Adam-Troy Castro

Writer of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Stories About Yams.

 

Story Excerpt: “The Old Horror Writer”

Posted on May 1st, 2016 by Adam-Troy Castro

Available at Nightmare Magazine starting May 4, “The Old Horror Writer,” a masochistic portrait of how I might very well end up.

Excerpt:

“He’s an old man now, twenty years removed from his last novel and ten from his last short story; he’s no longer a member of HWA or of SFWA, and the agency that used to handle his interests now has him in their estate file, sending out occasional contracts and two-digit checks whenever some foreign-language magazine situated in one of the new country deigns to ask permission for, let alone, compensate, a reprint. Out of curiosity I made myself a voice on the phone and had to stay on the line with them for ten minutes before the receptionist was able to connect me with the member of the agency who knew who he was.  The address they had was a post office box, and they hadn’t mailed anything there for three years. I linger in the post office lobby for a few days waiting to see if he ever shows up, but he never does; I suspect he’s paid for years in advance and forgotten that the address even exists.

“Fortunately I have other methods, and I soon appear in front of his home, which is not so much a home as the place where he wound up. It’s a decaying little house in a decaying little neighborhood, a place of boarded-up windows and rusting automobiles, with a front walk stained by brown patches left by years of fallen leaves that were allowed to rot wherever they landed. The sky is gray, the air oppressive, in the way it’s pretty much been everywhere, the last couple of decades. Before I get to the door I hear the TV playing something with a theremin score, and wonder whether it’s Forbidden Planet or one of its many imitators, before I knock and hear the old man grunt as he gets up from his chair…”

2 Responses to "Story Excerpt: “The Old Horror Writer”"

  1. Hi Adam,

    A terrific story “The Old Horror writer” in Nightmare May 2016 issue. Really loved it!

    Keep writing.

  2. Thank you! My next in NIGHTMARE is “Four Haunted Houses.”

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