Monday 10 March 2008

Tumbleweed and Dead Dolly

Courteous rejection today from the Robots Beyond anthology. And today's lesson - the plural for tumbleweed is tumbleweeds. Dunce. Who did I discover this from? The editor of the RB anthology, who also happens to hail from Texas - double dunce. Some good comments - worthy effort, some very nice surreal moments - so it wasn't all bad.

Now onto more of the surreal. The short story I'm working on - DEAD PARACHUTES - which I was hoping to submit to the Harvest Hill Anthology is getting sillier and sillier and... What's up with me? I used to write dark ficition, and here I am with an anthology that would be very interested in a story with a southern gothic feel and I've gone bonkers... We have garden gnomes, an ex super-heroine, evil plastic surgeons and zombie Dolly Parton's. I may have to blow them all up and start again. I really like two of my characters, so I'll perhaps pick them up and terrorize them in another part of town.

Maybe I'm going through some sort of breakdown. Please send chocolate.

9 comments:

Jeff Parish said...

You are one weird person. And I mean that in the best possible way.

Cate Gardner said...

Aw, shucks Jeff...

J.C. Tabler said...

Wait, wait...zombie Dolly Parton?

Oh, I'm liking this. Hey, even horror can go silly. I have to admit, when working on my submission I just channeled every strange, out there country person I'd ever met in the hills of Eastern Kentucky, moved them down one state, and fit them into the region. The result is an incoherent moonshiner that looks like a bear and a sheriff who seems rather unconcerned with the whole situation.

To think, I was certain I'd never use my upbringing positively...

K.C. Shaw said...

Hey, don't chuck that story just yet! Zombie Dollies? That's genius!

Cate Gardner said...

JC - Your story sounds intriguing, I hope it makes it into the anthology.

KC - Decided not to chuck it, but have submitted it elsewhere. I have another idea for Harvest Hill so fingers crossed...

Jennifer Oberth said...

Glad to hear you haven't chucked the idea - but I can't wait to hear what your other idea is!

Anne Spollen said...

I think Fellini went through a stage like this...

Erik said...

There has to be a home somewhere for a zombie Dolly. Stephen Graham Jones posted on his blog earlier, "...most stories if you peel them back far enough, this one, too, is a zombie western."

I don't know what that means, but I think it bodes well for your story. :)

Cate Gardner said...

Cheers Eric - my zombie Dolly is out there at the moment, awaiting her first rejection.