Ghosts of Punktown

The theme of this introduction is Food and Spirits. First the Spirits. But why are we discussing ghosts in a collection of stories set in a far future milieu?

A few words about that milieu. Punktown…that city on the planet Oasis, built by colonists from Earth upon a small town belonging to the indigenous people, the Choom. Punktown, famous for its mix of races from other worlds, even other dimensions – and infamous for its high level of crime.

Previously I’ve explored this fantastical metropolis in my collections
Punktown
,
Punktown: Shades of Grey
(coauthored by my brother Scott Thomas),
Punktown: Third Eye
(a shared world anthology, actually) and
Voices from Punktown
. And then there have been the novels set in Punktown:
Health Agent
,
Blue War
,
Deadstock
,
Everybody Scream!
and
Monstrocity
.

Though largely science fictional in setting and in their accouterments, many of my Punktown tales have been flat-out horror stories. And some of those horrors could be considered supernatural in nature. But the ghosts collected here are actually more metaphorical. I didn’t intentionally set out to make so many of my more recent Punktown stories feature a metaphorical ghost, but I do know I was in a particularly haunted state of mind during their writing – a time of much upheaval and personal loss. Whatever their genesis, there is a whole menagerie of unhappy spirits present at this little séance:

The ghost of an enemy soldier, manifested in another man’s flesh (
In His Sights
). A ghost in the machine (
Relics
). Ghosts of ancient history, of tradition, of culture (
A Semblance of Life
,
Bitter Brains
). A holographic ghost (
Imp
). A ghost outside time and space (
The Room
). The haunting ghosts of memory (
Into My Arms
). A plant ghost (
Life Work
), and a ghost of one’s former self (Huck, also in
Life Work
).

Now, a few further words to introduce the stories herein.

In His Sights
features Jeremy Stake, the protagonist of my novels
Deadstock
and
Blue War
, ten years before the events in those books, and before he became a private detective. I’m proud to relate that in
Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine
, reviewer James Sallis (author of
Drive
) said this story was “beautifully written,” its ending “powerful.”

Relics
was in part inspired by a large project combining condominiums and a strip mall that I watched go up near my house, while I was in the process of losing my house. The inception and dissolution of things.

A Semblance of Life
features one of the race of clone soldiers I created for
Deadstock
, who fought alongside Jeremy Stake in the Blue War. It is restored here from its much adulterated first appearance.

Bitter Brains
is the new name for one of the stories written for the Ministry of Whimsy anthology
Last Drink Bird Head
, in which every author’s story bore that title and had to utilize that phrase somehow. My story as it appeared in the anthology was by necessity almost two hundred words shorter even than this short tale.

Disfigured
has vexed me for some time, as I have repeatedly considered whether or not to include it in a Punktown collection. It wasn’t written as a Punktown story, just as a weird science fiction tale on its own, but I feel I must finally give in and include it here. For one, I like it a lot, but I do think it fits in with the bizarre fads and cultures at work in Punktown.

Imp
was written as part of a surprise anthology that was put together as a tribute to Larry Roberts, of Bloodletting Press, by a number of authors whom he has published (the ringleader of this project being David Niall Wilson). Only one copy of the book,
First Cuts
, was produced (but a beautiful thing it was!), so it’s safe to say this is the story’s first appearance. It is perhaps my most disturbing Punktown story, but one of my favorites as well.

The Room
has nothing to do with the movie directed by and starring the multitalented Tommy Wiseau. Rather, it was inspired by the song
Candy’s Room
, by one of my longtime favorite musical artists, Bruce Springsteen, as part of the anthology
Darkness on the Edge: Tales Inspired by the Songs of Bruce Springsteen
. As I said in my bio for that book:
“What I wanted to get across was this song's approach to love: urgent and immediate, but mixed with promises that it's something that will endure forever. The lines about that love revealing secret worlds -- however dangerous they might prove to be, this being a horror story -- are what ultimately cemented it as my choice. A note: I was happy to sneak in Del Kahn, the protagonist of my "Punktown" novel Everybody Scream!
,
for whom Bruce Springsteen was partly the inspiration. Frankie Dystopia, on the other hand, is based on Elvis Costello, and he'll have to wait for his own anthology.”
While we wait for an Elvis Costello anthology, there is the matter of Nick Cave…

Into My Arms
was originally written for a similarly-themed anthology,
Up Jumped the Devil: Stories Inspired by the Work of Nick Cave,
a project that tragically the publisher canceled due to the “economic climate.” For this would-be anthology I had selected the song
Into My Arms
to work from, but I also took my inspiration from other songs on the beautiful and haunting CD
The Boatman’s Call
. Originally, each chapter was titled with a line from one of the songs on this CD, but I thought it prudent to avoid legal issues with its appearance here, and have omitted them. The writing of this story turned out to be a long, difficult process for me, as I addressed some painful issues that were inspired by my own experiences as well.

Life Work
,
my first Punktown novella, is dedicated to my dear friend Fumiko, who provided the spark for this story by teaching me the distinction between “life work” and “rice work.” Thanks for all your tender, healing vibes, Fumiko!
Life Work
is also for indie filmmaker Nicolas Huck and author Sabina Marr – two of the coolest friends I’ve met through that alternate reality known as Facebook.

As I mentioned discussing
Into My Arms
, and the unconscious theme that runs throughout this book, even my most fantastical work often draws upon my own feelings and experiences. But then, all my Punktown stories are based on my experiences -- aren’t they? -- as I’ve now visited there so many times. And one of my favorite things to do in Punktown is…eat. So for those of you who have not traveled to this far city as often as I have, I think it would be a nice idea this time around to share some of my knowledge with you, as a sort of miniature guide – so as to give ourselves a little break from all that darkness and nastiness. Shall we?

* * *

2: Punktown: A Gastronomical Sampler

Naturally, the foodstuffs Punktown offers are as diverse as the beings that cook and consume them. And because so many wildly different types of humanoid and nonhumanoid races inhabit the city, no single tribe would care to sample every available cuisine; indeed, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. For instance, there is a creature rather like a cross between a foot-long black cricket and a spiny sea urchin that I’m told is the greatest delicacy a Dacvibese could find upon his plate – but the gray meat within its spiny shell has been known to make more than one unsuspecting human vomit torrents of blood. As it is aut
hored by a human, this very brief guide is geared mostly toward the human explorer (and please don’t bombard the publisher with letters; no prejudice is intended, I assure you!), so in the listing below of some of my favorite eating establishments about town, we will limit ourselves to those that never made me vomit torrents of blood.

BLUE PANDA serves up that junky interpretation of Chinese food that Chinese feed nonChinese, the kind that tastes good washed down with junky beer like Zub, Nickerson or Clemens Light, while listening to people who have drunk too much of the aforementioned brews humiliate themselves at karaoke. If truly good Asian food is your craving (and they have karaoke on Friday night, too), you should instead venture to
Pho Paxton
-- see below. (See
Purple Wings
in
Punktown: Shades of Grey
.)

BURGERZONE is a guilty pleasure; this chain serves up the best junk burgers in Punktown, not to mention their delectably greasy and salty dilkies. The dilky root is the staple
food of the native Choom race -- and like many of the tough-fleshed roots and vegetables that form their diet, the reason for the evolution of their wide, heavy jaws. But along came colonists who daringly
cooked
these roots, and voila, a wildly popular snack for Earther and Choom alike! As the
BurgerZone
VT jingle goes, “Let’s go grab a burger, a Fishsand and some fries! An extra-large bag of dilkies and a Choc-o-late Surprise!” (See
Purple Wings
in
Punktown: Shades of Grey
.)

CAFÉ QUAY on Morpha Street has an artistic atmosphere that greatly appeals to me, and instead of being limited to one ethnic type, its menu ambitiously encompasses the cuisine of as many races of beings as its kitchen can conjure. In this way,
Café Quay
is as close to a true representation of Punktown as any restaurant could aspire to be. Hung upon the sensuously velvety brown walls in copper frames are moody, often eerie black and white photographs of discarded baby dolls and derelict factory machines, sometimes in disturbing combinations. Again, this mix of beauty and decay captures the essence of the city, for me. At a touch from one’s fingers, the menu scrolls in glowing white letters across the black tabletop, and one can also in this way check out the play-list of the music piped through the sound system. The music menu is as varied as the food! Try some scrumptious Kodju stir-fry, or how about some glebbi, a huge Kalian lizard; it’s surely not for every palate, but I think it’s interesting in small doses. After dinner, sip a hot mustard drink, an old Choom favorite. Ah,
Café Quay
– highly recommended. (See
Monstrocity
.)

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