Talk:Everybody Hurts/@comment-9584883-20141218160136/@comment-4849011-20141220190812

Hmm... I think "Most Sinister Weapon" and "The Lichen Beast" would fit in well. As for the intro, here you go!

I first came across Blacknumber1’s work while looking through the Marked for Review category. I found a pasta simply entitled “Chago” and thought it would be worth reading. I was impressed by what I read. This wasn’t some hackneyed tale relying on buckets of gore, ripping off The Amityville Horror, or claiming that our favorite childhood cartoons were secretly dark and sinister; it was instead a well-written tale dealing with a real-life horror, one that sadly happens far too often. It was straightforward and realistic in conveying the horror of the situation. I believe in praising someone who has contributed a well-written story, so I left a good review in the comments section of the pasta. Black thanked me for the review, explained the story’s background, and told me about other pastas he had written. I was pleased to find “The Salt and Pepper Lady” to be in the same vein. It has a paranormal element, but in the end it's left to the reader to determine whether the haunting is due to a ghost... or to communal fear and guilt. When I read “Ole Broken Bones Pete”, I couldn’t wait to get to the end to find out what happened. It intertwined supernatural elements with cruel and inhumane events which are all too real. Just three stories in I knew this was someone whose work I wanted to follow. Black has an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical feeling to his stories, and his characters are realistic. You’ll never read one of his stories and see “I was playing a video game/watching Tv [sic]/watching a tape or DVD I bought at a garage sale late one night and suddenly something really weird happened!!!!” or “And then his guts aquirted [sic] out and his EYES BLEDD [sic]!”

There were some minor typos and grammar errors in those first pastas I read. I humbly approached Black and told him that my mother and one of my aunts were both retired Language Arts teachers (Language Arts being spelling, grammar, etc.), so I could give him some pointers if he wanted. Some writers, when told things like that, either explode in rage or laugh you off, as if the notion that they, like the rest of us, could use a little help is either terribly offensive or absolutely ludicrous. Not Black. With an equal humility he accepted my offer. He also responds to feedback, either positive or negative, with the same humility, absorbing advice that could help him without “selling out”. For a good writer to be willing to take advice only makes him a great writer. Here's to more tales!