So somehow I turned into a short story writer. I write them all the time, on the train, sometimes a snippet at work in the body of an e-mail, on a bench at Coney Island, yet when I first put this website together, I wrote that my short stories were mostly for exercise, that I consider myself primarily a novelist and that I rarely even read short stories. But over the past few years I’ve been drawn to both the form and the concept, and I’ve been lucky enough to get stories published in anthologies and magazines, enough, apparently, to catch the attention of Lethe Press. They contacted me and asked if I could submit a collection of speculative short stories for them to consider; they liked what they saw and Pumpkin Teeth was born. I was subsequently honored that Pumpkin Teeth was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award as well as nominated for a Black Quill Award.
I always knew what I would title my first short story collection; most every story is a story of transformation, but I am fascinated by this particular bent of anthropomorphism, that not only do we project ourselves onto things, but then we become terrified of them, never realizing it’s the human qualities that are so frightening.
It’s not Halloween until we carve the teeth onto a pumpkin.
Failed Normalcy: Dark Scribe Interview
Below are some of the stories that appear in Pumpkin Teeth.
Lightning Capital
I had an idea for a fantasy story that I simply thought about for years –literally
decades. I came up with it in High School and never wrote one word
until it hit me that I just needed to put it on paper. It just flowed
out of me in one night. I sent it to Lodestar Quarterly and
then noticed that Suspect Thoughts Journal had an up-coming
theme issue that was a perfect match, so I e-mailed Lodestar and
asked if I could withdraw it. Of course I felt like a flake and they
were totally nice about it and even offered to still consider another
story I sent them. Suspect Thoughts accepted it the very next
day.
Suitcase Sam
One of the sickest things I’ve written, Suitcase Sam, appeared
in the first issue of Red Scream Magazine. They accidentally
fucked up the ending by leaving out a paragraph or two. I've been reading
one William S. Burroughs book a year for the last few years and after
finishing his novel Junkie I was really energized to write
a story with heroin in it- I didn't want it to be the subject of the
story, but something incidental, a black key to something even darker.
Well this jelled with another idea I had about sexual mutilation, just
a horrible image I couldn't shake for awhile now…anyway, I was aiming
for a story that would make Clive Barker's Books of Blood look
like it was for kindergarteners. Velvet Mafia reprinted the story.
Mishima Death Cult
My first published story was in 2004 with Velvet Mafia. I
was thrilled that the editor, Sean, liked my story. He’s since published
some of my other stuff and we’ve read together at the annual Velvet
Mafia reading that I help put together. He’s been great in making recommendations
and introductions. I had read Dennis Cooper's My Loose Thread and
had been reading a lot of Yukio Mishima when I got the ludicrous idea
of a murderous High School cult being inspired by his books, so that's
the story here.
I’ve also written erotica, and I’ve written stories that I didn’t think were erotic at all but ended up in erotic anthologies. Some of this I did for exposure, some as a challenge (like if I was invited to participate in a book, even if I didn’t already have a story or even the inclination, I still decided to go for it; my attitude is never say no to an invitation because you don’t know when or even if you’ll receive another). 2007 saw my first appearance in anthologies. Richard Labonte had seen something of mine and invited me to submit to Country Boys. I quickly remembered this rather hot dream I’d had years ago, gave it a hick twist and submitted it. He accepted River Boy for that and also took my story, Funeral Clothes, for Best Gay Erotica 2008. Also that year, an excerpt of my novel, The Werewolves of Central Park, opened So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction. Obviously this felt great, but also served as a lesson in perseverance as I had three other stories accepted into anthologies, only to be bumped from one at the last minute, and the press that was to publish the other two went under! And that just means one thing: keep sending out stories. Rejection is a hurdle, not a wall.
The next year I scored with stories in Backdraft: Firemen Erotica, Best Gay Romance, Best Gay Stories, and Madder Love: Queer Men and the Precincts of Surrealism.
In late 2009 Lightning Capital was reprinted in the premier issue of Icarus: the Magazine of Gay Speculative Fiction. I was in several other anthologies that year, one, a reprint titled Dorm, is an erotic story. I’m glad it’s getting a second life as I wrote this one to counter all of these full-penetration-and-fireworks-the-first-time-I-had-sex stories; that initial touch gets overlooked in gay literature and maybe it’s something we shouldn’t be in such a hurry to reach past. I am also particularly proud to have placed something in Wilde Stories 2010.
