The Center of the Media Galaxy
Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, that most Irish of celebrations, StarkLight Press is happy to announce that our Shamrocks, Saints and Standing Stones anthology is available!
Visit the StarkLight Press Bookstore
to get your e-copy tonight- physical copies will be available shortly!
Leanne Caine is one of the edgiest authors at StarkLight Press. For Shamrocks, Saints and Standing Stones, she was given the prompts of 2075, St. Patrick himself and ‘in space’. She has written us a truly chilling tale of how magic and technology can combine to wreak a pagan revenge. Here’s an excerpt:
The space he was in was small. He sat in a comfortable chair and he could touch the walls on either side of him by spreading his arms wide. The front of his floating crypt was even closer and it seemed the point of the chair he was in was for examining the stones. Behind him there was room to lie down if he moved the jumble of equipment that was completely mysterious to him.
He touched another button and he was pushed backwards against the soft seat, the stars moved more quickly outside. He pushed another and the ship started to turn, gently spinning in the great infinity of space that he found himself in. But how?
He remembered the ring of faces over him. They had tied him to one of their great stone alters. They had spoken their prayers, raising their hands above their heads, overlapping their palms. Then the King Ryan and come forth.
Leanne took some time to answer our interview questions below:
I like the ‘Kiss Me, I’m Irish’ t-shirts. I like to wear them and then ‘forget’ that I’m wearing them and whallop anyone who tries to kiss me. Then I act like it was a big misunderstanding and laugh it off.
3. What are your thoughts on working with this sort of writing exercise, fueled by prompts? How did seeing the prompts of your fellow authors and chatting online together with them about the work affect your process?
I was happy with my prompt. I loved giving St. Patrick a rough time. I was the first one to post so I didn’t get a lot of time to chat or watch other people work off of their prompts but I enjoyed all the Irish memes that everyone posted. Everyone clearly had a ton of fun and it’s clear when you read these stories that we all had a blast.
Van Fleming is an author from Texas who is in the middle of a fascinating novel based on his short stories, Knights Loss and Mercenary’s Loss, published in our StarkLight Anthology series. His first novel is set for release in 2017; in the meantime, Van has taken some time out to write for Shamrocks, Saints and Standing Stones.
Van’s prompts were 1880s, old west saloon and lollipop :-0 He wrote a truly original tale based on these very evocative prompts!
Here’s an excerpt from Van’s story, Time Clover:
He dug into the meal with gusto having not eaten in 15 hours. He hated such quick mission turnarounds. They never gave him time to fully recover so that he was fit and ready to take on the next. As he devoured the food, he looked up to see the curtain on stage opening and a young woman wearing a tight green corset tinged in darker green and differing shades of green skirts flowing from her thin waist swayed onto stage. Her skin looked slightly tan and long black hair fell down her back. All eyes followed her slender yet shapely form as she moved across the stage to the center. On the belly of her corset, a four leaf clover had been sewn into the cloth, yet is merged into a pattern so that it wasn’t very noticeable to most. Darien only saw it because the pattern software picked it out and highlighted it as something that was not common to this era. Her legs were lightly tanned and showed off to great effect by the green playing around and behind them as her skirts swayed. From her calves down, her legs and feet were hugged by a pair of boots so dark a green they appeared black until hit by the light in the right way.
Van took some time to answer our interview questions:
I really have never cared much for St Patties day except to ensure I wore green. No pinching here.
2. Name the part of Irish culture you are most happy to lay claim to and why- is it Guinness? Irish music? The Book of Kells? The Fighting Irish?
My mother always claimed there was no greater temper than that of an Irishman bred indian woman. And believe me, that temper breeds true!
3. What are your thoughts on working with this sort of writing exercise, fueled by prompts? How did seeing the prompts of your fellow authors and chatting online together with them about the work affect your process?
We actually had quite a lengthy conversation on line with the prompt I was given. It turned quite hilarious and I almost went with it. But as I sat to my keyboard and words poured out, the story you see before you developed and the rest faded to a very memorable and somewhat hilarious conversation.
Kathrin Hutson adds a story to Shamrocks, Saints and Standing Stones based on her prompt of 1918, a ship and a mirror. With her usual flair, she has penned us a great tale!
Kathrin has been writing fiction for fifteen years, editing for five, and plunging in and out of reality since she first became aware of the concept. Kathrin specializes in Dark Fantasy and Sci-fi, and the first novel in her Fantasy series, Daughter of the Drackan, was published in 2015 and is available on Amazon and in the Kindle store. The sequel, Mother of the Drackan, is due to be out Spring 2016.
Kathrin runs her own independent editing company, KLH CreateWorks, for Indie Authors of all genres. She also serves as Story Coordinator and Chief Editor for Collaborative Writing Challenge. Needless to say, she doesn’t have time to do anything she doesn’t enjoy.
www.facebook.com/kathrinhutsonfiction
www.facebook.com/klhcreateworks
Twitter: @KLHCreateWorks
The old woman grinned, showing maybe only four teeth amidst the black, gaping hole, and held out a crooked finger toward Nuala. “Ye heard me, lass. And I can help ye see him, I can. But I be needin’ something from ye in exchange.”
“I have hardly a thing to offer,” Nuala said, wondering now if this was some parlor trick meant to scam her out of her hard-earned wages—though the woman had known her Georgie’s name and seemed to read the inside of Nuala’s heart like a book.
“Even the poor have something useful,” the crone replied, wheezing for a few seconds when her words cut off in a fit of choking hacks. She shuffled a few steps closer, if that was even possible, and reached out a bony finger to tap Nuala three times in the hollow of her throat, right between her collarbones. “Ye have a bonnie voice, dearie, and I’d like to borrow it from ye for a while, if I may.”
The noxious stink of rotting cabbage overwhelmed Nuala’s senses for a minute, and she parted her lips only a little to breathe through her mouth. The woman seemed insane, but she wasn’t about to be rude. “How in the world could you borrow my voice?” she asked.
“Ye just have to say the word and accept my gifts.” The old woman brought her hands out from the folds of her putrid rags and held them up to Nuala. In one hand she held a brass hand-mirror, her other hand poised above it a few inches. “I promise ye it works.” She tapped a ragged fingernail on the glass of the mirror three times, and a muted flash of light reflected off the mirror’s surface.
1. What’s your most prominent memory of St. Patrick’s Day?
I always remember elementary school during St. Patrick’s Day. I spent grades 1-7 in a Catholic school, where we went to church every morning and had to wear uniforms every day—the whole shebang. So holidays like St. Patrick’s Day were pretty awesome just for the fact that we got to wear anything other than our boring navy and khaki uniform, as long as it was green. So everybody took advantage of that.
I also thought for the longest time that the basement of our tiny little catholic school was haunted by leprechauns every March. My friends and I would find those gold-wrapped chocolate coins in the strangest places in the basement, where we’d get to hang out after Girl Scouts or when we stayed after school in daycare.
2. Name the part of Irish culture you are most happy to lay claim to and why- is it Guinness? Irish music? The Book of Kells? The Fighting Irish?
I’m not sure there’s any part of Irish culture I can ‘lay claim to’, other than the fact that it’s in my blood. My family names on my mom’s side are Dougherty and Kuebel…there’s a lot of Irish there. I got the red hair, glowing white skin, and freckles—plus a little bit of the Celtic mysticism, I think. My second tattoo (out of the gobs I now have) is an entirely green rendition of the symbol or Cerridwen, the Celtic goddess of creativity and inspiration. She’s also known as a pretty tricky, powerful witch-woman, which is a little ironic, both for my own personality and for the characters I’ve written into this anthology story, Nuala’s Mirror.
3. What are your thoughts on working with this sort of writing exercise, fueled by prompts? How did seeing the prompts of your fellow authors and chatting online together with them about the work affect your process?
I love getting prompts like this. It’s a lot easier for me to work with prompts that have extreme specifics—mine were 1918, magic mirror, and a ship. That’s it. The possibilities are endless on that one, but it’s narrowed down a little bit because I have to incorporate all these things. It’s a lot better than getting a prompt with a super generalized theme. I think that lacks the larger spark of inspiration and how to ‘work around’ said prompt.
It was incredibly fun to watch all the other authors in this anthology discussing what they were thinking about their stories and their own prompts, about how the stories took on completely different personalities and lives of their own. I know I wasn’t the only author who ended up with a story completely different than what I’d originally planned. I’m a firm believer in a ‘writing community’. Yes, most of us write complete pieces on our own, and writing itself can be very isolated. But the simple exposure to other writers who like to discuss their work—their difficulties and successes—is a huge tool for my own motivation and inspiration with my own work.
Jennifer Spaulding is an author, mother, scientist, and scholar. She has penned four books of poetry, numerous short stories, and she is currently writing articles for Outermost: A Journal of the Paranormal. She is also currently busy with several top-secret collaborations for StarkLight Press and other publishing houses. Look for her poetry on Amazon under J.L. Estes. Her poem “Shattered” was selected to be in the 2012 International Who’s Who in Poetry. Jennifer was also a participant of the 2014 Poetry Marathon. Her poems are featured in In My Mind’s Eye along with many other internationally diverse poets.
For Shamrocks, Saints and Standing Stones, Jenn had the prompts of selkie, 1990s, Britain. Here’s an excerpt from her story:
A week had passed since her strange encounter with the nameless man, and Eilidh had convinced herself she had made it up. That it had never happened. Eilidh was in the bath and was sipping her tea. She suddenly remembered that tomorrow was Saint Patrick’s Day, not like it made a difference anyway. Every day was the same on Sanday and it wasn’t like she was going to take a ferry to Kirkwall for the annual celebration. That’s something that she did with her parents and she couldn’t imagine making the journey alone. She decided to spend the day at the bluffs where, it is said her mother jumped. Whenever she went there she felt close to her parents again.
St. Patrick’s Day brought a bright sunshiny morning. The air shot in by the Gulf Stream was unusually warm and had burned off the fog that usually covered Sanday. Eilidh hurried through her daily chores so she could enjoy the beautiful day. She packed a basket full with a jar of moonshine, homemade goat cheese, saltines, grapes, smoked sausage, a notebook, and a blanket. At the last minute she remembered to grab her cloak, knowing that one could experience all four seasons in one day in Sanday. At any time the heavens could open up and a thick sea-haar would roll in.
Eilidh sat on her blanket in the grassy knoll that lay near the cliff. The wind blew a few tendrils of hair loose from the coiffed bun at the base of her neck tickling her nose, causing her to sneeze. As she recovered and her eyes cleared she spotted a figure crouched behind a rock below her, three hundred yards away. Whoever was there didn’t want to be seen, that much was clear. She decided to investigate, heck she might even make a new friend. She carefully made her way down to the beach and clung to the rock wall behind her to avoid being seen. As she neared the rock she could see that a huge seal had come up onto the beach. She walked slowly over to the creature and realized it had seen her. It was watching her intensely as she got closer, then it quickly skittered back into the sea. How odd that seal looked at me like he recognized me, she thought.
Jenn answered our interview questions as well- here are her answers:
Syracuse, New York has a rich Irish heritage. Every year the St. Patrick’s Day celebration kicks off the last Sunday in February at Coleman’s Authentic Irish Pub on Tipperary Hill where the traffic light is green over red and Coleman’s tanker truck rolls in with 10,000 gallons of green beer. Dubbed ‘Green Beer Sunday’ fifty-two years ago when it first began because Mr. Coleman had too much business on St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate. Hence, Green Beer Sunday was born.
Green Beer Sunday is only a prelude to the St. Patrick’s Day fun in Syracuse. On the second Saturday in March for the past thirty-three years the St. Patrick’s Day Parade begins at noon on Salina Street. On Friday a green stripe replaces the normal yellow stripe down the road. It even has been named one of the top ten St. Patrick’s Day Parades in the United States. My most memorable time occurred on the St. Patrick’s Day Parade of 2012. To get a good viewing spot of the parade and a free parking spot requires you to arrive at 8 am so needless to say it is a long day. I went with my fiancé Todd, our children, our friends Jessica, Chris, and their daughters Lilly and Michelle. We were all dressed in our green t-shirts with shamrocks and had all our St. Paddy’s Day shenanigans on hand. Since we got there early we had a spot right by the road behind the barricades. Everyone is walking around with green beer, smoking cigarettes, and generally having a good time. Well not everyone. My friends and fiancé were smoking a cigarette, I was watching the kids while they waited for the parade to get underway and apparently a woman with a baby came up to stand behind them. I still do not understand till this day why you would go stand behind someone that was smoking a cigarette if you were holding a baby. Suddenly this woman’s friend started screaming in my fiancé’s and friend’s faces. My friend Jess came over to watch the kids, before she got to me this woman dove through the crowd and spit in my face! Meanwhile I had three little girls sitting below me on the curb. I was powerless to act upon my anger, even though I was madder than a cornered raccoon and could do nothing to appease the irate God that they had awoken in me. Luckily Lady Karma had my back. Not only did the woman spit on me, but she spat on a woman that was behind me as well. Instead of a war erupting in front of the children, the group continued bickering as they moved down the block and out of my view.
The rest of the day went on without a hitch. I even got a nice emerald green scarf woven with silk made in Ireland! It turned out to be one of the most memorable days of my life.
The Irish Culture that I am most happy to lay claim to is the Irish’s fighting spirit. I think that the Irish blood boils in my veins and is the reason I do not ever give up. When I fall down I get right back up and brush the dirt from my shoulders. I am very grateful and thankful for my Irish Heritage. I have often contemplated changing my last name permanently to my maternal grandmother’s maiden name which is Meagher. It is pronounced as Mahar and if I lived in Ireland it would be O Meachair. It is of Gaelic origin and means ‘hospitable’. Those who have this surname live in Laois, Kilkenny, and Tipperary.
I love when I have writing projects that are fueled by prompts. It sparks a creative energy within me and my imagination just runs wild. Take for example this anthology our publisher Virginia Carraway Stark gathered a group of awesome writers, put years, an Irish symbol; such as a leprechaun, and places into a hat. She drew each author’s name and then drew each of us a relic, year, and place. I was lucky and got Britain, Selkie, and the 90s. Britain is huge so I had a plethora of places to choose from. I really enjoyed writing this story. I also proved some things to myself and overcame a few obstacles. Thank you to Tony and Virginia Stark for creating this platform for authors to explore, expand, and share their work. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing some of the other author’s prompts and got quite a kick out of all of the ideas that were thrown around. This has been a marvelously, delightful adventure. I look forward to many more.
Announcing Men Who Changed the World, a StarkLight Press short story anthology!
We are accepting applicants for this prompt-driven anthology, in which winning authors receive a person, locus and quality to fuel their writing project. This anthology features historic figures whose actions altered the course of history and made the world what it is today. These stories won’t be mere history, however; we encourage our authors to inject a supernatural, speculative and fantastic element to their work.
If you are interested in being a contributor or know someone who would be interested, send a query letter including your brief bio and links to some samples of your work to starklightdesk@gmail.com
This contest closes August 1, 2016.
Sharon Flood – Bio
I was born and raised in the St. Lawrence River Valley in the 1,000 Islands region. I graduated from Thousand Islands Secondary School in Brockville. I wrote some in high school, but after that, my talent lay dormant until I discovered http://www.protagonize.com/author/moonwalker in 2008. It’s a collaborative writers’ site that honed my skills. Through this site I met my first publisher, The Masquerade Crew for my first anthology story – http://www.amazon.com/Forevermore-Travel-Anthology-Sharon-Flood-ebook/dp/B00XSBH4UW. I was chosen as a Mob Boss here: http://www.masqueradecrew.com/p/the-masquerade-mob.html Where I do book reviews for The Masquerade Crew, and on Amazon.com I am very proud to announce that I am involved with all five collaborative novel projects here – http://www.collaborativewritingchallenge.com. They operate out of New York city. I also have stories published in their Halloween, Christmas and Easter horror anthologies.
I was very lucky to get involved with an independent publishing company out of Dawson Creek, B.C. http://starklightpress.com/ this past year. I’m so thrilled to be part of their staff as line editor. I have stories in Steam punk Christmas, and hearts Asunder, A Valentine’s day horror anthology. Starklight Press has published a lot of my most recent work, such as three ongoing collaborative Science fiction novels involving the Galactic Armed Forces universe.
Sharon’s prompts for Shamrocks, Saints and Standing Stones were Standing Stones, Ireland and the 1970s. Here’s an excerpt from the story she crafted from these three ideas:
St. Patrick’s day Ireland, 1972
Creevykeel Court Cairn, County Slive – the crack of dawn
A penny whistle, Uilleann pipes Bodhrán and guitar
Four young men in their early twenties.
Felix pulled his 1967 sedan off of the Donegal road to Cilffony onto the soft gravel shoulder. It was still fairly dark. The sun had not yet peeked over the horizon. The other three men – Adrian, Cecil and Declan got out and looked around, not that there was much to look at, yet. They could see the ancient layout of the enormous standing stones that formed the Creevykeel Court from the road. Felix went around to the boot of the auto and dragged out a butterfly net, a camera, a flashlight and a metal ice chest cooler full of stout.
“Best get yer stuff lads. It could be a good wait. Adrian, got yer penny whistle?” Felix asked.
“Always. Not that it’ll help. Sun’s not even up yet. Why are we?” Adrian grumbled.
“Ye know why. It’s St. Patrick’s day. Fairies will be out an’ about, celebratin’. Me da’ said this was one of the better places to find ’em.”
“Do ye have any idea how daft that sounds?” Cecil said.
“No one’s twistin’ yer arm, Cecil. Ye can back out now if ye want. Stay here and wait fer us. Ye’ll be sorry when we’re rich ‘n famous, and ye’re … not,” Felix finished with a lame sigh.
Sharon also answered our interview questions for this St. Patrick’s Day anthology:
1. What’s your most prominent memory of St. Patrick’s Day?
I don’t really have one. We made green construction paper shamrocks in grade school to tape on the school windows on March 17th. Later on at work, we were encouraged to wear something green on March 17th. I may have watched one or two St. Patrick’s Day parades on March 17th, but it wasn’t a big deal in our house, although my paternal grandparents were from Ireland. It wasn’t a holiday we ever celebrated.
2. Name the part of Irish culture you are most happy to lay claim to and why- is it Guinness? Irish music? The Book of Kells? The Fighting Irish?
Irish Music. I love it. During the 1970’s and 1980’s we went to a few Makum and Clancy concerts, and Irish Rovers concerts. We have several of their LPs. Carlton Show band was another favourite. More recently, I have a few Rankin Family CD’s. They’re Canadian of Irish descent. They sing mostly Irish folk. I like Celtic music because it’s mostly folk rock, which I like very much.
3. What are your thoughts on working with this sort of writing exercise, fueled by prompts? How did seeing the prompts of your fellow authors and chatting online together with them about the work affect your process?
It’s been fun coming up with ideas to work with for the prompts. It’s like having a road map for your story, without having to pick your ideas out of the ozone. It made research a lot easier, because I had specific key words to look up. When I see some of the other prompts I realize how lucky I was to get mine – Standing Stones, Ireland, 1970’s. These are all easy subjects to find. Some of the other prompts – not so much. The prompts were picked out of the hat. This time the hat liked me.
You can read Sharon’s story in Shamrocks, Saints and Standing Stones, available March 10 from StarkLight Press!
Chris Musgrave joins StarkLight Press from the U.K, where his wry wit and skilled pen combine to make excellent fiction. His prompts for Shamrocks, Saints and Standing Stones were 1940s, Las Vegas, and a Magic Doorway. His gripping story, Pest Control, is excerpted here:
‘Why don’t you tell me why I’m here, Mr Powers. How can I be of service to you this evening?’
‘Well, Mr St.–‘ I give him a look. ‘Paddy, we’ve got a little…’ He waves a hand in tight circles, searching for the right word. ‘…Pest problem and I’m told you’re the man who knows how to deal with it. Quietly.’
I lean in closer and lower my voice. ‘What kind of pest?’ I ask. ‘Ogre under your covered bridge? They’re a troublesome bunch o’ buggers them, but mostly harmless. Bean sidhe hogging the cabaret stage?’
‘Dragons. We have dragons.’
You can read all about how Mr. Powers deals with his supernatural infestation in StarkLight’s St. Patrick’s Day anthology, due for release March 10! Until then, you can learn a bit more about this tale’s author:
Chris Musgrave has always enjoyed a good story, so much so that he’s spent the last twenty years trying to write one of his own. His passion is for horror but he’s just as content with a good urban fantasy or speculative fiction.
He lives in Yorkshire — a remote area in the north of the United Kingdom known for its tea and strange wildlife — with his wife, his son, and an army of freeloaders which he kindly refers to as ‘characters’.
When he’s not writing fiction, he’s blogging over at www.chrismusgravewriter.com or as a contributor at www.thesarcasticmuse.com.
To kick off our countdown to St. Patrick’s Day, StarkLight Press is featuring interviews with the gifted authors who helped make Shamrocks, Saints and Standing Stones: A StarkLight St. Patrick’s Day Anthology.
Our first interview is with Krista Michelle, whose piece, Journal Through Time, is based of the three prompts given her: the year 2000, New York, Faery. From this Krista wove her masterful St. Patrick’s Day tale.
When Krista Michelle isn’t travelling, working, spending time with family and friends, or misplacing her manuscripts; you’ll find her in coffee shops throughout her small British Columbia town, creating stunning fantasy worlds and speculative fictions. Her works include the collaborative novel, “The Concierge” and more short stories than she can count. She’s currently drafting her first independent novel, “The Keys”, and hopes it will be completed before she gets to the bottom of her coffee mug! You can check her out on Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorkristamichelle
Krista answered our interview questions about the holiday and this innovative writing assignment:
My most prominent memory of St. Patrick’s Day has been from when I was a child at school. We wore felt Leprechaun tophats, and coloured shamrock colouring pages, and wore green! If you didn’t wear green, you were likely to get a wee pinch from the other lads and lasses, in typical leprechaun tricks faerie style 🙂
The Irish culture I was most happy to lay claim to, was probably the knowledge that I am ¼ Irish descent: my Grandmother on one side was brought to Canada as a baby out of Ireland, and I always found it intriguing. I studied a lot on Irish culture when I was younger, and the culture I enjoy most is the farms, Irish music, and Celtic dancing.
I found that working on this sort of exercise, although personally not requiring prompts, has been fun. For me, prompts are ok if required; but, I love seeing where my ideas take me without, also.
Seeing the prompts of my fellow authors and chatting online together with them about the project affected my work greatly. It is nice to be able to write, and share an anthology with, so many talented writers of all ages and levels. I found I was looking forward to their posts about their individual progress, and I was happy to share mine also.
Here’s to future anthologies!!
An excellent essay on the more literary side of barbarian hordes, written by SLP’s own Virginia Carraway Stark.
