by John Maclay
Contents
COPYRIGHT INFO
A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
BOOKS BY ARDATH MAYHAR
INTRODUCTION: ARDATH MAYHAR, EAST TEXAS MAGICIAN, by Joe R. Lansdale
FIDO IS A LOVING BEAST
A HARPING OF WATERS
A PAINTERLY EFFECT
THE WEAPON
GRYPHON’S NEST
THE FORGING OF FEAR
WHO ACCUSES THIS WOMAN?
A SHIMMER OF BLACKNESS
THE NEXT GENERATION
INDULGENCES
HUNTING TRUCE
FUNGI
THE POWER THAT PRESERVES
RATINGS WAR
SOLO PERFORMANCE
THE CHILDREN BENEATH THE STONES
CONCERTO
THE DIG
A NIGHT IN POSSUM HOLLER
THE TUCK AT THE FOOT OF THE BED
THE EAGLE CLAW RATTLE
THROUGH THE PADDED DOOR
THE AFFAIR OF THE MIDNIGHT MIDGET
CRAWFISH
AUNT DOLLY
THE CREEK, IT DONE RIZ
JIGSAW
THE ANTHOLOGIST
THE PISTOLEER
POWDER RIVER HIDEOUT
TRAPLINE
A COLD WAY HOME
NIGHT OF THE COUGAR
LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE
WHISTLE IN THE WIND
HEAVY, HEAVY HANGS OVER YOUR HEAD
WELCOME THE ANGLOS
COLD TEARS, COLD STONE
The MEGAPACK® Ebook Series
COPYRIGHT INFO
The Ardath Mayhar MEGAPACK® is copyright © 2009 by Ardath Mayhar. Originally published as Crazy Quilt: The Best Short Stories of Ardath Mayhar. All rights reserved.
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The MEGAPACK® ebook series name is a trademark of Wildside Press, LLC. All rights reserved.
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“Introduction: Ardath Mayhar, East Texas Magician” copyright © 2009 by Joe R. Lansdale.
“Fido Is a Loving Beast” was first published in Sorcerer’s Apprentice in 1984.
“A Harping of Waters” was first published in Dark Regions #4 in 1991.
“A Painterly Effect” was first published in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, Autumn 1996.
“The Weapon” was first published in Excalibur, ed. by Richard Gilliam, Martin H. Greenberg, and Edward E. Kramer, Warner Aspect, 1993.
“Gryphon’s Nest” was first published in Dragon Magazine #183, July 1992.
“The Forging of Fear” was first published in Dragon Magazine in 1985.
“Who Accuses This Woman?” was first published in Owlflight in 1981.
“A Shimmer of Blackness” was first published in Dark Regions #4 in 1991.
“The Next Generation” was first published in Fantastic Collectibles #117, July 1993.
“Indulgences” was first published in Midnight Zoo, Vol. 3, #5, 1993.
“Hunting Truce” was first published in Fiction Magazine in 1974.
“Fungi” was first published in Redshift, edited by Al Sarrantonio, Roc, 2001.
“The Power That Preserves” was first published in New Pathways in SF #16, July 1990.
“Ratings War” was first published in Espionage Magazine, 1987.
“Solo Performance” was first published in Bloodrake #8, 1982.
“The Children Beneath the Stones” was first published in Eldritch Tales #27, 1992.
“Concerto” was first published in Weirdbook #30, Spring 1997.
“The Dig” was first published in Borderland #3 in 1985.
“A Night in Possum Holler” was first published in After Midnight, edited by Charles L. Grant, Tor, 1986.
“The Tuck at the Foot of the Bed” was first published in The Twilight Zone, May/June, 1983.
“The Eagle Claw Rattle” was first published in Mummy! edited by Bill Pronzini, Arbor House, 1980.
“Through the Padded Door” was first published in Night Voyages in 1984.
“The Affair of the Midnight Midget” was first published in The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes in 1989.
“Crawfish” was first published in Psychological Perspectives in 1971, and reprinted in Alfred Hitchcock’s Stories to Be Read with the Lights On in 1973.
“Aunt Dolly” was first published in Dark at Heart, edited by Joe R. Lansdale and Karel Lansdale, Dark Harvest, 1992.
“The Creek, It Done Riz” was first published in Cold Blood, edited by Richard T. Chizmar, Mark V. Ziesing, 1991.
“Jigsaw” was first published in Hardboiled Magazine in 1996.
“The Anthologist” was first published in Blood Review in 1990.
“Crowheart” was first published in Western Digest in 1998.
“The Pistoleer” was first produced as a dramatic radio reading by PEN Syndicated Fiction Project in 1990.
“Powder River Hideout” was first published in Western Digest in 1998.
“Trapline” was first published in Razored Saddles, edited by Joe R. Lansdale and Pat LoBrutto, Doubleday, 1989.
“A Cold Way Home” was first published in The New Frontier, edited by Joe R. Lansdale, Doubleday, 1989.
“Night of the Cougar” was first published in Best of the West, edited by Joe R. Lansdale, Doubleday, 1986.
“Like Mother Used to Make” was first published in Horizons West, August 1990.
“Whistle in the Wind” is published here for the first time.
“Heavy, Heavy Hangs Over Your Head” was first published in Recording Arts and Letters (magazine of Stephen F. Austin State University), 1992.
“Welcome the Anglos” was first published in a Spanish language anthology in 1994.
“Cold Tears, Cold Stone” was first published in Impressions in 1988.
A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
I corresponded with Ardath Mayhar (by mail—long before the Internet) for several decades before I finally met her. She was a fixture in Texas fandom for years, a beloved grandmother to everyone she met. She wrote novels, short stories, articles. The one time I met her, I enjoyed some tall tales of Texas and armadillos...and you know what? Not a single one of them could be disproved!
I know you’ll find plenty of both in these tales, tall and otherwise.
Enjoy!
—John Betancourt
Publisher, Wildside Press LLC
www.wildsidepress.com
ABOUT THE SERIES
Over the last few years, our MEGAPACK® ebook series has grown to be our most popular endeavor. (Maybe it helps that we sometimes offer them as premiums to our mailing list!) One question we keep getting asked is, “Who’s the editor?”
The MEGAPACK® ebook series (except where specifically credited) are a group effort. Everyone at Wildside works on them. This includes John Betancourt (me), Carla Coupe, Steve Coupe, Shawn Garrett, Helen McGee, Bonner Menking, Sam Cooper, Helen McGee and many of Wildside’s authors…who often suggest stories to include (and not just their own!)
RECOMMEND A FAVORITE STORY?
Do you know a great classic science fiction story, or have a favorite author whom you believe is perfect for the MEGAPACK® ebook series? We’d love your suggestions! You can post them on our message board at http://wildsidepress.forumotion.com/ (there is an area for Wildside Press comments).
Note: we only consider stories that have already been professionally published. This is not a market for new works.
TYPOS
; Unfortunately, as hard as we try, a few typos do slip through. We update our ebooks periodically, so make sure you have the current version (or download a fresh copy if it’s been sitting in your ebook reader for months.) It may have already been updated.
If you spot a new typo, please let us know. We’ll fix it for everyone. You can email the publisher at [email protected] or use the message boards above.
BOOKS BY ARDATH MAYHAR
The Absolutely Perfect Horse: A Novel of East Texas (with Marylois Dunn)
The Body in the Swamp: An Occult Mystery
Carrots and Miggle: A Novel of East Texas
The Clarrington Heritage
Closely Knit in Scarlatt
Crazy Quilt: The Best Short Stories of Ardath Mayhar, Intro. by Joe R. Lansdale
Deadly Memoir: A Novel of Suspense
Death in the Square
The Door in the Hill: A Tale of the Turnipins
The Dropouts: A Tale of Growing Up in East Texas
Feud at Sweetwater Creek: A Novel of the Old West
The Fugitives: A Tale of Prehistoric Times
The Heirs of Three Oaks: A Novel of the Old West
High Mountain Winter: A Novel of the Old West
How the Gods Wove in Kyrannon: Tales of the Triple Moons
Hunters of the Plains: A Novel of Prehistoric America
Island in the Lake: A Novel of Native America
Khi to Freedom: A Science Fiction Novel
The Lintons of Skillet Bend: A Novel of East Texas
Lone Runner: A Novel of the Old West
Lords of the Triple Moons: A Science Fantasy Novel: Tales of the Triple Moons
Makra Choria: A Novel of High Fantasy
Medicine Dream: Being the Further Adventures of Burr Henderson
Messengers in White: A Science Fantasy Novel
Monkey Station: A Novel of the Future (Macaque Cycle #1; with Ron Fortier)
People of the Mesa: A Novel of Native America
A Planet Called Heaven: A Science Fiction Novel
Prescription for Danger: A Novel of the Old West
Reflections; & Journey to an Ending: Collected Poems
A Road of Stars: A Fantasy of Life, Death, Love, and Art
Runes of the Lyre: A Science Fantasy Novel
The Saga of Grittel Sundotha: A Science Fantasy Novel
The Seekers of Shar-Nuhn: Tales of the Triple Moons
Shock Treatment: An Account of Granary’s War
Slewfoot Sally and the Flying Mule: Tall Tales from Cotton County, Texas
Soul-Singer of Tyrnos: A Fantasy Novel
Strange Doings in the Pine Hills: Stories
Through a Stone Wall: Lessons from Thirty Years of Writing
Timber Pirates: A Novel of East Texas (with Marylois Dunn)
Towers of the Earth: A Novel of Native America
Trail of the Seahawks: A Novel of the Future (Macaque Cycle #2; with R. Fortier)
The Tulpa: A Novel of Fantasy
Two-Moons and the Black Tower: A Novel of Fantasy
Vendetta
Warlock’s Gift: Tales of the Triple Moons
The World Ends in Hickory Hollow: A Novel of the Future
A World of Weirdities: Tales to Shiver By
INTRODUCTION: ARDATH MAYHAR, EAST TEXAS MAGICIAN, by Joe R. Lansdale
Ardath Mayhar is a neglected writer, and that is criminal. She is one of those born storytellers and natural writers who has done so much so well, that it is easy to take her for granted. It’s like assuming the Statue of Liberty will always stand and that we can see it at anytime. The problem is, there is no statue to Ardath. Until now. This book is her statue. Cherish it.
She can write anything, and she can write it with great panache. She is one of my favorite writers of all time, and I’m especially fond of her short stories, which is the point of this collection, to introduce her to new readers, and to give already established fans a chance to reacquaint themselves with old favorites, to reunite with the magic that is Ardath Mayhar’s work; to visit a Statue of Liberty of fine storytelling and to come away with good memories of the visit. And with this book now in existence, it’s a site to which we can return again and again, taking in all of its wonder and magical goodness.
Ardath reminds me a bit of Mark Twain, or of more modern ilk, Manly Wade Wellman. She is perhaps most noted for her SF in the long form (please find The World Ends at Hickory Hollow—it’s great!) and in the short form for her horror stories. But these recognitions, though nice, do not do her justice. Like all labels they leave out a lot of the things she has written, and try to box up everything else into a couple of small containers. They do not take into account the genre-bending work, the articles and essays and opinion pieces she has written. There aren’t enough boxes to cover what she had written, and if there were enough boxes, I can assure you, they would be overfilled and leaking out from under the lids.
Ardath is also an excellent writer of western and suspense and crime and mystery tales, and one of my favorite kinds of stories, the East Texas story. These are stories that can be considered tall tales about our region, or she may take another avenue where the stories are about everyday life in East Texas, then and now. Sometimes the two types of stories are pretty darn close to the same thing.
If ever there was a place that gave birth and housed a group of bigger-than-life individuals, it would be East Texas, sometimes referred to by the more timid Texans of the heartland and the southern and western and northern parts of Texas, as being “Behind the Pine Curtain.”
This is true. Ardath is here to tell you about it. If you have not read her, then might I say that this collection of her varied works, many of which I had the privilege of hearing read at our East Texas writer’s meetings that took place just about every month for twenty years or more, is here to enlighten you.
The writer’s group has faded into obscurity now, many of the participants having moved off or grown old, a few dead and long gone, but once upon a time, in those great days of East Texas Camelot, it was aces, my friends. A meeting place for all kinds of ideas and criss-crossing worlds, much of it Deep Fried, Baptized, Crucified and Sanctified, rat-killed, dog-bit, and just plain old odd.
Many of its members were published writers of fiction or non-fiction, or they wrote poetry. Ardath and I were, to the best of my memory, the only full-time writers in the group, and I can tell you, when Ardath brought a story to read, we all listened with enthusiasm.
You never knew what she was going to do.
Her stories, like the best of the stories I enjoy, came out of left field, and my favorites of her work came from beyond the stadium, flying in on dark wings. There was often a folksy angle to her work that I greatly enjoyed, she and I having grown up years apart, but, really, in not too different times and circumstances.
Her stories generally have an East Texas taste, or after-taste, even if she’s writing about places and people far removed from here, but even then, I can sense East Texas in her stories about other places and other worlds. It writhes snake-like under the blankets of her prose. She brings the unique character of our region to her work, and has been long neglected for her contributions to Texas writings.
She has certainly been an influence on me, and it is mostly due to one story.
Once upon a time my wife and I were truck croppers in Starrville, Texas, and I was a would-be writer. I had actually written and sold some non-fiction, but fiction was my love, and my dream of being a full-time writer had been with me almost since my arrival from the womb; well, I was aware of it by the time I discovered crayons and pencils—soon as I had those in my hands, I wanted to write. Fact was, I couldn’t contain myself. I didn’t pick it, it picked me, and my muse is a brutal lady, and for many years she chased me up one hill and down another, cracking a whip.
>
I guess most dedicated writers feel that way.
The bottom line was, I had to write.
I tried writing the kinds of stories I read in magazines, and certainly I learned much from the effort, but one day I was looking through a collection of stories in an anthology of offbeat crime tales, one of those many volumes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents that were so popular in the nineteen seventies, and I came across a short story by a writer I had never heard of. Because the name, Ardath, was unusual, it stuck with me, and because the last name, Mayhar, reminded me of the villainous winged reptiles in Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Pellucidar series, I was driven to read the story.
It may be funny reasoning, but, there you have it.
I also, perhaps because the name was not one I associated with the feminine, assumed the writer was male; could be that was male chauvinism on my part, though I like to think not. But somehow I didn’t associate Ardath with a female name anymore than I originally associated Flannery O’Conner with a female or Harper Lee with a female or Carson McCullers with a female.
Anyway, I read her story in the anthology, “Crawfish,” and it was about this man who had committed a murder and was haunted by what the crawfish might be doing to the discarded body he had placed in the water. It had a kind of Robert Bloch feel to it (another favorite writer of mine), but it had something Bloch’s work did not, something no genre writer I was reading had. She was writing about the world I knew: East Texas. I remember almost letting out a whoop as I realized where the story was taking place, and feeling even more satisfied when I realized the voice in the story was authentic, that she knew of what she wrote. This was my world, my little spot in the universe, and she had nailed it. And now that the nail was in the wall, I hung my pictures on it.
Yes, dear readers. Reading that one story changed my life.
It is still a favorite of mine.
And another thing: I knew upon reading this little gem that I could write about my own world then. I had been given permission and the truth had set me free. I knew, because of Ardath Mayhar, that I could and would bring the elements of my life into my fiction and that it would be the better for it.
A little later my wife, Karen, and I moved to Nacogdoches, Texas. One of the first people I met there was, you guessed it, Ardath Mayhar. We hit it off immediately and have been fast friends ever since. She’s like an aunt to me, and I love her dearly. But if I did not, if I didn’t know her at all, I would write a glowing introduction to her work, would shout to you from the rooftops: