Blood Lite: The Anthology of Humorous Horror is now available, both online and at many bookstores. Along with my story, "P.R. Problems," there's a Harry Dresden story by Jim Butcher and stories by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Charlaine Harris, Kelley Armstrong, Janet Berliner, Don D'Ammassa, Nancy Holder, Nancy Kilpatrick, J. A. Konrath & F. Paul Wilson, Joe R. Lansdale Will Ludwigsen, Sharyn McCrumb, Mark Onspaugh, Mike Resnick, Steven Savile, D. L. Snell, Jeff Strand, Lucien Soulban, Matt Venne, and Christopher Welch.
To give you a taste, here's the beginning of my story:
P.R. Problems
by Eric James Stone
What annoys me the most about vampires and werewolves is their good P.R. Not that I want a return to the days of villagers with pitchforks and torches, but all the romantic attachment to predators who hunt and kill humans makes me sick.
So when a cannibalistic serial killer started leaving the gnawed-on bones of his victims in public places, did the media label him a vampire? No. A werewolf? No.
The press called him the "Grove City Ghoul."
Those reporters had obviously never heard of fact-checking.
First, we ghouls are carrion eaters, not predators -- hyenas, not wolves. Sure, we like to feast on human flesh, but we find bodies that are already dead and eat them, after they've had a chance to decay a bit. For some inexplicable reason, people seem to think that's more grotesque than the actual killing by vampires and werewolves.
Second, a ghoul wouldn't just gnaw on the bones, he would eat them. Besides being nice and crunchy, they're a good source of calcium. That's why ghouls never suffer from osteoporosis.
We ghouls just have bad P.R. And the serial killer wasn't helping.
