SPINE TINGLING STORIES

There's no feeling quite like choosing to be scared. As illogical as it may seem, humanity is inexplicably drawn to what most terrifies us. How else do you explain our obsession with Freddy Kruger, Jack-the Ripper, Vampires, and the X-Files?

This bi-week we're going to direct you to TERRIFYING stories. If you like to feel a chill skating down your spine when you read, you're in the right place.

Lady E's specially selected site for shivers is Buried.com, an epub that in addition to fiction, interviews, discussion boards, and various horror themed features, offers a monthly "Scream Queen" pictorial, where you can find alluring femme fatales in provocative poses. Our favorite "Horror Hottie of the Month" was model Elaine Zlaket. You can also see pics of Elvira Mistress of the Dark, plus a bevy of other lovelies in a fast-loading, highly enjoyable format.

After your blood gets pumping from the sexy pics, click to the fiction section for the flipside of the sex-death coin.

Buried.com offers PDF format short-stories (excerpts from collections and novels) from Stealth Press that download with covers and acknowledgments, like mini-novels. This is an exciting and very enjoyable way to read fiction from the web and we urge everyone to click over and download these freebies -- you won't be disappointed.

The two stories not in PDF form, "Video Store Debacle", by Darren Franz and, "Fare Game", by Amy Grech are misleading about the quality of free fiction at BURIED.COM. Franz's story is a rough-hewn and implausible yarn of an alien invasion that takes place in a video store with abhorrent consequences for a youngish pair of disenchanted lovers. If you like irrational premises with cardboard characters and a predictable deus ex machina ending, you'll want to check it out. Grech's tale is better articulated and grazes genuine pathos -- still, we found this story of a gun-obsessed adolescent simultaneously discovering his sexuality and sharp-shooter skills a bit underwritten.

The PDF freebies are where the best stories are found.

Adorned with a slick cover, enthusiastic blurbs from Clive Barker and William Gibson, and an introduction by Poppy Z. Brite, "My Victim", by John Shirley is an excerpt from his short story collection, "Darkness Divided".

The tale is predictably narrated from the 1st person POV of a serial-killer and concerns the murderous initiation of a wealthy and elitist young man descended from a centuries old lineage of assassins. His lifestyle of limos, fine wines, and one assumes aesthetic esotericism, is only the barest indication of the deep decadence with which his family is obsessed. At its most superficial level, "My Victim", is a conventional story of murder as a pastime for the ultra-rich who kill simply for sport. Characteristically, the protag of Shirley's story studies his victim with the cerebral thoroughness of a chess master -- and becomes inevitably so attuned to his victim (a documentary filmmaker) that he's hesitant to kill him. The resolution of the story is less-than-surprising but powerful. Shirley's greatest achievement in this piece is his brilliant use of irony, which revolves around the axis of the story's title. Lurking behind this apparently gratuitous tale of yet another rich dissipate as artist/murderer is a genuine tide of grief and regret that salvages "My Victim" from its popular pandering and elevates it to a dark satirical gem.

Another must-read free download is "The Party", by William F. Nolan, excerpted from his collection, Dark Universe. Nolan is a SF heavyweight whose endorsements on the title page of this excerpt come from Stephen King and Ray Bradbury. After perusing his staggering biography and bibliography, I expected something tremendous out of the featured story and I was happy to find my expectations not only met but surpassed. Plot-wise, "The Party" is a quiet story, set at a bourgeoisie shindig where wineglasses shimmer and alternately pretty and abhorrent socialites pass morbidly to and fro, whiling away the New York night. The protag, a rich, womanizing producer with a taste for distilled spirits, bumps from guest to guest at the cocktail party, holding each grotesque and sinister partygoer at arm's length, while relishing his ennui and decadence, only to find an eternal sting behind his self-absorption. The brilliance of this story is not in its plot or obvious allegory, both of which lean toward the plebian, but in Nolan's dazzling narrative technique which produces prose so polished you can see your reflection in it -- and that, of course, is where the real terror lies.

Buried.com is unique site, with an easy-to-surf format. You'll have no trouble finding something here to give you the shivers -- and when you recover, you'll shiver again -- this time in recognition of the narrative brilliance offered by Shirley and Nolan, both of who exemplify the technical craftsmanship that all writers should aspire to emulate. We recommend this site very highly and encourage everyone to click over and explore.

If you've got a little money to spend on your horror habit, we recommend the following print stories from diverse sources.

"Red as a Cherry Blossom, White as the Snow", by Fiona Avery, is a superb vampire story from Dreams of Decadence, one of DNA Publications' SF quarterlies. You'll be seeing a full review of DoD from us in the future, but for now you'll have to take your cue from this fabulous Japanese fable that combines the sensuality of music and the plight of the common-man in a wholly satisfying and spooky tale of class-consciousness and revenge.

Minamoto, a virtuosi musician elevated to Nobility for his talent, is falsely accused of stealing the Emperor's magical lute named Genjo. Exiled from the palace, Minamoto takes quarters in a comfortable inn, only to be lured into the night by the melodious sounds of the stolen lute playing from a dark and dangerous section of Kyoto city.

Dragging the innkeeper along, Minamoto follows the harmonic strains until they reach the Roshomon gate, a feared place where the dead are left to decay in the open and where the innkeeper nearly has a breakdown due to his terror. At the gate, they encounter Kiku, a beautiful young lady with skin "as pale as the moon" and "lips as red as cherry blossoms". She has possession of the Emperor's lute and, also, intimate knowledge of his selfishness and cruelty. Recognizing her as a yurei (vampire) the innkeeper tries to make Minamoto her victim.

The musician escapes this destiny, but is later betrayed by the innkeeper who falsely testifies against him to the Emperor. Minamoto, imprisoned in the Emperor's dungeon for stealing the lute, is left to brood upon his fate, until Kiku appears and offers him a nefarious proposition. A terrific story with a fine narrative lyricism and haunting imagery.

Dreams of Decadence is a great pub and we suggest you sign up for a subscription at the negligible cost of $16 a year.

As promised in a past column, we now revisit, Horror Garage, an inconsistent but occasionally remarkable source for chilling Speculative fiction. Our pick this bi-week is from Issue #4. "Here Come the Whistle Men", by Gerard Houarner, is a poignant and disturbing tale of a bitter and disillusioned construction worker whose estranged wife and son re-emerge in his stagnant life with dark consequences.

Houarner's inversion of malignant and benign forces is a stunning device and the mounting suspense of the tale is in no small part due to his chilling use of innocuous symbols: whistling and a child's scribbled stick-figures to create authentic suspense and tragedy. With deft prose and an increasingly textured barrage of imagery and symbols, Houarner scribes an unforgettable parable of familial obligation and regret. Read this one and get ready to stop for a moment in your tracks next time someone passes by while whistling a happy tune. Enthusiastically recommended.

Our last selection is the star-piece from a mind-blowing short-story collection available through Delerium Books. Greg F. Gifune's Bram Stoker nominated novella, Heretics, is one of the best pieces of contemporary horror fiction you're likely to find and stunningly combines the rawness of Pulp Horror with the most excellent and honest prose we've recently encountered. This tragic story of two social outcasts and the strange, demonically powerful girl with whom they become eternally "wed" will never leave you once you've read it through. Gifune tackles class struggle, alienation, and metaphysical terror in this masterwork and leads the reader into a labyrinth of betrayals, lies, seductions -- and murder. If you read one short story this month, make it, "Heretics". This story, along with the other pieces in the collection, will finally make you think of another name besides Stephen King when someone says, "Horror Fiction" and that name will be Greg F. Gifune.

Be sure to click over to our recent interview with Greg and get a glimpse into the mind of one of SF's most promising writers. And keep your eyes peeled for our book-reviews of both Herteics and Greg's noir PI novel, Drago Decending

Without reservation, we are proud to award this week's Brand to Greg F. Gifune for his brilliant novella, Heretics. Kudos to Greg, whose name, when uttered in our humble column, will forever be followed by our Brand!

All SF lovers are hereby invited to the SFReader.com Discussion Forum. The column ends, but the conversation continues!

Until Next Time.
Daniel E. Blackston

Firebrand Fiction Reviews: all content © 2002, Daniel E. Blackston