My urban fantasy short story “The Dream Seller” has appeared in the second issue of Weird City, Death or Resurrection (or both), from Weird City Press, and is now available on Amazon, print and kindle. Weird City is a literary magazine dedicated to “strange things in dense places” (possibly similar to the inside of my head), and they pay above US semi-professional rates for story rights, which I appreciate.
“The Dream Seller” is a longish short story, meaning a dinner for two from the publisher, provided my companion is not a ravenous velociraptor. Not that I would take a velociraptor to dinner. Just lunch at McDonalds™ every now and then, when they have the triple beef burger meal on special.
“The Dream Seller” is set in a slightly fictional town in Brazil, and the title comes from a song of the same name by Milton Nascimento: Vendedor de Sonhos; here is the beautiful version by Simone. The story itself has very little to do with the song, although the song was a more serious source for my poem the air chirped by sparrows. I’ve occasionally been tempted to translate the lyrics, but I couldn’t do it justice in English.
This is the tagline for “The Dream Seller”:
For Petrelo, it’s just another work day at the sky fish factory in boring old Laranjeiras, where no-one wants to dissolve in the rain or morph into a piece of furniture. Still, it keeps happening, and then there’s the mace murderer…
how interesting!! the scope of your imaginations draws many smiles on my face 🙂
I have to admit it is quite a weird story. Even for me. 😃
Congrats!!
Obrigado, Vanessa. It reminds me how much writing I’m not doing unfortunately.
You are welcome (in Portugese). Did I tell you my husband had a Brazilian room mate years ago. They got on like a house on fire, similar sense of humour. He was awesome. He made a bold claim when he got to the States, that if he ever got married it would only be to a Brazilian because they are the most beautiful women in the world…then he met Holly from Oklahoma… 😀
He introduced my coffee hating husband to Brazilian coffee…
…he hated it haha.
Just now you did. 😃 I smoked and drank too much of everything in Latin America. I’ve always found Brasileiros to be great friends, right through the cross-section that you get in a country like Brazil. Latin Americans do have tendency to be Latin. This is to be expected. 😄
We have a new mechanic from Brazil. I had a nice chat with his wife. They are from Rio. She said it is beautiful but they love Australia. She said it is too violent there?
Brazil has become more violent and many of the places I went to I would not go to now. Rio is particularly bad, but there are places that are safe (by my standards). Of course you have to know what you’re doing, and once I could pass for a local, not an obvious “wealthy” tourist.
So how long did you live there?
About 6 years in South Am altogether, mostly Brazil.
I have never been. My best friend went on to South America for a few months after she came over to the States for our wedding, she loved Ecuador the most if I remember rightly.
So what about a favourite memory, Steve? Or not favourite? 🙂
A lot of my South American life has wound up in my writing, one way or another. I find it interesting that poetry, say, can be so personal and intimate, while maintaining privacy because the information is like a jigsaw puzzle that can’t be reassembled. I did enjoy staying on an island called Ilha Bela, and it’s in a story and a poem or two. Anyway what I did there was pretty boring, apart from fighting off the bivalves, obviously. 😜
Congratulations.
Thanks. I’m now trying to work up enough enthusiasm to write some more stories to send to publishers.
I may wait till part two comes out in february to purchase both at the same time.
I can’t really comment on the other stories in Weird City because I haven’t read them. When my story appears in Issue 2, I will purchase a few copies because I like to support my publishers. If you do purchase, I hope you enjoy, Tamaya. 😃
Something else I really need to do and haven’t is make an up-to-date list on this website of where my short fiction/poetry (sold to publishers) is and whether it is free to read or not. I am definitely going to do that. Very soon. 😃
Congratulations on publication of your story! Some of your writing reminds me of Ursula Le Guin..great details and imagination.
Thanks. Ursula Le Guin, I’m flattered. Quite a bit of my writing is based on reality, at least to some extent: surreal things happen and they stick in your mind. Okay, I might be exaggerating somewhat. 😃