I asked fellow The Rabbit Hole Weird Stories Destination:Journey anthology contributors to share some things about themselves prior to publication and those generous enough to do so will be appearing here for the next week or so.
Each entry gives a taste of their contribution, a little about them, how to contact them, how their story came about, and definitely a link to The Rabbit Hole Weird Stories Destination:Journey (which you should purchase because it would make each and every one of us happy.
you do want to make us happy, don’t you?
i mean, considering what we wrote, you want us to know you’re a good person, right?).
Let’s start with an introduction to the anthology as a whole:
“Life is a journey, not a destination.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Emerson’s point has been echoed by many, but in the Land of the Weird the question arises, “A journey to what destination?” At the same time, you might ask, “Is the journey therefore the destination?” The journey may well be an individual’s destination, because it will define them physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And in the Land of the Weird, that journey can take twists and turns that amuse, sadden, or horrify.
This trip into the Land of the Weird offers you 39 unique trails to follow, assisted by 35 different guides, each leading you down their own singular paths, manifesting their own view of journey as destination, some laughing, some weeping, and some, eyes wide with fear, shaking as they point out the spectral footpath for you to follow on your way down The Rabbit Hole.A Writers Co-op Production
Stories by: Chere Taylor, Brian R. Quinn, Arthur M. Doweyko, Donna J. W. Munro, Tom Howard, Kayla Whittle, Leslie Muzingo, Pete Barnstrom, Emmie Christie, Thomas Nicholson, GD Deckard, Richard DeRobertis, M.C. Schmidt, James Dorr, Rosalind Goldsmith, Margaret Karmazin, J.W.Wood, James Rumpel, Bill McCormick, v.f. thompson, Fran Tabor, David K. Slay, Joseph Carrabis, Jane Frankel, Alice Baburek, Susan R. Morritt, Bobby Rollins, Lee Clark Zumpe, Denice Penrose, Stephen McQuiggan, H. Donovan Lyón, Anna Ross, Michael Pudney, Beth Gaydon, and Tom Wolosz.
Tom’s contribution is OUROBOROUS. Here’s the opening:
Standing by the pond he was struck, as always, by what was missing.
The mixed stand of maples, paper birch and evergreens swayed gently, a palette of gentle pine- and deep forest-green needle and leaf, with the nut-browns, greys and dirty streaked whites of trunks and branches peeking out from within and beneath the canopy. Sapphire pond waters rippled gently in time to the swaying of the trees, and fluffy cotton-ball clouds gently frolicked through the azure sky; all crying out to him that a gentle breeze caressed them, propelled them, danced with them.
Yet he felt nothing.
How the story came about:
I’ve been fascinated by the prospect of emulations — basically the copying of human consciousness into a computer, creating a facsimile of a human being within the machine which could perform all the tasks the original could. Of course, there are downsides to everything…
About Tom Wolosz:
Tom ‘DocTom’ Wolosz is a paleoecologist, hiker, writer and semi-pro photographer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he learned to love the outdoors early in life, which might explain how he ended up as a Professor of Geology at Plattsburgh State College in upstate New York. Retired from the college, he now replaces grading student writing with editing other peoples’ stories, acting as an associate editor for The Rabbit Hole, vol. 0 and 3, and senior editor for The Rabbit Hole vol. 4 and 5.
DocTom’s first novel Agony of the Gods, Softly Falls the Snow was published in 2014. His short stories have appeared in Second Taste Anthology, and The Rabbit Hole vols. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
See all The Rabbit Hole Weird Stories Destination:Journey stories here.