No, I’m not talking about what I say every morning when I wake up. Though sometimes that’s fair. Writer Del Howison borrowed Dorothy Parker’s famous line to title a collection of his horror short stories. Though he writes across genres, this tome keeps one foot in one hell or another.
Some of these dark tales have appeared before. A couple even flirted with television. Many veer toward gore, though Howison can leave you uneasy with just a suggestion of it. They’re all a bit disturbing, even the story that appeared in an edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul. He provides a brief history before each one, including the one or two that he wasn’t wholly satisfied to write. To some extent it’s clear “A Flicker of Bright Light” was a stretch to add his preferred macabre tastes to a post-apocalyptic science fiction tale. When Howison writes about the here and now, it’s far more successful and disturbing.
And yet, the piece that stood out for me is non-fiction, “Vast Expanse of Nothing.” A personal story of dealing with his older brother’s passing, it’s barely horror (though it had previously appeared in a horror magazine). Instead, it’s about grief, old family wounds, and ultimately finding a sort of peace.
Some of the stories leave room for expansion. So if you read “The Witching Pool” here, keep an eye out in case Howison does develop it into a full YA horror novel. Spinning off the urban legends of drowned towns lying undisturbed beneath a lake, it’s effective and leaves room for the supernatural to just shake its head from a distance.
A satisfying collection, What Fresh Hell Is This? is a good place to start with Howison the author. The anthologies he’s edited are worth a look, too. Those may not have his voice, but they definitely have his hand.
It’s not even disembodied.
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