Every region has its ghosts and crypto-creatures and legends. One of those I know from New Brunswick, the province where I grew up, is called the Dungarvon Whooper. The Dungarvon River is in the Miramichi region of the province and the “whooper” is a kind of siren or banshee. A number of years ago, I wrote a short story inspired by the legend (in its many variations) and that tale has finally found a home. “The Dungarvon Whooper” will appear in Volume 5 of Nothing’s Sacred magazine, which will be published in on May 10. The issue will also feature stories from Julia Benally, David Greske, Michael H. Hanson, S. C. Hayden, Sharon Jarvis, Donna J. W. Munro, and Jonathan Edward Ondrashek. In addition, this issue will feature the article “Nightmares in Plastic” from Kevin Hoover. Poetry highlights come from Cindy O’Quinn, Anton Cancre, Marge Simon, Deborah L. Davitt, and Michelle Muenzler.
I’ll be at Northern FanCon in Prince George, B.C. from May 3 to May 5th. The schedule hasn’t been posted yet, but I’ll be participating in a Dollar Baby film festival and giving a talk, at a minimum. Should be fun! My first trip to Canada in five years.
I’ve also completed my travel plans for Necon, which I missed out on last year. Thanks to my trips to Japan earlier this year, I had enough air miles to get me there and back again.
Two stories that have had a lot of mileage in the past year or so will see new incarnations in 2019. “Zombies on a Plane,” and the anthology that I co-edited with Stephen King in which it appears, Flight or Fright, will be released in trade paperback edition from Scribner on June 4. Then in October, my story “Aeliana” will re-emerge in the trade paperback edition of Shining in the Dark from Gallery Books. I have a number of other short stories “on deck,” as it were, but I don’t have definite dates for their appearances yet.
My review of Pet Sematary went up at News from the Dead Zone last Friday. The remake didn’t quite live up to my expectations, alas. We did enjoy the new Netflix film The Highwaymen about the former Texas Rangers who brought down Bonnie and Clyde, starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson. We chased that with Unforgiven, which I haven’t seen since it came out. They make good companion pieces: the former gunslingers brought out of retirement for one last time.
I really enjoyed Babylon Berlin on Netflix, and look forward to that German series continuing in due course. Season 3 of Santa Clarita Diet was also hilarious and well written, although I have slight reservations about the final events of the last episode. I also watched Quicksand, a Swedish series about a teenage girl arrested for her part in a school shooting. As she goes through the interesting process of trial preparation (the Swedish system is quite different from ours), the story flashes back to see how she became involved with the main shooter. I was fascinated by how isolated Maja was in prison–she was allowed no visitors other than her lawyers and there were things her lawyer was legally prevented from telling her. The trial itself was more of a tribunal, and the way information was presented to the judge was interesting, too.
I’m currently reading The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith to my wife and The Lady of the Lake by Laura Lippman to myself. The latter is billed as a historical novel, which I find amusing since it is set in the mid-1960s. There is a main story, but every time the protagonist meets someone new, there’s also a short chapter from that character’s point of view. Also, the ghost of a dead woman pops in on occasion to offer her opinion. For some reason, it makes me think of Canterbury Tales.
