Adam-Troy Castro

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

 

My Five Best Stories Eight Years Ago Are Not My Five Best Now

Posted on April 22nd, 2017 by Adam-Troy Castro

Facebook’s “On this Day” feature brought up a list I made for a personal website no longer extant and since replaced, way back in 2009, of what I considered my five best stories up to that time.

1) “Of A Sweet Slow Dance In the Wake of Temporary Dogs”
2) “Sunday Night Yams at Minnie and Earl’s”
3) “The Shallow End of the Pool”
4) “The Funeral March of the Marionettes”
5) “The Pussy Expert”

Nice bunch of stories, but interesting to note that it seems quaint to my eyes now. It’s not identical to the list I’d produce eight years later, in part because a bunch of them had not been written yet.

I may be doomed to never beat the one I consider my all-time best, but I have certainly made progress since.

1) “Of A Sweet Slow Dance In the Wake of Temporary Dogs”
2) “Her Husband’s Hands”
3) “Arvies”
4) “The Thing About Shapes to Come”
5) “The Shallow End of the Pool”

One story on the prior list moves up, because I now like it better than the one it displaces, “Sunday Night Yams at Minnie and Earl’s.” But this is a minor adjustment, I think. The important thing, I think, is that I am able to substantially rewrite the list on the basis of stuff produced within the past decade, which to me says that I can give myself credit for not standing still.

(I think all artists need to self-examine on this level, from time to time. I went two years this decade without being able to sell any short fiction at all, and thought my muse had fled, but what really happened is that I temporarily lost track of the trick.)

One Response to "My Five Best Stories Eight Years Ago Are Not My Five Best Now"

  1. Still suffused with pride over that #1 choice. *editorial glow*

    —Keith

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