Discussion about my short story Eviction Notice.

Mostly, the discussion centers on concepts of what makes a story “dark.”  My definition of a dark story is one that is consistently hopeless.  Gore and torture (emotional or physical) don’t cut it—if the protagonist is shown bearing out, if he is holding tenuously on to the right, or if there is a clear shot at redemption/victory/salvation—then the story isn’t exactly dark.

There’s also a brief flirt with reader interpretation vs. author intent.  One of the criticisms of Eviction Notice is that it’s ambiguous whether or not Quincy Umble really exists, or if he’s a figment of Rick’s mind.  That ambiguity is intentional; I designed the story (in later drafts, to be honest) to be unclear on that point.  So the reader is welcome to interpret it as a straight contemporary horror/fantasy piece, or as a portrait of a guy driven to suicidal hallucination in order to find redemption.

I’m not telling which I prefer—I don’t want to prejudice any readers.

It’s an interesting conversation, to me.  I’m trying to figure out if I feel that way because of my vanity, or because it’s intellectually stimulating.

:preens: