Neil Gaiman story for RIP VI

All my plans for a lovely long post about all the books I bought on Friday (including 4  for RIP!) have been put aside until tomorrow.  My youngest son and I played Uno instead today, followed by bowling on Wii (until my injured knee started clicking, a bad sign) and then archery (no bending of said knee required).  Tomorrow is the first day back to school, and he is nervous - he and his sister are going to a new school this year.  Our daughter is currently in England attending a family funeral with her father, otherwise it would have been a family Uno game and Wii events.

Instead of books to drool over, I found something even better:  at Neil Gaiman's blog, back in July, he posted here about a collection of new short stories he and Al Sarrantino had coming out, entitled Stories (they are both editors of it).  His story in this collection, he says in this post, was also nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award at Readercon.  He won.  He invites everyone to go read it online, for free, here, at 52 Stories.  As we are now in RIP, this is like getting free candy for us horror fans:  a free dark short story (and not outright horror, no gore, so safe to read for the shy of heart), by the one and only Neil Gaiman, AND the story won the Shirley Jackson Award for best novelette.  So we get an award-winning dark  short story to read for RIP!  Let me know what you think, my Gentle Reader.

I've just finished reading it - entitled "The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains", and it is good.  Much better, and much more moving, and much more thoughtful than I would have expected.  Actually, I didn't know what to expect, which is good, because I have read Fragile Things, and Smoke and Mirrors, and I am happy to find I am still, always, surprised by his short stories.

While I'm on the topic of Mr Gaiman, I have to add that I have not commented on his Dr Who episode, "The Doctor's Wife", that aired earlier this spring here.  That wasn't because I didn't love it, on the contrary - it is an episode that the more it sits in my brain and heart, the better it gets, like there is old Dr Who and time travelling wisdom in this story that takes time to sink in.  The Tardis as a woman, ever so briefly, and the Doctor's true love.  An amazing episode, by an gifted writer, who can go from dark to funny to bizarre without really blinking at all. The episode is unlike almost any Dr Who episode ever, yet it is perfect for the Dr Who mythology.  In one fell swoop, we learn how the Doctor and the Tardis chose each other to run away with. It is romantic and beautiful and ethereal, like the most romantic part of the Doctor's soul has been revealed, the reason why we all love him so, because he is mad, and he does care, so very much.  

Enough of the fan-girl stuff, I have to go off to bed so I can be ready for the morning angst about starting a new school.  Fall is definitely in the air, it's school time again, and I have now read a short story and a book for RIP!!!!  Review of book to come.

Happy Labour day everyone!