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Vol.2 Iss.2 Now Live!

The staff of The New Bedlam Project would like to welcome new visitors KV Taylor, Richard Sampson, Gregory L. Hall, and Janett Grady. A hearty hi-dee-ho to returning guests Zoe E. Whitten, Nancy Gray and John Irvine. We're happy to have you with us!


Courting Morpheus is LIVE!

The long-awaited anthology that started it all is now available through Belfire Press and Amazon.com.


Submissions

The New Bedlam Project is now OPEN to submissions. We close again July 30th, so get 'em in quick!


About New Bedlam


My grandparents used to tell my cousins and me that we were slowly turning my hometown into New Bedlam. The town I offered to the original 13 writers is different than Thornhill, since gathering stories written about a town with less than 100 people is... odd.

Not that this New Bedlam isn't odd, mind you. Every character experiences New Bedlam in a different manner, perhaps a different time or on a different plane. I experienced New Bedlam as a far greater place than my hometown. The family spirit/mascot came to life in my imagination, his hand reaching through the mirror that graced the second floor landing of my grandparent's old, creaky house. I followed him... you know how it is.

I hope you, the reader, have a similar experience each time you read the pages of The New Bedlam Project, or someday, read through the Courting Morpheus anthologies.

That mirror hangs on the wall in my bedroom now. Every time I sit down to write, I know my grandparents - and Yahootie - are watching over my shoulder. And hey, I have a picture of that mirror where you can see someone looking out - but no one was in front of it...

Over the past several years I've personally been working on fiction based in New Bedlam. Stories selected for CM2 (aka Courting Morpheus Too) indicated a disaster of sorts destroying the town, and my novel-in-progress One For Sorrow has continued with that theme. Another novel centers around the re-construction.

I just can't stay away...

In the summer of 2008 New Bedlam itself was destroyed by the elements taking revenge (earthquake, tornado, wild-fire, flood) simultaneously hitting the already demon-ravaged town in a single 48 hour period. It was thought that those acts themselves drove the scary out of the town, but it seemed to only add a deeper level to the darkness.

In 2010, a handful of recent college graduates undertake to re-build the once-glorious writer's retreat; although on a smaller scale than pre-disaster, the darkness seems to have grown.

There is no specific geographical location for New Bedlam, Lassiter County, other than north of Missouri, east of Utah, south of Nunavut and west of Kentucky.

In my heart, New Bedlam will always be right here in Southern Manitoba.

Jodi Lee

 

 

Maps of New Bedlam

 
Pre-2008           &           Post-2008
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Download a PDF file of the Prologue/Epilogue and the original Courting Morpheus map here.