Often the most powerful and moving stories are generated by writers who return time and again to a particular idea, theme, or image. Obsession in a writer’s imagination can lead to accomplishment or to self-destruction. Consider Poe and his pale, dead bride; his fascination with confinement and mortality; his illness and premature death. Or Flannery O’Connor’s far less soul-crushing fondness for peacocks. Some writers pay a high price for their obsessions, while others maintain a crucial distance. Whichever the case, obsessions can produce compelling fiction.

Little Visible Delight is an anthology of original stories in which eleven authors of dark fiction explore some their most intimate, writerly obsessions.

Explore we did. My story, “Black Eyes Broken” is a dark little tale that was originally prompted by this photograph.

(Does anybody know who created it? It’s lovely and I’d love to give credit where credit is due.)

I always believed that writers write in order to discover what our obsessions are. This anthology leaves me feeling rather bare . It’s stripped us to the core. If you want to love your writers, then read them. My favorite part is where the authors reveal why they wrote what they did, and what their obsessions are. Take care of us. We’re fragile.

Have a wonderful night, everyone!