Let’s Take a Ride
All Along the Pacific with C.B. Calsing
Hello dear reader, dear friends and fans. I know it has been a week since we last got together but I have had some, shall we say, difficult days in the last week or so. However I have been working diligently on your behalf, never the less. This week I want to take a short break from An Honest Lie Volume 2: Delusions of Insignificance to bring you something else we’ve been working on. You can still vote for your favorite author from An Honest Lie Volume 2: Delusions of Insignificance here and you can pick up your copy here.
In An Honest Lie Volume 1: Encouraging the Delinquency of your Inner Child we were treated to a haunting tale called “Gran’s Prophecy“ about horticultural prophecy and the birth of kings. In An Honest Lie Volume 2: Delusions of Insignificance we were treated to a darker story called “Martina Gets the Last Word “ about true love and it’s eternal depths. Both of these great stories were brought to us by one of my new favorite writers C.B. Calsing. Now she returns to us with an anthology of her own called All Along the Pacific. This is a collection of 10 stories set in and around San Louis Obispo. Spanning the years from 1835 until 2005 each story not only carries us into these time periods, but also does a wonderful job of ting the lives, families and cultures of the age together giving us a picture of our American history. But more about that later, first let’s meet Corina B. Calsing.
Hailing originally from San Louis Obispo, California C.B. Calsing now lives in and writes from New Orleans, Louisiana. Her passion for The Big O is only surpassed by her love for writing, cocktails N.O. sports teams’ architecture and really good food, all of which are in grand abundance in her adopted home city. 
Her creative drive was encouraged by parents who were themselves “hard-working free spirits”. “My mother would draw children’s books just for me, and as I got older, the three of us would collaborate on projects: writing, drawing, binding. By second grade I had started writing with a goal for publication,” she told us. By the second grade she’d already established the goal of writing for publication. Her first effort was a musical play about two rival break dancing gangs which she cast with her class mates, none of which auditioned. Maybe that’s what drove her to her current profession, teaching middle school kids the dastardly craft.
Like the rest of us writers she often thinks of her chosen passion as entertaining though others often see it differently.
“Writing was entertainment for me. I did short stories, movie scripts, and novellas. A compulsion, some might say. An addiction others would call it. After all, it does interfere with my relationships and work, sometimes.”
But even so writing is a passion that cannot be ignored. She got lucky following Richard Fords advice in his “Ten Rules for Writing Fiction” when he said, “Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer’s a good idea.” She has a very give and take relationship with her loving husband who supports her efforts, even bringing her dinner to the writing table and accepting responsibility for overlooking editorial mistakes prior to submission. But she gives him credit saying, “I don’t think I’d have accomplished as much as I have in the last decade if he wasn’t with me. A lot of my ideas develop with his input too. We spend a lot of time discussing “what if,” and if I get stuck on an ending, he always has the best solution.”
Her major turning point came in 2004 when she had a bad experience working with an alternative middle school for students that had been expelled from their neighborhood schools. Without the gory details, she quit and found herself with an opportunity to write full time. In that time productivity was an understatement. Corina finished two novellas, both of which are still “in the box” so to speak, and several shorts. Realizing she needed to move forward with her Masters of Fine Arts she applied with the Creative Writing Workshop at the University of New Orleans who accepted her by 2006. This was when she got serious about her writing, more serious than ever before anyway.
“During those workshop classes, I first conceived of the short stories that would eventually make up All Along the Pacific. Part of this came from a general dislike of contemporary, realistic fiction.”
“My writing heroes — Marquez, Steinbeck, Lovecraft, Dick, Gaiman, Mieville (you’ll notice no women there, and probably fault me for it) — didn’t settle for the ordinary, and I couldn’t let myself either,” she said. Corina started with Science Fiction and her advice is: “don’t turn in science fiction if you are not in a science fiction workshop.” Stuff she wrote that got panned in workshop sold to Sci-Fi magazines without any revisions. From there she tried historic fiction which went over better in class but her creative spirit wouldn’t allow her to play I straight. “I kept coming up with strange concepts for historical fiction — pickled heads in jars, midgets on trains, delusional car salesmen — and then I had this pile of stories.”
“After a little thought, I realized, “Why not a collection?” A little tweaking here and there, a few rewrites and some additions… After two years of workshop and revision I had All Along the Pacific,” Calsing told us.
The path we walk from where we begin a project to where they end can sometimes be a dark one. We may not know what comes next we can only light our way one story at a time. C.B. Calsing has illuminated our path with a tale about an outlaw, who is supposed to be dead, viewing his own head at a state fair, and a tale about a Chinese rail worker with much higher ambitions than anyone around him could imagine, and a tale about a common whore who really lives to protect herself and her “adopted” son. Though each of these stories are based in different time periods Corina Calsing has done a fantastic job of submerging us in these individual lives and leading us through time, showing us every step of the way the connections we all have to one another regardless of time and space.
All Along the Pacific is an anthology that is not to be missed and Corina Calsing is a writer that should not be over looked. Stick with us Friends and fans and we, I can promise you, will be bringing you the best of the best. In the end C.B. Calsing remains true to her creative roots and continues to experiment with her work.
“Since I’ve finished workshop, I’ve headed back into the realms of science fiction, and a little horror, but when I plan a big project, it still tends to be historical with a touch of magical realism. The work I’m finally returning to after about a year and a half off is just that — set in the bayou, during the Depression. An English botanist searching for a rare orchid falls into the trap of a backwoods giantess who distills sassafras moonshine and raises Cane Corsos. There are definitely elements of horror in it, but the story is more about mood and setting and detail than anything else.”
Most of the best stories are Corina, most of the best ones are.
Davin Kimble-Jr. Editor
C.B. Calsing was born and grew up in the small Central Coast town of San Luis Obispo, California. As a child, she spent long hours composing stories and plays. Half-way through her junior year in high school, she left to attend Cuesta Community College, where, after a few years of study, she received her associate of arts degree with honors. Following that, she transferred to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. There, she completed her bachelor of arts in English. She took a year off, traveled to Indonesia and Ireland, and then decided to return to school to become a certified English teacher.
In 2002, fresh out of her studies, Mrs. Calsing and her future husband moved to New Orleans. Mrs. Calsing has worked in the field of education throughout the Greater New Orleans Area for the last eight years. In 2004, she married. Following her evacuation from Hurricane Katrina, Mrs. Calsing returned to New Orleans and began her master of fine arts degree in creative writing, fiction, at the University of New Orleans. She completed that in 2009. Now, she teaches middle school English, edits for a prominent e-book publisher, and writes when there is time.
“To Wade Alone,” a story from her upcoming collection All Along the Pacific, took second place in the On the Premises “First” contest in June 2009. Her work has appeared in college literary journals, guerrilla zines, and on Web sites, such as Crossedgenres.com. Her work also appeared in the anthologies An Honest Lie Volume One: Encouraging the Delinquency of your Inner Child and An Honest Lie Volume Two: Delusions of Insignificance, and Things We Are Not, a collection of queer science fiction.
Her two favorite genres to write are historic and science fiction, probably because both allow her to visit worlds different from her own. Up-to-the-minute information can be found at her blog, cbcalsing.blogspot.com.
A Secret
Okay. I am probably going to get fired for this blog Buuuut … here we go. I am going to give away the secret to bribing your faithful Jr. Editor into fighting for your story. Yes, yes, please, hold your applause and questions until the end please. Thank you.
Ahhem … In three easy steps you are going to come one complete third closer to becoming published. Again I do this fo you at the peril of my position at Open Heart Publishing. Appreciate this effort to get you published and … well …
Step number one:
Follow the submission guidelines. They are very simple and easily found here.
Step number two:
Please have something of a viable story. I know this might sound like I am just blowing my Jr. Editor horn here, but no, really if you haven’t followed step number one, and then you send your absolute first draft on top of it; well, son, the chances of your piece being accepted by us become next to impossible.
And we, here at OHP bring you the infamous 3!:
If you want our vote, the one thing you can do is personalize your self. I’m not saying beg and grovel. That will just break my heart and MAKE ME HATE YOU! Ummm … sorry. however,
If you, dear submitter, humanize your self to us, and do it convincingly I will become Amateur Sucker Editor Extraordinaire. i will fight for you until the end.
There is, after I consider it, an adendum to this that I must, in good conscience, make you aware of. You will have to follow my blog’s my stuff and buy my stuff. Peace I am Your
Lunch With the Jr. Editor
Lunch Today
Today for lunch I made a tough decision. And no, it wasn’t a decision between pastrami on rye, or the famous Ruben, no this decision was about taste, and class. You see the place I went to eat is a forbidden place. It’s a place shrouded in accusation and innuendo and rumor. My friends laughed at me and made me feel the fool when I revealed that I still ate there. This place is supposed to be morally, if not physically of limits. I should, apparently, pretend to hate it as much as my friends and associates do. But the problem is, I don’t. I truly enjoyed my time there leisurely eating my lunch over a book. It reminded me of afternoons back when I worked waiting tables. The subtle sounds of light lunches frying and boiling in the kitchen, the muted conversations of split shifters on break enjoying their own lunches and bitch fests, and other patrons like myself all made me feel more comfortable about being there. They were familiar sounds but by far not the reason I made the choice to stop there today. I went because I love it. I always have loved it and I decided, while driving through late lunch/early off/heading in traffic that I was going to go on in. I decided that I wasn’t going to stop going just because it’s expected of me.
What place? I can hear you screaming at me. Well it’s Denny’s if you must know. I know some of you, ignorant as I was on the subject, may not know that the corporation had some legal issues with discrimination. In 1993 the corporation was faced with some tough issues over discrimination. They wound up settling for something like $54 million dollars. Was this an admission of guilt? Maybe so, maybe not. Some, like pappy11 from My3Cents.com and Professor Randall Dunham of the esteemed University of Wisconsin in his paper “Denny’s & Racism: These Issues Will Not Go Over Easy” claim the discrimination is ongoing. For more information you are going to have to Google the issue yourself. You are all big kids now. I’m not here to do your research; I am here to tell you a story …
… Where was I?
Oh yes, I am supposed to skip my favorite breakfast anytime joint because some joker in Deep South Screw Up ‘Ville got jacked up in the restaurant one night. If I was going to stop going anywhere due to perceived discrimination it would be that IHOP joint, not Denny’s. Denny’s has better food and a better menu. I like the place better and that’s just it. I can either go to IHOP or one of the “other” joints but I simply don’t want to. I like Denny’s and I didn’t realize until today how much. I was feeling so nostalgic I didn’t even order the breakfast I went in for, I decided to give them a chance and I tried the Buffalo Chicken Wrap. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.
I solemnly vow that I will not turn my back on my favorite establishments, if I like it, because of something that happened to someone else in some far away Podunk burg. I will continue to take advantage of your delicious 2-4-6-8 menu as long as you continue to offer it during those lazy late lunch afternoons when everyone important is too busy to see me there. Because I like the breakfast and it gives me a comfortable, soothing place to write. Be ready dear friends and fans you may be treated to a few more lunches with the Jr. Editor courtesy of the fine folks at Denny’s.
Oh, P.S.:
Buy our books!
Davin Kimble-Jr. Editor
And … the Winner is …
Winner. It’s a word we all love to hear. I know that I love to hear it. When someone says, “Wow, you’ve done a great job, you win. I get a little giddy to be honest. I, personally,( let’s not get this mixed up with any official stances on winning from my employer Open Heart Publishing or any of its subsidiaries.), feel that winning is indeed everything.
We here in the great state of Texas have an almost unhealthy obsession with two things. Our lawns and our football. Neither are about the grass or the sport played on it. Maybe the sport influenced the lawn obsession. If your grass looks like a football field, around here you are winning. And that, is what this is all about WINNING!. Unhealthy obsession or not it’s the bottom line.
Winners get all sorts of perks. The spotlight is on you and you have to produce the same winning heart and attitude. And when you do that successfully you feel even more the winner. Unhealthy cycle or not, we all want to be the winner.
Our current winner is Eric Trant. Eric took a resounding victory in our “An Honest Lie Volume 1: Encouraging the Delinquency of Your Inner Child” contest. And he will tell you it took some effort. Now he is beginning to reap the benefits of that effort. I asked Eric a few questions about what it took to be a winner.
Open Heart Publishing: In An Honest Lie Volume 1 you blessed us all with the gem of a tale Apple Tree. What was your inspiration for that story?
Eric Trant: My stories write themselves. I remember starting Apple Tree having no idea where I was going. All I knew is there were two boys running down a trail in the woods going somewhere important — to see an apple tree — and my muse latched onto their coattails and hung on until the end. My inspiration, of course, was my own childhood. We always had someplace to go, not much time to get there, and the places we reached were magical and far more important than all those places I go these days, in adulthood, in that same big hurry.
OHP: Right I get that. I am only now remembering what it was like to be a kid with some where important to go. When they get there your magnificent tree is split into two branching sides. The left still held a fruit. Did you split the remaining fruit to the left side of the tree in reference to the Left Hand Path?
E.T.: Going through school, I remember my teachers always asking questions like that, regarding symbolism and what the author meant. Even back then, in high school, before I really got to writing, I always figured (I’m from Texas, so I “figure”) most authors don’t think about all that stuff. If they do think about it, the magic gets twisted and lost the way you might try to organize dandelion seeds that are still on the stalk. As soon as you touch that dandelion seed, it plucks off and floats away and that’s it, the magic’s gone. So I don’t think on these things, I don’t touch the thoughts after they’re thunk. I hold it up and say, “here it is, there you go”, and if that’s what it means to you, that’s your dandelion, and I didn’t muck it up by trying to make it into my dandelion.
So no, to me the branch was to the left for no other reason than that’s where it was in my head. I had to look up the Left Hand Path, even. When I first read your question, I thought you meant The Path Less Travelled.
But to you, to Davin, and maybe to other readers, sure, that apple’s the Left Hand Path. It’s whatever you need it to be.
OHP: In the end Melvin makes a terrible mistake. What do you, as the author, think would be the outcome of that mistake, for Melvin, Danny and the rest of the world?
E.T.: Oh, man, spoiler. Good things would come of it. I frankly never thought of it as a mistake, but rather another step in our journey, nothing more.
OHP: Your victory in the first An Honest Lie competition was a great one. It’s a long competition so what advice would you give the Authors of the upcoming An Honest Lie Volume 2: Delusions of Insignificance? A
E.T.: Thank you! I enjoyed the experience and the energy surrounding AHL Vol. 1 and allowed myself to be excited about my story, and quieted that little voice that’s in all of us saying, I’m not good enough, I’m not good enough.
That, for me, was the biggest roadblock. It still is: Shutting down my Inner Doubter. Last night I met a published author selling her books at a festival here in my hometown. My wife broke the topic that I write, and that I’m published, and she nudged me into talking with the author. I wasn’t going to mention that I write. It embarrasses me. I can discuss working out, or sports, or math, or programming, or woodworking, and none of that bothers me. But writing, that’s a private thing for me. Talking about my stories and what I write is almost like discussing the intimate details of my sexual preferences. It’s a tough thing to do! In public! I can write about writing, hide behind the anonymity of printed words, but to discuss writing, face-to-face, with other people listening and hanging on your words… So you ask for advice, and all I can shovel out is this: Quit being shy. Talk about your work. Talk about your writing. Don’t listen to advice on what you should write — everyone will tell you what to write, ignore them — but listen to what they say about authors they love and hate. You don’t need to discuss current works, but know your genre, have a few snips of what sort of work you write, and be proud of your accomplishments. That’s the advice I give myself every day. I took that advice on AHL Vol 1, and it worked out all right.
OHP: That’s great advice.I like the way you roll. Can we expect to see something from you for An Honest Lie Volume 3?
E.T.: Don’t forget AHL Vol 2! I have a story in there, too, and it’s my wife’s favorite story. She loves it, printed it out and showed it to all her friends at work. I’m thinking I have a few sales already made for AHL Vol 2.
OHP: Yes you wrote “One Small Step“. That is one of my personal favorites.
E.T.: Now, for AHL Vol 3… I sure hope I can get something in AHL Vol 3. Certainly you, the editor, will see something, and if it passes muster we might see it printed up for a nice hat-trick of short stories with Open Heart Publishing’s AHL series. I already have some ideas, and I am considering hosting a blogfest to generate submittals from my fellow writers online. Yes, you’ll see more of me.
OHP: That sounds great. We are looking forward to working with those we’ve already published and we are looking forward to reading some of the stuff ya’ll recommend. As the winner of the first An Honest Lie competition you will be the recipient of a book deal with Open Heart Publishing. Can you leak any information about what we can expect?
E.T.: Ah, the book, the book, my debut novel though it’s not the first book I wrote. I have several books in various states, from half-baked to well-done, from too-short to too-long. I have one, though, that I wrote in the Fall of 2009, in that just-right state. It’s still fresh enough to me that it’s not boring, but it’s edited enough that I can clean it up and submit it quickly. I’ve tried to talk about the book, and when people ask what it’s about, I stumble (see advice to talk about your work!)
I say, “Fiction. Fantasy. Not high fantasy, no elves or anything, but there’s some magic in it. Not witch magic, but, you know, something that is imaginary. Magical dreams and this naked angel, and a blue-faced and expressionless God. It’s about two men who have had enough of this life. All they want is to get to the end as fast as possible and at their funerals their friends and family will gather around and say, Thank Got that’s over!
It’s about finding hope even in a hopeless situation. It’s about the fact that everything happens for a reason, even bad things — especially bad things, those things you think should never have happened to good people — and about going on even when there’s no place to go except the next step, onward ho.”
Here’s an excerpt from Evander’s Forge, the novel I plan to submit for publication:
http://diggingwiththeworms.blogspot.com/2010/06/blogfest-dream-sequence.html
OHP: Oh, wow. That’s fantastic, and you are getting rave reviews. We can’t wait to see more. Well we are looking forward to working with you in the future. How can your fans find more of your work?
E.T.: You can always check my blog: Digging With the Worms.
I’ve thought about changing the name to EricWTrant.com or something, but the name — Digging with the Worms — means something to me. The worms are my muse, and I feel like I owe them the respect, at least, of a blog of their own. I’ll probably get my own website soon, for the book and for my other writings. I don’t plan to only publish one book and quit, you know. I plan to be around for a while.
OHP: I’m a fan.
Davin Kimble – Jr Editor.
Eric Trant earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 1994, and is the son of a librarian and English teacher, who shared with him her love of reading, writing, and above all, storytelling. Each morning he rises well before the Texas dawn, and in the quiet writes thousands of words. He is self-taught.
Raised during his formative years in the East Texas Piney Woods, and then later in a small town on the Texas Gulf Coast, Eric maintains an avid fascination with outdoor living. Eric’s blended perspective of rural, small-town, and city lifestyles is at the heart of his stories, often leading the reader deep into the woods where as a child, he and his brother discovered so many wonders. He now lives near Dallas, Texas, where he continues to explore the world around him.
He holds a U.S. patent for a statistical outlier algorithm, and has received numerous technical recognitions as a semiconductor engineer. His most-prized award is a simple plaque reading Anyone can be a Father, but it takes someone special to be a Daddy. This plaque sits on his desk, in front of the embossed US patent.
Eric’s professional career covers a broad range of experience, including over twenty years of writing. As a freelance writer, he has dozens of short stories and five novels to his credit.
