Hardboiled Horror on the Move
Hooray! Just days after getting the good news that Holy Horrors has been revived and my short story “Waters Dark as a Raven’s Wing, Flames Bright as a Dove’s Breast” may see the light of day after all, I just received an email saying that Hardboiled Horror is finally underway from Notorious Press. Editor Jim Van Pelt tells us we’ll be getting contracts in mid-August and things should proceed swiftly after that.
I’d been mulling over the idea for my story, “Divided Loyalties,” for a long time before finally putting it on the page for this anthology. I think it’s a pity that so little genre fiction has been written about the forcible internment of Japanese-descended Americans during WWII, so “Divided Loyalties” was my stab at writing a horror story set in the Manzanar camp. I did a lot of research about the camp while I was writing — though undoubtedly some expert or former prisoner will point out all my factual errors! — and ended up learning a lot about that infamous moment in U.S. history. It’s a scary reminder of how easily our human rights can be suspended when the government gets frightened. Do kids study that sort of thing in history classes now? When I was a kid, we never studied anything in K-12 that might reflect badly on the U.S. or capitalism. I imagine things have changed since then, though.
At any rate, I’m really happy that Hardboiled Horror is still on the table; for a while there it seemed like every time I sold a story, the magazine I sold it to would promptly collapse before printing it! Maybe I’ve finally shaken off the curse. Besides, I’m eager to read all the other stories in the antho, ’cause I really love hardboiled fiction….
drupagliassotti @ August 1, 2008