Name: Don Pizarro

Author of: “The C-Word”

Age: As Dennis said in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, “I’m 37, I’m not old.”

Geographic Location: Upstate New York

Original Hometown, if different: A small ‘burb on the shores of beautiful Lake Erie–which did not catch fire by the way.  That was the Cuyahoga River.

Twitter: @DonP

Website: www.warmfuzzyfreudianslippers.com

Past publications: My most recent are “Sublimation,” Rigor Amortis, October 2010, “Combat Stress Reaction,” Crossed Genres, June 2010, “Intermezzo,” Everyday Weirdness, May 2010, “Tough Love,” Reflection’s Edge, July 2009, “Good for the Gander,” Fantasy Magazine, May 2009

What’s your favorite H.P. Lovecraft story or other Mythos story? Actually, it’s Rod Serling’s adaptation of HPL’s non-Mythos story “Cool Air” for the series Night Gallery — a subject I plan on delving into for a future nonfiction project!

What comes to mind when you think “Lovecraft” + “Erotica”? I had the image of C’thulhu’s tentacles in various orifices.  Which, because of my lack of familiarity with the Mythos, actually turned me off.  Not that I’m against things in orifices by any means, but the thought of writing “‘Lovecraft’ + ‘Erotica'” required a knowledge that I just didn’t have – at the time.

How did you hear about Cthulhurotica? Right on the heels of my last “weird erotica” publication, I heard about this other one through the editor talking about it on Twitter.  I guess my eyes were just peeled for anything called <genre-trope>-rotica.

What inspired your story? Having resolved that I wasn’t going to write for Cthulhurotica, I decided it was long past time that I at least found out more about H.P. Lovecraft.  Especially since, several weeks before I heard of the anthology, I’d taken the name “D.P. Lovecraft” for my role as a Non-Skating Official in my local roller derby league.  Anyway, I started by looking up “Deep Ones” on Wikipedia, and then the ideas just started rolling in.  So much for my resolve.

What music or movies helped you to write this story? My soundtrack for “The C-Word”:

• The New Pornographers, “Failsafe”
• Eleni Mandell, “Bigger Burn”
• Manic Street Preachers, “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough”
• Arcade Fire, “Ocean of Noise”
• Air, “The Word ‘Hurricane'”
• Cassandra Wilson, “A Little Warm Death”
• The Blue Nile, “Body and Soul”
• Genesis, “Domino, Pt. 1 – In the Glow of the Night/Pt. 2 – The Last Domino”

How many rewrites did you do before submitting? Three or four, at least.

What is your favorite bit? The point at which the main character, Elliot, starts to get a glimpse of everything he was inadvertently fighting for:

Anna slipped her hand from mine and faced out toward Devil’s Reef.  She cupped her hands and shouted some words I couldn’t understand, but that reminded me of her mumbling last night.  And unless I was hearing things, she was answered, from the Reef, with the most bizarre and disturbing sound I had ever heard.