http://subs.zinester.com/38141 Creative visions from the darkside - horror, weird, dreams - short fiction, poetry, and odd clips. en http://archives.zinester.com/38141/158019.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #17 - May 1, 2008
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I was going to do the usual rambling on an odd topic here, but there is some
news that's big enough to promote to this spot.

I just won a James B. Baker Award for nonfiction for an article of mine
("Unusual Vampire Lore" in Hungur magazine).  This is one of the bigger small
press awards out there, so it's fun for me.  The irony is that after getting no
recognition of any kind for the 450+ stories and poems I've had published (okay
- one Pushcart nomination) ... after only about 10 articles, there it is.  For
more info, try this link:
http://samsdotpublishing.com/expressions/mayexpressions.htm
... ]]> 158019 Fri, 02 May 2008 03:46:40 MSD http://archives.zinester.com/38141/157086.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #16 - Apr 15, 2008
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South Park hit an interesting topic last night ... what would happen to society
if the internet shut down?  They turned it into a "Grapes of Wrath" adventure
with all the yokels getting in their jalopies and heading to Californee (in
black & white).  Of course, they had to go overboard and add a disgusting bit
about online porn, but that's just how they are, gross-out central.

It's a real scare, though.  We're almost absurdly dependent on the net for
business, for news, and for personal contact.  Some of the things we do online
-- like getting flamed in forums and hunting for hours for anything of meaning
-- we could learn to do without, and would gladly skip now if we had more
... ]]> 157086 Fri, 18 Apr 2008 02:26:24 MSD http://archives.zinester.com/38141/156797.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #15 - Apr 1, 2008
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April Fools!  A.k.a. fools in April ... you don't want me writing personal
notes around tax time.  And other excuses.

Actually, we didn't hear of a single good April Fools gag, either among people
we know or on the news.  Or in any of the endless newsletters and websites I
get/visit.  Unless that was the gag: April Fools being canceled this year!

Taxes = argh.  We spend the whole year trying to make it look like we're making
a lot of money.  Then we have 4 months to fiddle with numbers to make it look
like we didn't make anything.  But, if the numbers then say we didn't earn
... ]]> 156797 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:00:52 MSD http://archives.zinester.com/38141/155041.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #14 - March 15, 2008
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Back in high school and college, keeping a journal was a fun thing to do.
 There was so much downtime, and it kept me from snoring in class.  Surrounded
by people, at any moment someone might do something stupid or dramatic, and I
was there to jot it down.

My journal (from which most of the dreams included in Dark Windows come from)
fizzled out after that.  There's just no drama in a world of working and trying
to pay bills, where each day is more or less the same.  Sure, I can still get
sparks of ideas while walking down the street.  That reminds me ... the only
time I ever had a tire blowout on the freeway, a black cat had run in front of
... ]]> 155041 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:25:15 MSK http://archives.zinester.com/38141/154114.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #13 - Mar 1, 2008
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I just got back from a weekend at ConDor, a friendly little sci-fi convention
here in San Diego.  I was part of a fun 2-hour poetry workshop, the other
panelists were Debbie Kolodji, Denise Dumars, J. C. Runolfson, Kendall Evans,
Samantha Henderson, Christopher Vera, Billie Dee and Deborah Flores ... fans of
speculative poetry probably recognize a few of this group.  Between us I'd
guess we've had 1,500+ poems published.  And we all get along.  A fun group.
 We got people writing some poems, and even Sheila Finch (friendly Nebula Award
Winner) stopped in to listen and get inspired.

I also did the usual panel on getting published, then a difficult panel about
... ]]> 154114 Mon, 03 Mar 2008 09:38:40 MSK http://archives.zinester.com/38141/152944.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #12 - Feb 15, 2008
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I'm an amateur astronomer who has never been able to afford a telescope.  I
have many other ironic failures to share, but let's stick to this one.
 Luckily, there's a boom in astronomy right now, with a mind-boggling array of
surveys and catalogs and tools available online.  In most other ways, the 21st
century has been lame so far.  According to the sci-fi classics, we oughta be
much further along than we are, but the world continues to be 99% dull, and
hardly anything seems to change.  The internet itself is almost entirely
drivel, but there are some astronomical gems if you know where to look.

And don't forget to look away from time to time ...
... ]]> 152944 Sat, 16 Feb 2008 01:12:22 MSK http://archives.zinester.com/38141/151770.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #11 - Feb 1, 2008
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I'd like to do a study on why certain songs pop into my head when they do.
 There's always some kind of music going on up there, and it is often (FAR too
often) unwanted and annoying.  Things like "Cabbage" by the Smothers Brothers,
or some pop shit by whichever bimbo is hot this week.  How does that stuff get
in there?  Even more interesting: as a study in memory ... how is it that I can
call to mind any given moment of any of several hundred songs and play it in my
head like a CD?  Say I want to hear "Swamp" (Talking Heads).  Bang.  There it
is - "there's a hole in my head."  Every instrument, word, and layer of sound.
 What's the point of getting am iPod?  Brain music is far better.  I can go
into a song and mess around with it, change the words, add a guitar part,
... ]]> 151770 Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:01:27 MSK http://archives.zinester.com/38141/150905.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #10 - Jan 15, 2008
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What kind of freakishy lame world produces correspondence like this?

Gwynne reaccomodates petite sucker Hereford composes bright underbrush
Lewinsky topples curious periwinkle Freddi poultices faint julep
Rodina smocks obnoxious molding Gwynne books outrageous septuagenarian
Gerek organizes curious learner Hereford backlights few baconer
Gannie rubberstamps fragile nightingale Lewinsky overornaments short gauger

Damn spam.  Every technology we create gets abused by criminals and losers.
 Strange programs trying to trick us into replying, to steal our souls.  We try
... ]]> 150905 Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:03:56 MSK http://archives.zinester.com/38141/149529.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #9 - Jan 1, 2008
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Printed books are in for a rough ride.  My Dad came out to visit with his wife,
and we went to a Barnes & Noble to unwind ... she grabbed some magazines and
some tea and skimmed them with no intention of buying them; my Dad looked
around and said he could get the ones he wanted at the library; I looked around
and (since I'm mostly looking for classics and original historical sources)
commented that the few books I found of interest were all public domain items I
could find as free downloads.

How odd is that?  Don't get me wrong.  I love books, and prefer paper copies.
 And of course I think all creators should have a certain lifespan to try and
... ]]> 149529 Tue, 01 Jan 2008 15:01:39 MSK http://archives.zinester.com/38141/148592.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #8 - Dec. 15, 2007
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Baggage Claim
---

Claim your baggage ...
material left unclaimed
will be stored for 60 days
then sold at auction, so
Claim your baggage now!
This arm must be yours,
and this torso, yours.
... ]]> 148592 Mon, 17 Dec 2007 04:57:31 MSK http://archives.zinester.com/38141/147364.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #7 - Dec. 1, 2007
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For anyone who is keeping score, or focused on (nonexistent) schedules, you may
have noticed that there was no Nov 15 issue.  We were just getting over the
fires -- making up for lost hours and depression -- when my Mom died on Nov.
13.

I'm not going to focus on that here.  I had many days (like Thanksgiving) when
I didn't feel like doing anything, and wondered about the wisdom of compiling
dark/horror works at a time like this, but I don't the kind of horror where
people die, or come up with cool new ways to kill people.  I deal with the
"supernatural horror" as defined by H.P.Lovecraft, where non-human forces make
... ]]> 147364 Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:14:03 MSK http://archives.zinester.com/38141/145124.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #6 - Nov 1, 2007
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We liked it better when Escondido was in the news for being in the title of
that Eric Clapton & J.J.Cale CD a few months ago.  Being a plume of smoke,
staging area, CNN hot spot, and Presidential photo opp is much less fun.  I
kept hoping our Governator really did have giant robot friends he could call
on, or that there were enough National Guard to um ... guard the nation.

But for 2 days it was essentially a hurricane that was on fire.  Nobody could
stand in front of the thing and slow it down, and it was too hazardous for
choppers to lift off.  The few water drops did nothing, since the water never
reached the ground.  By the time there was a break in the wind, it was 100,000
... ]]> 145124 Sat, 03 Nov 2007 01:11:55 MSK http://archives.zinester.com/38141/143613.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #5 - Oct. 15, 2007
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Having read well over 1,000 books now, I get a kick out of how authors never
agree on whether introductions are necessary.  Some say they like to tell the
backstory, others seem to like talking about themselves, others say that the
whole idea is pretentious or silly.  Here, the intro is just a glimpse of
what's on my mind as I compile each issue, and while I try to filter out all
the negative world news and other crap that's way too easy to get upset by,
sometimes it feels like there just isn't anything left.  The spirit of Dark
Windows is escaping into dreams, and staring at reality until the image starts
to blur.  This issue is packed with the unusual.  Enjoy!

... ]]> 143613 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:42:11 MSD http://archives.zinester.com/38141/142465.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #4 - Oct. 1, 2007
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This month was almost totally disrupted by a family mental health crisis.  But
rather than dwell on the lousy/ugly parts, how about this for a lousy/funny
weekend:

Ordered to testify in court in Phoenix on Monday (today), so ... 6-1/2 hour
drive, and I got a ticket for not having a front license plate (which was never
a problem before) just 4 miles from the state line.  Got whatever sleep I
could, not much.  Got to the mental hospital, and while waiting to be called
someone came in from outside and said, "Whoever has the blue Saturn has a flat
tire."  My reaction, "The way things are going, that would have to be me."
... ]]> 142465 Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:59:05 MSD http://archives.zinester.com/38141/140650.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #3 - Sep. 15, 2007
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We got a new Tempurpedic bed, and it's funny the effect that changing your bed
can have.  So far, I sleep more deeply but wake up stiff and exhausted.  The
main benefit is having very long and strange dreams.  One dream this morning
was an ideological interrogation by unscrupulous feds, which went on for what
seemed hours -- the key moment was when they strapped me in a chair and blasted
demonic-sounded chants at me through a boombox to see if I was under the
influence of magical entities, to which I said, "Is that satellite radio or an
old 8-track tape?"

After that, there was one about remodeling a whole bunch of rooms in our house,
... ]]> 140650 Sat, 15 Sep 2007 15:03:12 MSD http://archives.zinester.com/38141/139300.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #2 - Sep. 1, 2007
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Why Text?

After many years of building websites and databases, I just don't feel the urge
to throw codes all over the place.  I want this to be readable.  Just the
facts, just the words.  No complexity.  I got a Sony eBook Reader last month,
and I like how it handles text with no line breaks.  Sure, it also does PDFs
and other things, but if text is good enough for the Gutenberg Project, it's
okay here.  Maybe I'll make some PDFs along the way ... but I'm not looking for
extra complexity.  Insert other excuses here.
... ]]> 139300 Sat, 01 Sep 2007 21:03:27 MSD http://archives.zinester.com/38141/139100.html?rss=1 DARK WINDOWS #1 - Aug 20, 2007
a stream of the dark & strange
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Welcome to my dark windows.

Why a newsletter?  I already have a blog, but a blog will just sit there and
hope people come by.  I think that the more direct connection of a newsletter
is a better fit.  This "newsletter" is the convergence of several projects: a
book-length volume of dark poetry & fiction I was compiling; a massive
collection of clips from old texts and obscure places; a blog that was mostly a
dream journal; and a newsletter that listed my fiction/poetry/other sales but
had no meat on its bones.  Brought together here, the result should be more
... ]]> 139100 Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:59:18 MSD