EconoClash Review

In a previous ECR post, we discussed the need for more DIY publishers in our DIY Declaration of War. After much internal discussion, a consensus was reached. We have tasked our sales/education team with delivering an info-cational article. (In order to arm our troops so that we don’t all eat our boots at Valley Forge come winter.) ECR lists the five needs of every independent publisher, no matter if they only publish Harry Potter fan fiction, or if they publish outsider art, the kind where a guy who only wrote poems on napkins before hiding them inside reupholstered furniture.
THE DIY Publisher’s Cookbook
Audience Identification Consistent Design Quality Product Engagement Network footprint Audience IdentificationTo begin with, every indie journal, zine, novel, etc; must identify their potential audience. If you don’t take this necessary step then you’ll end up only doing things for yourself, then why DIY anything at all. There are a number of vanity presses that are alive and well and livin…

Check out our Trailer for EconoClash Review: Issue One

Featuring the fiction of

William R. Soldan
Rick McQuiston
Nick Manzolillo
Scotch Rutherford
Christopher Hivner
Charlotte Platt
Gerri R. Gray
Edward Turner III
Lyn Perry
Joachim Heijndermans

Coming soon from ThrillHILL Bottom Press. Buy your copy at Amazon.com, Createspace.com and help keep up the good fight.

Currently, I have just returned from a doc in the box, where I paid $25 to have a medical professional write me a script for Tamiflu and most importantly a note for work. I get three days. No more, no less.  So I thought ECR could explore the wonderful world of disease/sickness in storytelling. So heat up some Chicken Noodle Soup, make yourself a HOT TOTTY, and we'll see if this virus spreads. 
Body Horror as a whole has three elements: Invasion, Transition, and Normalization. Invasion or infection causes the character (as well as the audience) to be introduced to whatever is gonna be crawling around inside them. Transition, whatever inside now manifests itself through physical effects on the character’s body. There is an increase in symptoms. Both internal and social conflicts escalate towards an emotionally or disgustingly satisfying climax. Finally, Normalization, the character either dies or spreads the body horror to the masses. If the character dies, things return to normal. …

Like a lot of folks, I knew the work of California’s mad genius Phillip K. Dick, well before I’d ever cracked open one of his books. Well before he began popping up in the zeitgeist of the 21st century.


PKD's literary world consists of trenchcoats, cigarettes, and brunettes. All surrounded by a cosmos full of powerful technology serving (or using) simple human beings, lulled into easy belief. Soon, dear Thrill Seekers, this reality--like a whipcrack--vanishes. At that moment, PKD unleashes monstrous paranoia by deploying psychic terrorists, deranged bureaucrats or omnipotent hallucinations. All usually backed by the quarterly earnings of the Corporation. These things have become hallmarks of most modern Science-Fiction. The films of Terry Gilliam, whether realized or not, have frequently mined PKD's mountain. 

Despite the inherent visuals in the language, PKD uses these genre trappings to elevate his stories into high art and examine the human condition. PKD's' character…