POED — yes the name POE used as a verb in the past tense — is the third of Candy’s Monsters. I plan to publish this electronic novella before the end of 2012.
POED is set at The Usher Clinic for the Criminally Insane. It is located on the far west side of Manhattan, overlooking the river by the Christopher Street Pier. The story is told entirely in the voice of the clinic’s Director of Psychiatric Services in a conversation with a tabloid reporter. POED draws from the famous Edgar Allen Poe canon of stories, but transforms and translates them into contemporary tales.
The following snippet from the unfinished manuscript was inspired by one of Poe’s most famous stories, ‘The Cask of Amontillado.’
He watched the swindler swirl and sniff, raising the glass to his lips with a smile. It was only then, that William stepped back, slipping out of the cellar and shutting the man inside. Through the all-but ‘sound-proofed’ door, William listened to the desperate cries of the other man, the pounding on the door, the begging and pleading and the wail of ultimate despair.
With air enough for an hour or so, Fortunato may have suffocated in the darkness with his bottle of fake vintage wine or he might have panicked, hastening his death with a fear-induced heart attack. We will never know. William went upstairs to greet his guests and serve them an impressive array of vintage Riojas. He gave each one a bottle as a parting gift. The subject of Fortunato was discussed. William said he’d expected the investment maven to arrive a bit late, but when he never showed the party went on without him, two flights of stairs above Fortunato’s tomb.
Oh! Now this is a real teaser. Is William a real psychopath? The ‘monster’ in The Mary Shelley Game seemed to have some emotional capacity but William appears to have none, at least so far. Can hardly wait to learn more about him!
You have a while to wait for POED. I’m just doing the first draft now. The trip to Richmond (one of Poe’s hometowns and the site of one of the better Poe museums) was inspirational, but I have a long way to go when it comes to William and the other monsters…
Awesome choice of short stories from Poe! Revenge, murder, wine = a great story! 🙂 I can’t wait to see how you work out the character of William. Will you change things up and have a part of Poe’s personal life and his “evil” be a part of the character of William or will you keep the character close to the original of Montresor? I can’t wait to see how this turns out – I’m excited!!!
I won’t reveal how I’m getting there — let’s just say there’s POE in them, there hills. (And in the stories, too.)