Dominoes in Time
Page 29
Trivia buffs will notice the reference to the evil CalPark corporation, which figures significantly in Eyes Everywhere and Blood Born. Also, the Opposer is mentioned in “The Akashic Records” (Dark Recesses #6, January 2007).
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Bummers
(First published in Alt Hist: The new magazine of Historical Fiction and Alternate History. November 4, 2011.)
What better second story for the “Looking Back” section than one about the past?
It’s true that at least five hundred women cross-dressed as men to become soldiers for the Confederacy and Union during the Civil War. The pay was too good to pass up. The National Archives has a fascinating photo archive on the topic. I discovered it while trolling for a suitable story idea to feature a lesbian or gay character. I have a lot of LGBT friends and feel strongly about supporting them, so I figured I might as well write a horror story worthy of them. The Civil War is also one of my favorite historical periods, and that helped it all come together.
At the time I wrote it, in the dead of winter, our house’s oil-burning furnace gave up the ghost. While waiting several days for a replacement, we had space heaters throughout the house and wore winter coats everywhere but the shower. Feeling a bone-deep cold at the same time I was writing about bone-deep cold was a memorable experience.
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Monarch of the Mountains
(First published in The Lovecraft eZine #33, December 2014.)
Here’s another story set in the Civil War era, except it’s in Virginia City, Nevada, instead of the old South. During my visit to Virginia City few years ago, I toured the carcass of an 1860s silver mine and drank beer in the Bucket of Blood Saloon. I also picked up a book called Mark Twain in Virginia City. It consists of excerpts from Twain’s autobiography Roughing It and contains colorful descriptions of his residence there during the silver rush. “Monarch of the Mountains” was the name of his incipient silver mine.
H.P. Lovecraft is the second granddaddy of this story. I have a long-standing interest in H.P.L.—a relationship with him, you might even say, from having assisted in the republication of a book of his letters (Lovecraft at Last by Willis Conover). This is my best attempt at a Lovecraftian horror story.
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Noah’s Temple
(First published as an audio book, performed by me, on the Variant Frequencies website. April 2010.)
I think it’s appropriate the “Looking Forward” section begins with a story set in the far future.
I started writing this story in my early twenties, when I realized I was attending church only to have a performance venue for my piano playing. So, for me, this was a meditation on why to have religion at all. My boss at the time discovered an early partial draft on my work computer, so she rewrote—vandalized—portions of it to punish me. I put the tale aside and didn’t finish it until years later.
In one of my favorite Star Trek episodes, “The Paradise Syndrome,” Captain Kirk beams down to a planet in the path of an oncoming asteroid. When he suffers amnesia from an injury, he’s adopted by a local American Indian tribe. Yes, somehow there are American Indians on other planets. Anyway, the tribe proclaims Kirk to be a god. They expect him to utilize their sacred obelisk to save their world from the threat. It’s the ultimate depiction of faith: Kirk, with no memory of who he is, beating his fists against the obelisk to be let inside of it. “I am Kirok!” he shouts. “I have come!” After he regains his memory, Kirk and his cohorts discover the obelisk is an ancient alien technology. It contains a powerful deflector beam that pushes the asteroid away.
And I had the gall to believe my premise of ancient technology misconstrued as divine power was original. Hah. Wasn’t my subconscious giving me a clue when I named the god “Khan” (another Star Trek reference)? Still, I think it raises important ponderables about the nature of religious faith, of which I have next to none, versus scientific faith. My favorite parts to write were the Khan Bible verses.
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Die Not in Vain
(First published as a bonus supplement to the Eyes Everywhere limited edition. July 2006.)
And so ends our thematic supra-story with a tale of old age and death. I warned you this isn’t a happy book.
It’s human nature to rail against fate, but there’s always the certainty things might have turned out much worse. This novella proposes a mechanism that keeps us on the safer branches of quantum reality as we move through life.
It started as a catharsis of my own bouts with aerophobia. The opening scene transcribes my racing fears aboard a plane. I didn’t even have a story in mind when I wrote it; I just needed to get it out. It was only after the safe return home that I took a sober look at it and decided it might open a decent tale.
Joe’s addled mother channels my grandmother in the years immediately before her death at age 94. She didn’t have Alzheimer’s, but her thoughts were definitely fuzzy around the edges. I also drew on my experiences with her to write a less successful tale, “Grandma-Sitting” (Inclinations, March 2006).
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That’s it for now. Thanks for your indulgence. Go play some dominoes.
Thank You for Reading
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About the Author
Matthew Warner is a writer in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. His most recent works include The Organ Donor: 15th Anniversary Edition from Bloodshot Books and Empire of the Goddess from Thunderstorm Books. He lives with his wife, the artist Deena Warner, and sons, Owen and Thomas. More info at matthewwarner.com.