While pulling together the files for an upcoming paperback edition of These Words Are Haunted, which is currently only available as an extremely expensive hardcover, it occurred to me I’ve written enough stories which are in one way or another homages that I could assemble a collection of them.

Here are the stories and the related authors.

Raymond Carver: “What We Still Talk About”

Charles L. Grant: “I Wish I Knew Where I Was Going”

Edgar Allan Poe: “The Trembling Living Wire”

Saki: “A Most Extraordinary Man”

William Shakespeare: “A Plague on Both Your Houses”

John Steinbeck: “Tell Me Like You Done Before”

Thornton Wilder: “Live People Don’t Understand”

In addition to those, there’s also a Shel Silverstein-inspired piece which should be out sometime soon, and could also be included.

As I think about the concept, some questions are—

Do I include “My Life is Good,” starring Randy Newman? Should a songwriter count? I think yes, but I’m not sure whether readers would agree.

How about “Goobers,” for which the inspiration wasn’t an individual author, but EC Comics as a whole? And “Fifth Dimension,” which was a tribute to Rod Serling? (As for “Stealing Alice,” I probably wouldn’t include it, even though the Alice of the title is Alice in Wonderland, because it was written so early in my career that I have no interest in seeing it in print again.)

Separate from the content questions, there’s also—do I seek a small-press publisher for this? Or put it out on my own as an ebook?

Hmmm …

Lots to think about. If you have any thoughts, please let me know.