New Stories from Grimdark Magazine and Saurday Night Reader

Looking for some black comedy to morbidify your day? Well, I've got just the stories...

First up, "A Recipe for Corpse Oil" published in Grimdark Magazine issue 3, available from their website or Amazon. There's a R. Scott Bakker story in the issue, or rather, half of a Bakker story. (I'm not familiar with the author myself, but apparently he's well-known. )

Here's the synopsis that I used in my submission email for Corpse Oil: Tavin is a pick-pocket, though not a very good one. But a shopkeeper gives him the opportunity to make a bit of coin, and all it requires is one thing: collecting
human chins.

 Gritty? Grim? Sure. But Tavin is great fun.

But you know what's freaky? Corpse oil is a real thing within the black magic world of Indo-Maylay mythos. "Corpse oil is collected by removing the dead corpse’s chin (using a knife to cut through the bones) and cooking on a hot pan until the oil oozes out." Link.

For story-purposes, Tavin collects chins from live victims. (And if you've read my story Spring Cleaning, then you already know what a Toyol is.)

Grimdark Magazine was another zine that I had my eye on, and was very pleased to have a story accepted by them, especially since I like these niche markets that seem to exist on the fringe of publishing. The editor, Adrian Collins, was very pleasant to work with as we went back and forth on editing changes--if there was something I felt strongly in keeping, it was kept. So big thumbs up for this publisher.

Next up, "Goose Effect" my third publication (hey! I think they like me!) from Saturday Night Reader. It's free to read, and just might make you rethink those geese.  

A Case of Animal Abuse

I was going to post something more writing related, but, bleh. This topic has unfortunately infested my mind.

About three weeks ago, our apartment neighbor got a puppy, presumingly for his kids--but you know how young children never take responsibility for the pet, right? So this puppy was left alone in the backyard for many hours of the day, with no toys or anyone to play with, and started whining as a result. And I being very fond of dogs, would look out the window to see this poor puppy wandering a filthy--and I mean filthy (beer cans, fast food wrappers, and a collection of junk strewn across the place) backyard, probably bored out of its mind.

On March 4th, I saw the neighbor smack his puppy on the head, in what I assume was an attempt to silence the puppy.

Things became progressively worse from that point out, so much so that we (boyfriend and I) recorded a couple of incidents, which involved kicking the puppy in the face, placing the puppy on top the AC unit and pushing it off, picking up the puppy and flinging it across the yard. All the while, the puppy was making distressful yelps.

The incidents of flinging the puppy had convinced us to take action, and called the police. Previously, we had contacted the Humane Society, but apparently, they don't have jurisdiction in south Texas.  

Yesterday, the boyfriend pressed charges against our neighbor for animal cruelty, the neighbor was arrested, and the puppy taken away, hopefully to a place where it'll be treated better. 

Although that does leave the question of retaliation...

Now my boyfriend thinks our neighbor would be pretty stupid to try anything. And it would be stupid, but stupidity has never really stopped anyone, now has it?

It's my fondest hope that we'll be out of this apartment complex sometime in April. Until then, we'll just have to wait and see how this plays out. At least the day hasn't greeted us with whimpers from a pup.