Oddlands: You Filthy, Filthy People...

...for publishing my Trent Zelazny tribute, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", here

Trent's story "The Day The Leash Gave Way" is a ground-breaking exercise in splatterpunk, psychological fiction and just plain Lansdale-esque fun. It made me cringe. I had to write one like that, just to see if I could stand in the shadow of this warm-hearted human being and cold-blooded horrormeister who does his Dad proud.

The actual transsexual featured in this story is much more willing than his fictional counterpart. S/he does what s/he likes. S/he and the 'fiancee' are both happy with the arrangement, just...

Damn. Dayom. That's all I have to say about the things that go on in my neighborhood. It's like Patrick McCabe and H.P. Lovecraft wrote Felony Flats when they were bored one day and called Irvine Welsh in to put on a rubber gimp suit and fetch them nitrous and cocktails. I don't make the news, kids. I just report it.

The title, of course, came from Ani diFranco and her great line:"My country 'tis of thee to take swings at each other on national TV..." I used to live for watching 'Jerry Springer' when I was a Fire Guard at the Grove Hotel, simply because it was the most entertaining thing that happened all day if Dog Lady up on 3 didn't start throwing a wingding and there were no fights to break up.

When I read of Mr. Springer's political history, some truly nasty possibilities for alt-hist began to suggest themselves. Add in Ani, the tranny and Trent. Stir.

Anyway, yeah, this one came from a dark place, and there are plenty more on the way like it. Aeon#16 features another Grove tale, the shuddery little 'Rejection Letter', a tribute to an editor further back in the canon than either Zelazny, and his postulated take on the world around us now.

Must go grab a couple episodes of 'Dr. Who' for fuel. I have another long night of writing ahead of me, and a long day of weirder things ahead. Stay Tuned, True Believers. I have not yet begun to distribute filth like MCTOT en masse... (Fiendish cackle, fades out to John Waters organ music...)