Short Story Sunday.....on Monday Part II

I think there was a meme out there one time that asked "How do you prefer a story to begin: Once Upon a Time or It was a dark and gloomy Evening?" As much as I am a fan of the fairy tale, my very favorite genre is the eerie and the paranormal. So I immediately went for the Dark and Gloomy Evening scenario. This week's Short Stories in the form of Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things fits the bill perfectly!! Ghost Stories seemed to be the writings this weekend...and you may detect a little gushing when you read this!! I'm serious LOVING this book!!

The first story I read yesterday was Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire. (And yes, I do realize that is certainly a mouthful!) I really don't know how Gaiman does it. He can suck a person into a story in the opening line! "Somewhere in the night, someone was writing." The story goes back and forth between a writer and the story he is creating. Without spoiling this wonderful story for anyone, I will just say, it's filled with talking Ravens, the undead, family curses and an elderly aunt chained in the attic!! This story which Gaiman wrote 20 years prior was snubbed by a couple of editors and stuffed away in a box. He pulled it out a few years ago to submit it for an anthology called Gothic! and was awarded the 2005 Locus Award for Best Short Story. (I certainly hope those editors are now working in other industries!)

The Flints of Memory Lane is more of a 4 page memory. It was written for a anthology of true life ghost stories, and is not "story-shaped" as Gaiman so eloquently puts it.

Going Wodwo is a poem written by Gaiman for Terri Windling and is about a wild man of the woods.

And finally, Closing Time is another Ghost story. One late night, years ago, several men were sitting around a London "club" telling stories, when somehow the topic of ghost stories come up. After a couple of "urban legends" are told, one of the men tells a story from his youth. He said it didn't happen to a friend of his. It actually happened to him...and he remembers it as if it were yesterday. The story is about a nine-year-old boy that met up with some other kids on the way home from school one day. They all decide to go to an abandoned mansion called the Swallows. 4 boys started out, but only 1 comes back! An eerie twist at the end is surely what won Gaiman the 2004 Locust Award for Best Short Story!

OK.....here's my gush: You must read this book!! I have let it be known my utter lack of interest in the short-story. Many times. But with Gaiman telling the tales, I'm going to do a complete 180 and whole-heartedly recommend them!! You are immediately drawn in and although your time is short, completely enthralled!! I can't wait until next Sunday!!