Author |
Message |
Tems (Tems) Username: Tems
Registered: 02-2010 Posted From: 68.165.29.201
| Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2012 - 07:56 am: | |
I have a new short story online, “A Trip Into the Country,” at White Cat Magazine: http://tinyurl.com/8yb8l52 |
Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec
Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129
| Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2012 - 01:37 pm: | |
Quite brilliant, Steve - I enjoyed that. Thanks. I don't want to pry, but I must say you wrote that as if you have first-hand experience of a chronic pain condition. You could have been writing about me (a fibromyalgia sufferer) when you wrote: "The outsider does not understand the rules, and has no way of knowing that reaching beyond a certain point may cause extreme pain in the elbow, or that a so-called normal handshake will create excruciating distress in the wrist, or that certain neck spasms mean you have attempted to gaze too far above the horizon line, or that a stride involving a straight-forward bending of the knee will bring tears to the eyes." |
Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc
Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.156.210.82
| Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2012 - 01:56 pm: | |
Read this, folks - you are in the presence of a master storyteller here. No, not me; Steve Rasnic Tem. |
Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec
Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129
| Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2012 - 05:40 pm: | |
"you are in the presence of a master storyteller here." Absolutely agree, Zed. I've loved the few of his stories I've read previously. Now I'm going to have to go and check online to see if anyone has ever brought out a Steve Rasnic Tem collection ... (if they haven't, somebody certainly should ) |
Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc
Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.156.210.82
| Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2012 - 05:59 pm: | |
Ash Tree Press. "The Far Side of the Lake". Exceptional. |
Tems (Tems) Username: Tems
Registered: 02-2010 Posted From: 68.164.109.113
| Posted on Thursday, January 05, 2012 - 08:03 am: | |
Thanks much everyone, glad you enjoyed it. I was thinking of both Poe and Kafka that evening, and this was the result. Carolinec--not really first hand. I do have severe interior knee arthritis--bone on bone--from a couple of highschool football injuries, requiring quarterly steroid shots, but that really only gives me a taste of what chronic pain is like. The rest comes from listening to people talk, and most importantly, just sitting on a street somewhere or a mall and watching people move. It's startling the things you notice sometimes, and appalling just how many people seem to be living with either mental or physical pain. |
Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw
Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1
| Posted on Thursday, January 05, 2012 - 03:04 pm: | |
A stunning story, Steve! Exquisitely well written. I've only previously been familiar with a small handful of your stories from the tail end of the Fontana anthologies in the early 80s. They were all excellent little vignettes and struck enough of a chord in my subconscious to remember your name. I particularly liked 'The Farmer' (1981). Since then I became aware of you again as one of the regular contributors to the 'Best New Horror' volumes - which I've collected but have yet to work my way round to. What joys await me! On the strength of this masterful character piece - redolent of the precision and incisive storytelling skill of Guy de Maupassant or W. Somerset Maugham, imo - you've honed your skills to a quite remarkable level. Very impressive. |