Eyepennies

By Mike O’Driscoll

Here are some comments on Eyepennies:

“A musician emotionally scarred by a near-death experience is haunted by his past, his present and his future in this chilling, slow burn of a ghost story. Read it!” Ellen Datlow

“Mike O’Driscoll is without doubt one of our best writers. I often wish he wrote more, because when he does produce something new – such as the excellent Eyepennies – it’s truly an occasion for celebration” Tim Lebbon

“A musician struggles to come to terms with his existence following a near-death experience, in a world where reality is something elusive and the darkness is always waiting. A beautifully written, evocative novella” Alison Littlewood

“A beautiful story suffused with the entangled mysteries of pain and life, as radiant as it is dark: the best kind” Stephen Volk

"O’Driscoll delivers these emotions with a subtlety that surprises. He lulls you in and leaves you drained, as all good horror writers should. But he does this without big dramatic scenes and with a skilful underplaying – even the most horrific of scenes, that with Mark in the farmyard with a gun, is done through Mark’s eyes, and Mark cannot appreciate the true nature of what he is doing. If the rest of the novellas in this series are half as good as this, I look forward to them eagerly." Suite 101

The inspiration for Eyepennies came from a song by American singer-songwriter Mark Linkous, on the album It’s a Wonderful Life: youtube.com/watch?v=h7cXtu3-u6c.

• Language: English
• Publisher: TTA Press
• Release date: Dec 3, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301534494

Mike O’Driscoll

MIKE LIVES IN SWANSEA. WHEN NOT WRITING HE WORKS with adults with mental health problems. His fiction has been published in TTA publications Black Static and its predecessor The 3rd Alternative, Interzone, and Crimewave, as well as in Fantasy & Science Fiction, Albedo One, Back Brain Recluse and a whole bunch of long since deceased small press magazines, may they rest in peace. He’s also had stories in numerous anthologies including Inferno, The Dark, Lethal Kisses, Off Limits (all edited by Ellen Datlow), Gathering the Bones (edited by Ramsey Campbell & Dennis Etchison), Darklands and Neonlit (both edited by Nicholas Royle), The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror #17, and two volumes of Stephen Jones’ Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. His essays on David Cronenberg and David Lynch appeared in The 3rd Alternative, and his writings about all things horror, Night’s Plutonian Shore, featured until recently in Black Static. His story ‘Sounds Like’ was adapted and filmed by Brad Anderson as part of the Masters of Horror TV series. He now writes a column called Silver Bullets about television for Black Static.

Book preview

EYEPENNIES

BY MIKE O’DRISCOLL

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First published 2012 by TTA Press

Print Edition ISBN 978-0-9553683-5-6

Smashwords Edition ISBN: 9781301534494

Copyright © Mike O’Driscoll 2012

Cover by Rik Rawling

Copyright © Rik Rawling 2012

The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Proofread by Peter Tennant

Designed and typeset for print by the publisher,

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Smashwords Edition License Notes

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To Mark Linkous, who rode that horse.

September 9, 1962 – March 6, 2010

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

EYEPENNIES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SOON FROM TTA NOVELLAS

BACK PAGE

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INTRODUCTION:

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

‘EYEPENNIES’ IS A SONG WRITTEN AND RECORDED by Mark Linkous, an American songwriter, musician and producer, who recorded and performed five albums under the name Sparklehorse. The last of these, Dark Night of the Soul, co-written and produced with Dangermouse, saw Mark collaborate with an eclectic mix of performers and artists, including Vic Chesnutt, The Flaming Lips, and David Lynch. It was officially released, after contractual problems had caused a delay, in 2010. ‘Eyepennies’ appeared on the 2001 album It’s a Wonderful Life, which was my first encounter with Sparklehorse’s music. I saw them late in 2002 supporting Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy at a gig in London. Throughout the hour long set, Mark’s vocals were probably the quietest I’d ever heard at a live gig. This had the effect of causing the audience to concentrate all the more intently on his hushed, elusive lyrics, as we strove to understand the mysterious truths they allowed us to glimpse.

Some people interpreted the title of It’s a Wonderful Life as an ironic riposte to those who perceived of Mark as being preoccupied with mortality, madness and the dark side of human nature, but I prefer to take him at his word. This despite his struggles with depression, addiction and the long, painful recovery from an all too close brush with death in 1996 while touring the UK to promote his first album Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot.

That Mark recovered from that, and the near loss of both legs, spoke volumes about his determination to see the rich beauty and weirdness in life. His fascination was not with death but with the simple, mundane pleasures we so often take for granted. Dogs, trees, sunshine, birds, horses, dusk; he loved motorcycles, old songs, old engines, the American south, its dark history and literature. His music and lyrics – spooky, elusive, surreal, and raw – are imbued with these things, though the songs speak to us obliquely, filtering his ideas and passions through the prism of an extraordinary life. They serve as surreal reminders of things we’ve forgotten, and reveal to us something of the dreams we never understood.

Mark Linkous took his own life in March 2010. That he fought on for fourteen years after his first close encounter with death is a testament to his strength and zest for life. We are left only with his eerily beautiful and haunting songs, and for that we are blessed.

I wrote this story for him.

Mike O’Driscoll

May 9, 2012

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EYEPENNIES

North of Murphy a man pulls into a Texaco station and uses the restroom to wash the stink of blood and gasoline from his hands. They’re still shaking as he holds them beneath the hand drier. He has the worn, dishevelled look of bad luck and there is something awkward and stiff about his gait as he returns to the pickup truck with a white, fire-breathing horse spray-painted on the hood. A weird thought flashes through his mind and is gone before he can get hold of it. He’s unsure if it was a memory or premonition. Since Richmond he’s had difficulty thinking straight. It might be cancer or some other kind of disease.

By the time the pickup rolls down from Highland Gap, dusk has settled and the mountains are mirrored in the blood-water of Santeetla Lake. North