Some of the greatest stories start begin with a secret door, hidden away, locked with a special key. A lot of times, those stories have something absolutely fantastic on the other side, which are my favorite fantasies to venture into.
Just last night, I watched Coraline, which is a full-feature, stop animation movie based on a book written by Neil Gaiman. Sadly, I have never read the book–though I have read some of his other amazing works of art–but I can honestly say that it was quite the ride. It follows the adventure of a little girl who is unhappy with her parents and finds a secret door to a parallel life with the perfect parents. It is a very colorful trip with eccentric characters and a very interesting twist.
As I said, I enjoy the classic secret-locked-door-with-hidden-worlds-behind-it story. A while back, I heard a great story on Podcastle (a fantasy podcast) along those same lines, and I want to share it with you today. It is called The Small Door. Here’s an excerpt:
Neither knew what the Weirdo did with his captives, but it was hard to think of a possibility that wasn’t horrible. Not when you saw that figure, with its thatched gray hair, lumpy shoulders and white hands as big as baseball gloves, carry some hapless creature into the house with the broken drainpipes and curtained windows. Even cooking and eating seemed too simple, too close to human.
“Sal,” Macey said, “we’ve got to find out.”
“You keep saying that.” Sal picked fuzzies off the bedspread, her mind drifting to the fair’s candy-bright commotion.
“But now I have a plan.”
-Holly Phillips, The Small Door
You can read the full story at Fantasy Magazine, and you can check out the author at her website, HollyPhillips.com. You can also have it read to you by the wonderful voice of Tina Conolly at Podcastle Podcast by going here. As always, I hope you enjoy these great works of fiction.
