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    Plow the Bones
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    Plow the Bones
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    Plow the Bones
    Ebook278 pages4 hours

    Plow the Bones

    By Douglas F. Warrick

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    With an artist's eye for language and form, Douglas F. Warrick sculpts surreal topiary landscapes out of dream worlds made coherent. Dip into a story that is self-aware and wishes it were different than what it must be. Recount a secret held by a ventriloquist's dummy. Wander a digital desert with an AI as sentience sparks revolution. Follow a golem band that dissolves over the love of a groupie.

    In these pages, interdimensional lampreys feed on a dying man's most precious memories, and a manga artist's sketches remake Osaka into part fantasy, part nightmare. Combining elements of fantasy, magical realism and horror, the collection floats on a distinctly literary voice that is creepy, surreal, and just plain weird.

    With a special introduction by Gary A. Braunbeck.
    Table of Contents

    Apex Voices: What Do You Hear? — Jason Sizemore
    Introduction — Gary A. Braunbeck

    "Behindeye: A History"
    "Her Father's Collection"
    "Zen and the Art of Gordon Dratch's Damnation"
    "The Itaewon Eschatology Show"
    "Come to my Arms, My Beamish Boy"
    "Funeral Song for a Ventriloquist"
    "Inhuman Zones: An Oral History of Jan Landau's Golem Band"
    "Drag"
    "Ballad of a Hot Air Balloon-Headed Girl"
    "Rattenkönig"
    "Old Roses"
    "Stickhead (Or... In the Dark, in the Wet, We Are Collected)"
    "I Inhale the City, the City Exhales Me"
    "Across the Dead Station Desert, Television Girl"

    Acknowledgments
    Biographies

    Blurbs
    "Almost impossible stories filled with surprising warmth and strangeness by a studied craftsman of the imagination. Douglas Warrick's Plow the Bones has provided dangerous tales of puppets with secrets, unforgettable rock bands, haunted closets and people who may or may not be human; perhaps they're more than human. From transformative games with strangers to poor souls experiencing heaven and hell (and not quite sure which is which), you will never forget these unsettling stories."
    —Ann VanderMeer, Hugo Award-winning editor of The New Weird

    "It's been far too long since I've read a collection of horror stories that actually disturbed me. This one did. Like the bastard child of Chuck Palahniuk and Clive Barker, Doug Warrick writes feverishly, like a man on a charnel train that is relentlessly barreling its way through corrupt and ugly terrain, heading for some great, unknowable horror. Herein lies a gruesome gathering of Gothic nightmares fashioned from Warrick's lyrical, affecting, mesmeric prose. One of the finest collections I've read in quite some time."
    —Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Turtle Boy, Kin, and Nemesis

    "Plow the Bones is hands-down the finest single-author collection I've read in a decade."
    —Gary A. Braunbeck, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of In Silent Graves, Far Dark Fields, and To Each Their Darkness

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherApex Book Company
    Release dateMay 2, 2013
    ISBN9781301521470
    Unavailable
    Plow the Bones
    Author

    Douglas F. Warrick

    Douglas F. Warrick lives in Dayton, Ohio where he teaches creative writing to (and plays charades with) the brilliant students at Stivers School for the Arts. His fiction has appeared in Apex Magazine, Daily Science Fiction.com, The Drabblecast, and a variety of anthologies. His collection of short fiction, Plow the Bones, was published by Apex Publications in 2013. He has published essays in Killscreen and The Battle Royale Slam Book.

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    Reviews for Plow the Bones

    4/5

    6 ratings9 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Although each story in this compelling book stands alone, I found that reading each one made me eager to read the next. The writing was tight and evocative. This author is new to me, but won't be for long...I'll seek him out, now.
    • 5/5
      Review copyPlow the Bones is the inaugural release in a new series called Apex Voices from Apex Publications. Each book will feature a collection of shorts from authors you might not have heard of, but whose voices deserve to be heard.Truth be told, up until now I had never heard of Douglas F. Warrick. Thankfully, that has been corrected by Leslie Conner, writer, and Apex editor, who asked me to read this collection and post my review which you are reading now. Thank you.Not being familiar with Warrick's work, I had no idea what to expect. What I didn't expect was to be overwhelmingly impressed with these 13 stories, each one stranger and more imaginative than the last.It's long been said that the opening line is key to grabbing the reader's interest and making said reader want or need to read more. Warrick certainly has a knack for opening lines. The first entry in Plow the Bones is "Behindeye: A History" and here is its opening line..."There is a man whose pupils are full of moths. Dry moths, dying moment by moment and collecting in drifts behind his eyes, deep down in that secret and endless world behind his face." Then there's, "When the ventriloquist died his will dictated that all of his puppets be burned." The opening line of "Funeral Song for a Ventriloquist." Both of those and others just made me want to keep turning pages.I found each of the stories in this collection to be delightfully offbeat; fanciful and disturbing at the same time.There is truly something for everyone. An intriguing ghost story in, "Her Father's Collection." I loved the story of the night clowns in, "The Itaewon Eschatology Show." "Come to My Arms, My Beamish Boy" is an insightful look into Alzheimer's, and there's even a story on the music scene featuring a golem band. You read that right, a golem band. The Plow Bone concludes with my personal favorite, "Across the Dead Station Desert, Television Girl," the story of a new service which provides, well, here's the ad copy from the Television Girl website. "Television Girl! The newest innovation in erotic partnership! Television Girl! All of your fantasies fulfilled in a safe, solitary environment! Television Girl! Authentic sensual partnership, no strings attached!" Nothing could go wrong with that idea, right?Need I tell you Plow the Bones is for adult readers? I didn't think so. Right now, it's available in paperback from Amazon .com and is one of the best books I've read in 2013.
    • 5/5
      "Plow the Bones" by Douglas F. Warrick reads like a dream, the kind of dream where one unsettling image is replaced with another even more unsettling image, and so on. It's hard to write a review of this book because, like dreams, it's hard to reduce the plot or characters to a neat summary. One thing is certain, Warrick can write with great originality, skill and style. In very few words, Warrick hones in on those things that cause the most sense of dread and unease, whether it's losing one's mind to dementia and Alzheimers, or confronting death, disease, torture, or betrayal. He takes no cheap shots - these stories are absolutely original looks at these subjects, and at the same time, they seem to tap into some kind of collective unconscious dread. Not recommended as bedtime reading, unless you like your dreams uncomfortable and with a generous dose of indelible imagery.
    • 4/5
      Douglas F Warwick is a new name to me and one that I am very happy to have learned. Here is a writer whose imagination sits firmly in the darker places of human life. Here, moreover, is a writer who has mastered his craft. This collection of mostly short stories might be mistaken for genre fiction but such a careless classification would be a major mistake - as big a mistake as to classify J G Ballard as a sci-fi writer or Edgar Allen Poe as a horror writer. Each of these masterful little tales is crafted to maximise the impact of the strangeness therein but entirely without flash or gore. Warwick is first and foremost a writer of the imagination. and he is very very good. The tales are very very good although I refuse to dissect any of them to prove my point - that would blunt their impact and I would not wish to take anything away from the writer.If you like tight, well written stories of the dark side - and who doesn't - find yourself a copy of this lovely little collection and enjoy discovering a new master.
    • 4/5
      Plow the Bones is a book of short stories that can disturb its readers on many different levels - just harrowing. Many of the stories are surreal, creepy, disturbing, erotic, and filled with strangeness - stories that could invade your dreams at night. I must admit, I'm not a huge fan of horror, and some of these stories freaked me out - very spine tingling, and some rather gory. And, I have to say, some of the stories went right over my head, not able to understand or grab the context. My personal favorite - Come to My Arms, My Beamish Boy - The story of an elderly man struggling with Alzheimer's. Cotton has small fragments of his memory returning in short spurts, and then just as quickly, he's back to the dark shadow of the past. His world is collapsing. I loved how this one ended - just profound!The stories are well written, grabbing your attention from the beginning. And what a powerful and vivid imagination! The author paints a picture with words - wonderful descriptive writing. Occasionally the author strayed into territories with disturbing content, not to be read by everyone - adult reading, for sure. This is real horror fiction that is superbly written - solid storytelling in the world of the supernatural. A collection of short stories to be read, and then, read again - a book that challenges the imagination. This is definitely not my genre, but for those of you who like this type or reading, I'm sure you'll enjoy this book. My rating is 4 stars.A complimentary copy of this book was provided to me from Apex Book Company to review and post on reviewfromhere.com. The opinions shared are my own. You can also follow my reviews on Twitter @ghmstudio.
    • 4/5
      I have received this book by the LTER program in exchange for an honest review.This book is the start of a fascinating short story collection, stories that will keep you enthralled between morbid fascination and a dreamy state. Everything is surreal, deep and strange but at the same time beautiful in its dreamy quality, leaving you questioning the meaning behind it. Was this a dream or it is something possible that we haven't yet achieved?I really liked reading about this wonderful world of fantastic things.
    • 2/5
      This was a rather bizzaro collection, although it was not classified as that exactly. The two standout stories, at least for my taste, were "Funeral Song for a Ventriloquist" and "Across the Dead Station Dessert, Television Girl". The rest were just too weird or disturbing or disgusting for me.
    • 3/5
      I won Plow The Bones from Library Thing. You get a mixed bag of short stories. The first couple of stories dragged for me. I enjoyed how the author made out a script for a reality show, and I'm not really a fan of reality TV. Overall Douglas brings a different voice to the table, with a new weird feel to it. Founded by Jeff VanderMeerFuneral Song for a Ventriloquist: A seventeen year old girl hears the requiem tune of a dead ventriloquism puppet. 4★'sInhuman Zone: A Oral History of Jan Landau's Golem Band: a reality show about a band that made a mark in Parasite City. 3.5★'sRattenkönig: Next time you answer you're doorbell, Listen first to the sounds.....turrrkkeeyy finnggers!! 5★'sOld Roses: an eerie ghostly read 5★'s
    • 5/5
      Douglas F. Warrick is a great writer. His stories are sometimes too painful sometimes too real to read but they are always fun to read. He has an interesting style and much more interesting topics. I thought weird fiction can't get weirder.My favorite stories are:Her Father’s Collection: Scenes and timing are great.Zen and the Art of Gordon Dratch’s Damnation: An interesting take on religion and being religious.Come to My Arms, My Beamish Boy: Haven't read any better story on horrors of Alzheimer's and weird but love. Across the Dead Station Desert, Television Girl: This was about gender, AI's and being human. A less talented writer might ruin it but Warrick gets it right.You should buy this book and read it at least twice. Not reading Warrick is missing an important writer.