F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction Author

To Be Human

New “Clowns” Review!

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What Makes a Good Clown Go Bad? © F. P. Dorchak and Lon Kirschner, 2016.
What Makes a Good Clown Go Bad? © F. P. Dorchak and Lon Kirschner, 2016.

I just discovered that I have a new “Clowns” review on Amazon.com! Thank you so much, Queen Farm Chick!

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read!
By Jill on April 6, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
“It may be a short story, but F.P. Dorchak did a great job at putting me on the edge of my seat and only increasing my fears of clowns. Clowns had my full attention from the first paragraph all the way through to the end.”
Find the source here!

Voice – Free Review Copies!

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Voice. (© 2015, F. P. Dorchak and Lon Kirschner)
Voice. (© 2015, F. P. Dorchak and Lon Kirschner)

I have 19 slightly damaged copies of Voice that I want to give away!

Their damages?

The inside graphic image of the front cover is grainy. That’s it. Nothing else is damaged in the book—well, if you don’t count my intense, troubled characters. So, this being the case, I want to give them out for free for reviews. I’ll also pay for shipping.

I’ll even autograph them for ya.

So, where’s the risk?

You can contact me at the following, but these are hardcopy trades, so I will need a name and address:

  • fpdorchak (at) fpdorchak (dot) com
  • F. P. Dorchak, P. O. Box 49393, Colorado Springs, CO 80949

So, there’s no risk! You not paying for the book, you’re not paying for the shipping, and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to keep reading! But I’m hoping you will like some aspect of this intense, emotionally thrilling story and will write up a review on your favorite site as well as on Amazon.com. If you’re not interested, please pass this around to another who might be interested, and as long as I have copies, I’ll send them out.

I also plan on doing the same with some advanced review copies for my short story collection, Do The Dead Dream?, coming out this Hallowe’en, so stay tuned!

I thank you all in advance for your time!

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The WYO Road Trip

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Road Trippin' Through The WYO. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)
Road Trippin’ Through The WYO. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)

This past week, my wife and I took a road trip up to God’s Country. Well, at least that’s what Wyoming and my wife think (and I may have slightly overstated my wife’s position, however…). As much as I love trees, Wyoming really doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Wide open spaces. Wind. Pronghorn. Wind. Cool rocks. Wind. Eagles. Wind. Snow fences. Wind. Wind River Canyon. Wind. Wind River Mountains. Wind….

As we drove up, along I-25 we counted 11 overturned campers and 18-wheelers—yes, 18-wheelers. A gnarly windstorm the previous day had actually closed down sections of roadways, and we were getting tossed about pretty good in spots (sections of Wyoming roads were still closed to light, high-profile vehicles). But on the way up and back, I took pictures. I love taking pictures! Some of those images are in this blog.

NOTE: Not all of these images are great quality (i.e., sharp), because we were moving, but I did stop and get out for a few of them. I’m still learning the ins and outs of the camera. Most of the images in this post have also been compressed, so click on them for better views.

Wyoming Golden Eagle. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 7, 2017)
Wyoming Golden Eagle. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 7, 2017)

The first time I whipped out the camera was well into Wyoming, somewhere between Casper and Shoshoni. We’d come upon a large bird feeding on a carcass along the road. You’ll also find lots of carcasses along near every road you travel up there. And wind. anyway, we slowed down, turned around, and I got out my camera and tried to get a shot or two before the winged beast took off. Didn’t get very many good shots because the bird was spooked by our presence and had flown way out and I had to crank my 300mm telephoto and didn’t use a tripod. I initially thought it was a hawk…then had the funny thought that its shape also strangely reminded me of a pheasant—though I knew it wasn’t, it’s just what its profile body reminded me of at one point—but as we later looked at the photos on my laptop, my Wyoming cousin-in-law, Phil, blurted out that it was an eagle. It must have been a young one, because of its size. We’ve seen plenty of eagles before, so it was surprising it didn’t register on us that was what it was at the time! Anywho, back at our eagle/carcass visitation, we waited for a few minutes for the eagle to return but it didn’t. It just sat on its fence post and watched us. We continued on.

As we drove toward Riverton, we drove past some really cool rock formations. I love WYO (this is how the WYO’s abbrev their state name on signs) rock. They’re not Adirondack rock (or maybe they are, I just haven’t researched them—they’re in Wyoming v. my beloved upstate NY), but I still like em. They’re wicked looking.

Wyoming Rock. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 7, 2017)
Wyoming Rock. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 7, 2017)
Wyoming Rock. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 7, 2017)
Wyoming Rock. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 7, 2017)
If Wyoming Were Antarctica. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 7, 2017)
If Wyoming Were Antarctica. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 7, 2017)

There’re also lots and lots and lots of wide open spaces (and wind), and The WYO had just come out of a gnarly spell of snow, like a couple foot of it (have to sound “local”), so there were lots of “white caps.” That’s what all the remnants of snow reminded me of, all around the terrain. And as I watched the desolate landscape roll past, I noticed in the growing twilight how a light blue cast was falling upon the “white-capped” terrain. It looked très cool. Reminded me of the Antarctic (had I been there). So, I snapped off some shots as we sped by at some 80 mph—that’s The WYO’s speed limit (not stopping, just taking some “hip shots” out the windows, which is what a lot of what these images are). When I noticed this blue cast, I began messing with the camera settings until I got the blue I was shooting for (pardon the pun). Doesn’t the blue image remind you of the Antarctic (had you been there)? Took some more rock shots and sunset images…loving how the fading, golden light hit the rock faces. As we entered Riverton, Wyoming I took a couple of sky shots of aircraft.

The Approaching WYO Sunset. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 7, 2017)
Riverton Skies. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 7, 2017)
Riverton Skies. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 7, 2017)
Wyoming Americana. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)
Wyoming Americana. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)

After we left Riverton Saturday morning, we drove out by way of Highway 135, towards Sweetwater Station. As you leave Riverton this way, you crest a high mesa with a breathtaking view of the Wind River Mountain Range that is part of the Rocky Mountains. It was somewhere south and past the Gas Hills Road (Route 136) where I spotted a weathered and abandoned (?) trailer. So, I hopped out and took a couple of shots. When I got back in the vehicle, my wife spotted…

The carcass.

Wow, all bones, no meat, a little connective tissue. I’m no expert, but it was probably a pronghorn, since they are so prevalent here. They are everywhere. Along with the wind. By comparison, we only saw two deer, up and back. So, of course, I had to take some shots of that. Don’t mess with Texas? Don’t mess with Wyoming.

Don’t Mess With Wyoming. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)
Don’t Mess With Wyoming. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)
Don’t Mess With Wyoming. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)

After we peaked the mesa (the name of which I either do not know or have forgotten…the Wind River Basin and its overlook?) I snapped some cool views of the Wind River Mountain Range and surrounding rocks. I wished I could adequately convey the depth-of-field of some of these images that looked cooler to the naked eye. If you look closely you’ll see there’s a ledge. And that it was really, really high. With lots of wind.

Wind River Basin Overlook? (© F. P. Dorchak, March 7, 2017)
Wind River Basin Overlook? (© F. P. Dorchak, March 7, 2017)
Wind River Basin Overlook? (© F. P. Dorchak, March 7, 2017)
Wind River Basin Overlook? (© F. P. Dorchak, March 7, 2017)

We continued on. Stopped at Sweetwater Station, which is at the intersection of 135 and 287/789. Hung a left. Just over the rise there, is this long-assed snow fence. Had to get an image or two of that. There are a lot of snow fences in The WYO.

Sweetwater Station, Wyoming (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)
Sweetwater Station, Wyoming (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)
Snow Fence, Outside Sweetwater Station, Wyoming (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)
Snow Fence, Outside Sweetwater Station, Wyoming (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)

Long story short, there were lots more open spaces, wind, and pronghorn…but another really cool photo op presented itself, and I blurted to my wife to Stop-stop-stop! (she was driving so I could shoot photos) as I sighted something really neat: a pronghorn sitting pretty-as-you-please atop a hill! At first as we came up on this hill, I was wondering if what I was seeing was one of those many sheet metal hilltop silhouettes—elk, jackalope, cowboy-on-bucking-bronco—but, nope, it was the real deal! We hooked a u-y and came back around. I managed to get a couple of shots as it remained “reclined,” but it spotted us and got up, showing me its white ass. For quite a while, actually. Its white ass. It just stood there…its white butt pointed toward me. I’m thinking this must be a pronghorn thing…showing your displeasure at being disturbed by showing the object-of-your-displeasure your white ass. After a while, it sauntered off.

King of the Hill. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)
King of the Hill. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)

The miles and the scenery rolled by…and as I looked out the side, my wife remarked about the beautiful clouds before us—and they were gorgeous! I switched to my 18-55mm lens and caught the images embedded. It looked so incredible! The pictures kinda capture it, but no picture can adequately capture what the naked eyes see….

Gorgeous! (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)
Gorgeous! (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)

And this brings up a cool point: since I’d gotten back into taking “serious” pictures with my Nikon, my wife has also become more aware (or perhaps vocal is the better term) of photo ops. We were taking about this as we were driving. How photography has you look at life differently. I know I’ve always loved to just watch the scenery go by on road trips, but now, also getting back into photography with a really nice camera has changed how I look at the world. Besides all the “standard beauty” to be viewed, I’m now looking at picture composition and capture, and it was cool my wife was doing the same thing!

After the cloud shots, I then just started messing around…and took some monochrome (B&W) shots. It’s amazing how monochrome changes the whole “tone” (ummm, pardon the pun…) of an image!

Gorgeous! (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)
Wyoming Noir. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)
Wyoming Windmills Sans Quixote. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)
Wyoming Windmills Sans Quixote. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)

We then came upon a bunch of windmills. Yeah. The WYO. Wind. We eventually crossed the WYO/COLO border. A little bit inside Colorado, we passed this dual rock formation that we think must be part of a residence or something. Or a Colorado Rapa Nui cousin connection to Easter Island? As we drove on and through Fort Collins, I attempted an artsy shot or two. You be the judge. Or not. In any case, we were both back into heavily trafficed civilization.

Sigh.

THAT is something I do miss from The WYO…their drivers are nowhere near as stupid and in-a-hurry as they are in Colorado. And there are far fewer of them.

Colorado Rapa Nui. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)
Colorado Rapa Nui. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)

Urban artsy:

Fort Collins Building. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)
513 Riverside, Fort Collins. (© F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)

So, hello, home, it’s good to be back. We had a good family visit…and a good road trip. Hope y’all enjoy the photos. It was fun taking them!

The Photographer, Sweetwater Station, Wyoming (© Laura and F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)
The Photographer, Sweetwater Station, Wyoming (© Laura and F. P. Dorchak, March 11, 2017)

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Best Reads…

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Best Reads In A Long Time! (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, 2017)
Best Reads In A Long Time! (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, 2017)

…in a long time!

I had started reading these four books about a year ago—and last week had finally finished them all. I think I’d started around September. They’re all anthologies. They all have the element of The Weird in them. The stories run the gamut from pretty much mainstream to the out-and-out horror. It’s so funny—and interesting—that in the past few years I have not been happy with nearly every novel I’ve picked up and [tried to] read. Either the story or something about the story/writing just didn’t grab me. But this last year, during all the author events I’d participated in (local and distant library gigs to Denver’s Comic Con), I’d come across these books. Many of my writer friends are in these books, and that’s how I found them: they were selling them at these events. And I must tell you that—hands down—wow. I was so impressed with these works! I loved all of these books—maybe not every story, but the en masse entirety of the collections. The quality of the writing…even if I didn’t like a particular story, man, they were all well-written! I really appreciated the writing, since the past couple of years I have not appreciated much of the writing I’ve read or tried to read.

This is important, becaaause….

I’d begun to wonder if I’d become jaded as a writer-reader. That nothing I read was ever going to be “any good” any more…is this how editors and agents feel?

And I’d worried that perhaps it wasn’t that the works I read were actually bad…but that perhaps in my mind’s eye nothing I read would ever measure up to some insane and wholly arbitrary ego-constructed measure. Yes, I was a little bit worried I was becoming that angry non-selling author sitting on that front porch with a double-barreled shotgun yelling out at all the authors out there to get the hell off my lawn!, while I fired some well-placed buckshot into their collective literary asses.

Open, pop em, reload.

But having read these books reassured me that I was fine. I don’t know what my major malfunction is, but having read these books showed me that there still is great writing out there—great reading. I’m not into pure horror fiction anymore, but I still love well-written “dark fiction” pieces with elements of The Weird in it, however defined. And that’s another thing—seeing The Weird defined by other writers. How they look at the world and suitably warp the hell out of it. I’m more into the psychologically, the metaphysically bent stories, not the gore…but love “weird.”

It was also fun as hell to see what my writer friends had written!

So often we run into each other at these promotional gigs (well, when I go to them, that is, and 2016 was a banner year for me attending them…) and talk and stuff, look at each others books, but to buy everyone‘s books…all the time…becomes prohibitive. I know too many writers and I only have so much income and wall space—as I’m sure is the same for every other writer out there. I always feel terrible that I have to put a friend’s book back down and somehow slink away with my tail between my legs because I haven’t bought anything—but hey, I wish you the best!

Ga, I hate having to do that!

But, this time I made an active attempt to better support those friends I haven’t read anything from and find something of theirs of interest and buy one or two books per gig…annnd read them! These four books I’d bought around the same time so they all “went together” in my head. The two books on the right (The Deep Dark Woods and Nightmares Unhinged) are straight horror and dark fiction and have some outright startling stories in that vein (pun intended). Tick Tock and Found are not really “dark fiction” per se, but have some elements in some of the stories, and they are stories that involve the element of their titles (i.e., stories about something found and the element of time). Really well-written stuff!

I’m not going to call any one writer out, here. That wouldn’t be fair without commenting on all of them, and that would get long…and to be honest, I’m not known for my memory, so that would involve a bit more rereading and note taking and I don’t want this post to be a book report on authors. I just wanted to say that if any of you have any interesting whatsoever in dark fiction—weird fiction—stories about something found or that involve the element of time in them…well-written short stories…give these anthologies a try!

And to all my writer friends who wrote this stuff–outstanding effort! I really am impressed and look forward to reading more of your work!

 

Kirschner Cover Art: Looking For Przybylski, by K.C. Frederick

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Looking For Przybylski, by K.C. Frederick, ©2012
Looking For Przybylski, by K.C. Frederick, ©2012

In looking for the next of Lon Kirschner’s cover art I wanted to review, I came upon one I’d been looking at for a while: Looking For Przybylski, by K.C. Frederick. Now, I don’t read all these books as I review their cover art…I just don’t have that kind of time, right now…so I look at the cover art in-and-of themselves. How the covers affect me. How Lon’s work “hits” me. Sometimes I’ll look at reviews, and once, like with A Long Cold Fall, by Sam Reaves, I even got to interview the author (thanks, Lon, for putting us in touch!). On this shot, I looked at some of the reviews. One review in particular talked about the “…difficulty of writing about race with moral integrity.” There were one or more references in the review of the book dealing with or not properly dealing with being a “goddamn Detroit Polack” (the reviewer, oddly enough, was also a “Przybylski,” J.J. Przybylski). This reminded me of when I was growing up and “used to be Polack.”

All through my formative years I’d thought—well, our family thought—that my mom’s side had Polish in the bloodline. So I’d valiantly defended all the Polack jokes. But after graduating high school we’d all come to find out that that line of her family we’d thought had been Polish…had actually been Austrian.

Sonofa….

Really, Mom? You couldn’t have done a little research a few years earlier?

Sigh.

If I remember all that had been discovered right, the family-member-in-question had been Austrian during WWII and had fled Austria on the basis of claiming to have been Polish to avoid being drafted into the Austrian army…hence, the lineage fabrication.

What does this have to do with the book?

Well, apparently nothing…except that J.J. Przybylski’s review reminded me of the whole “Polack thing” of my youth, and, well, apparently, this book deals-or-not-properly-deals-with that “whole Polack thing.”

Back to the cover: I picked this cover this time around because I love road trips and being on the road, and well, that is what this cover is all about!

It’s portraying a road trip into the night. And what does the night typically symbolize? Mystery. The unknown. “Darkness” of some kind beyond the obvious. But there is a light being shone (“shined”? “Shone” works for what’s coming next…) into that darkness, as is (pardon the pun) shown at the bottom of the cover. And that is what this book seems to be about: Przybylski is an undertaker who has taken down a one-time Detroit criminal, named Ziggy Czarnecki. Ziggy hears about Przybylski and goes in search of him cross-country. On a bus. Weird things happen. Interesting people are met. And according to J. J. Przybylski’s review, “It’s a good book…written with a gentleman’s reserve.” Now, if something supernatural was involved, I be tempted to take a read….

I also love the artistic perspective of the road, vanishing not only into the distance, but also into the night. And sometimes…sometimes I feel it’s better to leave such musings there…and not actually discover what is actually found there…in the night…in the “vanishing point” that is at the end of that road, this novel. I’m sure given the plot and characters, nasty things will happen, and I don’t necessarily want to know those nasty things. But I like the mystery that this cover implies. Love the imagery.

Here is what Lon Kirschner has to say about his work in designing this cover:

“When I first received the manuscript I remember thinking, Hmmm…I can’t even pronounce the title of this book. That led me to thinking that it should somehow become part of the cover in a very clean way. For the uninitiated in Polish names, I kept the typography simple and pretty straight forward with a color that evokes the flecks in the road.

“Yes, this is a road trip and it does take the form of a bus ride through lonely country. I remembered long bus trips when I was a teenager in upstate NY going to visit my sister at college and a certain sadness I felt traveling home alone on the bus at night when the weekend visit was over. It was that feeling of riding a bus alone that inspired this. The trip in the book is odd as bus trips often are when you are closed in with people you don’t know but somehow manage to form some kind of bond with the person next to you. Things seem accelerated in the small amount of time you get to know (or choose not to know) your fellow travelers.

“You are right, this book does have a supernatural quality to it, but nothing terrible happens. In fact you actually don’t know if something does happen out of the ordinary, because it is the ordinary that somehow becomes extraordinary.

“The cover does represent the bus trip in a literal sense, but more importantly it represents someone getting closer to a knowledge about themselves that they never would have discovered had they not gotten on the bus and made the journey.”

Thanks, Lon. I also used to ride buses during my teenaged years. My parents had divorced and I had taken the Trailways line down from Saranac Lake, NY to Glens Falls and Albany to visit my mother. As Lon says, I also felt “a certain sadness” upon my return trip from seeing my mom. I found the Trailways trips cozy. I don’t recall if I traveled alone or with my brother, Chris (my other two siblings stayed with my mom), but since those bus rides involved a bit of distance, buses stop every few miles, the night was always involved. And, as I’ve already mentioned, I love driving, being on the road, and night drives…so I liked the nocturnal atmosphere of the drives, and being in a big comfy bus. I don’t recall too much interaction on these bus rides. Just lots of pleasant smiles and politeness…and intense reflection about how our family had fractured and life would never be the same.

Perhaps not too far from how this story unfolds….

Lon Kirschner may be contacted at:

Phone: 518/392-3823

E-mail: info@kirschnercaroff.com

Book Cover Site: http://www.lonkirschner.com/

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Wind and Snow

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Wind and Snow (© F. P. Dorchak, Feb 23, 2017)
Wind and Snow (© F. P. Dorchak, Feb 23, 2017)

Yesterday we had respite from the fifty-, sixty-, and seventy-degree weather we’ve been having—it actually snowed! And it had come down pretty hard for a while there. Where I was at the time, north of Colorado Springs, we even had some accumulation. It was pretty fricking cool, pardon the pun.

As I later drove down I-25, I couldn’t keep my attention away from Pikes Peak. It was—simply stated—majestic!

Snow was being blown off the ridges of the Front Range and were beautifully backlit!

Damn it, but I hadn’t my camera with me, so I kept hoping the majesty that was Pikes Peak would remain to some degree (again with the puns…) so I could capture it.

I got home, grabbed my camera, lenses, and tripod, and rushed outside.

Below are some shots I managed to capture. I used UV and polarizing filters and my 18-55mm and 70-300mm lenses. Did a couple black & white images. All files are compressed using Coral PaintShop Pro X7.

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