Picks of the Web for October
October on the internet was a feast of stories – suspenseful stories, heart-beat-faster emotional stories, flashes you don’t quite understand – and here is my pick of five to read when you get a minute or two. Enjoy!
The Baby by Stephen V Ramey in Bartleby Snopes
This little story is two nightmares for the price of one. When the narrator’s dog Churchill brings home a baby’s head on Halloween, we know the world of this story a little off, but as things get more and more warped, the real horror of the narrator’s waking life becomes subtly clear.
The Path We Used to Walk by Courtney Kersten in DIAGRAM
In these fourteen vignettes, Courtney Kersten’s narrator journeys through the various and particular stinks of dead woodland creatures, and amid this inventory, the narrator’s own mother also dies. The stories in DIAGRAM always give me a push to think outside the box and this one is a prime example.
In Our Defense by C.M. Barnes in American Short Fiction
How difficult it is to conjure the life of a person after they are gone, in all its complexity. But in this little story, a member of the family scattering the ashes of their loved one from a minnow bucket manages to confess perfectly the mess of guilt and love that surrounds the Sister, Nephew, Daughter as they try to do want She would have wanted.
Humphrey on Fire by Andrew McDonnell in Litro
A delightful (if a story with so much fire can be called delightful) psychological tale following, and often yelling at, a man called Humphrey, whose life begins to catch light after he sees a photograph of a burning monk in a volume of National Geographic.
The Husband Stitch by Carmen Maria Machado in Granta
This is a beautifully written story. From its first part, “If you read this story out loud, please use the following voices: Me: as a child, high-pitched, forgettable; as a woman, the same,” this rare tale follows the womanhood and wifehood of the narrator. By the end, I’d quite forgotten where I was.
What’s your pick of the web this month? Any humdingers that got you inspired to write? Let us know!
