Short Story Spotlight: "The Fence"

Neighbors.  They let their kids run wild.  They insist on mowing the lawn at the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning.  They can't get into their own car without setting off the blaring alarm.  No doubt about it: neighbors have a knack for grating on our nerves.  This is a fact Belinda Frisch understands full well, as demonstrated in her delightfully nasty little tale published in the latest issue of Shroud magazine.

I can't go into too much detail about this story without spoiling things, so I'll just give a quick overview.  Beth is battling an ear infection, and her condition isn't helped by the pounding bass coming from next door, as neighbor Tim blasts the same song all night long.  Finally, Beth's exasperated husband John decides to take action: he is going to build a fence between the two houses.  But this proves to be no ordinary task, as Frisch gives a wicked twist to the old Robert Frost maxim, "Good fences make good neighbors."

According to her bio blurb, Frisch has published fiction in Deadly Dolls: Femme Fatales in Fright Fiction; she also received honorable mention in the genre short story category of the 76th Annual Writer's Digest Competition.  And judging from "The Fence," this is a writer ready to stake off some territory within the horror genre.  I'll certainly be keeping a lookout for her byline.