I finished a book for Michael Kelly’s Undertow Publications called Aickman’s Heirs. It’s a multi-author anthology of stories inspired by the work of Robert Aickman—a writer I very much admire. In his introduction, the editor, Simon Strantzas, describes it thusly: “a sampler of how Robert Aickman’s work has become a significant source of inspiration for contemporary writers.”
Designing a multi-author work is always challenging. Some stories had longer titles, some had section numbers, and two had epigraphs. I created a space for the story openers that would allow for two- or three-line story titles and epigraphs, but keep the first line (or first section number) of the story falling in the same place, regardless. I didn’t feel a need to try to capture the sense of unease and bafflement that fills much of Aickman’s writing; rather, I wanted something clean and clear.
Clean and clear seems a good choice, seems to balance the unease, to provide something to hold onto in the midst of the inner instability of the fiction.