Apex Book Company

COOL PERSON OF THE MONTH: Dot Porter, Lexington KY
DEDICATION LEVEL: Traveled all the way to the United Kingdom to deliver Apex books, mugs, and shot glasses to friends.
BIO: Since she was a child, Dot has enjoyed being frightened, and she’s always tried to share that particular joy with others. When she was twelve, she got in serious trouble for reading passages from Stephen King’s It to her eight-year-old sister (said sister got her foot caught in a drainage grate in the playground and had to be taken home from school, inconsolable). Since then she’s learned to be more careful with her treasures, but if you ask her she’ll be glad to tell you about her favorite stories, especially those by Robert Aickman and H. P. Lovecraft.

1) Favorite Apex Digest short story?
“Memories of the Knacker’s Yard,” by Ian Creasay (Issue 10).

I like this story for a lot of reasons. It’s got a really interesting premise–okay, so interaction between the living and the spirits of the dead isn’t new, but put it within the context of a murder investigation–a serial murder investigation at that–in a world where memories of both the living and the dead are available for purchase and consumption,and the mix is very attractive. But the thing that I love the most about this story is that it’s so damn funny. It’s not silly or shallow, just really amusing. I like my horror with a good chaser of humor, it helps it go down. And the end is very satisfying, which you don’t always get–I’m not a writer, but I understand that good endings are very difficult to come up with. Oh, and it’s scary, too. Just a very satisfying story.

2) Why Apex?
I have a short attention span and I like a lot of variety, which means I devour short stories and I like those stories to be well-differentiated from one another–reading three stories in a row that are all essentially the same story is boring, boring, boring. With Apex Digest, I know that I’m going to get a selection of high-quality material that spans the genres of horror and SF. I like to be scared, but sometimes that means getting grossed out and sometimes that means being intellectually or emotionally challenged. I’m never sure what exactly I’m going to get, but I know it will be short and enjoyable. I also like Alethea Kontis’s essays–they’re fun and thoughtful.

3) A group of Kentucky hillbillies trap all the Apex authors inside Mammoth Cave. The leader of the hillbillies decide they’ll let you save one of the authors and will eat the rest. Who do you save?
Oh, gosh. Will the hillbillies let me take the author out of the cave with me, or do we have to stay there, I just get to boss her around? Either way, I’d pick Alethea Kontis. I think she’d be good company–she’s a Tennessee girl, I’m a Virginia girl (now living in Kentucky)…together we could probably take care of those hillbillies and save all the other authors. And if we did get out, maybe she’d write an essay about our experience. That would be cool.