Whew, I better up my posts here and get with the program. There are eighteen days left in Halloween, *cough* October. And after this review, eighteen stories.

Convenient.

I have always worked better under pressure...so here's my thoughts on Simon Stranzas' It Runs Beneath the Surface.

Urban. Dark. Surreal?

It's short; slightly less than eight pages long. I like this in a story, particularly when it's unambiguous and well-written. It does what I want it to in creating a need in this writer to become more succinct; become clear and create a tale with fewer words that still has enough momentum to keep you from clicking the bed lamp off too soon.

It's a tale you can read more than once and still take something from. Stranzas paints a city with very minimal strokes, yet the reader gets the details needed. You have an older, disheartened shrink, and a young one who seems to want to change the world, a mysterious patient and the subway.

By the end of this tale the reader will look at shadows, dirt, and oil with a small, new found fear. While this tale may not be as concrete as the first, now have a tentative happy ending. I am satisfied. I am more frightened and generally creeped out than with the first.

Next is: Lynda E. Rucker's These Things We Have Always Known.