The Other City

Fragment

In a ruined room, I found a polished wooden box.  In the silence of dust and empy time, it had been left to contemplate its secrets.  Someone counted the petals of dying flowers into it.  She left them, one by one, to blacken and crumble into dust. A scent like the memory of sunlight comes to me as I brush a single petal with my fingers. But then it falls apart, as even the strongest memorials do. 

 

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A teaser for an upcoming project.

Dolls Going Faraway

A good while ago, I dropped a little doll off at the Fancy Tiger.  He was for a collection of dolls that will be sent to children in Japan who have lost their homes in the earthquake. Brooke picked up the dolls from the Fancy Tiger today and made a lovely blog post about them.  The doll I donated is in the second picture, on the left.  He's a sweet little guy.  I hope he will make someone at least a little happier.

The best doll-related horror story ever!

Today I have found the holy grail of horror stories.  It is Lovecraftian and sad and strange and beautiful and scary.  And it has dolls and ventriloquist dummies in it!  It is unlike any doll-related horror story I have ever heard, read or seen in a movie before.  And I've seen a few. 

It is called Funeral Song for a Ventriloquist, by Douglas F Warrick and it appeared on the Drabblecast.  For those of you who do not know, the Drabblecast is a weird short fiction podcast.  It is amazingly good.  Here is a link to the story. Usually horror stories with dolls in them have them simply trying to kill someone or at best whispering to them that they ought to kill other people.  However, this one has them doing something ever so much worse.

Check it out.  You won't regret it.