New Life for Old Words

"Our very dress makes us grotesques. We are the zanies of sorrow. We are clowns whose hearts are broken."
--Oscar Wilde, De Profundis


Some time ago, in 2015, I read over ye manuscript of whut I have often consider'd my finest story--"The Zanies of Sorrow"--and grew alarm'd at whut I consider'd several weaknesses in ye text. Although I had no plan to offer a new version of ye tale to any publisher, I wrote a complete and thorough revision--so thorough that it was in many ways a "new" story. As usual, I sent ye doc to S. T. Joshi, and he so liked it that he felt this new version shou'd indeed be publish'd; & so we submitted it to an editor for a journal he was planning to create, where my tale found acceptance. Well, many small press journals that are plotted do not in ye end materialize, & ye editor/publisher of this new thing has lost interest in bringing it forth. Happily, S. T. is editing a new anthology to be entitled Apostles of the Weird--& he has express'd interest in publishing my tale therein. I am delighted, for nothing pleases me more than having my work appear in a Joshi book. I had hoped to write a new story for the book, but writing is increasingly difficult and I was beginning to fret that I wouldn't have something to offer. Now I need not worry.

Other than that, nothing is going on. I live a quiet life. spending moft of my time here before ye keyboard, answering emails and being goofy on Facebook, or in my armchair, reading and writing and watching Rachel Maddow. As ye can see from ye photo, Rachel is not only a gay
sister--she is a book-lover like me! She also writes book, as I do. 

Now that I have several stories pending appearances in various anthologies, I feel it is time to try and work on, maybe, a new collection, probably one that lacks a theme. There is still a part of me that wants to write a book of stories that are influenced by the fiction of Clark Ashton Smith--but it troubles me that I never seem able to sit down and begin writing such a collection. My plans to collaborate with Jeffrey Thomas on an Enoch Coffin novel have extinguish'd, although I still feel a faint ache to write some of those stories anyway--although I doubt I cou'd do an entire book of such. I'd like to try writing some stories of real length--even though my talent for doing so is faint and such stories are never my best work. 

In ye meantime, I can sit back and relax and enjoy ye publication of stories that will appear this year or early next. Loving publication as I do, that is always something I look forward to.

wishing ye my love,

~~Wilum

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