Status Updates From Shadows & Tall Trees, Issue...

Was pretty sure this anthology was international, but it seems to be overwhelmingly British.

appropriate milestone

appropriate milestone

Was pretty sure this anthology was international, but it seems to be overwhelmingly British.

this seems the opportune point to begin listing out this anthology's respective hits and misses.

HITS
"It Flows from the Mouth" (and WHAT a HIT this story is -- read it TODAY)
"Hidden in the Alphabet"

MIDS (these, I find, just have really lopsided structure issues)
"Death's Door Cafe"
"The Golem of Leopoldstadt"
"Road Dead"

MISSES
"Onanon" (and not because of the weird incest/body horror shit, that was fine)

"Hidden in the Alphabet" had some really wonderful prose, though the ending felt a little hammy and sudden. It's a shame this collection begins with "Onanon," which contains such hilariously shitty writing as "they steeped themselves in drink and weed." Jesus f*cking Christ, did Patrick Rothfuss ghostwrite this???

*need to remind to return to intro after finishing

second story was f*cking incredible. funny, scary, weird, page-turner. like what if dave eggers wrote the shining

Finished the first story "Onanon" and felt a little underwhelmed at first. The story definitely gets "weird" in a really good way by the end, but the prose was just so... "her prose read like it burned in her blood and spattered out of her." Gratuitous, I think might be the word. It doesn't help that the protagonist is a *sigh* writer.

Charles Wilkinson's "Hidden In the Alphabet" either requires a certain mood to appreciate, or I just simply wasn't getting into it.

Robert Shearman's "It Flows From the Mourh" was an experience akin to reading Robert Aickman: beneath a literary veneer of utter beauty runs a pulse of subtle disquiet.

My first Michael Wehunt story will certainly not be my last. Its carnivorous kaleidoscope of a narrative was a little hard to follow at times, but it left me with a shiver nevertheless.

Eric Schaller's "To Assume the Writer's Crown" is a far cry from what you may expect. This isn't merely some opening nonfiction piece about how an author thinks fiction should be written - it is as infused with creepy imagery as it is with inspirational advice. (See also: Thomas Ligotti's "Notes On the Writing of Horror: A Story.")