Tempered Tin

FOREWARD One might wonder about my purpose for concocting Gothic short stories about 19th century tin photographs, long ago so popular worldwide. I was enticed by the challenge of imagining the events in the depicted subjects' lives which wrought changes or drove them to startling, sometimes horrifying acts. This challenge provided the stimulus for my creating these new tales and those in my previous book TIN TALES (2013). In the following stories, I present my interpretations of these photographs employing various literary styles (first person/second person, prose/poetry), varying locales (the U. S., Europe, even Africa), different ethnic and gender types. An undercurrent of magic and evil flows through these pages like the ripples of Styx. A harlequin, a faun, a velocipede, a sculptor, a paralyzed boy, a hunted buffalo, and a snake charmer are my subjects. Animals, including horses, dogs, pythons, buffaloes, and assorted African veld creatures, participate in the plots. Success is a nebulous and subjective concept; but my hopes (i.e. "purpose") are to enthrall, thrill, frighten, and mystify the reader and to stimulate an awareness of these long-deceased ancestors, who may have dwelled in their own "Twilight Zone."