HWA Halloween Pumpkin Recipe Contest!

Kyle and I participated in the HWA Halloween pumpkin recipe contest.  How could we not?  We chose a pumpkin Kyle grew himself and made a pumpkin baked fondue.

INGREDIENTS

Toasted sourdough slices
1 (3-pound) Cinderella or Sugar Pie pumpkin
3/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
2 packages of Brie
2 spoonfuls of blue cheese
1 spoonful of minced garlic
2 spoonfuls of bacon bits (optional)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Splash of white cooking wine
Pinch of pepper

(Cheese!)

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 450°F.
Toast sourdough slices.
Remove top of pumpkin by cutting a circle around stem with a small sharp knife. Scrape out seeds and any loose fibers from inside pumpkin with a spoon including pumpkin lid. Season inside of pumpkin with 1/4 teaspoon salt.
Whisk together cream, broth, nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a bowl. Mix together cheeses in another bowl.
Put a layer of toasted bread in bottom of pumpkin, then cover with about 1 cup cheese and about 1/2 cup cream mixture. Continue layering cheese and cream mixture until pumpkin is filled to about 1/2 inch from top, using all of cream mixture.
Cover pumpkin with top and put in an oiled small roasting pan. Brush outside of pumpkin all over with olive oil. Bake until the pumpkin’s skin wrinkles and turns darker.  You can take the lid off to check if it’s bubbling, 1 hour.  When it’s done, dip sliced toasted sourdough bread into the mixture and enjoy.

(Must scoop the guts out first.)

(Bread on the bottom.)

(Ready for the oven.)

(Tada!)

(Dunk and enjoy!)

Pumpkin Patch

It's tradition that Kyle and I go to the Irvine Regional Park which holds a pumpkin patch every year.  It also has a few carnival games, a small hay maze, a small haunted house, and a cookie decorating booth.  Kyle and I always decorate cookies.

(My spider under the blue moon.)

(Kyle's Jack-o-lantern with wings.)

(Being dorks.)

(Kiss thief!)

(Pumpkin King)

(Jack-o-dork.)

('Lemme tell ya 'bout pumpkin growin...')

(He made me take this picture.  All of them actually...)

(Kyle let me get an ugly pumpkin this time!)

There's also a little zoo at this park that Kyle and I have never been to before.  We decided to check it out.  They had bunnies!

(I also like goats....)

First Fiction Sale!

I am ecstatic to announce that I have just sold my first short story ever.  As in, paid, as in, I'm getting money for my story.  Someone wants to give me money for a story I wrote.  WHOA!  So I am proud to announce that my short story, The Rat in the Rabbit Cage, has just been accepted for Weirdbook 2017 Annual "Witches" by Wildside Press!

I originally wrote this story, as a challenge by Kyle, for the She Walks in Shadows by Innsmouth Free Press anthology.  Since then it has been rejected six more times.  I really liked this story and really wanted to make it work, so, at that point, I signed up to be mentored on short fiction through my local HWA Chapter group and was paired up with none other than Lisa Morton.  Upon reading it she said the greatest thing ever.  "...I think it's overall a very solid piece of work, very M. R. James-ian in the sense of danger always lurking just behind the events."  M. R. James-ian!!!  I wrote an  M. R. James-ian story!  What a compliment.

After working on the story back and forth with Lisa and finishing up the mentorship program, I sent it off to be rejected again.  The second time, however, hit home.  The editor of Weirdbook messaged me on Facebook and told me "I want this story very much," and just asked that I tweaked the ending a bit.  I sent it to him like 5 seconds later because I wanted to make sure I wasn't dreaming that he was taking my story, not my poetry, for this antho or that he changed his mind.

Anyway, I hope you all like my story; I shall wait in terror for your judgments and reviews.    

Table of Contents

Fiction
Thou Shall Not Suffer Matt Neil Hill
No Holds Bard Adrian Cole
Laying The Hairy Book Josh Reynolds
Here Is Where Your Proud Waves Halt Erica Ruppert
Vicious Circles Paul Dale Anderson
Assorted Shades Of Red Franklyn Searight
Strange Days In Old Yandrissa John R. Fultz
Fertility Rites Glynn Owen Barrass
The Witches Heart Rachel Bolton
Hag Race Andre Harewood
Best Friend Becky Wayne Faust
The Rat In The Rabbit Cage Ashley Dioses
Two Spells Neva Bryan
Pulled Over Paul Spears
The Witch Of Skur L. F. Falconer
Cat And Mouse Duane Pesice
Last Of Ashiptu Paul Lubaczewski
Firestorm Richard H. Durisen
The Witch Of Pender John Linwood Grant
The Nora Witch Brandon Jimison
The Broken Witch Scott Hutchison

Poetry
The Desert Rose Inn Maurits Zwankhuizen
Salty Lucy Snyder
The Ballad Of Blighted March David F. Daumit
The Witch Queen S. L. Edwards
A Witch's Work Is Never Done Lori R. Lopez
Oracle Bone Script Frederick J. Meyer
Halloween Witch K. A. Opperman
Remembering The Peculiar Effects From the
Sugar-Witch's Goblin-Brew Clay F. Johnson
Sea Witch Vonnie Winslow Crist
Little Youkai At The Witch House Chad Hensley
Mother Persephone Oliver Smith
A Warlock Slips Into My Dreams Darla Klein

A Walk on the Weird Side edited by Joe S. Pulver, Sr.

I ordered A Walk on the Weird Side edited by Joe S. Pulver, Sr. and was surprised to see two copies of it included in my package.  I was even more surprised to see that one of them was signed by Peter Rawlik!  I have no idea why that was but it certainly made my day!  Thank you to whoever included the extra copy!

My poems, Daemonolatry, A Sea of Snow and Frost, and Hollow King, appear in this charity anthology.  Hollow King does not appear in Diary of a Sorceress, fyi.

Featuring new fiction and poetry from:
Nadia Bulkin
S. P. Miskowski
Kristi DeMeester
Matthew M. Bartlett
Ann K. Schwader
Michael Griffin
Craig L. Gidney
Farah Rose Smith
Peter Rawlik
Ashley Dioses
Daniel Braum
Nathan Carson
Jon Padgett
Rebecca J. Allred
Alistair Rennie
Starry Wizdom
Rhys Hughes
John Claude Smith
Ashley Dioses
Michael Bukowski
Michael Wehunt
Anna Tambour
Christopher Slatsky
Scott Thomas
Lynda Rucker
Tom Lynch
Cody Goodfellow
Robert Levy
Jayprakash Satyamurthy
Philip Fracassi
Maura McHugh

XNOYBIS #3: In Praise of Pan by Dunhams Manor Press

I have been waiting for this journal for over a year and the wait is finally over!  My copy of Xnoybis #3: In Praise of Pan by Dunhams Manor Press has finally arrived and oh is it beautiful!?  My poem, Panic, can be found within it's pages.  This is one of the most...explicit poems I've written, but how could it not be?  We are talking about Pan here...

Approx. 50 pages
Limited to 100 copies

The third issue of XNOYBIS.. a themed issue.. IN PRAISE OF PAN!

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Panic by Ashely Dioses (Poem)
Black Goat Rising by DJ Tyrer
Lost in Arcadia by C.M. Muller
Flat Ice Drifting to the Second-Innermost by Matt Leyshon
Panic Moon by Jonas Moth
Ye Yellow’d Reed by Adam Bolivar (Poem)
and the Poe Bug column by Selena Chambers.

Diary of a Sorceress Update

Diary of a Sorceress is almost complete.  All that is left to be included are 3 more b&w interior illustrations by the amazing Steve Santiago.

Introduction by Donald Sidney-Fryer, Afterword by yours truly, 4 tribute poems by Adam Bolivar, K. A. Opperman, Michael Fantina, and D. L. Myers, and blurbs by Wilum Pugmire, Ann K. Schwader, Lisa Morton, Linda D. Addison, Marge Simon, Leigh Blackmore, Kyla Lee Ward, Joe Pulver, Peter Atkins, Darrell Schweitzer, Danny Lovecraft, and Jessica Amanda Salmonson, and art by Steve Santiago.  If this doesn't tempt you, I'm sorry.

I will be signing at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, OR. Oct 6-8.  Stop by the Hippocampus Press vendors table to pick up a copy and then find me and I shall sign it for you and/or kiss it, if you so desire.  I will be reading from it sometime during the fest, so keep a lookout at the event page to find out when.  

If you cannot make it to the film fest to pick up a copy, you can still pre-order it directly from the website.

Guest at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, OR. Oct 6-8

Last year I was a guest for the first time for the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival in OR. and it was so freakin fun.  But this time, this festival marks the release of my very first book, Diary of a Sorceress by Hippocampus Press.  Words cannot express how excited I am to be there for the release of my own book.  Kyle and I will be staying Oregon for the whole week to take in the fresh air and go exploring.  If you can't make it to the festival, find us beforehand!

On Thursday, prior to the film fest, I will be reading from and signing my book, alongside Adam Bolivar, who will also be reading and signing from his new book, The Lay of Old Hex, at the Book Bin in Salem, OR.  Be there!  There's no set time yet.

Book Bin
450 Court St NE, Salem, OR 97301

Lets get drinks and have a blast!

The Literary Hatchet Issue #18 by PearTree Press

My poem, The Fires of Summer, is featured in issue #18 of The Literary Hatchet by PearTree Press.  The Fires of Summer is an anniversary poem that celebrated our 2nd year Kyle and I have been together.  You can download issue #18 for free at the link above or wait two days to purchase the print copy.

Blood and Roses: A Devotional for Aphrodite and Venus by Bibliotheca Alexandrina

My copy of Blood and Roses: A Devotional for Aphrodite and Venus edited by Rebecca Buchanan by Bibliotheca Alexandrina arrived yesterday and it is so cool looking.  It's funny, out of all the deities I associate with and connect with, Venus and Aphrodite wouldn't be at the top of that list.  Saying that though, this particular description has got me curious and wanting to learn more.  "Rather, they are Goddesses of immense power and deep passions, who can be kind and angry, wise and stubborn, cosmic in their transcendence and intimate in their immanence."

My poem, Venus, can be found within.  It was originally published in Eternal Haunted Summer.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Aphrodite by K.S. Roy … 3

Dedication … 4

Introduction by Rebecca Buchanan … 11

Poetry

Venus Frigida by Peter Paul Rubens … 13

Adonis: The Invocation by Robert F. Gross … 14

The Anatomical Venus by Gareth Writer-Davies … 16

Aphrodite by Gareth Writer-Davies … 18

Aphrodite: From the Depths by Gerri Leen … 19

Aphrodite, Lady of Change by Merit Brokaw … 21

Aphrodite Rising by Anne Graue … 22

Aphrodite’s Birthplace by Anne Graue … 23

Aphrodite’s Gifts by Merit Brokaw … 24

Aphrodite Soteira by Merit Brokaw … 26

Arrow-Pierced by Taqerisenu … 29

Blessings of Aphrodite/Rose Petals by Pegi Eyers … 30

Atlanta Aphrodite by Allie Nelson … 31

Eros Unloosed by Michael Routery … 33

Eternal Aphrodite, Rainbow-Throned by David W. Landrum … 34

Foam-Born by Jennifer Lawrence … 36

Fox by Gareth Writer-Davies … 38

Gifts of Aphrodite by Amanda Artemisia Forrester … 39

Goddess by Beate Sigriddaughter … 41

golden beauty by Kyler Luffy … 42

The Golden Ladies of Love by Amanda Artemisia Forrester … 45

A Grammar for Aphrodite by Michael Routery … 48

Hermes’ and Aphrodite’s Child by Michael Routery … 49

Hymn and Invocation of Aphrodite by Apollonius Sophistes (John Opsopaus) … 50

Aphrodite Calls to Pele by Laurie Goodhart … 58

Hymn to Aphrodite by Leni Hester … 59

I Am Isis-Aphrodite, Goddess of the Deep Blue Sea by Chelsea Luellon Bolton … 61

La Primavera by Mary Geschwindt … 65

Love and Commitment by Merit Brokaw … 68

One by Terence Kuch … 70

Piercer of Souls by Rodopi Sisamis … 71

Prayer to Aphrodite II by Rebecca Buchanan … 73

Primal Made Flesh by Merit Brokaw … 74

Sappho and the Woman of Starlight by John W. Sexton … 75

Sonnet for Aphrodite by David Subacchi … 77

Aphrodite as the Red Baroness by Ravenart … 78

To Aphrodite by the Muses (Red Baroness is she of the sacred hive) by Ravenart … 79

To Begin by Alexeigynaix … 81

Tributary by Richard King Perkins … 83

Venus by Merit Brokaw … 84

Venus by Ashley Dioses … 86

Venus and Felix Roma by Michael Routery … 87

Venus Victrix by Taqerisenu … 88

Where Does Love Go When It’s Cold? by Lori Anne Gravley … 89

Winged Lover by Deborah Guzzi … 90

Essays

Aphrodite Ἀφρογένεια Foam-Born by Devon Power … 93

Aphrodite and Theology by Edward Butler … 94

Aphrodite: Mystique and Mysterium: The Breath of the Soul Is the Heart of the Matter by Iona Miller … 111

Celebrating the Golden One: Aphrodite, Oshun, and Alchemy by Leni Hester … 144

Dedication to Aphrodite and Eros by Shauna Aura Knight … 148

The Marriage of Aphrodite by Amanda Artemisia Forrester … 162

Myths

Venus by Hendrick Goltzius … 167

Aphrodite Falls in Love by Marc Littman … 168

Becoming a Priestess of Aphrodite by Jinny Webber … 171

Cupid’s Mark by Shannon Connor Winward … 193

Deathwatch by Gerri Leen … 194

The Folly of Tyndareus by Merit Brokaw … 207

Love’s Sting by Gerri Leen … 213

Her Inner Mistress by Ravenart … 227

Transformation by Taqerisenu … 228

Rites and Recipes

Aphrodite Ἐρωτοτρόφος Mother of Love by Devon Power … 231

Aphrodite and Modern Pagans by Amanda Artemisia Forrester … 232

Aphrodite Fancy Perfumed Rice Pudding by Taqerisenu … 235

A Festival of Aphrodite: A Modern Invocation by Amanda Artemisia Forrester … 237

Guided by Aphrodite by Jenny Elliott … 242

Liturgy of Love: The Liturgia Philotêtos of Epaphroditos: Promulgatio de Ordine Philotêtos (Proclamation of the Order of Philotês) by John Opsopaus … 246

Offerings for Aphrodite by Amanda Artemisia Forrester … 269

Three Prayers to Aphrodite by Rev. Donna M. Swindells … 273

Tannhauser and Venus by John Collier … 275

Publication Credits … 276

Appendix A: Public Domain Texts … 277

Appendix B: Epithets of Aphrodite compiled by Chelsea Luellon Bolton … 286

Appendix C: Our Contributors … 290

Appendix D: About Bibliotheca Alexandrina — Current Titles — Forthcoming Titles … 307

Feverish Fiction #6 by Sleazy Viking Press

My long anticipated copy of Feverish Fiction #6 by Sleazy Viking Press arrived and sadly, it is the last of the series.  With art by the amazing Muratis Boswel, this issue ends with a bang of art, prose, and of course, poetry.

This is the final issue of Feverish Fiction Magazine.

* 44 pages - full color on 140 gram cyclus paper
* Previously unpublished original flash fiction stories and poetry
* Underground art
* May issue #6 includes:

"The Lich-Queen" by Scott Couturier
Art feature: Hannah Haddix
Last House on Splattergore Avenue by Alex S. Johnson
Art feature: Paul Boswel
Aleena the Pitiful She-Devil [part two] by Lucas Mangum
Fire Sprite by Ashley Dioses
Don't Go In There by John Wayne Comunale
Art feature: Terry Bizarro
Winter Baskets by Zeb Carter
To His Anything-But-Coy Mistress by Frank Coffman
Absolution by M.F. Wahl
+ a bunch of boobs and pinups!

(If you want to see what the rest of this feisty fire sprite looks like, get this amazing issue!)

Spectral Realms No. 7 by Hippocampus Press

I have received and devoured my copy of Spectral Realms No. 7 by Hippocampus Press and I have to say that this series is such a joy to read.  I look forward to every issue.  My poem, The Reaper's Garden, is featured within and it is a very seasonal poem about autumn turning into winter.  This poem is not featured in my Diary, so definitely pick this journal up.

Poems

This Mountain of Skulls / John Shirley

Lightless Oceans / Ann K. Schwader

The Dream-Wife / Adam Bolivar

More Than the Shark / M. F. Webb

The Embrace /Jessica Amanda Salmonson

A Rude Awakening / Ian Futter

For Sale / Deborah L. Davitt

Invocation to the Daemon for Modern Times / Liam Garriock

Aenid’s Dream / Christina Sng

The God Within / Ronald Terry

The Dark Pharaoh / Richard L. Tierney

Ave Augustissime: An Acrostic Sonnet on H. P. Lovecraft, Esq. / Manuel Pérez-Campos

Portrait of H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.: A Scrambled Acrostic Sonnet / Manuel Pérez-Campos

Dracul’s Demesne / Frank Coffman

The Reaper’s Garden / Ashley Dioses

Testament of the Scribe / David Barker

The Graveyard Knows My Name / Ross Balcom

Teratology / F. J. Bergmann

Repoman Homunculus / Chad Hensley

Imprisoned / Mary Krawczak Wilson

His Voice in the Whisper of Waves / Deborah L. Davitt and Kendall Evans

Mary of the Rosy Grave / K. A. Opperman

Things Come out of the Fog / G. O. Clark

Moment / Nathaniel Reed

Ad’Naigon / Maxwell I. Gold

Doll in the Wall / Jessica Amanda Salmonson

From the Yellow Text of Thanos Khan / Don Webb

Angry Sun/Bloated Moon / Claire Smith

Secret Tree / John Shirley

Only 13 / Ian Futter

Expanding Universe / Ronald Terry

The Final Turn / Ann K. Schwader

Arrival / M. F. Webb

He Dreams of Beauty / Liam Garriock

Pull / Christina Sng

Innsmouth Shanty / David Barker

Metamorphosis / Frank Coffman

The Wyrde of the Bibliognost; or, Another Solitude / Manuel Pérez-Campos

Silent Songs / Deborah L. Davitt

The Ballad of the de la Poers / Adam Bolivar

Corridors Enough / Ann K. Schwader

The Daughter of Death / Charles D. O’Connor III

Under the Blood Moon / Sunni K Brock

Her Skull and the Sea / Mary Krawczak Wilson

What It Means When You Dream of Swords / F. J. Bergmann

My Beloved Bones / Jessica Amanda Salmonson

Rising Damp / M. F. Webb

Night Terrors / Ian Futter

David Lynch / Liam Garriock

It’s Hell Being Your Guardian Angel / John Shirley

The Spiders of Kepler 452B / Kendall Evans

Classic Reprints

Amenophra / Ernest A. Edkins

Faces and Souls / Paul Eldridge

Articles

On “A Wine of Wizardry” / S. T. Joshi

Reviews

Tim Powers, Poet / John Shirley

The Virtues and Drawbacks of Free Verse / Leigh Blackmore