I humbly accept...

In a drawer there are
pink-ribboned slippers,
full of meat.
I stole the pretty shoes
from a libidinous girl
I found larding
on chocolate at the
back of a theatre in a
bulimic frenzy.

Woke up to some lovely emails of congrats for winning New Flesh's short story competition - on the theme of  "...And that's why I keep my eye in a pickle jar."

I'm well chuffed that so many people voted for my little number Dressing Up Box. So thank you all very much.

Dressing Up Box is a nasty old tale but the main character believes him or herself (depends what s/he's wearing) to be a thing of beauty. You can read it in full here.

My prize for winning is paperback copies of the TOE TAGS 2: BLOOD & BIZARRO anthology, DOOM MAGNETIC! by William Pauley III and STATE OF THE DARK by Brian Barnett. I'm looking forward to receiving them and will post up reviews. I'm also reliably informed that Lee Hughes has a story in Toe Tags so if that's not a bonus, I don't know what is.

The New Flesh is a fabulous site dedicated to the weird, the bizarre and the horrific. Check it out. Subscribe to it to receive regular doses of distracting delights in your Inbox.

Shameless

The 'Eye in a Pickle Jar' themed  comp at the darkly bizarro The New Flesh is closed for entries - BUT IS NOW OPEN FOR VOTING.

In a blatant and shameless whoring session I am asking you to skim through the excellent and varied entries - and vote for ME your favourite at http://newfleshmagazine.blogspot.com/2010/11/vote-for-your-favorite-eye-in-pickle.html.

Many of you were kind enough to read my entry Dressing Up Box already, but if you want to read it again - or you missed it - there's a teaser below and you can read the full piece here.

Opening Excerpt from Dressing Up Box by Lily Childs:

Swivel.

Awkward, I turn to pick at the flesh adorning my wardrobes, and sigh. The dance has left me ragged; exhausted from the relentless flamenco. Elegant feet I had chosen especially, bleed in stinging shreds. I have worn them to calluses. Yeast stinks between the slender toes.

A fine week’s work.

Ruining beautiful things is part of the pleasure.

Yesterday’s body was squat and dark, an aged gypsy. I slough off the old man’s skin, marvelling at the bruises incurred from seven solid days of stamping and click, click, clicking of heels. Yellowed stains litter the shins and I poke them hard, revelling in the pain before grasping the blackened feet that I pull off like old shoes; the toes broken and seeping with infection.

Spin.

Today I am a ballerina, wanting the fairy tale. In a drawer there are pink-ribboned slippers, full of meat.

Read the full story...

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Dressing-Up Box at The New Flesh

The marvellous horror/bizarro site that is The New Flesh is running a competition on the theme of "...and that's why I keep my eye in a pickle jar." Details here.

My entry Dressing-Up Box is a demonic dance that gave me the most inappropriate pleasure to write. TNF accepted the submission - and it is now up on the site.

Do pop over to have a read and make a comment. I'd love to know what you think.

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The New Flesh - Submission Accepted.

Thanks to Brian Barnett, co-editor of deliciously dark The New Flesh for accepting my submission to TNF's Inaugural TNF Flash Fiction War.

Mine is a demonic little tale called Dressing-Up Box that Brian kindly said is "very Clive Barker of you". Shucks.

It'll run on Saturday 18th September. I'll link to it on the day.

Anyone else entered?

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An Exquisite Read

I have just come away awestruck from D. A. Hernandez' story CHRYSALIS over at that masterful horrorfare THE NEW FLESH.

It is one of the most beautiful, dark and astonishing pieces of fiction I have read in a long time. The extraordinary descriptions leap, crackling with metamorphosis, off the screen. You can hear it, you can sense it, and Christ can you see it.

Stunning.

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