I asked fellow The Rabbit Hole Weird Stories Destination:Journey anthology contributors to share some things about themselves prior to publication and those generous enough to do so will be appearing here for the next week or so.
Each entry gives a taste of their contribution, a little about them, how to contact them, how their story came about, and definitely a link to The Rabbit Hole Weird Stories Destination:Journey (which you should purchase because it would make each and every one of us happy.
you do want to make us happy, don’t you?
i mean, considering what we wrote, you want us to know you’re a good person, right?).
Let’s start with an introduction to the anthology as a whole:
“Life is a journey, not a destination.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Emerson’s point has been echoed by many, but in the Land of the Weird the question arises, “A journey to what destination?” At the same time, you might ask, “Is the journey therefore the destination?” The journey may well be an individual’s destination, because it will define them physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And in the Land of the Weird, that journey can take twists and turns that amuse, sadden, or horrify.
This trip into the Land of the Weird offers you 39 unique trails to follow, assisted by 35 different guides, each leading you down their own singular paths, manifesting their own view of journey as destination, some laughing, some weeping, and some, eyes wide with fear, shaking as they point out the spectral footpath for you to follow on your way down The Rabbit Hole.A Writers Co-op Production
Stories by: Chere Taylor, Brian R. Quinn, Arthur M. Doweyko, Donna J. W. Munro, Tom Howard, Kayla Whittle, Leslie Muzingo, Pete Barnstrom, Emmie Christie, Thomas Nicholson, GD Deckard, Richard DeRobertis, M.C. Schmidt, James Dorr, Rosalind Goldsmith, Margaret Karmazin, J.W.Wood, James Rumpel, Bill McCormick, v.f. thompson, Fran Tabor, David K. Slay, Joseph Carrabis, Jane Frankel, Alice Baburek, Susan R. Morritt, Bobby Rollins, Lee Clark Zumpe, Denice Penrose, Stephen McQuiggan, H. Donovan Lyón, Anna Ross, Michael Pudney, Beth Gaydon, and Tom Wolosz.
Jane’s contribution is Sadie. Here’s the opening:
Ellie’s mother shot herself on Ellie’s eighth birthday. She went into the bedroom, saying she was going to get Ellie’s ‘big surprise,’ and then, ‘Boom,’ what had once been her mother was now just a splatter of brains on the wall.
Ellie didn’t cry. She never cried. Instead she creeped into the bedroom on tippy toes and leaned over her mother’s dead body, taking in the strange combination of odors, urine and shit and perfume that smelled like lilies. What her mother called ‘her signature.’
How the story came about:
I love the idea of possessed dolls and wanted to write a story that compared the horror of the supernatural to the horror of real life tragedy. I also wanted to explore the vulnerability and strangeness of childhood and how children perceive what’s real and what isn’t. The idea of ‘life sized dolls’ has always intrigued me. I think it’s interesting how things that are made to be cute or fun can also be terrifying.
About Jane Frankel:
Jane Frankel is a children’s librarian with a love for horror and science fiction. She studied creative writing while at Mount Holyoke College, and belongs to the Northern Connecticut Writers Workshop. Jane shares her writing space with her husband, her dog, and a cat who occasionally gets trapped in the walls.
See all The Rabbit Hole Weird Stories Destination:Journey stories here.
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