Short Story Month

Did y'all know that May is Short Story month? Really? Well, I swear it is.

In an effort to share my love joy fest of the stories that affected me in the most profound way, I'm recommending a few to you now.

Go forth and read and read more and let me know your opinion of the following once you've done so.

• My first recommendation for you is not a solitary short, but what for me has been my go-to collection by He-That-I-Fangirl. Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things encompasses courses of his finest works. There is humor, there is fear that borders horror and there is, of course, a snippet into the life of his American Gods' protagonist, Shadow Moon. Gaiman has an ability that hints of the 'not-of-this-world' variety. He paints pictures with words that are in the best possible ways abstract unbelievability of psychedelic dreams. His is not a talent than can be ignored and his stories are not those that will be easily forgotten.

• Sometimes you find a writer without ever looking. Sometimes, when this happens, you are pleasantly surprised by the discovery. While purveying several online journals, I came across the work of Cat Rambo. In the three years since stalking her on Twitter (in my never-ending attempt to learn from the pros), there have two of Rambo's stories that have left indelible impressions on me. The first, is the beautifully written story about a brother who attempts the impossible to make his sick sister smile. Magnificent Pigs, first published in Strange Horizons in 2006, breathes life into the importance of sibling companionship and demonstrates the strength of family and how that strength, like faith, can make the impossible real. The steampunker in me fell in love with Rambo's Clockwork Fairies, published by Tor in October of 2010. This story draws an uncharacteristic view of a woman discovering herself, asserting herself and branching out into new worlds while shedding the dead weight of the man who would see her conform. Feminist, fantastic and surreal, Clockwork Fairies will leaving you smiling and possibly, cheering by its end.

• Because I'm an emerging writer and because I know talent when I see it (and this is in no way biased), I'm directing you to Pedestal and my friend Adrienne Crezo's brilliant new short Husband-Shaped. It is all thing literary and heartbreaking. Beautifully written and an expression of what some of you may have experienced = art imitating life in the most profound way.

• Jeremy C. Shipp is the strangest writer I've read in a very long time. Trust me, that's a huge compliment. His brilliant 'zombie' short- which ain't your mama's zombie story- is evocative, thrilling and heartbreaking. Go check out Those Below.

Also, the lovely Yelena Casale bequeathed to me the honor of being on her "Stylish Blogger" list. As such, I return the favor and, per her rules, name my top five bloggers with the request to give seven "unknown" facts about me. Really, I doubt any of you are interested, but I'll obey the rules.

My Top Five Bloggers:
1. The aforementioned Adrienne Crezo. Shinny bess fran and emerging writer extraordinaire.
2. My #writersroad partner in crime Heather McCorkle who breaks down the big industry news for you every week.
3. Christine Rose. Anything you ever wanted to know about marketing and self publishing, this lady will tell you all about it.
4. Tracy Clark. Cute as a button and criminally talented.
5. Elaine Lowe. The hands down most prolific writer of steamy stories I know. :)

Okay...seven things about me?

1. I didn't start university until I was 23. It took me nine years to finish undergrad and grad school because I kept having babies in the process. I've never regretted a second of it.
2. I have what Himself calls 'Hobbit Finger' toes. He's not as funny as he thinks he is.
3. Himself refers to my husband. (okay, not about me, but ya know...close)
4. Nearly all of my very closest friends live in my computer.
5. I have no patience for intolerance. At. All.
6. I don't write everyday, but when I do write, it's generally in massive spurts...2 and 3 thousand words in one sitting.
7. My ultimate writing goals have absolutely nothing to do with monetary success. I just want to write, as a living, and not have to eat Ramen every day.

Review: "Fungus of the Heart"

Reading, not Red Bull as the company would have us all believe, gives you wings. It’s a fact that may seem horribly obvious, but for many, reading simply is the method you take to vacate the real world and be transported into something powerfully foreign. If it’s good fiction, our perceptions are twisted and changed.

I expect much from books. I expect to be dazzled. I expect to be wrapped up in a story, in characters I either love or loathe. What I don’t normally expect, is to be overwhelmed and awed by what I read. Sure, there are works that have changed my thinking. There are writers whose talent and ability are so awe-inspiring that I feel somehow pathetic by comparison. But reading a collection about relationships shouldn’t have left me gobsmacked. It shouldn’t have left me thinking for days afterward about how these relationships, in their own unimaginable way, shifted my awareness of what fiction should be.

Fungus of the Heart, a vivid, wildly artistic collection by Jeremy C. Shipp, did just that. I sat down and read, watching through lenses contorted to reveal things I could not imagine. I saw through his eyes and the view was distorted and beautiful. It’s a collection about relationships. Full stop. There is no other way to explain it. Now, these aren’t relationships you’re going to hear about on Oprah or hovering around the coffeemaker at work. These relationships run the gamut from misogynistic men and the females they ‘own’ to sprites who think they are jack-o-lanterns and the creatures of death and violence that love them.

In Shipp’s world, we are introduced to characters full of discord, full of self-loathing and the connections they make and are forced into with the world around them. And those worlds? Disturbing, frightening and absolutely infectious. We are drawn in by the conflicts they face, by the horrible sensibilities of each villain and victim and their ultimate desire to bond, to forgive or simply survive. Shipp creates universes where ghosts act as therapists, where an Oak tree makes her daughter promise to save a world she cannot connect with; where vampires take on many identities, but mainly those of, “boy bands and idol singers.”

Shipp told me that Fungus of the Heart was a map to his values— the respect he has for relationships and the importance of those relationships in his own life. But his characters are beyond flawed. They do their best to disrespect the relationships they have and the result is disastrous. He says his characters, “have emotional, physical, spiritual needs, but are often screwed up in one way or another, and so they don’t know how to get their needs met in a healthy way.”

The beauty in all these flawed characters is the way in which their journeys are chronicled. It isn’t alliteration or some sad attempt of using plot devices that gets these stories across. Shipp’s above that. But he has a inimitable voice and that voice comes alive, is made real with every harrowing misadventure his characters take. In all honesty, I’ve never read anything like this. Not ever, and that’s saying a lot. I read far more than I should. But, I was swept up in every war-ravaged landscape, in each village, in every hut I traveled to in this collection. I cared about these haunting characters, wanted to reach out and connect, wanted, sometimes, to give them a smack across the head. Ultimately, however, I know it was Shipp’s very clever, astonishing voice that drew me in, that made me think, made me keep thinking.

When you read this collection, bear in mind that you’re not in for horror stories or stories drawn in a manner you’ve ever read. You’re in for a something surreal, something beautifully fantastic and I promise you, you won’t be bothered by the battle scars you walk away with. You’ll be grateful, satisfied that you bear those marks, proud that you took the journey right along with these misguided, damaged characters.