Just finished the tale. It was hard to put it away when duty called (eating, sleeping, getting the kids from school, you know the stuff). I especially liked the mood of the story with the attention to details and ambiance descriptions. The doings and relationships between the girls are worked out well. The elaboration of the ending maybe was a bit too short to my taste, and - typically European I think - I don't like smooth happy endings that much; although there are enough open endings to think of some impending doom, like the evil Blythe who maybe cooperated with the Beast, or the Austin girls taking revenge with another lurking secret in the crypts... Anyway, I really enjoyed reading it. I surely will read The Quality of Mercy soon.
@James Pepe I'm glad you liked it! I must have sensed that you were reading it, because at my reading at PhilCon over the weekend I decided at the last minute to read from this instead of the story that I'd prepared for.
@Glenn This section of the forums seemed pretty lonely so I figured I'd read it and liven up the place a little. I also know it's nice to know people out there are consuming the stuff you make and put effort into. Reading this reminded me a lot of the few months I spent in Oxford, thinking about my time there and the people I was with. Let me ask you this though, how is it that you seem to be able to get into the head-space of a little girl so easily? Haha. On a somewhat more serious note, I suppose, I think all of the authors in the PDF of this listed Lovecraft as one of their favorite writers. I've read a fair amount of Lovecraft and I enjoy him as well, but I have to admit that I find his recent resurgence somewhat inscrutable. I think part of it is that, Lovecraft tried to write about these things that were so hyperbolic, i.e. this monster is beyond human comprehension, to look upon creature X is to have one's very ego ripped away from them, etc. and I think the popular reception of him has taken what is actually in his writing and turned what is already pretty hyperbolic up to 11. But that doesn't really match the tone of Lovecraft because even though he is writing about these cosmic horrors and men being driven to madness, his actual writing is pretty understated. His narrators often come across as sort of trying to maintain proper English gentlemanly decorum, despite being American, and despite the things that are being talked about. Also, and perhaps this is just me, I don't find Lovecraft to be an evocative writer in the sense of his writing evoking strong emotions from me. I think you could probably point to writers that do that sort of thing better than him on every front, writers that are scarier, more suspenseful, more exciting, etc., but, at the end of the day, reading Lovecraft is still great. Perhaps his strength lies in the world-building or in his ability to draw one in to his world. His writing does stimulate the imagination and perhaps this is why people like so much to write in his world specifically, whereas you don't get a lot of people writing in, say, Tolkien's world specifically, unless, I guess, you chalk up every instance of an elf or orc to writing to being in Tolkien's world.
@James Pepe Wow, I'm thrilled that my writing evoked Oxford for you, because I wrote this right after I'd spent a term there and was very much thinking about it. Thanks for livening up this forum a little and for taking the time to read my story.
You're spot-on about Lovecraft. I enjoy his stories a lot, but he doesn't write to evoke emotion. Indeed, his characters seem to not really have emotions other than fear and not-fear. His stories (like those of so many genre writers in the 20s and 30s) are about the weird or wondrous thing, not about the people finding them. That can be really frustrating for readers now, but his mythos really did stimulate my adolescent imagination, and I love returning to it.
We've been working on another book-club podcast about weird fiction, which we'll begin publishing in February. I look forward to more Lovecraft critiques!
Just finished the tale. It was hard to put it away when duty called (eating, sleeping, getting the kids from school, you know the stuff). I especially liked the mood of the story with the attention to details and ambiance descriptions. The doings and relationships between the girls are worked out well. The elaboration of the ending maybe was a bit too short to my taste, and - typically European I think - I don't like smooth happy endings that much; although there are enough open endings to think of some impending doom, like the evil Blythe who maybe cooperated with the Beast, or the Austin girls taking revenge with another lurking secret in the crypts... Anyway, I really enjoyed reading it. I surely will read The Quality of Mercy soon.
I'm on page 55 and I think I just figured it out.