The story of "Volver Al Monte," actually begins with another story. "Cabras" was written on the drive to work, a rare moment of epiphany as I was stuck behind a train realizing that maybe the call for subs for a "Goat Worship" anthology wasn't as silly as it seemed. "Cabras" became the story of an elderly and retired guerrilla fighter, fleeing to the countryside in the midst of an ending conflict, afraid that the paramilitary groups which cut out his tongue will kill his daughters if he remained.
Alas, the anthology the story was accepted for was not to be and the story remains unpublished, hopefully an original addition to a short story collection. But writing on war, on family violence and cyclical conflict stayed with me. I confess that I have not shared this experience, I believe that many Westerners are fortunate that they have not. Our uncompromising approach to many global issues, namely the broad brush of "terrorism" is a luxury. In the United States we have only once experienced a Civil War, and the vast majority of violence was sanctioned and orchestrated by state actors. Our post Civil War environment was remarkably stable (particularly for White America), and our ability to understand the victims and perpetrators of violence has been stunted by our cultural and historical experience.
"Volver Al Monte," speaks to this issue. Whereas "Cabras" focused on an old guerrilla, a revolutionary romantic-turned-farmer, General Alfonsin Santos is very much a warrior. He is the product of military academies, ideological inbreeding and a scientific understanding of war. His worldview is a far cry from the guerrilla. His duty is to the stability of his government and the destruction of his enemy. There is little hate for politics, but a disdain for anyone who would disrupt the equilibrium.
He is the sort of officer who would have applauded Pinochet. And the task was to make someone like this at least somewhat sympathetic. Give him a daughter. Friends. A tragedy, one at once separate from and embedded within the war he fed. Add the horror, the realization of enlightenment brought through heartache and torture. Take that man through hell, show him heaven and give a moment to realize the difference is superficial at best.
That was the goal of "Volver Al Monte."
The inspirations drew from a long study of conflict. The "Tuta Puriq" come from a real Quechua phrase translated as "Those who walk at night." The term was used to describe Sendero Luminoso, a violent guerrilla organization notable for actually carrying out more deaths and forced appearances than the government it fought. The group has similarities to various autodefensas and vigilante groups across the world, notably the emphasis on violence as a method to remake the world.
The work in "Volver Al Monte" carried over into a story called "Tierra Sagrada" which is currently out for consideration. Unlike both "Cabras" and "Volver," "Tierra" focuses on paramilitary groups. It will culminate, I believe at the time of writing, in a final story focusing on the aftermath of urban counter-insurgency. From above the cycle appears to be:
"Guerrilla, Government, Paramilitary, Non-Combatant."
I write about these things because I know them, and because they scare me. But I have not experienced them, and I hope that I never do. I can only hope to do justice for survivors, to not contribute anything that further glorifies war as anything other than the failure of politics through any other means. It's not my favorite headspace to be in, so hopefully I can wrap up operations with this theme for at least the near future.
For those interested, please consider purchasing "Cthonic: Weird Tales of Inner Earth" here:
https://www.amazon.com/Chthonic-Weird-Tales-Inner-Earth-ebook/dp/B07B2LWZRG/ref=la_B01M34MZOT_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523754402&sr=1-3
"Volver" is one of several stories from authors far more talented than I. I'll have more to say on the anthology and its contents in the coming days.
-S. L.
Saturday, April 14, 2018
Friday, March 2, 2018
Overdue Update
It has been a while since I posted anything akin to an update here, though I do my best to keep active on social media.
The year has been good to me so far, with my acceptance ratio being higher than my rejection ratio for the first time in my career. Matt Cardin mentioned me in a podcast as "a name you might recognize," which must mean that somewhere out in the darkness, folks are reading my work. With that in mind, I wanted to highlight a few anthologies and some kickstarters that I am a part of and tell you a bit about the stories I've contributed to each project.
Anthologies:
In 2017, I told myself that if I got into any one of four anthologies I really wanted to be a part of that I would be kinder to myself in assessing my own writing. I got into three of them, and they're quite the anthologies!
I. Chthonic: Weird Tales of Inner Earth
Anyone who has read a Martian Migraine book knows that Scott R. Jones is an excellent curator of stories. The book includes some powerhouse writers, from my friend John Linwood Grant to top tier and well-established names such as Nadia Bulkin (currently reading her excellent collection), Gemma Files, Christopher Slatsky and Ramsey Campbell (!!!).
My story for this one is a tough one, and without spoiling it I can give you a bit of the background as to where it came from. I first came across the phrase "Volver al monte," while reading a piece from Kathleen Thiedon about paramilitaries in Colombia. In the wake of a "successful" round of negotiations between the administration of Alvaro Uribe and the AGC (at the time, the largest far-right paramilitary organization in the country) many paramilitarios decided to merely keep their arms and shirk their commitment to the peace agreement. Others were more reluctant, eager to start families and return to society. The phrase these former combatants used for the dreaded return to war was "volver al monte," to go to the mountains.
The story begins with General Alfonsin Santos, a man who was renowned as the architect for the counter-insurgency policy of an unnamed country. The general is old, philosophic, and uneasy with how at home he becomes when he too returns to the mountains. There he begins negotiations with a rebel group going by the name "Tuta Puriq," an old Quechau word "boogeyman" or "those who walk at night." Suffice to say, these negotiations do not last long.
The story is peppered with references to civil war in both Peru and Colombia. "Tuta Puriq" was a name many villagers in the highlands of Peru used to describe Sendero Luminoso (the Shining Path) as it engaged in a campaign of terror against the indigenous population of Peru. This said, Santos himself seems to be more of a Colombian military mind than a Peruvian one.
The story has become a milestone for me, and I cannot wait for you to tell me your thoughts on it:
https://www.amazon.com/Chthonic-Weird-Tales-Inner-Earth-ebook/dp/B07B2LWZRG/ref=la_B01M34MZOT_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520013151&sr=1-1
II. Test Patterns
I have to blame KA Opperman for getting me into this one. Through him I met Duane Pesice and Michael Adams, who told me about their vision of an anthology dealing with human themes and irony in the veins of Twilight Zone.
It just so happened that I had a story I thought I would fit. "Golden Girl," is one of the earliest stories I have written, and like many others from that period of my life (I think I was 22 when I wrote it) it has gone through revision, revision and revision. The core of the story, however has remained the same. Themes include the horror of attraction, the way in which people lose can lose themselves as they become enamored with someone else. It does not help the protagonist that the subject of his affection is eerie, a puppeteer with questionable motives and an intangible hold over him.
Test Patterns is full of great stories and I am still in the process of reading it. Expect a full overview later in the month.
https://www.amazon.com/Test-Patterns-Duane-Pesice-ebook/dp/B078MYZD6V/ref=la_B01M34MZOT_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520013151&sr=1-4
III. Occult Detective Quarterly Presents
If you've been bothered with my too-frequent updates about the Bartred family, I apologize. I have big, big plans for occult detective Joe Bartred and his family and friends. Readers of "Magdalena" may get a bit of whiplash reading this story. Joe is older, wiser and he is not alone. He has brought his daughter June to Los Angeles, hoping that she will make a more informed choice regarding her future. That's all I want to say about it for now, but this will be my first ever-novelette.
Kickstarters:
I. Vastarien: A Literary Journal
My first ever literary essay, my contribution for this journal came about as I was preparing for some exams. Political persuasions aside, a key component of Ligottian horror is the ravages of capitalism, the ghost towns and abandoned industrial parks in its wake. With this comes a complete loss of self, the ridiculous commodification of labor that forces people to make absurd plastic doll-heads and other abhorrently useless products. This idea is very much in dialog with Karl Marx's thoughts on the alienation of labor. Lesser known than Marx, however, is Karl Polanyi, perhaps one of the most intelligent and intricate theorists of political economics of the last century. Writing as WWII drew down to an end, Polanyi marked himself as a "non-Marxist socialist," and hypothesized that both fascism and communism were responses to the desperation that unfettered markets created.
He termed this merciless capitalism "the Satanic Mill."
As if that wasn't just asking to be put in dialog with Ligotti?
Reserve your copy here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/867956165/vastarien-a-literary-journal
II. Broken Eye Books
This one is my second pro-sale ever! And it's a weird sort of story. I'll be teasing more about it as time goes on, but it draws directly from my experiences in college both in undergrad and graduate school. It concerns a strange student, Laura Nodens, who is investigating the death of her favorite TA. The story, if had to boil it down, is "Veronica Mars vs. Cthulhu." A certain Lovecraftian congressman also cameos.
Contribute here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1557256029/welcome-to-miskatonic-university-an-anthology
The year has been good to me so far, with my acceptance ratio being higher than my rejection ratio for the first time in my career. Matt Cardin mentioned me in a podcast as "a name you might recognize," which must mean that somewhere out in the darkness, folks are reading my work. With that in mind, I wanted to highlight a few anthologies and some kickstarters that I am a part of and tell you a bit about the stories I've contributed to each project.
Anthologies:
In 2017, I told myself that if I got into any one of four anthologies I really wanted to be a part of that I would be kinder to myself in assessing my own writing. I got into three of them, and they're quite the anthologies!
I. Chthonic: Weird Tales of Inner Earth
Anyone who has read a Martian Migraine book knows that Scott R. Jones is an excellent curator of stories. The book includes some powerhouse writers, from my friend John Linwood Grant to top tier and well-established names such as Nadia Bulkin (currently reading her excellent collection), Gemma Files, Christopher Slatsky and Ramsey Campbell (!!!).
My story for this one is a tough one, and without spoiling it I can give you a bit of the background as to where it came from. I first came across the phrase "Volver al monte," while reading a piece from Kathleen Thiedon about paramilitaries in Colombia. In the wake of a "successful" round of negotiations between the administration of Alvaro Uribe and the AGC (at the time, the largest far-right paramilitary organization in the country) many paramilitarios decided to merely keep their arms and shirk their commitment to the peace agreement. Others were more reluctant, eager to start families and return to society. The phrase these former combatants used for the dreaded return to war was "volver al monte," to go to the mountains.
The story begins with General Alfonsin Santos, a man who was renowned as the architect for the counter-insurgency policy of an unnamed country. The general is old, philosophic, and uneasy with how at home he becomes when he too returns to the mountains. There he begins negotiations with a rebel group going by the name "Tuta Puriq," an old Quechau word "boogeyman" or "those who walk at night." Suffice to say, these negotiations do not last long.
The story is peppered with references to civil war in both Peru and Colombia. "Tuta Puriq" was a name many villagers in the highlands of Peru used to describe Sendero Luminoso (the Shining Path) as it engaged in a campaign of terror against the indigenous population of Peru. This said, Santos himself seems to be more of a Colombian military mind than a Peruvian one.
The story has become a milestone for me, and I cannot wait for you to tell me your thoughts on it:
https://www.amazon.com/Chthonic-Weird-Tales-Inner-Earth-ebook/dp/B07B2LWZRG/ref=la_B01M34MZOT_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520013151&sr=1-1
II. Test Patterns
I have to blame KA Opperman for getting me into this one. Through him I met Duane Pesice and Michael Adams, who told me about their vision of an anthology dealing with human themes and irony in the veins of Twilight Zone.
It just so happened that I had a story I thought I would fit. "Golden Girl," is one of the earliest stories I have written, and like many others from that period of my life (I think I was 22 when I wrote it) it has gone through revision, revision and revision. The core of the story, however has remained the same. Themes include the horror of attraction, the way in which people lose can lose themselves as they become enamored with someone else. It does not help the protagonist that the subject of his affection is eerie, a puppeteer with questionable motives and an intangible hold over him.
Test Patterns is full of great stories and I am still in the process of reading it. Expect a full overview later in the month.
https://www.amazon.com/Test-Patterns-Duane-Pesice-ebook/dp/B078MYZD6V/ref=la_B01M34MZOT_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520013151&sr=1-4
III. Occult Detective Quarterly Presents
If you've been bothered with my too-frequent updates about the Bartred family, I apologize. I have big, big plans for occult detective Joe Bartred and his family and friends. Readers of "Magdalena" may get a bit of whiplash reading this story. Joe is older, wiser and he is not alone. He has brought his daughter June to Los Angeles, hoping that she will make a more informed choice regarding her future. That's all I want to say about it for now, but this will be my first ever-novelette.
Kickstarters:
I. Vastarien: A Literary Journal
My first ever literary essay, my contribution for this journal came about as I was preparing for some exams. Political persuasions aside, a key component of Ligottian horror is the ravages of capitalism, the ghost towns and abandoned industrial parks in its wake. With this comes a complete loss of self, the ridiculous commodification of labor that forces people to make absurd plastic doll-heads and other abhorrently useless products. This idea is very much in dialog with Karl Marx's thoughts on the alienation of labor. Lesser known than Marx, however, is Karl Polanyi, perhaps one of the most intelligent and intricate theorists of political economics of the last century. Writing as WWII drew down to an end, Polanyi marked himself as a "non-Marxist socialist," and hypothesized that both fascism and communism were responses to the desperation that unfettered markets created.
He termed this merciless capitalism "the Satanic Mill."
As if that wasn't just asking to be put in dialog with Ligotti?
Reserve your copy here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/867956165/vastarien-a-literary-journal
II. Broken Eye Books
This one is my second pro-sale ever! And it's a weird sort of story. I'll be teasing more about it as time goes on, but it draws directly from my experiences in college both in undergrad and graduate school. It concerns a strange student, Laura Nodens, who is investigating the death of her favorite TA. The story, if had to boil it down, is "Veronica Mars vs. Cthulhu." A certain Lovecraftian congressman also cameos.
Contribute here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1557256029/welcome-to-miskatonic-university-an-anthology
Thursday, February 15, 2018
We will smile all the while
We will smile all the while
By S. L. Edwards
And
though it seems we are leaving,
With dew-eyed tears depart,
And though our friends are still needing
Our tender, open heart
I will grab your hand,
We will leave this land
And we will smile all the while.
With dew-eyed tears depart,
And though our friends are still needing
Our tender, open heart
I will grab your hand,
We will leave this land
And we will smile all the while.
And
though the hate is at our door,
That blind and hungry thing,
And though we tremble at its roar
And the chaos it may bring,
I will sing you to sleep,
We will take this leap
And we will smile all the while.
That blind and hungry thing,
And though we tremble at its roar
And the chaos it may bring,
I will sing you to sleep,
We will take this leap
And we will smile all the while.
And
though our fear is in the air
Constant and undying
And though it seems they do not care
Both lying and beguiling
I will hold you near,
Though the danger is here,
Constant and undying
And though it seems they do not care
Both lying and beguiling
I will hold you near,
Though the danger is here,
And
we will smile all the while.
For coach Aaron Fies, teacher Scott Beigel, an unnamed janitor and all the brave people who came forward when it mattered in Parkland. RIP
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