On The Publication of 'A Student's Story'

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If you would be so kind, reader, to forgive this little vanity post. On the 22nd of September, HauntedMTL published an anthology of short stories called Queer as Hell (2021) and my story, ‘A Student’s Story', was one of them.

Mathew Hunter, ‘A Student’s Story’ in Queer as Hell: A HauntedMTL Anthology, 2412 – 2593 (p. 2412).

HauntedMTL is an independent horror-themed news site that regularly publishes articles and reviews of the latest horror releases and also their own fiction. They have two periodical series, one called ‘The Dead Life’ written by David Davis which follows a zombie apocalypse sweeping the United States after the turn of the millennium. And ‘Lighter Than Dark’, which is a satirical series consisting of the funnier side of horror tropes, with such articles as ‘Satan Apologizes for Leaving Portal the Hell Open’ (2021) by Kristen Cleaves and ‘Zombie Fashion Trending’ (2020) by Jennifer Wiegel.

‘HauntedMTL Logo’ [Online] <https://hauntedmtl.com/> [accessed 24/09/2021].

Elena Davis, ‘101 Proof Horror Cover Art’ in 101 Proof Horror (St Lazare: Czykmate Productions, 2020).

But HauntedMTL has branched out in recent times into book publication. Their first book, 101 Proof Horror (2020), was about, simply, collecting narratives of horror as an encyclopaedia of the scary. Consisting of over two hundred thousand words, the anthology brings together writers just starting out in the genre and those more experienced, and well worth a read.

Erin Minuskin and Jo Szewczyk, ‘Queer as Hell Cover Art’ in Queer As Hell, ed. by Jim Phoenix (Vaudreuil: HauntedMTL, 2021), Kindle Ebook.

Their second publication, Queer as Hell, was a charity project, raising money in aid of LGBTQ+ organisations. Consisting of writers who identify with the LGBTQ+ community, or have written fiction that explores LGBTQ+ issues, the anthology was made to, as its editor, Jim Phoenix points out, explore the common threads of ‘what makes us people’ (Jim Pheonix, ‘A Note from The Editor’, Queer as Hell, p. 22). Shared experiences, shared fears, shared loves, across the spectrum of humanity. The stories within cover a range of genres and themes; from the facetious to the harrowing, to the melancholy. Stories of ghostly polyamory, hideous online dating, and extra-terrestrial lesbianism. And right in the centre of the anthology lies my own horror tale, ‘A Students Story’.

Taking inspiration from my time at university, the narrative of 'A Student's Story' weaves together the strange feelings of anxiety brought about by newfound independence and the pressure of social interactions with a supernatural mystery. Ultimately, the narrative is about friendship, relationships, human connection and disconnections. It is about the delicate and fragile process of getting to know a stranger, learning about them, and maybe even calling them a friend, or as the narrator of the story hopes, more than that; or, as is also a key part of the narrative, failing to make friends. The narrative also takes a very M.R James approach to supernatural fiction. The story isn’t your run of the mill horror, there’s no gore, jump scares or menacing villain. It’s more of a story to sit by the fireside with on a cold night, with a goblet of wine perhaps. And in that way, it takes many cues from M.R James’s brand of the gothic: a very English horror.

Anon, ‘Montague Rhodes James’, (1900) Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons [Online] <https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Montague_Rhodes_James#/media/File:MRJames1900.jpg> [accessed 24/09/2021]

James wrote a vast catalogue of ghostly fiction which usually followed a man of a great learned quality discovering something he shouldn’t have and reaping the consequences of his discovery. Their worldviews become warped, and their lives are forever twisted. This brand of horror I’ve always found appealing, it carries a certain weight to it that more explosive brands of horror seem to lack or hide too well underneath their pools of blood and masked villains.

I make a nod to James in fact through the title of the story. ‘A Student’s Story’ references ‘A School Story’ (1911). Both stories follow a young man in an educational setting and explore the mysteries of life through the supernatural at the same time that their characters are discovering and deciphering the mysteries in their own lives, James's because he's a young boy and mine because he's a bisexual man who just doesn't know it yet. Most of James’s work is available online so I recommend a read, especially his stories ‘Number 13’ (1904), a ghoulish mystery in a mind-bending countryside hotel, ‘The Mezzotint’ (1904) and creepy object-horror centred around a haunted photograph, and ‘“Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad”’ (1904) which follows a ghost of English Templar haunting the English seaside.

Michael Page, ‘Bisexual Flag’, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons [Online] <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bisexual_Pride_Flag.svg> [accessed 24/09/2021].

What is Queer about this story though? you may ask. Well, as a bisexual writer myself, the story may, automatically, depending on your philosophy on the subject, carry some queer undertones from the getgo. But primarily, the story explores bisexuality as a sort of foil to the narrator’s ego. He thinks that other people need to make the effort to be friends with him, that women will be interested in him without him making his own feelings known.

Just as the supernatural mystery challenges his egotistical worldview of what is and isn't possible, so does the implication that his own sexuality is not as clear cut either. His sexuality is ambiguous, like the supernatural events surrounding him. And that destruction of a worldview and the opening up of new possibilities is, I think, very similar to the uniquely queer experience of discovering who you truly are and coming out of the closet. The mystery has been solved and the world becomes a new space of opportunity.

The scope of the supernatural, which allows me and James to write about very different yet similar things, is what draws me to the horror and gothic genre. The ability to play about with the rules of reality and interject something ludicrous into the world, and in the process illuminate the truest parts of life, is simply a beautiful process. And the reverse is equally beautiful, working away to decipher what literature can mean, what impact it has on society and what aspect of the world will be affected by it. It's what literature is about: the beauty of constructing something and the beauty of understanding how it was built.

It gives me a huge amount of pride to accomplish this achievement, getting something published, a goal I’ve and for a long time now, and it feels equally wonderful to be a part of a good cause, helping people across the world. So, thank you HauntedMTL, and everyone who has supported me in my writing. This is not the end, I hope, of my literary journey.

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