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2024 positives: I had a novel published, and had the rights revert back to me. I managed to have three stories released, and one appeared in one Crystal Lake's story contests.
 Oh, yeah, and I had surgery before a heart attack laid me down for the big sleep.
Otherwise, 2024 was a dumpster fire.
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Local 58's "Contingency" feels far more like a documentary these days. Out this week. My story "Itch" is Story 3 of 16 in Crystal Lake Publishing's Flash Fiction Contest. This theme focuses on psychological horror and appeared on November 6, 2024. You'll need to be a Patreon member, but if you enjoyed it, consider giving it your vote.  My story "Boys" is out today. You can find it in ParSec [Digital Magazine] - Issue 12, along with great work from Peter Daley, Joanna Corrance, and H. P. Howell, among others, and features an interview with Ken MacLeod and cover art by Jim Burns.  I'll see you on the page.
My story "Cuckoo Cocoon" appears in Road Kill: Texas Horror by Texas Writers 9 curated by Bret McCormick . curated by Bret McCormick and published by Hellbound Books. It includes stories by Mario E. Martinez, L. H. Phillips, Lucas Strough, Aimee Trask, Armando Sangre, W. R. Theiss, C. W. Stevenson, and Jae Mazer, among others.  You can pick up a copy here, or come to Haunt Happy Books on November 15, where Julie Aaron, William Jennings, Juan Pérez, and I will be signing copies.  Hope to see you there. If not, I'll see you on the page.
For your post-Halloween reading, the Criterion Channel has a few interesting horror articles. Up first is an interesting view of the Val Lewton-produced classic I Walked With a Zombie, with a a focus on how outsiders find some worlds inaccessible. Desire and its erasure, past and present, the living and the dead (the two camps into which the final voice-over narration, spoken by an unidentified Black Christian priest, separates the characters), embraced as a flow of fragmentary and dematerialized appearances: this is all that remains of the narrative of I Walked with a Zombie after the scene of Mrs. Rand’s rejected confession. This disintegration hints (and The Leopard Man, especially, will confirm) that, for Tourneur, the main theme of a film is nothing but its style—another reason, no doubt, why he found it fruitful not to specialize in any particular genre. The world of Tourneur is a collection of scattered fragments, seen from the point of view of a compassionate outsider who finds the pattern that preserves their secretiveness and their discontinuity.  Horror's popularity with general audience waxes and wanes, with different obsessions and approaches bases on time and societal anxiety. Michael Atkinson's The Psychosocial Dread at the Heart of Japanese Horror discusses how this reflection affected Japan's approach to horror. In the ’80s, modernity began to seem unnerving enough on its own. The anxious focus and expressive politics of Japanese horror changed with the toggle to what became world-famous as “J-horror” (after a good deal of horror-adjacent punkish experimentation, as with Nobuhiko Obayashi’s hilariously goofy House, from 1977, and Shinya Tsukamoto’s suppurating Tetsuo: The Iron Man, from 1989). The historical moment was ripe, and uncertainty took hold: 1989 was both the end of Emperor Hirohito’s seemingly infinite reign, and the popping of the country’s huge economic bubble, sending the Japan of the ’90s into a deflationary spiral. Abandoning the fabled past, filmmakers leaned into the anxieties of late-twentieth-century life–including, prominently and presciently, the ghostliness of digital technology.  I have not seen The Entity. Given Gavin Smith's Misogyny Incarnate: The Unspeakable Truth of The Entity, it may be rough-going. That doesn't mean I have no interest, however. Believe it or not, The Entity can be understood as a feminist parable. A showcase for Hershey’s fearless and committed performance (Jane Fonda, Sally Field, and Jill Clayburgh reportedly gave hard passes before it came to Hershey), it gives us something that used to be rare in the horror genre—a living, breathing, intelligent, three-dimensional woman. The film foregrounds the skepticism that rape victims often face. Carla’s credibility is even undermined by her son, who begins to equivocate about what he’s witnessed and experienced, and it’s only when Cindy confirms what she’s seen that Carla begins to find hope. If the entity is misogyny incarnate, the film finds in Carla a formidable and sympathetic heroine, one who ultimately emerges intact from the trauma of her harrowing ordeal, the damage to her self-esteem that Sneiderman’s well-meaning treatment has inflicted on her, and her reduction to a hapless test subject in the parapsychologist’s foolhardy experiment. Finally standing up for herself, she defies her unseen tormentor, declaring, “You can’t have me.” (But in the film’s chilling final scene, the entity speaks for the first time, gutturally uttering three words and effectively getting the obscene final say.)  Mark your calendars. I'll be at Armadillocon this September. Details here. I'll post my convention schedule as soon as it's finalized. Hope to see you there.  A notice for (and warning to) the curious: I have been interviewed by the wonderful Mike Davis of the Lovecraft eZine. You can find it on YouTube.  There's a reason those who log onto this website (which I'm guessing aren't many) might not have seen updates until recently.
The following was posted on my social media site on February 29, 2024. It has been edited and cleaned up where necessary. -- Wanted to thank everyone for the well-wishes. Here’s the scoop. In December, I saw my doctor a routine checkup. Among the things to address was a CT scan based on both a consistently high cholesterol score and family history. “You might have a silent killer in your chest and not even know it.” Shortly after my visit I’d have chest pains. They weren’t major and only occurred with exertion. I wasn’t terribly concerned; my blood pressure remained in normal limits and my heart rate seemed consistent, if occasionally elevated. Looking at me, all seemed fine. Still, I set up the appointment for my CT scan for late afternoon on February 6. Just past midnight on February 6, I had a rapid heart rate and chest pains. I went to the emergency room. The doctors said my blood work looked good, and chest X-ray indicated no issues. All the same, they recommended I schedule an appointment with a cardiologist. I went home and caught a nap, then went to my appointed CT scan, where the tech said I would hear from my doctor in a day or two. February 7, I spoke with the hospital for an ER follow-up and asked for cardiologist recommendations. I made an appointment with Austin Heart Health for Friday, February 16. February 8, I receive a call from my doctor’s office to schedule an appointment. Alarm bells ring; if everything was okay, they could tell me the results via telephone. I make the appointment for February 20. Already I take precautions. I exercise, more but get winded easily. My chest hurts more. I try to change some of my diet. I’d eliminated soft drinks the month before but remained mostly okay. February 15, I receive the results of my CT scan. They’re high. Extremely high. And I try immediately to figure out how to navigate what might become an entirely different life. February 16, I see the cardiologist and present him the CT scan. He’s concerned but not alarmed. We set an appointment for an angiogram on February 21, to see what exactly is going on around my heart. February 20, I see my doctor to update her. February 21, I have the angiogram. It reveals multiple blockages. Stents would be useless; bypass surgery is necessary. We schedule it for February 23, but a cancellation on the surgeon's part shifts the schedule to a day earlier. February 22, I have bypass surgery. I’m home today. I’ll have about eight weeks of recovery, including physical therapy. No driving for about eight weeks. No lifting anything heavier than ten pounds. Right now I’m going through a mixture of emotions: anger, depression, self-loathing, among many others. The procedure save my life. Without it, a heart attack would have been likely by the end of the year. If I owe you anything, bear with me. I’ll get it to you as soon as I can. Yeah I’m fighting the urge to break down in tears. I’m trying to rebuild some self-worth. For now, for today, I’m alive. And for today, that’s enough. -- As the Monkees sang, that was then, and this is now. On March 29, I followed-up with my cardiologist. We reviewed the video of my angiogram to reveal pervasive blockages. It's terrifying to see the inside of my body and its attempts to kill me. Nevertheless, he remains optimistic. "You're young, you're healthy, and are going to live a long time," he said. I asked him if a heart attack would have been likely this year. He nodded. "You would have had it within a month. And it would have been a bad one." I'm pretty much back to my normal life, with changes to diet and exercise as necessary. No red meat. More walking. Less fat. I haven't written anything since my release but I'm finally starting to outline my second novel and a couple of stories. The idea that I am still alive surprises me, especially after I spent weeks concerned I would go to bed and not wake up. That I avoided a heart attack poised to kill me continues to be sobering. Regardless, as I wrote then, for today, I'm alive. And for today, that's enough.  If you're attending ArmadilloCon this weekend, I hope to see you there. My ArmadilloCon schedule is as follows:
Friday 5:00 p.m. Does Dark Have to Be So, Well, Dark? Ballroom F, 5pm - 5:45pm Tags: Speculative Fiction Literature* Type: Panel Discussion Emma Berquist (moderator), Lauren Raye Snow, Derek Austin Johnson Dark shows up a lot these days in speculative fiction, especially in horror and grimdark. But does it always have to be bleak and depressing? Thinking of those like Charles Addams and Edward Gory who made dark themes fun. Who else does it well? 9:00 p.m. Horror for the Last 10 Years Southpark A, 9pm - 9:45pm Tags: Speculative Fiction Literature* Type: Panel Discussion Lee Thomas (moderator), Gabino Iglesias, John Hornor Jacobs, Derek Austin Johnson Looking at horror fiction published since 2015, especially how the genre has changed since its heyday. 10:00 p.m. When Mysteries Meet Horror Ballroom F, 10pm - 10:45pm Tags: Speculative Fiction Literature* Type: Panel Discussion Jon Black (moderator), Joe R. Lansdale, Emma Berquist, Rick Klaw, Derek Austin Johnson, Josh Rountree, Jess Nevins Exploring the spaces where mystery and horror meet, from the pulps to the modern day. What do these two genres share? Where do they differ? Panelists will offer their takes on horrific mysteries (or mysterious horror) that worked for them, or didn’t, and why. They will share their experiences and advice for crafting unique tales which bring the best of both genres. Saturday 1:00 p.m. What You Should Have Watched This Year Southpark A, 1pm - 1:45pm Tags: Fandom* Type: Panel Discussion Jeremy Brett (moderator), A. T. Campbell, III, Beth Anderson, Derek Austin Johnson, Rhonda Eudaly Our panel goes over the highlights (and lowlights?) of SFF movies and television for the past year. 5:00 p.m. Reading - Johnson Southpark B, 5pm - 5:30pm Tags: Readings* Type: Reading - Single Author Derek Austin Johnson Reading - Johnson Sunday 11:00 a.m. The Vampire Renaissance Ballroom E, 11am - 11:45am Tags: Fandom* Type: Panel Discussion E.A. Williams (moderator), Ari Marmell, Lauren Raye Snow, Derek Austin Johnson, Jess Nevins Vampires have been a part of pop-culture far as long as people have been telling stories. They may have traded their capes and castles for leather jackets and night clubs, but these blood-thirsty creatures of the night are still hanging on. After a dip in popularity, vampires once again are on the rise. What makes these monsters such an enduring part of our culture? What are some classic tropes you want to see re-imagined? What is better left in the coffin? You can find the entire schedule on the con's website. |
Derek Austin Johnson has lived most of his life in the Lone Star State. His work has appeared in The Horror Zine, Rayguns Over Texas!, Horror U.S.A.: Texas, Campfire Macabre, The Dread Machine, and Generation X-ed. His novel The Faith was published by Raven Tale Publishing in 2024.
He lives in Central Texas. Archives
November 2024
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