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.
Tom’s contribution is Rufus. Here’s the opening:
God, my arms hurt. My knees hurt. I been scrubbin’ this floor for I don’t know how long, and this damn stain won’t come out.
Oh, shit! Look at those clouds! I gotta get the storm shutters in place or this bookstore is toast!#Man, am I tired. From the way the rain is beatin’ down I can tell I got those shutters down just in time. Hope there’s no close twister this time. That could wreck the hell outta this place.
Funny thing though. Lookin’ out the window and seein’ those clouds takes me back. I remember the first day I came here to the bookstore. Seems like a lifetime ago.
How the story came about:
This is actually a story that came as a dream. I guess watching all the news reports of the damage done by tornadoes had an effect on me.
About Tom Wolosz:
Tom ‘DocTom’ Wolosz is a paleoecologist, hiker, writer and semi-pro photographer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he learned to love the outdoors early in life, which might explain how he ended up as a Professor of Geology at Plattsburgh State College in upstate New York. Retired from the college, he now replaces grading student writing with editing other peoples’ stories, acting as an associate editor for The Rabbit Hole, vol. 0 and 3, and senior editor for The Rabbit Hole vol. 4 and 5.
DocTom’s first novel Agony of the Gods, Softly Falls the Snow was published in 2014. His short stories have appeared in Second Taste Anthology, and The Rabbit Hole vols. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
See all The Rabbit Hole Weird Stories Destination:Journey stories here.