While walking to the train station after work one evening I approached a sandwich board standing outside a café. Written on it in chalk was ‘Fresh Sandwiches’, but a plant partially obscured the board and what I saw when I first glanced at it was ‘Flesh Sandwiches’.
I chuckled to myself and thought it was a terrific title for a horror story. But what would that story be? I’d already covered cannibalism in ‘Trouble with the Locals’.
I decided that what made the title work was the incongruity between the adjective and the noun. One was bloody and visceral; the other was an English invention that symbolised man’s more civilised side. From there the story hit me, pretty much fully formed.
Of all the living-dead tales I’ve published – and as of January 2016 there were five: ‘Bite Back’, ‘Mere Symptoms of Living’, ‘The Devils of Cain Island’ and ‘Teething Problems’ being the other four – this remains my favourite. In fact, it’s one of my favourite stories full-stop, and I wish the anthology it appeared in had been more successful. I like the moral dilemma Sheriff Bunyon faces and I’ve always enjoyed a shady ending.
Did Doug pull the trigger? That’s for the reader to decide.
Kris Ashton 