Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2008 — Honorable Mentions

I have two honorable mentions in the current edition of Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror: For Pigs and Feaches, which first appeared in Apex Digest, and for Bagged Lunch, which appeared in Weird Tales.

Bagged Lunch was originally called The Lunch Thief. It’s the second in my series of stories based on what it’s like to work in your average office environment. (This is called, “write what you know.” ) Anyway, companies often hire consultants to help them with their problems. These consultants are often considered to have oracular powers. Or at the least be very good at what they do. So…what if there really was a consulting firm that could solve all kinds of problems?

I wrote Pigs and Feaches to answer a question: “On your last night to be human, how would you live?” Pigs and Feaches didn’t answer that question. Pigs and Feaches answered the question, “What are zombies really saying?” Sometimes a story gets away from you.

The story that answered the “last night to be human” question turned out to be The Night of Their Conversion, which appeared in the most recent Space Squid.