Bang!
My story “From the Barrel of a Gun” has been accepted into SUPER, an anthology of super hero fiction from Static Movement Press
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This story was adapted from a screenplay I wrote in film school about a city over run by brawling super heroes and villains and the group of determined snipers who fight back. One of my many strange mantras is that “A gun is the ultimate super power.” I had a lot of fun doing the research for this story, and I think it shows. I’ll share more when the book comes out.
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Short Sips 2 Now Available!
Short Sips Vol 2 from Pill Hill Press is now available in print from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It features many fine short horror stories, including my own ‘TOOTH AND BONE.’
This story was conceived in a dentist chair during a harrowing series of painful and bloody purification rituals. I passed the rites and returned to my tribe inspired to write a horror story and find better dental insurance.
Recently, my lovely wife gave me a certificate for a professional massage. Lying in a dark room, face down with a stranger, my mind wondered to the macabre as it is wont to do. Tickling my mind was a particularly ghastly segment on a Discovery Channel show about parasites that can infest the human body. As the stranger dug into my muscle and sinew a new idea began to take root in my brain. I urge you, go see the dentist before reading my story. And get a massage, you deserve it. But do it soon. Once I write my massage story you may not find them so relaxing.
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Welcome to the Bell Club
Tales from the Bell Club (KnightWatch Press) is now available in print and on Kindle, featuring my short story The Wager.
The Wager is a horror story set in the late 1920’s, about a pair of scientists who explore the bottom of the ocean and find death and madness. I had a great time doing research into the historic Santa Monica and Venice Beach pleasure piers, the local Tongva Indians, 1920’s speech, famous explorers William Beebe and Otis Barton and their record setting invention the bathysphere. I thought I’d list some foot notes here that captured my imagination. Spoilers ahoy!
EXPLORER WILLIAM BEEBE
I relied heavily on the real life explorer William Charles Beebe and HALF MILE DOWN, his first person account of breaking the ocean depth record. Beebe was the most famous American naturalist in the world. He described things that no one had ever seen, sometimes risking his life in the process. I would say that my character ‘Charles Beebe’ was a dark reflection of the historical figure, but in truth the real person was all too tragic.
Beebe was a brilliant academic, popular writer and larger-than-life celebrity. His religion was a mix of Presbyterianism and Buddhism, and he used his eyes to worship the natural world and its inner workings. He believed that “Boredom is immoral. All a man has to do is see. All about us nature puts on the most thrilling adventure stories ever created, but we have to use our eyes.”
His wife, Blair Niles, was a stalwart companion, accomplished writer and fearless explorer in her own right. She was his assistant and co-writer on their travels around the world, sometimes to places where no white woman had ever been before. The Explorer’s Club refused to admit females, and so Blair helped found the Society of Woman Geographers.
Despite her loyalty and talent, the couple divorced on the ‘grounds of cruelty’. Blair’s eyes began to fail, and she could no longer assist her husband with his work. He started to shun her, not speaking to her for days at a time. Once he reputedly stuck a pistol in his mouth and threatened to kill himself to terrify her. I wonder if her vision loss made her corrupt or unworthy in Beebe’s religion of sight.
THE TOWN
The fictional beach town of San Simeon is based on Santa Monica, California. This story is the first of many I have planned for my own anthology in this setting. I am fascinated by beach towns and piers, probably because I grew up in a small shoreline town and vacationed with my family ‘down the shore’ in Delaware. The origins of San Simeon, named after the saint of lost children, will be detailed in future stories.
The ‘pleasure piers’ in this story were all real, harking from an era when all of America flocked to bustling carnivals suspended over the sea. The entire coast was crowded with mad cap piers extending into the ocean. Prohibition may have been in effect, but who needs a drink when you can tumble down a wooden dragon slide in a burlap sack?
It was a giddy and surreal playground, mostly untouched by the great Depression. When oil was discovered the area got another boost. Soon oil derricks filled the sky like the piers stretched into the ocean.
THE STRANGE SHIP
The bathysphere, the strange submarine invented by Beebe and Barton, appears in one of my other stories as well, along with a summary of its invention.
THE ABYSS
As the intrepid explorers sink down into the ocean they literally penetrate realms of darkness that no mortal has ever witnessed. Their transgression results in tragedy and madness, which is why you’ll find a few references to ancient gods, titans and myths sprinkled through the story.
When his partner is lost in the abyss, Charles, tormented by the loss, attempts to bring him back. I wanted to foreshadow this by naming their ship ‘Orpheus’, but chose ‘Izanami’ instead. The Japanese myth of the death of Izanami-no-mikoto is similar to the tragedy of Orpheus, but I find it more disturbing.
HORRORS OF THE DEEP
There are countless strange creatures in the sunless depths of our oceans. Beebe described real animals with translucent skin, glowing bodies and giant teeth. My favorite ugly is Astonesthes Abyssorum, which is Latin for “Eater of the Stars of the Bottomless Pits”.
There are also unnatural beasties at the bottom of San Simeon Bay. You may spot a reference to my favorite Crypto, El Chupacabra.
In the black heart of the pit dwells an ancient, formless horror. The slumbering entity spawns monsters, shakes the earth and lures people down to their death. Fans of H.P. Lovecraft will find it reminiscent of the protoplasmic gods Abhoth and Ubbo-Sathla.
ENDING WITH A BANG
We never learn if Charles Beebe’s plans to strike back at the beast of the abyss ends in success or failure. There was originally a post script about the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake. An estimated fifty million dollars worth of property damage resulted and 120 lives were lost. This didn’t mesh with the first person narrative format so I left it out. One day I will tell the fate of San Simeon and the tragic explorer who gazed upon its hidden horror.
GET THE BOOK
There are 13 other chilling tales in the collection, including an amazing story by Edward M. Erdelac. Buy the Kindle version here and the print version here.
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Wood, Bone and Spirit
I saw a breathtaking exhibit yesterday at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California called ‘Spirits and Headhunters: Art of the Pacific Islanders‘. If you live in the area I would highly recommend it. If you can’t attend, here are some of my impressions to give you a taste.
3 Malagan Masks by Chris Rainier
Evil fleshless fish spirit, Malaga
Tolai tribe cult figure for casting black magic
Abelam ceremonial bone daggers
Dani finger bone necklace. The Dani people believe that mutilation is necessary to bring peace to the spirit realm and used ritual finger cutters to remove fingers to mourn family members or important village elders
Vanuatu "over modeled skulls" - skulls of important men are removed after death and resculpted to resemble the original face
Let Mortal Kombat Begin!
Yipwon Hook Figures, Ewa and Yimar People: One legged figures that rest in caves or spirit house until activated by incantations and magical substances to serve as hunting spirits
Chimbu Ritual Magic Bag: bones, moss, bark, stones and talismans
While my photographs focus on some of the more lurid aspects of the ‘headhunter’ culture I am deeply impressed with the people of the Pacific Islands. This relatively small group has over 800 different languages and a staggering variety of unique customs. They are incredibly self sufficient, fierce and creative. I came away from this exhibit inspired to explore these cultures with further research and fiction.
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It’s Alive!
RESULTS MAY VARY, my very first short story to be accepted for print publication, is now available at Amazon in the Static Movement Press anthology SCIENCE GONE MAD.
This story takes place in a very dark near future of bio-terrorism and paranoia. My early drafts revealed more about the world that was later omitted as unnecessary exposition. But seeing as how this is my secret crypt, you’ll find all sorts of interesting things on the cutting room floor.
Puns!
The evolution of terrorism in China (specifically the breakaway Uyghur Muslim separatists) has lead fanatical yet highly educated scientists to engineer Genocide Bombers. The first attack occurs at the Olympic games in Hyderabad, India. Four million die, the United States joins China in their struggle against terrorism, and we become the next targets.
It’s a tense situation: entire cities are quarantined, people live in fear of deadly plagues and the government is ready to firebomb any location they suspect is compromised. Our hero is bored and lonely in his sealed apartment, and looking for a distraction before he goes stir crazy. When he orders an experimental party drug from a darknet website his life gets stranger than he could ever imagine.
I often listen to music to set the mood while I write, and I listened to a lot of Philip Jeck for this one. These are deep, moody and often disturbing soundscapes. Ah, Dystopia!
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Staring into the Abyss
I am happy to announce that my short story ‘The Wager’ will appear in Knightwatch Press’ upcoming anthology TALES FROM THE BELL CLUB.
My entry takes place in the late 1920’s in the haunted southern california town of San Simeon. My main character is based on my favorite mad scientist, William Beebe, and the invention of his suicidal science vehicle the Bathysphere. What did they find lurking beneath the black waters of San Simeon Bay? I’ll reveal more when the book hits the presses!
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Author Jeff C. Carter 