Home

Halloween Reading, and other Monsters

“Taxidermy” is from that prior life, that life where Marge Simon took me aside one day and gently broke the news to me that I am a horror writer. (Then she asked me to write an essay about it.)

I protested, of course. (Although I agreed to the essay. When Marge asks, the answer always is yes.)

The problem I had was that I’m no fan of horror. I don’t watch Halloween-themed movies. I don’t seek out fiction in which the main character is dismembered in the first paragraph.

I do (did?) the dismembering myself as part of my day job. (For the skull, there’s a twist in the wrist, an angle on the knife, it works quite well. I use that technique annually for the November Turkey Carving Event to separate the drumsticks.)

Oh. OK, Marge, I see what you are saying now. What is my processing of my mundane, daily work might be perceived by others as horror writing. Check.

Anyway, go get your enjoyable seasonal horror at this year’s beloved SFPA Halloween Reading, hosted by my dear colleague Miguel Mitchell. (He seems really sweet…until you get to know him. After that, he’s still sweet, just a bit darker.)

Next up: another monster. I have a lot of those poems these days.

Credit to Star*Line for the 2006 original pub of “Taxidermy.”