On the Night Border

Introduction: Movies Behind the Eyes by Linda D. Addison Beginnings can be tricky. It’s been said, “How things begin, is how things end.” Clearly author and editor James Chambers has paid attention to the importance of hooking a reader from line one. The truth is, he knows how to grab you by telling a damn good story. If you want to know how to nail an opening, read the first lines of every story here. I can tell you as an editor of anthologies myself that reading other authors’ work can teach a lot about what brings the reader into a story and what kicks them out. I was all in from the beginning to the end. The first story, “A Song Left Behind in the Aztakea Hills,” has many of my favorite elements in it: Jack Kerouac, bars, musicians, ghosts, and space-time continuum. The writing style was smooth and made me feel like I was watching a movie, not reading words. Not surprising, since I’ve read Chambers before and always felt like I was in the hands of a pro—a real storyteller. Chambers lives in NYC and incorporates a kaleidoscope of humanselationships in his stories, which I particularly enjoyed, keeps it interesting. The storylines and voices are so varied I had to keep reminding myself one author wrote them (unless he’s working a multiple personality thingy!). The stories take place everywhere: cities, small towns, in the country, a carnival in Oklahoma and a village in Africa. He even plays with alternate reality through journal entries where there are places called Government Lethal Chambers (is it my imagination or is there some hidden message in the word Chambers?). He revisits the land of Kolchak (his previously published graphic novel, Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe, won an HWA Bram Stoker Award®) with “Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Lost Boy,” another story written so visually I felt like I was watching an episode of the show. There wasn’t one story I didn’t love, some warped standouts were “Mnemonicide” (yes, break down the title—that’s what the story is about); “Living/Dead” (a unique take on the concept); “The Driver, Under a Cheshire Moon” (um, you should just read this story and summarize it yourself). The poet in me (I see you, James Chambers) was jazzed about the titles: “The Many Hands inside the Mountain,” “The Chamber of Last Earthly Delights,” and “A Wandering Blackness.” If you’ve ever met Chambers, he’s such a nice, civil person; clearly someone channeling all his demons and weirdness through writing, especially this book. There’s some seriously twisted tales here: turning the kid’s game, Marco Polo, into a path to madness and violence; a good samaritan’s innocence doesn’t protect him from human-shaped demons spinning a web; being pregnant doesn’t create safety either; the spirit of evil in an abusive mother doesn’t just die when she does; and the unraveling goes on. Now it’s your turn to let his tales, aka movies, blaze behind your eyes…have at it! —Linda D. Addison, award-winning author of How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend and HWA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient