In the summer of 2009, I was invited by Jeff Harrison, the editor of Autumnplay!, to write a short Halloween-themed story for them. The kicker was that it had to be around 1000 words. I don’t write many short stories, and I certainly don’t write “short” short stories when I do. Still, I’d done one for them the previous fall, too, and was very pleased with the result, and also with the experience of working with Autumnplay!, so I agreed immediately. I wanted to write a ghost story that explored the dual notion of ghosts as actual supernatural entities, but simultaneously as expressions of loss and regret. Ideally the story can be read both ways. In “Ghosts,” the reader is invited to decide for himself or herself if Robert, the older brother, is actually seeing the ghost of his gay-bashed younger brother, Scott, or if the presence of Scott’s “ghost” is merely Robert’s guilt about not having been there for his brother. On another level, “Ghosts” is a story about brothers, and the complexity of fraternal relations in general. I’m often asked if I have an opinion on whether or not Robert is really seeing his brother’s ghost. Of course I have an opinion, but I tend to keep it to myself and let the readers make up their own minds. –Michael Rowe
Postscripts to Darkness
psssst…..dear darkness….are you there?
Author Archives: pstdarkness
An Interview with Michael Rowe
Michael Rowe’s “Wild Fell” was nominated for the 2013 Shirley Jackson Award.
Michael Rowe is an award-winning Toronto journalist, essayist, and novelist. He was the first-tier Canadian correspondent for Fangoria for seventeen years. In addition, Rowe created and edited the Queer Fear series, which changed the landscape of horror fiction. The stories (predominantly written by het writers, ironically) spotlighted queer protagonists. Some big names in the horror field took note, notably Clive Barker, who hailed Rowe in 2002 as having “changed forever the shape of horror fiction.” Rowe published his first novel, Enter, Night, with ChiZine Publications in 2011, garnering critical praise and a Sunburst Award nomination. Rowe called Enter, Night his unabashed 1970s vampire novel. He published his second novel, Wild Fell, in 2013, also with ChiZine, to further acclaim. Wild Fell was a finalist for this year’s Shirley Jackson Award as part of a lineup which included Joyce Carol Oates and Andrew Pyper. Contributing Editor James K. Moran, who once interviewed Rowe for Daily Xtra, chatted with him by email earlier this summer. Moran describes Rowe as a “gentleman of the highest order” who “wields a darkly wicked sense of humour and a rapier wit.”
PstD on CKCU-FM
Artwork by Cherry Valance
We had the opportunity to talk to CKCU Radio’s Kate Hunt, one of the hosts of Literary Landscapes, about Postscripts to Darkness in general and Volume 5 in particular. Kate asked co-editor Ranylt Richildis about the magazine’s origins, what it is about horror that fascinates the public, the role of editors in diversifying author representation, and the emergent speculative fiction cluster in Ottawa. Click here to listen to the interview.
Volume 5 Launch!
Artwork by Sebyth
The hour is finally upon us. We’re launching our fifth volume on July 31 in Ottawa at the venerable Raw Sugar Cafe in Chinatown (7pm). It will be another amazing literary event that will bring together the city’s speculative fiction crowd and put another notch in Ottawa’s belt as a fast-growing hub for fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Authors will be reading their wonderful weird tales, books will be available for purchase, and great coffee, tea, desserts and (most importantly) spirits will be on hand. Evelyn Deshane, Alexander Polkki, Matt Moore and Kate Heartfield will regale you with their words, and our inspiring cover artist, Cherry Valance, will sell the artwork she created to front Volume 5, as well. We hope to see you there. No cover charge.
An Interview with Nancy Kilpatrick
Nancy Kilpatrick’s “Danse Macabre” (ed.) won the Paris Book Festival Award for Best Anthology.
Nancy Kilpatrick, Canada’s reigning queen of Goth and vampire lore, proves a fount of knowledge about being an author in these shifting sands. She’s accomplished a prolific trifecta as author, editor, and teacher, and has won numerous awards as both writer and editor, from the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Mystery to Foreword Reviews’ Book of the Year. From zombies to vampires, short-story markets, nonfiction, and the state of traditional dark fiction publishing, her thoughts as a Canadian female artist of dark design who’s had an online presence since the dawn of the internet are unmatched. She and Lydia Peever spoke just before Women in Horror Month, 2014.
An Interview with Tony Burgess
Tony Burgess is the man behind “Pontypool.”
This interview first appeared in Postscripts to Darkness Volume 4, a companion to Tony Burgess’s masterful short, “Soft Shell Story.” Tony speaks with PstD editor Aalya Ahmad about the writing process, language and character, and adapting his work for film. His latest novel, The n-Body Problem, is available from ChiZine Press.
AA: Can you tell us a bit about how and when you started writing?
TB: I started writing pretty much when I could spell. I used to tell stories to my family on car trips and do plays for the neighbourhood in my basement. Make short Super 8 films. My main focus, up until my 20s, was visual art and the rest was a kind of sidebar. I believed, as a child, that pretty much everything was worth altering. I was less about showing than the private route. I still have that feeling. The beginning of anything for me is stepping outside and turning rocks, finding things on the ground, painting grass…I am an aging finger-painter.
Aurora Bright
The 2014 Aurora Award nominees were announced this week, and we’re delighted to see one of our own on the list. Helen Marshall’s poem, “The Collected Postcards of Billy the Kid,” first appeared in Postscripts to Darkness Volume 4 in October 2013. As our Poetry Editor Dominik Parisien wrote in his introduction, the poem “provides us with ‘the lost years’ of yet another literary figure, Billy the Kid, and fills them with uncanny images and queer beauty.” It’s wonderful that Canadian readers apparently agree, enough to lift a swell of nominations Helen’s way. We wish her all the best at the awards ceremony in October.
We’re also happy to see that PstD friend and interviewee Amal El-Mohtar earned two poetry nominations on the same ballot, and that Matt Moore and ChiSeries Ottawa earned a Best Fan Organizational nomination. As regulars at the Ottawa ChiSeries readings, we can attest to the literary merriment to be had at these events, and we’re grateful for the way they glue the Ottawa SFF community together. There is so much fine talent in these here parts and it’s wonderful to see that talent gathered and celebrated on a regular basis. May ChiSeries endure into infinity.
Volume 5 Contributors
Illustration by Tomasz Wieja
Stalks of corn sprang up from the earth and shed mounds of silk, which threaded together with spider webs into a shimmering translucent sheath. It clung to her body in a way that left little to the imagination, showing off her curves in all their glory. The strands of gold and silver also worked their way into her flaxen hair, surrounding her face with a majestic halo of luminescent tresses. Her footwear flowed up from the ground, a splash of water that adhered to her skin and froze there, looking like shoes of glass. […] The dust from moth wings powdered Ella’s skin and crushed rosehips coloured her cyanotic lips and cheeks, disguising their bluish cast. Adornments of ice pellets, shining like diamonds, encircled her neck and clung to her ears. […] Frosted morsels of rotting pumpkin from the garden’s pumpkin patch, silvery-orange chunks of ice, assembled themselves into a formidable carriage. White horses in ivory harnesses sprang up from the snow, formed only from the bitter white, standing at the ready to draw Ella’s carriage. Tara sighed in satisfaction.
From “The Godmother’s Curse,” by Chantal Boudreau
Here’s what you’ll find in Volume 5, coming this summer:
Rhysling Joy
We’re very pleased to announce that a poem published in our fourth volume has been nominated for a 2013 Rhysling Award (long poem). Helen Marshall’s “The Collected Works of Billy the Kid” has been described by our poetry editor, Dominik Parisien, as a “reimagining and interrogation of literature,” one that “provides us with ‘the lost years’ of […] Billy the Kid, and fills them with uncanny images and queer beauty.”
Speaking of Dominik, we’re pleased to see that he himself has been recognized in the long poem category for the 2013 Rhysling. His piece, “Sand Bags,” appeared in Strange Horizons this past November and jarred us: “the hole is an open mouth/ and her tongue throws words /like sand bags.”
Hats off to both of you lovely people.
We’re an open book again
After a long break and a lifeless inbox, we’re open for submissions again. We’re reading for Volume 6 and will accept your stories until May 31, 2014. Be sure to read our updated submission guidelines — a few key things have changed.
