Niteblade

Archive for December, 2012

It is my pleasure to nominate two stories from Niteblade for the 6th Annual Micro Award. The Micro Award is presented every year to stories that are no more than 1,000 words long. This year the Niteblade nominees are:

Dragons of Fire by Alexis Hunter, first published in June 2012

and

The Garden by Christopher DeWan, first published in December 2012

Good luck to the both of you 🙂

Joseph M. Gant’s “Words of the Unprofound” appeared in one of the first issues of Niteblade. Since then he’s published a poetry collection titled Zero Division. In addition to writing he’s also editing.

When did you first recognize yourself as a poet?

I have been writing poetry since my early teens. I wanted to be a singer/songwriter, and my writing took off proportionally to the amount of time I spent with the guitar. Unfortunately, I can’t sing. Having made this realization early, I quickly separated my endeavors and wrote poetry more for the page and played lead guitar with my shy back to the crowds.

What draws you to speculative fiction?

Authors like Lovecraft, Huxley, and Poe kindled my early love for literature. Kafka can even be said to have written some speculative material, I believe. I don’t tend to read by genre, but rather find myself drawn to works of great integrity or plain personal interest.

Is there a piece of writing advice you’ve never followed?

I don’t write daily nor try to live by that mantra. This exercise works for many, but I find the words either flow for me and need to come out or it doesn’t. When I force them, bad things happen and I am never pleased with the result.

In the March 2010 issue of Niteblade, Rhonda chose to publish your poem, “Words of the Unprofound“.  Is there a story behind how it came about?

“Words of the Unprofound” was born of its own finish. A tiny bit of language regarding a suicide’s advice to another was churning in my head until I decided to put a full poem behind it so I could write the ending. I do consider it a speculative piece because, for a poem, it is not very personal and was conceived in the womb of fantasy.

What have you been working on lately?

Since Issue 8 I have been Poetry Editor for Sex And Murder Magazine. We publish mostly fiction of the horror and splatterpunk type. Recently we, at the magazine, have launched S A M Publishing, and I have finished editing the first full-length poetry collection under that label.

Also, my own full-length poetry collection was recently published through Rebel Satori Press. Titled, Zero Division, I am quite pleased with the book, and I am working on a follow up book which is very similar in style but more refined.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with Niteblade’s readers?

Hepatitis C . . . lol. Seriously,  read, and share what you enjoy with others.

Happy book birthday to Damien Walters Grintalis! Her debut novel, Ink, from Samhain Publishing hits bookstores today. Damien Walters Grintalis lives in Maryland with her husband, two former shelter cats, and two rescued pit bulls. She is an Associate Editor of the Hugo Award-winning magazine, Electric Velocipede, and her short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily Science Fiction, and others. You can follow her on Twitter @dwgrintalis.

When did you first recognize yourself as a writer?

When I was in grade school, I wrote a few illustrated books and tried to sell them to the kids in the neighborhood. I’m certain I called myself a writer then, but I didn’t feel like a real writer until I started selling my work.

What draws you to speculative fiction?

I like the what-if of speculative fiction. It’s an immense playground of possibility limited only by a writer’s imagination.

Is there a piece of writing advice you’ve never followed?

I do my best not to follow the bad advice.  😉

In the March 2011 issue of Niteblade included your story, “Running Empty in a Land of Decay”. Is there a story behind how it came about?

The folks at Shock Totem hold a prompted flash fiction contest several times a year. One of the prompts was a pair of shoes, tied together via the laces, hanging over a power line, but what struck me most about the photo was the emptiness of the street and the houses lining it.

And from the strange dark little place where stories come from, I envisioned a man running down the center of the street and the echoes of his footfalls in the quiet. From there, the story just grew.

What have you been working on lately?

I recently finished edits for my agent on another novel called Paper Tigers, the first draft of yet another one called This Delicate Poison, and I’m working on a few new short stories.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with Niteblade’s readers?

If you read a story you like, tell someone. Recommend it to a friend. Spread the word. And if you’re a writer? Read the guidelines. Then read them again, just to be sure.