Delighted to say the anthology Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror has won the British Fantasy Award for year’s best anthology. Amazing! It includes my story “All Of Our Boys Are Missing,” a lament and fantasy about lost boyhood.
Working with editor Sophia Ajram was glorious. The book also includes a story by film maker Robbie Banfitch, creator of “The Outwaters.” It’s one of the most stunning found footage films I’ve experienced and you should go watch if you have not yet done so.
While queer tragedy may sound like the last thing you want in your life in our current political climate, remember that there’s an undercurrent of hope in stories that mourn and process our losses.
The only way out is through. That’s true for grief and if you’re queer you know plenty about grief. You may be holding onto some grief because we’re admonished so often to express queer and trans joy, and to only present the world with “good representation.”
As a writer, my concern is with what is true rather than what is good.
Fictional truth becomes complicated and grotesquely–perhaps also beautifully–mangled by influences, moods, memories, ekphrastic explosions, and all of the raw materials that fuel creativity. This leads to what a superficial reading can simplistically call “bad representation.”
Nevertheless, I’ve allowed a new story to go out into the world despite its bad rep; maybe because of it. It’s horror, after all. You’re not here to be made comfortable. You can read “Revenge of the Swans” in Body Shots, Volume 2 from Subtle Body Press to get the whole picture.
The story concerns cruising, kink, cleaning, and the opposite of pride (with or without rainbows) under the auspices of Derek Jarman’s “The Angelic Conversation” and its soundtrack by Coil. Editor Cliff Hensley intuitively grasped the difficult edge here and kindly gave this one a home.
Of special note: also included in this issue is the English-language debut of “La Cara” (The Face) by Colombian speculative fiction author Luis Carlos Barragán Castro.
Last, on the lighter side, my story Aphelian’s Masterpiece appears in the anthology Bizarro Circus of Madness, a passion project from Riley Odell. Aphelian is an artist responding to a friend’s cry for help. The friend is also an artist. God knows you shouldn’t put too many artists in one room together.
It’s a “fun”piece, I guess, especially if you enjoy bitter queers and eventual self-dissolution. Bizarro doesn’t seem to be such a big thing in the horror landscape these days, and Riley wanted to revive the hideous & often hilarious genre for this book. I’m pleased to be a small part of it.
One last thing! If you missed The Power Company Detective, go read it now, or soon. It’s the story I’m pushing out of the eighteen I’ve had published this year as Awards Eligible. Only because I love it. If you do, too, please consider nominating it or putting it on those lists or sharing with other readers.
Follow here to get links to new stories as they’re published, as well as news of upcoming book releases and events. Seriously, this is the best way not to lose touch in our ever-shifting social media landscape! I won’t spam you, and I’ll only post when I have something worthwhile to share.
Horrorsong 