Copyright © 2016 by Ralph Robert Moore.

Return to lately 2016.

The other day I was in our high-ceilinged garage, stuffing flattened cardboard boxes into our green recycle bin, about as tall as a woman, when a question occurred to me: Is there any author whose fiction does not include a single death? Where all his or her characters, over the course of a writing career, survive the final sentence?

I started going through different authors in my head, and each time, at some point, usually right away, other times only after a minute or two, my fingers, rooting through the bowl, would unearth a black jellybean.

Which makes sense. If you're going to write, why would you not, at some point, or repeatedly, write about death?

Like a lot of you, my own writings are dark. So of course there's a lot of death in their pages. But then I started wondering: Just how much death?

So what I've done is gone through my stories, and for each story determined if anyone dies, and if they do, how they die.

I am not including my published novels (there'd just be too many pages to comb for deaths, plus you have some ambiguity: In my novel As Dead As Me, for example, do billions upon billions of people die, or just one?) And I am not including stories that have not yet been published, or stories that have been sold but not yet published.

Also, for each story I am not including people alluded to in the story who are already dead when the story starts. The character must be alive at the start of the story, and dead by its end.

There are also a number of stories where it seems likely a character dies soon after the end of the story, but since they don't die during the story itself, that is not counted as a death.

Finally, although a number of animals die in my fictions, none of those small deaths are recorded here. This list obviously includes major spoilers for all of my published short fiction. To try to make it a little less spoilerish, I have eliminated the characters' names.

Here we go.

WHEN YOU SURFACED
No one dies.

SEX ON SHEETS
No one dies.

BIG INCHES
A character is examined into non-existence.

DESPAIR AT MCDONALD'S
No one dies.

WHEN THE BIG ONE THAWS
No one dies/death implied.

THE BEAR
No one dies.

VISIBILITY
A young woman drowns.

FISH
No one dies/death implied.

THIS MOMENT OF BRILLIANCE
One character, forced to swallow live bullets, dies when shot in the abdomen and the live rounds explode out of him.
One character is killed by a bullet to the forehead during this event.
One character is shot to death while lying in a street.

THE WOMAN IN THE WALLS
No one dies.

THE MACHINE OF A RELIGIOUS MAN
A character commits suicide by drowning.

AFTER HERE
No one dies.

LAS VEGAS
No one dies.

PUSHING DOWN THE TOMBSTONES
A character commits suicide.

THE HOLE AND THE SPIKE
A character bleeds to death.

THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES IN THE WOODS
A character drowns.
A character starves to death.

THE BURDEN OF WORDS
No one dies.

FLEEING, ON A BICYCLE WITH YOUR FATHER, FROM THE LIVING DEAD
Several characters die in a car crash.
A character is impaled through the chest by a speaker post at a drive-in theater.
There is ambiguity as to whether a character is still alive, or is now dead.

THE RAPE
A character is murdered.
A character is murdered.

TRUTH BE TOLD
No one dies.

RED BOAT
A character drowns but is brought back to life.

DAMP
A character is killed by something living in an earthquake crevice.
Another character dies the same way.

MY FIRST KISS
Two characters are presented as being dead, but it turns out they aren't. No one actually dies.

STEAKS IN THE CITY
No one dies.

STRANGERS WEAR MASKS OF YOUR FACE
A character is accidently stabbed through the forehead with a knife.

LIKE AN ANIMAL IN A HOLE
A character bleeds to death when he can't stop urinating blood.
A character dies from blood loss while going to the bathroom.

ROCKETSHIP APARTMENT
A character commits suicide by starvation.

GRAPPLING WITH URINE
No one dies.

IN THE TUNNELS OF THE AGOGS
No one dies.

NOBODY I KNEW
A character eventually dies from internal bleeding following an assault.
A character is fatally struck by a car while running across a street.

RAIN TURNS TO SNOW
A character dies while trying to protect another character.

AFOOT
No one dies.

THE MAN WHO COULD JUMP OFF ROOFS
A character is murdered, his heart pulled out of his chest.

HINKY
A character dies from unknown causes.

SUDDENLY THE SUN APPEARED
No one dies.

THE WET MONTHS
No one dies, although some of the characters attending a party are already dead from various causes.

THE BAD BOY
A character is deliberately hit with a car travelling at a fast speed.

DOGS WANT TO EAT YOU
A character is killed by six-legged dogs.
Another character is killed by six-legged dogs.

THEY HIDE IN TOMATOES
A character dies after a long illness.

ELEPHANTS ON THE MOON
No one dies.

OUR ISLAND
No one dies.

ABOUT TO BE KISSED
A character dies climbing down into a hole.
A number of volunteer firemen are burned alive.
Several police officers die falling into a hole.
A character dies falling into a hole.

DADDY'S GLAD HANDS
No one dies.

THE ONE WHO ALWAYS GETS TO SIT IN A CHAIR
A character is eaten by a large shark on a village street.

SHE HAS MAIDS
A character suffocates to death on insects.

THE YELLOW FRUIT
No one dies.

ALL YOUR FACES DROWN IN MY SYRINGE
Several babies are murdered.
A character dies not realizing the action he takes will cause his death.

KEBAB BOB
A character dies from injuries suffered during amateur corrective surgery, or doesn't die; but then in a second version of his story still dies from the same injuries.

THE SPACE BETWEEN (co-written with Ray Cluley)
A character is poisoned by insecticide.

THE MIDDLE LEG
No one dies.

WHEN THEY COME FOR YOU THEY'LL LOOK NORMAL
No one dies/four deaths implied.

GHOSTS PLAY IN BOYS' PAJAMAS
No one dies/a character's death by stabbing is implied.

SOME SORT OF EDEN (co-written with Allen Ashley)
No one dies.

DROWN TOWN
A large number of people drown.
A character is murdered underwater.
A character dies of a heart attack.

BANG, BANG, THUD
No one dies.

MEN WEARING MAKEUP
No one dies/a character's death is implied.

THE 18
A character dies from a stroke.
A character dies from a heart attack.

LEARNING NOT TO SMILE
No one dies

YOU DRY YOUR TEARS IF THEY DON'T WORK
A character's death by a bullet to the face is implied.

DIRT LAND
A character dies in a car accident.
A character dies from unspecified causes.
A character is beaten to death on a moon-lit country road.

Not included:

Deaths in the novels:

Father Figure

Kid

As Dead As Me

Ghosters

Deaths in sold but not yet published stories:

Trying to Get Back to Nonchalant

Lam

Nearness

55 Miles From Tucson

Hoodelay

The Dead Leave Small Bones

Deaths in novels and stories not yet published.