9/7/26
Typing this from our West Virginia home. And this is the first time I’ve actually typed those particular words. It feels weird to do so. Particularly since we won’t be living here full time for many more months.
Moved a full truckload by myself yesterday. That was a lot easier when I wasn’t 58. Spent last night putting together office furniture for Mary. That, too, was a lot easier when I wasn’t 58. My hands this morning are arthritic claws that more resemble something out of CLICKERS than they do anything human.
I did take half an hour for myself yesterday to pick and eat some grapes, which are growing wild from a vine my grandfather planted back in the 1970s. They were juicy and purple and perfect. The vine itself hasn’t been trimmed in probably fifteen years, and has become a wild and feral thing, like some sort of dessert dispensing Triffid. I’ll have to give it a good pruning before winter sets in.
We’ll definitely have a mess of both grapes and apples this time next year. I’ve always preferred freezing to canning, but neither method will be able to deal with the sheer quantity. But homemade wine and apple moonshine might…
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Women In Horror Year: Day 120
For Emmy by Mary SanGiovanni
Sometimes no matter how vigilant you are, you can't keep loved ones save. Dana McCluskey and her father know very well that there can be dangers around every corner. They wanted to keep Emmy safe. But it is impossible to see some dangers coming. And there are those corners that you'd never see, out-of-the-way places just beyond our grasp where loved ones can get very lost — and the danger there is very real indeed. A chilling novella from "the Queen of Cosmic Horror."
Anyone who has been married for a long time is familiar with trap questions. They include such long-running favorites as “Do I look fat in this?” and “Which one of my sisters do you think is cuter?” If your spouse is a fellow writer, another common trap question is “Which of my books is the one you think is the best?”
The correct answers to those first two trap questions, by the way, are “I think you look beautiful in it” and “They’re both cute, but neither of them are as pretty as you.”
And my answer to that third question — “which of my books is the one you think is the best” — is For Emmy.
Mary will always be known for The Hollower just like I will always be known for THE RISING. And that’s somewhat to be expected, given the cultural impact both of those first novels had. One of them revitalized the dormant zombie subgenre, and the other one inspired the Slenderman meme. But both of us will tell you that neither is our best book. Ask me what my best is, and I’ll say END OF THE ROAD or THE COMPLEX. Ask Mary what her best is, and she’ll say The Everywhere House (which I wrote about here for back on day 89 of Women in Horror Year). And that is indeed the best novel she’s ever written. But “best book” can include more than just a novel. It can refer to a short story collection, or a memoir, or — in the case of For Emmy — a novella. And For Emmy is the one I point to the most when I want to brag about my wife’s chops and skills.
A slim afternoon read, For Emmy involves a child who goes missing in broad daylight in the middle of a bookstore, and quickly careens into some absolute soul-crushing cosmic horror involving missing persons and other dimensions. I’ve seen other authors, inspired by the book, pick up its themes and threads and run with them for 80 or 90,000 words, but Mary does it in 25,000 and she does it better. To say more about the plot is to give away major spoilers. Suffice to say, yes it is 100% cosmic horror, but it’s also grief horror and a psychological thriller and a monster story and all of it is so succinctly done that you can devour it in less than a day.
For Emmy is available in paperback from Manhattan on Mars Press and in eBook from Crossroad Press.
