DAY 27 OF ANNOUNCING! Table of Contents for: +HORROR LIBRARY+ Volume 6

Last, and certainly not least, here posted is the final contributor in the T.O.C. for the latest anthology volume that I edited: +HORROR LIBRARY+, to be published by Farolight Publishing (Cutting Block Books) in April, 2017.

DAY 27 of 27: Garrett Quinn

1. JG Faherty presents “The H Train”
2. Edward M. Erdelac presents “Hear The Eagle Scream”
3. Rebecca J. Allred presents “Mother’s Mouth, Full of Dirt”
4. Jay Caselberg presents “The Ride”
5. John M. Floyd presents “The Red-Eye to Boston”
6. Tom Johnstone presents “Oldstone Gardens”
7. Bentley Little presents “The Plumber”
8. Darren O. Godfrey presents “D.U.I.”
9. Carole Johnstone presents “Better You Believe”
10. David Tallerman presents “Casualty of Peace”
11. Kathryn E. McGee presents “The Creek Keepers’ Lodge”
12. Jeffrey Ford presents “Five Pointed Spell”
13. Sean Eads presents “Predestination’s a Bitch”
14. Dean H. Wild presents “The Gaff”
15. Stephanie Bedwell-Grime presents “The Night Truck”
16. C. Michael Cook presents “The Night Crier”
17. Josh Rountree presents “Snowfather”
18. Jayani C. Senanayake presents “Kalu Kumaraya (My Dark Prince)”
19. Marc E. Fitch presents “The Starry Crown”
20. Connor de Bruler presents “Il Mostro”
21. Raymond Little presents “Elsa and I”
22. Lucas Pederson presents “We Were Monsters”
23. Ahna Wayne Aposhian presents “Old Hag”
24. Vitor Abdala presents “Instant Messaging”
25. Jackson Kuhl presents “Cartagena Hotel”
26. Garrett Quinn presents “I’ve Finally Found You”
27. Thomas P. Balázs presents “Waiting for Mrs. Hemley”

EXCERPT:

“My husband says I’m always late,” Mrs. Hemley says. “But it’s not true. I’m not always late. Sure, today I got a little behind. The alarm didn’t go off, and I couldn’t find any clean clothes, and I had to stop for gas on my way in, and the pump wasn’t taking my card, and then I got distracted and missed my exit, but I’m not always late.”

I don’t say anything because it’s not my role to judge. This is a “safe space,” as Miles used to say. Besides, it’s less important to establish the so-called truth of the situation than to examine the patterns of narrative Mrs. Hemley constructs and how, like the sun, she directs the movement of those who orbit around her like satellites of her psychic life, her husband and her children, who reflect back to her the stories originating in her own sense of self-worth, collective constructions confirming beliefs lodged in the deepest core of her being, that she is somehow incomplete, less than.

This being the case, I feel compelled to note for the record that, insofar as our sessions are concerned, Mrs. Hemley is, in fact, always late!

— Waiting for Mrs. Hemley by Thomas P. Balázs

ABOUT: Thomas P. Balázs

Thomas P. Balázs is the author of the short story collection, Omicron Ceti III (Aqueous Books, 2012). His fiction has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including The North American Review, The Southern Humanities Review, and The Robert Olen Butler Prize Anthology. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best New American Voices, and the AWP Intro Journals Project Award. He was awarded the Theodore Christian Hoepfner Award for best short fiction 2010. He teaches creative writing at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. http://thomasbalazs.com