Sunday Shorts: Two from Knaves

In Knaves: A Blackguards Anthology (Outland Entertainment, 2018), Editors Melanie R. Meadors and Alana Joli Abbott brought together 14 stories about anti-heroes, heroes discovering the darker sides of themselves, and villains discovering their nobler aspects. Here are my thoughts on two of the stories contained in an anthology that covers a variety of genres.

cover art by Daniel Rempel

“Daughter of Sorrow” by Maurice Broaddus

“Our kind is never alone.” I really wasn’t sure, thanks to that opening sentence, what genre of story I was in for. “Our kind” meaning … vampires? Clandestine super-humans? Aliens living among us? So many possibilities, and any of them would have been interesting in Broaddus’ hands. What we get is the tale of Rianna, a teenage girl whose family is part of a secret society that runs the world. Rianna’s father is missing and presumed dead, which leaves her adrift and in harm’s way thanks to the society’s rules. Broaddus reveals the danger she’s in through a series of encounters with classmates and doles out the details of her relationship with her father via flashbacks. The alternating scenes build the suspense of both storylines effectively up to the moment they come together. The story is complete unto itself but did leave me wanting more of both Rianna and the Grendel Society.

The Life and Times of Johnny the Fox by Sabrina Vourvoulias

“The Life and Times of Johnny the Fox” is a story about a classic trickster personality, about community, and about doing the right thing even when it’s not the easy thing.

One of the many things I love about this story is what I can only describe as the “street corner urban legend” style of the narration. Imagine walking through a Philadelphia neighborhood, stopping into a bodega for a bottle of water or soda while you’re in the middle of telling your companion a local legend you’ve heard, and having someone say, “I am here to tell you the truth about the Johnny the Fox.” That first sentence sets that tone, and the rest of the story delivers on it.

Every Sabrina Vourvoulias story has an undeniable rhythm, a musicality that drives it. “The Life and Times of Johnny the Fox” is no exception. There’s the beat of the narration, a very particular style of storytelling that sweeps you up and carries you along. But music, singing especially, also plays a part in the main action of the story as Johnny returns to Puerto Rico at a particularly dangerous time for the island, to try to do what he does best: convince someone not to do the terrible thing they’re about to do. But even the most charismatic people stumble sometimes, and how Johnny recovers from that with the help of a community that loves him (even if they don’t always like him) is just as important as whether he succeeds.

Book Reviews: Three for the Twelfth Day of Christmas (a little late)

Growing up, January 6th (the twelfth day of Christmas; Three Kings Day; Epiphany; Theophany) was the day we took down our Christmas decorations (which went up, unfailingly, the day after Thanksgiving). For me, that includes putting away all the Christmas books (and I have a LOT of Christmas and winter holiday-related books!) So I figured, why not use today to talk about a few of my favorite Christmas reads from the past month? Maybe you’ll want to seek them out now to have in hand for next year. Or maybe you’re one of those folks who enjoy reading Christmas stories all year long, which is totally cool.

EDIT TO ADD: Somehow, this didn’t post on January 6th like it was supposed to, so here it is on January 8th. I’ll figure this scheduling posts thing out eventually.

cover by Inspiral Design

TITLE: Upon the Midnight Queer

AUTHOR: ‘Nathan Burgoine

202 pages, Dominant Trident Press, ISBN 9781777352363 (paperback, e-book, audiobook)

MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5

For several years now, ‘Nathan Burgoine has been writing a new queer retelling or reinterpretation of a classic Christmas tale and posting it for free on his website. This year, he’s collected them into book form (print, e-book, and audio, narrated by Giancarlo Herrera and Hannah Schooner), and added a new “Little Village novella” not available on his website. He started this project at a time when there was far less representation for the LGBTQIA+ community in televised Christmas movies (and especially, televised Christmas romances). That centered representation (as opposed to stories that just include a seemingly celibate gay best friend or neighbor) still has a long way to go. But the landscape is much more diverse in print, and Burgoine is one of the reasons why. Not just because of the short stories collected here, but also because of his Little Village holiday romance novellas (three of which, to date, take place on or near Christmas).

The previously available stories include twists on the well-known classics (Rudolph, Frosty and Jack Frost, Jingle Bells, the Little Matchstick Girl), expand upon supporting characters from other classics (Peter Cratchit from A Christmas Carol) classic Christmas tales from the well-known (Rudolph, Frosty, A Christmas Carol, Jingle Bells), and bring back to light some less well known Christmas stories from the past (including The Christmas Hirelings by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, a novella I'd never heard of before reading Burgoine's story but have come to really love; and The Romance of a Christmas Card by Kate Douglas Wiggin). There's also one story brand new to the collection (that is, not available for free on the author’s website), “Folly,” that is set in Burgoine's Little Village novella series and is an excellent addition to that world, introducing us to characters I do hope will show up in future Little Village novellas.

These are stories that show that no matter the time and place, LGBTQIA people exist and deserve love and to celebrate as much as straight people do. These are stories of hope, love, redemption, and making a place for yourself, during the holidays and all year long.

cover design by Olga Grlic, cover illustration by Nina Hunter

TITLE: The Merriest Misters

AUTHOR: Timothy Janovsky

305 pages, St. Martins Griffin, ISBN 9781250338938 (paperback, e-book, audiobook)

MY RATING: 4 stars out of 5

I’ll be honest: I was sold on this book when I heard it described as “a queer The Santa Clause.” Take one of my favorite Christmas movies and make it less heteronormative? And then tweak the world-building and magic system so that the only real connection to The Santa Clause is the concept of the main characters discovering, through an accident, that “Santa” identity/mantle is passed down (sometimes in a planned way, sometimes not-so-planned)? I’m definitely in.

This is the first Timothy Janovsky book I’ve read (although You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince has been sitting on my shelf since last Christmas…. Sorry, previously purchased book!), and it won’t be the last because I mostly had a blast reading this. The main characters, Patrick and Quinn, are lovable and relatable (if, near the start, a bit infuriating). Through flashbacks we see how they met, how their romance developed, how they got married and rushed into buying a home (because heteronormative expectations of wedded life…), and how they perceived their families’ reactions to all of it. This is important because, as I mentioned … they’re a bit infuriating at the start. I am not usually a fan of books where everything that happens hinges on a total lack of communication between people who should be communicating. There were several times early on where I stopped reading to shout “Oh, for Kringle’s sake, JUST TALK TO HIM!” But just as I was hitting my limit, the characters did start to talk it out – haltingly, yes, but just enough to keep me invested. And I’m glad I stuck with it, because the second half of the book was even more worth sticking around for. I laughed a lot, and I got teary-eyed as well. And may have cheered once or twice. (Without spoilers, let me hit you with this phrase: Non-Binary Young Elf Poet.)

The world-building is also fun, including looks into the elf society and the existence of a Council of Priors whose guidance isn’t always perfect but at least is heartfelt (including changing the title of Mrs. Claus to the titular Merriest Mister). I would welcome a repeat visit with Patrick, Quinn, their human families and friends, and their new extended family at the North Pole.

Cover art by lilithsour

TITLE: The Nightmare Before Kissmas (A Royals and Romance novel)

AUTHOR: Sara Raasch

356 pages, Bramble/Tor Publishing, ISBN 9781250333193 (paperback, e-book, audiobook)

MY RATING: 4 stars out of 5

I’ve always loved the idea of the personifications of different holidays meeting (perhaps clashing and then teaming up, perhaps getting right to the teaming up part). Through in a little gay romance to move the plot along and all the better. The Nightmare Before Kissmas, the first entry in Sara Raasch’s “Royals and Romance” series (the sequel, Go Luck Yourself, comes out in March) is silly, giddy fun from start to stop. This does not mean that the emotional stakes aren’t real – they are, and range from living up to your parents’ expectations to realizing your parents are not as infallible as child-you thought, to making amends to people you didn’t realize you were hurting – but those stakes are surrounded by a comedy of errors. And all the main characters, male and female, are hot and very human. This is less Nightmare Before Christmas and more Red, White & Royal Blue for the soon-to-be monarchs of the holidays. I liked that we meet Nicholas “Coal” Claus, prince of Christmas, at essentially rock-bottom and slowly get to see why his brother Kris and best friend Iris (the princess of Easter) support him and love him despite all the ways he self-sabotages himself under the weight of the family legacy (and a decent helping of generational trauma). I enjoyed meeting Hex, the prince of Halloween, before we really know who he is, and learning about his own family pressures. These four main characters are the core of the book, although it is narrated in the first person by Coal so most of our views of the other holidays are from his (sometimes skewed) perspective. I also like that most of the drama stems from Christmas’ ongoing, ever-quickening, encroachment of the other holiday. Raasch is not afraid to make that a clear point of contention in this fictional world, as it is for many people in the real world. (If you know me, you know how much I love Christmas – but not to the point that we’re putting Christmas trees up in October and taking them down in March.) While very few are mentioned by name, the author acknowledges that there are a lot of holidays observed and celebrated during the winter months.

I enjoyed this enough that I’m intrigued to see where the sequel, focused on younger brother Kris, will go in exploring holidays other than Halloween, Christmas, and Easter.

I received electronic advance reading copies of these books for free (one from the publisher, two via NetGalley) in exchange for honest reviews. This does not affect my opinion of the books nor the content of my reviews.

Sunday Shorts: Two from Cthulhu's Daughters

In 2015, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles co-edited Cthulhu’s Daughters: Stories of Lovecraftian Horror, in an effort to put paid to the rumor that “women don’t write Lovecraftian Horror / Weird Fiction.” No matter how many anthologies like this come out, there will be some people who still make that claim (heck, there are some who would claim women don’t write horror at all, or that women writing horror is a relatively recent development. Clueless, those people are.)

Here are my thoughts on a few of the 25 stories Moreno-Garcia and Stiles brought together.

Lockbox by E. Catherine Tobler

My opinion is that it takes a certain type of talent to write good serious “footnoted fiction.” (The type of story where as much is revealed in footnotes from the narrator as in the main text itself, that is. I thought about being cutesy and making this parenthetical aside a footnote, but I’m not sure I can get the formatting to work on my blog, and would it really be worth it?) I’ve read a fair number of such stories over the years, and in most of them I find the footnotes an affectation, often a distraction, rather than an enhancement. Not so here. Tobler’s story of two modern college students’ discovery of a long-buried but legendary Priory drips with atmosphere and foreboding from the very first sentence (“If nothing else, remember this: Edgar always knew.1”) and the footnotes enhance those feelings (“ 1 We may debate exactly when Edgar knew at length, but I am not convinced there was ever a single, discernable point one can reference; as the notions herein are circular,20 I feel so to was Edgar’s knowledge.” Yes, there’s a footnote to the footnote, which plays out very effectively later in the story). The narrator reveals the bloody history of the Priory and the history of his relationship with Edgar in just enough detail for the reader to understand how much isn’t be said … either because the narrator isn’t ready or is physically unable to share such details. It’s a fantastic counterpoint to Lovecraft, whose narrators often fell into what we call “purple prose” and shared too much detail; Tobler is as effective, or more so, in ramping up the creeping horror and dread with much less flowery language. And in the female protagonist, Tobler has created a character I find as horrifying as any of Lovecraft’s cosmic horrors.

Queen of a New America by Wendy N. Wagner

What is it about Nitocris, possible last queen of Egypt’s Sixth Dynasty, which draws so many writers of Lovecraftian horror to use her? Maybe it’s simply that Lovecraft himself mentions her in passing in two of his stories, making her a usable hook to expand on Lovecraft’s universe. Maybe it’s that so little is known about the historical Nitocris (including some debate over whether she actually existed at all), which makes her rife for use in all manner of genres from historical fiction to horror. Whatever it is, my experience is that usually in Lovecraftian horror, Nitocris is the Big Bad of the story/novel. Wendy N. Wagner turns that tradition upside down by showing a Nitocris who is far from the height of her power, her influence shrunk to being able to occasionally take control of a young girl’s body. Wagner explores the psychological effect of a drop from such lofty heights as well as revealing how it happened and draws comparisons between an Egypt where magic was commonplace and an America where logic and science have pushed magic to the background. Just when I thought I knew where the story was going, Wagner reveals a detail I hadn’t even noticed was missing and spins the story into a commentary about society we currently live in and where and how structures of power might be found in a world so different from the one Nitrocris knew. I enjoyed the claustrophobic feel of the story and the twist.

I love short fiction in all its forms: from novellas to novelettes, short stories, flash fiction, and drabbles. Sunday Shorts is the feature where I get to blog about it.

Sunday Shorts: Transgender Day of Visibility

March 31st is this year’s Transgender Day of Visibility. Rather than just review a story or two, I thought I’d list just a few of the many wonderful transgender, non-binary, and genderfluid short story and novella writers whose work I have enjoyed over the years (in no particular order) and give some links to where you can find their work or more about them. (Also, apologies in advance to anyone I leave off. It’s not purposeful, and this is not meant to be a complete list. I’m working under a little bit of a deadline.

Everett Maroon. I loved Everett’s memoir (Bumbling into Body Hair) and his novel (The Unintentional Time Traveler, which I’m hoping we’ll get a sequel to). His short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies as well as one collection (Spinning Around a Sun).  https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/5759590.Everett_Maroon

Charlie Jane Anders. Charlie Jane has written YA novels (the Unstoppable trilogy), writing advice books (Never Say You Can’t Survive), novels (All the Birds in the Sky among them), and a good number of short stories (many collected in Even Greater Mistakes).  https://www.charliejaneanders.com/

Lee Mandelo. Lee wrote one of my favorite novels of 2021 (Summer Sons), one of my favorite novellas of 2023 (Feed Them Silence) and has another novella out this month (The Woods All Black, sitting atop my TBR pile right now), and his short stories can be found in places like Uncanny Magazine.  https://leemandelo.com/

K.M. Szpara. Novelist (First Become Ashes and Docile) and short story writer (appearances in Uncanny, Lightspeed, and elsewhere), K.M. also edited Transcendent: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction 2016, published  by Lethe Press. https://www.kmszpara.com/

Jordan L. Hawk. Jordan mixes gay romance and sex with Lovecraftian horror (the Whyborne & Griffin series), supernatural detective stories (the Spirits series), shapeshifters (the Hexworld and Pride books) and more.  https://jordanlhawk.com/

Nino Cipri. Nino Cipri’s short stories have appeared in Fireside Fiction, Nightmare, and elsewhere and collected in Homesick: Stories. They have also written novellas (Finna and Defekt) and the upcoming YA novel Dead Girls Don’t Dream. https://ninocipri.com/

Bogi Takacs.  Bogi’s short stories have been collected in The Trans Space Octopus Congregation (2019) and Power to Yield (2024). E also edited the 2017 – 2019 editions of Transcendent: The Year’s Transgender Speculative Fiction. Check out eir Patreon as well. https://www.patreon.com/bogiperson/posts

S.A. Hunt. Samara Hunt is the author of the Malus Domestica horror series along with some short stories. She also has a Patreon. http://www.sahuntbooks.com/about.html https://www.patreon.com/sahuntbooks/posts?filters%5Btag%5D=space

A.M. Dellamonica. Author of the Indigo Springs and Hidden Sea Tales series, Dellamonica’s short stories have appeared in Lightspeed Magazine and Uncanny Magazine among other places.  https://alyxdellamonica.com/

Nisi Shawl. Novelist (Everfair and the recently-released Kinning) and non-fiction writer (including co-authoring Writing the Other with Cynthia Ward), Shawl’s short stories have appeared in Apex Magazine and  Nightmare Magazine among many others, as well as in too many anthologies to list.  http://www.nisishawl.com/Index.html

Neon Yang. The author of one of my favorite on-going novella series, the Tensorate series, as well as a novel (The Genesis of Misery), Yang’s short fiction has appeared in magazine like Clarkesworld, anthologies like The Book of Dragons, and on Tor.com (now called Reactor). https://neonyang.com/

Sunday Shorts: Two by Sharang Biswas

Sharang Biswas is a game designer, writer, and artist based in New York City whose stories and poetry have appeared in Nightmare Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, Baffling Magazine, Sana Stories, Strange Horizons, and elsewhere. Look him up on his website. Today, I’m going to look at his two most recent stories that appeared in Lightspeed Magazine, edited by John Joseph Adams. Lightspeed Magazine contents are free to read on the website and e-book subscriptions are also available.

“Real Magic” (Lightspeed Magazine #153, February 2023)

Three townspeople visit the Witch in the Woods to ask for help with their problems. She extracts a different price from each, something either cherished or endemic to the person’s sense of self. Each visitor ultimately finds what they are searching for (or searching for relief from), but not in the way they or the reader expects. The witch uses their ingredients to do real magic. This is a beautifully told story, a fairy tale in style but cloaked in Biswas’ beautiful sense of character and community. Biswas uses the needs of the visitors (and their resolutions) to show that every individual action has an effect outside the moment in which that action is taken or that choice is made. Nothing happens in a vacuum, no one person’s fate is theirs alone. What one person discards (willingly or not) may be picked up by another (who may or may not benefit from it). I also loved how Biswas doesn’t spoon-fed the connections between the villagers’ stories but lets them come out organically and not all at once.

“Season of Weddings” (Lightspeed Magazine #166, March 2024, story goes live on the website March 28th)

Nate receives seven wedding invitations in one year. Okay, two of them are for his job, which is maybe a little less fun than attending as a guest. Especially because it quickly becomes apparent to the reader that Nate is Thanatos, god of death. Sometimes, people die at weddings. Still reeling from his most recent relationship break-up (with Thor, who has moved on to loving a mortal woman), Nate must navigate these weddings, new singlehood, his job, his perhaps too-pushy best friend, and a cute guy he keeps bumping into at the weddings. This story is so sweet, so romantic and wistful. I recognized some of myself in Nate’s self-esteem issues around romance and relationships, which made me connect to the work even more. The world-building is also wonderful, bringing together characters from all sorts of world mythologies and religions but tweaking them in new and interesting ways (for instance, the Thor is this story is neither the “drunken jock” we often see nor the blond-tressed super-hero). I won’t spoil who all shows up, because part of the fun of the story is the reveals of Nate’s friends’ circle. I’m a sucker for “deities and personifications of human concepts walk among us and act like every-day people” types of stories (think the classic issue number eight of Neil Gaiman’s the Sandman, illustrated by Mike Dringenberg, among others), and this one fits the description very well. It also fits very well as a paranormal romance, and I love it when authors blend and blur genres.

I love short fiction, and Sunday Shorts is the feature where I get to blog about it. I’ve considered promising to review a short story every day, but that’s a lot of pressure. And while no one will fault me if I miss days, I’ll feel guilty, which will lead to not posting at all. So better to stick to a weekly post highlighting a couple/three stories, as I’ve done in the past. Click on the Sunday Shorts tab at the bottom of this post to find earlier entries in the series!

Book Review: DEATH COMES TOO LATE

TITLE: Death Comes Too Late

AUTHOR: Charles Ardai

397 pages, Hard Case Crime, ISBN 9781803366265 (paperback, e-book)

MY RATING:  5 stars out of 5

MY THOUGHTS: In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Hard Case Crime imprint, the publishers have released Death Comes Too Late, a collection of 20 mostly noir short stories from across the career of imprint founder Charles Ardai. The author admits the choice of title is a bit cheeky for a collection of stories in which death seems to arrive in a timely manner, if not early and unexpectedly. Regardless, it is a phenomenal collection by an author who I think is truly underrated. I say this as someone who is mostly familiar with Ardai as founder/editor/publisher and who had previously read only one of the stories contained herein.

That story, “Mother of Pearl,” blew me away when I first read it in From Sea to Stormy Sea (edited by the great Lawrence Block), and it blew me away again here. It is one of the few non-noir stories in the collection, if noir must include a crime or double-cross of some kind. There is a mystery at its core – who is this nameless, seemingly genderless, narrator telling us this tale of a young woman’s search for the truth of her father’s death and the mother who put her up for adoption? As I said back in 2020, the story is “a rumination on success, failure, identity, and the search for where we come from,” and upon multiple rereads I continue to find some moment or bit of phrasing or twist in the story that didn’t stand out to me on previous reads. As with most of the stories in Death Comes Too Late, “Mother of Pearl” has layers upon layers, twists to the twists, that keep you wondering where Ardai is leading you right up to the last paragraph.

I think it is safe to say that the whole collection is a rumination on success, failure, identity, and the search for where we come from (sometimes to embrace it, sometimes to understand it, sometimes to leave it behind). And equally safe to say that most of the time, those ruminations take some long, complicated routes to get to that moment of embracing, understanding, or leave-taking.

The book starts strong with “The Home Front,” in which a private investigator hired by the United States government to suss out black marketeers during World War Two is responsible for the accidental death of a young man he’s just arrested – which is just the start of a journey that turns brutal and bloody by the end while our protagonist tries to decide who he is after the tragedy. This is followed by “Game Over,” which starts with a boy’s simple wish to treat his less-well-off best friend to a free afternoon of video games at the local pizza place but whose plan to do so results in wounded pride, misunderstanding, harsh accusations, and yes tragedy. Two quite different time frames with characters of very different ages, both dealing with expectations of who they are based on something someone else has done (or not done). “The Fall of Man” is another heartbreaking story with a teen at the center, a startlingly honest look at suicide and its aftermath.

Charles Ardai is an expert at making sure his stories don’t end where they start – those long, complicated routes mentioned earlier – even when obeying genre dictates. “The Case” starts out as a standard “missing luggage” story but neatly twists through two characters’ points-of-view into something that would be at home on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. “Goin’ West” starts with a classic “Hollywood casting couch” scene (only in New York) that doesn’t quite go where you’d expect but with a conclusion that feels inevitable. “The Shadow Line” opens with our narrator waking up in a room in Mexico with a sex worker, intent on hunting down a man he’s been sent to locate – but not for the reasons that seem apparent. “Jonas and the Frail” is a “bodyguard loses his teenage charge, chaos ensues” tale with a killer reveal and ending; “Sleep! Sleep! Beauty Bright” is a revenge tale writ large; “My Husband’s Wife” is a riff on “disaffected corporate wife has affair” type stories. But they all take surprising turns, and each protagonist faces challenges that reveal something about where they came from or who they really are.

Ardai is also not above twisting his genres. “The Deadly Embrace,” one of my favorites in the collection, is a neat bit of super-hero noir that takes the real-world fierce competition between comics publishers in the 1950s (think the famous DC vs. Fawcett lawsuit over the original Captain Marvel) and combines it with a twist on the Hollywood Studio System in a world where super-heroes are real but under contract to the comics companies, which some of them find stifling. “Don’t Be Cruel” plays with conspiracy theories (particularly around Elvis’s supposed survival) in a noir light. “The Day After Tomorrow” is another tale that is not really noir at all, but more horror.

The collection ends with another decidedly non-noir tale, the mystery “The Investigation of Things.” If any story in the book can be called “Sherlockian,” it is this one. Two brothers in 11th century China, both detectives with decidedly different investigatory styles, are called to solve the murder of a Buddhist monk and stumble upon the invention of something we are all too familiar with as a weapon of murder in our modern era. There are twists upon twists, with one brother looking at minute and seemingly unimportant minute details while the other systematically interviews reluctant peers of the deceased (said brother even utters a variation on Detective Columbo’s famous “oh, just one more question” line, which brought a smile to this reader’s face).

If you love short stories in the mystery/crime genre that are more than just a recitation of the facts of the case or the reveal of the mystery, stories that explore the breadth of human interactions and passions, then Charles Ardai is your man, and Death Comes Too Late is your next must-read short story collection.

I received an advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Those interested can find my review of From Sea to Stormy Sea, where Charles Ardai’s story “Mother of Pearl” first appeared, HERE.

READING ROUND-UP: January 2024

The first monthly summary of what I’ve been reading, listening to, and watching in 2024!

BOOKS

I read 10 books in January: 5 in print, 5 in e-book format, and 0 in audio format. They were:

1.       What Moves the Dead (Sworn Sword #1) by T. Kingfisher. (E-BOOK)

2.       Phantom on the Scan by Cullen Bunn, Mark Torres, David Sharpe. (PRINT, GRAPHIC NOVEL)

3.       What Feasts at Night (Sworn Sword #2) by T. Kingfisher (PRINT, ARC (publishes February 2024))

4.       Highlands Book One: The Portrait of Amelia by Philipe Aymond. (PRINT, GRAPHIC NOVEL)

5.       Highlands Book Two: The Survivors of Blackwater by Philipe Aymond. (PRINT, GRAPHIC NOVEL)

6.       We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker. (E-BOOK)

7.       Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. (E-BOOK)

8.       Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire. (AUDIOBOOK, REREAD)

9.       The Birds & Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier. (E-BOOK)

10.   Hellstrom: Evil Origins by Gary Freidrich, Herb Trimpe, Don Perlin, Bill Mantlo, and others (PRINT, GRAPHIC NOVEL)

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 366 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this leap year. Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.

1.       “Five Views of the Planet Tartarus” by Rachael K. Jones, in Lightspeed Magazine #164, edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “Shadow Films” by Ben Peek.

3.       “Night Desk Duty at the Infinite Paradox Hotel” by Aimee Ogden

4.       “We Shall Not Be Bitter at the End of the World” by David Anaxagoras

5.       “A Saint Between the Teeth” by Sloane Leong

6.       “In the Tree's Hollow” by Lowry Poletti

7.       “Farewell to Faust” by Adam-Troy Castro

8.       “To Be a Happy Man” by Thomas Ha

9.       “The Silver Sea” by Seanan McGuire, on the Author’s Patreon

10.   “Ten Thousand Crawling Children” by R.A. Busby, Nightmare Magazine #136, edited by Wendy N. Wagner

11.   “The Forgetter” by Andrew Snover

12.   “The Birds” by Daphne du Maurier, from The Birds & Other Stories

13.   “Monte Verita” by Daphne du Maurier

14.   “The Apple Tree” by Daphne du Maurier

15.   “The Little Photographer” by Daphne du Maurier

16.   “Kiss Me Again, Stranger” by Daphne du Maurier

17.   “The Old Man” by Daphne du Maurier

18.   “The Carnival” by Richard Chizmar, stand-alone chapbook published by Cemetery Dance

19.   “End Game” by Martin Edwards, stand-alone chapbook published by The Mysterious Bookshop

20.   “Nothing of Value” by Aimee Ogden, from Clarkesworld #208, edited by Neil Clarke

21.   “Down the Waterfall” by Cecile Cristofari

22.   “Willow Wood” by Linda Neihoff, from Beneath Ceaseless Skies #398, edited by Scott H. Andrews

23.   “Home Bread” by R.E. Dukalsky

24.   “Miriam” by Truman Capote, Fantastic #2 (1952)

25.   “The Star Dummy” by Anthony Boucher

26.   “Most of ‘81” by ‘Nathan Burgoine, from the Author’s Website

So that’s 26 short stories in January. A bit less than “1 per day.” (January 31st was, of course, the 31st day of 2024.)

MOVIES

1.       Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), directed by James Gunn (STREAMING, Disney+)

2.       Gamera the Giant Monster (1965), directed by Noriaki Yuasa (DVD)

3.       The Birds (1963), directed by Alfred Hitchcock (DVD)

4.       Gamera vs. Barugon (1966), directed by Shigeo Tanaka and Noriaki Yuasa (DVD)

TELEVISION

·       Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 1, episodes 4 – 8 (5 episodes) (SEASON REVIEW HERE)

·       What If…? Season 2, episodes 2 – 9 (8 episodes)

·       Slow Horses Season 1, episodes 1 – 6 (6 episodes)

·       Slow Horses Season 2, episode 1 (1 episode)

·       A Hero’s Journey: The Making of Percy Jackson and the Olympians (1 episode)

That’s 21 episodes of television, again not quite the “1 per day” I was shooting for.

LIVE THEATER

1.       Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, NYC)

Summary of Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 0 of 14 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  26 read; YTD: 26 of 366 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 10 read; YTD: 10 of 120 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 4 read; YTD: 4 of 52 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 0 of 12 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 1  read/watched (“The Birds”); YTD: 1 read/watched.

Movie Challenge: This month: 4 watched; YTD: 4 of 52 watched.

TV Shows Challenge: This month: 21 episodes watched; YTD: 21 of 366 watched

Live Theater Challenge: This month: 1 show attended; YTD: 1 of 12 attended.

SUNDAY SHORTS: Two from Lightspeed #144

I love short fiction, and Sunday Shorts is the feature where I get to blog about it. I’ve considered promising to review a short story every day, but that’s a lot of pressure. And while no one will fault me if I miss days, I’ll feel guilty, which will lead to not posting at all. So better to stick to a weekly post highlighting a couple/three stories, as I’ve done in the past.

Two From Lightspeed Magazine #144

Grace Chan’s “Nobody Ever Goes Home to Zhenzhu” starts out as a simple missing persons thriller: Orin’s sidekick/mechanic Calam, an orphan taken under Orin’s wing a decade earlier, has pulled the disappearing act Orin always suspected he would – but Orin isn’t letting go that easily. The pilot/Beaconer wants answers about who Calam really is and where he came from. And so Orin tracks Calam back to Calam’s homeworld. If this story was a simple “find the missing person / learn their secret” story, it would still be fantastic. Chan paces the reveals wonderfully throughout, threading Orin’s feelings about Calam neatly into the overall narrative. But the story takes on added resonance as Orin learns more about the injustice Calam’s family, in fact entire society, has been dealt. Without spoiling too much: this is a story about colonization, about how the winners write the history books, and about how the colonized are forced to assimilate or be wiped out. I had just recently completed Roxane Dunbar-Ortiz’s An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States before reading this story, and the non-fiction book heavily influenced my reaction to the events of the fictional story. The reveal of what happened to Calum’s family is not the denouement of the story, however. There’s more to it than that, and Chan kept me riveted up to the final paragraph.

In “The Plastic People,” Tobias S. Buckell extrapolates a future in which Earth is essentially a giant trash heap and the rich have, generations ago, escaped to live in orbiting space stations. Occasionally, the children of these families like to camp amongst the trash-heaps for a bit of adventure. On one such trip, Rhea finds a seemingly-feral child among the trash and decides to “rescue” the boy – after all, bringing the boy to live among the civilized surely must be better for him than leaving him among the trash where his own parents don’t seem to care if he’s fed or lives or dies. Complications ensue, of course. Buckell makes his main character likeable at first, but she’s still very, very flawed thanks to the way she’s been raised. The privilege of Rhea and her friends is on display from the very start of the story, and even though she thinks she’s doing something good and noble she’s still mis-informed about the nature and history of the people still living below – including why families like hers left Earth for … well, not greener pastures, exactly, but certainly for a less polluted life. The story comments on how what’s passed down as family historical truth isn’t always true, how the privileged often take on “rescue” projects that they then lose interest in, and how sometimes the idea of “one life-changing encounter” is just that – a nice idea, but not something that happens as often as one would hope. But there’s also a nice underthread about the resiliency of humanity in general, and how we might adapt physically to survive, even if that survival doesn’t look like the gleaming future we’ve longed hoped for.

Full disclosure: I am one of the proofreaders for Lightspeed Magazine, as well as its sibling publication Fantasy Magazine.

SUNDAY SHORTS: Two from The Deadlands

I love short fiction, and Sunday Shorts is the feature where I get to blog about it. Posts will range from flash to novellas. At some point, I might delve into individual stories/episodes of anthology formats in other media, like television and comics, but for the time being, I’m sticking to prose in print and audio.

I don’t think I’ve yet done a Sunday Shorts about The Deadlands, a relatively new (just a year old) online speculative fiction magazine focused on the Afterlife – or afterlives, more accurately. Stories, poems, and non-fiction about grieving, about ghosts, about what happens after, or sometimes as, we are shuffling off this mortal coil, plane of existence, etc. The Deadlands is published by Sean Markey and E. Catherine Tobler is the editor-in-chief. Here are my thoughts on the two fiction pieces in the latest issue.

In KT Bryski’s “This is I,” Elaine, the Lady of Shalott, crosses paths via a magic mirror with a woman she comes to know as “Gug,” but who is really poet/artist Elizabeth Siddal, wife of Dante Gabriel Rosetti. In a story that blurs not only the lines of reality but also of narrative voice (with sections alternating between first, second, and third person points-of-view), Bryski delves into the ways in which men control women and alter the courses of their lives. Elaine has the curse on her that if she stops weaving in her high tower and looks out over Camelot, Camelot will fall, and she will be cursed. “Gug” has been used as a muse, been manipulated into marriage, and told her womanly nature means she can’t create art the same way a man can. Bryski also plays with the various versions of “The Lady of Shalott” that Tennyson wrote, plus interpretations by others. It took me a page or so to understand what the author was doing with the alternating POVs, but then I settled in, and the story flowed towards a perfect ending.

Maria Haskins’ “The Morthouse” focuses on a mother who has lost her teenage son to a horrific winter illness and who is so distraught she cannot do anything but haunt the village “morthouse,” where the bodies of those who die during winter are held until the ground is soft enough to dig graves, with occasional trips to the church she might no longer believe in, and the fields around the village. She regrets not asking the midwife who brought her child into the world during a problematic birth for help in keeping him alive, and eventually goes to ask for help in bringing him back to life. The midwife sets the grieving mother three tasks to gather items that might help. The mother’s grief is palpable throughout, as is her estrangement from her church and from her husband. The author also nicely explicates the traditional distrust in religious communities for anyone who works with nature to cure illness instead of just relying on God, without going the traditional route of showing the midwife (in this case) being abused by other members of the community. The story takes its time before coming to a satisfying, emotional, conclusion.

Book Review: BODY SHOCKS

TITLE: Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror

EDITOR: Ellen Datlow

384 pages, Tachyon Publications, ISBN 9781616963606 (paperback, also available in e-book)

DESCRIPTION: (from Goodreads): The most terrifying thing that you can possibly imagine is your own body in the hands of a monster. Or worse, in the hands of another human being. In this definitive anthology of body horror selected by a World Horror Grandmaster, you’ll find the unthinkable and the shocking: a couture designer preparing for an exquisitely grotesque runway show; a vengeful son seeking the parent who bred him as plasma donor; a celebrity-kink brothel that inflicts plastic surgery on sex workers; and organ-harvesting doctors who dissect a living man without anesthetic.

Bestselling editor Ellen Datlow (Lovecraft’s Monsters) presents body horror at its most wide-ranging and shocking best. Discover twenty-nine intricate, twisted tales of the human body, soul, and psyche, as told by storytelling legends including Carmen Maria Machado, Richard Kadrey, Seanan McGuire, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Nathan Ballingrud, Tananarive Due, Cassandra Khaw, Christopher Fowler, and many more.

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS: I love horror as much as I love any other “speculative fiction” genre, but I will admit that when it comes to body horror, I’m one of those readers/viewers who is squeamish but also intrigued. Picture the trope of the teen watching a horror movie through the parted fingers of the hand they’ve raised in front of their face – then age the person up to his 50s and you’ve got me. It’s not so much blood and gore that gets my gag reflex going as it is bodily transformation. For this reason, I’ve long stayed away from the more visceral body horror fiction that gets recommended as exemplars of the sub-genre. But I can’t resist an occasional look, via short stories that I can read one at a time and “palette-cleanse” between. And when those stories are assembled by Ellen Datlow, an editor who has never disappointed me or led me astray, all the better.

Quite a few authors I always enjoy are present. Seanan McGuire’s “Spores” (in which a lab hygienist’s worst fears come true regarding mold), Carmen Maria Machado’s “The Old Women Who Were Skinned” (in which, well … the title kind of gives it away, but there are still surprises), Nathan Ballingrud’s “You Go Where It Takes You” (the basis for an episode of Hulu’s excellent Monsterland series) were all stories I had read before, and rereading did not lessen the dread and discomfort the stories originally inspired in me. I had not previously read Priya Sharma’s “Fabulous Beats” (a herpetologist has a unique connection to the snakes she works with), Cassandra Khaw’s “The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat” (people as food), or Kaaron Warren’s “A Positive,” (a child is raised to provide for his father in old age in a way far from what that phrase normally entails). All three creeped me out in delightful ways while also leaving a smile on my face. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a good revenge tale. Which is probably why I also enjoyed Edward Bryant’s “The Transfer” and Alyssa Wong’s “Natural Skin” as well.

Two other stand-outs for me were Tananarive Due’s “The Lake,” in which – surprise – and urban legend about the titular body of water turns out to be true, and Brian Evenson’s Poe-like “A True Friend,” in which the narrator explains that while he could help you out of the predicament you’re in, he won’t and why. Both tales are perfectly paced, playfully teasing the reader with what’s really going on. I suspect that Evenson’s story, told in the second person POV that always discomfits me regardless of genre, is going to be on my “must re-read annually in October” list alongside my favorite Poe stories.

Full marks also go to Terry Dowling for “Toother,” in which a detective, a doctor, and the doctor’s supernaturally talented patient team up to track down a serial killer. I would gladly read any more tales featuring Dan Truswell, Peter Rait, Henry Badman, and Philip Crow. The characters and their shared history intrigued me. (Admission: I have not yet looked to see if Dowling has more stories with these characters.)

But, if I had to choose the most disturbing story in the anthology in terms of body transformation and trauma, it would be a three way tie between Simon Bestwick’s “Welcome to Mengele’s,” which involves bodily abuse of clones; Cody Goodfellow’s “Atwater,” which contains both the most disturbing birthing scene I’ve read and a scene reminiscent of the climax of the movie Akira which made me physically ill the first time I saw it on VHS; and  Michael Blumlein’s “Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report,” which is a very slow and methodical report of surgery, practically an autopsy, on a perhaps-unwilling patient while that patient is still alive and aware of everything he’s losing. These are perhaps the most graphic stories in the book. Blumlein’s tale is also the closing story and will linger with you long after you’ve set the book aside. Even reading over my story notes several months after reading the book, the images from this story appear clear in my mind’s eye.

There are plenty of other stories I haven’t called out specifically that are equally as good and as diverse in tone and genre as the ones I have mentioned. Some of the stories are lean more towards science fiction or fantasy than outright horror, and some are more graphic than others. I don’t think fans of body horror as a sub-genre will be disappointed with what Datlow has put together here, and I think that folks not accustomed to body horror will find this an excellent testing ground for “just how gross is too gross.”

I received an electronic Advanced Reading Copy of this book from Tachyon Publications via NetGalley well before publication in hopes of a fair review, but personal life stuff delayed my posting this review until well after the publication date.