A new anthology, albeit on sad terms: Midnight Streets Press is shutting down after 26 years of operation, and their last release is the anthology SWAN SONG. But what a note to go out on! Twenty excellent pieces of short fiction, including my latest release, “The Salt Flats.”
This story has a lot of different little influences. First, it’s another example of my recent shift into New Weird – that is, letting myself say odd, absurd, or potentially disturbing things through fiction that I wouldn’t previously have thought of saying, or using frameworks that I wouldn’t have previously used. Second, the seed for this story is, of all things, Alan Moore’s V For Vendetta.
You’ll probably remember the concentration camp that V was placed in by the new fascist British government. You might remember the story of the woman who had lived there before, telling whoever took over the cell after her to never give up that final inch. The story of the woman was that she got into acting and discovered her sexuality, which caused her parents to practically disown her. She became a well-known actress in arthouse films, found love, and flowers. Then the war came. The film she won an award for – and one whose posters show up here and there throughout the book – was, of course, The Salt Flats. This is my idea of what that movie might have been about, shortly before the missiles flew and the world was changed forever.
From the publisher:
Horror, dark fantasy, science fiction, slipstream. This is the final anthology that Midnight Street Press will publish. The stories in this anthology are the Editor’s favourites from those received for the ill-fated Roads Less Travelled Magazine.
They include many stories from authors who have appeared over the years in other Midnight Street Press anthologies, and exciting new writers as well.
This is the Press’s Swan Song to the exciting and endlessly evolving world of independent genre publishing.
Enjoy it.
(I’m one of the “exciting new writers”, by the way)
Keep exploring! Discover more fiction from Trevor Zaple, or peruse the 2024 Ho-Ho-Horror Holiday Gift Guide!
