It is today the first of October, the official beginning of the Spooky Season, so I think that it is time to rec you my favorite of all favorite spooky stories.
A whole set of stories, in fact. Ghost stories, weird stories, stories of the strange things that live in the musty back rooms of libraries, in basements and attics and sometimes just that paperweight on the shelf that always gave you a weird feeling when you looked at it.
They are spooky without being screamers. They are short and yet profoundly satisfying. They are magnificent. They are those gleaming hidden gems of creative work that we are occasionally lucky enough to stumble over and then go absolutely giddy with delight at the prospect of sharing them with our friends.
These stories are like reading Lovecraft if he were better at developing rounded characters and liked to write about a demisexual, neuro-atypical, socially anxious librarian who stutters when flustered. Which means the vast majority of the time.
Ladies and gentlepersons, it is my very great pleasure to introduce you to Sarah Monette’s Kyle Murchison Booth, and his otherworldly exploits.
“White Charles” http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/monette_09_09/
The Bone Key collected short stories anthology, including the first, formative Booth story, “Bringing Helena Back,” available in the Amazon preview pages: http://www.amazon.com/The-Bone-Key-Necromantic-Mysteries/dp/1607012901/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380581956&sr=8-1&keywords=the+bone+key+prime+books
