rumpledA nice change this morning from the breakfast routine, because Spooky baked an apple and blueberry pie last night, using apples and blueberries from her parents' place.
Yesterday, after hours spent reading through many dozens of old bits of correspondence from 1997, 1996, and 1995, I discovered a letter that refers to "Breakfast in the House of the Rising Sun" as a story "in progress." The letter is dated November 27, 1995. So, I think it's safe to presume the story was written in November, and that it might have strayed into December. It looks as if there will be a 1995 story, after all. Also, I found a title for "Untitled 4." It will appear in the "Best of" collection as "Bray Road." Likewise, "Untitled 17" will appear as "Rotkäpchen." Also also, yesterday, I received the galley pages for "The Bone's Prayer," which was selected for Paula Guran's The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror (Prime Books). I have to read over those and get any corrections back to her by next Saturday.
I did not leave the House, which makes four full days I've not gone Outside. Which really isn't so bad, considering I went fourteen days back in the winter.
Bill Schafer has given me permission to post the "Best of" collection's table of contents. Note that the published ToC may differ slightly from what I'm posting today, but it's safe to say this is 90% finalized:
1. “Persephone” [1993]
2. “Two Worlds and In Between” [1994]
3. “To This Water (Johnstown, Pennsylvania 1889)” [1994]
4. “Tears Seven Times Salt” [1994]
5. “Breakfast in the House of the Rising Sun (Murder Ballad No. 1)” [1995]
6. “Stoker’s Mistress” [1996]
7. “Estate” [1996; 5,400]
8. “Rats Live on No Evil Star” [1997]
9. “Postcards from the King of Tides” [1997]
10. “By Turns” [1998]
11. “Zelda Fitzgerald in Ballet Attire” [1995-1999]
12. “Spindleshanks (New Orleans, 1956)” [2000]
13. “The Road of Pins” [2001]
14. “Onion” [2001]
15. “In the Garden of Poisonous Flowers” [2001]
16. “From Cabinet 34, Drawer 6” [2002]*
17. “Andromeda Among the Stones” [2002]
18. “La Peau Verte” [2003]
19. “Riding the White Bull” [2003]
20. “Waycross” [2003]
21. “The Dead and the Moonstruck” [2004]
22. “The Daughter of the Four of Pentacles” [2004]*
23. The Dry Salvages [2004]*
24. “Houses Under the Sea” [2004]
25. “Bray Road” was "Unitled 4" [2005]
26. “Highway 97” [2006]*
27. “Rotkäppchen” was “Untitled 17” [2006]
28. “Pony” [2006]
29. “A Season of Broken Dolls” [2007]
Those stories followed by asterisks have not previously been collected. So, that's 27 short stories, a novella, and one poem. And I'm pretty pleased with the lineup. The limited (lettered and/or numbered state/s will include sixteen pages of illustrations, and will come with "The Crimson Alphabet" published as a chapbook).
I'm very seriously considering Two Worlds and In Between as a title for the collection, as per Spooky's and Bill's suggestions. A surprising number of people informed me they'd never heard the Sisters of Mercy's "Lucretia, My Reflection" (1987), the song in which the line appears. So, here's the video, with Andrew Eldritch and Patricia Morrison at their coolest:
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Please have a look at the current eBay auctions.
And now, time to make the doughnuts.