“Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you
see.”
-The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether by Edgar Allan Poe
(1845)
Poe’s classic tale told of a state of the art hospital boasting
a curiously experimental treatment, but things were not as they
seemed. In The Half That You See, twenty-six writers from around
the globe share their literary optical illusions in never before
seen stories of portentous visions and haunting memories,
altered consciousness and virulent nightmares, disordered
thinking and descents into madness. Take a walk down the paths
of perception that these dark fiction raconteurs have tunneled
for you, but keep a tight grip on your flashlight: the course
twists and turns, and once you’re on route to your destination,
there is no turning back. That which creeps about in the poorly
lit corners of the human mind has teeth, and it’s waiting for
you.
"Chalk" by Elin Olausson
A young man rents a room at a bed & breakfast and meets a girl
who sleepwalks during the day and is only herself at
night.
"Winnebago Indian Motorhome by Tonka" by Eddie Generous
Chasing down nostalgia, Josh Dolan buys a vintage Tonka Winnebago,
but it isn't quite like the toy he'd had as a kid; this Winnebago
knows the future, and it knows Claire Dolan's secrets.
"Sepia Grass" by Sam Hicks
A young man begins to question the recurrent visions he has always
believed to be flashbacks to a childhood drug overdose.
"Prisoner "by T.M. Starnes
Kidnapped prisoners sometimes survive, but that's when their terror
truly begins.
"Turn a Blind Eye" by Kelly Griffiths
An explosion leaves an ornery pharmacist with shards of mortar in
his eyes and disturbing changes to his vision, especially when
he looks in the mirror.
"Falling Asleep in the Rain" by Robert P. Ottone
A man recounts his youth through a dream, revealing as a young boy
his experiments with love for another boy, only to face the ire of
his murderous father.
"Black Dog Blues" by Luciano Marano
In a story inspired by an actual urban legend popular among
American truckers about a spectral black dog that appears to drivers
just before a lethal crash, a haunted man recounts his
own devastating encounter with the creature and sets out
for revenge with a hapless hitchhiker reluctantly in
tow.
"Imaginary Friends" by Nicole Wolverton
Julie Strawbridge is called in to see the principal of her nephew
Augie's school after he is expelled for selling imaginary friends to
his classmates for a dollar.
"Boogeyman" by Susie Schwartz
One boogeyman; two perspectives, and the horror of mental illness
that torments them both.
"Safe as Houses" by Alex Giannini
Carrie and Will moved into a new home, into a new phase of their
lives. But every love story is a ghost story, and theirs is no
different.
"The New Daddy" by Scotty Milder
A crumbling marriage and a new home is filtered through the eyes of
its smallest witness.
"Cauterization" by Mack Moyer
A woman on a methamphetamine binge harbors a dark secret from her
past that begins to manifest in vivid waking nightmares that may, or
may not, be real.
"The Tapping at Cranburgh Grange" by Felice Picano
When an American couple leases and then buys a manse in England,
they become aware of a strange noise only some people can
hear.
"Elsewhere" by Bill Davidson
Colin lives a stressful life in an overcrowded flat with a sick
daughter and a mother with dementia, in the middle of crammed and
noisy London. More and more, however, he is elsewhere.
"Daughters of the Sun" by Matt Masucci
A retired homicide detective living in Florida finds that a past
case investigating a dark nature cult twists into his reality.
"The Coffin" by Victoria Dalpe
A young woman still grieving a recent loss discovers an exhumed
coffin on the street.
"Old Times" by Mark Towse
A man suspects his wife is cheating on him, and when she leaves for
the evening, he considers the possibility over a bottle with an old
friend.
"Lonely is the Starfish" by Lena Ng
Many people have pets, but one lonely young man becomes too close
to his pet starfish.
"Hagride" by Justine Gardner
A cormorant speaks, and Josie tries not to listen as it begins to
resemble ghosts from her past.
"Raven O’Clock" by Holley Cornetto
A man seeking shelter from the tragedies of his life finds more
than he bargained for in a mysterious cabin.
"Officer Baby Boy Blue" by Douglas Ford
An eye injury and a grotesque gift from a police officer in a
hospital emergency room ultimately leads a young man to special
properties of sight.
"The Intruder" by Lamont A. Turner
Suspecting someone has invaded her home and the homes of those close to her, a woman struggles with delusions that may not have originated with her.
"Alone in the Woods in the Deep Dark Night" by Edward R. Rosick
Trapped in his cabin by a howling snowstorm in the desolate wildness of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Gary Chandler finds that freezing isolation is only the beginning of a descent into bloody madness.
"Mesh" by Michael W. Clark
A regular guy wants too much control in the modern global community: over both his home and his wives.
"Der Hölle Racht" by Laura Saint Martin
A victim of domestic violence embarks on a drug-fueled journey and rampage.
"The Red Portrait" by Mahlon Smoke
A frustrated artist spies a forgotten portrait in a shop and finds himself consumed by its beauty.
**Get the anthology for $5 off or get $10 off the book/candle set HERE!**
But You Seem So Normal by Mark Towse
"But you seem
so normal, so clean-cut," said one of my clients when I told them I write
horror. There are have been many variations of the above response, but this
tends to be a common reaction when I suddenly jump out of the pigeon-hole.
"Appearances
can be deceptive," is my usual reply, accompanied by a cheeky smirk and
raised eyebrow.
By day, I'm an
advertising manager for a media company. Smartly dressed and enough superficial
chatter to sink the most stubborn of ships. It's all a cover, though. I'm an
introvert disguised as an extravert, studying clients' intricacies—their
mannerisms, dialogue, facial tics. The psychology of sales is still interesting
to me, and I learn so much about a person in the process. Little do my clients
know, but they've given me enough fuel for over ninety short stories over the
last couple of years. Research helps get out of bed in the morning.
It wasn’t always
like that. Until just over two years ago, I hadn’t written a story since
secondary school. In fact, outside of sixty-hour working weeks for a global IT
company and commitment to family, creativity didn’t get a look in. Evenings
were reserved for home measures of wine so that I could wind down from the
monotonously hectic day. Fiction was for dreams only, but even they were far
and few between, my reserves of childhood wonder running on empty.
And then it hit me
like a wet fish across the face. What the hell was I doing with my life? I
wasn’t happy. I knew it; my wife knew it. Hell, even my kids knew it.
“You could do so
well if you focussed.” That was something my English teacher said at the end of
the school year once. I never thought much of it at the time, but her words
have stuck with me. Back then, math was my subject. I liked the certainty about
it and the fact every problem had a solution. Something about growing up in a
house forever tormented by heated arguments and long, arduous silences might
have had something to do with that.
It felt safe.
In complete
contrast, though, when the long summer holidays came around, I would spend my
time escaping into the chaos of King and Herbert, losing myself in their
strange new worlds. I couldn’t get enough.
But imagination
quickly gets consumed by the monotony of life.
I studied math in
college, got a job in a bank, and somehow drifted into sales.
There’s always
been a yearning, and over the years, I often thought about my English teacher’s
words, but not once did I consider the prospect that one day, I, too, would be
a storyteller.
It was my wife, Stephanie, that finally encouraged me to bite the
bullet. And I did. She convinced me that I deserved to be happy, too. The very
next day, I started looking for a part-time role, and within a few weeks, I was
handing in my notice, giddy with excitement at the prospect of starting my
writing adventure. People around me called it a mid-life crisis. Perhaps it
was, but I sure didn’t want a convertible.
What a journey it’s been!
Of course, there
are times I wish I had started earlier, but hindsight is something that one day
takes a bite out of your ass and doesn’t stop until it’s consumed you whole.
I’m doing it now, and that’s what matters. Besides, life has taught me how to
be an unreliable narrator. It’s why I prefer to write in first-person, as it
allows for my humor and twisted outlook on life to shine through. Something
about first-person also lends more immediacy and immersion to the story as
though the reader is experiencing everything the protagonist is going through.
Not every story works in this way, and it’s often risky, giving too much of
yourself away at times.
The first story I
ever sold was ‘Hugh’s Friend.’ From memory, I received seventy-five dollars for
it, but it might as well have been a million as far as I was concerned. It set
me on fire; gave me an insatiable hunger. I was hooked. The story was
old-school with a sucker punch of a twist and a rare example of a story I’ve
written with an ending in mind. In contrast, most stories I write, including
‘Old Times’—to be featured in ‘The Half That You See’ anthology—start with just
a thread of an idea. The unreliable narrator in me takes the reins and leads
the reader on an unpredictable ride, ultimately throwing them from the carriage
when I think they are getting too comfortable.
‘Old Times’ is a
perfect example of everything described above—the battle to maintain sanity in
a world built around conformity and expectations. We all know life isn’t really
like that. We all have our demons, skeletons in the closet, and sometimes the
door creaks open when we are least expecting it.
Mark
Towse's story in The Half That You See, "Old Times,"
follows a man who, after suspecting his wife is cheating on him, considers
the possibility over a bottle with an… old friend. You can find more of Mark's
fiction at marktowsedarkfiction.wordpress.com.
The Half That You See is written by twenty-six authors from five different countries, including Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award finalist Felice Picano, Feature Writer of the Year recipient Luciano Marano, and honorees from Ellen Datlow’s most recent Best Horror of the Year, Bill Davidson and Sam Hicks. Editor Rebecca Rowland is a dark fiction writer whose previous Dark Ink anthology curation work includes Ghosts, Goblins, Murder, and Madness and Shadowy Natures: Stories of Psychological Horror. Dark Ink Books is the proud home of UnMasked, the best-selling memoir of horror legend Kane Hodder, and Savini, the special effects icon’s coffee table biography.
I love horror stories and these sound like great ones.
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