Twelve new stories of gay men and the memories that haunt them. A circuit boy stays at a haunted hotel. An actor recounts a grisly murder in the English countryside. A gay parent unravels a mysterious souvenir. A journalist chases a story through the streets of Amsterdam. An artist grapples with his muse. A musician is inspired by the spirit of a sailor. Jameson Currier modernizes the traditional ghost story with gay lovers, loners, activists, and addicts, blending history and contemporary issues of the gay community with the unexpected of the supernatural.
Jameson Currier's The Haunted Heart and Other Tales expands upon the usual ghost story tropes by imbuing them with deep metaphorical resonance to the queer experience. Infused with flawed, three-dimensional characters, this first-rate collection strikes all the right chords in just the right places. Equal parts unnerving and heartrending, these chilling tales are testament to Currier's literary prowess and the profound humanity at the core of his writing. Gay, straight, twisted like a pretzel--his writing is simply not to be missed by any reader with a taste for good fiction. --Vince Liaguno, Dark Scribe Magazine
... Currier's writing is flawless and his knack for conveying emotion, with both the spoken words and thoughts of his characters, is unparalleled. Fans of the author have come to expect that his work isn't exactly light or escapist, which makes it all the more affecting. --Edge Boston
Summer's over and autumn creeps up on us like a shadow in the sunlight. Celebrate it by reading this perfectly chilling collection of tales from one of the modern masters of the genre. And don t let that squeaky floorboard distract you there's no such thing as ghosts, right? --Jerry Wheeler, Out in Print
About the Author
Jameson Currier is the author of the novel, Where the Rainbow Ends, and three collections of short stories. His ghost stories have also appeared in Wilde Stories, Unspeakable Horror, Best Gay Romance, Velvet Mafia, Icarus, and All Hallows: The Journal of the Ghost Story Society. He resides in Manhattan.
Jameson Currier is the author of three novels: Where the Rainbow Ends, nominated for a Lambda Literary award, The Wolf at the Door, and The Third Buddha; and four collections of short fiction: Dancing on the Moon; Desire, Lust, Passion, Sex; Still Dancing: New and Selected Stories; and The Haunted Heart and Other Tales, which was awarded a Black Quill Award for Best Dark Genre Fiction Collection. His short fiction has appeared in many literary magazines and Web sites, including OutsiderInk, Velvet Mafia, Blithe House Quarterly, Absinthe Literary Review, Confrontation, Rainbow Curve, Christopher Street, Harrington Gay Men's Fiction Quarterly, and the anthologies Men on Men 5, Best American Gay Fiction 3, Certain Voices, Boyfriends from Hell, Men Seeking Men, Mammoth Book of New Gay Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best American Erotica, Best Gay Romance, Best Gay Stories, Circa 2000, Rebel Yell, I Do/I Don't, Where the Boys Are, Nine Hundred & Sixty-Nine, Wilde Stories, Unspeakable Horror, Art from Art, and Making Literature Matter. His AIDS-themed short stories have also been translated into French by Anne-Laure Hubert and published as Les Fantômes. His reviews, essays, interviews, and articles on AIDS and gay culture have been published in many national and local publications, including The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, The Dallas Morning News, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, Lambda Book Report, The Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review, Dallas Voice, The Washington Blade, Southern Voice, Metrosource, Bay Area Reporter, Frontiers, Ten Percent, The New York Native, The New York Blade, Out, and Body Positive. Since 2002 he has compiled a monthly digest of LGBT publishing notes which can be currently found on his blog Queertype. In 2010 he founded Chelsea Station Editions, an independent press devoted to gay literature. Among the authors the press has published in its first year are debut writers Craig Moreau and David Pratt, and veterans Felice Picano, Walter Holland, and Jon Marans. In November 2011 Currier also launched a new gay literary magazine, Chelsea Station. Currier is the recipient of writing grants from the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation and The New York Foundation for the Arts, and in 2011 he was inducted into Saints and Sinners Hall of Fame in New Orleans. He currently resides in Manhattan.
This review is from: The Haunted Heart and Other Tales (Paperback)
I admired that classic TV show for its excellent writing and stories with fully-developed relatable characters, who found themselves in strange but plausible situations. These are also the strengths of author Currier's diverse anthology of his short stories, a few of which have already been published in other compilations.
Although I loved all twelve stories in the book, I especially enjoyed "The Country House," a tale of a gay couple whose second home turned out to be haunted by a dangerous spirit, and "The Man in the Mirror," a sad tale of an aging actor dealing with consequences of his past actions. But my favorite is the titular "The Haunted Heart," an immensely-satisfying twenty page epic about a wandering ghost who interacts with several gay male acquaintances over a period of years.
Truthfully, short stories are not usually my preference, as it is rare that an author can fully develop a plot and characters in so few pages. But I found each of these stories just as satisfying and unique as a full length novel, so much so that, as I often do with longer stories, I thought about each story for days after I finished reading it. Definitely want to read more from this talented author. Give it five twisted stars out of five!
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This review is from: The Haunted Heart and Other Tales (Paperback)
Jameson Currier is a story teller who weaves his tale around you until you genuinely care about the characters. He has the ability to capture dialogue with an almost journalistic objectivity; this places you in the scene as an eavesdropper, making you part of the story. He is one of the few writers who can be equally literary, erotic, dramatic and damn funny, sometimes all in the same sentence. His collection of ghost stories, The Haunted Heart, allows him to showcase these abilities in original stories that are not intended to frighten so much as entertain. There are a multitude of ghosts here, not just the spirits of the dead, but the ghosts of abusive relationships, bad decisions, personal flaws, and the ever-present ghost of AIDS that forever hovers in the lives of gay men. As a fellow writer, I was equally entertained by the inclusion of short descriptions of how each story came to be, from idea to completion. A good collection for anyone's library.
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This review is from: The Haunted Heart and Other Tales (Paperback)
I very much admired this collection, both for its intelligence and its style. These are genre stories only in the sense that Henry James and Edith Wharton also wrote horror.
Actually, now that I think of it, there's always been a chasm between ghost stories and the rest of the horror genre, ghost stories being much more likely to boast serious literary merit ... and intent. It's certainly the case here. The gay themes just give this already brilliant book that much more of an edge.
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