A book

(Go here to read the story first, if you prefer not being spoiled!)

A book, by Andreas Skyman

For longer now, than I care to count, most of my creative efforts have been oriented along the lines of creating a book for my brother. The idea was first born from an off-side remark by him, saying that he wanted to see something written by me in print. As I recall, it was said as a compliment for my christmas gift rhymes (one of the few traditions of that holiday that I can say without hesitation that I like), and — flattered — I decided this would make for a suitable birthday present, later christmas gift, later still birthday present, and so on… The book was finally finished in December last year, and though the stories stay with me, I must say that I am glad to finally be able to put the work behind me, as unfinished projects always tend to clog my creative pipes and give me a terribly bad conscience in the progress.

As per usual, I’m going write something about the creative process here; if you prefer reading without any imposed prejudice, I suggest you go here for downloads.

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Soluppgång över Änggårdsbergen

(Go here to read the story first, if you prefer not being spoiled!)

If “…vad som räddas kan” is the short story that has taken me the longest to research and finish, “Soluppgång över Änggårdsbergen” (“Sunrise over Änggårdsbergen”, yet another Swedish work I’m afraid…) is rather the opposite. From when the first images of a lone wander in orange street lights first came to me (probably during a train journey) to a finished first draft was no more than month. It is also unique in that it is the first work that I have written exclusively on a computer — normally I prefer making a my first draft by hand, preferably in a nice notebook using a pen with a good ink flow (I prefer V-pens for this reason).

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I’ve always liked the autumn rains…

(Go here to read the story first, if you prefer not being spoiled!)

When I was in primary school, I remember that I always used to go outside on breaks on rainy days. I must have been around the age of nine, since that was the age at which I started reading SF, and my young imagination turned my rain-clothes into a space suit and the school yard to the surface of distant planet of torrential, icy rain. I was an explorer, protected only by the thin outer skin of the suit, a foreigner on a foreign world. I would just stand there, letting the droplets fall on my rain-coat, enjoying the feeling of almost, but not quite, getting wet.

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Stenarna/The pebbles

(Go here to read the story first, if you prefer not being spoiled!)

Stenarna is the first story I present here. I’m sorry to say that it is only available in Swedish, so unless you know that, or you happen to enjoy that sort of thing, it won’t be worth downloading. Maybe I’ll translate it someday. This is the first short story I’ve finished in many years. It is an excursion into the realm of horror fiction, and it should be obvious to any reader familiar with this genre that the story is a Lovecraft tribute.

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