Free Fiction: The Hollow Man

We’ll be updating the Free Fiction section over at my website shortly. If you haven’t had a chance to read the current story, “The Hollow Man,” you’ll want to do that soon.

“The Hollow Man” most recently appeared in S. T. Joshi’s fine anthology from Penguin Classics, American Supernatural Tales. As I mentioned on the website, this story was written during a time when I was just beginning to find my way as a writer. Fact is, I think it may be the first really solid piece of work I turned out. I was in college when I wrote it –- and (as a reader) still making my first trip through the strongest tales from the Lovecraft/Howard era of weird fictioneers. And I’d probably be remiss if I didn’t mention that Jack London had a little bit to do with it, too -- I’ve always loved “To Build a Fire,” not to mention some of London’s own weird tales. Anyway, put all that on the boil, and “The Hollow Man” is what cooked up in my brainpan.

While I’m at it: I hope you’ll enjoy the accompanying illustration as much as I do. It’s the work of a talented young gun, Kevin Nordstrom, who did a great illo of the October Boy for the website a couple years ago at Halloween. Kevin’s done covers for Marvel’s Epic Comics line and concept art for Wildstorm Comics, not to mention graphic art work for newspapers and custom design companies. In the coming months, he’ll be illustrating some other Norm Partridge stories over at the website. Enjoy!