The Ballad of the Wayfaring Stranger and the Dead Man’s Whore by Sean Demory

This is a short story that i just read by Sean Demory. He was a panelist at ConQuesT 45, and was presented as a horror writer. He himself said that he doesn’t set out to write horror, but sets out to write something else and it becomes horror.

I think he and his lovely short story are an excellent illustration as to why I don’t generally read the horror genre. Rather than being swept up in the fear that I assume would come with the genre, I am always swept away by the beauty and artistry of the words themselves. It is indeed a ballad, and despite its macabre settings and characters, I found it to be beautiful, lovely, and gentle. It leaves me convinced that Sean Demory has an interesting spirit that I want to bathe in, and it also leaves me continuing to believe that horror may be too lush of a genre to offer me any fear. Of course, I must admit that I’ve to this day read very little of it, and that I consider creature horror to be an entirely different thing.

Good work, Sean. It is a lovely piece, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to people who find dark poetry appealing. I can’t help but relate it to Poe’s Annabelle Lee which happens to be one of my favorite pieces of literature.