I’ve been reading a lot of Oz books (both the original L. Frank Baum works, and newer stuff by other authors) and Scarecrow stories the past few months, both as research for my ongoing dark Ozian romantic fantasy-in-progress (tentative title Straw Song), and just for fun. This particular chase through the cornfield has unearthed two absolute gems of short story anthologies, Shadows of the Emerald City (ed. by JW Schnarr), and Scarecrow (ed. by Rhonda Parrish). So what’s so awesome about them, you ask? Well, my friend, beyond the fact WHY ARE YOU EVEN ASKING, SCARECROW IS THE BEST, both contain a number of well-written tales worth a read. Even those weird Tin Man fans will find a few stories they’ll like. (I mean I’m not judging, but brains and crinkly hugs over a heart and a hard metal body any day.)
Let’s start with Shadows. The publisher is Northern Frights, 2009. If you’re not familiar with this indie house, they publish a number of excellent ghost tales and Northwoods/Great Lakes legend collections. Quite a few of their books helped me in research for Wendigogo. I did notice a few grammatical errors in this anthology which really should have been fixed before publication. For instance, “Scarecrow’s Sunrise” contains several incorrect uses of “it’s” instead of “its,” which shouldn't have slipped by the editor. Also, some formatting issues with the kindle edition that don’t exist in the paperback (I liked the anthology enough to buy the physical book after reading the ebook). That said, it's a wonderful collection.
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| Tin Man and Scarecrow had no idea what they were in for. |
Hilariously dark stories nuzzle affectionately next to truly bleak ones. Only a couple of them have anything like a happy ending, but fans of dark humor will find a few laughs here. The delightfully cannibalistic “Mr. Yoop’s Soup” (Michael Turner) plays with a little-known Oz monster and the canon idea that Ozians feel no pain due to an enchantment upon the entire land. By the inevitable, E.C. Comics-style ending of “Four A.M. at the Emerald City Windsor” (H.F. Gibbard), you can almost hear the Cryptkeeper’s cackle as the sleazy Wizard reaches his much-deserved fate.
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| Eee hee heee! |
Much darker are stories that play with the canon idea that no one in Oz can ever die, such as the sad and frightening “The Fuddles of Oz” (Mari Ness), or how horrifically a metal man with no heart would behave, as in “Tin” (Barry Napier). The genial Jack Pumpkinhead takes on a much more sinister aspect in “Pumpkinhead” (Rajan Khanna). Poor Scarecrow confronts his deeply flawed son in “The King of Oz” (Martin Rose). “Not in Kansas Anymore” (Lori T. Strongin) starts out feeling like one type of gritty alt-Oz story and morphs into something more fantastical by its end. It also features an heroic performance by Scarecrow as a voice of conscience and hope, which I loved.
The standout tale in this collection, “Dorothy of Kansas” (JW Schnarr), has haunted me for weeks. It is very much Cormac McCarthy’s The Road meets The Wizard of Oz. Flashes of humor give way to a relentlessly bleak narrative all from the Tin Man’s POV. I couldn’t stop reading it, despite the downward spiral into utter despair. Tin Man and Scarecrow trek through a burned-out, apocalyptic Oz seeking a savior. This is the story that will make you go hug your significant other or seek out a friend to talk to at dark-thirty. Powerful and very well done but just bleak af. You’ve been warned.
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| Not that Road. |
The Scarecrow anthology (World Weaver Press, 2015) contains fewer references to Oz than you’d think. Jane Yolen has a lovely poem, “Scarecrow Hangs,” which starts off the collection, and the ending story “If I Only Had an Autogenic Cognitive Decision Matrix” (Scott Burtness) makes sly reference to “The Wizard of Oz” film, with an unexpectedly hilarious and dark scifi turn. The tales in between deal with different kinds of scarecrows, with humor, horror, and love intermingled nicely.
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| Just the crinkliest, crunkliest stories ever. |
The standouts for me: “Kakashi & Crow” (Megan Fennell) is a beautiful blending of Native American myth about the trickster Crow having to team up with his adversary Kakashi, the Japanese Scarecrow spirit, to defeat a grim enemy in modern times. Even old gods can be killed. This reads like a supernatural buddy comedy with some bloody, serious sharp turns. “A Fist Full of Straw” (Kristina Wojtaszek), about a scarecrow enslaved to a wicked witch, and the desperate woman he meets on her regular grocery store runs, is beautiful and full of longing. Made me hug my little Scarecrow companion tight. “Black Birds” (Laura Blackwood) barely has a scarecrow in it and is more about the inner voices of depression and self-loathing, but it’s masterfully done and hits hard.
“Edith and I” (Virginia Carraway Stark), told from a scarecrow’s viewpoint through the seasons, is a wonderful bit of fantasy, and like several other tales in this collection plays with the concept of tulpas: when we imbue a created thing with personality, does it not then have a life and awareness of its own? (Absolutely yes, many created things have spirits, but I know other folks disagree.) “Waking from His Master’s Dream” (Katherine Marzinsky) is an odd bit of magical-realism where created ficciones take physical form, much to the dismay of those who prefer reality separate from imagination.
The only bones I have to pick with this collection are that the kindle edition has some formatting glitches, and the paperback cover in matte would have fared better as a glossy finish. (The matte finish, as I discovered with one of my own books, just feels sort of fabricky and wrong, and doesn’t display cover art to its best advantage.) I haven’t checked out any of editor Rhonda Parrish’s other collections, though Corvidae definitely sounds like a good addition to my nest.
If you know of other scarecrow (or Scarecrow) tales I should read, drop a rec in the comments or let me know over on the twitterverse (@gravewriter71)! Fantastical, horrific, erotic—I’ll read ‘em. (As a side note, yes there is scarecrow--and Scarecrow--erotica out there, and all but a couple of 'em are terrible and unimaginative. I will change that.)
Meanwhile I continue to scribble away on my own Scarecrow novel, romantic dark fantasy Straw Song, out for publication later this year. The Scarecrow of Oz comes to our world seeking a grown Dorothy, but nothing goes as he’d hoped. Young witch Theo from my prior romantic fantasy Straw Man takes him in and on a wild road trip to Kansas. Given Scarecrow’s major Issues with witches, a secret and deadly plot afoot back in Oz, and nightmarish creatures showing up in our world with bloody consequences, things are gonna get darker before they get lighter. Witches and zombies and Wheelers, oh my! Stay tuned.
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