My fantasy poem "Magical Meetings", inspired by the lore that spoke of certain mortals gaining healing and other arcane knowledge from liaisons with the Fair Folk, has been published in the May - July 2011 Issue of Sorcerous Signals. It is accompanied by a very charming illustration by the ever talented Marge Simon. Check it out!

By the way, Sorcerous Signals has a "Make a Donation" button. If you read my poem and liked it, please consider making a donation. It would be fantastic if Sorcerous Signals were to receive enough donations to cover the money already paid out and then some, with 75% of the remainder divided amongst the contributors. Any additional money that I might see from this publication would be a great incentive to keep writing poetry. At times, I wonder if it's worth it.

My horrorku "moonlit moor", inspired by the lore of the Wild Hunt and other spectral hunts, is now on-line at Trapeze Magazine. This is the first of three horrorku of mine slated to be in Trapeze between now and December. It's a form that I have had some success with, which is weird, because I can be long-winded at times. Actually, I think my experience as a composer of speculative haiku has made me more aware of the benefits of brevity. I think I've gained a better understanding of the importance of an economy of words. You simply don't have the luxury of being long-winded when it comes to haiku or speculative haiku derivatives.

Anyway, it's October, it's less than two weeks 'til Halloween, and another of my dark poems is out there for the world to see. I love this time of year.

Since I received my contributor's copy of the August 2010 issue of Sounds of the Night today, I thought now might be a good time to actually mention more about the two poems I have within its pages. "An Invitation to Elfame" and "My Darkly Dear Leanan-Sidhe" both appear in the August issue. Both poems delve into the often seductive-yet-dangerous nature of the fay. "An Invitation to Elfame" comes straight from the lore that suggests a visitation to the faerie realm (sometimes called Elfame or Elfhame) has its hazards, especially for mortals that partake of faerie food and drink. "My Darkly Dear Leanan-Sidhe"  was inspired by tales of the faerie mistress called the Leanan-Sidhe, a lover said to be both inspirational and ultimately lethal.

Along with the two poems, the August issue of Sounds of the Night also contains the "Meet the Writers" interview featuring yours truly, as interviewed by Shelly Bryant. I was surprised to see, at the end of the interview, an editor's note mentioning the fact that my cover art will be appearing on two different forthcoming poetry collections being published by Sam's Dot Publishing. I did cover art for David C. Kopaska-Merkel's Brushfires and Shelly Bryant's Under the Ash, which last I knew were scheduled for publication October 1st. I haven't said much about this before, because I've been waiting until the covers are actually out there for people to see. However, since this information was included in an editor's note at the end of the interview, I figured I would say something now.

So, look for my art on both the cover of Brushfires and the cover of Under the Ash when they come out next month. I'll be sure to post another entry when the collections are out.

My fantasy artwork "Fire Drake at Rest" now appears on several items available for purchase through the Azure Lion Productions Zazzle Store. This time around, I opted to draw a wingless dragon. It's still a standard western European dragon, just minus the wings. Some dragons of fantasy, such as Tolkien's Glaurung, were flightless. Not to mention, medieval artists sometimes depicted their dragons sans wings. A wingless dragon appears in Friedrich Herlin's "St George and the Dragon", now in the collection of the Nordlngen Town Museum.

As for the use of the term "fire drake", that seems to come from a Middle English term for fire dragon, "firdrake", which came from the Old English "fyrdraca" (fire + dragon). Perhaps, to follow the etymology of the word more closely, I should have used "firedrake" without a space, but I've seen it both ways. I've also seen it hyphenated. It probably doesn't really matter that awfully much (says the wordsmith who often spends hours searching for just the right word when composing poetry).