What a year 2020 has been, readers and writers. A pandemic, exposure of violent racism, riots, political unrest…I can’t even begin to describe how surreal it’s felt. Of course, we all have a baseline understanding to work with, so I don’t really need to. Suffice to say, I’d love for whoever wished to live in an apocalyptic novel to get us out of it already. I suppose that it hasn’t been all bad for writers, though. It’s provided ample inspiration for stories. That brings me to the point for today’s post: my story, “Beautiful Dreamer,” in the Sick Cruising anthology from Notch Publishing House.
In the Sick Cruising anthology, the stories are united by a shared concept inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death.” Each writer was given a character and prompt based on that concept and then left to their own devices, within reason. In the end, the stories come together to tell the larger story of the doomed cruise ship the All Powerful as it takes its owner, Mitch Winters, and five hundred guests out to sea, far away from the COVID-21, or Red Lungs, outbreak–or so everyone thinks.
My story, “Beautiful Dreamer,” follows Ava Nelson, daughter of modern Midas and close friend of Mitch Winters, Gregor Nelson, as she accompanies her father and his nurse, Jayden Casseus, aboard the All Powerful. After living through her mother’s death, COVID-19, Gregor’s leukemia, and now Red Lungs, Ava sees this cruise as the escape that she and her father have been looking for. (Not to mention the chance to get to know Jayden more personally.) Then she spies Red Lungs symptoms in herself and other passengers. Suddenly, a pale, scrawny figure appears in her dreams, stalking her father. With no authority figure in sight, Ava fears they will never leave the ship.
Other writers from the anthology include my fellow writers from the Darkness Wired anthology, Henry Snider, R.C. Mulhare, and Junior Sokolov.
“Beautiful Dreamer” is my second published story with Sick Cruising being my second fiction anthology. (“Postmortem” was long-listed in a contest but never published, and I had an essay published in an anthology before Darkness Wired, but that was an academic anthology.) So, as with “Patient Zero,” this is an exciting time for me. A light in the darkness, you could say.
For more information on the Sick Cruising anthology and to look out for future anthologies and contests, check out Notch Publishing House’s website. You can also find ways to read Sick Cruising there, including buying a Kindle or paperback copy on Amazon.
Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011