Richard H. Fay

Please consider voting for me and my works nominated in the P&E Readers Poll.

"Vengeance of the Alpe", published in the All Souls' Night 2010 issue of Hungur, has been nominated in the Horror Short Stories Category. Of course, this one could possibly fit just as easily in the Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Stories Category, since it has fantasy elements as well as elements of horror. At times, I like to write works that cross genre boundaries, just to cause confusion. ...

My depiction of the richly decorated late medieval poleaxe attributed to Edward IV now appears on a couple of items (a tie and an iPhone case) in the Azure Lion Productions Zazzle Store.

I've actually spent quite a few hours getting a couple new images in the store, and getting my existing images on the newest Zazzle items. My wrist is sore from all the clicking and typing, and my eyes are strained from staring at the ...

My "Scottish Thistle" now appears on merchandise in the Azure Lion Productions Zazzle Store. According to legend, the plans of the Norwegian King Haakon IV to launch a decisive surprise attack on the Scots in 1263 came to naught when one of his men cried out in pain after stepping barefoot on a thistle. Thus alerted to the approaching enemy, Alexander ...

My horrorku "darkening sky" has been posted (December 2nd) in Trapeze Magazine. What swirls around in the stormy sky may be more than just clouds. That darkening may herald the arrival of something more evil than savage wind and torrential rain. That was the thought, anyway.

My art appears on the cover of Shelly Bryant's poetry collection Under the Ash, published by Sam's Dot Publishing. This time around, I was actually able to read the collection before I composed the cover art. I tried to incorporate imagery inspired by a few of Shelly's poems into the drawing. The piece that developed as a result has some pretty strange elements, and was rather disturbing to draw. I especially worried that the figure hanging from the tree with a serpent around its neck would be too ...

My dark speculative poem "The Collector", originally published in the Spring 2008 issue of DemonMinds and also published in the DemonMinds, Spring 2008 print edition, will be appearing in the January 2011 issue of The Dark Fiction Spotlight. The TDFS team actually called it an "incredible piece". It was something I wrote after watching the movie Jeepers Creepers. It was inspired by the movie, but I went in a bit of a different direction. Let me just say that my artistic side ...

I have been told that I have a rather unique artistic style. When you compare my works to other works currently out there, it does indeed appear to be true; I seem to have a fairly unique style.

However, I've come to the conclusion that unique isn't always the best when it comes to trying to sell art to publications. Sometimes, I think my uniqueness backfires. I may produce works too different from "the norm" for the tastes of some editors. In at least one instance, I had ...

A dark speculative poem and an illustration of mine have both been accepted for publication in the May 2011 Sam's Dot Publishing anthology Cover of Darkness. However, it appears that the poem and illustration will not be appearing together. Apparently, they will be in the same issue, just not side-by-side.

If that works for the editor, it works for me.

Yay, an acceptance again after a long string of rejections from various publications! I was hoping I would finally ...

My horrorku "musty ebon tome" has been posted (November 23rd) in the tweet-length speculative poetry publication Microcosms.

That wizardly story I keep going on about has been rejected by pro-venue number three. It has been dutifully sent to pro-venue number four, although I'm going to run out of potential pro-venues soon.

Alas, it looks like this one won't see publication in the pros. However, that should come as no surprise. With this story, I wrote what I wanted to write, instead of writing for my potential markets. It was probably a mistake, but I often go my own way in spite of it all.

...

My dark speculative cinquain "Consequence of Taking Too Much", which originally appeared in the October 2008 issue of Macabre Cadaver, now appears in the November 2010 issue of the web-zine Aphelion. I think there is a little bit of interesting word play in this piece, but I could be seeing too much in my own poem.

Check it out and see for yourselves.

My cover art for David C. Kopaska-Merkel's poetry collection Brushfires is handsome, or so says the poet himself:
Brushfires cover
I wish I could take all the credit, but I just did the art. Credit must certainly go to the Sam's Dot Publishing cover designer as well. That font used for the title does a fine job of complimenting my art. Still, I do think that the art itself is very eye-catching.

Brushfires is available at the Genre Mall. David also mentions on the Dreams and Nightmares blog ...

Remember that wizardly fantasy story I mentioned in my previous post "Let the Rejections Begin"? Well, the story has been rejected by pro-venue number two, which came as no great surprise. I figured its chances of getting accepted for publication at this particular venue were practically nil. The story in question has been dutifully sent to pro-venue number three. Will it receive rejection number three, or is the third time a charm? I can't even begin to guess its chances at this third ...

This may be contrary to the prevailing notion in the realm of writing, but I feel that writing without adjectives is like cooking without spices. Alright, I may be able to buy into the idea that adjectives can be overused; I certainly can't eat overly spicy foods. I have to take extreme care when using peppercorns in any dish; too many peppercorns can definitely be a bad thing! However, I think adjectives spice up writing, give it that little bit of extra flavour. I would never make my special pumpkin ...

My horrorku "empty ballroom" has been posted in the tweet-length speculative fiction and poetry e-zine Trapeze Magazine. In this piece, I was inspired by the idea of ghostly sounds. Ghosts may be heard and not seen. In a haunted ballroom, you may just hear the swishing of old-fashioned shirts as long-dead souls continue to dance for all eternity. Or, maybe it's merely spectral sounds imprinted on the ether, simply a residue of past fetes.

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