In the last several years a movement has been underway to declare May the month of the short story. As there are no governing bodies deciding what months mean - and that itself would be a hair-too-whimsical of a short story plot - this is a grassroots movement. To contribute to that movement, I hereby present, every day this month, a short-story link.
TODAY: The Call of Cthulu, by H.P. Lovecraft
H.P. Lovecraft may have been one of the best bad writers to ever live. Before you unleash the shuggoths, ask whether you can deny that Lovecraft's sentences are overwritten to the point of falling apart? It doesn't matter, because what's continually fascinating about Lovecraft is that his anachronistic universe was a revolt against modernism and daily life, and he did create a pervading sense of evil and unstable decay that the reader must wrestle with. As could be guessed, the French are all over that perspective now.