Yaddith Times

tinywords:

Just found out this morning that I have a haiku up on the tinywords Web site.  This site is devoted to "haiku & micropoetry," and offers fresh content daily. 

My haiku deals with snow, which may or may not be something some of you wish to read about today!

bottle rockets:

I recently received issue #22 of the mainly haiku journal bottle rockets, which describes itself as "a collection of short verse."   I've got three haiku in this particular issue, which makes me very happy.  bottle rockets is a vibrant & multifaceted little publication now beginning its second decade . . . without the support of any foundations, universities, or grants that I know of.  

Yikes.

 

Here's your H.P. Lovecraft trivia for the day: on this date in 1913, at 5 A.M. in the township of Dunwich, Lavinia Whateley's little boy Wilbur was born.

Very fortunately for us all, he did not survive to be ninety-seven.


For more about  Wilbur's life and times, here's a link to "The Dunwich Horror."    It's one of Lovecraft's longer tales, but oozing with Mythos goodness. 

East Texas ---
a single singed feather
drifts down


                   -- Ann K. Schwader



On this date in 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia and all seven of her crew were lost on re-entry.




                    

I've finally heard back from the guest editors of Mythic Delirium 22 -- Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica P. Wick,  the Goblin Queens of Goblin Fruit -- and it's good news!  My dark SF villanelle "Citadel Ascendant" will be part of this exercise in editor-swapping.

I'm particularly happy about this sale, because "Citadel Ascendent" was inspired by a photomontage by Loretta Young-Gautier, a local (metro Denver) photographer with a real gift for the uncanny and surreal.  The image itself is titled Gothic.   I received a print of it for my birthday last year, and it adds no end of atmosphere to my home office.

If you'd like to see Gothic for yourself, please go here.   Or check out more of Loretta's amazing work here. 

   

 

Two pieces of current Mars news:

1) The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is now officially stuck.  Today, NASA re-designated it a "stationary science platform."  (Sounds ominous.)  Its current task is to reposition itself -- in place -- to survive the forthcoming Martian winter, which will start in May.  All the gory details can be found here.


2) For those of us stuck on Earth, this is a very good week for Mars-watching.  Let's all hope for clear skies on Friday night, when the full Moon and Mars will feature in a remarkable conjunction. Mars will be at opposition -- directly opposite the sun -- & will rise with the Moon at sunset, staying close (about 6 degrees) to the first full Moon of 2010.

Thanks to science_at_nasa for item #2.

Mythic Delirium #21 -- the Trickster Issue -- is out, and it's gorgeous.  I got my contrib copy last week, but only finished reading it today.  I found a remarkable variety of poems for a "theme" issue (formal, free verse, haibun, fantasy, SF, horror, mythology), along with a very impressive TOC which can be found here.  Twenty-two poets, folks!   The full color cover is by Tim Mullins, who offers a sad and beautiful tribute to his wife & model Michelle on the inside front cover.  (Michelle passed away in October of last year.)

My contributions to this issue are "The Ones Who Met Them" (a slant-rhyme sonnet I've already posted about), and "Maiden & Raven" (structured free verse).  Poe People might want to know that "Maiden & Raven" is indeed about that raven. 

In Retro Spec news, this forthcoming fiction & poetry anthology from Raven Electrick Ink now has cover art!  That atmospheric clock photo is by ravenelectrick  herself. 





 

The stars:

I've recently placed two of my poems to Astropoetica: Mapping the Stars Through Poetry.  This is a truly elegant e-zine devoted to astronomical themes, and I'm always happy to be part of it.   The poems in question are "Dying Butterfly"  (a cinquain variant also known as a butterfly)  and "Deep Solar Minimum Blues" (a villanelle).   I'm not sure when these poems will be going live, but I'll certainly post about it when they do.

The stars are right:

Innsmouth Free Press has just opened the voting for favorite (oops, favourite -- they're Canadian) story in their second fiction issue.  If you haven't read that issue, you can still go here to catch up, or review which stories you might have liked best.  While you're there, you might possibly take another look at my office nightmare flash fiction, "Scream Saver." 

2010 is starting out as a decent haiku year for me.  I've already placed poems to two online journals: one to The Heron's Nest, and two to Notes From the Gean. 

I also found out last week that the noted haiku publisher Red Moon Press will be issuing a print version of the 43 Montage galleries done by The Haiku Foundation, plus 9 new galleries to provide one for each week of the year.   Editor Allan Burns will be handling this project as well.  The book's forward will be by Peggy Willis Lyles, with artwork by Ron Moss.  All revenues will go to support The Haiku Foundation, a non-profit organization.  

Since I was lucky enough to be a part of the Halloween edition of Montage last year, I'm very much looking forward to this book, and will be posting any updates I receive from its editor.

. . . as I suspect a lot of people reading this already know.  However, I can't resist passing on good news one more time!    This issue, guest-edited by time_shark , offers 16 poems by 18 poets.  In addition, there are 9 narrations and a very special "Mischief" item.

Check out the TOC here -- or, perhaps, start with my dark archaeological haibun "Mount Pacho."   I've posted about this one before, but anyone else curious about its inspiration can find the Archaeology article here. 

ravenelectrick has just posted the table of contents for Raven Electrick Ink's forthcoming anthology Retro Spec: Tales of Fantasy & Nostalgia.  It's due to be released in October, but you can find all the details here.  If I do say so myself (and I probably shouldn't!) , this is a very impressive lineup of contributors.

Retro Spec is a themed anthology of  fiction and poetry, dealing with culture, society, and politics from the 1920s to the 1980s -- from a variety of speculative viewpoints, ranging from SF to dark fantasy. 

My own contribution, a 1930s poem entitled "The Darkness Whispers," might be of interest to Lovecraftians -- and/or fans of the recently demoted planet Pluto.

Thanks to science_at_nasa , I'm happy to report that the planet-hunting space telescope Kepler has found its first five confirmed exoplanets.

Although these are all classified as "hot Jupiters" --i.e., way too big & way too hot for life as we understand it -- such early discoveries are a sign that Kepler is doing its job and doing it well.  As time passes and more planetary transits can be observed, it is hoped that smaller exoplanets may be discovered.

For all the details -- including a mind-boggling array of charts & graphs -- check here.

Maybe this is starting to look like 2010, after all.

 

Sadly, 2010 may mark the swan song for Spirit, one of NASA's two amazingly long-lived Martian rovers.   It's been stuck in a sand trap for the last nine months, and the southern hemisphere's winter is setting in.  If the solar-powered rover can't somehow improve its tilt to gather more sunlight, it may not remain operational until spring.

For all the details on Spirit's gallant attempts to stay active & scientifically valuable -- plus some very cool pics & video of the little guy -- check out the  science_at_nasa   article here.



 

. . . on a very high note indeed.  Sadly, editor Allan Burns is moving on to new haiku projects in 2010.  However, he and The Haiku Foundation have left us all a solid year of comparative haiku Montages, which I believe will remain archived.

The last two Montages, Winter I & II, are real holiday / post-holiday treats to be savored slowly.  Winter I features the haiku of Scott Mason, Ruth Yarrow, and Lorin Ford.  Winter II winds the series up with Martin Shea, Jim Kacian, and Jack Barry -- plus an eerily atmospheric headnote from James Joyce.  I'm not usually much of a Joyce fan, but this excerpt from "The Dead" gave me a shiver.

Read, reread, and sink into the melancholy quiet of deep winter . . . or, if you are in the Southern hemisphere, revel in virtual escape from  midsummer heat.  




 

Lovecraftians with a taste for snarky British humor -- or anybody else who needs a break from the seasonal sugarplums -- rejoice! 

Tor.com's December Belongs to Cthulhu site is now offering "Overtime," a new Laundry story by Charles Stross.  Will the Filler of Stockings return to devour us all?  Or can Bob Howard, geeky super-secret demonologist extraordinary,  save us from the Christmas stars turning right?

(Major Mythos thanks to  vulpine137 for sharing this eldritch item.)

Lovecraftians with extra reading time this season should definitely devote some of it to Tor.com's  December Belongs to Cthulhu -- especially since penguinkeggard , author of the excellent "Living Poe Girl" series in October, is back!

This time, her "Lovecraft Fresh" series (two articles so far) examines the varied influences on Lovecraft's early stories.  Her first devotes itself to Poe's Gothic touch in "The Alchemist" and "The Outsider."   Her second, which I found particularly fascinating, puts her art history degree to good use by revealing Decadence/Symbolist influences in "The Hound."
 
Both these articles, though academically rigorous, are extremely readable and brief enough for a quick lunch hour.   For those not already familiar with them, she includes links to the tales online.
 
No matter how versed you are in HPL, though, you're likely to find new tidbits of geeky Mythos goodness here.   Her next article will discuss "The Color Out of Space" -- and I can't wait to see what she finds in that one. 

I'm jaw-droppingly shocked  very pleased  to report that Mythic Delirium's Featured Poems for issue #21, the Trickster Issue, have been posted -- and one of them is mine.  Editor time_shark 's choices this time around are: 

  1) Jessica Wick's "Coyote Knock,"  illustrated by Oliver Hunter, with audio sung (yes, sung !) by Amal El-Mohtar.
 
2) Constance Cooper's  "Other Fires," illustrated by Paula Friedlander, with audio by Kate Baker.

3) Yours Truly's "The Ones Who Met Them,"  illustrated by Don Eaves and Terrence Mollendor, also with audio from Kate Baker.

If you're like me, you've probably been somewhere near a shopping mall this season -- and you've been subjected to at least one carol you could really, really do without.

Fortunately, the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has done a brilliant send-up of my personal least favorite here.

Take a moment, do yourself a favor, and put a little Yog in that holiday nog.

This from a press release from the communication department at the Bodleian Library, Oxford:

Oxford, 16 November 2009 – The highly-anticipated Shakespeare Quartos Archive has been officially launched today with a complete digital collection of rare early editions of Hamlet. For the first time, all 32 existing quarto copies of the play held by participating UK and US institutions are freely available online in one place (www.quartos.org). This initiative is jointly led by the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford and the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC, through a joint transatlantic grant from Jisc in the UK and the National Endowment for the Humanities in the US.


To read the rest of the press release, and a bit of informed commentary from The Hamlet Weblog, check here.

I haven't had a chance to check this out yet, but -- as a person who spent a couple of semesters buried in the deepest recesses of The Riverside Shakespeare -- I find this concept fascinating. What a great use of 21st century technology in the service of the Bard!

It's actually been a couple of weeks since these publications landed in my mailbox, but they're worth the wait. Full disclosure: I have poems in both magazines.

The SFPA's Star*Line 32.5 (September/October -- let's do the time warp again!) is the usual rich assortment of spec poetry, useful articles on how to write / read / appreciate said poetry, and small press reviews. This issue is focused on the darker side, though darkness really knows no season for some of us! Its TOC is extensive, and may be found here. The featured poems are from Wendy Rathbone and ysabetwordsmith

Space & Time #109 (Winter 09) also offers its TOC online, here. This venerable spec quarterly publishes both fiction and poetry, ranging from SF to horror. Lovecraftians should note that there are two mythos-themed poems in this issue, T. Frazer-Eliot's
"Al Azif" and Wade German's "From Tindalos."

My Web site has been updated (after quite some time) with new information about various projects.

And my "scattering of haiku" page has a nifty new seasonal photo haiga at the bottom -- suitable for any winter holiday you might be celebrating. (Or, in the case of folks from Oz, summer holiday . . . anyhow, something festive in December.)