weirdmonger
THE LAST BALCONY (www.nemonymous.com)
Many thanks to www.ttapress.com, Garry Nurrish and JaNell Golden for their part in the production of past Nemonymous issues.
Original stories published in the numinous NEMONYMOUS:
NEMONYMOUS PART ONE
A Smile In The Sky by Gary Couzens
The Friends of Mike Santini by Terry Gates-Grimwood
The Quiet House by Allen Ashley
With Arms Outstretched by Daniel Pearlman
Breaking Rules by Avital Gad-Cykman
The Gravedigger by Lawrence Dyer
Alone by Shawn James
The Idiot Whistled Dead by Simon Clark
The Unmiraculous Life of Jackie Mendoza by Tamar Yellin
Across The Hills by Tony Mileman
All for Nothing by Rhys Hughes
Double Zero For Emptiness by Mike O’Driscoll
Strobe by Paul Kane
Balafer De Vie by Lida Broadhurst
The Mansions Of The Moon by Jeff VanderMeer
Gamlingay Churchyard by A.D. Harvey
NEMONYMOUS PART TWO
Climbing The Tallest Tree In The World by Rhys Hughes
Mighty Fine Days by Antony Mann
The Assistant To Dr. Jacob by Eric Schaller
Buffet Freud by Dawn Andrews
Ice Age by Iain Rowan
The Vanishing ____ And _____ of E_________ E________ by __________
Berenice’s Journal by Richard Gavin
Showcase by Sarah Singleton
Eyes Like Water Like Ice by Jai Clare
Earthworks by Simon Kewin
Striped Pajamas by Margaret B. Simon
The Drowned by Joel Lane
Adult Books by Robert Morrish
Nothing by John Travis
The Secret by G.W. Thomas
A Spot Of Tea by Janet L. Hetherington
White Dream by Neil Bristow
NEMONYMOUS PART THREE
The Bluest of Grey Skies by Michael Kelly
Practice by Jeff Holland
Genie by Tamar Yellin
Gerald And The Soul Doctor by David J Brown
Otterwise by Lucy A.E. Ward
Sirens by Brendan Connell
The Rest Of Larry by Monica O'Rourke
The Ballerina by Lavie Tidhar
Shark In A Foggy Sea by Colin Hains
Scrounge by David Mathew
Twilight Music by Regina Mitchell
Mobile, Phone by Brian Howell
A Small Miracle by Rhys Hughes
Digging For Adults by D. Harlan Wilson
Insanity Over Creamer’s Field by Joe Murphy
Warp by Len Maynard & Mick Sims
The Sleeping Beauty by Tom Williams
Lucia by Paul Evanby
In The Steam Room by Tamar Yellin
Chemo by Terry Gates-Grimwood
The Place Where Lost Things Go by Jorge Candeias
The above authors' bios and nemo statements and decorative quotations are shown to members here:
Veils and Piques
NEMONYMOUS PART FOUR
Apologising To The Concrete
Creek Man
The Death Knell
Determining The Extent
Embrace
The Frog's Pool
Generous Furniture
Leaves Like Hearts
Like A Slow Motion War
My Burglar
Maledict Michela
Nocturne For Doghands
The Painter
Rorschach-interpreter
Sexy Beast
Vole Mountain
The Withering
***********
The crowd were silent
Reading the poems of Baudelaire.
Suddenly, completely unpremeditated,
They lurch forward, in unison,
And sing the National Anthem.
*****
Order of Stories by DFL in 'Weirdmonger' the Book:
The Abacus - Always in Dim Shadow - Angel Of The Agony - Apple Turnover - Back Doubles - Benoko - Big Ship, Little Ship and Brown - Bloodbone - Bobtail - A Brief Visit to Bonnyville - Caretaker - The Chaise Longue - The Christmas Angel - Dark They Were and Empty-Eyed - The Dead - Dear Mum - Digory Smalls - Dognahnyi - Effervescent - Egnis - Encounters with Terror - Find Mine - First Sight - Gongoozler - The Hungerers - The II King - In Unison - The Jack-in-the-Box - The Last Prize - The Merest Tilt - Migrations of the Heart - A Mind's Kidney - Padgett Weggs - Queuing Behind Crazy People - Rosewolf - Salustrade - Scaredy & White Mouth - The Scar Museum - Season of Lost Will - Second Best - A Selfish Strain - The Sun Setting - Shades of Emptiness - The Shiftlings - Small Fry - Small Talk - The Spigot & The Speech Mark - Sponge and China Tea - The Stories of Murkales: Twelve Zodiacal Tales - Stricken with Glee - The Swing - The Tallest King - Tentacles Across the Atlantic (The Story) - The Terror of the Tomb - Todger's Town - Tom Rose - Top of an Angel's Head - Uncle Absolutely - Valedictory - The Walking Mat - Wall Pack - Waning - Watch the Whiskers Sprout - The Weirdmonger - Welsh Pepper - Wild Honey - Wiles.
You will notice that 'The Sun Setting' is still creeping stealthily out of alphabetical order (27/4/04)
*********
The problem of hollowness, then, of a-Voidance, is really one of secondary satisfactions, the attempt to find substitutes for a primary satisfaction of wholeness that somehow got lost leaving a large gap in its place. The British novelist John Fowles calls this emptiness the 'nemo' which he describes as an anti-ego, a state of being nobody. "Nobody wants to be a nobody," writes Fowles. "All our acts are partly devised to fill or to mark the emptiness we feel at the core."
from COMING TO OUR SENSES by Morris Berman
... there is a way of going about enterprise, particularly as it applies to creativity, in which the activity is preceded by wholeness, rather than being a frantic attempt to achieve it. This frantic approach to life is not inevitable; we really don't have to spend our lives chasing ecstasy in an effort to shut down the nemo {nemo: a feeling of hollowness, an anti-ego, a state of being nobody}.
from Coming To Our Senses : Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West -
Morris Berman (Unwin Hyman, 1990, page 316)
Next to her hung a further small picture, showing a saint carrying his own skin.
-- Robert Aickman (The Cicerones)
Her pillow sounded hollow with notes and knockings, notes and knockings you hear in condemned rooms.
--Elizabeth Bowen (No. 16)
WHAT do you call him? Nemo?" says Mr. Tulkinghorn.
"Nemo, sir. Here it is. Forty-two folio. Given out on the Wednesday night at eight o`clock, brought in on the Thursday morning at half after nine.
-- Charles Dickens (Bleak House)
In my fifties looking back at the fifties...
Excitedly waiting for the Beano comic to drop on my doormat every Thursday, the smell of its pages, the stationery smell of newsagents in those days, the smell of books in general, uniform fifties library books (which drabness seemed to accentuate the delights emerging from the print within), my Mum making me wear waterproof leggings when it rained, being able to scribble stories in pencil, using plasticene, throwing bean-bags about in PE, sitting on bristly PE mats, fuzzy grey pictures on the TV screen which, on some evenings, were indecipherable...
and arcade amusements on Walton-on-Naze Pier: hand-cranked cranes that could never quite grapple with the pack of cigs wrapped round with a brown ten bob note, pinballs without flippers, ghost house tableau where a coin would produce a skeleton out of the cupboard, silver balls spinning round vertically into the lose and win holes, the win giving you another turn, the lose losing you your coin. More lose holes than win. A lesson for life?
***
Aren't shadows on the wall sometimes more revelatory than seeing the people that cast them? CHANCE is a novel by Joseph Conrad. Here, the characters and particularly the heroine are drained of any motive or sympathy because of the layering of narrative: we hear a spoken voice telling an inscrutable narrator of someone else’s view of someone else’s view of certain events, mix and match between. But it does not seem to lessen one’s interest in the book: it is character-driven and sympathy is allowed to take a backseat in preference to exploring one’s own motives for assigning certain motives to certain types of people just on the basis of hearsay and chance. Conrad writes in introduction to CHANCE: And it is only for their intentions that men can be held responsible and this novel seeks to show, I think, that any intentions are essentially unknowable. Perhaps even one's own intentions are unknowable: being shadows, too. The heart of darkness.
***
# DF Lewis is God ... DF Lewis manages to crank out story after story, and each one reads better than the last, like a sprawling and surreal novel-in-progress ... In one short page, Lewis manages to unsettle in a way that a ream of small press magazines could never do in a lifetime of trying—STYGIAN ARTICLES
# As for DF Lewis, my view is that he is a national treasure. He writes in a genre of one. His writing is very disciplined, with not a word out of place, and there's such joyful play in the language... —Graham Joyce
# If he’s such a genius, why is he sometimes mocked? Because his work is an acquired taste, like celery or Guinness (Rhys Hughes); The man is a phenomenon (Allen Ashley); Des Lewis, master wordsmith (Paul Pinn); Few can doubt his mastery of words; none can question his genius (Tim Lebbon); “THERE IS ONLY ONE DES LEWIS!” (Simon Clark)—from the intros in AGRA ASKA.
# DF Lewis? When he's bad, he's awful, but when he's good there's no-one can touch him—Rhys Hughes
# Every mag I ever read has a DF Lewis story in it, and none of them are ever any good! ... I thought the small press was all about introducing new talent, and not perpetuating mediocrity!—James Miller in SIERRA HEAVEN #2
# That master of weird dream-like fiction, D.F.Lewis—Simon Clark in THE DERELICT OF DEATH
# At 1.20 or so the rumour went around: The Master had entered the building - the half-century man/the 1000th story man, our very own dear old Des Lewis. Yep, we were all there for a surprise 50th birthday bash. DesCon1 was up and running!—from Allen Ashley's report in BFS NEWSLETTER (May/June 1998)
# The connoisseur of horror will find more sustenance here than in many a bestseller
—Ramsey Campbell's Intro in “BEST OF DF LEWIS”
# I have been reading horror and supernatural fiction for 25 years. What leaves me wide-eyed is the actual ability of this writer to still surprise, even chill, a heart grown used to the second guess. Lewis captures the secret language of commonplace thoughts, as transforms the mundane into the arcane. He is a verbal swordsman. And he knows just how, and where, to strike—from "DF LEWIS: THE WIZARD OF ODD"
#...like jerking off harder and harder, but never quite coming; not until the creature in the corner suddenly lurches out and sucks your brains through your ears—BROKEN PENCIL (Canada) re At'mõs faer
# To many writers, editors and people involved in Horror, DF Lewis is one of the most important writers in the field today—"Getting To Know Des" in BLOODSONGS (Australia)
# He has been cited as one of the acclaimed 'Gothic Light' journal's four favourite fantasy authors—along with Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury and Lewis Carroll ... He is, of course, Des Lewis—TOUCH WOOD (Little, Brown book)
# features an amazing literary talent from England, Mr DF Lewis—BLOODLINES (Hawaii)
#'The Silver Tealeaf', is very short, but delivered with all the power of an expensive perfume. And it opens with one of the best lines I've ever read. Mr Lewis has a true command of the language—DEATHREALM
# Highly sophisticated and wonderfully nightmarish imagination, an expertly controlled and sardonic vision that reminds me as much of avant-gardists like William Burroughs as it does the best traditions of horror literature—Thomas Ligotti in DAGON DFL SPECIAL
# DF Lewis is DF Lewis and there will never be another like him ... Everyone I know is in awe and a fan of his talent—GATHERING DARKNESS
# I’m very sure that medical science will want to examine his brain—Editor in TERROR TALES
# After Derleth rejected two of Lewis' stories in 1968 as being 'pretty much pure grue', Lewis dropped out of sight for twenty years. Hey, we all get rejection slips—Karl Edward Wagner in YEAR'S BEST HORROR
# My first ever taste of the small press was a ‘chance’ discovery of a publication called Dagon. That particular issue contained a single fiction entry, a beautifully sinister tale which haunts me even today, its author was (you guessed it) Des Lewis. So nine years on you can imagine how surprised and delighted I was when, out-of-the-blue, I just happened to find one of his concoctions festering in the post—THE ASPHALT JUNGLE #1
# Whether his prolific output has served, in the long term, to spread his reputation or to dilute it remains to be seen. But for now, his status is unassailable—both as a figurehead of horror fiction’s avant garde and as a dedicated excavator of its traditions—Joel Lane
# As I’ve remarked before, Des Lewis is a true original—Stephen Jones in BEST NEW HORROR
# I saw Elvis at the mall last night. He was eating pizza with DF Lewis. Can't think why they'd ordered anchovies—Karl Edward Wagner
# To properly read a DF Lewis story, one must allow oneself to simply flow along on a tide of words, through whatever twists and turns his strange mind takes you, to a destination you may never actually figure out. But his images linger stubbornly. You know you've been assaulted by a master story-teller—TRANSVERSIONS (Canada)
# With Lewis, it is not essential to understand in order to enjoy ... as funny and as quotable as Pratchett or Adams, without resembling either in the least ...—Paul Beardsley's INTERZONE review of WEIRDMONGER'S TALES
# Terse and vaguely erotic stories where anything can, and does, happen. He takes a variety of viewpoints, and part of the horror lies in the matter-of-fact telling of macabre events. ...teasing stories which pull away into different meanings just when you think you've understood—prose conundrums, but far from humdrum. The prose style is curiously decorated and gothic yet tremendously concise. My favourite story is 'Beyond the Park', full of sinister magic and half-comprehended male power —ORE poetry magazine (UK) re BEST OF DF LEWIS
# This is typical of Lewis' work, concerned with a fellow bedeviled by the story's title character who lurks in the neighbourhood, weirding out the narrator, and all of us - much like Mr Lewis himself—DEATHREALM review of DEAD OF NIGHT MAGAZINE
# If you really need us to tell you who Des is, and what he's accomplished - then, we can only assume that you have only just learnt to read!—PREMONITIONS (UK)
# For my money, DF Lewis is the leading figure in the 'New Lovecraft' circle ... However, just because there is a curse involved, this shouldn't frighten any critics—SF EYE #13
# It’s a great thrill for me to be printing DF Lewis ... I’m a big fan of his work. When I first started reading small press publications, the first ten magazines possessed a story by this man—THE DARKLANDS PROJECT
# I found 'The Weirdmonger' [by DFL] amongst the best stories I've read recently—Mike Ashley in BBR#12
# thought the DF Lewis piece at least semi-autobiographical as he seems in increasing danger of disappearing up his own arse and yet... the day can't be far off when someone writes a story in which the only literature in a post-holocaust society is the collected Des Lewis—J.C. Hartley in letter column of PREMONITIONS #3
# ...he adopted a deliberately obscure style in order to con the reader into assuming that his work contained 'hidden meanings': it didn't - his writing was crap— Philip J. Backers re DFL in AUGURIES #11
# THE WEIRDMONGER'S TALES (art by Camille Gabrielle) "'The British Harlequin of Horror', Lewis is an extraordinary literary genius who is currently dazzling this genre with his verve, nerve and craftmanship. He is certainly one of the most loved and most admired horror/macabre/surreal writers on the contemporary scene. ...this very special tribute to DF Lewis ... shows the master at his best."
# CORSET DIGEST will be rare inasmuch as it is the only small press publication I have read in three years that lacks a story by DF Lewis. Go after them, Des—Karl Edward Wagner
# ...a hit and run ending that numbs the senses for minutes after you read it. It’s one of Lewis’ onion skin poems—the outer layer slowly peeling back to reveal a hardened core impossible to chew in one only sitting. Not unusual for this Brit, but terribly stylish just the same—Richard Levesque (CONVOLUTED INCISIONS in Scavenger’s #156)
# ...lightweight and clumsily written, and like most of the author's work I've seen, in need of editorial guidance—Kev McVeigh in BBR #19 re 'Madge' by DF Lewis. [But: 'Madge' later chosen for BEST NEW HORROR 2]
# Reaction to his work tends to be extreme, whether it's praise or condemnation; curiously it is often possible to agree with both points of view—from Paul Beardsley's 'Introduction to DF Lewis' in SUBSTANCE #1
# 'Priscilla' [by DFL] went down like a lead balloon, with a hole in it ... One bloke even went so far as pointing out the spelling mistake in the first line... 'This story's a rap' should have read 'This story's Crap!'—INVASION OF THE SAD MAN-EATING MUSHROOMS.
# You know all those boxes of Cheerios that were recalled a while back for having been tainted with some insecticide? Don't believe it: DF Lewis had a story on the back of the box—DEATHREALM
# Okay, let's get straight to it. This collection of short stories is unbelievable. No, really, it's that unique. I'm pretty certain that never before have so many non-sequiturs, cliches, bathetic howlers and just plain inept grand guignols been gathered together in the one place. It is astonishing. Pages of incomprehensible prose studded with ridiculous imagery and buffoonesque phrasing. Just awesome—SCIENCE FICTION EYE on BEST OF DFL chapbook. [But: DFL is terribly underappreciated—MAGIC REALISM + All in all, a well-spent half a hundred pages—LOCUS = just 2 of many good reviews of BEST OF DFL]
# I have a paranoid sensation that I'm always being followed by DF Lewis ... he's always there to torment me ... I can't get away from him even if I switch genres... Is he for real or did somebody invent him purely to annoy me?—Problem page of OVERSPACE #13.
# ...the Picasso of the small press. This is an author whose bravery (in non-committance to normalcy) and brevity transcends any genre—Re DF Lewis in NEOPHYTE #13
# He's unique all right, but the same way the Elephant Man was, a freak who becomes a fad
—Darrell Schweitzer re DFL in CRYPT OF CTHULHU
# The highlight of the issue was undeniably Des Lewis' beautiful little story, 'The Tallest King'. A wonderful faerie-tale told in perfectly child-like manner, and singing with the glory of descriptive prose. Really delightful. What a talent this fellow is—Mark Samuels in CEREBRETRON #7
# But possibly the best fiction is contributed by British stylist DF Lewis. His 'Entries' is subtle dynamite, gross and disturbing. A real source of quality shivers!—Review in SCAVENGERS NEWSLETTER #95
# In the same way as Lovecraft, Lewis is creating his very own mythos; a large and chaotic land where normal, run-of-the-mill events are underlined with that feeling that something horribly evil is sleeping nearby...—Dave W Hughes in article in REM #1
#[DFL] is undoubtedly one of the finest horror writers in this, or any other country, and we're lucky to have him for this issue —BONE MARROW REVIEW
# Lewis is either a genius graced with madness, a madman cursed with genius, both, or neither ... But there is more to Lewis than that. Believe you me, my pretties. Oh yes, much more. Because every so often you catch sight of something stirring beneath the frosted surfaces of his dreamy prose, something brilliant yet dark and brooding, something revelatory, something true, something that were you to see it all in a single glance would burn you to a cinder; but you still want to see; it speaks to you. In sibilant whispers. It tells you something you've been waiting to hear—SAMHAIN review of BEST OF DF LEWIS
# Then I turned over the page and AAARGH! DF f**king Lewis again!—from THE SCANNER #11
# Some of his shortest stories are as clear as dense woodland. At night. In thick fog. But many shine like polished gems. In some his style and world are reminiscent of Lovecraft, in others he spins off into a universe that is pure DF Lewis. My own favourite was 'Tom Rose' in Alan Ross's 'Signals' anthology to mark 30 years of 'London Magazine'. And at seven pages that was practically a novella—Nicholas Royle
# ...the ever-imaginative DF Lewis (the Lovecraft of our time)—NIGHTSIDE vol.2 Issue 5
# His column is always the first thing I read in any new issue of DEATHREALM. He introduced me to Napalm Death. Gotta love that guy!—Gabriele A Rollé to FRISSON
# DF LEWIS: THE WEIRDMONGER'S TALES. Does Des deserve name-above-title status? U betcha! This all new coll adds 10 more pieces to daydream believer's oeuvre + illos by Camille Gabrielle. Master of extraneous quip DFL is ambiguous 2 a fault; a genre-literate soothsayer, the sphinx of syntax & bingo brainstorms of corkscrew candour & lottery logic. Des is a demon spin-bowler of laser-guided precision, bull-in-china-shop charging in for legbreak attack on sticky wicket of conventional storytelling. Critics R stumped out 4 a duck; all card-carry'g tarot turncoats a la mort. Ya can't read small press & avoid ubiq DFL...—DRAGON'S BREATH
# “At the risk of being labeled a jealous, illiterate, drooling cretin, may I ask whether the sole reason you ran this boring blather was because it was submitted by the the ubiquitous DF Lewis & Co? ... I think Quentin [of Reservoir Dogs] would like my work—if only DF Lewis, et al, would get out of the way!”—from Pat Victor’s letter to SCAVENGER’S NEWSLETTER #151 the editor of which replied therein: “... I suspect DF Lewis’ day is also made now that you have proclaimed him a “name” writer. Des Lewis has earned every appearance in every magazine by writing and submitting work. Go thou and do likewise.” Then: “The very worst Lewis piece is always crammed with imagery, creepy and well plotted. I, for one, have enjoyed at least 99% of his work. I only wish I had half his talent”—Karen Blicker to SCAVENGER’S NEWSLETTER #152. Then: “His (DFL’s) work is imaginative, original and beautifully written; so good that the editors dare to be different by printing it. DFL has invigorated the genre, and he does not deserve to be attacked by embittered writers”—Milton E Wheeler jr to SCAVENGER’S NEWSLETTER #155. Then: “I even beat out DF Lewis. This was to me high praise ... in trashing DF lewis and others, you lose sight of something important. They’re getting published and you’re not”—Brian Keene in SCAVENGER’S NEWSLETTER #158. Then: “I don’t understand this DF Lewis business anyway. If you don’t like someone’s work, don’t read it or waste time fussing about it. Some of his stories haven’t been clear to me, but I did read a wonderful piece he wrote on Dickens and another on religion.”—Lida Broadhurst in SCAVENGER’S NEWSLETTER #161. Then: “Thank you for forwarding the letter from Mr Lewis - it actually was quite a nice letter, considering how uncomplimentary I was of his writing. It didn’t change my opinion about his writing, but my opinion about him as a person is now quite high.”—Pat Victor in SCAVENGER’S NEWSLETTER #164.
# At first I was unsettled, unsure and unsatisfied. I read it three more times and with each successive passage it bloomed. It’s like that song that won’t leave your head...—DEATHREALM
# From out the realms of darkness ... The Master of the Literary Nightmare Story —BUTTERFLY & BLOOMER!
# Quite simply, one of the premier writers of contemporary short fiction—CHRONICLES OF DISORDER
# I found this piece to be thoroughly compelling, even by your reliably high standards. This intriguing tale oozed psychological turmoil and tragedy, and literally demanded the reader's attention. The descriptive imagery throughout verges on perfection - vividly, unnervingly, provokingly written. ...remained with me long after I'd read and re-read it. ...it truly affected me. I like it, can you tell?—SACKCLOTH & ASHES
# ...the ridiculously prolific DF Lewis—Paul McDonald in ZENE
# When The Dream Zone arrived I had just finished reading Des Lewis' weird and wonderful novella Agra Aska but I wasn't too overfed on his style to enjoy the bizarre word-play in Alternate Worlds, the first Padgett Weggs story of his I have read. I still need to be assured of Mr Lewis' complete sanity...—Dave Price in THE DREAM REVIEW
# There wasn't one story in it that I really disliked, but my favourite was the incredibly funny Alternate Worlds by DF Lewis. I just find the characters and Des' use of the old fashioned language hilarious, I hope he does more stories in this mode!—John B Ford in THE DREAM REVIEW
# High points include ... DF Lewis' time release capsule of concentrated eeriness, Mort Au Monde—Edward Bryant's review in LOCUS of BEST NEW HORROR anthology
# ...the disconnected, rambling, plotless, pointless, babbling monologues of free association and non sequiturs that DF Lewis blasphemously calls fiction—Charles S Fallis in SCAVENGER’S NEWSLETTER
# ...everyone cannot help but love and admire the chap, and I understand he is one of the most pleasant and friendly blokes one could know—from Letter to PEEPING TOM #30 re DFL
# DF Lewis is a legend. As simple as that.—SIMON CLARK
***
If time goes backward, to poison someone you must first poison their shit.
---from 'Padgett Weggs' in "Weirdmonger"
Original stories published in the numinous NEMONYMOUS:
NEMONYMOUS PART ONE
A Smile In The Sky by Gary Couzens
The Friends of Mike Santini by Terry Gates-Grimwood
The Quiet House by Allen Ashley
With Arms Outstretched by Daniel Pearlman
Breaking Rules by Avital Gad-Cykman
The Gravedigger by Lawrence Dyer
Alone by Shawn James
The Idiot Whistled Dead by Simon Clark
The Unmiraculous Life of Jackie Mendoza by Tamar Yellin
Across The Hills by Tony Mileman
All for Nothing by Rhys Hughes
Double Zero For Emptiness by Mike O’Driscoll
Strobe by Paul Kane
Balafer De Vie by Lida Broadhurst
The Mansions Of The Moon by Jeff VanderMeer
Gamlingay Churchyard by A.D. Harvey
NEMONYMOUS PART TWO
Climbing The Tallest Tree In The World by Rhys Hughes
Mighty Fine Days by Antony Mann
The Assistant To Dr. Jacob by Eric Schaller
Buffet Freud by Dawn Andrews
Ice Age by Iain Rowan
The Vanishing ____ And _____ of E_________ E________ by __________
Berenice’s Journal by Richard Gavin
Showcase by Sarah Singleton
Eyes Like Water Like Ice by Jai Clare
Earthworks by Simon Kewin
Striped Pajamas by Margaret B. Simon
The Drowned by Joel Lane
Adult Books by Robert Morrish
Nothing by John Travis
The Secret by G.W. Thomas
A Spot Of Tea by Janet L. Hetherington
White Dream by Neil Bristow
NEMONYMOUS PART THREE
The Bluest of Grey Skies by Michael Kelly
Practice by Jeff Holland
Genie by Tamar Yellin
Gerald And The Soul Doctor by David J Brown
Otterwise by Lucy A.E. Ward
Sirens by Brendan Connell
The Rest Of Larry by Monica O'Rourke
The Ballerina by Lavie Tidhar
Shark In A Foggy Sea by Colin Hains
Scrounge by David Mathew
Twilight Music by Regina Mitchell
Mobile, Phone by Brian Howell
A Small Miracle by Rhys Hughes
Digging For Adults by D. Harlan Wilson
Insanity Over Creamer’s Field by Joe Murphy
Warp by Len Maynard & Mick Sims
The Sleeping Beauty by Tom Williams
Lucia by Paul Evanby
In The Steam Room by Tamar Yellin
Chemo by Terry Gates-Grimwood
The Place Where Lost Things Go by Jorge Candeias
The above authors' bios and nemo statements and decorative quotations are shown to members here:
Veils and Piques
NEMONYMOUS PART FOUR
Apologising To The Concrete
Creek Man
The Death Knell
Determining The Extent
Embrace
The Frog's Pool
Generous Furniture
Leaves Like Hearts
Like A Slow Motion War
My Burglar
Maledict Michela
Nocturne For Doghands
The Painter
Rorschach-interpreter
Sexy Beast
Vole Mountain
The Withering
***********
The crowd were silent
Reading the poems of Baudelaire.
Suddenly, completely unpremeditated,
They lurch forward, in unison,
And sing the National Anthem.
*****
Order of Stories by DFL in 'Weirdmonger' the Book:
The Abacus - Always in Dim Shadow - Angel Of The Agony - Apple Turnover - Back Doubles - Benoko - Big Ship, Little Ship and Brown - Bloodbone - Bobtail - A Brief Visit to Bonnyville - Caretaker - The Chaise Longue - The Christmas Angel - Dark They Were and Empty-Eyed - The Dead - Dear Mum - Digory Smalls - Dognahnyi - Effervescent - Egnis - Encounters with Terror - Find Mine - First Sight - Gongoozler - The Hungerers - The II King - In Unison - The Jack-in-the-Box - The Last Prize - The Merest Tilt - Migrations of the Heart - A Mind's Kidney - Padgett Weggs - Queuing Behind Crazy People - Rosewolf - Salustrade - Scaredy & White Mouth - The Scar Museum - Season of Lost Will - Second Best - A Selfish Strain - The Sun Setting - Shades of Emptiness - The Shiftlings - Small Fry - Small Talk - The Spigot & The Speech Mark - Sponge and China Tea - The Stories of Murkales: Twelve Zodiacal Tales - Stricken with Glee - The Swing - The Tallest King - Tentacles Across the Atlantic (The Story) - The Terror of the Tomb - Todger's Town - Tom Rose - Top of an Angel's Head - Uncle Absolutely - Valedictory - The Walking Mat - Wall Pack - Waning - Watch the Whiskers Sprout - The Weirdmonger - Welsh Pepper - Wild Honey - Wiles.
You will notice that 'The Sun Setting' is still creeping stealthily out of alphabetical order (27/4/04)
*********
The problem of hollowness, then, of a-Voidance, is really one of secondary satisfactions, the attempt to find substitutes for a primary satisfaction of wholeness that somehow got lost leaving a large gap in its place. The British novelist John Fowles calls this emptiness the 'nemo' which he describes as an anti-ego, a state of being nobody. "Nobody wants to be a nobody," writes Fowles. "All our acts are partly devised to fill or to mark the emptiness we feel at the core."
from COMING TO OUR SENSES by Morris Berman
... there is a way of going about enterprise, particularly as it applies to creativity, in which the activity is preceded by wholeness, rather than being a frantic attempt to achieve it. This frantic approach to life is not inevitable; we really don't have to spend our lives chasing ecstasy in an effort to shut down the nemo {nemo: a feeling of hollowness, an anti-ego, a state of being nobody}.
from Coming To Our Senses : Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West -
Morris Berman (Unwin Hyman, 1990, page 316)
Next to her hung a further small picture, showing a saint carrying his own skin.
-- Robert Aickman (The Cicerones)
Her pillow sounded hollow with notes and knockings, notes and knockings you hear in condemned rooms.
--Elizabeth Bowen (No. 16)
WHAT do you call him? Nemo?" says Mr. Tulkinghorn.
"Nemo, sir. Here it is. Forty-two folio. Given out on the Wednesday night at eight o`clock, brought in on the Thursday morning at half after nine.
-- Charles Dickens (Bleak House)
In my fifties looking back at the fifties...
Excitedly waiting for the Beano comic to drop on my doormat every Thursday, the smell of its pages, the stationery smell of newsagents in those days, the smell of books in general, uniform fifties library books (which drabness seemed to accentuate the delights emerging from the print within), my Mum making me wear waterproof leggings when it rained, being able to scribble stories in pencil, using plasticene, throwing bean-bags about in PE, sitting on bristly PE mats, fuzzy grey pictures on the TV screen which, on some evenings, were indecipherable...
and arcade amusements on Walton-on-Naze Pier: hand-cranked cranes that could never quite grapple with the pack of cigs wrapped round with a brown ten bob note, pinballs without flippers, ghost house tableau where a coin would produce a skeleton out of the cupboard, silver balls spinning round vertically into the lose and win holes, the win giving you another turn, the lose losing you your coin. More lose holes than win. A lesson for life?
***
Aren't shadows on the wall sometimes more revelatory than seeing the people that cast them? CHANCE is a novel by Joseph Conrad. Here, the characters and particularly the heroine are drained of any motive or sympathy because of the layering of narrative: we hear a spoken voice telling an inscrutable narrator of someone else’s view of someone else’s view of certain events, mix and match between. But it does not seem to lessen one’s interest in the book: it is character-driven and sympathy is allowed to take a backseat in preference to exploring one’s own motives for assigning certain motives to certain types of people just on the basis of hearsay and chance. Conrad writes in introduction to CHANCE: And it is only for their intentions that men can be held responsible and this novel seeks to show, I think, that any intentions are essentially unknowable. Perhaps even one's own intentions are unknowable: being shadows, too. The heart of darkness.
***
# DF Lewis is God ... DF Lewis manages to crank out story after story, and each one reads better than the last, like a sprawling and surreal novel-in-progress ... In one short page, Lewis manages to unsettle in a way that a ream of small press magazines could never do in a lifetime of trying—STYGIAN ARTICLES
# As for DF Lewis, my view is that he is a national treasure. He writes in a genre of one. His writing is very disciplined, with not a word out of place, and there's such joyful play in the language... —Graham Joyce
# If he’s such a genius, why is he sometimes mocked? Because his work is an acquired taste, like celery or Guinness (Rhys Hughes); The man is a phenomenon (Allen Ashley); Des Lewis, master wordsmith (Paul Pinn); Few can doubt his mastery of words; none can question his genius (Tim Lebbon); “THERE IS ONLY ONE DES LEWIS!” (Simon Clark)—from the intros in AGRA ASKA.
# DF Lewis? When he's bad, he's awful, but when he's good there's no-one can touch him—Rhys Hughes
# Every mag I ever read has a DF Lewis story in it, and none of them are ever any good! ... I thought the small press was all about introducing new talent, and not perpetuating mediocrity!—James Miller in SIERRA HEAVEN #2
# That master of weird dream-like fiction, D.F.Lewis—Simon Clark in THE DERELICT OF DEATH
# At 1.20 or so the rumour went around: The Master had entered the building - the half-century man/the 1000th story man, our very own dear old Des Lewis. Yep, we were all there for a surprise 50th birthday bash. DesCon1 was up and running!—from Allen Ashley's report in BFS NEWSLETTER (May/June 1998)
# The connoisseur of horror will find more sustenance here than in many a bestseller
—Ramsey Campbell's Intro in “BEST OF DF LEWIS”
# I have been reading horror and supernatural fiction for 25 years. What leaves me wide-eyed is the actual ability of this writer to still surprise, even chill, a heart grown used to the second guess. Lewis captures the secret language of commonplace thoughts, as transforms the mundane into the arcane. He is a verbal swordsman. And he knows just how, and where, to strike—from "DF LEWIS: THE WIZARD OF ODD"
#...like jerking off harder and harder, but never quite coming; not until the creature in the corner suddenly lurches out and sucks your brains through your ears—BROKEN PENCIL (Canada) re At'mõs faer
# To many writers, editors and people involved in Horror, DF Lewis is one of the most important writers in the field today—"Getting To Know Des" in BLOODSONGS (Australia)
# He has been cited as one of the acclaimed 'Gothic Light' journal's four favourite fantasy authors—along with Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury and Lewis Carroll ... He is, of course, Des Lewis—TOUCH WOOD (Little, Brown book)
# features an amazing literary talent from England, Mr DF Lewis—BLOODLINES (Hawaii)
#'The Silver Tealeaf', is very short, but delivered with all the power of an expensive perfume. And it opens with one of the best lines I've ever read. Mr Lewis has a true command of the language—DEATHREALM
# Highly sophisticated and wonderfully nightmarish imagination, an expertly controlled and sardonic vision that reminds me as much of avant-gardists like William Burroughs as it does the best traditions of horror literature—Thomas Ligotti in DAGON DFL SPECIAL
# DF Lewis is DF Lewis and there will never be another like him ... Everyone I know is in awe and a fan of his talent—GATHERING DARKNESS
# I’m very sure that medical science will want to examine his brain—Editor in TERROR TALES
# After Derleth rejected two of Lewis' stories in 1968 as being 'pretty much pure grue', Lewis dropped out of sight for twenty years. Hey, we all get rejection slips—Karl Edward Wagner in YEAR'S BEST HORROR
# My first ever taste of the small press was a ‘chance’ discovery of a publication called Dagon. That particular issue contained a single fiction entry, a beautifully sinister tale which haunts me even today, its author was (you guessed it) Des Lewis. So nine years on you can imagine how surprised and delighted I was when, out-of-the-blue, I just happened to find one of his concoctions festering in the post—THE ASPHALT JUNGLE #1
# Whether his prolific output has served, in the long term, to spread his reputation or to dilute it remains to be seen. But for now, his status is unassailable—both as a figurehead of horror fiction’s avant garde and as a dedicated excavator of its traditions—Joel Lane
# As I’ve remarked before, Des Lewis is a true original—Stephen Jones in BEST NEW HORROR
# I saw Elvis at the mall last night. He was eating pizza with DF Lewis. Can't think why they'd ordered anchovies—Karl Edward Wagner
# To properly read a DF Lewis story, one must allow oneself to simply flow along on a tide of words, through whatever twists and turns his strange mind takes you, to a destination you may never actually figure out. But his images linger stubbornly. You know you've been assaulted by a master story-teller—TRANSVERSIONS (Canada)
# With Lewis, it is not essential to understand in order to enjoy ... as funny and as quotable as Pratchett or Adams, without resembling either in the least ...—Paul Beardsley's INTERZONE review of WEIRDMONGER'S TALES
# Terse and vaguely erotic stories where anything can, and does, happen. He takes a variety of viewpoints, and part of the horror lies in the matter-of-fact telling of macabre events. ...teasing stories which pull away into different meanings just when you think you've understood—prose conundrums, but far from humdrum. The prose style is curiously decorated and gothic yet tremendously concise. My favourite story is 'Beyond the Park', full of sinister magic and half-comprehended male power —ORE poetry magazine (UK) re BEST OF DF LEWIS
# This is typical of Lewis' work, concerned with a fellow bedeviled by the story's title character who lurks in the neighbourhood, weirding out the narrator, and all of us - much like Mr Lewis himself—DEATHREALM review of DEAD OF NIGHT MAGAZINE
# If you really need us to tell you who Des is, and what he's accomplished - then, we can only assume that you have only just learnt to read!—PREMONITIONS (UK)
# For my money, DF Lewis is the leading figure in the 'New Lovecraft' circle ... However, just because there is a curse involved, this shouldn't frighten any critics—SF EYE #13
# It’s a great thrill for me to be printing DF Lewis ... I’m a big fan of his work. When I first started reading small press publications, the first ten magazines possessed a story by this man—THE DARKLANDS PROJECT
# I found 'The Weirdmonger' [by DFL] amongst the best stories I've read recently—Mike Ashley in BBR#12
# thought the DF Lewis piece at least semi-autobiographical as he seems in increasing danger of disappearing up his own arse and yet... the day can't be far off when someone writes a story in which the only literature in a post-holocaust society is the collected Des Lewis—J.C. Hartley in letter column of PREMONITIONS #3
# ...he adopted a deliberately obscure style in order to con the reader into assuming that his work contained 'hidden meanings': it didn't - his writing was crap— Philip J. Backers re DFL in AUGURIES #11
# THE WEIRDMONGER'S TALES (art by Camille Gabrielle) "'The British Harlequin of Horror', Lewis is an extraordinary literary genius who is currently dazzling this genre with his verve, nerve and craftmanship. He is certainly one of the most loved and most admired horror/macabre/surreal writers on the contemporary scene. ...this very special tribute to DF Lewis ... shows the master at his best."
# CORSET DIGEST will be rare inasmuch as it is the only small press publication I have read in three years that lacks a story by DF Lewis. Go after them, Des—Karl Edward Wagner
# ...a hit and run ending that numbs the senses for minutes after you read it. It’s one of Lewis’ onion skin poems—the outer layer slowly peeling back to reveal a hardened core impossible to chew in one only sitting. Not unusual for this Brit, but terribly stylish just the same—Richard Levesque (CONVOLUTED INCISIONS in Scavenger’s #156)
# ...lightweight and clumsily written, and like most of the author's work I've seen, in need of editorial guidance—Kev McVeigh in BBR #19 re 'Madge' by DF Lewis. [But: 'Madge' later chosen for BEST NEW HORROR 2]
# Reaction to his work tends to be extreme, whether it's praise or condemnation; curiously it is often possible to agree with both points of view—from Paul Beardsley's 'Introduction to DF Lewis' in SUBSTANCE #1
# 'Priscilla' [by DFL] went down like a lead balloon, with a hole in it ... One bloke even went so far as pointing out the spelling mistake in the first line... 'This story's a rap' should have read 'This story's Crap!'—INVASION OF THE SAD MAN-EATING MUSHROOMS.
# You know all those boxes of Cheerios that were recalled a while back for having been tainted with some insecticide? Don't believe it: DF Lewis had a story on the back of the box—DEATHREALM
# Okay, let's get straight to it. This collection of short stories is unbelievable. No, really, it's that unique. I'm pretty certain that never before have so many non-sequiturs, cliches, bathetic howlers and just plain inept grand guignols been gathered together in the one place. It is astonishing. Pages of incomprehensible prose studded with ridiculous imagery and buffoonesque phrasing. Just awesome—SCIENCE FICTION EYE on BEST OF DFL chapbook. [But: DFL is terribly underappreciated—MAGIC REALISM + All in all, a well-spent half a hundred pages—LOCUS = just 2 of many good reviews of BEST OF DFL]
# I have a paranoid sensation that I'm always being followed by DF Lewis ... he's always there to torment me ... I can't get away from him even if I switch genres... Is he for real or did somebody invent him purely to annoy me?—Problem page of OVERSPACE #13.
# ...the Picasso of the small press. This is an author whose bravery (in non-committance to normalcy) and brevity transcends any genre—Re DF Lewis in NEOPHYTE #13
# He's unique all right, but the same way the Elephant Man was, a freak who becomes a fad
—Darrell Schweitzer re DFL in CRYPT OF CTHULHU
# The highlight of the issue was undeniably Des Lewis' beautiful little story, 'The Tallest King'. A wonderful faerie-tale told in perfectly child-like manner, and singing with the glory of descriptive prose. Really delightful. What a talent this fellow is—Mark Samuels in CEREBRETRON #7
# But possibly the best fiction is contributed by British stylist DF Lewis. His 'Entries' is subtle dynamite, gross and disturbing. A real source of quality shivers!—Review in SCAVENGERS NEWSLETTER #95
# In the same way as Lovecraft, Lewis is creating his very own mythos; a large and chaotic land where normal, run-of-the-mill events are underlined with that feeling that something horribly evil is sleeping nearby...—Dave W Hughes in article in REM #1
#[DFL] is undoubtedly one of the finest horror writers in this, or any other country, and we're lucky to have him for this issue —BONE MARROW REVIEW
# Lewis is either a genius graced with madness, a madman cursed with genius, both, or neither ... But there is more to Lewis than that. Believe you me, my pretties. Oh yes, much more. Because every so often you catch sight of something stirring beneath the frosted surfaces of his dreamy prose, something brilliant yet dark and brooding, something revelatory, something true, something that were you to see it all in a single glance would burn you to a cinder; but you still want to see; it speaks to you. In sibilant whispers. It tells you something you've been waiting to hear—SAMHAIN review of BEST OF DF LEWIS
# Then I turned over the page and AAARGH! DF f**king Lewis again!—from THE SCANNER #11
# Some of his shortest stories are as clear as dense woodland. At night. In thick fog. But many shine like polished gems. In some his style and world are reminiscent of Lovecraft, in others he spins off into a universe that is pure DF Lewis. My own favourite was 'Tom Rose' in Alan Ross's 'Signals' anthology to mark 30 years of 'London Magazine'. And at seven pages that was practically a novella—Nicholas Royle
# ...the ever-imaginative DF Lewis (the Lovecraft of our time)—NIGHTSIDE vol.2 Issue 5
# His column is always the first thing I read in any new issue of DEATHREALM. He introduced me to Napalm Death. Gotta love that guy!—Gabriele A Rollé to FRISSON
# DF LEWIS: THE WEIRDMONGER'S TALES. Does Des deserve name-above-title status? U betcha! This all new coll adds 10 more pieces to daydream believer's oeuvre + illos by Camille Gabrielle. Master of extraneous quip DFL is ambiguous 2 a fault; a genre-literate soothsayer, the sphinx of syntax & bingo brainstorms of corkscrew candour & lottery logic. Des is a demon spin-bowler of laser-guided precision, bull-in-china-shop charging in for legbreak attack on sticky wicket of conventional storytelling. Critics R stumped out 4 a duck; all card-carry'g tarot turncoats a la mort. Ya can't read small press & avoid ubiq DFL...—DRAGON'S BREATH
# “At the risk of being labeled a jealous, illiterate, drooling cretin, may I ask whether the sole reason you ran this boring blather was because it was submitted by the the ubiquitous DF Lewis & Co? ... I think Quentin [of Reservoir Dogs] would like my work—if only DF Lewis, et al, would get out of the way!”—from Pat Victor’s letter to SCAVENGER’S NEWSLETTER #151 the editor of which replied therein: “... I suspect DF Lewis’ day is also made now that you have proclaimed him a “name” writer. Des Lewis has earned every appearance in every magazine by writing and submitting work. Go thou and do likewise.” Then: “The very worst Lewis piece is always crammed with imagery, creepy and well plotted. I, for one, have enjoyed at least 99% of his work. I only wish I had half his talent”—Karen Blicker to SCAVENGER’S NEWSLETTER #152. Then: “His (DFL’s) work is imaginative, original and beautifully written; so good that the editors dare to be different by printing it. DFL has invigorated the genre, and he does not deserve to be attacked by embittered writers”—Milton E Wheeler jr to SCAVENGER’S NEWSLETTER #155. Then: “I even beat out DF Lewis. This was to me high praise ... in trashing DF lewis and others, you lose sight of something important. They’re getting published and you’re not”—Brian Keene in SCAVENGER’S NEWSLETTER #158. Then: “I don’t understand this DF Lewis business anyway. If you don’t like someone’s work, don’t read it or waste time fussing about it. Some of his stories haven’t been clear to me, but I did read a wonderful piece he wrote on Dickens and another on religion.”—Lida Broadhurst in SCAVENGER’S NEWSLETTER #161. Then: “Thank you for forwarding the letter from Mr Lewis - it actually was quite a nice letter, considering how uncomplimentary I was of his writing. It didn’t change my opinion about his writing, but my opinion about him as a person is now quite high.”—Pat Victor in SCAVENGER’S NEWSLETTER #164.
# At first I was unsettled, unsure and unsatisfied. I read it three more times and with each successive passage it bloomed. It’s like that song that won’t leave your head...—DEATHREALM
# From out the realms of darkness ... The Master of the Literary Nightmare Story —BUTTERFLY & BLOOMER!
# Quite simply, one of the premier writers of contemporary short fiction—CHRONICLES OF DISORDER
# I found this piece to be thoroughly compelling, even by your reliably high standards. This intriguing tale oozed psychological turmoil and tragedy, and literally demanded the reader's attention. The descriptive imagery throughout verges on perfection - vividly, unnervingly, provokingly written. ...remained with me long after I'd read and re-read it. ...it truly affected me. I like it, can you tell?—SACKCLOTH & ASHES
# ...the ridiculously prolific DF Lewis—Paul McDonald in ZENE
# When The Dream Zone arrived I had just finished reading Des Lewis' weird and wonderful novella Agra Aska but I wasn't too overfed on his style to enjoy the bizarre word-play in Alternate Worlds, the first Padgett Weggs story of his I have read. I still need to be assured of Mr Lewis' complete sanity...—Dave Price in THE DREAM REVIEW
# There wasn't one story in it that I really disliked, but my favourite was the incredibly funny Alternate Worlds by DF Lewis. I just find the characters and Des' use of the old fashioned language hilarious, I hope he does more stories in this mode!—John B Ford in THE DREAM REVIEW
# High points include ... DF Lewis' time release capsule of concentrated eeriness, Mort Au Monde—Edward Bryant's review in LOCUS of BEST NEW HORROR anthology
# ...the disconnected, rambling, plotless, pointless, babbling monologues of free association and non sequiturs that DF Lewis blasphemously calls fiction—Charles S Fallis in SCAVENGER’S NEWSLETTER
# ...everyone cannot help but love and admire the chap, and I understand he is one of the most pleasant and friendly blokes one could know—from Letter to PEEPING TOM #30 re DFL
# DF Lewis is a legend. As simple as that.—SIMON CLARK
***
If time goes backward, to poison someone you must first poison their shit.
---from 'Padgett Weggs' in "Weirdmonger"
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