SPEC FARE:BOSTON, LANGEVIN, WISWELL, ELLIS, SIMON, SNG, LEE, LINZNER, BALTICON, JINX & MANSTOOTH THE CAT

The first Iron Writers competition is open for voting. Eight authors have written a flash fiction incorporating four elements. Who will be Iron Writer June 2021? You decide. Read their flash pieces here, and vote for your favorites on the voting tab.

Bruce Boston‘s newest book Gallimaufry is now available. A collection of short stories that will have you unsure of where you stand… but this is not a bad thing in an eclectic speculative family of stories. From my blurb: “As you turn the pages you will be going somewhere, many somewheres, and it will be worth it. Truly a gallimaufry to savor.” Find Gallimaufry here.

Amy Langevin has an awesome new cover on her horror poem book The Man Who Married Death. I read this and loved it. Only for those who don’t mind being disturbed—this book will slice you deeply. From the description: Zylen LaRocque, a twenty-eight-year-old depressive, arranges to be taken by Death, but his suicide fails, and he ends up proposing to the supernatural entity instead. The new cover does the book justice. Find The Man Who Married Death here.

Congratulations to John Wiswell on winning a Best Short Story Nebula in 2020 for his story “Open House on Haunted Hill,” published by Diabolical Plots. I shared a panel with John during Balticon and I am so happy he got this recognition. I hope to know him better. He has a great sense of humor! Find John Wiswell here.

New speculative fiction SavagePlanets online magazine seeks poetry and two sentence stories for their July issue. Non-paying market at the moment. I’m stepping in as poetry editor and I have some work in their first issue. For more details, click here.

Stephanie Ellis had her story, “Cry Me a River” accepted for the What One Wouldn’t Do anthology from Scott Moses. Stephanie writes dark speculative fiction, finding success in a variety of magazines and anthologies, the latest being “Milking Time” in Flame Tree Press’ A Dying Planet, “Asylum of Shadows” as part of Demain Publishing’s Short Sharp Shocks! series and “The Way of the Mother” in Nosetouch Press’ The Fiends in the Furrows. She is co-editor and contributor at The Infernal Clock, producing three anthologies to-date and co-editor of Trembling With Fear, Horror Tree.com’s online magazine. You can read more about Stephanie Ellis here.

The Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest is open until June 30 for your terrible opening lines. Winners receive ” … a pittance (and bragging rights).” Find complete details to enter here.

Marge Simon did the cover art for Penumbric‘s June 2k21 special prose and art issue. Mary Soon Lee and Christina Sng also have work included. You can see Marge’s cover and the rest of the magazine here.

For those of you familiar with the Poetry Live readings/discussion on Instagram:” Amy Z. from hipness_and_outrage is having an art sale to raise money for the Magnificent and Musical Manstooth the Cat‘s x-rays. He is having pancreatitis issues. You can find Amy’s Etsy shop here.

Speaking of dynamic art people, Dearly Beloved Creations has created a custom living saint candle (image below) of Gordon Linzner to pay tribute to the Father of Space and Time. While this was a custom creation, these will be available for anyone to purchase on Dearly Beloved’s website soon. I name Gordon the Patron Saint of Speculative Ink. You can watch for him to be available here.

Amy Zoellers will interview poet Rina Inae live on Instagram @hipness_and_outrage this Sunday at 1 p.m. CST! Rina will be reading and discussing their new poetry chapbook “Songs of Despair behind the Closed Doors” available here.

I’ll be reading poetry at SFFCon tomorrow along with Wendy Van Camp (moderator), Akua Lezli Hope, Deborah P Kolodji, and DA Xiaolin Spires. SFFCon will take place online this weekend from June 11-13. You can watch our poetry panel live tomorrow on this blog, or on YouTube here. Sign up for SFFCon to join fellow creators and fans of science fiction and fantasy in a fun, virtual gathering. FREE to attend, find full details here.

Finally, I have my first virtual news story up at the SL Enquirer as Dandilyon Jinx, my pseudonym. Headlined “WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE: DANDILYON JINX REPORTING ON BALTICON 2021,” I covered the recent BaltiCon that utilized Second Life to host and enhance their sci-fi convention experience. It was a blast by the way. From visiting Innsmouth to flying dragons, it was an experience I look forward to repeating next year. You can read that first story for the SL Enquirer here.