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The Reading Lessons
Many years ago, when the world and I were both more innocent, I attended a performance of Maxwell Anderson’s “The Bad Seed” and remember being shaken by the concept of an innately evil child. Carole Lanham’s “The Reading Lessons” evokes a similarly chilling response, as Lucinda introduces her willing victim Hadley to a new twist in literary explorations. They begin, prosaically enough, by sharing the “naughty bits” in Lucinda’s books. Hoping to retain and perhaps escalate Lucinda’s interest, a mesmerized Hadley seeks ever more thrilling books to share. Reading can be hazardous to your health; I’m afraid Hadley may not survive the next one.
Janice Clark
Tangent
“The Reading Lessons” by Carole Lanham is up and I have to admit it’s one of my favorites in the issue. The prose is light and fun, and the story mixes some pitch-black moments with the child-like joy and naiveté of the main characters to create an atmosphere that’s well, just plain fun. And really creepy.
Jeremiah Sturgill
Son and Foe 2005
Among the short stories I quite liked Carole Lanham's creepy "The Reading Lessons", about a boy and his unusual childhood girlfriend.
Rich Horton
The Speculative Literature Foundation 2005
The Moribund Room
History is Dead 2007
A remarkable study of the zombie-condition traced back to its original vector, an infected mammoth,
that unwittingly shambled across the primeval hunting grounds of our ancient ancestors and into infamy,
History is Dead tracks mankind's most gruesome affliction asit spreads, raising our dead across the continents,
bridging cultures, and shedding light on ancient mysteries, like the Celtic peat bog-mummies in
"The Gingerbread Man", and crossing paths with iconic greatness, in "The Loaned Ranger" and "The Summer
of 1816". The zombie proves itself to be an effective weapon of war, in "The Barrow Maid", as well as a lover worth
dying for, in Carole Lanham's wonderfully necrotic zombie-romance, "The Moribund Room". A brilliant theme and an
outstanding collection, History is Dead may arguably be one of the most noteworthy horror anthologies of 2007,
and surely a contender for this year's Stoker Award nominations.
Mike Norris
February 7, 2008
“The Moribund Room” by Carol Lanham first appeared in History is Dead, a wonderful anthology of historical
zombie tales. The dark love story, heavy on the morbid, holds up to multiple readings and the prose still holds magic
after all is illuminated.
Michelle Lee’s Book Love
Review of Apex Magazine
November 2008
No one is getting my copy of this book. It has heartbreak and humor and horror and history. I adore it.
I never considered myself a zombie fan until I read History is Dead and now I'm hooked. I highly recommend
History is Dead to all horror fans, whether they are zombie lovers or not. I do hope that there is a sequel,
which I will snap up with equal eagerness.
Michele
Goodreads.com
Cleopatra's Needle
Bound in Skin 2007
Cleopatra's Needle is the most distinctive of the collection. It tells the story of Ryder and Delia,
childhood best friends in Wales who are separated when Ryder's father decides to start a new life in Ohio.
Delia waits patiently for Ryder to make his fortune and send for her, but when he finally invites her to visit,
she arrives to find he has had a brutal ordeal with three witches. This is a genuinely creepy and original story,
as well as being the most sexually charged of the collection.
Jessie Nash
GUD Magazine
The highlights of the anthology for me were Alicia Blade's "The Phantom of Linkshire Manor",
a ghost story with an M.R. James sensibility, and Carole Lanham's "Cleopatra's Needle", a genuinely
touching story of love, for better or worse, with the flavor of a folktale.
Sarah Totten
The Good Part
Trunk Stories 2005
Reprinted at Tales of Moreauvia 2008
“There were passages that seized me, trapping me in a dreamlike state. I loved it."
Barry J. House for
Whispers of Wickedness
"TRUNK STORIES is lovely, with equal attention paid to art, design, and quirky, dark fiction.
The highlight was Carole Lanham's
wonderful vampire story, The Good Part (honorable mention)."
Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2006
The fiction content opens with my personal favourite, The Good Part by Carole Lanham. This, the
longest tale by far, is simply yet powerfully told from the twelve-year-old main protagonist’s point of view.
Set in the old American west, the plot, centering on the struggles between a boy and his vampire sister,
quickly sucked me in (excuse the pun, heh, heh). But really, there were certain passages in there that
seized me, trapping me in a dreamlike state as if merely reading the tale might be enough to turn me into
somekind of submissive half-vampire. I loved it.
In my opinion it is well worth buying the magazine for this one story, alone.
Barry J. House for
Whispers of Wickedness
Trunk Stories is an attractive magazine with almost quarto sized paper and black and white artwork.
Some of the illustrations in the magazine are like something out of an old children’s book, from the forties
or fifties, or even earlier.
Review by Kara Kellar Bell
The New Review Lit Mag
The strongest work in issue 3 has to be the first, Carole Lanham’s ‘The Good Part’, which features
a strange and devoted pair of siblings, a brother and sister, who are still sharing a bed well into their teens.
Etta is the oldest, and has been sickly all of her life, owing to premature birth. They stay with their grandfather
since their mother died after Gidion was born and their father was killed later in an accident.They live on a
farm in Wisconsin, and the story opens on Etta trying to bite into Gidion’s arm. It soon becomes clear that
Etta is a vampire, though the word is never used. Lanham avoids just about every cliché there is relating to vampirism
and the setting of the story also makes for a refreshing take. Etta has gone from frail to incredibly strongafter the
family received a visit from a mysterious stranger who camped camped overnight in their field. After that, Etta
demands herbrother’s blood, but he’s a reluctant victim, which seems to displease her. She blackmails him by
threatening to feed on others,and an old lady is indeed killed. Gidion feels he has to go along with her, but he’s also
in love with the local minister’s daughter, and hopes to marry her when he’s sixteen. He courts her after church,
but Etta soon throws a spanner in the works by inviting herself along to a picnic. Etta wants to convert Gidion,
like she’s been changed, but he doesn’t want it. He worries that she’ll hurt the girl he loves, and in the end,
though she doesn’t succeed in converting Gidion, she does get her revenge twice over. ‘The Good Part’ is a story
that deserves to be reprinted in one of the annual ‘Best of…’ anthologies. The relationship between the siblings,
though not incestuous in the usual respect, is unhealthy and smothering. But the narrative voice lends a lightness
to the story’s telling, which contrasts with the darkness of its content.
SFRevu
Jan 2005
"The Good Part" by Carole Lanham is a chilling little tale about how a little boy handles things when his sister
starts sucking people's blood. This was as good as any story I have read in a professional publication.
SFRevu
Jan 2006
Carole Lanham's 'The Good Part', the longest story, is part vampire tale and part the story of kids growing up
isolated in the hicks, their dreams, fears, loves, hates, and fantasy fulfilments being closer to reality than in most
people's lives. This is a convincing story, well told and deeply unsettling, the youth of the protagonists lending both
an unreal quality and notes of tragedy. Not an easy read, at the end of the day, but a worthwhile one.
The Future Fire
Maxwell Treat’s Museum of Torture for Young Girls and Boys
The first place winner of the most recent On The Premises short story contest, Carole Lanham’s
“Maxwell Treat’s Museum of Torture for Young Girls and Boys,” is a heartstopping and original piece of work.
Here’s the intro:
“If you turn the lever the wrong way, you’ll hear a click and a pitchfork will swoop down and skewer your big
dumb head like a meatball,” Maxwell Treat said, pointing to the La-Z-Boy recliner cordoned off with hot-pink
jump ropes in the back of the museum. Lumbar support aside, the machine was pure Spanish Inquisition.
“You’ll hear a click if you turn the lever the right way too, only the buckle will snap open and you’ll get to go free.”
“Which way is the right way?” Hayden asked. At the time, Maxwell only smiled. “Hop in and find out.”
That was two weeks ago.
Two weeks ago, Hayden Finch had no intention of putting Max’s chair to the test. But sometimes things change.
Sometimes a boy can’t help but find himself with a pitch fork aimed at his big dumb head,
and no way out but to make a choice.
It maintains a comic tone that I think serves to emphasis serious themes of choice and loss. As often happens,
I worry that saying much more will ruin the story, since much of the tension for me depended on not knowing
anything about what to expect. I will say that Lanham delivers on every promise she makes in this intro.
Well worth reading.
The Fork in the Road
November 2008
Keepity Keep
Another good year for a strong literary fantasy oriented production… Carole Lanham's "Keepity Keep"
is a sweet and amusing story of a fairy and the brothers who make friends with her as a child, only to,
perhaps, forget her has they grow older.
The Elephant Forgets
Summary of Fantasy Magazine for 2008
"Keepity Keep" by Carole Lanham initially appears to be a gentle tale of imaginary friends and growing up,
perhaps intended for younger readers, but is more than it seems. The imaginative Turnbull brothers-confident,
handsome Alban and serious, pensive Gage-meet a Wingwee named Petaloo with a chameleon-like talent for
blending into her surroundings. She helps them collect things for their memory book and tries to keep their
competitiveness and jealousy over her in check. The boys begin to grow up, though. Alban starts to bring girls
to the garden, much to Petaloo's dismay. But the appearance of a mysterious note will prove to be the real threat.
"Keepity Keep" is enchanting. It reads like a bedtime story of the best kind, with sly asides to the grownup
reader and imaginative language that captures the joy of discovery. Lanham cleverly lulls the reader into a false
sense of security, of comfort in knowing where the narrative is going, until it turns suddenly and there is the
ending-surprising, yet heartbreakingly inevitable just the same.
Kimberly Lundstrom
The Fix
"Fork in the Road" image
courtesy of, PDIimages.com
Home Sweet Home·
About the Wife·
Body of Work·
The Accolades·
From the Kitchen
Cocktails Anyone?·
The Apron Hall of Fame·
About Carole Lanham
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