About seventy-five percent of the world is covered in water - and of that water nearly ninety-seven percent of it can be found in the sea. Maritimers will tell you that there is a story for every wave that has ever washed upon the shoreline.
Here are seven of them.
"In the Dark and the Deep" offers a very haunting yarn of World War 2 convoy duty and a sailor who made and kept a terrible bargain.
"Harry's Mermaid" introduces you to a group of homeless men who catch something that MIGHT be a mermaid. If that doesn't tell you enough about this story just try and imagine what Steinbeck's CANNERY ROW would read like if it had been written by HP Lovecraft.
"I Know Why The Waters of the Sea Taste of Salt" is a tale of an Okinawa-based Japanese Air Force suicide pilot and his encounter with a sea monster - of sorts.
"Finbar's Story" is a dark fantasy tale of the deeper currents that eddy and flow within the deep quiet currents of a man's cold heart.
"The Woman Who Lost Her Tooth From Laughing Too Loudly At The Sea" is a quiet little fable of salt water, tears and regret.
"Between You-Know-Who and the Deep Dark Blue" is a story of the last bargain on earth.
This collection begins with a bargain and ends with a bargain - which sounds like a heck of a bargain to me.
"If Harlan Ellison, Richard Matheson and Robert Bloch had a three-way sex romp in a hot tub, and then a team of scientists came in and filtered out the water and mixed the leftover DNA into a test tube, the resulting genetic experiment would most likely grow up into Steve Vernon." - Bookgasm
Sales are fairly steady. The mermaid cover appears to be VERY popular.
IN THE DARK AND THE DEEP
It happened that fast.
A torpedo track, furrowing the water, passed straight abaft of our corvette, the Thistle. There was a muffled crump of impact. A mere seventy-five yards away from us, the tanker Cassandra settled and tilted, taking on water fast.
“Man the depth charges,” our captain sang out.
The order was instinctive and unnecessary. Men already stood by, ready to roll the fat deadly barrels from the stern rail. The crews of the port and starboard throwers launched another pair of depth charges into their high carved arcs. We spread the charges out as widely as possible, knowing that the U-boat would already be on the move, trying to evade our certain retaliation.
The depth charges were a blind luck measure. They sank slowly, giving the U-boat a lot of time to escape. It was almost impossible to aim them, and the hulls of the U-boats were so solid that only a near-direct hit would have any effect, but they panicked the U-boat crew, and more importantly, they gave our crew the much-needed feeling of accomplishment.
The asdic crew hunkered beneath their headsets, knowing full well that the rough water and the impact from the depth charges’ undersea explosions rendered their listening gear nearly useless.
We were aiming blind, as usual.
Fumes of petrol coiled up from the tanker like slow blue snakes curling hypnotically through the air. I saw the captain frozen at the helm for less than half of a second, his mind warring between trying to save the crew of the Cassandra or else hunting the U-boat.
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French
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Already translated.
Translated by Vieru Raluca Maria
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Italian
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Already translated.
Translated by Carmelo Massimo Tidona
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Portuguese
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Already translated.
Translated by Patrício L. Guimarães
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Gabriela Miranda
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Author review: Splendid work. |
