Women Writing the Weird, ed. Deb Hoag, Dog Horn Publishing.
Launched October 31, 2011.
Stories from the First Ladies of Freak: Nancy A. Collins, Eugie Foster, Janice Lee, Rachel Kendall, Candy Caradoc, Mysty Unger, Roberta Lawson, Sara Genge, Gina Ranalli, Deb Hoag, C. M. Vernon, Aliette de Bodard, Caroline M. Yoachim, Flavia Testa, Aimee C. Amodio, Ann Hagman Cardinal, Rachel Turner, Wendy Jane Muzlanova, Katie Coyle, Helen Burke, Janis Butler Holm, J.S. Breukelaar, Carol Novack, Tantra Bensko, Nancy DiMauro, Moira McPartlin.
RRP: £14.99 ($28.95).
The playground looked as empty as ever at this scant-shadowed time of day except for the mother, he guessed, talking on the phone over by the basketball court. Well, she had her back to them, to her child. To the pale little hand lying amongst the scattered leaves, camouflaged you could say, if not for the bright bracelet of blood still clinging to the severed edge… ” (Excerpt from Lion Man, J.S. Breukelaar, in Women Writing the Weird)
Available Exclusively Online from October 2011: HERE.
Available in Stores: May 2012
INK, by J.S. Breukelaar
An armless pianist, a demon, a psychopath and other “freaks”… J.S. Breukelaar’s characters could definitely spring out of some acid-fueled freak show and yet she manages to give them a depth and a humanity that is both chilling and fascinating. Following the short stories, you will find a small collection of J.S. Breukelaar’s poetry, which is as hard as it is sensitive – pushing the reader towards emotional unbalance and satori-like experience. A major new woman’s voice in literature, J.S. Breukelaar’s stories and poetry is an must-have for all those who are dedicated to REAL literature. —Sebastien Doubinsky)
In that special insidious way all really distinctive writers have, her words seem to warp the larger field beyond the pages and to change the unfolding story of the alleged world. In reading Breukelaar, I find myself examining what’s going on around me more closely, and pondering the age- old questions: how deep is the surface—how dark is the light? How eventful are the comings and goings one floor below? Breukelaar conjures a range of associations, from William Burroughs and Kathy Acker to Cormac McCarthy and J.G. Ballard—but who else could write, I can’t help feeling like I’m lying in Grandma Juice…? —Kris Saknussemm)
The urchin’s eyes were open, a dark bubble of blood teased in and out of her mouth with every shallow breath. In what manifested as a single movement, Norma then scooped the child into her arms, smashed the lackey’s nose with her elbow, grabbed the knife from the floor and pinned Augustine’s scrotum to the bar with it, and was out the door. The men would later put it down to a trick of the light, random static in their adrenal glands, the way blurred fragments of her form—a swinging arm, a boot—looked strung out across space and time, the way she seemed to be both here and dimly adumbrative, there. (From ‘The Fall,’ in Ink)
Available in selected stores: Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego; Shearers, Sydney; Gleebooks, Sydney; Better Red than Dead, Sydney; more coming soon. email jsb42@me.com for more info.
