Fiction Mid-Week: Madison Smartt Bell

Here I initiate a new weekly feature: Fiction Mid-Week. We begin with one of my all-time favorite writers, Madison Smartt Bell. His remarkable early novel The Year of Silence remains a model for my work, and his aptly titled short story "Small Blue Thing" hits several tributes at once in my life: black birds in John's honor, small blue things in Rebecca's.

To say nothing of Poe fans, far and near.

Enjoy.

[image via finucane.org]