The Ryder Out (Mostly) With Aimée, les Filles

No, it’s not the right picture — the one for the cover of the December THE RYDER is not out yet, at least electronically. At least as of this writing, nor is the electronic edition of the magazine, actually dated for December/January. But it is here in print as of this Tuesday, December 5, at least on the rack in the Monroe County Library.

A better illo, then, here in a few days?

And this can be noted. This is the Bloomington FICTION edition, subtitled “Short Stories from Bloomington Writers.” Inside there are five stories in all, including the last from Richard H. Durisen, titled “Remembering,” who we’ve met before in October 30, 2022’s Bloomington Writers Guild Last Sunday Poetry post, where he and I had shared pre-Halloween featured reader duties.

So my part here, too, the number four story just before Richard’s, a five-part “Casket Suite” which may be familiar to patrons of the First Wednesday Spoken Word series for much of the earlier part of this year (cf. October 30; also September 6, July 5, et al.). Starting on page 50, and following a provocatively named “Day of the Dead” by Paula W. Sunderman — possibly we could be on to something here? — “Casket Suite” details the doings of a group of vampiresses in New Orleans, les filles à les caissettes, in a series of snapshot-like vignettes, each a miniature stand-alone tale in itself, from their coming in 1728 to the more or less present.

And as for the illustration above, the Casket Girls did come originally from France.