What are you afraid of? God? Satan? Or simply the things that come to you, in dreams and visions, making noises in the night? Rich Logsdon knows all about these fears, and would be more than happy to help you explore them. With his horrifying, Victorian fiction, he paints pictures of the things that we try to banish every morning.
An irritable college English professor teaching in Las Vegas, Rich Logsdon has been published extensively on and off the net, at spots like 3am Magazine, Shadow of the Marquis, Bookwave, San Francisco Salvo, Eotu, Infernal, Gathering Darkness, Taste for Flesh, Shadow Voices, Dream Forge, Tantalus Fire, Sinister Element, Rosewart, Satoka, Three-Lobed Burning Eye, Atomic Petals, Thunder Sandwich, Duct Tape Press, Darkzine, Red Sine, Aphelion, Chiaroscuro, Gothic Net, SpaceRat, Demonminds, Steel Caves, Miserere Review, Apocalypse, Dynamic Patterns, Manx Fiction, Rewriting Reality, House of Pain, Dreadful Dreams, American Gothic, Nocturne, Switchblade Kiss, Turtleneck, Dark Truths, TopWrite Corner, Weird Visions, Savage Night, Dark Truths, and A Writer's Choice Literary Journal. While by day he is the Editor-in-chief of the very mainline literary magazine Red Rock Review, he devotes most of his nights to writing dark fiction, which was described by one Las Vegas poet as "bloody/mystical/psychotic/Satanic." (While Rich considers this judgment perhaps an overstatement, he'll accept praise from just about anyone.) As both editor and author, he has been interviewed by several publications. He is currently editing a collection of short ficiton titled Las Vegas Stories, hopefully to be published some time in 2002. As well, he has organized in Las Vegas a series of public readings featuring some of the best writers in the business. Rich received his Ph.D. in Eighteenth Century English literature from the University of Oregon.
Rich says, "My three favorite writers are Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Conrad, and Thomas Pynchon with a little bit of St. Teresa of Avila thrown in. (Yep, I'm big on the Medieval Christian mystics, too). I attempt to incorporate into some of my stories almost contrary world views. I think "Wicked Dreams" and "Fear of Angels" both attempt to pull the reader both ways with a framework inspired by Poe.
'My favorite opening in all of literature is from Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher: 'During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melacholy House of Usher.'"
Check out his e-book, Valley of the Shadow, or write to him at RandJLogsdon@aol.com.
Rich's works here at Unlikely Stories are:
2004:
Lori's Song (available in Acrobat format)
2003:
Confession of a Dark Saint
2002:
The Sifting
Numbed by Grace
Summoning Game
Sweet, Sweet Annie
2001:
The Six-Fingered Man
Going Home to Mother
Dreaming of Boticelli
The Haunting of Sarah Gray
Fear of Angels
Hour of Judgement
Wicked Dreams
Because Lori's Song is quite long, an Adobe Acrobat file is provided so that you might conveniently print it out. Please understand that Rich Logsdon owns the copyright on Lori's Song and you do NOT have permission to distribute it. In order to use the Acrobat file, you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free download.