So here I’m back to report that I’m taking part in another contest. This time it’s about… Zencore – an unusual anthology where stories are published anonymously.

About Zencore!

I think it’s about time I mentioned Zencore at my blog. This is something aficionados of weird fiction simply should not miss.

Zencore is in fact the seventh issue of Nemonymous – the world’s first series of anonymous anthologies. It is published by DF Lewis, who is also one of my favorite writers. I could go on and tell you a lot about DFL’s wonderful surreal horror fiction, but for this he deserves a separate entry.

The main idea behind Nemonymous is to demonstrate how a piece of fiction is read differently when not having any name attached to it, and that we might be losing a lot due to any preconceptions or expectations related to those names.

The by-lines of the stories are revealed within six months since the publication date of a given issue and included in the next one. The previous issues of Nemonymous didn’t contain any names at all; however the rules have changed now and on the back of Cover of Zencore! the reader can check the list of authors who contributed to this mysterious volume. And here lies quite a challenge for the reader – how to match the right name to the right title.

To tell the truth, this task isn’t easy at all. One has to be familiar with many authors whose names usually are quite common in the small press or don’t ring a bell at all. Considering the latter, one frequently has to rely on intuition and luck to arrange the names correctly.

When I look at the list of authors the only names that sound familiar are: Dominy Clemens, Reggie Oliver, Mark Valentine and… and… oops that’s it. And so far - that is up to my encounter with Zencore - I haven’t read any pieces of fiction by any of these! I’m afraid this will look more like a lottery, and I will have to be really lucky if I succeed in any guesses. But let’s try:

How about finding the fist random thing that could point the name to a given story?

A small google search reveals that:

Scott Edelman an American science fiction, fantasy and horror writer and editor. I suppose his story might be a bit sci-fi.

Charles Black is the editor of The Black Book of Horror, which is inspired by Pan and Fontana similar anthologies from the 60s, '70s and '80s. He says “The Black Book of Horror is a ghoulish celebration of the macabre.” So I presume that if he were to write a horror story it would contain some macabre elements

Daniel Ausema is the author of “The People of the Growing Moon”. Yes that tells me a lot.

Nick Jackson in message board discussion claims he is not the author of "Mary's Gift, the Stars and Frank's Pisser", but if he were he wouldn’t tell.

M. P. Johnson is the author of Ass Chapbook, which is composed of “Three bizarre tales about unfortunate eyeball meals, misplanted tulips and the repurcussions of throwing hamsters off of parking ramps. Not only is it exceedingly cheap at only $2, but it is limited to 50 copies.” Hmm, Upset Stomach?

Kek-w - no idea

Tim Nickels in an interview, when asked about his nouvellette, “Fight Music” he says: Stories were submitted anonymously and this brought a great sense of freedom. I fondly fancy that Gary really thought the story had been written by a 15-year-old shrapnel-gathering schoolgirl.” This means that it is not safe to presume that a female story must be written by a woman and only brings more confusion!!!

Ursula Pflug is the author of the magic realist novel, Green Music, was published in 2002 by Tesseract Books. And… still no idea.

Ok, enough. I think this doesn’t help much. The more I read, the more confused I become with many of these names competing for the same title and others not matching any. I think the best order I can get so far is this:

Torsion S.D. Tullis

MMM – Delicious Reggie Oliver

Undergrowth Mark Valentine

Fugly Patricia Russo

The Nightmare Reader Scott Edelman

The Secret Life of the Panda Dominy Clemens

Upset Stomach M. P. Johnson

The Awful truth about the Circus Tim Nickels

Red Velvet Dust Ursula Pflug

The Coughing Coffin Steven Pirie

Terminus Daniel Ausema

Mary’s Gift, the Stars and Frank’s Pisser Nick Jackson

Blue Raspberries Anonymous

Berian Winslow and the Stream of Consciousness Storyteller E. Sedia

The Plunge Charles Black

England and Nowhere Kek-W

Word Doctor Brian Rappatta

I may be making some obvious mistakes here, but let’s leave it all to luck.

BTW, Zencore can be purchased from here:

Labels: literature