{"id":3055,"date":"2019-10-24T12:36:26","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T16:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/?p=3055"},"modified":"2019-10-24T12:36:26","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T16:36:26","slug":"the-porcupine-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-porcupine-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Porcupine Boy and Other Anthological Oddities"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote the title story for The Porcupine Boy and Other Anthological Oddities<\/em><\/a>, a new anthology of dark fiction that will be published by Crossroad Press on November 12. The book was edited by Christopher M. Jones and features cover art by Natasha Alterici and cover design by Deena Warner along with fiction by Gary McMahon, Priya Sharma, Brian Evenson, Keith Minnion, Elizabeth Massie, Jeffrey Thomas, P. D. Cacek, Paula D. Ashe, and more.<\/p>\n

Table of Contents
\n<\/strong>
\n\"the<\/a>Introduction by Catherine Grant
\n“Outside” by Gary McMahon
\n“Feral” by Priya Sharma
\n“The Coldness of His Eye” by Brian Evenson
\n“The Porcupine Boy” by Lucy A. Snyder
\n“300 Down” By Keith Minnion
\n“The Dark Windmill” by Janet Joyce Holden
\n“It\u2019s in the Cards” by Elizabeth Massie
\n“Roadkill” by Meryl Stenhouse
\n“The Bone Arena” by Jeffrey Thomas
\n“…and Puppy Dog Tails” by PD Cacek
\n“The Exclusivity of Ravens” by David Nickle
\n“Thank You For Not Ignoring Me” by Violet LeVoit
\n“Jacqueline Laughs Last in the Gaslight” by Paula Ashe
\n“Adrenaline Junkies” by Ray Cluley<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here’s an excerpt from my story:<\/p>\n

Eddie Bellweather got out of his Honda Odyssey with his satchel, locked the door and grinned at the glossy new graphics he\u2019d gotten his buddy Rafael to paint on the van\u2019s side. The logo bore the words \u201cPORCUPINE BOY PATIENT SERVICES\u201d in a blue circle around a cute cartoon porcupine in a Superman-style caped crusader costume with a fists-on-hips pose, a red PB on his chest shield in place of Supe\u2019s stylized \u201cS\u201d. Rafael had promised him that DC couldn\u2019t sue him over his new mascot, and it was exactly what Eddie had envisioned. It was bold and friendly, and Eddie figured it perfectly conveyed the little-guy heroism he strove for when he started his business. People were counting on him. He was needed<\/em>. And that was something he\u2019d grown up thinking could never happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a great<\/em> day to be alive.\u201d He booped his mascot\u2019s flat black nose with his index finger and then headed up the tree-shaded walkway to Dr. Shanahan\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

He hadn\u2019t set foot in this particular office in at least three years, and remembered it as having a cozy, unassuming waiting room with office furniture from the 80s. Only one of his clients was a patient here \u2014 old Miss Dorotka \u2014 and Dr. Shanahan was fine with renewing her prescriptions without making her take the stressful trek to his exam table. Until now, for whatever reason. Eddie was confident he could get it sorted out.<\/p>\n

But when he pushed through the glass doors, instead of the outdated chairs and plastic-framed public health posters he saw fancy new seating, potted plants and expensive-looking oil paintings. And, on one wall, an ostentatiously large crucifix of a sheet-pale Christ nailed to a mahogany cross. It certainly wasn\u2019t there before. The sight of it made Eddie\u2019s stomach tighten. He didn\u2019t have anything against Christianity, not exactly. Not officially<\/em>. But the cross was the kind of thing his mother would have put up on the living room, not as a reminder of any of the things that Jesus lived and died for, but as a stern notice to all visitors (and particularly Eddie\u2019s few friends) that This Is a Christian House And We Don\u2019t Tolerate That Kind of Thing Here. Her version of Christianity had little to do with goodwill towards humankind or turning the other cheek and everything to do with shame and fronting piety.<\/p>\n

Eddie had plenty of Christian clients who weren\u2019t bent the way his mother was; they were good folks of faith. He had no reason to think that the owner of this cross should be less like them and more like his mother. But he also<\/em> had clients who were Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or atheist, and a huge, hard-to-miss cross like this was likely to make them feel a bit unwelcome. So many Christians had done so many terrible things in the name of that crucifix: The Inquisition, the Crusades, the Magdalene Laundries. Dr. Shanahan seemed like the kind of man who\u2019d cracked enough history books to realize that, and who just on basic principle would want to avoid alienating patients for no reason. So what was going on here?<\/p>\n

If Eddie was being honest with himself, the cross gave him a twinge of envy. What must it be like to so firmly believe in a higher power, to have faith in the existence of a grand supernatural order that transcended the mundane bullshit that made up so much of everyday human existence? Eddie wanted to believe; he craved<\/em> belief, at times. But he was fundamentally a man who could only believe in what he could see, taste, or touch. Even the powerful hallucinogens that his friends swore would open his inner eye to the wonders hidden beyond the limitations of fleshly senses left him queasy and agnostic. Eddie figured that the right thing to do was the right thing to do regardless of whether God existed to give you wings for it or not. But some days, he\u2019d have nearly been willing to give his right nut for proof that there was more to the world than met his eye.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wrote the title story for The Porcupine Boy and Other Anthological Oddities, a new anthology of dark fiction that will be published by Crossroad […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[156,20],"tags":[145,168,151,9],"class_list":["post-3055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-books","category-publishing","tag-anthology","tag-crossroad-press","tag-dark-fantasy","tag-horror"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/the-porcupine-boy-e1571934156187.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8qT6f-Nh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3176,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/2019-publications-roundup\/","url_meta":{"origin":3055,"position":0},"title":"2019 Publications Roundup","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"December 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This past year, various venues published seven of my short stories and two of my poems. I also wrote a new level for the online game Fish Wrangler, and Eyedolon Magazine published two chapters of my serialized Lovecraftian space opera novel Blossoms Blackened Like Dead Stars. (Michelle Lane at Girl\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "interview"","block_context":{"text":"interview","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/interview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"2019 covers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/2019-Roundup3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/2019-Roundup3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/2019-Roundup3.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/2019-Roundup3.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3035,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/come-join-us-by-the-fire\/","url_meta":{"origin":3055,"position":1},"title":"Come Join Us by the Fire, an Audio Horror Anthology","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"October 17, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm extremely pleased to announce that my story \"That Which Does Not Kill You\" appears in the new audio anthology Come Join Us by the Fire. The anthology was just released by Nightfire, the new horror imprint from Tor Books. You can download the anthology for free at Google Play.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "publishing"","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/publishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/NightfireAudio_Anthology_Twitter.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/NightfireAudio_Anthology_Twitter.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/NightfireAudio_Anthology_Twitter.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/NightfireAudio_Anthology_Twitter.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4434,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/may-dor-writing-workshop\/","url_meta":{"origin":3055,"position":2},"title":"May’s Day of Reckoning Writing Workshop","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"April 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The next Day of Reckoning online writing workshop will be hosted by Storyville Studio on Saturday, May 9th from 9am-5pm Central time. Instructors include me, Livia Llewellyn, Priya Sharma, Mercedes M. Yardley, Karen Runge, Brian Evenson and Sarah Read. Richard Thomas will act as moderator. In addition to the online\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "genre discussion"","block_context":{"text":"genre discussion","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/genre-discussion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Storyville Studio","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SS_DOR2-e1586998717934.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SS_DOR2-e1586998717934.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SS_DOR2-e1586998717934.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SS_DOR2-e1586998717934.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1519,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/behold\/","url_meta":{"origin":3055,"position":3},"title":"Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"July 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The new anthology Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders was just released by Crystal Lake Publishing, and it's already a bestseller on Amazon. It contains my story \"Hazelnuts and Yummy Mummies\" and I'm excited to be sharing a table of contents with authors such as\u00a0Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Ramsey Campbell,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Books"","block_context":{"text":"My Books","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/my-books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/behold.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/behold.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/behold.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/behold.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/behold.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2335,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/chiral-mad-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":3055,"position":4},"title":"Chiral Mad 4","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"October 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The new anthology Chiral Mad 4 was released today in ebook, trade paperback, and hardcover formats! I co-edited this anthology with Michael Bailey, and the four short stories, four novelettes, four novellas, and four graphic story adaptations in the book are all collaborations. Here\u2019s the Table of Contents: \u201cSomewhere Between\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Books"","block_context":{"text":"My Books","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/my-books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/chiralmad4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/chiralmad4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/chiralmad4.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/chiralmad4.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/chiralmad4.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/chiralmad4.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2719,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/garden-of-eldritch-delights-and-chiral-mad-4-nominated-for-shirley-jackson-awards\/","url_meta":{"origin":3055,"position":5},"title":"Garden of Eldritch Delights and Chiral Mad 4 Nominated for Shirley Jackson Awards","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"May 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Two of my books have been nominated for Shirley Jackson Awards this year! Garden of Eldritch Delights has been nominated in the Single-Author Collection Category, and Chiral Mad 4 (which I co-edited with Michael Bailey) has been nominated in the Edited Anthology category. The Shirley Jackson Awards were established to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "horror"","block_context":{"text":"horror","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/horror\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The covers to Garden of Eldritch Delights and Chiral Mad 4","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Duo-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Duo-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Duo-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Duo-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Duo-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3055"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3061,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3055\/revisions\/3061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}