How shameful of me to not secure a vote when I blather on about horror being my thing. At least I can thank the following for the short listings and mentions, which I’m focusing on
J5V,
Cat’s Cradle,
Venusian Broon (and extra thanks for remembering when I first got the term ‘squatter on my tomb’),
LittleStar (nice for the challenge setter to mention your entry
),
Shyrka,
Cascade,
Vaz,
Starbeast,
DG Jones,
Juliana,
Mad Alice,
Ursa and
johnnyjet.
I’ve had a guest for the two weeks up till this Saturday just gone, and I didn’t have time to post my shortlist and so on, although I had voted as I said UT. Moreover, I could have put pretty much every entry on my shortlist such is my love for the genre, and the quality of writing here. So in case anyone cares, here’re my ties for the 2nd place vote, with me being particularly brutal in whittling down to these choices:
Victoria - I’ve often thought about how many spirits walk among us unknown. Do they pass on to another dimension, utopia, or life, or do they clamour for etheric space all around us? This story really spoke to me of that and I liked the curse of the sensitive (which is something I agree must be the case).
Starbeast - the idea of aliens - whether ghostly or extraterrestrial is a compelling one but I’m always interested in how they would view us if they knew we were aware of them. There seems to be a safety in ignorance and the title of
SB’s piece indicates the narrator
chose to investigate. But, as we know all too well about aliens, they like to do their own research, too!
Cascade - At first your story seemed like a nice tale about the consideration of a carer, possibly for a blind person, but as the genre was horror, I knew it was going to have a nasty pay off. It did. A great one.
Clockworkbot - for backstory and mythology implicit in such a short space allowance. Eye-eaters; now there’s something I’d like to, er, see.
johnnyjet - the very real possibility of our darker animal coming to the surface is one that can affect every one of us, no matter how sane or pious. And to have the knowing that the change to the darker half is inevitable, would be a horrible thing. How many murderers or vicious criminals have been through this transition of mind, I wonder?
Alex Darion - a highly inventive and original idea that surprised me when I read it because I have had very similar nightmares about the absence of everything, even down to the normality of when it happens - on the way to work.
MemoryTale - because horror and dark humour go together like bunnies and stove pots. If I was the Reaper I’d definitely act as arch as possible, too.
crystal haven -
I found the crow with its head missing. Not sure why the goblins want that. Not sure why it’s in the bathroom, either. is the kind of faultless concept that horror needs. Inexplicable, yet highly portentous. We don’t know what it means, but it definitely means
something.
LittleStar - I just like the sly wickedness of the antagonist. Who believes a kid who blames someone else for breaking a vase? And not just bare footprints. Muddy, bare footprints; so much more evocative. The final image of the condensation is truly beautiful.
Venusian Broon - another staple of horror-how-to’s. It’s the cautionary tale that reminds you no matter how many t’s you cross, or i’s you dot, there’s always something you miss that lets the demon in. And such a clever use of the theme, too.
The Judge - seeing whole families with whom I’ve danced and worked talk about ebola and how there is no simple ‘get out of state’ option to avoid it made this chime with me. When a cultural practice such as washing the corpse of the beloved is so ingrained and important, that they’re willing to risk the kind of horror tropical diseases bring, the true terror of our condition - and frailty - really hits home. And that’s what this one did to me. Some people say living in an inner city with high crime is scary, but I’d rather take my chances in Tottenham than in the bush with ebola, marburg or zika…
So, all of those gave
TDZ a run for the vote but in the end, personal experience made me choose hers as it was a chilling, truly authentic, horrific piece about the debilitating numbness of depression.
Whilst I’m gushing (in a non-haemorrhagic way), I’d also like to thank
Cascade and
TJ for their comments. I’ve never been so happy to astound someone
.
Cascade, I was particularly happy with your summary of my story as it was the exact concept that I was aiming for:
I had woken a few weeks ago with the following words in my mind like an ear worm; ‘and I regret the squatter that I let sit on my tomb’, but I had no context for it, and it wouldn’t shift, so I noted it in my phone and tired not to think about it. I then watched a documentary on the H2 channel about draining the Great Lakes, and there was a brief story about the SS Edmund Fitzgerald which sank in Lake Superior in 1975 with the loss of 29 crew. It was somewhat of a mystery at the time. The two elements just meshed, probably helped along by the beautiful images in the programme of the lake’s shore and the dangerous shoal on a windy autumnal day. That got me thinking about how these days news stories about crashes etc always focus on ‘human error’ and scapegoating, and the story went from there to the oppressive guilt the dead narrator felt over the grief of his father. To me - and I know this is an unpopular choice - the identity of the ghost or the mourner, or the guilty act, were unimportant; it was about the concept of weighty grief, and getting a tone of despair and autumn, so I’m really pleased that came across.
Finally, a big NO THANKS to
Hex and
HB for not entering this month, when I was looking forward to their take on the challenge. I do, however, appreciate that life gets in the way, though.
pH
