In grade school, my warped imagination always got me in trouble. Teachers didn’t care for the sketches of disemboweled barbarians, exploding helicopters, and dinosaurs munching down babies that I doodled in the margins of my math quizzes and spelling tests, and they certainly didn’t appreciate me pantomiming taking a dump in the classroom wastebasket, however much my classmates enjoyed it (I got several weeks of detention for that one). Even in high school and college (at which point I realized I was a horrible sketch artist), I would sit in class daydreaming about piloting spaceships through black-holes, waging battle against trolls, sneaking into Soviet military bases, and rescuing Martian princesses among other things, much to the chagrin of my instructors who expected students to actually pay attention.
Somehow, I made it through, and eventually I realized the natural outlet for my overactive and “off-color” imagination (as one teacher described it) was in writing fiction…
My name is Garrett Calcaterra. I'm a freelance writer and a writing instructor for various institutions (schools, not asylums, although sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference). I write primarily speculative fiction (sci-fi/fantasy/horror), but also literary fiction, non-fiction, screenplays, and songs (see The Entropy Affair in my "top friends" below). I'm not a writer who believes in limiting oneself to a single writing style; I write everything from children stories to erotica. The only thing you can count on is my work being provoking and dark.
If you'd like to read some of my short fiction, check out my blog above to find my out-of-print stories (yes, all one of them) and some new, unpublished short-shorts and flash fiction. I have many longer tales cluttering up editors’ desks across the globe, and I’ll be sure to update the site when they get published. I am also working on writing my second novel, Dreamwielder, which I hope to have completed by early Summer 2009.
Until then, if you like any of the stories you find here or if you're one of the rare few who's found some of my work in print and enjoyed it, send me a comment and/or add me as a friend. Alternatively, if you think my writing is crap, let me know and give me some constructive feedback. I'll delete your comment from this page to save face, of course, (and maybe even vilify you as a character that gets messily eviscerated in one of my stories) but I will take your suggestions under consideration.
If you've read this far, you're a nerd, and probably a bit warped yourself, but thanks: it means a lot to me.
-Garrett Calcaterra
Contact e-mail: gcalcaterra(at)gmail.com (Replace the "(at)" with the "@" symbol).
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Publications:
“Viewpoint Made Simple (sort of).” Writers' Journal. May/June 2009 Vol 30, No 3. Available at newsstands or online at writersjournal.com
“Tripsy.” M-Brane SF. Issue #3. April 2009. Buy now in print or PDF format HERE.
“The Republic.” Wet Ink (Australia). Issue 14. 2009. Visit www.wetink.com.au to learn more or purchase on-line.
“The Key Ring.” Arkham Tales. Issue #2, February 2009. Download for free HERE.
“Drink With Me.” Gloom Cupboard. Issue #96, June 2009. Read the issue HERE.
"And the Winner is..." Zygote in my Coffee. Issue 124. Read the issue HERE.
"The Missionary." Golden Visions. October 2009, online edition. Read the issue HERE.
“The Tracer Pilot.” The Oregon Literary Review. Summer/Fall 2008, Volume 3, No 2. Read now in the Genre Fiction Department
“Late!” The Rejected Quarterly. Winter/Spring 2007 (Issue #16). Visit rejectedq.com to buy on-line or find a list of stores that carry the journal.
“Night of the Bear.” Sex & Seduction. Ed. Cathryn Cooper. Xcite Books (Accent Press), 2007.
Click Here to BUY from the publisher. (Also available at Amazon, or by special order at your local bookstore.) WARNING! This story contains graphic sex and violence. Not suitable for minors, those offended by graphic sex and violence, and my mother. I'm serious, this story is honked up.
“When I Get Out.” ISM. Issue 2 (Out of Print [but you can get a free PDF download])
Various album reviews for Impose Magazine. Copy and paste this URL (MySpace refuses to link to the site): http://www.imposemagazine.com and run a site search for "Garrett Calcaterra"
Two audio tours for AudioSnacks.com
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Screenplays:
Hammer of the Gods. Screenplay quarter-finalist in the 2008 Big Bear Lake International Film Festival.
Dark Hunger (aka The Cannibal). Co-written with Ahimsa J. Kerp. Horror screenplay finalist in the 2008 Slamdance Screenplay Competition, and finalist in the 2008 Horror Screenplay Contest.
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Songs: Visit The Entropy Affair
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