Between Feathers and Fins by Erin Cole - February Femmes Fatales

I owe a lot to Erin Cole. Even if I were purely a reader and not a writer I would be eternally grateful for the blissfully dark prose she pours onto pages. She is a writer whose words twist and turn, lilting with sinister poetry and stealing us back and forth between the horror of the bizarre, and the terror of reality but always, always delivering her unique fiction with soul.

Believe me, you'll want more after you finish reading Between Feathers and Fins. And I can tell you where to find it. Of the Night is an amazing collection of Erin's supernatural horror that will leave you spiralling in wonder and fear. You can download the book to your Kindle from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Back to my words of thanks. Erin has constantly encouraged, supported and promoted me on my writing journey so far and we have shared thoughts and emotions across the ocean. Erin, you are an inspiration. Thank you.

Read her words...

BETWEEN FEATHERS AND FINS

The ocean took him and never returned him to me, keeping him as though she hadn't enough treasures buried at the depthless bottom of her frigid heart. But I know better - I have seen them, once a time ago. Before I loved. Before any memory of him. Archaic relics inlaid with gold and precious stone, mountains of coral, shelled-lockets of pearl, legions of vessels from different spaces of time, and so many bones that she has built castles out of them. My love is among them now, his spirit still smiling, not caring that he is dead.

I search the shores, pretending I'm looking for seashells. Tiny crab bugs spring from the wet sand beneath my step. I imagine I am a giant plodding through their town, smashing their labors, creating havoc. Are they screaming and I just can't hear them? They dive at me, sharp as pointed sticks against the tender flesh of my ankle. I believe they are not fleeing in blind terror, but assailing their monster. I am not fazed by this thought. My grief vindicates the horror, for I battle my own monster, and it has calloused my heart.

The cat killed a bird this morning. She pounced into a savage dance of murder and pierced her sharp teeth into the warm pulse of life. I yelled at her and chased her off. She sulked around the trunk of a pine, lingering to finish the job. I picked up the bird. White feathers swirled in a mess. The tail tapped at my wrist. The body wriggled in my palm, and its glassy, red eyes were frozen by the probabilities of death. I am the monster now. It knows not fur from skin.

The bird stills. My hand is stained cherry. I climb over the dunes into the wild sage and bury it beneath a handful of sand. At the water's edge, the cold froth of gray-green waves distend a mirrored sky at my feet. A playful tease. She wants me back, wants us all back. I deny it no further and step into the bitter cool of her infinite deep, up to the curve of my breasts. She is quick to take me back. My skin molts into scales, my legs no more, as a fish's tail conquers the form of my feet. The current seizes me, and I swallow the icy salt into my lungs as they too transform back into gills. The song of the sea comes to me again, a lulling, violin melody. But I am listening for him, beneath the boom of tide and gurgle of bubbles in her throat. I am keen to the harmonics of his voice.

I roll in the waves, my fin scraping rock and sand. The gravity of her breath pulls me back from the shore, but another force is greater, and I am unable to find the deep. My body is lifted, as if thrust ashore by a rock giant's hand. Resting on the sand, I shed her waters like tears, his tears. Legs have found my body again. The crab bugs continue their assault, and I surrender to their calloused hearts. In the dunes of wild sage, I see my love. He is no longer smiling - he has battled his own monster.

White feathers somersault and swirl across my panoramic view of the beach. I stretch my fingers up and catch one. My legs are no more. I know not feathers from fins.

_________ The End _________

2012 © Erin Cole

Bio: Erin Cole fears the ocean more than strangers, but writes about them both from the Pacific Northwest. She's won a couple of cool awards, while still enjoying the torture of rejected submissions.

You can learn more about her dark fiction at www.erincolewrites.com or www.erincolelive.blogspot.com.

Erin Cole's Holiday Book Blog Catalog 2011

Our Predictioneering friend and author of blissfully dark fiction, Erin Cole has opened her annual Holiday Book Blog Catolog for business!

This brilliant initiative showcases books from a variety of familiar and new authors including:

• Laura Eno
• James Garcia Jr
• Marissa Farrar
• Eric Beetner
• Lori Titus
• Chris Allinotte 
• Paul D. Brazill
• Jessica A. Weiss
• Michael Solender
• Erin Cole
• Lily Childs and more...

The aim is simple - take a stroll through the titles, buy at least one book and write a review. Well, I've read several on there already, have others on my wish list and can see even more that are new to me - where to start?

Do support these authors and take a visit to the catalog. Huge thanks to Erin for organising such a generous showcase.

Happy reading!

Up the Downs

Magenta Shaman and latest on Episode 2

Very pleased to find sales of Magenta Shaman have recently increased in the US after a slump. Thank you to those who downloaded Magenta to your Kindle or app, she'll be your friend for a long time.

Some great 5*/4* new reviews too - from Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw at Goodreads, the very exquisite authors Jodi MacArthur and Chris Allinotte at Amazon.com and Jenny Francis at Amazon.co.uk. Much appreciated.

Episode 2 is on a major re-write. I'm halfway through so shouldn't be long now (apologies for the wait but I want it to be right).

I can, however reveal the title "Magenta Shaman Stones the Crow".

Download a free sample of  the first Magenta Shaman or buy the full novella at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com (where you can also 'Look inside').

Mr Col Bury of old Manchester City

Fellow Thrillers Killers 'n' Chillers editor Col Bury (Jeez, is he inundated with class crime subs at the moment!) has posted his top 20 Best of Brit blogs list at Ashedit in the perfectly entitled Best of the Blogs by Col Bury—Brit Grit Part 5.

Check it out - if you're not there, find out where you should be.

Watch out too, for Col's upcoming chin wag with exquisitely articulate and poetic hard task-master Richard Godwin in the ultimate black seat at The Slaughterhouse. 

Erin Cole

Feardom Interviews

I am also pleased to announce a new short series of interviews at The Feardom. My first guest will be inspirational and beguiling wordsmith Erin Cole. Erin will visit The Feardom in the early weeks of September.

Lily Childs - Guest Writer at...

It may be that I have a Guest Write appearance in mid-September at... now that would be telling! The tale will be a little less horror - but no less nasty; details coming soon. 

What's more the story was inspired by a dream, and then after I'd finished writing it - I saw the exact location of the main 'event' on headline news. Did I make it happen? Nothing to do with me, Sarg.

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Bits and Knobs

Just catching up with a few snatches of news...

Frozen Fear Deluxe Anthology

I'm very pleased to announced that Wraiths and Stays, which first appeared as a Guest Write when deliciously dark horror and paranormal mystery author Erin Cole interviewed me back in May 2011 has been accepted into the upcoming Frozen Fear Deluxe Anthology from Static Movement Press.

The antho. is being edited by Mark Crittenden, horror author and ed. of Red Skies Press which published Their Dark Masters, Tales of Extreme Vampire Horror in which my stories The Infanta Triptych and Walls of Flesh appeared. Thanks Mark!

Thrillers Killers 'n' Chillers

I'm getting my hands well and truly filthy scrabbling through the vaults of TK'n'C and have posted two crime stories up on the site so far. Sonia Gets Hers - a pacey tale of revenge with a twist by Copper Smith, and A Short Break by TK'n'C regular Keith Gingell; if you thought the UK's Mad Dogs series was great - you'll love this.

There are loads more stories waiting in the wings so I'm hoping to post the next one in the coming days.

TK'n'C on Twitter

If you're a Twitter user, the TK'n'C editors have started a new hashtag, so whenever you tweet about the site, if you add #tknc somewhere in your tweet, then Twitter will gather our tweets all together. Just type #tknc into Twitter's search box to see what I mean or go to http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23tknc.

A Zombie Cock and Bull Story

My mate and fellow TK'n'C ed, the infamous crime writer Col Bury has been venturing outside of his usual genre lately. He's strayed deep into my personal comfort zone of horror with a very naughty - and rib-tickling tale of zombie love and... bits. Read Supper Time, on Christopher Grant's new site Eaten Alive. And hear more about what Col has to say on the matter on Col's blog.

Planting a Seed of Horror

I have just finished reading the Kindle version of Ania Ahlborn's SEED and can wholeheartedly recommend it. Accidents and shadows, backwoods and children whose grins reach from one side of their face to another - this terrifying story throws you in at the deep end and takes you on a trembling ride of fear. Don't take anything for granted. I loved it.

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Erin Cole asks a probing question about demons and muses

Erin Cole

Many writers feel they can't write without their muse. Others use their craft as a means to vanquish their psychological demons.

In Erin Cole's thought-provoking article Demon or Muse, she asks if the relationship between the two is not deeper than we might imagine.

Please do take a visit to read Demon or Muse, and comment if you will. It's a fascinating discussion - I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

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Prediction Winner

I am overwhelmed with the quality of the entries this week - is there a conspiracy going on?

I apologise again for not commenting until now - might be that way for a few weeks yet I'm afraid, but I do read every entry - often many times over!

So - this is going to be a long night - I'd better get scribbling.

• Nina, welcome to The Feardom. A terrifying torture trip you've led us on in this untitled piece. The pain of knees on sea salt crystals made me wince - salt in the wounds. A well-written and disturbing vignette of lost hope.
• Sandra, the emulsion of colours in Body Art rages and pales - so vividly described. "...its slight greasiness delaying momentarily their coalescence" is so exact I can perfectly visualise what you mean. I love the creative juxtaposition of frenzy and boredom in so few words.
• Thomas, I've read and reread She Knew How to Choose Them, Too and came up with a different interpretation each time; I want to know more. I like the suggested mystery to this and its stark, Noir feel that resonates with every audible hiss and shush. 
• William, "...tsunami of the soul" - a maelstrom of meaning in this phrase. Khyam's Box feels exotic and ancient, humming with heat and incense; I felt almost nauseous with the final ebb and flow. An interesting glimpse into a wider tale?
• Steven, firstly let me say 'Bloat' is a killer title. This a horrid slice of Chapman, served up with a seasoning of gore and repulsion. I love how the second body is "perfect" - for gutting presumably? And then what? Excellent.
• St Force, isn't there always something about Buried Treasure that's too good to be true? Lovely pace in this; I was desperate to know what was in the box and then... bang. I knew it was coming but it still took me by surprise.
• Oh Angel, this is why I love your poetry. Forgiveness lifts and lulls, flitting through emotions and senses like fingers nearly touching... nearly. Beautifully written - I loved and want to quote every word.
• Asuqi, your waters are enticing - I couldn't fail to want to dive in to the Void. I fell with you, the pool drawing me down to rest at the nadir. And the eyes - are they yours? Gorgeous - and your inimitable style.
• Chris, a ha, so THAT was What Was in the Cage? A terrifying and powerful beast indeed, brought to its knees by its own chosen profession - wasn't the "glazed, hypnotized stare" there before it was captured? You're getting a serial reputation, Mr Allinotte. Well acclaimed.
• Aidan, an immediate impact of spam at your selection of characters and phrases in Steganography - aaargh! And that was before I started to read! You had us working away in a geek office scene then before we could heed the hashed warning you flipped it around to bizarro pulp. So clever - as always.
• Phil. Wonderful first line. Evolution is a godly myth, a mystical scientific journey that carries us along. I hum with the space-song, throb with the creation and destruction. I have a personal love of duality formed from a single being, to equate three. Beautiful.
• Antonia, Man Overboard plucks at our sympathy strings, but I question if all is as it seems? Despite the seering pain, the pity he has for himself feels misplaced and I wonder if his demise has come about through his greed and unwillingness to share. Great ending - I wasn't expecting that. Was his name Bob?
• AJ, Hackett the psychopath is back, glorifying in his handiwork. Palette reveals his tools, his craft, his self-congratulatory arrogance. The scene is set, dust motes and smoke to caress the red velvet of Hackett's peeled victim. Pulsing. Pulsing. Perfect.
• David, deadly dialogue and classic Barber. Under the Influence could almost be the Two Blokes from beyond the grave. It's a real talent to be able to tell a complete story through conversation alone, to evoke the scene and the amosphere through spoken words. Clever.
• Erin, I would immediately read anything entitled The Man with Blue in His Beard. Enticing storytelling that teases; wrapping itself around our hearts it squeezes the life out of our emotions even as the black lotus grows. "...the light of a deformed moon", hell, I wish I'd written that. Gorgeous and darkly evocative.
• Zaiure, greetings. "Bloody ribbons, glistening wetly" is blissful writing, in my opinion. There is a tenderness to The Ballerina, a pale dance of words that feels so delicate I feel both dancer and atmosphere are about to shatter. Whilst I think you meant Marquis rather than Marquee, I enjoyed this very much. ;)
• John, Bad Science and Pig's Ear are two versions of the same story, separated by time and by myth. I felt both Cameron and Paul's nausea with the stirring and the gulping of lumps. But principally I regaled in the darkness of the female character in each tale; priestess, shaman, augur, witch. Circe - queen of them all; we speak often. Well met, John. 
• My tale of the death of an alchemical parfumier Up In Smoke: Absolution speaks of possession - children trapped by unspoken cruelty and abuse; rich women trapped by greed. I enjoyed planting the spark that started the fire which blew up the lab that...
• Reba, powerful and beguiling power in Independence. Grace is the centrepiece, weaving her own spell by virtue of her sexuality but the narrator is the true magician, observant and contriving. A fascinating read.

This is impossible.

And so - a first. I have chosen a winner, joint runners-up - and an honourable mention.

The winner with her deviant black lotus that swells with promise and with death - is Erin Cole; The Man with Blue in His Beard. Congratulations Erin - I could have drowned in this - and I'm waiting for the rest of the story.

Joint runners-up are Angel Zapata for the spellbinding poem Forgiveness - literary lace. And Phil Ambler who took us on an exquisite chaos journey of mythical creation with Evolution.

The Honourable Mention goes to asuqi, for the eddying waters of Void. Dangerously inviting.

I could go on... There is so little between the entries, all are sublime. I'll give someone else a chance to judge in a couple of weeks time.

Thanks for taking part - I'll post the next Prediction challenge in the (UK) morning. Take your dreams and weft them sweetly... Goodnight.

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Erin Cole's Beltane Breakfast Interview with Lily Childs

Friend, fellow horror-writer, Predictioneer and February Femme Fatale Erin Cole was kind enough to invite me over to her blog for a natter recently. And she has chosen today - May 1st - Beltane - to post the interview; a date that means a lot to me for many reasons.

To take a little nosey...
Interview with Spinetingler Award Nominee Lily Childs

There's also a new, previously unpublished short story Wraiths and Stays to tickle you, as well as some exciting news about my first Kindle publication which is hanging in the ether as I write.

Hope to meet you there. And Erin, thank you for the place on the couch.

Sun-up over Eastbourne at Beltane 2011

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Interviews and Kindle News

This week I read another great interview with the wonderful Jodi MacArthur over at Spinetingler Magazine where we're both nominated for the best short story on the web award. But that's by the by - Predictioneer and Wicked Woman's Booty author Jodi gives her best - as always - in the magazine's Conversations with the Bookless series. Go see...

Another great read is with Lori Titus, an amazing psychological horror writer who is also editor for Wicked Nights Publishing and runs her own radio show. Author of the novella Lazarus and anthology Green Water Lullaby (I've got it - it's extraordinary), she was interviewed by the hospitable Richard Godwin in his Chin Wag at the Slaughterhouse. The probe provides a great insight into what inspires Lori's beautiful and edgy prose. While you're at it, check out Richard's website and consider buying his novel Apostle Rising - it's my bedtime read at the moment - and I'm freaked. Can't pick it up - and then can't put it down.

Lastly, my own news is that I hope to have a short 7k word book coming out on Kindle at the beginning of May. It's been ready for a while but I finished the cover this evening. The original artwork is by esoteric artist Laurence Ranger and sits on my wall. He's approved my graphic manipulations and I'll display the cover here as soon as the Single book is out.

Related to this is my interview coming up over at lovely fellow horror writer Erin Cole's dark and wondrous place on 1st May - Beltane to my pagan friends. I'll be revealing what the Kindle premier will be and Erin will also be publishing an unpublished story of mine, Wraiths and Stays. Can't wait. Thank you Erin!

Oh, and girlfriends? I bought shoes. Black things with leather roses. Thought you'd like to know.

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May 1st - a date for your diary...

It's my honour to have been invited into beguiling and talented author Erin Cole's world as a guest writer. We'll be having a chat and a gossip about writing, inspirations and the future, and Erin will kindly host a new, unpublished short fiction story of mine Wraiths and Stays.

So please put 1st May into your diaries - I hope to see you in the the lovely writerly realm of http://erincolelive.blogspot.com. I can't think of a better way to celebrate Beltane.

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Erin Cole - the ethereal February Femme Fatale

February Femmes Fatales - February 11th

One of the reasons I continue to write the way I do is down to the lovely Erin Cole.

Erin was one of the first to read my pieces on Thrillers Killers 'n' Chillers and has offered her support and encouragement ever since. I know my style and genre doesn't suit everyone but Erin gave me the confidence to write as myself. And now I can't imagine ever doing it any other way. A thousand thanks to you, Erin.

As with many of the February Femmes Fatales, I have had the honour to share web and printed space with her. And in particular, although it hasn't yet arrived in the UK, we both feature in Red Skies Press' Their Dark Masters: Extreme Vampire Horror, along with fellow FFF Marissa Farrar. And of that, I'm very proud.

I have such deep admiration for Erin's work; it is eloquent and frighteningly honest. Her words barter and fight with passion, hammering the heart like the stamping feet of a gypsy whilst spiralling through the senses with her unique poetry. Lace and funerary cards.

Erin's chilling tale The Phantoms of Jamie Stevens will get you thinking, I promise.

The Phantoms of Jamie Stevens by Erin Cole

—My dearest Jamie, the letters always started. Your mother is no longer in pain. She stops reading at this point. Collects herself.

*** 

Basement stairs tunnel into midnight, the depths of her insatiable need. Her phantom knows why she is there, underneath the light of life. It’s not her first visit, won’t be her last. Waiting in the black, he keeps refuge, remedial subsistence—his darkness her thirst, her sickness his fruit.

Along the stair railing, she slides ivory fingers. The bar is silky, steel-cold—a frigid, cruel reminder of the phantom’s nature. He is selfish and merciless. Her vulnerability perverts his will, and though unmoving is he, she can feel his pulse race for it is a wild colt in her own heart. She steps into the cellar. The phantom emerges from a shadowed corner.

*** 

—It was her decision to end her life. How could I not grant my wife her last wish? I loved her. If you never forgive me, I will understand. But you must find peace, for yourself. For her.

*** 

Like harpooned lust, his sable eyes snare hers, not a gloss of truth behind them. Depravity is a magnetic rage, and he devours the distance between them. She is his space and he consumes her, breeching her being, becoming a part of her, a storm-sated union. There are no words or thoughts, just senses ablaze—a burning in the marrow of the soul.

He takes everything from her, everything that is true, and all that is a lie. She steals across the narrow bridge of madness, severed from the physical—her anger and fear, bitter desperation, boredom of life, and blindness to the stars, all blurred like thick, cold rain on glass. She has no past or future. She is his and he is nothing.

*** 

—At the time, I did what I thought was right. I know, I trust, that you know what to do and that you will do it. For you.

*** 

The phantom is gone when she wakes, freed by her surrender. The basement lights flicker and stillness wraps around her. She feels wholeness again. Upstairs in her bedroom, she sits cross-legged on the bed and lets a bullet drop from a chamber into the palm of her hand. It is shiny and now without a name. She places it in an envelope with a note that says,

Never. You will live another day.

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Bio:
Erin Cole is a phantom. Wait, that’s not totally accurate. She wants to be your phantom. If you are even remotely interested, you can view her dark, wicked spirits here, www.erincolelive.blogspot.com or here, www.erincolewrites.com. She even has her very own ghost story — Grave Echoes: A Kate Waters Mystery.

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13 Days of Horror features Mark Anthony Crittenden

Red Skies Press founder and editor, Mark Anthony Crittenden graces the brilliant bloglight of Erin Cole's 13 Days of Horror today.

Mark's deliciously-told tale Fourteen Ounces of Vinegar is also a taster from the eagerly awaited horror anthology Their Dark Masters, which will be available in December on Amazon.
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• Red Skies Press
• Erin Cole's 13 Days of Horror

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Grave Echoes by Erin Cole

Been waitin' too long... and finally - it's here!

The Feardom is very excited that Erin Cole's début novel Grave Echoes is now up for grabs - and grab it you should. Her writing is mysterious, dark and exquisite, laden with sensual and poetic treats.

Grave Echoes is on my wish list - don't you dare get it before I do! But if you must, then take a look at Erin's blog 'Listen to the Voices' to find out where you can buy it. If you're in the UK like me you can get it from Amazon.co.uk.

Congratulations Erin, bring on Wicked Tempest.

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