--I KEEP TRYING TO OUTRUN MY GHOSTS, BUT THEY'RE IN SO MUCH BETTER SHAPE

…I have a new story, "The Years Like Fine Dust" up at The Stone Hobo and here under "Words In Print."

..A while back I mentioned I was reading Alethea Black's story collection, "I Knew You'd Be Lovely."
I love that title.
I loved her stories even more.
The real reason I got the book was because she was featured in The Writer. Also, it's rare to get a collection published by a big house these days, so I was curious.
She doesn't fall in for a ton of detailed description, but her characters are all individualized and feel very real, most of them bothered by something, or else ridiculously peppy and bold.
Her dialogue is pretty spot on in each piece.
And every story is ripe with twists and turns and nugget after nugget of wisdom. Many a little spears chucked at your eyeballs that read like Proverbs.
Don't believe me?
Here, have some lovely writing:

--"I've never gotten over the sheer improbability that I was born."

--"The strangest thing that's ever happened to me is still happening."

--It crossed his mind that this was all chemistry ever was: two people's silent selves invisibly aligning while their noisy selves carried on, oblivious.

--It stuns me, all the things we're willing to forsake for security, which is only ever imaginary anyway.

---"Originality is just a sign of not enough information."

--Surprise is inherently hostile.

--"If you give up smoking, drinking, and love, you don't actually live longer. You just feel like you do."

--"It's a fruitless task, explaining yourself," he said. He was enjoying confessing the truth for once. "Either people get you, or they don't. In fact, even when they get you, it's always…a disappointment.

--"Nothing is to be feared. It is only to be understood.

--"There are two ways of being unhappy. Not getting what you want. And getting what you want."

--"If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?"
--"If you're so rich, why aren't you smart?"

--We all desire the cut of truth.

--We say the same things over and over, she wrote.
Love never repeats, Bradley thought.

---You have cast yourself as the bearer of wisdom.

--"Wanting things too much is a form of sadness."

--"A pigeon's feathers are heavier than its bones." -- Alethea Black, "I Knew You'd Be Lovely"