Ghosts of the open road.

[cadhla]

Okay, so:

I am working on beating Sparrow Hill Road, aka, "The Further Adventures of Rose Marshall, Deeply Annoyed Hitchhiking Ghost," into book form. It's going pretty well, and I have a solid first draft, but it has been suggested (and not incorrectly) that I omit one of the existing stories. The Halloween one, to be specific, which is sort of

Comments

[maverick_weirdo]

My thoughts on replacing "Bad Moon Rising"
(may contain spoilers for those who haven't read it.)

There are some things I liked about "Bad Moon Rising". It shows that there is a "price" to maintaining her status as a ghost. I like the opening and the mythology it creates. My issue with the story was the abrupt ending. It wasn't just the twist at the end, it was also short. It the second shortest word count of the collection.

However as I thought about it, Rose has done the Halloween Run around 50 times. Each year is something different. You mentioned the first year she fell in a well. I can almost imagine a montage of several years: one year hiding in a barn, another year up a tree, another year in a ditch. Some years there are close calls other years are long quiet fearful nights. One of those years she was lucky and some rube didn't understand the rules. In that context I am okay with the ending of "Bad Moon Rising".

So what do I want for a new Rose story? "Bad Moon Rising" was last year. I want This Year's Halloween Run. A lot of the opening would be similar, Rose's conversation with Violet would probably be the same every year. I want this year's run to be more of a "terror in the cornfield" kind of story.