A horror trope I always love is when a person innocently or carelessly breaks a rule they didn’t know about or thought didn’t exist. It’s scariest when they realize, after it’s too late, what has happened, and then try to save themselves, right the wrong, or appease the monster.
This story, “A Fine Trade,” from a trio of my stories that appeared in Parhelion Literary Magazine, Halloween issue 2022, explores that trope—though the tone is more dark humor than horror.
The reading is on Devil’s Kitchen Lake in Southern Illinois, the Goth lake of the area. It’s a flooded valley, and a tree graveyard. Other footage is from the Seven Bridges Natural Area in Rapid River, Michigan. And here’s what’s really cool—I didn’t throw my phone overboard this time! Enjoy. Read horror. Read flash fiction too.
I missed getting this book in the Night Worms book subscription, which would have been really cool because it would have come with fun add-ons like stickers and bookmarks. Still, I got it within the first week or two after release.
101 Horror Books To Read Before You’re Murdered by Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann isn’t a list of the greatest horror books of all time. It’s not a list of favorite horror books. It deliberately leaves out Stephen King (because it goes without saying, if you know modern horror, you know Stephen King!). It is a dissertation on modern horror. And it is amazing. Cue the chorus: “You’ve left off a favorite of mine!” Yeah, that’s not really a valid point here. This is a survey of the last 20 years in horror, with an eye to presenting some of the very best, and to do so over a chainsaw-sweep of sub-genres. If you read all of these books (before you are murdered) you will be an educated horror reader, a scholar of modern horror. And you’ll still be behind Sadie Hartmann, who is still reading and researching and compiling and reviewing. It’s not just the depth, though. It’s the insight. The first pages of this book give you an At a Glance reference guide which offers keen details on sub-genre, tone and style. I’ve made it sound easy. It’s clear that every book included in this guide has been thoroughly read, considered and studied. It’s already a classic.
The drink is a King Ale, a cream-style beer created in cooperation with Ravinia Brew Works and SIU Carbondale’s Saluki Brew Works. Enjoying at The Underground Public House. A couple patrons good naturedly moved over to let me get this photo.
This book now—I haven’t seen a description of The String Diariesby Stephen Lloyd Jones that does it justice, and I won’t do it justice either. The plot basics: The villain, Jakob, is a man from a long-lived, aristocratic race of people gifted with, among other things, the ability to shift into any other person’s likeness. The hero—the final girl, if you will—is an altogether likeable young wife and mother whose entire life has been shadowed by the generations-long obsession of Jakob to possess a descendent of his long-ago love. That his advances aren’t wanted is not part of his consideration. The story sweeps across Europe and over a century, beginning in a frenzy and, building from there. Beautifully written, with vivid characters, mystery, secret societies, and an obvious love for scholarship.
The wine is a peach lavender sangria at the Peachbarn Winery & Café. #nerdinabarwithabook What are you reading? And what are you reading it with?
I like a marina bar. Water. Piers and docks. But also, there’s often a sense of community. A vacation vibe even in winter.
Pyramid Acres Marina Bar features a Bloody Mary bar. Did I take advantage of it? No, readers, I did not. I got an attack of shyness and didn’t want to inquire how one approached the bar. I mean, you get the vodka part of it at the bar, or…? So I had vodka and soda instead. I think there’s a name for that drink, but I didn’t order it by any cool name, just by ingredients.
The book is Revenant, by the late Melanie Tem. Revenant is a ghost town. It’s a last chance place for the dead and those who mourn them to make peace with death. It’s a very dark book, and I read a lot of dark books. It’s also hopeful, in the way the sun behind storm clouds is hopeful—the kind of gold rim that makes the dark more ominous but also reveals that the sun is still there.
I brought John Dies at the End by David Wong, the identity assumed by Jason Pargin for that book and the serial story that preceded it, to Nessie’s the marina bar at Lithia Springs on Lake Shelbyville. Turns out Jason Pargin is an alum of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where I have my day job. My signed copy is from Confluence Books, our indie used (and some new) book store.
That book is a wild ride. Sci-fi /cosmic horror, humor black as night, and truly likeable characters. The drink is a Midori-based spring-themed house cocktail. It was as yummy as it looks.
A cool thing about Nessie’s—a lake monster hangs out there. Not really, I wish though. It’s a marina sign. Still fun though.
Since my husband is a gigging singer-songwriter, I get to bars and wineries and micro-brews a whole lot. And I’m the nerd who brings a book for the occasion. Here’s what I’ve started reading this new year.
Reading now: Ragman by JG Faherty. First off, what a great title for mummy horror! At The Liquor Hut, in McLeansboro.
Epiphany Ferrell 