Horrors! A Full Year of Horror #14

Horrors! 365 Scary Stories – A Full Year of Horror
04/01/2017 – 04/07/2017

The horror short-short isn’t easy to master, but more than 100 of the genre’s critically acclaimed authors & hottest up-&-comers have taken a stab at it in Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, an anthology that contains a short tale for every day of the year. Steve Rasnic Tem, Wm F. Nolan, Tom Piccirilli, Yvonne Navarro, Peter Atkins, Brian Hodge, Martin Mundt & 166 others give you short, sharp shocks.

If you missed the first post you can find it here.

Here we are at the fourteenth week. I can’t begin to tell you guys that I’m so happy you’re following along with me! I would say it’s been a pleasure but hopefully it’s been more creepy than pleasurable. I can honestly say that I’ve had a lot of fun hanging out and interacting with you guys!

Now that the fun part is over it’s now time to walk once again the corridors of horror. The hallways and tunnels are labyrinthine. I hope we don’t get lost…

Early Retirement – Edward E. Kramer

Synopsis:
Two friends – one extremely lucky, one not so much, go on a fishing trip together after learning the ‘lucky’ friend has won the million dollar lottery. What could possibly go wrong?

Review:
A very good ‘frenemies’ story. Although the ‘good’ lucky one seems like a bit of a jerk.

The Earwig Song – M. Christian

Synopsis:
When you can’t get a song out of your head it’s called an ‘earwig’. Personally, I think that’s a disgusting term for it. Earwigs are disgusting all on their own. Now imagine if that musical earwig were real?

Review:
It puts me in mind of an old story or TV show I’ve seen. I’ll be danged if I can remember which show (or book). It certainly gives a nasty “What if?” to the musical earwig.

Easy Money – Mark Hannah

Synopsis:
Little Timmy is very curious about the Tooth Fairy. He waits with a freshly plucked tooth and his head under the covers to get a god look. But is it really the Tooth Fairy come to claim the tooth? If not, what is it and what has it come for?

Review:
Kind of cute, kind of creepy and kind of icky.

Ebony Eyes – Francis Amery

Synopsis:
A queen of an enlightened kingdom reigns alone after the death of the king. Eventually she takes a lover, much younger than herself with beautiful ebony eyes. But the queen is aging and the younger ladies-in-waiting prove to be too much temptation.

Review:
Pretty much the moral of the story is: Don’t piss off a jealous queen. A really good story that reminds me a bit of Westley’s “To the pain!” speech from The Princess bride. It also puts me in mind of another movie quote, paraphrased a bit: “It’s good to be the queen!”

Edwina Talbot – Benjamin Adams

Synopsis:
Edwina Talbot is the last person left on Earth after it dies. Strange visions lead her to her rightful place between myth and reality.

Review:
A little bit of a sci-fi flavor made this an interesting story. It was a little easy to tell what Edwina was by the name.

Empathy’s Bed at Midnight – Martin R. Soderstrom

Synopsis:
A doctor working at a hospital on the rough side of town. After years of working there she wants to know why. Why do they kill each other. Her actions lead her to the answer but not quite the one she expected.

Review:
I honestly can’t say enough good about this story. It’s awesome with a great ending.

Encore – Hugh B. Cave

Synopsis:
Alton Hayes and his middle aged wife buy a house together but Alton doesn’t plan on living there with her for long. He got it for a steal because of it’s haunted reputation.The resident ghost tries to warn Grace of her new husband.

Review:
Very good story, if a little over-used.

Favorite of the Week:
Empathy’s Bed at Midnight was excellent. It actually was a good week for stories but Empathy’s Bed at Midnight by Martin R. Soderstrom was the real stand-out.

Join me again next Friday for another week of horror stories