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December 14th, 2009
04:57 pm - Horrorku in THE SHANTYTOWN ANOMALY ISSUE #8
In the mail today, I found a manila envelope containing my contributor's copy of The Shantytown Anomaly Issue #8. My horrorku "will-o-wisp" appears in the "Scifaiku Corner" section of the journal. And it is indeed my work, even though the by-line and table of contents lists "Richard H. Ray" as the author of that particular piece. With all my poetry publications in various venues, I have no need to claim the work of someone else as my own! Besides, it should be pretty obvious that the horrorku is in my style, as it were.
Having seen a handful of other editorial goofs in my material in print over the past couple of years or so, I'm starting to take it all in stride. It happens. We're all human; we all make mistakes. At least my name was right on the envelope containing my contributor's copy. I had moved over the summer, and I hate to think about what the post office would have done about forwarding "Richard H. Ray's" mail! I forgot to send the editor my new address - my mistake.
Anyway, this is a bittersweet publication, since the editor of The Shantytown Anomaly has decided to go on an extended hiatus from publishing new issues. This was my first poem in that journal, and I'm afraid it might be my last, at least for a while. I'm saddened to see any speculative poetry market shut-down or go on extended hiatus. We need more speculative poetry markets out there, not less!
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12:27 pm - Art to be in DREAMS & NIGHTMARES 85
It looks like one of my pieces of filler art originally accepted for publication back in April will be appearing in the January 2010 Issue of Dreams & Nightmares:
http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/2009/12/dn-85-contents.html
This is good. I will have something new coming out in January, albeit art and not poetry. Alas, for the first time since starting this crazy ride back in April 2007, it appears as if I will have no new poetry publications for the coming month. Yes folks, you heard right, the new year will probably bring Richard's poetry roll to an end.
As of this very moment, I actually don't have much poetry at all slated for publication in 2010. And I only have a small handful of poems currently in submission limbo. That's what happens when you shift gears and move on to other things, like lots of art.
Maybe I should take a break from drawing and write more poetry. We shall see what my muse thinks about that. It's always ultimately up to the muse.
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December 7th, 2009
11:45 am - "The Devourer Took a New Name" in BEWILDERING STORIES
My seasonal dark speculative poem "The Devourer Took a New Name" now appears on-line in Issue 364 of the e-zine Bewildering Stories. Check it out!
How in the world could a dark poem entitled "The Devourer Took a New Name" have anything to do with the Christmas season? Have I gone mad? No, well, maybe, but it wasn't madness that sparked the concept that led to this piece. Without giving too much away, let me just say that I took the idea of an ageless diabolic entity with a thousand different names and faces, thought that the dreadful being might decide to shape shift into something new in the modern world, and mixed in a bit of holiday symbolism in the process.
Perhaps I already gave too much away, but you'll just have to go read the poem to find out.
Merry X-Mas! Mu ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/wink.gif) weird
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December 3rd, 2009
11:54 am - West Dingleton Illustration Published
My illustration for my speculative poem "West Dingleton's Loss of Humanity" now appears in the on-line version of Abandoned Towers. It is also featured on several items in the Abandoned Towers Zazzle Store, under the title "Science Fiction Nightmare".
In other illustration news, I have almost finished work on an illustration for my poem "The Haunted Isle". And this one is pretty much a landscape, something I don't get a chance to draw very often. I made sure it was a dynamic, even darkly evocative, landscape.
In case anyone was wondering why I'm doing all this work for nothing but exposure and a cut of the profits from Zazzle merchandise, all these poems and illustrations are slated to be in a future collection. However, the publisher doesn't want a mere chapbook, she wants a major work, chock full of art and poetry. I seem to recall her saying something about 125 pages, truly a daunting proposition.
I think I have enough poems already, although I may still add a poem or two, but I need lots more art. To make this project a reality, I have to illustrate almost every single poem. It won't just be a book of poetry; it will be a book of art as well.
So I had better get drawing, because it may be a daunting task, but it's one I want to see become a reality. I just don't know how long it's going to take. I'm a slow and deliberate artist, not one that can usually whip off several drawings in a day. At least each finished illustration puts me that much closer to reaching my goal.
Current Mood: accomplished
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November 23rd, 2009
11:00 am - Another Illustration Published
Just a quick note: my illustration for "Holiday on Phreetum Prime" now appears alongside the poem in the on-line version of Abandoned Towers.
Now back to composing more art and poetry (I'm currently working on an illustration for my speculative poem "West Dingleton's Loss of Humanity").
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) pleased
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November 22nd, 2009
07:21 pm - Internut
Internut
by Richard H. Fay
Ink on Bristol board, digitally coloured
The above illustration now accompanies Doug Hilton's story "A Brief History of the Internut" in the on-line version of Abandoned Towers. It also appears on merchandise in the Abandoned Towers Zazzle Store. This merchandise features various "green" phrases and messages in an attempt to use the image to tie-in with environmentally conscious concepts.
I had to dig up pics of an old computer and a peanut plant for this one. Even after I found images to use as references, I wasn't sure at first if the concept requested by the author of the story would work. However, once I drew the computer, the plant, and the roots, I realised that it almost had a "Dali-esque" feel to it. It's certainly on the weird side.
Weird often works for me.
Current Mood: weird
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November 18th, 2009
11:00 pm - "The Sheerie" in APHELION
My speculative cinquain "The Sheerie" has been published in the November 2009 issue of the web-zine Aphelion. Check it out!
In case anyone was wondering, I once again dip into the well of fairy folklore for inspiration. More specifically, I again delve into the connections between the realm of fairy and the realm of the dead. The sheerie are said to be the spirits of unbaptised children imbued with dark fairy magic and dangerously jealous of the living. They appear as tiny beings shimmering with a corpse-light glow, or dark goblins carrying burning lengths of straw, or nothing more than glimmering lights darting about in the fashion of will-of-the-wisps. No matter the form they take, the sheerie delight in causing the living misfortune. They have the power to derange unprotected humans, often with fatal consequences.
The sheerie are definitely not butterfly-winged Tinkerbells. As a matter of fact, they're downright menacing. It's best to carry a crucifix or a bit of iron when travelling about during twilight, especially near fairy hills or boggy ground, just in case the sheerie are roving the countryside. Following those corpse-light brands will lead you astray, and may even lead to your death.
Current Mood: accomplished
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November 1st, 2009
08:57 pm - "weeping tree" in SCIFAIKUEST
My horrorku "weeping tree" has been published in the on-line version of Scifaikuest. Check it out! (THIS should take you right to the horrorku page. Just scroll down the page to find my contribution.)
"Weeping tree" combines the concept of a weeping willow with the potentially dangerous, and possibly even murderous, animate willow of folklore (think Tolkien's Old Man Willow). I play a bit on the name weeping willow (although I never mention willow by name). Why does the tree weep? Perhaps it weeps for a bitter loss, one it must avenge.
Yes, I've been down the path of murderous willows before, but I love the concept so much (I like willow trees), I just had to go there again.
Current Mood: accomplished
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03:49 pm - A Leviathan Ascendant in MindFlights
"A Leviathan Ascendant" now appears on the cover of the November 2009 issue of the e-zine MindFlights. Check it out!
Current Mood: artistic
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03:34 pm - Abandoned Towers Issue #4
Robin in Sherwood Forest
© Copyright 2009 Richard H. Fay
Abandoned Towers Issue #4 is now in print. Within the pages of this zine you can find the above colouring page, "Robin in Sherwood". In addition, my cinquain chain or swirl (I'm not exactly sure which it would technically be) "Amongst Faerie Oaks" and its accompanying illustration also appear in the same issue.
Copies of Abandoned Towers Issue #4 are available for purchase here.
Current Mood: accomplished
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October 22nd, 2009
12:06 am - "Gathering of the Dead" in TALES FROM THE MOONLIT PATH
My dark speculative poem "Gathering of the Dead" has been published in the Halloween 2009 Issue of the dark and haunting e-zine Tales from the Moonlit Path. Check it out!
Gathering of the Dead" combines two things near and dear to my heart - ghost stories and fairy folklore. The fairy connection may simply be implied through the mention of "rath" (as in "fairy rath") and "glamour" (as in the fairy power of glamour), but it's there just the same. And the traditional tale that inspired this piece, that of Hugh King's disturbing encounter with the fair folk on November Eve, makes a pretty strong connection between fairies and the dead. The two realms do overlap. I merely added even more ghostly trappings to the eldritch spirits that gather on the rath each November's Eve.
The photo I chose to accompany my bio below the poem caused a slight stir in this household. I wanted to go with something seasonally appropriate. After all, it is a Halloween poem in the Halloween issue of a horror publication. However, my wife laughed when she first saw the pic, saying that I don't normally look like that. My daughter just stared in shock.
It wasn't quite the reaction I was looking for. I guess I should be glad of the fact that I don't normally look scary-evil. Well, at least my family doesn't think so. Others may disagree.
Current Mood: spooky
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October 16th, 2009
12:17 am - "The Haunted Castle" at THE ABSENT WILLOW REVIEW
My dark speculative poem "The Haunted Castle" is now on-line at The Absent Willow Review. Check it out!
In this poem, I combine my love of castles with my interest in things supernatural, something which I admit to doing once or twice before. And this time, the castle's ruinous state and the strange goings-on within are told from the perspective of the dreadful fortress itself.
I really stuffed this piece full of interesting vocabulary (interesting to me, anyway). You won't find too many works of 31 lines containing motte (as in the mound upon which early castle towers were built), eldritch (my favourite word), cot (as in cottage), bailey (as in courtyard), bines (as in twining plants), obfuscating, miasma, laird (as in Scottish lord), cadaverous, and fete. I may have overloaded this one just a bit word-wise, but I make no apologies for doing so. I just love words.
Current Mood: spooky
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October 15th, 2009
01:37 pm - "Coach-a-Bower" in APHELION
My horrorku "Coach-a-Bower" is now on-line in the October issue of Aphelion. Check it out!
Although the kernel of inspiration for many of my works comes from conceptual seeds gleaned from various reading materials, once in a while something I see in a television program or in a movie sprouts into a usable concept. "Coach-a-Bower" actually blossomed after I watched an episode of the British television show Strange featuring a banshee and the "costa burra".
According to an entry in Bob Curran's A Field Guide to Irish Fairies, tales from County Tyrone and other locales tell of the headless Dullahan driving a black coach known as the coach-a-bower, from the Irish coiste bodhar (deaf or silent coach). The Dullahan summons those about to die. Wherever he stops, death soon follows.
I figured that the coach might be silent, but the souls it carries away may not be, especially if they were bound for Hell.
Current Mood: wicked
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October 6th, 2009
12:05 pm - Poems & Art up at ABANDONED TOWERS
Update: my speculative cinquain "They've Come for me Again" and my speculative poem "The Birth of Sentience on Aggraboth V" , along with their respective accompanying illustrations, are now on-line at Abandoned Towers.
"They've Come for me Again"
"The Birth of Sentience on Aggraboth V"
If you missed it when I posted the poems and illustrations here last Friday, check 'em out at Abandoned Towers!
By the way, it looks like Crystalwizard managed to make the Abandoned Towers site somewhat simpler to navigate. It's certainly easier to find the appropriate links. Yay, CW!
Current Mood: pleased
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October 3rd, 2009
08:52 pm - Poems & Art Accepted at ABANDONED TOWERS
My speculative poem "The Birth of Sentience on Aggraboth V" and my speculative cinquain "They've Come for me Again", along with their respective illustrations, have been accepted for publication in the on-line version of Abandoned Towers. Yes, these are the same poem and art combos that I just posted here yesterday, and they are already featured on merchandise in the Abandoned Towers Zazzle Store, but I'll still post a link when they're up at the e-zine.
As much as I've always thought sending out new material was better than sending out reprints, I could get into the reprint habit quite easily. I might have to consider sending out reprints more often, to publications that take reprints, anyway.
Current Mood: pleased
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September 22nd, 2009
01:04 pm - "Visages of Betrayal and Madness" in THE MONSTERS NEXT DOOR
My dark poem "Visages of Betrayal and Madness" has been published in Issue Eight of The Monsters Next Door, their very-first print issue. The poem can also be seen in the free pdf sneak-peek, but I suggest buying a print copy to help support the editor's efforts in making the switch from e-zine to print zine. Besides, reading something on the computer screen just isn't the same as reading something actually in print.
Hmm...what do I say about this poem? Do I dare admit that it deals with my very real, very troubled thoughts regarding my own parents? It is true; I did delve into my own pain, disappointment, and resentment when writing this piece. It's a hell I've revisited once or twice before. Not that I'm going to turn into a murdering monster because of what the monsters in my past did to me, but I figured it could definitely happen to the subject of this poem. And I also took something I saw on the telly about a madman tearing the faces off his victims (or something like that), gave it a slight twist, and added it to the brewing pot of bloody mayhem.
In a departure from my more typically supernatural dark verse, there is nothing otherworldly about the events in "Visages of Betrayal and Madness". The monsters this time around are decidedly human, not creatures from the shadow realm. I've written about human monsters before, but I don't do it very often. Perhaps it hits too close to home. After all, I grew up surrounded by plenty of examples of monstrous humanity.
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September 13th, 2009
01:21 pm - "Eldritch Mistress" Published in APHELION
My dark speculative cinquain "Eldritch Mistress" has been published in the September 2009 issue of the web-zine Aphelion. Check it out!
Yes, in a departure from my regular Aphelion scifaiku and horrorku publications, I have something slightly larger this time around. I like the form of the cinquan, although I don't profess to be any sort of expert at cinquain composition. Still, I find that I can typically say just a little bit more in a cinquain than I usually can in a haiku. In some ways, the cinquain form actually fits my style better than the haiku form. Maybe it's just symptomatic of my own limitations, but I often find haiku to be too restrictive. Cinquains let me explore the language of scenes, thoughts, and feelings just a little bit more.
As for this particular cinquain, I found inspiration in tales of fatally beautiful fairy loves, especially the Breton Korrigan temptress. She would sit beneath the dark forest canopy beside a ruined well, combing and braiding her golden hair. Through glamour she would transform mossy thicket into richly carpeted palace, only to have the spell broken by dawn's first light. I also added elements from the Manx Lhiannan-shee, the fairy muse that slowly drained life energies from poets and musicians.
And why eldritch, other than the fact that this happens to be one of my favourite words? Well, I'm trying to get extra power out of the title, treating it as part of the poem rather than just a tag. I feel that the possible root of eldritch, perhaps coming from the Middle English elfriche, meaning "fairyland", adds that fairy element missing in the poem itself (although hinted at in the use of the word fey). In my mind, fay equates to fairy; fey equates to doomed, visionary, or otherworldly, but not necessarily of fairyland. After all, fay is the old term for a denizen of fairyland; fairy (Fay-erie) was first used merely for a state of enchantment. And I'm none too fond of the modern preference for fae, a spelling that seems to simply be a shortening of the alternate spelling of fairy - faerie.
Current Mood: accomplished
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August 12th, 2009
07:29 pm - Roiling Gyre in APHELION
Will a gigantic cosmic whirlpool suck up the Earth at its aphelion? Or will the seas drain down a hole in the crust when the planet reaches its farthest distance from the Sun?
Actually, no. My mythic scifaiku "roiling gyre" now appears on-line in the web-zine Aphelion. And I make no apologies for flexing my vocabulary muscles in this one, fitting a couple of interesting words into three little lines. In case you are wondering, a gyre is a circular ocean current. Using perhaps a bit of poetic license, I can argue it is roughly synonymous with a gigantic whirlpool (I didn't want to use whirlpool, vortex, or maelstrom). And a trireme is an ancient war galley with three banks of oars.
And why "mythic", other than the general ancient feel created by my use of "trireme"? Because the myth of the Greek whirlpool monster Charybdis inspired this piece.
Alas, this may be my only poem published in the month of August. My roll is slowing to an eventual, inevitable end, due in no small part to the fact that I've switched gears and am now concentrating on art. I'm currently in the middle of a rather large art project (with others waiting in the wings), and I simply don't have much time (or energy, or inspiration) to compose poetry.
Then again, my muse may start pestering me any day now. She's like that.
Current Mood: geeky
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July 14th, 2009
11:50 am - "Electric Blue Sparks" in APHELION
My wizardly scifaiku "Electric Blue Sparks" now appears on-line in the July 2009 issue of the web-zine Aphelion. Check it out!
While I think the description is quite clear, I believe I leave it up to the reader to fill in the details of what specific action is actually taking place. Am I describing a wizard's own spell backfiring, or am I describing a rival's attack? I don't know if such a thing is necessarily proper for haiku and their speculative derivatives, but it seemed to work for this piece.
For someone who used to always play fighters in Dungeons & Dragons because all of his magic-user player characters died swift deaths, I do write quite a bit of wizardly verse. For some reason, I find sorcerers to be a great source of inspiration, poetically-speaking. Fighters apparently don't stir my muse the way wizards do.
Alas, I realized that this is my only poetry publication for the month of July (I had several illustrations published earlier this month). My poetry roll may be finally slowing to an eventual, inevitable end. I only have one poem scheduled for August publication, another scifaiku set to appear in Aphelion. And I found out that Issue 8 of The Monsters Next Door is scheduled to be released September 15th, so I will have at least one poem published in September. After that, I have a poem or two slated for publication in November, and one set to be published Spring 2010. Currently, I have nothing slated for publication in October or December.
Of course, much of this is my own fault. I'm terrible at multitasking. As I shift gears from poetry to art, my poetic productivity has been declining dramatically. As I spend more and more time on various illustration projects, I'm finding little inspiration to write more verse. I guess I'm one of those types that needs to concentrate most of his artistic energies on the task at hand, engrossed in a single-minded creative obsession.
Oh well. A while back, I did hear word from my publisher that she is hoping to release my illustrated dark speculative poetry collection in early 2010. That will go a long way in making up for any forthcoming poetry publication slump. And I do have another collection in the works, through another publisher. I just have to find the time to work on the large number of illustrations planned for this particular project.
Yes, more drawing. It seems as if I've truly become an artist who happens to write poetry, instead of the other way 'round.
Current Mood: accomplished
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July 4th, 2009
12:08 pm - A Time To...Volume 3
I just noticed today that the anthology A Time To...Volume 3: The Best of The Lorelei Signal 2008 is now out, and available for purchase HERE. It contains, among other works by various poets and writers, my fantasy poem "Sorceress Devolution". Written in almost a chant-like manner, "Sorceress Devolution" evolved from a weird little poem I first wrote back in circa 1995. It is also meant to be something of a companion piece to "Sorcerous Evolution". I see the two as having roughly similar styles and themes. One of these days, I might actually manage to get them to appear together somewhere.
Current Mood: accomplished
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rhfay's journal