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I seem to have gone a while without updating my progress on Short Fiction Month, so….

:: From some critical comments I’ve seen lately, it appears that Edgar Allan Poe has fallen somewhat out-of-favor. His prose-style — very breathless and, in some cases, over-the-top — simply isn’t in style. That seems to me a pity, as I still find him enormously effective. I re-read “The Masque of the Red Death”, which I think is a small masterpiece of description. That story’s visuals are striking, and I’m a reader who tends to gloss over long passages of descriptive prose. (Mr. Mxyzptlk will no doubt recall our mutual fondness for The Yearling and its pages-upon-pages of descriptive crap….) “The Cask of Amontillado” is a story that’s escaped my notice in my previous explorations of Poe, and I’m not sure why. It’s quintessential Poe: madness and murder. I didn’t enjoy “The Murders of the Rue Morgue” quite as much, but it’s still an interesting antecedent of the detective story.

:: Cemetery Dance is quickly becoming one of my favorite magazines (now, if only I could get my own short fiction down to the length where I could start submitting to them!). It’s the best horror magazine out there right now, with regular interviews and feature articles in addition to the fiction, which isn’t always straight-out horror — they do “dark fantasy”, as well. From a recent issue I read Brian A. Hopkins’s “North”, a story of a boy’s trip to the wilderness with his father and their strange encounter there, and a slick tale by Thomas F. Monteleone called “It’s In the Bag”, which invokes the fears of airport security and reality television shows. Some months ago I gave a very negative review of one of Monteleone’s novels, so I found this story a very pleasant surprise, indeed. (By the way, fans of Stephen King should be reading Cemetery Dance, because one of their regular features is a lengthy news article about All Things King.)

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