Randolph "Dilda" Carter

This is a pretty good anthology of strange tales about obsession.  There are two brilliant stories, a few good ones, and one absolute piece of bullshit.

The two best stories are Calligraphy by James Everington and This Many by S.P. Miskowski, the latter being one of the most chilling ghost stories I've read in awhile.

Unfortunately I feel compelled to deal with the piece of crap.  Each author writes a little piece about their obsession after each story.  One of these, longer than the story itself, is a self serving piece of rubbish.  If you want to include a suicide note with your story, fine, but the editors should have rejected it.  The author proceeds to name check about a dozen famous literary suicides while lampshading his own paltry contribution to the literary canon and recounting his own experiences with stepping off the pier.  The piece is complete with footnotes (!) going so far as to quote famous Roman suicide (he was probably compelled to do it, not by choice) Petronius Arbiter.  At least the story that accompanied this diatribe was good.  

Suicide is mental illness not heroism.  Unfortunately and tragically it seems that some of those who plumb the depths are also our greatest artists, however the vast majority are just like the rest of us.  Mental illness does not a genius make.  The fact that it is a great career move for some artists is a reflection on those of us that are left, not the artists themselves.