Over a thousand new and previously published stories by DFL:

http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/reinvented_wheel.mws

NEW STORIES IN 2009:

All Endings Are Happy: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/all_endings_are_happy.htm

KNOTS: All Endings Are Happy: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?p=15898

A Cthulhu Mythos Story: http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/a_cthulhu_mythos_story.mws

GLIMPSE: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/01/glimpse.html

Drowsy With Divinity: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=80029030&blogID=464312875

And The Exploding Marrow: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/and_the_exploding_marrow.htm

Diary of a 21st Century Drunk -

Entry One: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=136537694&blogID=466078745 

Entry Two: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/entry_two.htm

Entry Three: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/01/man-oba.html

Entry Four: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/109295.html

Entry Five: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=2526

Entry Six: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=145421249&blogID=467220266

Entry Seven: http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/the_knot_of_knots.mws

Entry Eight: http://simplon.blogspirit.com/archive/2009/01/30/on-the-poe.html

Ligottus: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/ligottum.htm

Derivatives: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/02/derivatives.html

The Fubbcuckle: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/name_for_the_credit_crunch.htm

Yesterday Was A Funny Day: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/yesterday_was_a_funny_day.htm

The Stumbling Fear: http://shocklinesforum.yuku.com/sreply/98667/t/Credit-Crunch-recession-or-depression-.html

Build A Character - http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=2615

The Orchard - http://www.ligotti.net/showpost.php?p=17395&postcount=1

Demolish A Character: http://www.ligotti.net/showpost.php?p=17426&postcount=3

5 Apr: The Art Gallery: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/04/art-gallery.html

9 Apr: Naan Bread & Slippers: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/109682.html

12 Apr: Cern Zoo: http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/?entry=345388

17 Apr: The Drains Are Blocked: http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/299.html

2 May: Celliano: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=2878

15 May: A Handbag: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/05/handbag.html

http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/110014.html 'Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" by the Clacton Writer's Group (14.5.09)

24 May:  Éclaircissement (a poem): http://www.ligotti.net/showpost.php?p=21796&postcount=319

19 Jun: Last Song: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/110864.html

19 Jun: The End of the Pier: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_end_of_the_pier.htm

21 Jun: Taught by Masters: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/06/taught-by-masters.html

29 Jun: Made From Passion: http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/made_from_passion.mws

11 Aug: Tea and Biscuits:

http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/114066.html

16 Aug: A Candle Dream

http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/a_candle_dream.htm

17 Aug: The Art of Caring for Candle-Dreeamers

http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_art_of_caring_for_candledreamers.htm

10 Sep: Rods & Mockers

http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/rods__mockers.htm

15 Sep: Two Old Gents

http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/two_old_gents.htm

25 Sep: Another Two Old Gents

http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/09/another-two-old-gents.html#links

26 Sep: Yet Another pair Of Old Gents

http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/yet_another_pair_of_old_gents.mws

8 Oct: The Two Old Gents Have Flights Of Fancy http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/10/two-old-gents-have-flights-of-fancy.html

11 Oct: Pirate

http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/10/pirate.html

Posted by weirdtongue at 2:39 PM BST

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The Walking Mat (1993)

This is one of the longer stories in this book, but, unlike many of the previous long ones, it is not a quilted story. It seems organic. A definite ‘genius loci’. It seems to summarise some of the leit-motifs still homing in. It is a man’s return to the half-sunken novelty hotel where his wife died at his hand on honeymoon. It is about the nature of a gratuitous act. It is of a dual symbiosis where one of the participants dies in the process. It is of the evolution of selves. Tripartite wars. The optimum-last-thought-at-the-point-of-one’s-own-death. It is of interaction and dialogue reminiscent of ‘Effervescent’, ‘The Chaise Longue’, ‘The Scar Museum’... It is of many other things I can no longer grasp.

I have been developing a huge amount of self-doubt as I progress through this experimental (‘intentional fallacy’-inspired) real-time review of ostensibly my own book. But one needs to factor in randomness and synchronicity, truth and fiction. Yet it remains essentially pretentious, and if I believe that an author is just as able (or unable) to critique his own book as other so-called independent reviewers – why have I seen fit to interpolate personal anecdotes throughout, i.e. anecdotes about the writing of some of the stories? Perhaps the answer is in the end of ‘The Walking Mat’: an ending of re-enactment and role-playing. If that is a story-spoiler, I apologise, but it is necessary for me to make this ‘self’-important observation in the context of what is fast becoming an important event in my writing life (i.e. this review). An importance I did not predict when embarking a week or so ago upon doing this (on the face of it, crass) experiment. I suppose it is significant that at the outset I speculated upon this review taking months or even years. And here I am, today, nearly finished!

“The hotel was expensive. Not so much a sea-view as the fish-eye itself.”  (4 June 09)

Posted by weirdtongue at 10:06 AM BST

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CONTINUED FROM HERE


Salustrade (1993)

Hmmm – actually, this over-long story is better than I remember it ... just! Perhaps Karl Edward Wagner did have a point after all when he chose it for ‘Year’s Best Horror Stories’. I have great respect for him and his fiction and his editorial work. Therefore, I shall hold fire on this story. Make your own mind up. I’ll just itemise the high points (for me) then: an assisted suicide beneath a pyramid of second-hand books, some apocalyptic visions and the language used to describe them, a strange relationship between a pair of twins (perhaps, paradoxically, the ultimate tripartite war!), Salustrade as the highly-strung, imp-like ‘gladiator’, the steampunk SF scenario under a gothic city and the Padgett Weggs finale.

It’s perhaps that some of these high-points don’t make the grade as amenable jigsaw pieces! This story crams in so many DFL emblems it makes the task of this real-time review discovering the book’s audit trail of leit-motifs (leading to an eventual gestalt) either too difficult or too easy. Never in between.

“The books around her were nothing but memories, too – mere pages of live thoughts that were all but dead. How could the bone of one finger split into a ‘V’? For a book to live, though, must it not in fact become such a ‘V’?”  (27 May 09 - 2 hours later)

Scaredy and Whitemouth (1994)

This one seemed far better than I remembered. I remembered it as a pedestrian story of a blind girl called Aspen – and her two cats – and someone called David whom she visualised. It is about those things. But the ending came as a complete surprise and the innuendo of some people ‘seeing’ more things by feeling their way reminded me of various processes I’ve experienced when doing these real-time reviews. But that’s not the real reason. This was a story that genuinely touched me as if I’d never written it. The Narrator this time was not on a dimmer-switch, but I, imputed author become the unconnected reader, was dimming and brightening in a slow-motion strobe as if in some process that could only be envisioned by a real blind person. I almost could answer the question: who empathised with whom? Almost. 

[Perhaps one needs two people to try empathising mutually so as to allow a missing missing-wall to be found by a third party as a chink of light through which he or she can ‘read’ both parties far more clearly than they could even ‘read’ each other and themselves. A three-cornered dance ... or a tripartite war’s surrender or peace conference.]

“Aspen had dreams in her sleep. Blindness couldn’t prevent that. She saw the places she visited during the day in precise detail, down to the assistant at the underwear shop with pitted face, toothbrush moustache and tape measure round his shoulders.” (27 May 09 - another 4 hours later)

The Scar Museum (1996)

A somehow logical treatment of a protagonist who runs a Scar Museum and stays in hotels in Spa towns so as to cull as many potential exhibits as possible from the inhabitants – paralleled by a metaphor of life’s scars extending to real scars on the mind’s surface, a mind that can also be culled. It tells of his well-narrated encounter with two women and with a pig-like dog called Tussle. And there is a guest appearance by Padgett Weggs in his dosser role. It all makes eminent sense. And fits into a growing hypothesis that this collection is really a novel...

Read as a separate story, it works, too.

It makes unbelievability the new believability.

Some strange expressions like ‘unworld-famous museum’ and ‘undesigner-rip in the jeans’ take this concept of against-the-grain truth into a realm of even weaker tissues of lie. (28 May 09)

Season of Lost Will (1991)

“Freda often thought out loud after her memory started to go. If she could but know where it was going, that might have helped.”

This story has become devastating. When I first wrote it I was around 20 years younger than I am now, and it wasn’t quite so devastating to me then. It is a story of misunderstandings and memories as one grows older as a married couple. It cleverly centres round a mysterious Christmas Card that arrives every year. Time attenuates into a scar of its former condition. Which is best - to lose something or never to know you had it? Then slowly and unenthusiastically queuing behind crazy people for the emergency exit from life’s auditorium.

“The great miracle about it all, he thought, was that people lived as if they were immortal, but knowing at the back of their mind all the time that one day, one unexpected day, they would pass on. That was God’s con trick. What made it more absurd God would never put in an appearance to have the last laugh.” (28 May 09 - 4 hours later)

Second Best (1993)

A densely word-packed flash fiction about Simple Simon and the Pieman and Jack the Giantkiller in a tripartite dream. A ‘bony-meat haven’ or a ‘slight ghost in the night hutch’ or ‘wishbone substance of shadow’?

A question of philosophical identity. And just another piece to fit into the jiggery-pokery that is this book.

“‘The only giants left to kill are ourselves.’ – Rachel Mildeyes.” (29 May 09)

'WEIRMONGER' REAL-TIME REVIEW CONTINUED HERE.

Posted by weirdtongue at 1:54 PM BST

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See Wikipedia site if you haven't the time to read the whole of this page!

New Visual Wikipedia!! 

IN 2001, NEMONYMOUS WAS THE WORLD'S FIRST UNCREDITED ANTHOLOGY OF FICTION STORIES.

'Cone Zero':  "Well, I'm usually wary of saying things like this, but I expect to see Cone Zero on the lists of this year's best anthologies."

Cone Zero (2008): 'a flawless anthology' 

Some interviews that deal at least in part with 'Nemonymous':

Sein Und Werden

LOST PAGES

Metastatic Whatnot

Fantastic Metropolis 

Znine

Pantechnicon

TLO

For NEMO'S ARK concept: HERE. 

Nemonymous MySpace: HERE SHOWING THE VARIOUS NEMONYMOUS COVER IMAGES.

Nemonymous discussion: HERE.

Nemonymous announcements: VEILS & PIQUES.

Please write to dflewis48@hotmail.com for information about easily receiving the ironically famous NEMONYMOUS. The past issues of Nemonymous are intrinsically valuable and should continue to increase in value. All of the first five printed issues of Nemo were produced by the traditional method of a one-off finite print-run, i.e 500 of each issue in total. The seventh issue has been exploring new avenues. The eighth issue is about to explore even newer avenues! Please see Nemo's Ark to read what Nemo writers have said about it and all the independent reviews linked from below.

In addition to the quotes and reviews below there are some even more amazing ones linked from HERE! And Reviews of ZENCORE! HERE

"One of the most interesting experiments in fiction in recent years."
-- from TIME OUT 2003

Contains original work from A.D.Harvey, Tamar Yellin, Lavie Tidhar, Jeff VanderMeer, Simon Clark, Iain Rowan, Anonymous, Mike O'Driscoll, Rhys Hughes, D Harlan Wilson, Margaret B Simon, Joel Lane, Scott Edelman, Joe Murphy, Reggie Oliver, Ursula Pflug, S.D. Tullis, Tim Nickels, Nick Jackson, John Grant, Neil James Hudson, Kek-W, Dominy Clements and many others even more famous.

"A first class collection." -- INTERZONE 201 re Nemonymous Five

"Nemonymous: It’s been a hell of a ride, and the world has been made a better place because of it." - John Llewellyn Probert (2005)

"We should all thank Mr. Lewis for taking a risk and thinking outside the box. Nemonymous 3 is a testament to pure creativity." -- Carmela Rebe (2005)

Latest Nemonymous Five reviews here and here (& see cover) and here and here and here.
With its cover, Nemo 5 would make the ideal surprise gift!

More details and reviews under the large red NEMONYMOUS title below.

Nemonymous has published 114 original stories: paying writers a flat rate of £25 per story in anthologies 1 (2001), 2 (2002) & 3 (2003) and £45 per story in anthologies 4 (2004) & 5 (2005). Stories in anthology 7 (Zencore 2007) were paid £50 each. Stories in anthology 8 (Cone Zero 2008) were paid £65 each.

'Nemonymous' was a word invented by DFL in 2001, with no hits on Google at that time. It was the name of the world's very first multi-authored anthology of anonymous stories.



 

"Experience is never limited, and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spider-web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness, and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue."
Henry James from 'The Art of Fiction' 1888


NEMONYMOUS
 

The Megazanthus

An anthology of parthenogenetic fiction and late-labelling

ORDERS: GB Pounds: inclusive of UK postage or Surface Mail: 

(A) CONE ZERO = £10

(B) ZENCORE = £8 

(C) CONE ZERO plus ZENCORE = £16  

(D) A, B or C above plus one or more of the previous ‘Nemonymous’ anthologies (1, 2, 3, 4 or 5) will be an additional cost of £3 for each anthology. (£5 per anthology if not part of A, B or C.)

Multiply any total amount above by 1.3 for Air Mail instead of Surface Mail.

UK orders of £18 or more will also receive a free ONLY CONNECT paperback.

Payment by Paypal to DF Lewis at bfitzworth@yahoo.co.uk

=========================

All available finance is ploughed into Nemonymous itself: exquisitely produced, and with the first five anthologies having been published in the traditional one-off print-run. Their quality of presentation/contents, finite quantity of copies and ground-breaking features should ensure their future value as a collectable. They have received much acclaim plus honours for many of its authors.

Nemo has given writers the rare ability to have a story initially printed anonymously - an experience many considered enlightening and, later, name-enhancing.


Nemonymous is a legend. Probably because many have queried how hard it is to obtain it!

If you have any queries regarding purchases or anything else, please email dflewis48@hotmail.com.

'Nemonymous' 1 to 5 have been printed traditionally and there is a stock of truly beautiful anthologies waiting to be sold at reasonable prices. Five different anthologies. Please see HERE for lists of their featured authors.

Nemonymous Five was published in 2005.
Many have said the cover itself is an amazing work of art, e.g:

"Nemo 5 has that Phil Dickian quality, an object that is not what it seems. It reminds me of my most memorable moment as a science fiction reader when in "Time Out of Joint" the soft drinks stand dissolves and Ragle Gumm is left with a card bearing the words 'SOFT DRINKS STAND'."

and

"Outstanding, Des. This is pop art. This is like Claus Oldenberg and his big soft electrical plugs. I shall try it in different positions all over the house. I'm now *very* pleased that I restrained myself from reading other folks' cover comments until I'd seen this beauty. It's left me with a deep and delighted smile."

WITH THIS COVER, IT WOULD MAKE A PERFECT SURPRISE GIFT FOR SOMEONE!

The first story in NEMONYMOUS FIVE starts: Sit down and shut up!
Indeed, it is advised that the reader consumes the whole book silently in one sitting, in the order printed -- not worrying too much if any particular story doesn’t, at first, truly cling. This will ensure the whole reading experience will be devastatingly memorable for the rest of your life.

NEMONYMOUS SIX in 2006 was something else!*

Nemonymous One became, in 2001, the world's very first self-contained volume of anonymous stories (written independently by different authors) and collected as such. In 2002, Nemonymous Two published the world's first blank short story in print (as far as it is known), together with the acclaimed 'Vanishing Life and Films Of Emmanuel Escobada' which is to be anonymous forever & the classic story 'The Assistant to Dr Jacob' which was reprinted in 'Year's Best Fantasy & Horror'. Nemonymous Three received an amazing nine 'honourable mentions' from YBF&H and Nemonymous Four is a sleekly white Stealth fighter-plane that missed nearly every radar! More 'Honourable Mentions' for stories in Nemonymous Five, Zencore! (Nemo 7) & Cone Zero (Nemo 8), including Zencore's 'England & Nowhere' being reprinted in 'Year's Best Fantasy & Horror'.

Nemo #4 review says: "It is absurd there are so few publications in the small press produced to such a professional standard. Nemonymous, for its production values alone, should be a benchmark."

On 9 December 2004, Keith Brooke (aka Nick Gifford) gave a lecture at Essex University for the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies' weekly talk series. His title was "Names, Pseudonyms and Nemonyms" (about labelling in fiction), and featured ideas created by Nemonymous and a reading from it.

"One of the most interesting experiments in fiction in recent years."
-- from TIME OUT 2003

"...switching between the Pan Book of Horror Stories and one of HP Lovecraft's wordier collections."
-- TIME OUT review of Nemonymous Five (2005)

"Utterly unique...this compact little book offers immense pleasure."
-- from ASIMOV'S 2005

A Nemo#4 author says: "What has attracted me the most to Nemonymous is that through its anonymity (a primary facet of the unknown, of the weird) it's becoming, I think, a focal point for modern fantasy, a gathering, if you will, for a new school of weird."

Rick Kleffel's article HERE says: "This is a brilliant and exciting idea, and who else would come up with it but DFL, who has been pushing the boundaries of fiction for more than 20 years."

This site says: "So very rarely does something truly innovative survive marriage to altruism in the harsh day to day reality of the business of literature. Check out DFL's Nemonymous, be part of something great."

NEMONYMOUS DISCUSSION FORUM: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nemonymous/

Stories for Nemonymous Four and Five were considered and finally accepted/rejected by the editor with the authors still anonymous.


Simply brilliant original poems by various poets all entitled Nemonymity.


A Nemonymous-type book has appeared in 2005: THE SECRET SOCIETY OF DEMOLITION WRITERS

"Long before The Secret Society of Demolition Writers, DFL, one of the finest literary terrorists we have, created Nemonymous, a literary anthology dedicated to an anonymous reading experience."
--Rick Kleffel.

The Vanishing Life and Films of Emmanuel Escobada



Click for: DFL BIOGRAPHY
.

NEMONYMOUS is an acclaimed megazanthus of short speculative fiction -- a Small Press publication conceived, edited, published and distributed by DFL as a labour of unrequited love.

REVIEW OF FIRST FIVE ISSUES OF NEMONYMOUS
I love Nemonymous. The idea, the execution, its weird size and shape, the stories. It has the feel of something bold and forbidden. Stories with no bylines? It’s a brilliant way of putting the fiction up front and center. No browsing the contents list to see who wrote what, no going to the familiar names first, and no scanning of the writer’s bio to read the accomplishments of the unfamiliar before giving their stories a read, and no skipping the authors who didn’t light your fire in the past. No, Nemonymous is all about fiction divorced from any context but temporary anonymity. And though the experiment is now on hiatus with issue five, Des Lewis has devised the “megazanthus” in such a way that each and every issue of Nemonymous can still be enjoyed the way it was meant to be if the reader so chooses … it just takes a bit more willpower for those who weren’t onboard the first time.

The magazine’s central conceit of temporarily anonymous stories is nicely preserved in its format, even after subsequent issues are available and the authors are revealed. A new reader has the option of approaching the stories with their anonymity intact, unless, of course, a story is so powerful the reader just has to know who wrote it. I admit there were times I wished I could grab the next issue and find out who wrote a particular story. I can’t say what I would have done had I the option to know who wrote what. Some stories begged for unmasking early and if given the opportunity of having issue two at hand while reading issue one, I probably would have skipped ahead to see who wrote something that really wowed me like, say, With Arms Outstretched.

While I liked every issue, Nemonymous two and three impressed me like no other, perhaps because I found their ideas so thought-provoking. Loss of memory, identity, emotion, relationships, and self are the sort of thematic concerns that enthrall me. In fact, two and three feel like one giant issue that needed to be divided, such was the importance of its thematic concerns. Never mind the submissions process was many months apart, these two issues feel like a unified whole with stories that could have fit comfortably in one issue or the other. While it was the premise of the magazine that drew me in, it was the execution and quality of the stories that validated my high expectations. Don’t get me wrong, there isn’t a bad issue of Nemonymous, it’s just these two are such stellar achievements you wonder why the future of Nemonymous wasn’t ensured from the start of its five issue run (one can hope there will be future volumes).

What follows is a review of sorts, but I’m only going to hit on a few stories and not even all those that resonated with me or else I’d spend too much time gushing about, say, Shark in a Foggy Sea (Issue three) or The Assistant to Dr. Jacob (Issue two) at the expense of gems like Buffet Freud (Two) or The Place Where Lost Things Go (three) because I’ve only so much time.

I’ll start with the second issue’s Climbing the Tallest Tree in the World. I want to single it out because it’s the perfect example of what Nemonymous can do for the reader and the author. I won’t mention the author’s name because I’m writing this to entice new readers and if nemonymity is still intact, it’s still possible to enjoy these issues the way they were meant to be, sans byline. I was semi-familiar with this writer’s work before reading the story. Maybe, had I known the author’s name, I would have saved this story for last or, worse, not gotten around to reading it, which isn’t to slight the author’s skill because he’s very deft with the written word and in crafting a story. No, it’s more of a thing where I was biased because the previous works I’d read hadn’t quite grabbed me. I didn’t know who he was and in this case I was blind not only to the author, but to the genre. This last is very important because it highlights the second thing Nemonymous does well; it temporarily strips a story of genre and believe me, there are plenty of genres represented within Nemo’s pages so you never know what you’re going to read next. So it was with great excitement that I started reading the first story of Nemonymous 2 and it soon became clear it wasn’t going to be the type of story that reveals itself perfectly by the last word. However, it was the language and the feel and the mood that made me appreciate what I’d read even when I didn’t completely understand it by story’s end. Sometimes it isn’t about “getting it” as much as it is “feeling it” and Climbing the Tallest Tree in the World is the equivalent of watching a film that makes you think as much as feel. In the beginning, I didn’t understand it (sometimes I’m just dense), but upon a second and third read the idea reveals itself in the pieces of symbolism the author chose…or maybe I’m totally on the wrong track, the fun is using your mind in a way you don’t with many other stories. Nemonymous made me reevaluate what I knew - or thought I knew - about this author. I won’t be putting off his stories in the future.

Issue Two’s second story, Mighty Fine Days, particularly resonated. The protagonist’s plight is a chilling one where newspapers and signs have all become blank as if the details are lost before imprinting themselves in his mind. So, too, does his mind begin to unravel as his memories depart and, perhaps most eerily of all, no one seems to notice his plight, nor does he feel any profound sense of loss as he goes through the motions of life. Yeah, I probably revealed too much here, but the brilliance of this Mighty Fine Days is in its execution. I absolutely love this story to death and a lengthy plot summary cannot ruin the power of this story.

The Drowned, also issue two, is the best kind of character study, one that doesn’t feel faux or forced and doesn’t use a terminal illness in a clichéd attempt to make the reader feel something the writer doesn’t have the ability to pull off otherwise. The narrator and Kevin are alive and their experiences are perfectly suited to the titular metaphor. The second paragraph’s “The only time we went away together was pretty much a disaster. It taught us something about ourselves, but it wasn’t knowledge we could use,” is an amazing, thoughtful statement. Issue three’s Chemo is another excellent tale about a terminal illness and its effect on the stricken couple where the handling of the subject isn’t what you’d expect.

Issue three’s Genie was an excellent tale of love and loss. Some days it is my favorite story of the issue, sort of like when you get a new CD and different songs strike your fancy at different times. I absolutely love the way the story unfolds and the way the author doesn’t let the premise down by story’s end. It’s fabulous and the fact that so many other stories in the issue are just as good is a testament to Nemonymous' consistently high quality.

And just when you think you’ve got Nemonymous figured out a tale like The Rest of Larry smacks you upside the head and you realize you really, really, never know what you’re going to get next. Another point about the bylineless format should be mentioned here. Because you don’t know the authors, you’re less likely to skip around—at least I am. Nemonymous is an anthology that should be read in the order the stories are presented. The Rest of Larry is…well, I can’t say anymore, but trust me; if you read the stories in order this one will surprise you. Trust the editor, he knows what he’s doing. The Rest of Larry is a great read and hilarious and unexpected read.

I’ll end with thoughts on the “denemonization” process itself. Nemonymous’ after-the-fact bylines gives authors a chance to reflect on the feedback their stories have garnered in the months since first publication. Instead of a simple statement of author identity and a short, generic bio, you often get to read thoughts tailored to the story or to the experience of being temporarily anonymous. Issues two and three have superb author notes, worth the original wait and still interesting for late-comers who have yet to experience Nemonymous and wonder what it was like for the authors to sit in silence all those months. These bios feel interactive. It’s a nice touch you don’t often get with fiction’s traditional modes of presentation where the bylines say “this is who I am; this is what I’ve done.” No, most of the Nemonymous bylines are an attraction in and of themselves and I don’t recall them getting their proper due. I like reading what was going through an author’s mind when he or she wrote something, or what the author felt when reading a particular review of the story, or how the author felt about anonymity. Plus, I was totally, utterly astounded by what the author revealed about issue one’s With Arms Outstretched when it was denemonised in issue two, just a little factoid about its history had his author bio been printed in any outlet other than Nemonymous. Like the gold coin on Issue three’s cover, the idea, the execution, and the result of Nemonymous is priceless. Highly recommended and readily available.

This review © Brent Zirnheld (December 2005)


======================
*You could say that Nemo 6 was the blank edition. It just had to happen. After the blank story and the blank cover and...
I'll get my coat!
DFL Obituary: HERE.

=================================

SIDESHOW: Silly Idea - The Baser Pulps - Nemonymous - The Weirdmonger Wheel - Themed Quotations from DFL - Weirdmonger (Prime Book 2003) - DFL's review of 'Teatro Grottesco' - The Pit and the Pessimum 

Posted by weirdtongue at 8:33 AM BST

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There may be unavoidable spoilers in all my reviews (although I do try to avoid them). 

An author's blog HERE. "Had an interesting experience this week of watching an “as live” review of The Ephemera taking shape as it was being read."

Another author's blog here about the DFL review of his book: HERE. "So here’s a sincere thanks to Des for his perceptive and insightful reading of my work."

A review of DFL's review of Ligotti's book below: HERE. "If you're looking for a brief romp through weird literature and the banker Meltdown, or have wondered what one weirdmonger on the fringe thinks of another wordsmith of the high weird, then you have found your destination."

HERE: "Des you make me want to buy books. My dream is to have you one day do one of these enlightening reviews about a collection of my stories. Brilliant stuff!"

Paul Meloy: HERE: "Des, this has been an absolute pleasure! Delightful, unique, touching...an honour. I predict these stream-of-consciousness reviews will become the essential thing to have and be in great demand! Thanks for taking the time to do this, Des!"

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May 2007: DFL's review ('On The Hoof') of Thomas Ligotti's 'Conspiracy Against The Human Race': HERE

with TL's reply.

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Nov 08 - Jan 09:

http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/glyphotech_by_mark_samuels.htm

http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/beneath_the_surface_by_simon_strantzas.htm

http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/omens_by_richard_gavin.htm

http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/divinations_of_the_deep_by_matt_cardin.htm

http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/rain_dogs_by_gary_mcmahon.htm

http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/teatro_grottesco_by_thomas_ligotti.htm

http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/how_to_make_monsters_by_gary_mcmahon.htm

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(3 Feb 09): http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/tamar_yellin.htm - Tales of The Ten Lost Tribes

(17 Feb 09): http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_reach_of_children__by_tim_lebbon.htm

(21 Feb 09): http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_impelled__other_headtrips_by_gary_fry.htm 

(7 Mar 09): World Wide Web And Other Lovecraftian Upgrades - by Gary Fry

(11 Mar 09): Beneath The Ground - edited by Joel Lane

(15 Mar 09): UNBECOMING And Other Tales Of Horror - by Mike O'Driscoll

(20 Mar 09): The Ephemera - by Neil Williamson

(25 Mar 09): Somnambulists - by Allen Ashley

(29 Mar 09): The Villa Désirée and Other Uncanny Stories - by May Sinclair

(11 Apr 09): Sanity and Other Delusions - by Gary Fry

(12 Apr 09): http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/sleepwalkers__marion_arnott.htm

(15 Apr 09): ISLINGTON CROCODILES by Paul Meloy

(20 Apr 09): http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/mindful_of_phantoms.htm by Gary Fry.

(6 May 09): The English Soil Society - by Tim Nickels 

(6 May 09): The Cusp of Something - by Jai Clare

Still in reading/reviewing:

"Real-Time Review of 'Weirdmonger' by DF Lewis" by DF Lewis 

Visits To The Flea Circus - by Nick Jackson

============================================================

PS:

Review of a long on-line novel:

http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2008/06/odalisque.html - a novel by PF Jeffery 

Mark Samuels' WHITE HANDS: http://nightshadebooks.com/discus/messages/8/752.html?1227381699 (June 2003)

Real-time notes on Robert Aickman: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/robert_aickman.htm

.

Posted by weirdtongue at 4:59 PM BST

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My Readings aloud: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/df_lewis_reading_aloud.htm

My reviews: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/recent_reviews_of_books_by_dfl.htm

Cone Zero: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/cone_zero_under_way.htm

Posted by weirdtongue at 1:41 PM BST

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Meeting of Minds

The huge digital clock clacked loudly like an old-fashioned cricket scoreboard where a run was scored every second. The double clack each ten seconds relieved to some extent the otherwise hypnotic rhythm. He was waiting for a late night train. Nobody else was on the platform, but he did spot a foetus-like rodent scampering along one of the rails. For one moment, he thought it was the live rail, but following the creature’s disappearance behind a wooden plank, he assumed he must have been mistaken. The clouds had disappeared too, leaving the stars untangled, the moon uncluttered - except for two dark shapes approaching each other which were none of these things. Not aeroplanes with silent flashing lights, more like ill-defined ink-blots each about the size of an age-grimed pre-decimal penny upon the scale of his eye to the sky. Then the two shapes merged like cells under a microscope and suddenly shone as a silver half-crown. He wondered if he was the only one to notice these happenings in the sky, just before he felt the fatal electric shock in the ground as the Earth shorted at approximately 23:57:33.

Published 'Crossings' 1993

Posted by weirdtongue at 12:34 PM GMT

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