Nasty and Brutish Shorts: Reading & Writing Short Horror Fiction

                                                            Here was a treat I stumbled upon the other day: A horror anthology I'd never heard of, with a fun theme (urban horror), a strong line-up of contributors, and right in my late 80s/early 90s sweet-spot for horror. I often skip the introductions to collections, but given that the introduction to the other Olson and Silva anthology I've encountered ( Post Mortem: Tales of Ghostly Horror ) was a literate, meta-textual ghost story about books of ghost stories, I thought this would be required reading. It is--both F. Paul Wilson's enjoyable thesis statement for the book, and Olson and Silva's exegesis both of the book's themes and of its conception. This isn't quite a "shared world" anthology--there isn't a single fictional place like the Greystone Bay ...

During Tipper Gore's crusade against indecency in popular music, she and the Parents Music Resource Council came up with the " Filthy Fifteen ". As with the UK's "video nasties" list and other such censorious lists, entries range from the utterly innocuous to the, " I'm vehemently against censorship but if you're going to be offended by something, it may as well be this ." Today I have my 'Filthy Fifteen' horror stories. These aren't necessarily the most extreme or graphic stories I've read, or the best ( "Red" by Richard Christian Matheson, "The Night They Missed The Horror Show" by Joe R. Lansdale, "Atrocities" by Lucy Taylor, and "Emerald City Blues" by Steven Boyett are all missing from this list), and there are a couple places where I swapped out stories that were a little duplicative of themes that already appeared here (apologies to Grant Morrison's "The Braille Encyc...

  The Rack  series is the gift that keeps on giving! After I wrote about B.D. Prince's pleasant E.C.-Comics style tale "Head Hunter" in The Rack II , he reached out and offered me an ARC of his recent collection to review. I was more than happy to, and this is a fun one: Lots of inspirations from classic anthologies, comics, and TV shows. Let's get to it! Obligatory disclosure/disclaimer: As mentioned, Prince gave me the ARC, but that's it, quid pro quo wise.   The Last Drive-in Movie Synopsis : An aging couple facing down death go to the drive-in to relive their first date. Thoughts : Opening strong! We have an old couple here who are sympathetic and loving. It feels genuine, and the whole time you're reminding that this is "13 Ghastly Tales," not "13 Sad But Ultimately Life-Affirming Tales," so you're waiting for the other shoe to drop. And I found myself turning each page with dread wondering actly would go wrong. And then ...

  We're back for Part II of our first trip to Greystone Bay . This is mostly a quick wrap-up, since I'm working against a deadline (see below for more), but there's still plenty of meat on the bone for us to talk about. Night Catch by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro Synopsis : The fishermen of Greystone Bay have fantastic catches. But there's a, well, catch. . . Thoughts : RIP to the recently late Yarbro , whose classy and literate Count Saint-Germain vampire stories popped up in many Grant anthologies. To be honest, I've never liked them that much: Vampires, when they do it for me, are repulsive bloodfeasters , snarling and fetid and obscene. Saint-Germain is precisely not that.  Yarbro's stories are impeccably well-written--it's just a matter of personal taste. So, I was excited to read a non-vampire story from her. This is great--a story of fishermen and dark pacts and secrets and terrors of the deep. It's amazing how just a string of simple sentences, one af...