As you may (or may not) recall, "Flowers for Shelly" originally appeared in Coach's Midnight Diner: Back From the Dead Edition, way back in 2007, or so. Upon its original release, Robert Garbacz had some fine things to say about it. Head over to this link to read his review in its entirety, but here's a snippet I'm particularly fond of:
"I’m not much into zombie stories, but Mitchell’s ability to pile on a hundred different flavors and cram them into a small space made this a fun romp through death and mayhem that I won’t soon forget."
"Flowers for Shelly" remains my most personal piece and one that I still get really emotional about when I'm reading. My wife Meghan still claims it's her favorite of all the things I've written.
When I wrote it, it was very much autobiographical (minus the zombies). I really set out to write a "What if" story--"What if zombies invaded my life, right now." I thought of my friends and how we would react; I thought of what an undead outbreak would mean for my (then) young marriage. As a writer, I deal with horror, but "Shelly" was the only story that I was actually afraid of while writing it. I was that close to the material. It still stirs up a lot of emotions in me, even though I've read the story a dozen times since the beginning.
Reading through the story, you will see that I've dedicated it to horror author Phil Nutman. Phil wrote Wet Work, a breakthrough zombie novel in the early '90s. He also wrote three Halloween comics for Chaos Comics in the early 00s. I was a huge fan of those comics and contacted him way back when. We exchanged e-mails and before I knew it, he had convinced me to fly out to Pasadena, California to attend the 25th Anniversary Halloween Convention and meet him. It was a really magical weekend and Phil gave me a crash course in selling myself as an author. I was a wide-eyed country bumpkin and he showed me the world. He also got me a spot in a zombie anthology--"Flowers for Shelly" was to be my entry. When that anthology was canceled, the story languished for another few years before it found a home in a corner booth of the Midnight Diner. So this one's for Uncle Phil, who showed a lot of faith in me and my talent in the early days.
I hope you all check out the short story. Did I mention it was only 99 cents? It's a somber love tale that, I think, touches on pretty much every emotion you can possibly imagine--and it's a perfect Halloweentime treat. Give it a look and stay tuned for some big news in the (hopefully) very near future.
"Flowers for Shelly" is available at Smashwords and Kindle. The stellar cover is done by my pal Bob Freeman!
1 comment:
I have read this story and it is FANTASTIC! Definitely worth your time and worth WAY more than 99¢.
Post a Comment