Night Visions by Stanley Wiater

Author:Stanley Wiater [Brandner, Richard Laymon, Chet Williamson, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: horror, supernatural, short stories
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2020-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

ASSURANCES OF THE SELF-EXTINCTION OF MAN

The land is the sea’s cemetery.

When a sea creature dies, the sea throws up onto the land its empty shell.

Keeping this in mind, it is not too difficult to imagine that the sea, millions of years ago, had a reason for throwing life onto the land. “This new and particular creature,” it said, “is already dead. It carries the seeds of its death in its mind.”

And up we went.

AFTER-WORDS

Chet Williamson is the only person I know who has been published in The New Yorker, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Playboy, and Twilight Zone Magazine. In other words, the four top short story markets in the country. When not writing superior short fiction, he also writes equally absorbing novels. To date, five have been published: Soulstorm (1986), Ash Wednesday (1987), Lowland Rider (1988), McKain’s Dilemma (1988), and Dreamthorp (1989). To some critics he’s still new on the scene, so he’s occasionally been counted among the “splatterpunks,” a loose-knit group of young writers who sometimes compare their style to “literary rock ‘n’ roll.” In response to that charge, the ever rational Williamson has joked, “If these guys are writing the rock ‘n’ roll of horror, I’d like to be seen as the field’s jazz writer.” In his office, Williamson uses “an IBM clone” word processor, and does the major part of his writing in the morning.

SW: What was the inspiration for “Blue Notes?”

CW: I came to be interested in jazz while I was writing Dreamthorp. There’s a character in there who’s a serial killer and his father is a professional jazz musician. And in order to make this character sound believable, I went out and bought some jazz records. I bought the Smithsonian collection of classic jazz, which is a nice overview, and I just fell in love with this stuff! I just went crazy over it! So now, some two years later, I have a jazz collection of over 800 albums, I have a small library of books on the subject, and I’m playing the tenor saxophone. [laughs] It’s like being a born-again Christian—you just go over the wall.

So I liked the idea of a blue note. And the concept that’s behind a blue note. So I thought it would be kind of neat to write a story with a jazz setting, and use that theme, and open it up into an emotional and spiritual blue note as well. So that’s how the story started.

SW: Your work is usually noted for its rich characterizations. Yet with “Blue Notes,” it seemed vital that its philosophical impact took precedent over the eventual fate of the characters.

CW: You’re absolutely right! [laughs] I liked those characters, but I think characters always look better in longer pieces. In short stories, I’m usually going for one effect—you can only go so far with a character in a short story, whereas in a novel you can really stretch out with a character and get into their skin…

SW: Which makes for a subtle segue into “Confessions of St.

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