The two stories that really stuck with me from today are "Suburban Survival", and "In the Name of the Lord on February 17th". Suburban Survival was short, but sweet. My favorite part was the dialogue at the bottom of the first page, from "'You got the shot?'" ending with "Phil fired his rifle at the target." Such a short amount of dialogue , but something so important happened in those few lines. I cringed as the word "bang" rang throughout the room as Matt read it off the page. I am excited to see where he goes with the story.
The second story, Joshs, was completely shocking and horrific and I loved it. It was eyebrow raising and totally out of the blue. He was right when he said he tried making it sound boring in the beginning, about a generic balding man who wears sweaters and bible totes around his neighborhood with his perfect family. I liked the motif he stayed with, how he showed you each year how the man changed so much. The gore in the story was on point and I could see every part of it in a movie. The details were impeccable and I am looking forward to see what else he has in that brain of his.
I was rather indifferent about "Suspicion of the Absent Affair" it was well written, and Mike has proven to be a good describer, it just didn't really have that much of an effect on me. I could picture it perfectly in my head, and I do want to see where he takes it, but I didn't like it as much as the other two pieces mentioned above.
