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Monday, November 3, 2014

DEVIL'S WEEK

~ PROUDLY PRESENTS ~


5 Tales


HYPNOS
by H.P. Lovecraft

© in the public domain;  art © by shaun lawton
+ Click Images Below To Begin Reading +





SAM'S HALLOWEEN NIGHTMARE
by Gil James Bavel
© 2014 by gil james bavel; photo © by gil bavel 





THE PERFECT PUMPKIN
by John Claude Smith
© 2014 by john claude smith; art © by shasta lawton 






SEE YOU NEXT YEAR, MY LOVE
by Vincent Daemon
© 2014 by vincent daemon; art © shaun lawton
THE SOFTEST PILLOW
by John Shirley
© 2014 by john shirley; art © shasta lawton



Welcome to another issue of the FREEZINE of Fantasy and Science Fiction. This one's been dubbed DEVIL'S WEEK on account of it having run during the final week of October, 2014:  the Freezine presented one story per each day of the week, beginning with the classic H.P. Lovecraft tale HYPNOS.  The art you see depicted above the story was done by me  using magic markers on glossy photo print paper.  It was a method I developed a few years ago when staying up late providing impromptu illustrations for past Freezine stories.  I found that the glossy photo paper really soaks up the colorful magic marker inks to provide a deep and vibrant hue that translates considerably well when lit up by a computer monitor online. This particular illustration was not intended to go with this story when I drew it, but later I found it parallels certain ideas inherent to the mysterious realm of sleep and dreams, so I went ahead and used it for lack of having anything more specific. With its deep obsession over the mysterious terror that awaits in our dreams, the story HYPNOS predates the movie A Nightmare On Elm Street by just over sixty years, and serves perfectly as a segue into our next story.  

 Gil James Bavel's SAM'S HALLOWEEN NIGHTMARE went live on Tuesday to follow up the Lovecraft dream story, keeping an even keel on our theme of the exploration of the unconscious mind.  The artwork you see accompanying this story was provided by the author himself, but it was my idea to couple it with the paranoid tale. SAM'S HALLOWEEN NIGHTMARE is now the seventh offering from Gil archived on the Freezine, and I who worked on proofreading and editing all the manuscripts remain quite thankful for this generous contribution to our cycle of stories honoring the hallowed autumnal season.  

 Third up comes a perfectly delightful tale for the Samhain Season from another Freezine veteran, John Claude Smith.  His short story THE PERFECT PUMPKIN fits right in as the sort of urban contemporary horror tale you'd expect to hear whispered over the crackling flames of a campfire.  If you missed out on reading any of these stories when they went up, fear not because they are all archived here on the official site for posterity and your reading pleasure.  Just follow any one of the various hyperlinks from the story's title or the image above depicting the titular pumpkin, illustrated by my wife Shasta on the day it went up. If you liked this story, be sure to check out John Claude Smith's new collection of horror tales Autumn In The Abyss, published by Omnium Gatherum earlier this year.  Thanks to my wife for drawing the perfect pumpkin and a great big Halloween Thank You to John for generously providing the ideal story for our 2014 Halloween issue.  

 Our fourth short story ran on Devil's Night, October 30 and comes courtesy of another one of the Freezine's veteran authors, Vincent Daemon.   SEE YOU NEXT YEAR, MY LOVE reads like an irreproachable postcard from the spirit of Halloween itself, depicting the bittersweet horror of a man's interrupted long term relationship and the ghostly revenge set in motion from beyond the grave.  It's a fitting love-letter to the mayhem of the season and impeccably caps off the stories preceding Halloween.  Thanks to Vincent for allowing the Freezine to publish this story, I was very happy to receive it and run it during the witching hour on Devil's Night.  

 Last and most surprising of all comes our fifth and final entry, a new horrific short story from a master of the macabre, John Shirley.  It is a perfectly penned and grueling tale whose underlying message may just be grasped even while a ton of fresh graveyard dirt threatens to bury it underneath.  The Freezine is proud to present the worldwide debut of THE SOFTEST PILLOW, a story which was too disturbing for another magazine to publish! Here at the Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, our staff have always preferred to allow each individual author's style to come across as whole and original as humanly possible, preserving the writer's intentions so their voice may be heard loud and clear.  John's anti-suicide message in this particular story is unmistakable, and I remain extremely grateful for his generosity in contributing it to culminate our run of five stories for DEVIL'S WEEK.  

 The artwork used for THE SOFTEST PILLOW comes courtesy of my wife Shasta.  It's actually a small detail in a larger original drawing she did for Vincent Daemon's splatterpunk serial WAITING FOR THE END, originally run by the Freezine in March of 2010.   

John Shirley has a new novel out right now you should definitely pick up and read, the historical western WYATT IN WICHITA, released by Skyhorse Publishing just this past August.  It's an excellent read whether or not you enjoy westerns.  Wyatt Earp enthusiasts in particular will get a real kick out of the 20 years worth of research that went into the telling of this tale, but anyone who likes a riveting read will surely enjoy it.  Be sure to check it out from your local library if you don't buy the eBook or print edition; I personally consider it to rank among John's best novels.  

 And that's another wrap for the FREEZINE of Fantasy and Science Fiction.  Begun five years ago during the summer of 2009 and kicking off with John Shirley's never-before-published novella SKY PIRATES (originally serialized in sixteen daily installments),  this webzine remains an archival creative writing platform for anyone interested in reading or writing short stories on the fringes of fantasy, horror, or science fiction.  Rest assured this blog is absolutely devoid of having anything to do with paid advertising or finances of any sort.  It is a small communal endeavor run by one man (myself, editor in chief Shaun Lawton) bent on providing a brief if static respite from the travails of the regular publishing industry.  

 The FREEZINE's mission is to continue accepting manuscripts from both established and upcoming writers who either want to showcase their story with appealing artwork to be easily shared by way of the various online modalities (such as email, twitter, facebook, Google plus, etc.) or just to have their stories archived amid the company of a growing motley crew of talented writers for the world wide web to inherit and continue showcasing for posterity.   






 Be sure to invite your friends to follow the FREEZINE today.  Share the stories, and tell as many readers as you can about this superlative webzine of absolutely free fringe fiction. To follow or subscribe, either use the RSS-feed, follow by email (upper right corner) or simply scroll down, down, down past all the bios and authors—until you see the Blogger Followers just below Icy Sedgwick, and the Networked Blogs app for Facebook below that. We have received over 100,000 hits and are about to reach 165 Blogger and Facebook Followers—and that doesn't include all the "hidden" Followers who choose to do so privately or on their covert RSS-feeds. Only the Bloodhost know how many followers we actually have across the galaxy.  So be sure to take the time to join up because the Freezine intends to remain archived on the internet for a long time to come.   








If you're a writer who wants to showcase a story of the realm fantastic and further promote yourself and your work, why not submit it to

 freezinefantasysciencefiction@gmail.com 

 for consideration in a future issue? I will get back to you as soon as I can. The process of getting your story up and onto the FREEZINE may be relatively informal, but expect nothing but professionalism in your story's editing and presentation.  

Thanks for your support and participation, thank you for putting up with the occasional unpredictable monthly lapses, and rest assured that the FREEZINE will continue so long as I am able to log on here and figure out the upgraded hyper text mark up interface. The Bloodhost must expect nothing less from me in order to fulfill their secret meta-prophecy. 




Stay Tuned For 
 a Future Issue of
 
the FREEZINE of
Fantasy and Science
FICTION 

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Archive of Stories
and Authors

Callum Leckie's
THE DIGITAL DECADENT


J.R. Torina's
ANTHROPOPHAGUS


J.R. Torina's
THE HOUSE IN THE PORT


J.R. Torina was DJ for Sonic Slaughter-
house ('90-'97), runs Sutekh Productions
(an industrial-ambient music label) and
Slaughterhouse Records (metal record
label), and was proprietor of The Abyss
(a metal-gothic-industrial c.d. shop in
SLC, now closed). He is the dark force
behind Scapegoat (an ambient-tribal-
noise-experimental unit). THE HOUSE
IN THE PORT is his first publication.

Sean Padlo's
NINE TENTHS OF THE LAW

Sean Padlo's
GRANDPA'S LAST REQUEST

Sean Padlo's exact whereabouts
are never able to be fully
pinned down, but what we
do know about him is laced
with the echoes of legend.
He's already been known
to haunt certain areas of
the landscape, a trick said
to only be possible by being
able to manipulate it from
the future. His presence
among the rest of us here
at the freezine sends shivers
of wonder deep in our solar plexus.


Konstantine Paradias & Edward
Morris's HOW THE GODS KILL


Konstantine Paradias's
SACRI-FEES

Konstantine Paradias is a writer by
choice. At the moment, he's published
over 100 stories in English, Japanese,
Romanian, German, Dutch and
Portuguese and has worked in a free-
lancing capacity for videogames, screen-
plays and anthologies. People tell him
he's got a writing problem but he can,
like, quit whenever he wants, man.
His work has been nominated
for a Pushcart Prize.

Edward Morris's
ONE NIGHT IN MANHATTAN


Edward Morris's
MERCY STREET

Edward Morris is a 2011 nominee for
the Pushcart Prize in literature, has
also been nominated for the 2009
Rhysling Award and the 2005 British
Science Fiction Association Award.
His short stories have been published
over a hundred and twenty times in
four languages, most recently at
PerhihelionSF, the Red Penny Papers'
SUPERPOW! anthology, and The
Magazine of Bizarro Fiction. He lives
and works in Portland as a writer,
editor, spoken word MC and bouncer,
and is also a regular guest author at
the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival.


Tim Fezz's
BURNT WEENY SANDWICH

Tim Fezz's
MANY SILVERED MOONS AGO

Tim Fezz hails out of the shattered
streets of Philly destroying the air-
waves and people's minds in the
underground with his band OLD
FEZZIWIG. He's been known to
dip his razor quill into his own
blood and pen a twisted tale
every now and again. We are
delighted to have him onboard
the FREEZINE and we hope
you are, too.

Daniel E. Lambert's
DEAD CLOWN AND MAGNET HEAD


Daniel E. Lambert teaches English
at California State University, Los
Angeles and East Los Angeles College.
He also teaches online Literature
courses for Colorado Technical
University. His writing appears
in Silver Apples, Easy Reader,
Other Worlds, Wrapped in Plastic
and The Daily Breeze. His work
also appears in the anthologies
When Words Collide, Flash It,
Daily Flash 2012, Daily Frights
2012, An Island of Egrets and
Timeless Voices. His collection
of poetry and prose, Love and
Other Diversions, is available
through Amazon. He lives in
Southern California with his
wife, poet and author Anhthao Bui.

Phoenix's
AGAIN AND AGAIN

Phoenix has enjoyed writing since he
was a little kid. He finds much import-
ance and truth in creative expression.
Phoenix has written over sixty books,
and has published everything from
novels, to poetry and philosophy.
He hopes to inspire people with his
writing and to ask difficult questions
about our world and the universe.
Phoenix lives in Salt Lake City, Utah,
where he spends much of his time
reading books on science, philosophy,
and literature. He spends a good deal
of his free time writing and working
on new books. The Freezine of Fant-
asy and Science Fiction welcomes him
and his unique, intense vision.
Discover Phoenix's books at his author
page on Amazon. Also check out his blog.

Adam Bolivar's
SERVITORS OF THE
OUTER DARKNESS


Adam Bolivar's
THE DEVIL & SIR
FRANCIS DRAKE



Adam Bolivar's
THE TIME-EATER


Adam Bolivar is an expatriate Bostonian
who has lived in New Orleans and Berkeley,
and currently resides in Portland, Oregon
with his beloved wife and fluffy gray cat
Dahlia. Adam wears round, antique glasses
and has a fondness for hats. His greatest
inspirations include H.P. Lovecraft,
Jack tales and coffee. He has been
a Romantic poet for as long as any-
one can remember, specializing in
the composition of spectral balladry,
utilizing to great effect a traditional
poetic form that taps into the haunted
undercurrents of folklore seldom found
in other forms of writing.
His poetry has appeared on the pages
of such publications as SPECTRAL
REALMS and BLACK WINGS OF
CTHULHU, and a poem of his,
"The Rime of the Eldritch Mariner,"
won the Rhysling Award for long-form
poetry. His collection of weird balladry
and Jack tales, THE LAY OF OLD HEX,
was published by Hippocampus Press in 2017.


Sanford Meschkow's
INEVITABLE

Sanford Meschkow is a retired former
NYer who married a Philly suburban
Main Line girl. Sanford has been pub-
lished in a 1970s issue of AMAZING.
We welcome him here on the FREE-
ZINE of Fantasy and Science Fiction.


Owen R. Powell's
NOETIC VACATIONS

Little is known of the mysterious
Owen R. Powell (oftentimes referred
to as Orp online). That is because he
usually keeps moving. The story
Noetic Vacations marks his first
appearance in the Freezine.

Gene Stewart
(writing as Art Wester)
GROUND PORK


Gene Stewart's
CRYPTID'S LAIR

Gene Stewart is a writer and artist.
He currently lives in the Midwest
American Wilderness where he is
researching tales of mystical realism,
writing ficta mystica, and exploring
the dark by casting a little light into
the shadows. Follow this link to his
website where there are many samples
of his writing and much else; come
explore.

Daniel José Older's
GRAVEYARD WALTZ


Daniel José Older's
THE COLLECTOR


Daniel José Older's spiritually driven,
urban storytelling takes root at the
crossroads of myth and history.
With sardonic, uplifting and often
hilarious prose, Older draws from
his work as an overnight 911 paramedic,
a teaching artist & an antiracist/antisexist
organizer to weave fast-moving, emotionally
engaging plots that speak whispers and
shouts about power and privilege in
modern day New York City. His work
has appeared in the Freezine of Fantasy
and Science Fiction, The ShadowCast
Audio Anthology, The Tide Pool, and
the collection Sunshine/Noir, and is
featured in Sheree Renee Thomas'
Black Pot Mojo Reading Series in Harlem.
When he's not writing, teaching or
riding around in an ambulance,
Daniel can be found performing with
his Brooklyn-based soul quartet
Ghost Star. His blog about the
ridiculous and disturbing world
of EMS can be found here.


Paul Stuart's
SEA?TV!


Paul Stuart is the author of numerous
biographical blurbs written in the third
person. His previously published fiction
appears in The Vault of Punk Horror and
His non-fiction financial pieces can be found
in a shiny, west-coast magazine that features
pictures of expensive homes, as well as images
of women in casual poses and their accessories.
Consider writing him at paul@twilightlane.com,
if you'd like some thing from his garage. In fall
2010, look for Grade 12 Trigonometry and
Pre-Calculus -With Zombies.


Rain Grave's
MAU BAST


Rain Graves is an award winning
author of horror, science fiction and
poetry. She is best known for the 2002
Poetry Collection, The Gossamer Eye
(along with Mark McLaughlin and
David Niall Wilson). Her most
recent book, Barfodder: Poetry
Written in Dark Bars and Questionable
Cafes, has been hailed by Publisher's
Weekly as "Bukowski meets Lovecraft..."
in January of 2009. She lives and
writes in San Francisco, performing
spoken word at events around the
country. 877-DRK-POEM -




Blag Dahlia's
armed to the teeth
with LIPSTICK


BLAG DAHLIA is a Rock Legend.
Singer, Songwriter, producer &
founder of the notorious DWARVES.
He has written two novels, ‘NINA’ and
‘ARMED to the TEETH with LIPSTICK’.


G. Alden Davis's
THE FOLD


G. Alden Davis wrote his first short story
in high school, and received a creative
writing scholarship for the effort. Soon
afterward he discovered that words were
not enough, and left for art school. He was
awarded the Emeritus Fellowship along
with his BFA from Memphis College of Art
in '94, and entered the videogame industry
as a team leader and 3D artist. He has over
25 published games to his credit. Mr. Davis
is a Burningman participant of 14 years,
and he swings a mean sword in the SCA.
He's also the best friend I ever had. He
was taken away from us last year on Jan
25 and I'll never be able to understand why.
Together we were a fantastic duo, the
legendary Grub Bros. Our secret base
exists on a cross-hatched nexus between
the Year of the Dragon and Dark City.
Somewhere along the tectonic fault
lines of our electromagnetic gathering,
shades of us peel off from the coruscating
pillars and are dropped back into the mix.
The phrase "rest in peace" just bugs me.
I'd rather think that Greg Grub's inimitable
spirit somehow continues evolving along
another manifestation of light itself, a
purple shift shall we say into another
phase of our expanding universe. I
ask myself, is it wishful thinking?
Will we really shed our human skin
like a discarded chrysalis and emerge
shimmering on another wavelength
altogether--or even manifest right
here among the rest without their
even beginning to suspect it? Well
people do believe in ghosts, but I
myself have long been suspicious
there can only be one single ghost
and that's all the stars in the universe
shrinking away into a withering heart
glittering and winking at us like
lost diamonds still echoing all their
sad and lonely songs fallen on deaf
eyes and ears blind to their colorful
emanations. My grub brother always
knew better than what the limits
of this old world taught him. We
explored past the outer peripheries
of our comfort zones to awaken
the terror in our minds and keep
us on our toes deep in the forest
in the middle of the night. The owls
led our way and the wilderness
transformed into a sanctuary.
The adventures we shared together
will always remain tattooed on
the pages of my skin. They tell a
story that we began together and
which continues being woven to
this very day. It's the same old
story about how we all were in
this together and how each and
every one of us is also going away
someday and though it will be the far-
thest we can manage to tell our own
tale we may rest assured it will be
continued like one of the old pulp
serials by all our friends which survive
us and manage to continue
the saga whispering in the wind.

Shae Sveniker's
A NEW METAPHYSICAL STUDY
REGARDING THE BEHAVIOR
OF PLANT LIFE


Shae is a poet/artist/student and former
resident of the Salt Pit, UT, currently living
in Simi Valley, CA. His short stories are on
Blogger and his poetry is hosted on Livejournal.


Nigel Strange's
PLASTIC CHILDREN


Nigel Strange lives with his wife and
daughter, cats, and tiny dog-like thing
in their home in California where he
occasionally experiments recreationally
with lucidity. PLASTIC CHILDREN
is his first publication.