Author Archives: Dayle

Dayle Loves This: We Were Liars (novel)

By Dayle Loves This,

This post was funded by my wonderful supporters at Patreon.

Welcome to Dayle Loves This, wherein I recommend books, TV, and movies (and maybe other things) that rocked my world.

If they don’t rock your world, that’s okay. We all have reader/watcher cookies as well as triggers. If you have questions, ask. And please make your own suggestions, and discuss!

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

The tag line for this book is: If anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

It’s brilliant because it grabs your attention. It also highlights why this is a tough book to talk about—give away too much, and it won’t have nearly as much impact.

Cadence (Cady) Sinclair knows she lives a life of privilege. Her mother is one of three daughters of a very wealthy man, so wealthy that they summer on their own private island off Martha’s Vineyard. Despite the family’s wealth, Cady’s pretty normal (something I appreciated, because it made her relatable), and the island summers are a glorious getaway with her cousins and, eventually, her aunt’s boyfriend’s nephew, Gat.

At the end of the summer Cady’s fifteen, she has an accident she can’t remember. Suffering from migraines, she takes a summer away, but insists on returning when she’s seventeen. Everything is normal, except for her pain and memory loss.

Because it had been a few years since I first read We Were Liars, I grabbed an ebook from the library (since I was out of town—I bought a copy to study). Turned out, knowing what happens made it a completely different reading experience, which was fascinating. I was gripped in an entirely different way.

Dayle Loves This, and hopes you read it so we can discuss it.

 

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I’m able to continue writing and publishing thanks to my wonderful supporters on Patreon.

Custard: A Romeo and Juliet Story (Sort Of)

By Dayle A. Dermatis, Fantasy/SF, Short Stories

Custard: A Romeo and Juliet Story (Sort Of)

Brownies—not the little girls or the fudgy treat kind, but the Scottish pixie kind—help take care of households by being superior with household chores.

Agnes and Neil, from different brownie clans and working at different manor houses, both pride themselves in their custard. Custard, which requires the best, freshest eggs.

A chance meeting over a favorite clutch of eggs starts Agnes and Neil on an adventure, and the chance to create something new.

Their story will never be forgotten.

Editor Dean Wesley Smith says of “Custard,” “Dayle Dermatis…is a storyteller whose compelling and playful prose I will follow down virtually any path.”

“Custard: A Romeo and Juliet Story (Sort Of)” originally appeared in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, 2021.

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Loss, love, grief, hugs

By Life

My life is strange right now.

Things changed quickly, but yet not.

My sister Debi had been in care since her aneurysm in 2010. She’d been having other health problems, and was in the hospital various times over the past year. The last few times, I was ready for The Call. In April, there it was. My heart aches from missing her, from not doing better for her, but her life was pretty shitty and I’m glad she’s free. She loved butterflies and the color blue, and always asked me for a Styx shirt, and I have a blue butterfly Styx shirt sitting in my office that I never got to give her.

My mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in late November last year. She wanted to make it to her youngest granddaughter’s wedding in late June. She wasn’t able to, but she saw pictures. She opted for hospice, and was in an amazingly wonderful hospice house for a couple of days. The last thing I said to her was that we all loved her, we knew she loved us, and we would miss her terribly, but we wanted her to be at peace when she was ready.

I got that call at 1 a.m. Saturday. I was still up, talking to my niece Baylee. I knew what they were going to tell me, but I still automatically asked first how the woman on the phone was. I’m still…I don’t know. Not numb. Just largely calm. I imagine I’ll fall apart at some point. Right now, my mom’s sheets are in the washer, I’ve cleaned out her office, Ken’s going through her paperwork, etc. And I’ve even been getting some work done.

My family, already small, just got smaller.

But it also got bigger.

My oldest niece, Megan, has three kids. I’d only met the oldest as a baby. She’s seven now, and has two brothers. They’re staying at my sister Donna’s place for a few days, and I got to meet the kids. By the end of the evening, I was snuggled under a blanket with them, reading to them. Their hugs are the best.

I just don’t get any more hugs from Debi or Mom.

I can’t tell Debi I learned the Welsh word for butterfly (pili-pala). I can’t ask Mom for details about a scrapbook of photos I haven’t yet scanned.

They know they were loved, though, and will always be missed.

Debi Lynn Dermatis Bruno, February 9, 1957 to April 13, 2021

Joan Marilyn Loewen Dermatis, March 6, 1932 to July 3, 2021

 

Dayle Loves This: Local Hero (movie)

By Dayle Loves This,

This post was funded by my wonderful supporters at Patreon.

Welcome to Dayle Loves This, wherein I recommend books, TV, and movies (and maybe other things) that rocked my world.

If they don’t rock your world, that’s okay. We all have reader/watcher cookies as well as triggers. If you have questions, ask. And please make your own suggestions, and discuss!

I can’t believe Local Hero wasn’t my first Dayle Loves This entry. This is one of those movies I watch about onc a year. It’s the second movie Peter Capaldi appeared in (in 1983), and when he was at the Rose City Comic Con a couple of years ago, I asked him a question about this movie. Many people applauded; however, I was the only one not to ask him a Doctor Who–related question.

I’ve been to the town in Scotland where the movie was filmed. (The town shots, not the beach shots, which were elsewhere.) That’s how much I love this movie.

I love it because it’s surprisingly simple and yet surprisingly complex. Every time I watch it, I pick up another detail.

In the early 1980s, “Mac” MacIntyre (Peter Riegert) works for Texas company Knox Oil and Gas. He’s summoned to the office of the eccentric company owner , Mr. Happer (Burt Lancaster) and sent to a remote village Scotland to buy the entire place because oil has been found off the coast.

Mac is being sent because of his Scottish name. He’s actually of Hungarian descent. If that level of humor is your jam, you’ll love this movie.

A New York Times review says, “Genuine fairy tales are rare; so is film-making that is thoroughly original in an unobtrusive way. Bill Forsyth’s quirkly disarming Local Hero is both.”

Forsyth also directed Gregory’s Girl and Comfort and Joy. The former hasn’t worked for me, but the latter is also charming.

Local Hero is subtle, sweet, often ridiculous, and tugs at my heartstrings and makes me cry. If you have the chance, check it out. Dayle Loves This, and wants you to, too.

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I’m able to continue writing and publishing thanks to my wonderful supporters on Patreon.

Rainbow Romance on sale for Pride Month!

By Andrea Dale, Erotica

Rainbow Romance Volume I The box set Rainbow Romance, Volume 1, containing my nine-story lesbian erotica collection Kiss Me Again, is on sale this month to celebrate Pride! Grab in at this special price while you can!

The bundle also contains 11 more novels and novellas!

From fairy tale retellings, lesbian sword and sorcery,
to gay vampires and lonely witches,
enjoy these fantasy tales of same-sex adventure and devotion.

Holiday romance and sexy roommates,
crime drama and short tales of female fun
bring romance and raunchiness.

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I’m able to continue writing and publishing thanks to my wonderful supporters on Patreon.

Mystery, Dragons, Spies, and Custard

By Dayle A. Dermatis, Short Stories, Soul's Road Press

Available Now

Bothering With the Details: A Copyediting Cozy Mystery Short Story

Longtime copyeditor Lydia Menchin prides herself in having memorized The Chicago Manual of Style and being able to focus despite distractions. But the tech company she works for still fires her, assuming her age made her unable to understand electronic newsletters.

Lydia still reads the newsletter and finds the mistakes the new, clearly inferior editor misses.

Until she starts to suspect the errors might just be intentional….

“Bothering With the Details” originally appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, 2018.

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Available Now

Dragons. Who doesn’t love them?But this collection isn’t just about the brutes or beasts. No, there are philosophical dragons. Technological dragons. Even sexy dragons.Not just fantasy dragons. But science fantasy. Or straight science fiction. Historic and future dragons.You’re going to meet dragons from all walks of life in the pages of this anthology. Mostly unexpected. Not the kinds of dragons you’ve met before.

Come and explore all the myriad facets of these fascinating creatures.

Available in both ebook and print.

This anthology contains my story “Beautiful Soul,” set in Victorian London.

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Available Now

Set your cauldron to bubbling, and read these fifteen tales of magic, sorcery, and enchantment!What if you could smell magic—or go to a bar and get a shot of magic to go with your cocktail? Will an aging sorcerer’s last pupil ever learn anything? And what could possibly go wrong when a pair of witches enter the local chili cook-off?Includes stories by DeAnna Knippling, Leah R. Cutter, Robert Jeschonek, Debbie Mumford, Annie Reed, Rei Rosenquist, Alicia Cay, James Pyles, Grayson Towler, Jamie Ferguson, Dayle A. Dermatis, Thea Hutcheson, Leslie Claire Walker, Sharon Kae Reamer, and Steve Vernon.This anthology contains a reprint of my story “Telling the Bees,” part of the Holly and Willow hedgewitch series.

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Available for Preorder

The Florentine Exchange:
A Page-Turning Spy Story Full of Twists and Turns

During a sultry summer in Florence, Italy, rule-following Libby must make an information exchange when her mentor, Antonia, sprains her ankle.

But then she discovers Antonia had two identical thumb drives. Was Antonia planning to give the wrong one to her contact?

Libby must make split-second decisions while her own life is on the line.

Clever spy thriller “The Florentine Exchange” transports readers to the sticky sumer humidity and historical beauty of Italy and keeps them on the edge of their seats, as only accomplished writer Dayle A. Dermatis can do.

“The Florentine Exchange” originally appeared in Fiction River Special Edition: Spies, 2019, and was reprinted in Voices Carry, and Other Stories of Women and Crime, 2020.

Preorder

Available for Preorder

Custard: A Romeo and Juliet Story (Sort Of)

Brownies—not the little girls or the fudgy treat kind, but the Scottish pixie kind—help take care of households by being superior with household chores.

Agnes and Neil, from different brownie clans and working at different manor houses, both pride themselves in their custard. Custard, which requires the best, freshest eggs.

A chance meeting over a favorite clutch of eggs starts Agnes and Neil on an adventure, and the chance to create something new.

Their story will never be forgotten.

Editor Dean Wesley Smith says of “Custard,” “Dayle Dermatis…is a storyteller whose compelling and playful prose I will follow down virtually any path.”

“Custard: A Romeo and Juliet Story (Sort Of)” originally appeared in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, 2021.

Preorder

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I’m able to continue writing and publishing thanks to my wonderful supporters on Patreon.

Dayle Loves This: The Call and The Invasion (novels)

By Dayle Loves This,

This post was funded by my wonderful supporters at Patreon.

Welcome to Dayle Loves This, wherein I recommend books, TV, and movies (and maybe other things) that rocked my world.

If they don’t rock your world, that’s okay. We all have reader/watcher cookies as well as triggers. If you have questions, ask. And please make your own suggestions, and discuss!

I don’t remember how I got my hands on The Call by Peadar O’Guilin. I know we’d moved into Hedgewick, our charming 1929 English cottage, and that I found the book at the wonderful library across the street.

The cover isn’t one that would have grabbed me, so that’s not it. Maybe it was on display, with a tag line that grabbed me? I don’t remember reading about it somewhere, either.

But I’m ever so glad I did pick it up. Because it’s phenomenal. It’s also, in some ways, the most terrifying book I’ve ever read.

Here’s the blurb:

3 MINUTES

 You wake up alone in a horrible land. A horn sounds. The Call has begun.

 2 MINUTES

 The Sidhe are close. They’re the most beautiful and terrible people you’ve ever seen. And they’ve seen you.

 1 MINUTE

 Nessa will be Called soon. No one thinks she has any chance to survive. But she’s determined to prove them wrong.

 TIME’S UP

 Could you survive the Call?

The quote on the back is “A must-read for anyone who’s been sleeping too well at night.” (Danielle Vega, author of The Merciless.”)

Agreed.

It’s hard to explain The Call without giving away things. Even the basic information, which is relayed in the first two chapters, is best read without knowing anything ahead of time, which make it all the more chilling.

I can say this: many, many years ago, the kings of Ireland made a pact with the Sidhe. And then broke it.

And the Sidhe are beyond furious.

Previously I recommended Holly Black’s trilogy about the Fey folk, and how capricious and cruel they can be. Those Fey have nothing on the Sidhe in these books. The Sidhe in these books might be beautiful, yes, but cruel doesn’t begin to describe it. They’re psychopaths. The Call is about revenge in the most fucked-up possible way.

I recommend starting the book early on a day when you have time, because you won’t want to put it down until the end.

When I grabbed The Call out of the library recently to reread it before I wrote this, I discovered there was a sequel, The Invasion. While it didn’t grab me in the same way that The Call did—which I think is due to more shifting viewpoints—it’s still gripping, and necessary for emotional closure.

This duology will haunt you for a long time. I’m not promising that, because promises…well….

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I’m able to continue writing and publishing thanks to my wonderful supporters on Patreon.

Dayle Loves This: The Magicians (TV)

By Dayle Loves This

This post was funded by my wonderful supporters at Patreon.

Welcome to Dayle Loves This, wherein I recommend books, TV, and movies (and maybe other things) that rocked my world.

If they don’t rock your world, that’s okay. We all have reader/watcher cookies as well as triggers. If you have questions, ask. And please make your own suggestions, and discuss!

 

Okay, I’m just going to say this up front: The Magicians may be my favorite TV show ever. Ever. There are many shows I’ve loved, and many I miss, and some I continue to rewatch, but The Magicians hit all of my viewer cookies in a big way.

The series is based on a series of books by Lev Grossman, The Magicians Trilogy. I haven’t yet read the books, although I’ve picked up the first one. I intended to wait until the show ended, and it did a while ago now, and I still haven’t indulged. (One reason being that my desired reading during this pandemic has not been fantasy.)

I’ve spoken many times about my love for portal fantasy (and even edited an anthology of it, Doorways to Enchantment). The Magicians is a portal fantasy within a portal fantasy. Score!

Slight spoilers for the first episode. Quentin Coldwater and his best friend, Julia, have loved a series of books about a magical land of Fillory since they were children. Now applying for grad school, Quentin still retreats to reading about Fillory while Julia is trying to move on.

First, Quentin stumbles upon (is led to) the very secret and hidden Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy, and is tested for an aptitude in magic. Real magic, not stage magic (which he’s already mastered). If I could go to Brakebills, I’d leave my life in less than a heartbeat. It’s perfect. And it’s portal number one.

Because Fillory also exists….

Another thing I love about this show is that the protagonists are adults. They have sex, they swear, the stakes are real. This is not a show for kids. Some have called it a reaction to the Narnia books (to some degree, I can see that) or an adult Harry Potter (not so much).

Warning: the first season is a bit dodgy. I’m actually rewatching it as I write this, and while I’m seeing nuances I missed the first two times, I can also see the cracks. One character, Margo, is just not the Margo of later seasons. Our Lodger wonders if this is a growth arc, but honestly, the actress portrays Margo very differently. Her whole manner of speaking changes.

Warning the second: awful things happen. Animals are killed. (This is usually a nope, I’m leaving, fuck you, for me, but (a) I love the show so very much and (b) the deaths are essentially off-screen and not played for laughs.) People get maimed and attacked and brutalized. (If you want specific trigger warnings, contact me privately.)

The Magicians has made me laugh, cry, hide behind a pillow, and fall in love with the characters. (Most of them, anyway. I challenged Ken and the Lodger to a “fuck, marry, kill” scenario and we all killed the same main character without hesitation.) The glorious, heart-wrenching episode “A Life in a Day” is one of the best moments in television.

If you decide to watch The Magicians, let me know. Right now I’m only five or so episodes into my rewatch, so we can chat!

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I’m able to continue writing and publishing thanks to my wonderful supporters on Patreon.

New Uncollected Anthology and Fiction River issues!

By Dayle A. Dermatis, Fantasy/SF, Fiction River, Mystery/Thriller, Short Stories, Uncollected Anthology

Uncollected Anthology: Alchemy

Enjoy the urban fantasy stories of the Uncollected Anthology: Alchemy now collected in this bundle.

Learn the secrets of a ghostly businessman or enjoy your perfect friends. Sip some very special booze and change a patron with love. Find a magical keepsake in a stoppered bottle of potion before jetting to ponder a special wall in Rome.

Explore the Uncollected Anthology with Alchemy!

My story in this issue is “Protected in Every Way.”

Amabella: intelligent, inquisitive, artistic, sporty. She leads a perfect life, with perfect friends.

Until she discovers something terribly, frighteningly wrong with her friends.

Surely there must be someone real Amabella can trust?

Gripping story “Protected in Every Way” is part of Uncollected Anthology 24: Alchemy.

“Dermatis has a love of lush language….” – Tangent Online

Fiction River: Dark and Deadly Passions

Dark and deadly passions fuel crime. Often violent crime. The stories in this compelling volume traverse an emotional rollercoaster. Some revenge stories uplift, while the very darkest stories shine a light on the disturbing underbelly of human nature. But heroism—or at least an attempt to do the right thing—provides hope. So, brace yourself for a swirl of emotions—and some dark and deadly passions.

My story, “Zero Tolerance,” is another in my series about justice-seeking Brittani Menchin, a not-quite-six-feet-tall math nerd, bank geek, and high school Fixer.

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I’m able to continue writing and publishing thanks to my wonderful supporters on Patreon.

Dayle Loves This: Simone St. James (author)

By Dayle Loves This

This post was funded by my wonderful supporters at Patreon.

Welcome to Dayle Loves This, wherein I recommend books, TV, and movies (and maybe other things) that rocked my world.

If they don’t rock your world, that’s okay. We all have reader/watcher cookies as well as triggers. If you have questions, ask. And please make your own suggestions, and discuss!

Okay, technically, I don’t love Simone St. James, at least not on a personal level. Although she seems pleasant enough online, I’ve never met her and know nothing about her. I just love a number of her books, and it makes sense to group them all into one post.

Her first five books, of which I’ve read four*, are set in the 1920s. I read the first one, The Haunting of Maddy Clare, a few years ago now, and while it was okay, it didn’t grab me. I don’t remember why, so take that with a grain of salt. (I should probably re-read it.) I got hooked when I read her most recent, The Sun Down Motel.

In 2017, a woman goes to upstate New York** and takes a job at the run-down Sun Down Motel, where her aunt disappeared from in 1982. It’s not a spoiler to say the place is haunted, okay? But the haunting is…very, very well done. It’s sometimes subtle, it’s sometimes a returning guest…. I tore through it.

Then I read the book before that, The Broken Girls, which takes place in Vermont in 2014 and 1950. In this one, a woman tries to figure out what happened to her sister who was found dead on the grounds of a shuttered girls’ school twenty years ago. The girls’ school, as we learn from the 1950 sections, was a place for “girls whom no one wants.” I loved how these time periods interwove, and while Idlewild Hall is creepy as hell, I still want to go there and poke around.

Because St. James isn’t writing novels fast enough for me, and because my gothic-loving partner in crime friend, Kris, was enjoying the 1920s ones, I put them on my library list. (2020 and thus far 2021 for me has been all about women’s thrillers and gothics, so why not?)

Of the five, I’ve discussed one above and am waiting for another, my favorite was probably An Inquiry Into Love and Death because it was set in Cornwall, but honestly, I loved them all.

If you like strong women, creepy settings (with ghosts or similar paranormal activity), Simone St. James is your woman. Er, her books are for you.

1920s-set novels

The Haunting of Maddy Clare
An Inquiry into Love and Death
Silence for the Dead
The Other Side of MidnightLost Among the Living

Currently set (for the most part) novels

The Broken Girls (1950 and 2014, Vermont)
The Sun Down Motel (1982 and 2017, upstate New York)

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I’m able to continue writing and publishing thanks to my wonderful supporters on Patreon.
*I thought my county library chain didn’t have one of them, but I just checked and it’s only in audiobook or large-print version. I’ve put the latter on hold.
**I’m unclear on whether it was really set in upstate NY or some place north of New York City. Upstate NY doesn’t start until after Albany, but most people assume anything north of NYC is upstate, and that makes me cranky. Don’t get me started on Northern California, either.