L. A. Vintage Paperback Festival

Last weekend I, unfortunately, came down with a cold (yes, just a cold!) and still have it, so our attendance at the festival was much shorter than we would've liked.  We signed at 11 am with Scott Woodard and Pete Atkins, among others.  Kyle and I are scheduled to sign again next year as well, in case you didn't catch us this time.

It was not the same without Dennis Etchison there.  I met him for the first time at this festival a few years ago.  We were together in Weird Fiction Review #5 by Centipede Press and I had him sign it.  I told him that I was also in this and he mentioned an after-party and said that I was 'entitled' to go.  That just made me die.  I would only see him at cons or other gatherings infrequently but it was always a joy to hang out with him and listen to his stories and writing wisdom.  I miss him terribly.

I had Tim Kirk sign his Averoigne map in my contributor's copy of The Averoigne Legacy: Tribute Tales in the World of Clark Ashton Smith edited by Edward Stasheff.

(Tim Kirk)

(Peter Beagle [in silver])

I spotted a few books I'm in being sold at a table run by Carl Aschmann, which was awesome.

Here are the goodies I scored.

Spectral Realms No. 12 by Hippocampus Press

I'm always so excited to get my copy of Spectral Realms and the latest is the 12th issue, which features my sonnet V. Haematophagy.  Haematophagy is the 5th sonnet in my vampire sonnet cycle titled The Countess.  The first four sonnets can be found in Diary of a Sorceress.  The entire sonnet cycle will be in Diary of a Vampyress. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Poems

Acrostic Sonnet for Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire / David Barker

Gray / M. F. Webb

Pilgrim in the Mist / Wade German

Proem to the Fortress Unvanquishable / Thomas Tyrrell

Ode to the Great God Pan / Carl E. Reed

Ghebulax / Maxwell I. Gold

The Crimson Knight / Scott J. Couturier

Haematophagy / Ashley Dioses

Not All of Them Are Ghosts / Darrell Schweitzer

Poe, on the Morning After / Don Webb

Homage to Creepy / Manuel Pérez-Campos

Xipe Totec / Deborah L. Davitt

Necronomicon / Josh Maybrook

Wretched Raft / Kieran Dacey Boylan

Satanic Sonata / Manuel Arenas

Time’s Vulture / Leigh Blackmore

Urban Renewal / Mike Allen

Graveside Ghost / Mary Krawczak Wilson

No One Is Safe / Benjamin Blake

Minoan Messages / Frank Coffman

Madhouse Getaway / Manuel Pérez-Campos

Planet Fetish / Chad Hensley

Jack in Xanadu / Adam Bolivar

Genesis / Holly Day

I Want to Taste October / Ross Balcom

A Tasty Treat / Adele Gardner

Beyond the Fields / Andrew J. Wilson

The Tears of Cerberus / Wade German

A Witch in the House / Oliver Smith

The Psychopomp / Cecelia Hopkins-Drewer

The Plague Queen’s Song / Nicole Cushing

I’ll Return in Late October / K. A. Opperman

The Philosophy & Aesthetics of Horror / Carl E. Reed

Black Wings Return / Michael D. Miller

Slow the Night Grows Darker / David Sammons

The Wild Hunt / Chelsea Arrington

Lines Written in a Providence Churchyard / David Barker

The God of the Winds / Christina Sng

Singularity / Curtis M. Lawson

Dream Hackers / Maxwell I. Gold

The Bedlam Philharmonic / Steven Withrow

The House (A Conduit) / Mack W. Mani

The Pack / Scott J. Couturier

Kiss of Life / Manuel Arenas

The Last Golem / Allan Rozinski

A Summoning of Demons / Michelle Jeffrey

Astral Parasites / Manuel Pérez-Campos

The Silent Silver Sea / Leigh Blackmore

Homer Before the Trojan Court / Darrell Schweitzer

The Witch’s Cat / Deborah L. Davitt

In Arcadia / Josh Maybrook

My Loveliest Manticore; or, The Queen of the Lamiae / Wade German

The Conjuring / Frank Coffman

Wildfires / Christina Sng

Now and Forever / Kieran Dacey Boylan

Stela of Selos / Scott J. Couturier

Southern Gothic; or, Hillbilly Horror / Carl E. Reed

The Egyptian Splendor / Ross Balcom

Carrion Dreams / Maxwell I. Gold



Classic Reprints  

In a Breton Cemetery / Ernest Dowson

The Vampire / Arthur Symons



Reviews 

A Golgotha of Horror / S. T. Joshi

Dark Oracles Indeed / Donald Sidney-Fryer

Updates

I've been depressed ever since my father died over a year ago.  Writing was always something I've turned to, it is my life, but my life is out of whack.  So writing, as an extension of myself, is also out of whack.  I haven't written much at all in 2019 and so far this year, I've written 1 poem.

The Withering was slotted to come out in September 2019 and it didn't.  It's scheduled to come out April 30th and I hope that it does.  The publisher is going through his own Hell and I empathize with him.  I really do.

The Withering is finished and I hoped with its publication I could relax a bit but it hasn't and I can't.  I know others have waited longer and still wait for their 2nd book to come out years later but it bothers me.  The rule is to send something out and then forget it as you work on something else.  And that's a fine rule and it worked for me until now.

I can't write like I used to anymore.  Diary of a Vampyress is close to completion in that it needs (yes, needs) about 30 more poems.  30 poems weren't as daunting then as it is now.  My sweet, patient, genius Kyle has been the biggest help to me in editing my poems to perfection.  He is the meter and form genius and I am not.  He helps me smooth my rough corners and helps polish them up before I send them out into the world.  He is also struggling to write and has taken up art, which I'm extremely proud of him for pursuing what he always wanted to do.  And that means he doesn't have the time or even the mental headspace to edit my poems.  And that's fine.  He shouldn't have to do that forever.  All things come to an end.

The Withering is done but not out.  Diary of a Vampyress is close to completion but it's not complete.  The poems I've not written need to be.  And poems written will not be edited.  Why does it matter anymore?  Has my flame gone out already?

Now let's go back in time.

In the year 1999 or so, I created a character in a short story in 4th grade.  With this character bloomed a story and a (few) plots and a (few) settings.  This character and story and plot and setting bloomed into 2 and a half epic fantasy novels.  These are the novels I was working on before Kyle came along and brought me back to poetry in 2010.

I've dusted them off with serious intent on rewriting them.  Maybe this is the break I need from poetry right now.

I still have plenty of edited, finished poems that I'll be sending out into the world to hopefully find a home.  I will always update this with when and where to find them.  Those may be the best place to find new Ashley poetry for the time being.