Hello, I'm Ashley Dioses. I've been obsessed with weird and horror stories and poetry ever since I discovered Poe when I was 12. I began writing like crazy after that and many years later, in 2011, I got 2 poems published for the first time in a horror ezine, appropriately titled the Horror Zine. Soon after that, a poetry editor from another ezine, Dark River Press, invited me to submit to the ezine he worked for. It was he, K.A. Opperman, who showed me the greatness of CAS, Lovecraft, Sterling, Sidney-Fryer, and many others. He also is a member here and that's why I decided to join as well.

He has a poetry book accepted for publication by Hippocampus Press, so you should keep a lookout for that. It may be out in 2015. He is heavily inspired by CAS and I would definitely recommend taking a look into his work when it is out.

[www.hippocampuspress.com]

As for me, 4 of my poems have been recently accepted by S.T. Joshi for publication in a new weird journal Spectral Realms by Hippocampus Press (3 poems in that one) and the Weird Fiction Review by Centipede Press.

[www.hippocampuspress.com]

[www.centipedepress.com]

She speaks the truth; I do indeed have a book of formal weird verse accepted at Hippocampus, which is estimated to appear sometime next year (hopefully sooner rather than later!). It bears the title THE CRIMSON TOME, numbers about 120 poems, and will be roughly 170 pages. The verse therein is highly inspired by CAS, Sterling, Lovecraft, David Park-Barnitz (author of the Book of Jade), and others. There is not a single piece of free verse in it; die-hard formalists, rejoice! ;) (I don't mean to bash free verse here, however--I just don't generally care for it as much as formal verse, nor do I write it).

As for the contents of THE CRIMSON TOME--dark and horrific subjects abound! Fans of horror/dark fantasy/Weird ought to find something to like. While there are a few lighter pieces, the prevailing atmosphere is 'dark' in its various incarnations.

Our good Dr. Farmer has been kind enough to write an excellent Preface for it, and a very scholarly and thorough Introduction by Donald Sidney-Fryer will be included as well.

On a related matter, as was mentioned above, Hippocampus will indeed soon be launching a biannual journal dedicated to weird poetry called Spectral Realms. 3 poems included in THE CRIMSON TOME will appear in it, alongside 3 poems by Ashley Dioses (one of them having for subject the sorceress Carathis from Vathek--did I mention it is written in Alexandrines?), as well as 2 poems by D. L. Myers, whose verses rave with primal hunger, sucking at one's very soul! There are those who have called him...The Oracle of the Black Pool.... (there will be a sonnet in the TOME by that title....)

As an end to my mad gibberings--I've been around here before, but I couldn't figure out me old password and such, so here I am again, ranting about my debut weird verse collection (my first book ever), trying to raise awareness, and hoping to reconnect with the Klarkash-Tonian community :)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 8 May 14 | 04:06PM by K.A. Opperman.

I am very happy indeed to endorse "The Crimson Tome" -- fellows and gals, you will love it - and I urge to support this new and very talented young author.
Dr. Farmer