Readers Theatre on the Horizon???

 

I haven’t been active in my Casey persona in recent years (as a writer, 

that is!) for two reasons:

 

I have been focussing on my Brigit writings, as Mael Brigde, and this 

has taken a lot of time and energy. (You can find a link to my book, 

blogs, etc. here.)

 

VCon, our annual SF convention here in Vancouver, Canada, has been 

absent for several years. Over the last year or two, volunteers have been 

hosting events in order to rebuild toward VCon, and I’ve enjoyed these 

very much, but as a regular attendee, not as a panelist. In November, 

they are presenting a one day convention called CONnections, and I 

have decided to pitch a readers theatre, as we have done in previous 

years as the Pallahaxi Players Readers Theatre. 

 

I hope this happens. I haven’t volunteered this time around to be on 

panels, and with the very sad and sudden death of Fran Skene, there is 

not likely to be a Turkey Reading (one of the greatest delights of VCons 

past, for me, at least), but I would love to sit down with fellow writers and 

read out something delightful for the audience.

 

We may have something in the can already, but if you have a short, 

stirring or humorous, play that would suit readers theatre*, we would be 

happy to see if your writing would be a fit for us. Or if you know of 

something in the public domain that would work well for an audience of 

SF and fantasy fans, we'd be interested in knowing about that, too.

If you are interested in participating at CONnections, you can pitch your 

idea here:

 

 

https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/connections-program-guest-inquiry

 

* Unlike actors memorising lines and acting with a set, we sit at a table 

together and read out our parts.

 

Image: “Alien Amor” by Laura Molina (Laura Molina/National Museum of Mexican Art) 

[CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

 

 

Another Fine Day...

 I should note that I mostly blog here now (and that not a lot!):

https://finedayscriptorium.blogspot.com/

“Eating Our Young” Rises Again!

 

“Eating Our Young” is a grim allegory about the way families can unthinkingly consume their members, told from the perspective of the youngest members of one family. First published in The Speed of Dark, edited by Clayton Bye (2013), it has been published in the current edition of Exile magazine in a selection of works by four authors from the upcoming speculative fiction anthology, The Food of My People. I'm happy to have this story see the light of day again.

You can find Exile magazine wherever Canadian literary journals are sold, or it can be ordered directly from the publisher here.

 

“Mrs. Zaberewsky” Rises Again

 

If you have ever longed to follow your artistic dream, only to have it squelched again and again, you will cheer on Witka, the protagonist of “Mrs. Zaberewsky.”

I was pleased to learn a week or so ago that the story “Mrs. Zaberewsky” was going to be published again, this time in a “Best Of” anthology from the free online speculative fiction magazine, Polar Borealis. Edited by Rhea Rose, it features short stories and poetry, and a fair whack of both; due to the tight word limit fr PB, there was room for more than the usual number of stories for a given anthology.

It features work by Y. M. Pang, Mary Choo, Taral Wayne and Walt Wentz, Lisa Timpf, Michael Donoghue, and many more.

Click HERE to reach Polar Borealis Magazine: A Free Online Magazine Devoted to Canadian Speculative Fiction

created by R. Graeme Cameron.

Pssst! Hey, you! Yes, YOU--the one who can't wait till the anthology comes out to find out about Witka in “Mrs. Zaberewsky.” Check out issue number one, here. 

Casey Interviews Eileen Kernaghan (in Bruce Gillespie's SF Commentary 101)

It's pretty much all in the title, folks. Follow this link to read the pdf of Australian SF fan Bruce Gillespie's latest fanzine, including an interview with the wonderful Eileen Kernaghan, long-time Canadian writer of scrumptious fantasy.

Enjoy!

New Beginnings Anthology -- Ready for Take-Off!

The launch for the New Beginnings anthology is right around the corner, and I'm looking forward to it. A portion of the proceeds from sales of this extremely varied collection are going to support Share Family and Community Services. New Beginnings and it's support of Share are the brain children of Erik D'Souza, author and now publisher in the Lower Mainland's Tri-Cities area. 

On Saturday, 20 July at the Port Moody Inlet Theatre and Galleria, there will be readings in three blocks, beginning at 2 PM and going till 5 PM. I'll be reading from my story, "Mother of the Star." in the 3-4 PM block. 

"Mother of the Star" follows the strange birth and troubled life of a rock star through the eyes of a mother he never knew. Careful attention to detail will tell you what star we are speaking of, and most of the story, but surely not all of it, is true.

Join us and enjoy an afternoon of literature and munchies. 

Image: Nederlands: Fahrenheit Twins live (c) by Marloes van Geel on Wikimedia, adapted by C. J. Wolf.

Who are the Pallahaxi Players? What is Readers Theatre?

Who are the Pallahaxi Players? What is Readers Theatre?

“Reader's theatre or Reader's theater is a style of theater in which the actors do not memorize their lines. Actors use only vocal expression to help the audience understand the story … This style of performance of literature was initially lauded because it emphasized hearing a written text as a new way to understand literature.” Wikipedia

The Pallahaxi Players is a group of fans and authors who like to perform (scripts in hand) short plays for the audiences of VCon—Vancouver’s premier science fiction, fantasy, and gaming convention. We are following in the tradition of Lonely Cry Theatre, founded by Michael G. Coney, who with fellow writers and hangers on entertained VCon audiences for years. Our name is an homage to the world found in his novels Hello, Summer, Goodbye (alternately published as Rax and Pallahaxi Tide) and I Remember Pallahaxi.

Recipient of the British Science Fiction Association Award, one Nebula, and five Aurora Awards, Michael G. Coney was a well loved man and an influential writer in the 1970s British Invasion, writing a variety of works that often lulled the reader into thinking she was reading fantasy only to discover it was finely wrought science fiction. Humour, character, place, and plot all played a large part in Mike’s works. He is greatly missed by those who knew him.

This year at VCon, as part of our celebration of the British Invasion, the Pallahaxi Players will be performing Mike’s first Lonely Cry offering, “Sex and Perversion in Gnomedom.”

VCON 42/Canvention 38: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Games: 5-7 October 2018. Hosted by WCSFA - West Coast Science Fiction Association and VCON.

Visit our Facebook page!

Mike Coney, External References:

“I think that [writing] has taught me always to be completely honest with the reader and never allow myself to take the easy way out for the sake of glib plot device.”

Casey June Wolf’s first contact with Mike Coney’s books (“though I’d known Mike and his Lonely Cry Readers Theatre for some years”): “Pallahaxi Mike,” Den Page of Casey June Wolf, Friday, September 16, 2005.

“Michael Coney: Science-fiction writer whose readability hid inner depths” by Christopher Priest. The Guardian, Thu 1 Dec 2005 09.31 GMT.

Michael's Spyglass: an Interview with Mike Coney by C. June Wolf. Strange Horizons, Issue: 6 february 2006.

Review of “Hello Summer, Goodbye and I Remember Pallahaxi by Michael G. Coney” by Colin Harvey. Strange Horizons, Issue: 28 July 2008.

Excerpt from Pallahaxi Tide by Michael G. Coney, read by Casey June Wolf. FintanSparky, 22 Oct 2011.

Michael G. Coney Wikipedia page.

Summary Bibliography: Michael G. Coney, The Internet Speculative Fiction Database.

Image: "Alien Amor" by Laura_Molina (Laura Molina/National Museum of Mexican Art) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"Delta Marsh" Free Online (read or listen)

Michael DeLuca, publisher of Reckoning, "An annual journal of creative writing on environmental justice", has been one by one releasing online the stories from Reckoning's second annual issue. My story, "Delta Marsh," became available this month. You can read it online (in a very clear and easy format) or you can listen to or download (!) the podcast--read by yours truly.

Enjoy "Delta Marsh" and all the other offerings of writing and art that DeLuca has pulled together for you.

Cheers!

Casey

Two Stories Upcoming in "The Food of My People"

I am very happy to note that two of my stories, one new and the other a reprint, have been accepted for the anthology, The Food of My People, edited by Ursula Pflug and Candas Jane Dorsey.

The two are very different stories.

"The One That Gets Away", set on the west coast of Vancouver Island, tells the story of a man obsessed with fishing for dogfish from a pier.

"Eating Our Young", which was first published in the small press anthology, The Speed of Dark, looks at the plight of two young children who are regularly eaten by their family and left to recover.

I suppose they sound equally grim, in a way, but the one is an exploration, an awakening, and the other is a painful close-up of unwitting cruelty and its effects.

One of the requirements of the book is a recipe to go with each story. Both of these were a challenge for me, considering I don't actually eat sharks or children. But in the end I was able to find recipes that made sense with the stories, and now I am eagerly awaiting the publication of the book, so that I can discover all the other stories presented in the book.

"Delta Marsh" published in Reckoning 2

I'm happy to report that my story "Delta Marsh" is included in this year's Reckoning magazine (Reckoning 2). The story burbled up one day many years ago when I made a visit to the marsh and the research station there. I left it for ages and then came across it again, rewrote it, and discovered Michael J. deLuca's wonderful magazine. It felt like a great fit for the story and how lovely that the editor agreed. 

I've also recorded a podcast of the story (at the Vancouver Public Library's wonderful and free Inspiration Lab)--Michael will likely post it when my story is made available on the website. The way this works is, over the next few months the stories listed in the table of contents below will be put up on the website. So if you want to have a read of the stories very very gradually, you can get them this way. (Though they won't be a lovely epub download like the full anthology). "Delta Marsh" will probably come out at the end of March. I'll keep you posted.

Here's a little idea of what you will find in the journal, and links to where you can buy it ($7 US). Michael is also going to be releasing the stories one at a time online, though I'm not sure exactly where. Check here to see what's up.

Reckoning 2

A locus for the conflict between the world as it has become 
and the world as we wanted it to be. 

Ebook release: December 21, 2017. e-ISBN: 9780998925226
Ebook available now!
Weightless Books
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Print release: June 21, 2018.
248 pages, 67,000 words.

Contents

Art

Cover: Rebirth – Archan Nair
Disintigreetings – Pepe Rojo
Once It Was a Tree – Oneslutriot

Poetry

Earthspun – Krista Hoeppner Leahy
The Bull Who Bars the Gate to Heaven – Zella Christensen
I’m the Villain, Ok? – Mary Alexandra Agner
A Hundred Years From Now – Mohammad Shafiqul Islam
Development – F.J. Bergmann
Will We Be Good and Kind At The End – Kelly Madden

Fiction

A Wispy Chastening – D.A. Xaolin Spires
Rumpelstiltskin – Jane Elliott
To the Place of Skulls – Innocent Ilo
Girl Singing with Farm – Kathrin Köhler
The Complaint of All Living Things – Joanne Rixon
Fourth-Dimensional Tessellations of the American College Graduate – Marie Vibbert
Delta Marsh – Casey June Wolf
The Shale Giants – Marissa Lingen
An Oasis of Amends – Floris M. Kleijne
The Alice Grey – Santiago Belluco
Lanny Boykin Rises Up Singing – Jess Barber
Night of No Return – Grace Seybold

Nonfiction

Editor’s Note: On Having a Kid in the Climate Apocalypse – Michael J. DeLuca
A Ghost Can Only Take – Justin Howe
From Paris, With Rage – George F.
‘You are from the U.S.’ – Yukyan Lam
A Kinder And More Caring Future? – Brian Francis Slattery

Poems: Welcoming the Good God of Ireland

I was happy to read today that two of the poems from my soon-to-be-finished collection Sun Among Stars: Poems & Prayers to Brigit of Ireland, will be published in the upcoming anthology Harp, Club, and Cauldron: A Harvest of Knowledge. The subject is the Irish god An Dagda, The Good God, so named because he was good at everything. The book will feature essays, poetry, and whatever else editors Lora O’Brien and Morpheus Ravenna find worthy of their collection. The poems will be published under my Brigidine name, Mael Brigde. (Bet you didn't know I had such a thing, did you?)

I am happy about the poems, but I am also excited about the book. I trust these editors to select well thought out works, and the Dagda is a personage I am drawn to in many ways, due only in part to his being the father of the goddess Brigit, who is of special interest to me. I look forward to reading what people have to say about him.

From their Indiegogo page:

Welcoming the Good God of Ireland

He is a king, a druid, a war chieftain, a lover, and a worker of the land. He nourishes and he kills, he loves and he fights, in equal measure. He knows the sorcerous arts of druidry and the secrets of time. He is the Dagda - the mightiest of all the Irish Gods, and yet he is often overlooked in popular approaches to the Irish Gods.  We’re here to tell his story, and we need you to help make that possible.

Eel and Otter Press is proud to bring you Harp, Club and Cauldron: a curated anthology of scholarship, lore, practice and creative writings on the Dagda. This project is spearheaded and edited by Lora O’Brien and Morpheus Ravenna, respected authors and long-term practitioners of Irish spirituality. We’re teaming up with a stellar lineup of authors, artists, and spiritual practitioners to produce a volume as rich with knowledge and spiritual sustenance as the Dagda’s inexhaustible cauldron. We’re gathering in a harvest of original, in-depth scholarship on the lore, history, and cultural context of the Dagda, insightful reflections on his place in living Irish culture and religion, beautiful devotional rites and tools for the practitioner, and gorgeous devotional artwork.

Of course, there are costs to getting this book published and that’s why we’re launching this campaign. We believe authors and artists should be paid well for quality work, and there are publishing costs to cover. So we need you to join this campaign and help us welcome the Dagda.

Harp, Club and Cauldron: A Harvest of Knowledge in a Book

Our vision for this book distills the scholarship, experience, and creative vision of the Irish and Celtic spirituality communities to bring you a harvest of knowledge. The book will feature:

• Works of original scholarship on the Dagda, his role in literature and cultural context, and related divinities
• Translated early Irish textual material with commentary
• Tools for the practitioner including prayers, rituals, recipes
• Insightful experiential writings from priests and practitioners
• Curated original creative writings
• Original artwork and illustrations

We’ve recruited some of the best scholars, spiritual practitioners, and creative writers on Irish spirituality and mythic tradition to produce original material for this book. In order to ensure that Irish voices are featured prominently in this work, we’ve carefully selected our slate of contributors, rather than put out an open call for submissions. Our contributors have been chosen for the depth of their knowledge and connection to Irish tradition and the quality and originality of their work.

“In Days and Nights the World is Spent”

I was delighted this week to receive a small package of books from Red Tuque. This is the seventh and final anthology in their Canadian Tales series: Canadian Tales of the Fantastic Volume VII. My story “Posture of the Infinite” appeared in number four, in 2014. In this volume my Scottish ghost story, “In Days and Nights the World is Spent”, has found a home.

Unfortunately for the masses, the print run sold out immediately and there won't be a reprinting. I suppose that is a bit disappointing for me, too. But c'est la vie.

If you are looking for a copy, let me know. I don't have many so it's first come, first served.

Cheers!

Your Death Full of Flowers

by Wild Grace

At last I am able to reveal that I have several poems coming out in a breathtaking new anthology edited by Slippery Elm (who also translated the poems into Spanish, or from Spanish into English). Let me quote from the website:

Your Death Full of Flowers

A bouquet of poems arranged and translated by Slippery Elm

The thread that ties this bouquet together is that of the story of Blodeuwedd from the Mabinogion. A woman composed of flowers, who sought to kill her husband, and was thereby transformed into an owl. Blodeuwedd meaning flower-face, and the owl said to have been called blodeuwedd in the Welsh of yore. 

Just as the wizard Gwydion gathered blossoms of broom, meadowsweet, and trefoil, the editor gathers the poems to conjure something greater, a something that then goes on to wing the poetry out into the world. A deadly and nefarious agenda in the eyes of the princes of our age, or of those who are their followers and find no love or meaning but in their expendable busts. 

In the garden of these pages we encounter the whimsy and abandon of the eccentric who goes through life, toothless and in colourful rags, giving out flowers just because. Who heard the patter of Death’s slippers by their nightstand and received him with a bouquet. Who throws flowers at grooms and graves, and awoke suddenly as the rose’s final petal fell. We encounter the lyric and litany, the poison, the perfume, the lament, the laughter, and the eschatological love poem. The flowers that open above us. 

Flowers have been plucked from a well pick’d troop of poets, poets of the other breath, of the diverse brushstroke and the obscure melody. Major figures in English, Spanish, Arabic, American, and Welsh literatures, as well as newly emerging voices. Poets both young and old, and poets dead as much as living. Poets who have proven themselves worthy of the appellation, not just through prizes, accolades or infamy but through a certain generosity of the spirit and a marked commitment to the Poetry. This almost spiritual pedigree, of wise innocence, of beatific inspiration, might be boiled down into two words, which in some ways, are each a reflection of the other. For the old: trust. For the young: bravery. 

All poems appear in English and Spanish, and one in Arabic. The two languages form a dialectic in which meaning is generated in the space between them. It is in this hermeneutic tension between the Yes and the No, at the interstice between the two different tongues, between the dead nettle and white archangel, right in the centre of the book, that the beginning of an answer is given to the riddle of all riddles. 

_________________________________________

This book is a fairy dart tipped with a draught to re-enchant a chantless world. That the lector remember his or her mortality and live all the more fully for it. Our aim is true. We swear by all flowers.

A Song for the Stars (& Trekkers)

Greetings, Earthlings.

I am recovering from the whirl of VCon 41, at which the Pallahaxi Players read Carlos Lozano Gilabert's play Deep North, and at which I participated in a writers workshop, attended and participated in panels, contributed my usual joie de prose pourpre (or "joy of purple prose": apologies to actual French speakers), ran around after The Kids, AND SO ON.

But for the moment I want to bring to your attention something that had nothing to do with me at all, except that I was lucky enough to be at the Opening Ceremony and perfectly seated to film Karl Johanson, editor of Neo-Opsis Magazine, sing his stirring anthem in honour of Star Trek's Fiftieth Anniversary.

Attend:

Coming Up Fast! VCon 41: Readings, Readings, & (OMG) More Readings!!!

It's that time again, folks--the time when you look at my blog and think, oh! She's not dead!

No, she's not. And this year I will be as active as ever at VCon. I am gathering my forces (two nieces, a nephew, a friend, and an honorary nephew) and storming the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel in Surrey for the weekend.

I've agitated until a panel I want to see (not be in) was organized:

Friday, September 30 • 18:00 - 18:50

Women Veterans of Vancouver Fanzine Fandom

This is special to my heart as I was once a reader of, and occasional producer of, fanzines (I still read faithfully a couple of zines, such as Bruce Gillespie's Science Fiction Commentary.) For years I had a beautiful Gestetner machine in my kitchen--indeed, as a young pup my main job at my place of employ was tending to the Gestetner room. Now I get to sit back and listen to tales of yore from them that was there. Yippee!

The following morning we are staging another Pallahaxi Players event:

Saturday, October 1 • 11:00 - 11:50

Pallahaxi Players Reader Theatre Presents 'Deep North' by Carlos Lozano Gilabert

I'm excited about this one. Carlos Lozano Gilabert has been widely published in Mexico and Spain, but this is his first performance in Canada. His play involves the crash of a rescue plane in the far north of Canada, and things that go AAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! in the night.

Later:

Saturday, October 1 • 14:00 - 14:25

Reading: Casey June Wolf & Eileen Kernaghan

I love reading with Eileen. We have been reading together, critiquing each other's works, and generally getting buzzed on writing for many years now. I will be reading from my latest publication, "Fog". Eileen is being coy about what she will read, but as one of my all time favourite authors (and I really do mean that, I am not just out-gassing because she's my friend) I know I will enjoy whatever it is.

On Saturday morning I get to enjoy the usual In Camera Writers Workshop, which critiques I am almost finished doing now. This is followed by:

Sunday, October 2 • 15:30 - 16:50

Turkey Readings

Always a favourite for me, when we in the front of the room get to go over the top in reading aloud from, shall we say purple? science fiction novels of past glory, while audience members act them out, and others pay good money to make them stop. And start. And stop... A fund raiser for the Canadian Unity Fan Fund. A good last hurrah for me before I get to flake up to the hospitality suite for a cuppa joe.

See you there?

"Fog"

It's out!

The Nettle Tree – Jun 12 2016

by Kenneth Weene (Editor), Bye Clifford Clayton (Editor)

Strangely Different Stories ... The Nettle Tree, edited by Kenneth Weene and Clayton Bye, is a collection of genre stretching and busting stories by some of the most talented writers we have. Their challenge was to write strangely different western stories in a format of 3,000 words or less and to take you to places traditional westerns have never taken you. We think they have succeeded admirably. And with powerhouse writers, some known and others whom readers will find delightful discoveries, you will not be disappointed.

Available in e-book and trade paperback.

Coming Soon...

I have been sawing away at a tremendously huge poetry collection for the last couple of years, sending out the odd one but mostly just writing and writing and editing some more. All very different from the story writing that used to be my focus. However, I did pop out one story recently in response to a call for submissions, and had "Fog" accepted for the upcoming anthology The Nettle Tree, a collection of strangely different westerns. I have also had several poems accepted for the upcoming Your Death Full of Flowers, and yes, flowers are pretty much the main focus, but in myth and spirit settings. Both of these are poised to be published in the fall.

Also in the fall, VCon 41. Looking forward as usual to the fun and frolic.

Theme: Muppets, Puppets and Marionettes Friday, September 30 – Sunday October 2, 2016.
At the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel.

Here's a wee spot from Co-Op Radio about VCon 41.

See you there!



Image: By Steve Hillebrand, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

"This is for Mrs Zaberewsky" in Issue #1 of Polar Borealis

R. Graeme Cameron, known and loved by SF fen the world over (especially on the Wet Coast), has launched a new semi-prozine called Polar Borealis, in which he hopes to feature beginning writers, with a few oldtimers like myself to help out.

To my delight, my niece Flora Jo Zenthoefer has the lead story in the zine--"Paperwork for Mazes". My own silly story, "This is for Mrs Zaberewsky", falls somewhere around page 38.

Thanks to Graeme for his energy and encouragement for young writers--Graeme has been running the VCon Writers Workshops for some years now, among his many other fannish offerings.

Download a free copy of Polar Borealis and get reading!

My Schedule at VCon 40--Join Me?

VCON 40

• Schedule
  
• Speakers
• Attendees

Casey June Wolf

Vancouver, BC

finedayscriptorium.blogspot.cae." 

Casey June Wolf writes poetry

in addition to short fiction

ranging in genre from SF to

slipstream. She lives in 

Vancouver with her aged cat, who accompanies her on wet walks

and stealth yoga in the back yard every night.

“Wolf uses different genres, different voices, different cultures;

in short whatever she needs to make the story work. What ties it

all together is her sure-handed prose and a depth she brings to her

writing, that indefinable element that rises up from between the

lines and gives a good story its resonance.

”

Charles de Lint

My Speakers Sessions

Saturday, October 3
7:00pm Reading

Sunday, October 4

10:00am

Writer's Workshop (Closed Session)

3:00pm

Turkey Readings