The Seers Table November 2018
Linda Addison, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community
November contains National Pizza Day; enjoy new work with your meal!
Andrew Wolter recommends
Larissa Glasser is a librarian, genre writer, and queer trans woman from Boston. Her short fiction has appeared in Wicked Haunted (New England Horror Writers), Tragedy Queens: Stories inspired by Lana Del Rey and Sylvia Plath (Clash Books), Procyon Science Fiction Anthology 2016 (Tayen Lane Publishing), and The Healing Monsters, Volume One (Despumation Press).
Larissa co-edited Resilience: Surviving in the Face of Everything, a collection of stories by trans writers (Heartspark Press) and which was a nominee of The 2017 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction. Her debut novella, F4, is available from Eraserhead Press. Larissa is a Member at Large of Broad Universe, which advocates for female-identified writers of genre fiction.
Recommended Reading from: F4. A cruise ship on the back of a sleeping kaiju. A transgender bartender trying to come terms with who she is. A rift in dimensions known as The Sway. A cruel captain. A storm of turmoil, insanity and magic is coming together and taking the ship deep into the unknown. What will Carol the bartender learn in this maddening non-place that changes bodies and minds alike into bizarre terrors? What is the sleeping monster who holds up the ship trying to tell her? What do Carol’s fractured sense of self and a community of internet trolls have to do with the sudden pull of The Sway?
Larissa Glasser can be reached on Twitter @larissaeglasser and blogs at https://larissaglasser.com/.
Kate Maruyama recommends
Priya Sharma‘s fiction has appeared in Albedo One, Interzone, Black Static, and on Tor.com. She’s been anthologized in several of Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year series, Paula Guran’s Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror series, Jonathan Strahan’s The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2014, Steve Haynes’ Best British Fantasy 2014 and Johnny Main’s Best British Horror 2015. She’s also been on the Locus’ Recommended Reading Lists (2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016). Her story, “Fabulous Beasts,” was a Shirley Jackson Award finalist and won a British Fantasy Award for Short Fiction.
All the Fabulous Beasts is a collection of her some of her work and is available from Undertow Publications.
Words on Priya from our own Ellen Datlow: “Priya Sharma has been writing and publishing short stories for over decade, and I’m delighted that she’s finally receiving the recognition her work deserves. She’s extremely skillful in creating characters with whom we can empathize—no matter their deeds—leading her readers down roads of beauty and horror. I especially love her award-winning novelette Fabulous Beasts, a perfect piece of storytelling.” — Ellen Datlow, Best Horror of the Year series.
Find out more about Priya at https://priyasharmafiction.wordpress.com/.
Kate Jonez recommends
Zoje Stage is a former filmmaker with a penchant for the dark and suspenseful. Her debut novel, Baby Teeth, released by St. Martin’s Press in July 2018, was a USA Today bestseller. It was published in the UK by Transworld, under the title Bad Apple. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA.
Recommended Reading: Baby Teeth. Afflicted with a chronic debilitating condition, Suzette Jensen knew having children would wreak havoc on her already fragile body. Nevertheless, she brought Hanna into the world, pleased and proud to start a family with her husband Alex. Estranged from her own mother, Suzette is determined to raise her beautiful daughter with the love, care, and support she was denied.
But Hanna proves to be a difficult child. Now seven years old, she has yet to utter a word, despite being able to read and write. Defiant and anti-social, she refuses to behave in kindergarten classes, forcing Suzette to homeschool her. Resentful of her mother’s rules and attention, Hanna lashes out in anger, becoming more aggressive every day. The only time Hanna is truly happy is when she’s with her father. To Alex, she’s willful and precocious but otherwise the perfect little girl, doing what she’s told.
Suzette knows her clever and manipulative daughter doesn’t love her. She can see the hatred and jealousy in her eyes. And as Hanna’s subtle acts of cruelty threaten to tear her and Alex apart, Suzette fears her very life may be in grave danger …
Follow the author at https://zojestage.blogspot.com/; Twitter: @zooshka; Instagram: @zoje.stage_author.
Linda Addison recommends
Dexter E. Williams is a screenwriter from Durham, North Carolina, who has been writing horror scripts for a decade. He strongly believes film is the best medium to tell stories of the strange and fantastic.
His script, “Demon Crystal,” was a Semi-Finalist in the Southeastern International Film Festival and the Sacramento International Film Festival, as well an Official Selection in the Fright Night Film Fest. The script for “Mistresses of Sleep” was also an Official Selection in the Fright Night Film Fest, a Semi-Finalist in the Sacramento International Film Festival, an Official Selection in the Oaxaca Filmfest in Mexico, and was nominated for three awards: Best Original Concept, Best Horror Script, and the top prize—Best Overall Script. Williams has several scripts optioned; keep an eye for productions of his work soon.
Williams’ deep interest in hypnosis has resulted in incorporating hypnosis into his stories, such as “Enslavement.”
“Enslavement” is a cross between THE CRAFT and RED DRAGON. It’s a horror-thriller about a shy high school student who gets hypnotized by a dangerous Goth girl into performing bloody ritual sacrifices for her sinister goddess-worshiping cult. Four performances provided the inspiration for “Enslavement”: Fairuza Balk in THE CRAFT, Kim Director in BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH 2, Sophia Bush in STAY ALIVE, and Dakota Fanning in THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON. It took Williams just two weeks to finish the script, and it was named an Official Selection in the Underground Indie Film Festival.
For more information, follow the author at https://www.horrortourguide.com/single-post/2018/08/29/Dexter-Williams; anyone interested in his scripts can reach Williams at Oyou78020@hotmail.com.
