So, I have a few stories in the hopper for the Chemistry Set that are outside of the SCHZDE-iverse, of which “Yes, Mother” will be the first. I’m still not sure when it’s going to start, but it should be fairly soon-ish and will probably roll side by side with the next SCHEHERAZADE tale, “Tattered Coat.”

Sometimes I have these “Okay, enough fucking around. I need to write something RIGHT NOW” moments. Pardon my french, but that’s how these things can go after a dry spell. So it was with “Yes, Mother.” I pulled some book of old school New York ghost stories off the shelf and there was one in there from the 18th century concerning rats. “Yes, Mother” has no ghosts. It has rats.

It was originally written for our friend Rami, for a chapbook last year or something. I can’t remember now. When he graciously bowed out (it happens, we love Rami), Finnish darling Sami Makkonen graciously bowed in, and holy smokes, check out what he’s got goin’ on:

The glaring problem here is that I wrote it with a teenager in mind, but as you can see, Sami saw a girl of nine or ten. Sami is right, I am wrong, I need to fix.

Sami is right about many things. Such as bunny slippers. But that’s another story…