Paralelismos by Gareth D Jones

Paralelismos by Gareth D Jones is now available on Smashwords. "Last Man Standing" is an illustration I created for "The Last Adam" by Gareth, in 2006. He graciously asked to use the image for the cover of a Spanish translation of a few of his stories. Be sure to check out his other work at The Science of Fiction.

Indiana Horror Review 2013

Edited by James Ward Kirk

Contributors include:

Robin Wyatt
Mathias Jansson
Bric Barker
David S. Pointer
Roger Cowin
Allen Griffin
A. Henry Keene
Dale Hollin
Justin Hunter
Dona Fox
Lee Forsythe
Kristin Roahrig
Matthew Wilson
Glenn Rolfe
Paul Greystoke
Charie D. La Marr
Gary Murphy
Mike Jansen & Michael Blommaert
Sonia Fogal
David W. Landrum
Timothy Frasier
T. S. Woolard
Michael Faun
Cover Art and Design by John D. Stanton



Also available on Kindle.

Fox True Ghost Tales Posts My Ghost Story

The Fox True Ghost Tales Project just posted my story, one that also appears here on my blog.

Ugly Babies

James Ward Kirk Publishing
Edited by Sydney Leigh

Poetry

Orphan Ship by Dona Fox
Baby No Name by Stephanie M. Wytovich
Uggyville by David S. Pointer
The Witch’s Lover by Matthew Wilson
The Last Son of Circe by Maria Mitchell
Forbidden Pleasure by Mathias Jansson
Kiddie Labor Camps by David S. Pointer
Envy’s Child by J.D. Isip
Long Term Care by David S. Pointer
Warts and All by Daniel Ari
The Nursery in the Cellar by Matthew Wilson

Flash Fiction

Infested Candy by Joseph J. Patchen
The Other Child by K.Z. Morano
Deer Season by Carly Berg
Letter to a Young Selkie by M. E. VonBindig
Manikin by Gary Hewitt
Only Dimly by Bruce L. Priddy
Tangled Nursery by Dave Dormer
Little Jimmy's Secret by Ben Arzate
Jah Wobbly by Mark Slade

Short Stories

Latch by Neil Baker
Switched After Birth by Erik Gustafson
The Alcombery Waystation By James Suriano
Hush Little Bebe by David Greske
The Third Try-mester by Justin Hunter
This Is a Troll Free Call by Randy Rubin
Disaster Blanket by Ken MacGregor
Daughter Mine by Timothy Frasier
Mommybook.com by M.C. O’Neill
The Foundling By EDWARD AHERN
Paternity by Carrick McCleary
Grandma Knows Best by Dave Eccles
Meconium by Tom Johnstone
Lucy by Suzy Saylor
The Stars Said Trudy by Caroline Kepnes
Tiger, Tiger by Angela Meadon
The Thirteenth Child by Dusty Davis
Teddy by Matt Kurtz
Henrietta’s Skirt by Dan Dillard
The Boy at Ruby Lester’s by Michael Faun
Immaculate Deception by Essel Pratt
The Swelling by DJ Tyrer
Tender By R.T. Tandy
Bad Egg by Patrick Lacey
Meat Sweets by Andrew Freudenberg
Brother by Michael C. Schutz-Ryan

Artwork

Baby No Name by Jeff Swenson
The Last Son of Circe by Maria Mitchell
Warts and All by Angelin Miller
Monster by John Stanton
Ad Finem Ultimum by Niall Parkinson
Latch by Neil Baker
ugly babies by Stephen Cooney
Vessels by Niall Parkinson
Daphne by Ashley scarlet
Little Girl by Ashley Scarlet
Triplica by Ryan Rice
Cancer by Niall Parkinson
The Boy at Ruby Lester’s by Michael Faun
The Devil’s Child by Essel Pratt
Lolly by Ashley Scarlet

Bones by James Ward Kirk

Edited by James Ward Kirk

Contents:

Poetry

Mathias Jansson: The Bone library
Michael Jozefowicz: Tidesong
Lucas Mangum: Skeleton Song
Mathias Jansson: Macabre and Beauty
Matthew Wilson: Bone Man
Mary Genevieve Fortier: Lovely Bones
Matthew Wilson: A Dance Over Paris
Jane Blanchard: Fishing
Jane Blanchard: Untitled
David S. Pointer: The Bone Man
David S. Pointer: Open Containerville
David S. Pointer: Supply Chain Dilemmas
David S. Pointer: Truck Stop Mirage
Steven Alvarez: Fourth Sun
Steven Alvarez: Screaming South
Down MEX 85
Valentina Cano: Break
Valentina Cano: Gum Ache
Patricia Anabel: The Ballad about Bones
M.E. VonBindig: Rebellion
Jaimie M. Engle: The Graveyard Stomp
William Andre Sanders: Resting Place
Dona Sturgess: Maliarda
Sydney Leigh: Angel of the Dead
Dona Sturges: Last Dance
Stephanie M. Wytovich: Calcium
Michael Randolph: Whispering Seasons
J. T Seate: My Anne
DJ Tyrer: The Ossuary
DJ Tyrer: Bone Fire
DJ Tyrer: Skull
Vyvecca Danae Pratt: The Old Staircase

Flash Fiction

M.C. O’Neill: Turn Off the Skeletons
Alex S. Johnson: The Music of the Bones
Stephen V. Ramey: A Creature of Light and Air
Stephen V. Ramey: Grave Matter
Matthew Wilson: Display Purposes Only
Michael Blommaert: From dust and sand
Tina Rooker: Heartbreakers
David Eccles: A Canine Conundrum
L.A. Sykes: What’s Left
Justin Brooks: No Skin Whatsoever
DJ Tyrer: The Bone Lord
Lesa Pascavis Smith: The Children of Wellington Parish
Jake Johnson: The Lover Within
Johannes Pinter: The Big Bones Diet
Morgan Griffith: Bone to Pick
Thomas Kleaton: Playmates
Marija Elektra Rodriguez: Flesh and Phantoms
Robert Holt: Fossils of the Living

Short Stories

Bruce Memblatt: Bad to the Bone
Lily Childs: The Ossillatrice Shift
David Greske: Skeleton in the Closet
The Bone Boy: Philip Harris
Scathe meic Beorh: A Chimney in Time Saves Nine
Justin Hunter: Sentimentality
Jennifer Clark: Pillar
Ken MacGregor: Hands Off!
Mike Jansen: The Halls of Bones
Dave Dormer: Northern Hospitality
Guy Burtenshaw: Bolts of Bones
Charie D. La Marr: A Bone to Pick
John Grey: Street of Bones
John Kujawski: A Few Broken Bones
Michael Randolph: The Caretaker
From a Shallow Grave: Robert A. Read
Tom Johnstone: Flippers
Andrew Freudenberg: An Agreement of Flesh
Greg McWhorter: Witchbone

Sweet Pea's Big Adventure

 

The cat’s stuck in a tree. It sounds like such a cliché, until it happens to you.

Last Sunday A.M., a faint, poignant mew came from far above, when Flo set out food for our outside friends. Her lap kitty Sweet Pea was about 30 feet up in the fork of one of our backyard trees.

We received all of the stock advice:

The cat will come down when she’s hungry.
No. She went without food and water for over 48 hours, and cried and licked her lips with thirst. We repeatedly called her attention to food and water at the base of the tree. We saw her chewing on bark.

If she can get up there, she can get down.
No. Some cats, like Sweet Pea, don’t figure out how to back down. They’re more than suited for climbing up, but not down.

The fire department will get her down.
No, they won’t.

Animal Control will get her down.
No, they won’t, either.

Every time we tried to coax her down, with all of the couch and chair cushions, pillows, pillowcases filled with laundry and whatever else we could muster in place, the neighbor’s dog ran up to the fence yapping. Probably what sent her up there in the first place.

I tried. Made it to the top of the ladder, with 10 feet to go, despite my fear of heights. I reached the event horizon, as far as I could manage without breaking my neck.

Lots of ideas. Some of them just silly. (Helium balloons? Give me a break!) Some might work, but they were absurdly expensive. I did make a basket out of a storage barrel, and bought 100 ft. of rope. After about 150 throws, I began to develop some modest lariat skills, and my tosses were well beyond the needed range. This tree, though, has rough, curled bark. The tosses that hit the mark were immediately snagged. It simply wasn’t going to work.

By 50 hours, with forecast storms heading our way, we finally located a fellow willing to rescue her for less than I paid for my first car.

Finally, help arrives. Our hero, John J., tree expert by day and serial cat rescuer by avocation, is only moments away from saving the day.

Or so we thought. Sweet Pea has other ideas....

 

I guess, she just sees a stranger, and panics.

 

After more than 52 hours in the same place, Sweet Pea rockets up the tree. 10, 20, another 30 feet.

Out on a flimsy, dead branch about twice as high up as where this all began.

Our intrepid hero follows her, with rappelling rope and full climbing gear, further and further, while we try to call her back.

We drag the cushions and pillows and laundry out, and again further out. John follows, to thinner and thinner branches. Minutes stretch to the better part of an hour. John warns us, if she jumps, she'll sail past the giant catcher's mitt we've assembled, and hit the concrete patio. I'm thinking about calling an ambulance for him, he's so far out to the edge of twigs...

John J. keeps talking to Sweet Pea in a soothing voice.

She moves towards him a little...

He talks some more. She comes a little closer, then closer.

Suddenly, he has her. Quicker than I can aim the camera, he's sliding down the rope with one hand, gray kitty in the other, and it's over, everybody safe. Batman couldn't  have done it any cooler.

               Minutes after the rescue

All is back to normal once again, and Sweet Pea is back to her regular job, proofreading Flo's stories.

On occasion she looks wistfully at the back door, knowing it will be a while before she gets another chance to climb a tree. Or take a swipe at the pup next door.

*Sweet Pea’s sister Sassy, shot out the back door in July of 2013, and disappeared. Fortunately, we’d had her microchipped – and on May 19, 2017, we received a call – she’d been picked up as a feral, after being abandoned in an apartment complex about 10 miles away, when someone who had taken care of her moved. She’s back home and very happy… I’m sure she’s also had some adventures, but she’s not talking.

 

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Cellar Door: Words of Beauty, Tales of Terror Volume One

James Ward Kirk Publishing
Edited by Shawna L. Bernard

Contents:

POETRY

Hide and Seek by Stephanie M. Wytovich
Lullaby by Simon Critchell
(Caged) Floral Motif (Madness) by David S. Pointer
Olive Branch by Theresa C. Newbill
Last Lament by Matthew Wilson
Beneath Yellow Roses by Rose Blackthorn
Labyrinthine Dream by Mathias Jansson
Immortal Serenade by Larissa Blaze
Revelations by Michael Randolph
Behind the Cellar Door by Esther M. Leiper-Estabrooks
For You, the Universe by Max Booth III

FLASH FICTION

The Blossoming Bride by Aaron Besson
A Polished Poem by Morgan Griffith
Incarnadine by Lisa Landreth
The Draft by Matthew Wilson
Little Drummer Boy by Tom Johnstone
Natural Selection by Tony Thorne
The Door in the Floor by Ken MacGregor
Ray Guns and Rocket Ships by Todd Nelsen
Luna by Vada Katherine
Cellular Door by Aaron Gudmunson

SHORT STORIES

Stray Cat by Gregory L. Norris
Belladonna by C.L. Hesser
Intricate Restraint by Robert J. Santa
Visions of a New York Loft by Tracy L. Carbone
The Sun Sets Too Soon in November by Gregory L. Norris
Heavy Heart by Dave Dormer
Raison d’être by J.T. Seate
The Light of the Fifth Stair by K. Trap Jones
Reminiscent of the Rain by Carmen Tudor
Luminescence by Michael Randolph
Face of an Angel by Lisamarie Lamb
Stone Butterfly by David North-Martino
Solitude by Guy Burtenshaw
The Man Who Loved His Luscious Ladies by Tina Rath
Suburban Etiquette by Thomas Kleaton
Fiona by Justin Hunter
Pressed Flower Memories by Rose Blackthorn
Sweet Songs of the Earth by Erik Gustafson
Doors Shut Tight and Arms Wide Open by Kerry G.S. Lipp
The Virtuoso by J. Daniel Stone
What Grows in Between by Sally Bosco
Night Flowing Down by Melissa Osburn
Silhouettes in Soil and Prose by Jeff Carter
Moving Past the Ashes by T. Fox Dunham

ARTWORK & PHOTOGRAPHY

Penumbra by John Stanton
Harbinger by Beth Murphy
Divinity by Natalie Sirois
Halcyon Days by Shawna L. Bernard
An Epiphany by Greg McWhorter
Serenity by Beth Murphy
Latent Light by Natalie Sirois
Last Reign by Natalie Sirois
Redolence by Greg McWhorter
Narcissa by Beth Murphy
Denouement by Natalie Sirois
Third Crow by Tais Teng
Druid by Morgan Griffith
Shiva by Ashley Scarlet
Antique Languor by Natalie Sirois
Raptura Sub Rosa by Colleen Keough
Moonlight Sonata by Shawna L. Bernard
Dark Hearth by Shawna L. Bernard
Fallen Angel by Ashley Scarlet
Winter Wheel-line by Rose Blackthorn
Brooding by John Stanton
Ephemeral Sovereignty by Shawna L. Bernard
Sistina by Ashley Scarlet
Unfinished by Jodi Abraham
Regret by John Stanton
Water Lily by Shawna L. Bernard
Machiko (Finding Truth) by Beth Murphy
Doorway by Rose Blackthorn
Demesne by Shawna L. Bernard
Dragonfly Girl by Ashley Scarlet

Not One of Us Issue #50

From Editor and Publisher John Benson:

 “We’re calling this one deep time, and not just because it’s our fiftieth issue. We have tree ferns and giant dragonflies, carboniferous in a carboy, cheerful gentlemen with a bone-bead bracelet, a mother who won’t let them take her son away, a monster chosen, and a last organic. Our poets give us a ninth wave and a kingless kingdom, a bone-built world and a world of silence, a bagel shop to the multiverse, fissure-filling ivy, and a memory of trees.”

One of the Top Ten Science Fiction Magazines

Contents:

The Fernery, by Mat Joiner
Ivy (poem), by Adrienne J. Odasso
The World That Is Silence (poem), by Alexandra Seidel
The Society of Cheerful Gentlemen, by Patricia Russo
Blót (poem), by Gemma Files
The Bone-Built World (poem), by Dominik Parisien
The Watching, by Jacob Ian DeCoursey
The Bagel Shop Across the Street (poem), by David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Kendall Evans
Interventions, by Clancy Flynn
Nash at Wittenham (poem), by Mat Joiner
And Black Unfathomable Lakes, by Sonya Taaffe
The Hundred Under the Sea (poem), by Jeannelle D’Isa
Art: John Stanton

Order a copy or subscription directly from Not One of Us.

Summer's almost gone...

Indiana Crime Review 2013

Just released:

Indiana Crime Review 2013

Edited by James Ward Kirk and Murphy Edwards
Cover design by Mike Jansen
Illustrations by John D. Stanton

With stories by:
Matt Cowan
S. M. Harding
William Cook
Brent Abell
Brian Rosenberger
Flo Stanton
Murphy Edwards
David S. Pointer
David Frazier
Ronald J. Friedman
Edward "Lefty" Lee
William J. Fedigan
David Beck
Lee Forsythe
Jimmy Pudge
Greg McWhorter
Tony Wilson
Roger Cowin

July Moon

(Click on the photo for a larger version)

At the drive-in last Thursday night, for the first time since our old favorite closed years ago. Cool air from the north had pushed the soggy 95 degree temperatures out of state for a while, giving us a few nights more like early September than late July. The last remaining clouds skittered away sometime while Flo and I were watching the double feature, and I snapped the above photo from our front steps, just after we returned home in the 3AM Blue of Friday morning.

Ray Manzarek, Tyndall Armory, Indianapolis

Logan Janzen, of Edmonton, Alberta has put together an amazing archive of photos, concerts, recordings and all things Doors on his web site http://mildequator.com/performancehistory/concertinfo/1972/720722.html, and he was kind enough to include a couple of photos I took of Ray Manzarek in concert here in Indianapolis, along with my memories of the event.

Not One of Us #49

 From Editor and Publisher John Benson:

"In this, our belonging issue, we have a young man who follows “the guy,” a dim girl who becomes part of an abusive “family,” townspeople sharing a sacrifice they hope will make all their lives better, burb boys and pixies trying to connect, and two people plotting to rescue a friend from a dangerous love.  There are falling gods and faceless shape-shifters, an auditorium for autopsy and a welcome-home for dead cats, cave painters of dreams and a pyre cast in starstorm, a home for now or forever, safety in the foundering waves."


Contents:

We Were Real, by Josh Eure
Delenda (poem), by Sonya Taaffe
Little Bell, the Beasley Boys, and a Long Road Home, by Tim L. Williams
Shipwrecked (poem), by Adrienne J. Odasso
Tithe of Days, by Francesca Forrest
This Abandoned Sphere (poem), by David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Kendall Evans
Connectivity, by J. Rohr
No Face to Call Its Own (poem), by G. O. Clark
Post Trauma (poem), by Leslie Anderson
Cat Lady (poem), by Beth Cato
Nothing Good Can Come of This, by Patricia Russo
Earthsong (poem), by Alexandra Seidel
Art: John Stanton

 Order a copy or subscription directly from Not One of Us.

Stealth Color - A Subtractive Illusion

(Click on the photo for a larger version)

Mary Ella - this statue of a child who died in 1875 is still the most visited monument at one of the largest cemeteries in the United States.  The stereo pair was originally photographed in infrared, using a Harrison & Harrison 89B glass filter on a Nikon Coolpix 990.

If you gently cross your eyes until you see a third image in the middle, the middle image will be three-dimensional. For the subtractive illusion, I extrapolated from the concept of subtractive color used in printing, postulating that complementary magenta and cyan tints would cancel each other out in the brain. Therefore, the 3D image you see in between will be perceived as black and white. This effect is to my knowledge original.

 Frequently, the first response I get when I show someone a cross-eye stereo pair, is, “I can't cross my eyes!” Of course you can - the key is to do it gently, without forcing. Try this experiment:

First, focus on something in the distance - as I write this, I'm looking at the doorknob to our kitchen door, about 20 feet away.

While staying focused on your distant object, touch your nose with your index finger. Notice that you immediately see two fingers. Now move your finger slowly out, 8 to 10 inches in front of your face, while staying focused on your distant object. I see two index fingers, and one doorknob. Now shift your focus to your index finger.

The stereo fingers converge, and now I see two doorknobs. Move your focus and attention back and forth between your finger and your distant object a couple of times. The point to this exercise is to demonstrate that our eyes constantly converge and diverge - it's perfectly natural, and necessary to see clearly!

It is only uncomfortable when you force your eyes; with practice, viewing stereo images with the cross-eye technique is easy and painless.

Now try this: With the Mary Ella stereo pair centered on your screen, again touch your nose with your index finger. Slowly move your finger out in front of you, staying focused on the finger.

Behind your finger, you will notice the middle image forming on the screen - you should already be able to see it in black and white. Keep focused on your finger while you move it out slowly - on the screen, you will notice the image of Mary Ella converging slowly as you keep moving your finger out.

When she is aligned, drop your finger and you should be able to see the 3D image, in black and white, clearly and without eye strain.

The subtractive illusion is intriguing because, while it is perfectly reasonable conceptually, it makes no sense experientially; like adding two positive integers and ending up with zero.

And, while it apparently works equally well on color and black and white photos, as a filter overlay, if the pair of filters is applied to a white background, the results perceptually (while viewing as a cross-eye stereo pair) are a gray patch between the two tints, or, alternatively, a magenta and cyan mix.

(If you apply the tints to a color stereo pair, when viewed in 3D, the tints cancel each other out, and the original colors are revealed in the middle.)

In the 3D image, something interesting appears to be happening in the brain - at the same time the 2D halves are being combined to produce the perception of depth, the colors of the tints are being subtracted from our final perception.

If you take two exact copies of the same image, combine them into a stereo pair and apply the tints, the subtractive illusion still persists - the tints vanish - but the combined image, while now flat, is by some people perceived as concave, like a photo held by the sides and bowed inward.

Most 3D aficionados I've corresponded with report a slight shift in state of consciousness while viewing in 3D, whether the materials are stereo pairs, anaglyphs or Magic Eye(TM) stereograms.

This “felt-sense” change in awareness is generally pleasant, and indicative of increased cooperation between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

The color subtraction illusion also requires hemispheric cooperation, and the combination of the two effects may involve more dynamic perceptual processing in the brain than either would separately. If you have one available, put on your headphones and listen to a binaural beat brainwave track, to engage another sense in an analogous fashion.

When applied with the proper sequencing of attention and appropriate metaphoric content, illusions such as this that stimulate perceptual processing can be integral in a program to heighten one's creativity and problem solving abilities.

About Mary Ella:


(For an interview with me about this effect, along with a plug for my favorite photo software on Corel's web site, click here.) After keeping it online for ten years, Corel seems to have taken that page down. Following are snaps from the page:

(In regards to the psychology of perception, you might also find my 2011 post on Brown Noise of interest.)

Time in a Bottle

It’s just an old pop bottle. I went wandering with Flo through a nearby woods on the day of the Brickyard a few years ago. One of the two huge oaks anchoring the sandy shore of the west side of Falcon Run Creek, near the railroad trestle, had fallen–decades of erosion had washed away the grip the old tree once held on the land. Deep in the crater left by the toppled tree, I saw the neck of an old pop bottle jutting out of the sand and photographed it.

I pulled on the bottle cautiously, thinking it was most probably broken, but it was intact, full of sand, just scratched up a bit. We brought it home, cleaned it, filled it part way up with water and added some blue food coloring and a cork. The bottle’s shape was unusual to me, in that it didn’t resemble any soft drink brand I recognized.

How long had it lay buried in that sand, for an oak to grow to such a size over it, I wondered. It could date back to the time the trestle was built, circa 1908.

I took a few photos and put it away.

After more than thirteen years on the shelf, it has collected a healthy coating of dust; that has made it look more its age.

There are still moments to look at an old, worn coin and wonder at who passed it on when it was new and shiny, or who drained the old pop bottle on a hot summer’s day, and tossed it in the sand.

Lost And Lonely - a new "Not One of Us" Publication.

Lost and Lonely contents:

Losing, by Patricia Russo
Absurd Death Threat (poem), by J. J. Steinfeld
Ghost Gardening, by John Zaharick
Passing (poem), by Malcolm Morris
Skin Trade (poem), by K. S. Hardy
The Boat on the Plain, by Matthew Marinett
Catullus V.101 (poem), by Sonya Taaffe
Atque in Perpetuum (poem), by Sonya Taaffe
Jason’s Roommate, by Philip Roberts
IN dreams i’m MAD, have VISIONS (poem), by Tom Pescatore
John Stanton (cover), Teresa Tunaley

Order a copy or subscription right now directly from Not One of Us.