Rhonda Parrish

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Chimeric Contributor: L.S. Johnson

April 21, 2016 R. Parrish Leave a comment

Today’s interview is with L.S. Johnson. I first learned of L.S.’s work when she submitted an amazing story, The Queen of Lakes, to Fae and I’ve been enamored with her work ever since. When she accepted my invitation to contribute to B is for Broken I was ecstatic, and even more so to have her stick around for C is for Chimera 🙂

What letter were you assigned?

Did you struggle with the letter you were given?

Actually, no! I had already started sketching out this story, title and all. That the title began with R and the story dealt with chimeras in a few different ways was pure serendipity.

What was your favourite idea for the ‘word’ to use in your title that you didn’t use?

No alternatives this time, it was full speed ahead on the idea I had. Though I will say that there is a version of this story that is twice as long, with a present-day framing narrative that I just couldn’t make work. Perhaps someday there will be an alt version?

What kind of chimera is your story about?

Well, it’s based on the story of Philomela and Procne, which like many Greek myths involves a physical transformation. But a chimera can also be an illusion of the mind, a mental fantasy, and part of the story is about how narratives frame events, especially when they’re based on a feminine ideal that has little to do with reality.

What, other than the letter you were assigned, helped inspire your story?

I had a lovely great-aunt who was a recluse; she lived in an apartment in Queens, hardly ever went out, and seemed to subsist on candy, Cheez Doodles, and the occasional roast dinner. I only met her a couple of times in my childhood, but I always thought of her apartment as a kind of nest—her own little world in a vast hive of similar spaces. I used to look at the flat windows of her building and wonder how many others were like her, looking out but never seen.

Lion, goat or snake–which are you more like?

Snake, for better or worse.

If you were going to be magically transformed into a chimera composed of three different creatures, what would you want them to be?

Bird-cat. Don’t need a third. Just bird-cat.

What if it wasn’t limited to creatures? What three things would you want to be composed of?

Cotton lawn, a Leuchtturm journal, and the smell of my youngest cat’s fur.

Unrealizable dreams have been called chimeras. Taking the ‘unrealizable’ part out of the equation, what is one of your fondest dreams/goals?

To finally feel settled somewhere. I live very far from my family, and my spouse is from another country entirely; yet my hometown has become far too expensive for us to ever consider moving back. Try as I might, California has never quite felt like “home”, so I keep hoping that one day we might find a place that does.

Can you share a short excerpt from your story?

Her mother had often told her bedtime stories that weren’t in books, stories from the old world, stories her mother’s mother had told, and her mother before that, and so on . . . Stories of women who were changed into things, river rocks and fleet deer, nightingales and sparrows and tall, twisting trees: always they were betrayed by someone and then swiftly changed, to save them from a worse fate. And then she was no more of this world, her mother would always finish, and then she would pretend to show Elsa something from the woman in question—a leaf, a feather. But such endings had never felt like escapes to Elsa. They felt like condemnations, and her dreams would be filled with monstrous images of animals with women’s faces, their silent mouths screaming endlessly.

Only now did Elsa understand her child-self had been right, that those stories weren’t fantasies. They were warnings.

L.S. Johnson lives in Northern California. Her stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Long Hidden, Fae, Lackington’s, Strange Tales V, and other venues. Currently she’s working on a fantasy trilogy set in 18th century Europe. Find her online at http://traversingz.com/.

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Chimeric Contributor: Pete Aldin

April 20, 2016 R. Parrish Leave a comment

We’re continuing the Chimeric contributor interviews with Pete Aldin. I believe Pete and I first crossed paths when he was a contributor to Niteblade, but I’ve also had the pleasure of including his work in all three Alphabet Anthologies so far, and even co-written a story with him (unpublished). Interesting fact about Pete, he was the first contributor to send me his story for C is for Chimera and his D is for Dinosaur story is already sitting in my inbox!

What letter were you assigned?

Did you struggle with the letter you were given?

Not at all. Last time was tougher when I got a W. D had lots of possibilities.

What was your favourite idea for the ‘word’ to use in your title that you didn’t use?

Diddly.

What kind of chimera is your story about?

A composite creature made up of all that has lived and died on planet earth over the eons.

What, other than the letter you were assigned, helped inspire your story?

My strong belief in loving relationships. My belief in a purpose for life. And my cynicism. Weird combo, huh?

Lion, goat or snake–which are you more like?

Goat. Eat anything. Kind of gangly too.

If you were going to be magically transformed into a chimera composed of three different creatures, what would you want them to be?

Chimp. Cameleon. Octopus.

What if it wasn’t limited to creatures? What three things would you want to be composed of?

…Gold, frankincense, myrrh??

Unrealizable dreams have been called chimeras. Taking the ‘unrealizable’ part out of the equation, what is one of your fondest dreams/goals?

Honestly, writing for this series is a dream. And I’m livin’ it!

Can you share a short excerpt from your story?

He saw it then in a flash of insight–or was it memory? The one never far below the surface–all he had to do at any given time was scratch the veneer of Now and the images and sounds and smells and emotions would come screaming into center-camera as if it was happening all over again. The wreck. The flames. The blood. The screaming.

Nineteen years old and just having fun, out driving with Mike. Stupid drunk Mike who never should have been behind the wheel even when sober. Mike driving without lights while Alec cranked up the stereo and hollered in testosterone-inspired glossolalia. The little Toyota appearing from nowhere at the intersection, the pickup hammering into it and sending it spinning spinning spinning until the telephone pole arrested its dance. Mike bleeding from the forehead and nose, slumped back in his seat, groaning…

Alec sobbing no no no as he stumbled on bruised legs toward the other car. Fire leaping from under the hood. Inside the driver enmeshed in metal, his brains leaking from his head and his clothes dyed red; the front passenger crying and jiggling her door which wouldn’t budge even when Alec reached it and used all his strength against it; and the girl in the backseat–a girl named Jen–unconscious, slumped against her seatbelt. Her door worked, so–

He growled, blinked it away and put his head in his hands.

By day, Pete Aldin delivers a program for people with disabilities; by night, he sits at a laptop and writes. His short fiction has appeared in publications including Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and Niteblade. His non-fiction has appeared in parenting and business magazines. He is a big fan of alcoholic ciders, the FIFA franchise on xBox and (being an Australian) Vegemite. He is a member of the Australian Horror Writers Association and the Chelsea Dark Fiction Writers Circle. He don’t like pina coladas nor taking walks in the rain.

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Chimeric Contributor: Michael Kellar

April 19, 2016 R. Parrish Leave a comment

We’re continuing the Chimeric contributor interviews with Michael Kellar. I think I first met Michael when he submitted to (and had his work accepted for) Metastasis and he has also contributed to every Alphabet Anthology so far 🙂

What letter were you assigned?

Did you struggle with the letter you were given?

No, it was actually perfect for my story.

What was your favourite idea for the ‘word’ to use in your title that you didn’t use?

I used the very first one which came to mind.

What kind of chimera is your story about?

A medical chimera: when a species has has an organ and/or tissue from another species used in a transplant.

What, other than the letter you were assigned, helped inspire your story?

1) I had recently read a book concerning “The Promise of Transplanting Animal Organs into Humans”. (That was the subtitle; I cannot give the primary title without giving too strong a hint as to what my letter stands for.)

2) I had seen a cartoon in an issue of Rue Morgue where the Frankenstein Monster is standing at the Pearly Gates in Heaven and is told (something to the effect) that “Parts of you can get in and parts of you can’t.”

Both of these sort of came together and triggered my story.

Lion, goat or snake–which are you more like?

Not a goat; it could be eaten or killed by the other two. Not a lion as being king of the jungle it too high maintenance. Probably a snake as no one really can predict what a snake is likely to do in any given situation. And snakes are cool.

If you were going to be magically transformed into a chimera composed of three different creatures, what would you want them to be?

A raven for flight, a tortoise for longevity, and a spider because that is one of my totem creatures.

What if it wasn’t limited to creatures? What three things would you want to be composed of?

Rock, paper, scissors. No matter what, I would always be able to come out a winner.

Unrealizable dreams have been called chimeras. Taking the ‘unrealizable’ part out of the equation, what is one of your fondest dreams/goals?

The one of my goals which is most relevant to this interview is to make it to the “Z is for…” volume of this series without Rhonda pulling her hair out or breaking all of her editorial red pencils.

Can you share a short excerpt from your story?

I hope this is suggestive without giving too much away:

“As the days passed, Shannon slowly began to sort out fact from drug-induced fiction regarding her recent memories. She recalled an endless parade of doctors and nurses, all intense and caring and calming and solicitous. She recalled very forcibly vomiting up the first bit of semi-solid food (some kind of pudding) that a nurse had attempted to fed her. (Something to do with being in shock.) Probably fact. Then there were frequent visits by an older man she did not know and was not dressed in any kind of uniform. No one else seemed to interact with him. So, probably an illusion. A small sliver of ice she had been given was the most wonderful item she had ever tasted in her life. a couple of times a rather formal woman stopped in to discuss some type of legal matters and asked her if she understood the concept of “implied consent”.

The significance of the latter came into sharper focus when she noticed the scar.”

MICHAEL KELLAR is a writer, poet, and occasional online bookseller living in Myrtle Beach, SC.

His anthology appearances include “Side Show 2: Tales of the Big Top and the Bizarre”, “Metastasis: An Anthology to Support Cancer Research”, “Bones II”, “Bones III”, “A is for Apocalypse”, “B is for Broken”, “The Grays”, “Zombified: Hazardous Material” and “The Temporal Element II”.

He has also had poetry published in “Gothic Blue Book III: The Graveyard Edition”, and had fiction appear online as well as in a few magazines.

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Chimeric Contributor: Beth Cato

April 18, 2016 R. Parrish Leave a comment

We’re continuing the Chimeric contributor interviews with a familiar name on my blog–Beth Cato. Beth and I first met a long time ago on Livejournal, when Livejournal was still relevant, and even though we live a very long way from one another she’s one of my best friends. She’s also an incredibly talented writer who I would admire even if I didn’t like her on a personal level (which I do, obviously :-p) 🙂

What letter were you assigned?

Did you struggle with the letter you were given?

A little bit, yes. When I think of chimeras, I think of the gremlins in my Clockwork Dagger series, and I really wanted a fresh take on the concept.

What kind of chimera is your story about?

A genetic modification of a little boy who assumes a “tiger” nature in his post-apocalyptic world.

What, other than the letter you were assigned, helped inspire your story?

I write a lot of stories that take place after the collapse of civilization. As I tried to think of a good setting for an ‘S” story, I gravitated to my familiar, horrible places.

Lion, goat or snake–which are you more like?

More leonine, I think. I’m a cat person all the way.

If you were going to be magically transformed into a chimera composed of three different creatures, what would you want them to be?

Gosh, probably cat, horse, and human. Which would surprise absolutely no one who knows me.

What if it wasn’t limited to creatures? What three things would you want to be composed of?

I don’t even know how to answer this one, though I am laughing at the thought of being rendered into some sort of multi-purpose Kitchen-Aid and oven chimera.

Unrealizable dreams have been called chimeras. Taking the ‘unrealizable’ part out of the equation, what is one of your fondest dreams/goals?

Um, I had the goal of being a Nebula or Hugo nominee, and now I’m a Nebula finalist–for a novella about chimeras. It’d still be awfully nice to win one of the big awards.

Can you share a short excerpt from your story?

“Be careful out there, Tiger,” Doctor said, as she did every day when she let Tiger Boy out through the narrow basement window.

“Tiger Boy,” he corrected, as he did daily.

“Yes, Tiger Boy.” Her smile was more wobbly than usual.

He knew she didn’t like letting him out by his lonesome, but he couldn’t stay pent up for days and days on end. He started to get restless and toy around with things, and that was really, really bad in a laboratory. She used to joke that she wasn’t sure if his mischief came from his Tiger or Boy nature, but she hadn’t said that in a long time.

She didn’t say too much at all, these days.

Beth Cato hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in a lair west of Phoenix, Arizona. She shares the household with a hockey-loving husband, a numbers-obsessed son, and a cat the size of a canned ham.

She’s the author of THE CLOCKWORK DAGGER (a 2015 Locus Award finalist for First Novel) and THE CLOCKWORK CROWN from Harper Voyager.

Follow her at BethCato.com and on Twitter at @BethCato.

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Chimeric Contributor: Michael B. Tager

April 14, 2016 R. Parrish Leave a comment

It’s kind of become a tradition that I interview the contributors to my anthologies and share those interviews on my blog. It’s also kind of become a tradition that it takes me a very long time to get them all posted. I plan to continue the first tradition but I’m hoping to avoid the second. Just to be different. We’re going to start off this week with a newcomer to the Alphabet Anthology series–Michael B. Tager. As seems to happen every time someone new joins the crew Michael was assigned one of the trickier letters in the alphabet, but I’ll let him tell you about it in his

What letter were you assigned?

Q. Because there’s no better way to inspire creativity than to be given constraints like that.

Did you struggle with the letter you were given?

Kind of? Sometimes I like to write from the title backward, so I looked up interesting words that start with Q. in a way, it’s easier (imagine looking through all the Ms for a fun word).

What was your favourite idea for the ‘word’ to use in your title that you didn’t use?

The story that appears in C is for Chimera was actually the second story I wrote. Quietus was the first word, which didn’t pan out for this anthology, unfortunately, but it’s still a dope piece (and published elsewhere).

What kind of chimera is your story about?

It’s both a creature—though not the directly mythological—and one of the other meanings: illusory.

What, other than the letter you were assigned, helped inspire your story?

Who knows where inspiration comes? While sometimes I can find a direct source, most often it’s a combination of inspirations. This is one of the latter occasions.

Lion, goat or snake–which are you more like?

That’s like asking what magical house you’d be Sorted into. We all want to think we’re the lion or the snake, but hell, I’m probably a goat (though I’m not particularly sure-footed).

If you were going to be magically transformed into a chimera composed of three different creatures, what would you want them to be? Honey badger, otter, porcupine.

What if it wasn’t limited to creatures? What three things would you want to be composed of?

Air, tacos, haughty.

Unrealizable dreams have been called chimeras. Taking the ‘unrealizable’ part out of the equation, what is one of your fondest dreams/goals?

Well, I’m making a go of it at this writer thing/publisher/editor thing. I think it’ll happen, albeit slowly. .

Can you share a short excerpt from your story?

While the master regained energy, the student chanced and look down, past her flowing amber robes, past the next fifty yards of ladder, to the jutting outline of their destination. The ancient cold metal of the ladder burned through her sandals and into her callused feet. She ignored the depths below her. She repeated the mantra of the monastery. Life is the illusion before death. We were nothing before we were something. We will be nothing again. The quaking in her gut subsided.

When the master was ready, they continued. It rained briefly, a harsh, cold rain that set their teeth to chattering. She missed her long hair that would have kept her degrees warmer. She wished for better under things than the shapeless rags under her robes. But she repeated the mantra over and over. She was not special. She was part of the world.

Michael B. Tager is the author of the fiction collection “Always Tomorrow” and “Pop Culture Poems,” a poetry chapbook (Mason Jar Press). He is currently writing a book of memoir told through essays about video games. He likes Buffy and the Baltimore Orioles. Find more of his work online at michaelbtager.com.

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Books, C is for Chimera, Published

C is for Chimera

April 12, 2016 R. Parrish 2 Comments

Today is the day! C is for Chimera is here! *happy dance*

This installment of Rhonda Parrish’s alphabet anthology series asks skilled storytellers to write around the theme of chimera. The resulting tales are part fable, part poem, part dream. But like any chimera, the parts make up a greater whole.

Blend reality with fantasy. Mesh science fiction with mystery. Mix history with what should have been. They are all chimera.

A shadow tells a tale of schoolyard bullies. A long-vanished monster returns from the cold dark. Make-up makes up a life. Alchemy, Atlantis, and apocalypse. These 26 tales bring both chaos and closure to dark and elusively fantastic geographies.

Contributing authors include:

~ Alexandra Seidel ~ KV Taylor ~ Marge Simon ~ Pete Aldin ~ Michael M. Jones ~ Simon Kewin ~ BD Wilson ~ Gabrielle Harbowy ~ Sara Cleto ~ Megan Engelhardt ~ Michael Fosburg ~ Megan Arkenberg ~ Lilah Wild ~ Laura VanArendonk Baugh ~ Milo James Fowler ~ Brittany Warman ~ Michael B. Tager ~ L.S. Johnson ~ Beth Cato ~ C.S. MacCath ~ Sammantha Kymmell-Harvey ~ Steve Bornstein ~ Suzanne van Rooyen ~ Michael Kellar ~ Jonathan C. Parrish ~ Amanda C. Davis ~

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C is for Chimera, Guest Blogger

The Importance of Slides

April 11, 2016 R. Parrish Leave a comment

C is for Chimera is coming out tomorrow and in honour of that I’d like to share this guest blog from contributor Beth Cato 🙂

The Importance of Slides by Beth Cato

The table of contents for C is for Chimera will do a great job of hiding the words attached to the letters that inspired our stories, and I’m going to give away my secret right now: S is for Slide.

My story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world and follows the scamperings of Tiger Boy. He is a boy who is (don’t gasp too loudly in surprise) also part tiger. That chimera mix allowed him to survive when most of civilization did not. He’s not particularly damaged by the experience, though. Tiger Boy is the ultimate unreliable narrator: a child who sees the world through a particular, rather oblivious perspective.

To him, a playground slide means everything. It’s a relic of a past when he was pure Boy, when he had a mother, an apartment, and schooldays. He still plays on the slide, but not in the same way. The world changed. He changed.

When I became a parent, my own concept of slides changed, too. I was of pretty average physical ability as a kid. I took things like slides for granted. Climb up, climb down. Stand in line if there are other kids. Don’t push. Don’t be the jerk who tries to climb up the slide when other kids are there.

My son has autism. His gross motor skills made climbing slides a precarious act when he was young. I was the hovering mother, there to help him up or catch him if he slipped. The social dynamics, however, were the greatest obstacle. Much of that he had to learn at school. I couldn’t hover. All I could do was try to reinforce his awareness of other people–give others enough personal space, say please, say thank you, slide down and skedaddle out of the way.

I worked part of my son’s experience into my creation of Tiger Boy. When you have physical limitations, the very act of climbing a ladder has new meaning. It makes the view from the top all the sweeter–or the fall all the worse. And Tiger Boy doesn’t have anyone close by to catch him if he slips.

She’s the author of THE CLOCKWORK DAGGER (a 2015 Locus Award finalist for First Novel) and THE CLOCKWORK CROWN from Harper Voyager.

Follow her at BethCato.com and on Twitter at @BethCato.

Reserve your copy of C is for Chimera now and be among the first to read about Tiger Boy and all the other chimeras in this exciting collection 🙂

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