I think of them at least once a week on the norm and more than that if I am writing something of my own, and looking for the vibes I picked up from those stories to share now, with my readers. This might be the lowest point of the book, that two authors expected to deliver the big hits are poorly represented. Says the World’s Smallest Man”, which chronicles the disastrous love life of a little person following in the footsteps of the esteemed Herve Villachaize; and “Rant” by Nancy Collins, which I’ve always liked due to its complete intolerance, madness, and otherwise nonsensical nature. I hunkered down in the uncomfortable confines of the stairwell in my usual train-car to distance myself from the bustling cretins of the world and whipped the relic known as ‘Midnight Graffiti’ out.

Or Dan Simmons' "The River Styx Runs Upstream," a story of resurrection -- with a ghastly difference. Years of abusing inhalants couldn’t possible do the damage that this alleged story manages to do in a few ridiculous pages, even with the women cooing ‘Mmmmm’ for their cherished Domino Man. I used to read a lot of anthologies, and since I ride the train daily, I figured maybe I should resume this habit, seeing as that 15-50-page stories are perfect for my rides to and from work, and for my crappy lunch break, where I have nothing better to do than sit on a cold metal bench, alone, smoking and reading (occasionally interrupted by shoving some food down my gullet). Like many early/mid 90’s anthologies (see ‘Shock Rock’, ‘Prime Evil’, and ‘Night Screams’ from my small sample alone), the ever-present Stephen King has a seldom-published contribution in ‘Midnight Graffiti’, and editors Jessica Horsting and James Van Hise unwisely decide to shoot their wad immediately out of the starting gate by opening it up with “Rainy Season”.Some stories though, were a bit tough to get through and I found myself grinding through them to get to the next one.

The final story, "Dark Embrace," comes from (mercifully silent) co-editor James Van Hise and is an adroit, if somewhat predictable, story of a boy who is forced to mature with cruel haste. And then… there were the other stories… which delved into insane issues, off-kilter writing styles, violent twisted viewpoints, and drugged deranged plots that made me feel uncomfortable… which, even though they were not my cup of tea, I still highly admired because I love reading and seeing things from different perspectives than my own.I recollected how I’d spend my idle time (not building beeramids, not laying the wood to some skank) by ignoring the whims of my folks and sitting back smugly contented that I was reading ‘Midnight Graffiti’ while all those other chumps were busy actually reading garbage assigned to them by some nimrod or another. Here it was, tangible proof that not only do I kick ass, but have been kicking ass since back in ‘the day’. I will give reasonable warning that the biggest difference with this collection from others I have read is the editing. Come to think of it, there must have been a pretty good reason to quit reading anthologies in the first place, right? It did have a great line, jauntily poking fun at military/old man lingo: Goldilocks was SAC - Strategic Air Command - headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska; ETA was Estimated Time of Arrival.

I especially love horror in short story form, so I was delighted to find a new collection - and thrilled to find it so gratifying.

I don't think that the Anthology Experiment went over too well; back to reading something slightly more worthwhile, maybe some letters to the editor from back-issues of Club, if I can manage to pry the pages apart somehow. I can think of positively no reason for any collection to have twenty-four introductions written by one person. Wait a second, that’s actually pretty crappy; if Giger committed this abortion he’d have set it aflame before it could leave his premises and tarnish his reputation. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Then the last couple of stories reassured me that yes, I’m in the right genre (along with a few other reviews that echoed my thoughts).