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.
Rosalind’s contribution is Almost Home. Here’s the opening:
She folds her hands neatly in her lap and gazes out the side window, expecting to see the swaths of land passing by. But all is still. The Cypress trees at the far end of a hay field stand solemn and sentinel, and not so much as a wish of wind rustles their branches. In the mown field, rolls of twined hay. A broken fence skirts the grass gully beside the road.
How the story came about:
Almost Home began as a response to a writing prompt, though the story has morphed several times since the first version. The prompt was: A car stopped by the side of the road with someone in the back seat. No mention of the driver…. So then the question was: Who is driving the car?? That set me off down a strange path to answer to that question. I love writing prompts. They are visual triggers, and you never know where they will take you!
About Rosalind Goldsmith:
I live in Toronto and I’m a literacy tutor for adults. I started to write short stories about eight years ago, partly as a way to deal with a health issue and also in response to Zadie Smith’s wonderful quote: “I write so as not to fall asleep”! That struck me as an amazing and perfect reason to write, and it still strikes me in the same way. Some of my stories are in journals in the USA, Canada and the UK, some on my desktop, and whole pile of them in the garbage, but I guess I’ll keep on writing stories until I “fall asleep”.
See all The Rabbit Hole Weird Stories Destination:Journey stories here.