Next New Photo Contest Winnre

See How Hooked You Are by Typos?

What I Love About a Project

Is how it narrows your focus for the duration. For instance, I keep picking up my paperback of The Shining and stumbling across details: The man who built the hotel lost his son in a riding accident on the property — which smells exactly like the first Mrs. Hill being killed in a carriage accident in the driveway of Hill House, right?¹ Another fraught detail is the suggestion that the Overlook Hotel was run as a brothel at some point. Stephen King doesn’t make much hay from that, does he? Will you?

Got a minute? You’ll find a jumble of videos about the Overlook Hotel and the Stanley Hotel, for better or worse. Personally, the book’s single reference to the cook, Dick Hallorann, sharing an apartment with his apprentice, Mr. Nevers… well, isn’t that cozy? His name alone, Mr. Nevers, sets off alarm bells.

To write a story for the Views From the Overlook anthology is a little like doing a House Call: You inventory all the elements in play — a rich bisexual guy who does furry play, okay? — and you look for a hidden pattern to showcase. We’re always looking for the profound, larger meaning behind events. This compulsion is almost theological. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? There are forty-two cars in the hotel’s parking lot, so of course the story is about Hitler.

All of which smells like Barth’s “literature of exhaustion.”

So Let’s Take a Break and Look at Some Photo Messages

These are from the photo posted Nov. 16th. The sad-eyed woman with the puzzling hairdo. See above. Among so many great proposed captions, these jumped out:

Frank Restaneo III: “Help me Obi wan, you’re my only hope.”²

Krissy Eliot: “You are in deep trouble.”³

Francis: “Likes to pre-taste the Halloween candy.”

Eric Iversen: “Going to eat whoever finds my picture.”

Logan the Lobotomizer: “Loyal as a beaten dog.”

Atticus Blake: “Radium Dial Company Ottawa, Illinois”⁴

Logan the Lobotomizer: “Bait”

Kimberly: “Forget what you saw.”⁵

Wyatt Mischler: “She's different when we're alone.”

And the Winner Is

Atticus Blake: “Radium Dial Company Ottawa, Illinois”

Nothing like a little research. Finding this will feel like finding a note in a bottle tossed from the Titanic. Girl = Doomed. The paper itself might seem tainted with radioactivity, and the book. The reader who finds this… their whole life will be like this, “Thelma is cooked!”

Atticus, please let me know how to inscribe the book, and where to send it. You can deliver the information via The Cult. For a faster response, post it below, and I’ll delete your info as soon as I see it appear.

1. At the 0:30 mark.

2. This made me laugh, but I thought only paid subscribers were allowed to post…? That’s how this is set up. I love your Comments, but I still have to pay for prizes and shipping.

3. Are you still dating Utah? Camas misses you.

4. Okay, that made my heart hurt a little.

5. I can already see the worried look on some mother’s face as she says, “Give me that. It doesn’t mean anything.”