After finishing Neon Lotus, I volunteered for a time doing administrative work for the Bay Area Friends of Tibet, in which post I had access to a large number of government publications relating to the current bureaucratic administration of Tibet. These are some of the most depressing research materials imaginable, but in them I found the background for one more story set in Tibet: The Vulture Maiden.

 

Gasoline Lake gets its own post. It’s a long one, and long out of print, which I realize now has been a foundational element of my underlying sadness, since it’s one of my personal favorites. I didn’t even mind doing all the tedious clean-up on this one. It was fun to revisit that parched little town and its weird inhabitants.

Three more stories posted today:

• His Powder’d Wig, His Crown of Thornes, my one venture into pure alt-history, from Omni (1989). This was originally written for Greg Benford’s What Might Have Been, but its appearance in Omni beat it into print.
• Uneasy Street, a horror story that I called, in one of the most offensive puns of my career, “A slice of life from San Francisco’s Tenderloin,” from F&SF (1989).
• The Diane Arbus Suicide Portfolio, another of my photography-themed stories, also from Omni (1993).

Hey, finally, something from the ’90s!

Two old stories are now online:

• Tissue, a horror story, my very first professional solo sale (and boy is it creaky), which appeared in Ramsey Campbell’s New Terrors.
• Sea of Tranquillity, a story about the Apollo 11 moon landing, which appeared in Omni.

Like most of the stories I’m posting here on my website, neither of these has ever been reprinted since its original publication. So if you missed these in the ’80s, here you go.

 

I’ve added four newly reconstituted old stories in the Online Fiction section. If you like things from the ’80s, you’re going to love these stories!

Faust Forward

Muzak for Torso Murders

Bruno’s Shadow

The Demonstration

As always, if you see any bugs, please feel free to report them through the contact page.

[Update: I just added a fifth: Mars Will Have Blood]

You know Katherine Dunn for her enduring novel, Geek Love.

Of course you do. You must.

 

 

On the evening of June 15, I will be reading some short fiction at the KGB Bar in New York City, as part of their monthly “Fantastic Fiction” series. Also appearing is Daniel Braum, whose new collection The Night Marchers looks pretty cool. Maybe I will see you there…or will I? (I always hide in a dark back corner and read in a sourceless voice.)

“The Finest, Fullest Flowering” has been slated to appear in the June issue of Nightmare Magazine.

Here is the opening:

A sour note shrieked from the limousine’s speakers, making Milston’s fingers curl in his lap. He took a moment to compose himself before rapping precisely, and with a now steady hand, on the glass separating him from the driver. The tone had droned into a hum that tunelessly dreamt of someday becoming hypnotic. “What is this we are listening to, and is there any way to turn it off?”

“Down, sir, but not off, I’m afraid.” The driver lowered the volume to a level barely audible; this was in some respects even more annoying. “Part of the colony’s ambiance, sir. Part of the design. Won’t be much longer though, sir. We’re almost there.”

My previous story at Nightmare was “Bonfires.” The very busy young editor there, John Joseph Adams, likes ’em weird.

Baby’s first words: “Reporting for duty!”