The Man in the Black Suit

[Abbot]

I think things like this do happen.
I still believe I saw the Devil or something near it when I so young I was barely able to talk.
I wrote about it in another thread long ago, but it never left me.

Of course they do. I wrote up my story in the hope that others would come forward with theirs. I am sure that SK's story is, in essence, factual. Other people have had similar experiences. John Buchan recalls an experience that was a bit like mine. He did not actually see anything. The terror was real, but it was not centred on anything visible. It happened amid beautiful countryside, in a remote area.

Abbot

[Abbot]

I hope that you are wrong, though I fear that you may be right. My friend Sophie, who is French, says that the short story is alive and well in France. The French have a healthy respect for it. Many of their best writers have written volumes of 'contes' as they call short stories. Examples include Maupassant, Balzac and some modern masters. She thinks that there is a snobbish perception among 'les Anglo-Saxons' that short stories, like watercolor painting, are for amateurs. Serious writers write blockbusters! However the French are right! Watercolor painting is really much more difficult than painting in oils: You must get it right first time; you cannot paint over your mistakes. And writing a good short story is more demanding than writing a novel. It is a much more precise form. Perhaps for that reason, fewer and fewer people are attempting it.

[Seb Shaw]

I loved this shirt story, rather creepy, very entertaining and the bit about the bee :O I too am allergic to bees - not fatal though, so I was rather on edge at that part)

Short stories in the correct hands (and pen/computer/pencil) are alive and well. Just look at the amount of success King has achieved from them
As for your short story abbot, It was very good, keep up the great work

[patc1325]

Abbot:

You are absolutely correct. A well written short story is art and if anyone has tried to write one then you know that they are not easy.

[daddyrichie]

As I said in the Night Shift thread, I've really struggled to be pulled in to this book as much as I was in Night Shift but I absolutely loved this story, I was genuinely scared and was running up the bank with the kid (the name has escaped me) 1 of the best short stories I've ever read