Craft of Poetry (1996, 2009);

Toward Other Worlds: Perspectives on John Milton, C. S. Lewis, Stephen King, Orson Scott Card, and Others (2010);

In Endless Morn of Light: Moral Agency in Milton’s Universe (2010);

In the Void: Poems of Science Fiction, Myth and Fantasy, and Horror (2009);

Matrix: Growing Up West—Autobiographical Poems (2010);

BlueRose and Other Chapbooks (2012);

and a Book of Mormon epic, The Nephiad (1996, 2010).

His fiction includes:

The House Beyond the Hill: A Novel of Fear (2007);

Wordsmith, Volume One: The Thousand Eyes of Flame (2009) and Wordsmith, Volume Two: The Veil of Heaven (2009);

Singer of Lies: A Science-Fantasy Novel (2009);

Wer Means Man, and Other Tales of Wonder and Terror (2010);

Three Tales of Omne: A Companion to Wordsmith (2010);

Devil’s Plague: A Mystery Novel (2011);

Serpent’s Tooth (2011);

Static: A Novel of Horror (2011);

Shadow Valley (2011);

and The Slab (2010), the story of a haunted tract house in Southern California…that consumes people.

Dr. Collings has served as Guest of Honor, Scholar Guest of Honor, Poet Guest of Honor, and Special Guest at a number of science fiction, fantasy, and horror conferences, including HorrorFest ’89, Brigham Young University’s ‘Life, the Universe, and Everything,” World Horror Con 2008, and World Horror Con 2012. He has been an invited panelist on over 60 convention panels dealing with topics as disparate as Stephen King, the role of religion in science fiction, and the nature of horror poetry.

He is now retired and lives in his native state of Idaho.

JournalStone Publishing is a small press publishing company, focusing in the Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror genres in both the adult and young adult markets. We publish in multiple book formats and market our authors on a global level. We are also active with major writer’s groups, including the Horror Writers Association (HWA), and produce a monthly newsletter with exposure to thousands of people. Our online presence and marketing effort is constantly expanding and recently we began our own forum. The company’s main goal is to publish quality novels that will showcase an author’s work and promote that work utilizing our evolving presence. Assisted by a hard-working and distinguished staff of employees, President and Editor-In-Chief Christopher C. Payne has led JS on a rapid and successful journey to recognition and sales within the marketplace.

With two books nominated for awards in JournalStone’s first 12 months of operation, Chris and his team are still not willing to slow down. 2012 has already seen JournalStone on the front cover of Publishers Weekly magazine in an April issue; with three of its authors highlighted on the inside cover. Additionally, Joseph Nassise (international bestselling author), Jonathan Maberry (New York Times bestselling author), and Benjamin Kane Ethridge (2010 Bram Stoker Award winner), have been added as JournalStone signed authors, complimenting Brett J. Talley and Anne C. Petty on a shared world anthology titled Limbus, to be released in the fall of 201

# # #

For further information –

Contact: Christopher C. Payne, President JournalStone Publishing

Email: christpherpayne@journalstone.com

Website: http://journalstone.com

I've been associated with JournalStone for some months now, reviewing several of their publications (including Brett Talley's Bram-Stoker-nominated novel That Which Should not Be; writing the introduction for his new, equally exciting book, The Void; participating in the second annual Best Novel competition, with the winners to be published later this year; and looking over manuscripts.

Now that association has become 'official,' and I am pleased to be able to participate every more fully in JournalStone's endeavors. looking forward to a great, fun time.


* * *Michael R. Collings is an Emeritus Professor of English at Pepperdine University and Senior Publications Editor for JournalStone Publishing, San Francisco CA.* * *







http://journalstone.com/2012/06/02/journalstone-publishing-announces-hiring-of-renowned-author-scholar-dr-michael-collings-as-senior-publications-editor/