Sunday Morning Book Thread - 10-30-2022 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material, even if it's nothing more than "The Corsicana Horror" (TXMOME edition). As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing
these pants...(WARNING! EYE BLEACH REQUIRED!)

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, dig through that Halloween candy before the neighborhood kids get to it, and crack open a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

I tried to find a decent picture of Orne Library, which is part of the fictional Miskatonic University, located in the equally fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts. Both locations were created by Howard Phillips Lovecraft, one of the greatest horror authors of all time. Orne Library has been "defictionalized" online as there is a website that is devoted to a collection of strange manuscripts that are supposedly housed at the "real" Orne Library - https://www.miskatonic.online/rare-books

HORROR

Horror is that sense of dread we feel when we know things are not quite right, when the shadows creep in around us, and we start to feel anxious about our surroundings. It's a primal emotion, perhaps the FIRST emotion ever felt by living creatures, because we know our very existence may depend on us reacting to the stimulus causing our fear response.

Horror in literature has been around a long, long time. Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764) is credited as the first Gothic Horror novel, though elements of horror can be found back as early as the plays of William Shakespeare, if not earlier. After all, stories about supernatural beings that can cause harm and prey on humans have been around as long as we've been able to share campfire tales about the monsters hiding in the dark.

Horror can be divided into numerous subgenres. We have the aforementioned Gothic Horror, with its towering castles, ancient family secrets, and dark romances. We can also find Psychological Horror stories, which explores the depths of human emotion and trauma to instill fear in the reader. And we have my personal favorite, Cosmic Horror, which is characterized by its depiction of human existence as meaningless in the grand scheme of the universe, as beings much greater and more powerful exist around us in ways we can never fully comprehend, lest we go mad from the revelation.

One of the fun things about the horror genre is that the subgenres are not mutually exclusive, meaning you can mix up Sci-Fi Horror with Cosmic Horror (the movie Event Horizon), or you can blend Splatter Horror with Survival Horror (most of the Resident Evil movies). At the moment, I've been reading P.C. Hodgell's excellent Chronicles of the Kencyrath which takes a low fantasy setting and adds significant Gothic and Cosmic Horror elements, and then blends in dreamlike Surreal Horror to tell an epic story about three people who are destined to come together to face the ultimate nightmare of their race. However, they first have to overcome their mistrust of each other and of their enigmatic, uncaring Three-Faced God that forged their people into a weapon.

Some stories can start out as one genre then morph into another genre, like horror or suspense. For instance, I just finished reading H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau this week. The very beginning of the story is about a man who is rescued from being shipwrecked, so it starts out as a sort of adventure story. Then he gets to the island, and it quickly turns into a mystery because he doesn't know anything about his benefactors, who are clearly hiding something from him. From there, it rapidly becomes a horror story as the protagonist explores the island, eventually discovering the twisted creatures created by Dr. Moreau's mad genius.

I know many members of the Moron Horde are not really into the horror genre and that's fine...But if you do like horror, what are some of your favorite stories in this genre? What are some good stories that mash horror with other genres (e.g., mystery, romance, science fiction, fantasy, etc.)?

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TXMOME SUMMARY

Attending the TXMOME for the second year in a row was an amazing experience. Last year, I was something of a nobody, just some random commenter on the blog. This year, I was able to attend as a COB, with an actual dental plan! It was an interesting experience being a minor celebrity of sorts. I was also able to have great conversations with people who read the Sunday Morning Book Thread, but don't often comment for one reason or another (usually because it's posted at an inconvenient time for them). And I got to meet some of the other COBs who have given me excellent advice and encouragement.

THANK YOU to everyone who contributed books for the Saturday night prize drawing. I hope everyone who received some books is able to enjoy them as much as I have.

THANK YOU to everyone who reads this meager corner of the mighty AoSHQ Media Empire. The Moron Horde is among the best-educated population on the planet, due in no small part to our obsessive need to read. For us, reading is just as important as breathing. We'd die if we didn't have something to read.

THANK YOU for providing me with more ideas for continuing the Sunday Morning Book Thread. Next week we will be entering November/Thanksgiving territory, so I hope to have some posts up about that which are relevant to reading. It's also National Novel Writing Month or something to that effect, so expect the focus to be on writing as much as reading. Can't have one without the other, after all.

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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I didn't really have a chance to go through the Moron Recommendations from last week's comments...I promise I'll be posting more of these next week!

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (466 Moron-recommended books so far!)

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WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

God Stalk by P.C. Hodgell -- A young woman emerges from the Haunted Lands, her ultimate fate to assume the identity of the avatar of Regonereth, That-Which-Destroys, one aspect of her Three-Faced God.

Dark of the Moon by P.C. Hodgell -- We are introduced to Jame's twin brother Tori, who is at least a decade older than her (it makes sense in context--well, not really, but roll with it), and who is struggling to assume his role as Highlord of the Kencyrath.

Seeker's Mask -- Book 3 of The Chronicles of the Kencyrath. Jame has been reunited with her people, only to discover a world of brutal intrigue and twisted family secrets...

The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells -- A classic horror story if ever I've read one, although it also contains some science fiction elements.

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury -- A childhood tale of wonder and adventure as eight young lads travel across time and space to explore the history of Halloween in an attempt to save their friend's life and soul.

That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding my Sunday Morning Book Thread. This is a very special place. You are very special people (in all the best ways!). The kindness, generosity, and wisdom of the Moron Horde knows no bounds. Let's keep reading!

If you have any suggestions for improvement, reading recommendations, or writing projects that you'd like to see on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, you can send them to perfessor dot squirrel at-sign gmail dot com. Your feedback is always appreciated! You can also take a virtual tour of OUR library at libib.com/u/perfessorsquirrel. Since I added sections for AoSHQ, I now consider it OUR library, rather than my own personal fiefdom...

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 10-23-22 (hat tip: vmom stabby stabby stabamillion) (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

("Huggy" Squirrel is reading some of the finest cosmic horror fantasy ever written! Highly recommended!)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 WTFO??

Posted by: rhennigantx at October 30, 2022 08:59 AM (BRHaw)

2 Hot Coffee!!! Moonshot !! great read so far for an Apollo child...

Posted by: Qmark at October 30, 2022 08:59 AM (ttO/Q)

3 Tolle Lege!

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 09:00 AM (PiwSw)

4 Those pants are fine, but I wouldn't wear them.

Posted by: Sir Mix-A-Lot at October 30, 2022 09:02 AM (sn5EN)

5 Tolle Lege
Reading Dennis Prager Rational Bible Deuteronomy
Going slowly, it's not as gripping as Koba the Dred and Laughter if 20 Million which I need to write a book report on and send in.

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2022 09:02 AM (xhxe8)

6 Huh? I just refreshed the page to get to the Book Thread and an ad window opened up. I'm running a blocker. It doesn't do it anywhere else. It's a small minimized box, but it shows in the corner of the screen. I maximized it, and an ad came up.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 09:03 AM (7bRMQ)

7 Accidentally saw the pants once, long long ago.

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2022 09:03 AM (xhxe8)

8 This may be the last Halloween that I give out old comics. Few series have one-issue stories, and those that are, especially Disney Duck stories by Carl Barks, may be too problematic for today's youngsters. One is titled "In Darkest Africa." In another story, Scrooge, challenged by Donald to a mountain-climbing competition, first drinks a "tonic" that boosts his vigor. Uhh ... no.

I'm also not willing to break up my complete run of "Groo the Wanderer." Some things the family will have to deal with someday as part of the estate.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 09:04 AM (Om/di)

9 It's not a book, but "Horror Palace" starring Vincent Price is a weird fun fusion of Poe and Lovecraft.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:04 AM (llXky)

10 "Hot Coffee!!! Moonshot !!"

Are we still talking about the pants?

Posted by: fd at October 30, 2022 09:04 AM (sn5EN)

11 If anyone is doing NaNoWriMo, I have one piece of advice - don't fall behind.

It might help to make a spreadsheet with a daily word count quota, and make sure you hit or exceed it. 2000 words/day worked for me, which gives you 5 days off, so you can take Thanksgiving and two whole weekends off and still come in under the wire.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 09:04 AM (PiwSw)

12 The person (lady?) wearing those pants does not appear to have feet.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 30, 2022 09:04 AM (XIJ/X)

13 So rare to be in the book thread early. Kinda nice.

May the day not rain on your parades, y'all.

Posted by: mindful webworker - YouTube is a bunch of blue meanies at October 30, 2022 09:04 AM (qtUpJ)

14 Eye bleach needed because of the material, or the fatness of the model?

Looks like standard H'ween pants to me.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 09:04 AM (7bRMQ)

15 I'm continuing with "Poker and Pop Culture." I was right -- this is a textbook. Index, bibliography, and citations out the wazoo. But it's interesting. Current chapter: "Poker in the Old West."

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 09:05 AM (Om/di)

16 Finished The Silmarillion re-read, and also The Fall of Gondolin.

Writing news: Editing time! Goes slowly, but it's got to be done correctly.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:06 AM (llXky)

17 Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2022 09:02 AM (xhxe

I have Prager's "Genesis," but haven't started it yet.

I assume you enjoyed it or you wouldn't have continued....

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 30, 2022 09:06 AM (XIJ/X)

18 The feets at the bottom of those pant look like hooves!

Posted by: rhennigantx at October 30, 2022 09:06 AM (BRHaw)

19 I think it was Lovecraft that led me to Charles Fort. That was some far out stuff. It was hard to tell if he was just f'n with us though. Made a skeptic out of me.

Posted by: fd at October 30, 2022 09:06 AM (sn5EN)

20 "As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing these pants...(WARNING! EYE BLEACH REQUIRED!)"

those aren't the worst pants ever. THESE are the worst pants ever!!!

https://tinyurl.com/y76esjt9

(aka The Eye of Sauron)

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 30, 2022 09:07 AM (r46W7)

21 Those pants are fine.

Halloween is the time to check out the horror short movies on youBoob. Some are good and some are meh. Usually they are only about 10 minutes in length for a scare.

More coffee...

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at October 30, 2022 09:08 AM (R/m4+)

22 I made the mistake of picking up "Master and Commander" again earlier in the week, just to browse. Now I'm finishing up "HMS Surprise", so three books in already and resigned to my addiction.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 09:08 AM (3mYgn)

23 I bought a collection of four Lovecraft stories last month, but I don't know when I'll get to it. I do like the concept of regular folks encountering incomprehensible creepiness.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 09:08 AM (Om/di)

24 Morning, folken, and here's wishing for a great Halloween for all!

Great horror/terror stories? "The Cocoon," by John B.L. Goodwin; "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad," by M.R. James; Stephen King's "The Boogeyman"; "The Damned Thing," by Ambrose Bierce. And King's Salem's Lot and Pet Sematary are the absolute tops in creepiness.

The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons is a superb tale of a modern (ca. 1977) haunted house that attacks its inhabitants through their psychological weaknesses. Tremendous story.

I'll think of more as we go along. I've been reading this sort of stuff since I was a pre-teen (which may explain some things about my personality).

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 09:08 AM (c6xtn)

25 I know many members of the Moron Horde are not really into the horror genre and that's fine.

Yeah, not much of a horror fan.

Sefton's Mon-Fri Morning Report pretty much supplies all the horror reading I need.

Posted by: mindful webworker - banned by YouTube, but not AoS at October 30, 2022 09:08 AM (qtUpJ)

26 It might help to make a spreadsheet with a daily word count quota, and make sure you hit or exceed it. 2000 words/day worked for me, which gives you 5 days off, so you can take Thanksgiving and two whole weekends off and still come in under the wire.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 09:04 AM (PiwSw)
---
I keep a tally of all my writing projects. I update the word count at the end of each session, which gives me a sense of how the project is doing overall and how it compares with other works. Page count isn't always accurate due to formatting.

Walls of Men will be my longest single book to date.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:09 AM (llXky)

27 Good Sunday morning, horde!

"Last year, I was something of a nobody, just some random commenter on the blog. " Now, you are Somebody!!

I was delighted to meet you, and All Hail Eris, and Sharon, and so many other readers of the book thread. I can't even name everyone I met, but, what a great time I had! Thanks to all of you for making life more pleasant.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at October 30, 2022 09:09 AM (OX9vb)

28 Ok, last chance. Neighbor moved away yesterday. I have some books I don't want. Any takers?
Merlin, by Stephen Lawhead. It's book two of the Pendragon Cycle. Dragonwyck, by Anya Seton, and a paperback of Lion, witch, wardrobe.

They get binned Tuesday if no one wants.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 09:09 AM (7bRMQ)

29 Not exactly horror, since that's not a genre i read, but the scariest books I've ever read were

1. Planet of the Apes, Pierre Boulle (also wrote Bridge Over the River Kwai) for the ending.
2. Winterflight, Joseph Bayly (also wrote Gospel Blimp)
3. Hound of the Baskervilles (A.C. Doyle, Sherlock Holmes)

Been Reading the Rabaul trilogy by Gamble from somebody's recent recommendation

Posted by: yara at October 30, 2022 09:10 AM (dm0H7)

30 Just re-read Pipers Cosmic Computer. First time in 35+ years. Couldn't put it down. Think I'll go back and revisit Uller Uprising next.

Piper was one heck of a writer. He would of been a great Moron.

Posted by: Somewhere South of I-80 at October 30, 2022 09:11 AM (1DgE4)

31 They get binned Tuesday if no one wants.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 09:09 AM (7bRMQ)

Noooo. Give to Habitat or Good Will.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 09:11 AM (PiwSw)

32 And Weak Geek, and f'd, and CBD! So many great Americans!

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at October 30, 2022 09:11 AM (OX9vb)

33 I bought a collection of four Lovecraft stories last month, but I don't know when I'll get to it. I do like the concept of regular folks encountering incomprehensible creepiness.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 09:08 AM (Om/di)
---
Lovecraft and R.E. Howard corresponded and eventually included subtle references to each other's works.

Several Conan stories would be considered "horror," though the fact that Mr. Thews of Steel always won in the end limits the suspense aspect.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:11 AM (llXky)

34 For all my O'Brian fellow addicts, I found an interesting web site discussing various aspects of the books, including correcting some editing errors between the English editions and the Norton printings, but this is especially interesting: "Literary Allusions" explained, in this case in the first book (as an example).

https://tinyurl.com/hn678hcw

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 09:13 AM (8CMl+)

35 Orange Ent, do you have a Little Free Library in your area? If not, just leave the books where a passer-by can find them. Don't toss them.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 09:13 AM (Om/di)

36 >>> 33 I bought a collection of four Lovecraft stories last month, but I don't know when I'll get to it. I do like the concept of regular folks encountering incomprehensible creepiness.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 09:08 AM (Om/di)
---
Lovecraft and R.E. Howard corresponded and eventually included subtle references to each other's works.

Several Conan stories would be considered "horror," though the fact that Mr. Thews of Steel always won in the end limits the suspense aspect.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:11 AM (llXky)

Don't turn into a snake. It never helps.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 30, 2022 09:15 AM (llON8)

37 The person (lady?) wearing those pants does not appear to have feet.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 30, 2022 09:04 AM (XIJ/X)

CBD! Have I got the book for you!!!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 09:15 AM (7bRMQ)

38 Another very creepy though not supernatural short is "They," by Robert Heinlein.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 09:15 AM (c6xtn)

39 Have read Genesis and have Exodus.
I think Genesis was a great learning experience

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2022 09:16 AM (xhxe8)

40 (aka The Eye of Sauron)
Posted by: Tom Servo

Oh, no, you don't...thank you for the aka, because now I know not to click. I've done that before, and once was enough!

*It was great to meet you, too, Tom Servo.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at October 30, 2022 09:16 AM (OX9vb)

41 >>I made the mistake of picking up "Master and Commander" again earlier in the week, just to browse. Now I'm finishing up "HMS Surprise", so three books in already and resigned to my addiction.

I have the complete series which I've read twice. I lent the books to the son of a good friend and he just returned them last week. I've been thinking about giving them a go one last time this winter.

Taught get started but once I'm in I'm hooked.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 30, 2022 09:17 AM (ZLI7S)

42 Don't turn into a snake. It never helps.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 30, 2022 09:15 AM (llON

---
Indeed. The Solomon Kane stories initially involved horror, but I felt the degenerated into weird stories of him going to Africa and killing evil natives - not the sort of thing you expect in the 1640s.

Howard seemed to really enjoy writing about savage negros getting whacked in many different ways.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:18 AM (llXky)

43 Reread a bit of "Lady Chatterley" this week. Lawrence was a beautifully descriptive writer but, imo, an indifferent plotter. Maybe that's why his short stories are so masterful, because he has a simpler, shorter task at hand.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 09:18 AM (8CMl+)

44 Noooo. Give to Habitat or Good Will.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 09:11 AM (PiwSw)

They're getting picky these days. I'll drop them off maybe at a box, not a trailer or store.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 09:18 AM (7bRMQ)

45 I read Hodgell's God Stalk long ago and was impressed at how she kept the story moving and made once scene flow into the next with very little jumping. In that she reminded me of Rex Stout's Wolfe stories as told by Archie Goodwin.

I recall a quote from her about that time to the effect that GS was modeled on the Victorian novel. In Jame's interactions, occasionally funny, with other people in her household and in other elements, it did seem rather Dickens-like.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 09:19 AM (c6xtn)

46 If anyone is doing NaNoWriMo

And this is what, please?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 09:19 AM (7bRMQ)

47 Tough ... sheesh. Coffee.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 30, 2022 09:19 AM (ZLI7S)

48 I know many members of the Moron Horde are not really into the horror genre and that's fine.

I find the genre both repellent and alluring. I'm particularly drawn to stories involving hammers and obscure placements thereof.

Posted by: Paul P. at October 30, 2022 09:20 AM (eOEVl)

49 The person (lady?) wearing those pants does not appear to have feet.

Neither did Morticia Addams in the original cartoons. Her lower half was like a squid (think Ursula the sorceress in Disney's "The Little Mermaid").

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 09:20 AM (Om/di)

50 46 If anyone is doing NaNoWriMo

And this is what, please?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 09:19 AM (7bRMQ)

National Novel Writing Month -- it gives the writer a priceless gift: a deadline.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 09:21 AM (PiwSw)

51 Howard seemed to really enjoy writing about savage negros getting whacked in many different ways.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:18 AM (llXky)

I think I'd like this guy!

Posted by: Margaret Sanger at October 30, 2022 09:21 AM (7bRMQ)

52 I think the first horror novel that really grabbed me the way a horror novel should was -

"Ghost Story" by Peter Straub.
Great set-up, growing dread, excellent set pieces. Quality writing. Better than anything King wrote. Much better than the movie.

Others:
"The Silence of the Lambs" - yes, it's a horror novel
"The Exorcist" - get the first published version, better and cleaner than the rewrites
"Altered States" by Paddy Chayefsky - much better than the movies, though it lacks young Blair Brown's awesome nekkid body.
"Pet Sematery"

Posted by: naturalfake at October 30, 2022 09:22 AM (KLPy8)

53 A Clockwork Orange
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Stand
all scared me as a kid.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 30, 2022 09:23 AM (EZebt)

54 Howard seemed to really enjoy writing about savage negros getting whacked in many different ways.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:18 AM (llXky)
---
There was a fair amount of casual racism in the early pulp fiction stories. Lovecraft and Howard are both authors that seem to get a lot of grief for this. However, their views were hardly unusual at the time.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 30, 2022 09:23 AM (WFaF3)

55 Genres are funny things. As a kid I loved reading heroic literature, even fantasy, but lost interest when mythic creatures started showing up, and actively dislike most magic stories. Pull a sword out of a stone and grow up to be king of England? Sure, I'll read that. But keep your two-headed dogs in the closet and your baseliks in the basement, please.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 09:23 AM (8CMl+)

56 Rosemary's Baby

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 30, 2022 09:23 AM (EZebt)

57 @46 --

National Novel Writers Month. Exercise your creativity by writing a complete book in one month.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 09:24 AM (Om/di)

58 Wibbly Pig Likes Bananas.

What?

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 09:24 AM (PiwSw)

59 On my long road trip last week, I listened to the first Cormorant Strike book, "Cuckoo's Calling," by Robert Galbraith (recommended by sharon). It was well done, and I didn't figure it out before the reveal. The miles just rolled away while I listened, and I didn't even get upset at the hour and a half traffic jam.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at October 30, 2022 09:24 AM (OX9vb)

60 Tough ... sheesh. Coffee.
Posted by: JackStraw at October 30, 2022 09:19 AM (ZLI7S)
==========
No worries, I knew what you meant. I spend my life making typing errors.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 09:24 AM (8CMl+)

61 American Psycho...if that can be considered Horror...the only book i've read from that genre 1 of maybe 3 books I could not finish... towards the end, off the rails..wow...love me some Vampire stories but don't consider that Horror.

Posted by: Qmark at October 30, 2022 09:26 AM (ttO/Q)

62 "The Silence of the Lambs" - yes, it's a horror novel . . .

Posted by: naturalfake at October 30, 2022

***
True. Just because it's a crime story does not keep it from being classed as horror. And Lecter is an archetype that goes right to the hindbrain like Dracula or the werewolf.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 09:26 AM (c6xtn)

63 Howard seemed to really enjoy writing about savage negros getting whacked in many different ways.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:18 AM (llXky)
=============
It's Hammer time!

Posted by: Paul Pelosi at October 30, 2022 09:26 AM (8CMl+)

64 National Novel Writers Month. Exercise your creativity by writing a complete book in one month.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 09:24 AM (Om/di)

Yeah, I don't write like that. I'm fits and starts, but not because of writer's block. I can go a day or two between writing. It's mostly to decide how I want to do something, not because I don't know what I want to do.

Thanks for the info.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 09:27 AM (7bRMQ)

65 I would love to attend the next TxMoMe. I just have to convince my wife to travel halfway across the country to meet people I only know through a blog. It’s always been my dream to move to Texas but she has her heart set on Florida.
I feel as if I already know most of you just from reading the comments on this blog.

Posted by: RetSgtRN at October 30, 2022 09:28 AM (ApZWy)

66 Rosemary's Baby
Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 30, 2022

***
It is fine stuff, with a little sly humor tucked away here and there. You can make a case that this novel jump-started the entire best-selling horror novel genre of the '70s and beyond.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 09:28 AM (c6xtn)

67 I would love to attend the next TxMoMe. I just have to convince my wife to travel halfway across the country to meet people I only know through a blog. It’s always been my dream to move to Texas but she has her heart set on Florida.
I feel as if I already know most of you just from reading the comments on this blog.

Posted by: RetSgtRN at October 30, 2022 09:28 AM (ApZWy)

Just show her some pix and stories about Florida Man and Woman. My niece wants to move there too, I've sent stories and pix to her.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 09:29 AM (7bRMQ)

68 I am also not a fan of the horror genre. In high school, I read some scary things--'Salem's Lot, The Shining, maybe a couple of others. They scared me for years afterward, and I really don't need that.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at October 30, 2022 09:30 AM (OX9vb)

69 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2022 09:30 AM (7EjX1)

70 >>No worries, I knew what you meant. I spend my life making typing errors.

Fun story. The owner of a boat that I did a Newport - Bermuda Race on was the executive at Norton who brought the O'Brian series to the US. I didn't realize it until we were in the middle of the race.

He was getting on in years and this was actually his last race and we ended up spending some time talking about the books and his efforts to get Norton to do the US rollout. It was not a popular move when he did it. Most thought the language was too dense wouldn't appeal to American readers.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 30, 2022 09:30 AM (ZLI7S)

71 I was delighted to meet you, and All Hail Eris, and Sharon, and so many other readers of the book thread. I can't even name everyone I met, but, what a great time I had! Thanks to all of you for making life more pleasant.
Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at October 30, 2022 09:09 AM (OX9vb)

You got to meet Eris? I'm jealous. I've met her twice. She is a lovely lady. Perhaps I will see her at the 2023 Texas meet, since I have decided to attend.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 09:30 AM (AW0uW)

72 There is a YouTube video on the HMS Victory which explains lots of how the crew worked that if reading a Aubrey or Horatio story might help .

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2022 09:30 AM (xhxe8)

73 Two more thoughts about Silence of the Lambs: There is tremendous literary skill on display here. And Harris breaks a rule to great effect: When he speaks of Dr. Lecter, he often uses the present tense (in a novel written in past tense): "Dr. Lecter's eyes are maroon . . ." It makes Lecter even more immediate, as if you might meet him someday on the street.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 09:31 AM (c6xtn)

74 I, too, have not read a lot of horror stories, but I remember a Hitchcock collection, "Stories Not for the Nervous," that I devoured in middle school.

In one, a carnival hypnotist orders a heckler, "Rise!", and the man's body levitates. Then the hypnotist is stricken by a fatal heart attack. By then, the man is too high for anybody to grab. He just keeps going up until he's no longer visible.

The first U.S. space traveler.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 09:31 AM (Om/di)

75 First horror story: humanity is foul so it rains until all of it is wiped out except Noah and his family

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 30, 2022 09:31 AM (EZebt)

76 One of the remarkable things about PG Woodhouse was his highly structured writing practices. As most here probably know, he plotted on index cards and kept them posted on a board facing his desk, so he always kept track of where he was in his story, and he wrote every day for specific time periods (I can't recall the hours, but it was all scheduled).

Amazing. I could never be that disciplined.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 09:31 AM (8CMl+)

77 Enjoy the horror thread, I'll stick to something else. I'm reading Hemingway short stories, and Rumer Godden's autobiography A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep. If I want horror, I'll read about Sri Lanka, the blueprint.

Posted by: CN at October 30, 2022 09:32 AM (Zzbjj)

78 And Harris breaks a rule to great effect: When he speaks of Dr. Lecter, he often uses the present tense

One of my deal-breakers when reading a novel. I'll bring it back to the library if it's written in first person, present tense.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 30, 2022 09:33 AM (45fpk)

79 There was a fair amount of casual racism in the early pulp fiction stories. Lovecraft and Howard are both authors that seem to get a lot of grief for this. However, their views were hardly unusual at the time.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 30, 2022 09:23 AM (WFaF3)

There are certain writers - I'm looking at you, S.T. Joshi - who damn Lovecraft as an out-and-out racist. Personally, it doesn't bother me much. If you want to read his stories, then the so-called 'racism' consists of:

- the name of the narrator's cat in The Rats in the Walls, the story The Street, much of The Horror at Red Hook and in The Terrible Old Man.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 09:34 AM (AW0uW)

80 I do not like horror books.
I do not like horror movies.
I don't even like scary amusement park rides.

On to more pleasant topics.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 30, 2022 09:35 AM (Y+l9t)

81 RetSgtRN, maybe you could attend a smaller, regional MoMe first, and then she'd understand.

Back to reading: Last night I started the most recent Longmire, Daughter of the Morning Star. Only finished a chapter before I was too sleepy to continue, so more on that next week.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at October 30, 2022 09:35 AM (OX9vb)

82 @71 --

since I have decided to attend.

Yee-Haw!!

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 09:36 AM (Om/di)

83 Thank goodness the 'these pants' entry was not in motion. Bad enough as it was. Movement would just have added an element of sea sickness to the experience.

Why do chicks built like that think skin tight anything improves matters? Truly imponderable.

Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2022 09:36 AM (7EjX1)

84 I've never done NANORIMO formally. Is there a goal of a specific word count? I've done it informally, and find that the books written in a month are about 10,000 words shorter than I normally write. I reread them and don't see anything missing. I reread the longer ones and don't see what I could cut. But it does encourage me to write in a burst.

Posted by: Wenda at October 30, 2022 09:36 AM (xHwJ5)

85 He was getting on in years and this was actually his last race and we ended up spending some time talking about the books and his efforts to get Norton to do the US rollout. It was not a popular move when he did it. Most thought the language was too dense wouldn't appeal to American readers.
Posted by: JackStraw at October 30, 2022 09:30 AM (ZLI7S)
=============
It was out of character for Norton anyway, specializing in text books as they did then. Employee-owned too, iirc, so I imagine a lot of collective opinions had to be consulted. A difficult decision probably.

An acquaintance of mine years ago (haven't seen him recently) was CFO there in those years, and told me O'Brian was a giant PITA, a diva despite his long years of struggles, but Norton eventually was transformed financially by deciding to pick up the series..

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 09:37 AM (oMQtW)

86 nd Harris breaks a rule to great effect: When he speaks of Dr. Lecter, he often uses the present tense
*
One of my deal-breakers when reading a novel. I'll bring it back to the library if it's written in first person, present tense.
Posted by: grammie winger at October 30, 2022

***
Grammie, I do too. But this is very occasional and rare -- not even in every scene in which Lecter appears. You might not even notice it. I'm not even sure if Harris used it in the novel where Lecter first appears, Red Dragon.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 09:37 AM (c6xtn)

87 Posted by: Wenda at October 30, 2022 09:36 AM (xHwJ5)

50,000 words in one Month (November)

https://nanowrimo.org/

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 09:40 AM (PiwSw)

88 If I want horror, I'll read about Sri Lanka, the blueprint.

Posted by: CN at October 30, 2022 09:32 AM (Zzbjj)
==============
the closest I get to reading horror was reading "The River Of Doubt", the great story by the lovely Candice Millard of Teddy Roosevelt's trip in the Amazon after his political fall. The trip almost killed him, and did kill several on the expedition. Highly recommend.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 09:41 AM (oMQtW)

89 Anyway, I have been doing a lot of reading lately, buying books like an addict in a useless attempt to cure or abate my depresion.

A very good one was Juliet Nicholson's The Great Silence, a sequel to her The Perfect Summer. The latter book chronicles the year 1911, as England gains a new king, but slowly drifts towards war. Silence is about the years after the war and how shattered soldiers, women and families tried to cope with the aftermath and how so many of them could not.

I've also been reading a lot of the American Heritage Junior Library titles - Captains of Industry, Labor on the March, Pirates on the Spanish Main and so on - which are good introductions to history for any 'ron or 'ette who wants their child to get a good read for younger ages.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 09:41 AM (AW0uW)

90 April, loved getting to meet you. I just finished book 5! In the Cormorant Strike series by Robert Galbraith, Troubled Blood. This was the longest one at over 900 pages and could not pick up anything else til I finished it. She continues to deepen your understanding of who these people are. The descriptions of everyday things, food, locations even cigaret brands, so British, you feel like you are right there.
Waiting for book 6.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 30, 2022 09:41 AM (Y+l9t)

91 My favorite horror story is still The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe, all these years later.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 30, 2022 09:41 AM (iyk+P)

92 I don't think that the pants owns a weedwhacker. (if you catch my drift .....)

Posted by: JT at October 30, 2022 09:42 AM (T4tVD)

93 reading "The River Of Doubt", the great story by the lovely Candice Millard of Teddy Roosevelt's trip in the Amazon after his political fall. The trip almost killed him, and did kill several on the expedition. Highly recommend.
Posted by: Huck Follywood

Seconded.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 30, 2022 09:42 AM (iyk+P)

94 MP4, haven't forgotten what I promised. Should get it out tomorrow.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 30, 2022 09:43 AM (Y+l9t)

95 hiya

Posted by: JT at October 30, 2022 09:43 AM (T4tVD)

96 Here's some short stories that jump up in my mind when I think about horror:

"The Distributor" by Richard Matheson
- evil man sows misery and violence wherever he goes
Could it be Satan? I think I first read it in an Alfred Hitchcock anthology.

"Mimic" by Donald A. Wollheim
- this is more of a concept horror story. Deliberate pace establishing the "facts". The ending wants to blow your mind with a "what if this were true" chill.
Probably, impossible to get the full effect since the movie came out, though the movie is almost nothing like the story.

"Oh, Whistle..." by M R James, excellent ghost story. Hopefully, the version you read won't have a spoiler picture of the reveal.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 30, 2022 09:43 AM (KLPy8)

97 I'm reading Schlichter's newest Kelly Turnbull book in the series, Inferno and...
[falls through ceiling]

Posted by: John Bender at October 30, 2022 09:45 AM (2BHIo)

98 As well, if you've done any reading about Victorian / Edwardian social history, you're likely to have come across the name Eric Horne, who was a servant / butler to the gentry during the later Victorian and Edwardian eras. In 1921, he penned his memoirs, What the Butler Winked At, telling his life 'below stairs.' As you might expect, hardly any of the 'good and great' come off well, most masters and mistresses being demanding, unpleasant and tyrannical.

Despite the title, the book really doesn't have any scandalous stories. Horne later wrote a sequel, More Winks, but I've not read that. (cont.)

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 09:45 AM (AW0uW)

99 National Novel Writers Month. Exercise your creativity by writing a complete book in one month.
Posted by: Weak Geek

If its october, we're running out of month....

Posted by: JT at October 30, 2022 09:45 AM (T4tVD)

100 "The Distributor" by Richard Matheson
- evil man sows misery and violence wherever he goes
Could it be Satan? I think I first read it in an Alfred Hitchcock anthology. . . .

Posted by: naturalfake at October 30, 2022

***
I'd forgotten about Matheson. His short story "Crickets" is still one of the creepiest ever. His "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is still amazing, too.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 09:46 AM (c6xtn)

101 "Oh, Whistle..." by M R James, excellent ghost story. Hopefully, the version you read won't have a spoiler picture of the reveal.
Posted by: naturalfake at October 30, 2022 09:43 AM (KLPy

Oooh, I just snagged the M.R. James Collected Ghost Stories. Excellent.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 09:46 AM (PiwSw)

102 Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 30, 2022 09:43 AM (Y+l9t)

Not to worry, Sharon. I've had an awful cold over the week, so barely could think about work, let alone anything else. Take your time.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 09:46 AM (AW0uW)

103 The descriptions of everyday things, food, locations even cigaret brands, so British, you feel like you are right there.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 30, 2022 09:41 AM (Y+l9t)

Yes, that!

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at October 30, 2022 09:46 AM (OX9vb)

104 I do not like horror books.
I do not like horror movies.
I don't even like scary amusement park rides.

On to more pleasant topics.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)

BOO !

Posted by: JT at October 30, 2022 09:46 AM (T4tVD)

105 Enjoy the horror thread, I'll stick to something else. I'm reading Hemingway short stories, and Rumer Godden's autobiography A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep. If I want horror, I'll read about Sri Lanka, the blueprint.

Posted by: CN at October 30, 2022 09:32 AM (Zzbjj)
---
Yeah, never a big reader in the genre and the same applies to films. When I was young, I found them scary and didn't like to be scared. When I got older, they weren't scary, just boring.

I like Lovecraft because of his style. The affectations are great and I love the various ticks he uses to make you think everything is calm, scholarly and erudite before the (wait for it) non-Euclidean geometry kicks in and MADNESS!!!

Same with Howard. Both of them taught me not to take myself so seriously as a writer, which caused me to write more naturally and easily.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:47 AM (llXky)

106 Speaking of novel writing --

In one Saint short story, an associate of the Saint writes a book. It's terrible. The Saint rewrites it, including numerous falsehoods about himself, and submits it to a crooked vanity publisher. Once the book is released, he threatens the publisher with a libel suit. He settles for 50,000 pounds.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 09:47 AM (Om/di)

107 50,000 words in a month? Heavens to Betsy. I thought you were going to say someplace between 80,000 and 100,000. So what length is a novella? Because I would put 50,000 in that category.

Posted by: Wenda at October 30, 2022 09:48 AM (xHwJ5)

108 "One of the remarkable things about PG Woodhouse was his highly structured writing practices."

I'm reminded of Wodehouse's three steps to being a successful writer:

1. Prepare your working area: paper, pens, blotters, chair, light.
2. Put your ass in the chair.
3. Keep it there.

Posted by: Nemo at October 30, 2022 09:49 AM (S6ArX)

109 FYI, it does appear that Gutenberg has a lot of H. Beam Piper stuff:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/8301

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 09:51 AM (PiwSw)

110 National Novel Writing Month -- it gives the writer a priceless gift: a deadline.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 09:21 AM (PiwSw)
---
Yeah, that's not going to work for me. I write in spare time when the mood takes me.

When I first started writing books, I used to put at the top of my plot outline/cheat sheet: "Remember, you already have a job, this is for FUN!"

And that's how I approach it. I always have a deadline in mind when I start a project, but I don't beat myself up if I have to let it slip. Life happens.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:51 AM (llXky)

111 (cont).

The first part of Horne's book is about his childhood in the England of the 1850s. He struggles to find his way in life and then more or less stumbles into 'service,' but was never really happy:

"No doubt, had I been apprenticed to a trade, I should have made my mark in the world, some trade that required cleverness and brains. Any fool could learn to be a servant, providing he had no spirit of his own and did what he was told, and be meek, humble, submissive. I have often wished I had a trade, making something or doing something and only being paid by results. . .here would be something worth living for. For although I have lived in the service of some of the best families in the land. . .I consider my life to have been simply thrown away, wasted."

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 09:51 AM (AW0uW)

112 The best book, IMHO. of the space race is Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins.

Currently reading The Bridge at Remagen: The Amazing Story of March 7, 1945, the Day the Rhine River Was Crossed by Ken Hechler.

This is a comprehensive, well-written and well sourced book I rescued from the recycling pile of phonebooks and other pulp paper at the local recycling plant. I recommend it to WWII history readers.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at October 30, 2022 09:51 AM (u82oZ)

113 50,000 words in a month? Heavens to Betsy. I thought you were going to say someplace between 80,000 and 100,000. So what length is a novella? Because I would put 50,000 in that category.
Posted by: Wenda at October 30, 2022

***
Someone else may chime in with better info, but my memory says:

Short story: up to 7500 words
Novelette or novella: 7501-30,000
Short novel: 30,001-50,000
Novel: 50,001 and up

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 09:51 AM (c6xtn)

114 And then there is Cosmic-Comic Horror; "Cabin in the Woods."

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at October 30, 2022 09:52 AM (C1rbv)

115 Good morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear in the hearts of killjoy leftists everywhere.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at October 30, 2022 09:52 AM (u82oZ)

116 For all Lovecraft fans or fans of quirky bookstores there is an HP Lovecraft themed store located in his hometown of Providence, RI. It's pretty small and located in the Providence Arcade, the first mall in the US which has been restored and turned into a collection of small shops and condominiums. The store is a lot more than Lovecraft and has a lot of strange books and related stuff.

The store is run by the Lovecraft Arts and Science Council which is a collection of authors, fans and scholars of Lovecraft and other weird fiction. Pretty neat little shop if you like weird books.

https://www.weirdprovidence.org

Posted by: JackStraw at October 30, 2022 09:53 AM (ZLI7S)

117 50,000 words in a month? Heavens to Betsy. I thought you were going to say someplace between 80,000 and 100,000. So what length is a novella? Because I would put 50,000 in that category.
Posted by: Wenda at October 30, 2022

***
For that novel-writing month, you'd still have to write close to 2000 words a day with very little time off. That's something like 8 pages at 250 words a page, assuming a standard font and 1-inch margins all around.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 09:54 AM (c6xtn)

118 Does this qualify as horror?

"The Rocking Horse Winner" is right up there on "the best short story evah list", written by D.H. Lawrence. I won't give away too much, in case someone wants to read it for themselves, but it concerns a kid in a troubled family who has visions when riding his rocking-horse..

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 09:54 AM (kku+/)

119 Good morning everyone. Got a few minutes before Robby my doggeh needs to be walked.

A truly disturbing horror short story is "I have no mouth and I must scream."

Written in the 60s, it is set in a post apocalyptic nuclear world where an artificial intelligence machine that became sentient and malicious controls the fates of the last of humanity's survivors, tormenting them endlessly.

It won a Hugo award in '68.

Currently reading The End of Procrastination- basically a nice, easy read with tips on how to be more productive.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of ALAMO, the military sci fi sequel to Outward Frontier on Amazon at October 30, 2022 09:54 AM (K7naM)

120 Blog comment: Two to 500

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 09:55 AM (Om/di)

121 50,000 words in a month? Heavens to Betsy. I thought you were going to say someplace between 80,000 and 100,000. So what length is a novella? Because I would put 50,000 in that category.

Posted by: Wenda at October 30, 2022 09:48 AM (xHwJ5)
---
50,000 words comes out to just over 200 paperback pages (depending on how your format it). That used to be an full-length book.

I usually make that my target length because if you go beyond that, you're either padding it or really doing a series. I tend to have a short attention span, so I'm generally not interested in reading or writing 100,000 word novels.

I think that computers have added a huge amount of word count bloat to fiction.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:55 AM (llXky)

122 Speaking of horror stories, I finally read MP4's "Thirteen Moons". And loved it. It's a short story that uses the characters and ambience of his Theda Bara books with a horror element. It is intense and very, very effective.

"Thirteen Moons" really deserves all the 5 star reviews.

Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2022 09:55 AM (7EjX1)

123 I'd forgotten about Matheson. His short story "Crickets" is still one of the creepiest ever. His "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is still amazing, too.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 09:46 AM (c6xtn)
Oooh, I just snagged the M.R. James Collected Ghost Stories. Excellent.
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 09:46 AM (PiwSw)

Both M R James and Richard Matheson are masters of the craft. You can hardly go wrong with either of them.

Also -

Clive Barker's "Books of Blood" are excellent. Not a fan of his novels as his...baggage gets too big an airing.

Of course, every short story writer has some dogs but these three and some others generally can write a spooky tale.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 30, 2022 09:56 AM (KLPy8)

124 I just got Cormac McCarthy's new novel The Passenger. What have I got myself into ... Developing ...

Posted by: Ignoramus at October 30, 2022 09:56 AM (SJsWC)

125 Hola horde bookwormzzz!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 30, 2022 09:56 AM (5rCWs)

126 you'd still have to write close to 2000 words a day with very little time off. That's something like 8 pages at 250 words a page, assuming a standard font and 1-inch margins all around.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

I recall hearing that H Rider Haggard wrote King Solomon's Mines in a week.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 30, 2022 09:57 AM (iyk+P)

127 Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 09:51 AM (AW0uW)

MP4, did you see the post I left for you a couple of weeks ago about Martha Mansfield?

Maybe her death could be a mystery for Theda. They were active around the same time.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 09:57 AM (7bRMQ)

128 For that novel-writing month, you'd still have to write close to 2000 words a day with very little time off. That's something like 8 pages at 250 words a page, assuming a standard font and 1-inch margins all around.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 09:54 AM (c6xtn)
---
I wrote Long Live Death and what was for me a blistering pace, cranking out 55,000 words in six weeks.

I think the assumption is that these people are or want to be professional writers and have lots of time on their hands.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:57 AM (llXky)

129 I just got Cormac McCarthy's new novel The Passenger. What have I got myself into ... Developing ...
Posted by: Ignoramus at October 30, 2022

***
Has he learned how to use quotation marks yet?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 09:57 AM (c6xtn)

130 Not a horror fan, myself. I did try to read some HP Lovecraft a year or so back, and it was a slog to get through. Mostly because of the writing style, though.

...I do enjoy some cosmic horror mixed with adventure, though. There's quite a bit of horror subtext in the Conan and Solomon Kane adventures!

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 30, 2022 09:57 AM (Lhaco)

131 The book The Amityville Horror gave me goose-flesh.

All the various events in the story were so random, disjointed, illogical, and seemingly unrelated, yet each was horrific in its own way. It all added up to a very disquieting, unsettling confusion.

Posted by: davidt at October 30, 2022 09:58 AM (oTZbj)

132 You got to meet Eris? I'm jealous. I've met her twice. She is a lovely lady. Perhaps I will see her at the 2023 Texas meet, since I have decided to attend.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 09:30 AM (AW0uW)
---

Hooray!

You doing the NoVaMoMee mext year?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 30, 2022 09:59 AM (Dc2NZ)

133 I just got Cormac McCarthy's new novel The Passenger. What have I got myself into ... Developing ...
Posted by: Ignoramus at October 30, 2022 09:56 AM (SJsWC)
==============
I haven't read it but I bet people die, gruesomely.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 09:59 AM (kku+/)

134 I think that computers have added a huge amount of word count bloat to fiction.

The Dallas Morning News (IIRC) once ran a feature article on why novels continued to get thicker.

One factor: Timid editors.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 10:00 AM (Om/di)

135
I recall hearing that H Rider Haggard wrote King Solomon's Mines in a week.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 30, 2022

***
Dunno about Haggard, but Edgar Rice Burroughs was a fiction machine and hardly ever rewrote. Dickens turned out a LOT of work in his life, and that was long before typewriters, let alone computers.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 10:00 AM (c6xtn)

136 I have the complete series which I've read twice. I lent the books to the son of a good friend and he just returned them last week. I've been thinking about giving them a go one last time this winter.

Taught get started but once I'm in I'm hooked.
Posted by: JackStraw at October 30, 2022 09:17 AM (ZLI7S)

How are the later ones? I've read the first six so far, but I think it's after that that O'Brien had to start fudging the historical timeline, so I was worried that might affect their quality some.

Posted by: Dr. T at October 30, 2022 10:01 AM (tp+tP)

137 I recall hearing that H Rider Haggard wrote King Solomon's Mines in a week.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 30, 2022 09:57 AM (iyk+P)
---
I wrote the core of A Man of Destiny over a long weekend. I'd been working out the story for years, ever since the Star Wars prequels ended.

That draft ran 20,000 words, but then it took a lot longer to flesh things out and develop the story more fully. And of course the series is 250,000 words overall and took a couple of years go complete.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 10:02 AM (llXky)

138 And that's how I approach it. I always have a deadline in mind when I start a project, but I don't beat myself up if I have to let it slip. Life happens.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:51 AM (llXky)

Yep, and I don't work, so I don't even have a deadline. Not sure if I'll ever get anywhere with it, but who knows. Keep writing and improve I suppose. Maybe some day I'll try to sell one of my story attempts.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 10:03 AM (7bRMQ)

139 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:47 AM (llXky)

A few years ago I tried Lovecraft on the advice of someone here. I guess the only "horror" I can be frightened by or find believable is the type perpetrated by people for their own benefit The Cask of Amontillado comes to mind, or the deliberately hurt, angry people lashing out of Frankenstein or Phantom of the Opera. Real people can be bad enough without creating supernatural scenarios or cthulhus to scare us. Maybe imaginary monsters are easier to cope with and destroy, or cast aside with a "that's pretend, I can put it on the shelf".

The longer I live and the more disinhibited society becomes, I have come to accept (once I didn't) that pure living evil exists, but it works through people, always.

Posted by: CN at October 30, 2022 10:03 AM (Zzbjj)

140 My list of favorite horror stories changes every nanosecond, but will usually include (along with some of the stories already mentioned) Fritz Leiber's "The Girl with the Hungry Eyes," Dennis Etchison's "It Only Comes Out at Night," Kealan Patrick Burke's "Empathy," and Charles Beaumont's "The Hunger." Ramsey Campbell's stories are delightful too.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 30, 2022 10:03 AM (a/4+U)

141 Currently reading 'The Mysteries of Udolpho'

Posted by: sine missione at October 30, 2022 10:04 AM (Bd3Bd)

142 I read a novelette from C.J. Cherryh's Union-Alliance universe, "Port Eternity", in which a rich woman, her lover, and her cloned crew and servants set out on a vacation in her pleasure yacht. The owner lives in a fantasy playground styled after Arthurian legend, even to the point of designing clones modeled after Percival, Gawain, Lancelot, Modred, Lynette, and Elaine. Her space cruiser is somehow caught in the between-space of hyperjump and can't escape. They end up snared in a sort of space Sargasso Sea with other ships. Faced with dwindling resources and the remainder of their years spent stuck in the middle of nowhere, with presumably dangerous aliens trying to break into their ship, the dynamic between "real" humans and their genetically modified servants changes. As with many of her Union stories, the nature of free will vs. inbred traits is debated. With their termination date on hold, the clones begin to question their preordained destinies and mental patterns.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 30, 2022 10:04 AM (Dc2NZ)

143 (cont'd) This is a "ship in a bottle" story in a kind of dreamscape/nightmare world, very different from the action-oriented settings of her other novels. The action is mostly internal. Cherryh gives credit in the foreword to Donald A. Woldheim (DAW Books) for insisting that she let her freak flag fly in these "thought experiment" stories, which were collected in the omnibus Alernate Realities (Port Eternity, Voyager in Night, and Wave Without a Shore). And good for Don: Cherryh's Downbelow Station (1982) was the first DAW book to win the Hugo Award for best novel.

It might be considered horror, as the constant tap-tap-tap on the hull by the aliens trying to force their way in drives the inhabitants slowly mad.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 30, 2022 10:04 AM (Dc2NZ)

144 Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 10:05 AM (PiwSw)

145
The longer I live and the more disinhibited society becomes, I have come to accept (once I didn't) that pure living evil exists, but it works through people, always.

Posted by: CN at October 30, 2022 10:03 AM (Zzbjj)
---
Yes, Lovecraft isn't scary to me, merely amusing. Some of it is forward-thinking, or fun and pseudo-gothic. (OMG, I'm a fish-person!)

I guess you could say I like it precisely because it can't be taken seriously.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 10:05 AM (llXky)

146 Mine by Robert R. McCammon is one of the scariest books I have ever picked up and I had to put it down frequently. It's about a woman whose newborn is kidnapped by a psychotic leftist domestic terrorist and the mother's chase to rescue her baby.

F Paul Wilson has also written many good horror books, in addition to the Repairman Jack series.

Posted by: huerfano, stochastic commenter at October 30, 2022 10:05 AM (dTFZY)

147 Yep, and I don't work, so I don't even have a deadline. Not sure if I'll ever get anywhere with it, but who knows. Keep writing and improve I suppose. Maybe some day I'll try to sell one of my story attempts.
Posted by: OrangeEnt

I bid a nickel !

Posted by: JT at October 30, 2022 10:06 AM (T4tVD)

148 I recall hearing that H Rider Haggard wrote King Solomon's Mines in a week.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 30, 2022 09:57 AM (iyk+P)
==================
It is Haggard who best described Hillary Clinton: "She who must be obeyed".

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 10:06 AM (Y9ksT)

149 This week, I re-read "The High Crusade", a Poul Anderson classic.

I hadn't read it since I was a teen. It holds up very well indeed.

It's hard to describe without spoilers, but it begins with hostile aliens attacking a small English village, said village being armed to the teeth and well-prepped for going off to kick some French ass and then maybe heading to the Holy Land.

Bad mistake on the part of the aliens.

This book was made into a movie, which I also remember as being somewhat entertaining, though of course not nearly as good as the book.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022 10:06 AM (bW8dp)

150 I don't care for much of the horror genre, especially teen slasher type films and books. But when 'ancient evil powers' emerge from the dark to wither and destroy mankind, I pay attention. HP Lovecraft comes to mind, of course. But Howard did it so effectively in some of his Conan stories. It is the ultimate test of of the mind, body, and will of humans.

Although not usually thought of this way, Morgoth and Sauron in LOTR might qualify.

Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2022 10:06 AM (7EjX1)

151 Someone else may chime in with better info, but my memory says:
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 09:51 AM (c6xtn)

That's about what I found, Wolfus

Micro-Fiction – up to 100 words. ...
Flash Fiction or Short Short – 100–1,000 words. ...
Short Story – 1,000–7,500 words. ...
Novelette – 7,500–20,000 words. ...
Novella – 20,000–50,000 words. ...
Novel – 50,000 –110,000 words.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 10:07 AM (7bRMQ)

152 I'm also not willing to break up my complete run of "Groo the Wanderer." Some things the family will have to deal with someday as part of the estate.
Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 09:04 AM (Om/di)

Groo??

I will be at your estate sale for these. Lost my collection in a fire a few years back. Actually was the only comic I read as a kid and only because I was peer pressured into it. Damn comic book geek friends of mine thought it was weird I hated most comics.

I was a top tier DM though so they kept me around for that.

Posted by: Reforger at October 30, 2022 10:07 AM (ie4Do)

153 At the prompting of some somewhat-recent Razorfist videos, I ordered myself some Cowboy-comics from Italy. Well, the books arrived, and the first one I read was "Zagor: The Lost World." It....isn't really a cowboy-comic. It's a standard pulp-adventure-story whose main character just happens to come from the old west (and has a walking Mexican-stereotype for a sidekick).

The story, as should be obvious from the title, has our hero discovering a mysterious isolated plateau that is full of cavemen and dinosaurs. Cool story, awesome art! All black and white and gloriously rendered. The dinosaurs have a bit of a Bill Waterson flair--like an amped-up Calvin and Hobbes fantasy sequence, but without having to be cut short for a joke.

Next on the pile is "Tex: In the Land of the Seminoles." Same writer, same artist, but this one should actually deal with cowboys and indians. I have high expectation for it!

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 30, 2022 10:08 AM (Lhaco)

154 A blend of sci-fi and horror can be found in John Scalzi's "The God Engines". A novella, really, about captive demons that allow faster than light travel through space.

Scalzi is the author of the "Old Man's War" series. Which is also good but is straight sci-fi.

Posted by: Yawrate at October 30, 2022 10:08 AM (518OI)

155 The store is run by the Lovecraft Arts and Science Council which is a collection of authors, fans and scholars of Lovecraft and other weird fiction. Pretty neat little shop if you like weird books.

"Masks are required." Nope. Hard pass.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 10:09 AM (AW0uW)

156 I admire you writers. Not my strength. I'm the anti-Hemingway, "why say it in one sentence when you can say it in several paragraphs?"

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 10:09 AM (Y9ksT)

157 Would the short story "Leiningen Versus the Ants" qualify as horror? The threat is not hidden but it is inevitable.

Posted by: Oddbob at October 30, 2022 10:09 AM (nfrXX)

158 144 Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 10:05 AM (PiwSw

Yes, the early version of that Hunger Games stuff, a horrid human created ritual.

Posted by: CN at October 30, 2022 10:09 AM (Zzbjj)

159 Length classifications according to the Nebula Award categories for the Science Fiction Writers of America:

Short Story: less than 7,500 words;
Novelette: at least 7,500 words but less than 17,500 words;
Novella: at least 17,500 words but less than 40,000 words
Novel: 40,000 words or more.

If it's good enough for the SFWA, it's good enough for me.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 30, 2022 10:10 AM (a/4+U)

160 Currently reading the original horror story(?).

"The Inferno of Dante Alighieri" translated by Ciaran Carson.

So far, I really like this translation into a more "modern" idiom by Irish poet, Ciaran Carson. Very clean and easy to read.

He wasn't a scholar of Dante or the Divine Comedy, so I believe he doesn't come to the Inferno with inflated ideas of how "grandly literary" it should sound. The high flown mixes with the low, which is my understanding of how Dante wrote the Inferno.

Give it a whirl, if that idea appeals to you.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 30, 2022 10:10 AM (KLPy8)

161 "Thirteen Moons" really deserves all the 5 star reviews.
Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2022 09:55 AM (7EjX1)

Thank you very, very much. You don't know it, but that comment made a bad day a little lighter.

Could you leave a review yourself, if you don't mind?

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 10:10 AM (AW0uW)

162 "Masks are required." Nope. Hard pass.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 10:09 AM (AW0uW)
===============
Helpful accessory when wearing your side-arms.

Posted by: Louis L'Amour at October 30, 2022 10:10 AM (Y9ksT)

163 > Scalzi is the author of the "Old Man's War" series. Which is also good but is straight sci-fi.

Scalzi is also a world-class dick who thoroughly approves of "canceling" other authors for not being communists.

So I canceled him right back.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022 10:10 AM (bW8dp)

164 The closest thing to horror I enjoy reading are the Silver John stories by Manly Wade Wellman. They are set in Appalachia, feature a lot of American myth and legend, and are dark in flavor but good wins (which I think means it isn't true horror...) The loner hero has some magic but isn't overpowered, using his wits to win over ghosts and evil spirits.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 30, 2022 10:11 AM (zNcSj)

165 I very much enjoyed the horror works of Dan Simmons, such as 'Summer Of Night' and it's semi-sequels, and 'The Terror.'

Good stuff.

Posted by: Brewingfrog at October 30, 2022 10:11 AM (m+myY)

166
Although not usually thought of this way, Morgoth and Sauron in LOTR might qualify.

Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2022 10:06 AM (7EjX1)
---
Those portions of The Silmarillion that Tolkien wrote out in detail are quite scary at times. Much of the published work was really just the plot outline edited by Christopher.

The Fall of Gondolin was Tolkien's oldest writing on Middle Earth and while he started a full revision, he never got past the arrival of Tuor to the city.

The original version is pretty harrowing, and details women and children being incinerated by the dragons and balrogs. No doubt Tolkien's memories of war were still fresh in his mind and I wonder if he shied away from the core of the story for that reason.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 10:12 AM (llXky)

167 Not really horror, more like hardboiled supernatural kickassery, but I just finished "Sandman Slim." The titular protagonist is a cross between Marv from "Sin City" and Constantine. Rollicking fun. The author is a lefty San Francisco douche, but it doesn't come through excessively, and the sumbitch can write.

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at October 30, 2022 10:12 AM (5YmYl)

168 It got down to freezing last night. That means we're closer to my favorite reading weather: cold, rainy (uncomfortable but no shoveling), and dark. That's when I ensconce myself in the recliner with a warm blanket, coffee, tea, or an adult beverage at hand, good tobacco for the pipe, the reading lamp adjusted just so, and several favorite books within reach.

Bliss.

Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2022 10:12 AM (7EjX1)

169 >>How are the later ones? I've read the first six so far, but I think it's after that that O'Brien had to start fudging the historical timeline, so I was worried that might affect their quality some.

In my mind he takes a little more time to develop the stories in the later books. The early ones seemed to pack more story and less detail but that could just be me.

>>"Masks are required." Nope. Hard pass.

Pretty sure that's a dated website issue. We haven't worn masks in RI for well over a year and even then use was pretty spotty.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 30, 2022 10:12 AM (ZLI7S)

170 Who will participate in NaNoWriMo?

Starts Nov.1.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 30, 2022 10:12 AM (gwTXI)

171 I don't read horror per say, but historical books can be more horrifying than fiction, except it's real.

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2022 10:12 AM (xhxe8)

172 "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 30, 2022 10:14 AM (XIJ/X)

173 For example, to attack the walls of Gondolin, Morgoth uses infernal technology to create what we'd call fire salamanders, who use demonic heat to melt stone. They just curl up next to it and let the heat do the rest.

To protect the advancing orcs, he devises hollow steel serpents, who can climb walls or pile on top of each other and then open their jaws to the let the troops swarm in.

The elves are very different, more human, less 'elfin' so to speak. The Stricken Anvil - the metalworkers' guild, are brutally strong, bowed by their work, and utterly fearless. They sortie against the balrogs and kill the crap out of them, being encased in elvish steel and wielding massive hammers. However, they are cut off, so decided to drive further into the host and fight to the death. I think they take eight balrogs with them.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 10:15 AM (llXky)

174 The longer I live and the more disinhibited society becomes, I have come to accept (once I didn't) that pure living evil exists, but it works through people, always.

Posted by: CN at October 30, 2022 10:03 AM (Zzbjj)

Perhaps for similar reasons, the best Lovecraft stories in my opinion are those in which humans have a more independent role to play, either to actively participate in the evil or (occasionally) to repel it. "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" isn't his most famous, but I think it's one of the best if you prefer to keep the monsters in the background.

Posted by: Dr. T at October 30, 2022 10:16 AM (tp+tP)

175 I don't read horror per say, but historical books can be more horrifying than fiction, except it's real.
Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2022 10:12 AM (xhxe

===============
too close to the everyday news, to my taste.

Posted by: Louis L'Amour at October 30, 2022 10:16 AM (Y9ksT)

176 @171 --

FYI: The spelling is "per se."

Posted by: Weak Geek, always an editor at October 30, 2022 10:16 AM (Om/di)

177 Eris, you have added another book (Alternate Realities) to my TBR pile...

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 10:16 AM (PiwSw)

178 MP4, did you see the post I left for you a couple of weeks ago about Martha Mansfield?

Maybe her death could be a mystery for Theda. They were active around the same time.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 09:57 AM (7bRMQ)

I did see that, thank you. Unfortunately, her death was in 1923 and my new book is set in 1922. I might be able to hint at it, though.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 10:17 AM (AW0uW)

179 Seeker's Mask.

The Women's World. Not law but tradition since the betrayal of Gerridon and his sister-consort Jamethiel.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 30, 2022 10:17 AM (gwTXI)

180 Are kids allowed to read "The Adventures Of Huck Finn" anymore? I was recalling just the other day what an impression that book made on me as a child.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 10:17 AM (Y9ksT)

181 157 Would the short story "Leiningen Versus the Ants" qualify as horror? The threat is not hidden but it is inevitable.
Posted by: Oddbob at October 30, 2022

***
More of a suspense-adventure-thriller story, I'd say. Though the threat is pretty darn horrifying.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 10:17 AM (c6xtn)

182 You doing the NoVaMoMee mext year?
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 30, 2022 09:59 AM (Dc2NZ)

Perhaps. That depends on two factors:

1. Can I afford both meetups?
2. Can I lose enough weight for NoVa to fit in my dinner jacket?

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 10:18 AM (AW0uW)

183 I've been going through the LOTR Sketchbooks by Alan Lee and John Howe. Besides being fascinated by their art, the stories behind the development of the images is interesting. I keep a good magnifying glass at hand to make out all the details of the drawings.

Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2022 10:18 AM (7EjX1)

184 I'm still working my way thru Pliny's Natural History. I'm at the part about agriculture, and encountered a word that needed further investigation, "sideration".

In the context, it means an affliction to plants caused by the movement of the planets. Like "Them grapes got siderated".

The Greeks were into that kind of thing.

The modern meaning is "A sudden mortification, or a sudden deprivation of sense, as in an apoplexy". As in "I came to the AOSHQ in a siderated state, and was healed".

Posted by: fd at October 30, 2022 10:18 AM (sn5EN)

185 I will "third" "Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad" as a masterpiece of horror, but no love for "The Monkey's Paw"?
Read that aloud to a classroom of 6th graders- they were all (deer in headlights emoji).

But not really a horror fan. I agree that what we can dream up our own selves IRL is sufficient.

Stephen King's (I know...) "Danse Macabre" is a very good overview of the horror genre.

Posted by: sal at October 30, 2022 10:19 AM (y40tE)

186
Perhaps for similar reasons, the best Lovecraft stories in my opinion are those in which humans have a more independent role to play, either to actively participate in the evil or (occasionally) to repel it. "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" isn't his most famous, but I think it's one of the best if you prefer to keep the monsters in the background.

Posted by: Dr. T at October 30, 2022 10:16 AM (tp+tP)
---
I love how frequently he makes the hero a tweedy professor type who smashes the glass at Miskatonic U and grabs the Necronomican to find the counter-spell.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 10:19 AM (llXky)

187 Saw In Bruges 2, The Banshees of Inisherin, which reunites writer-director Martin McDonagh with actors Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. It's quite good

Posted by: Ignoramus at October 30, 2022 10:19 AM (SJsWC)

188 Look what Barnes & Noble did!

https://bit.ly/3gXEtcA

There'll be riots!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 30, 2022 10:19 AM (FVME7)

189 Anyway, husband is visiting his sister on LI, so I have a day to myself. I'm going to get a lot done, finish a project for fun, then go back to Rumer.

Have a lovely day.

Posted by: CN at October 30, 2022 10:20 AM (Zzbjj)

190 Anyone who wants a horror book should try The Bloodlands.

Had to put it down. Just too much.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 10:21 AM (llXky)

191 Dinner jacket?

You NoVa folks dress classy.

Posted by: Weak Geek, who decided against Marvel T-shirts this year at October 30, 2022 10:21 AM (Om/di)

192 Poe died of cat-scratch fever. Maybe it was a black cat.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at October 30, 2022 10:21 AM (C1rbv)

193 Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 10:05 AM (PiwSw
*
Yes, the early version of that Hunger Games stuff, a horrid human created ritual.
Posted by: CN at October 30, 2022

***
Jackson? That bitch never gave me *any* credit!

Posted by: James Harris at October 30, 2022 10:21 AM (c6xtn)

194 Hi Sabrina

Won two books of yours at the MoMe and signed! Such a thrill and a genre I enjoy. I mean seriously, some people won a can of Whup Ass.
Thank you!

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 30, 2022 10:21 AM (Y+l9t)

195 177 Eris, you have added another book (Alternate Realities) to my TBR pile...
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 10:16 AM (PiwSw)
---

I hope you like it. It was my "read" on the trip home. I have two more in the trilogy to read.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 30, 2022 10:22 AM (Dc2NZ)

196 there's one of those "little library" thingies just up the street from my house. I drive by it frequently, but have never stopped to poke through it to see what's there.

about a week ago, i noticed it was empty. i suspect someone stole all the books. it wasn't empty a week before.

when i drove by yesterday, i saw that someone had stolen one of the littles shelves.

the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

Posted by: anachronda at October 30, 2022 10:22 AM (edU/H)

197 > I was recalling just the other day what an impression that book made on me as a child.

IMO, the part where Huck decides that he is willing to literally go to Hell rather than betray his friend Jim is one one of the most moving passages in English literature.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022 10:23 AM (bW8dp)

198 Could you leave a review yourself, if you don't mind?
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing

Which reminds me that I owe you an Amazon review for Stuff.... Soon.

Posted by: Oddbob at October 30, 2022 10:23 AM (nfrXX)

199 I can't recall if it was Robert McCammon or Dan Simmons, but I remember a WWII spy novel featuring its hero battling the Germans in Europe and North Africa with his special talents. He's a werewolf.

Posted by: James Harris at October 30, 2022 10:23 AM (c6xtn)

200 "Are kids allowed to read "The Adventures Of Huck Finn" anymore? "

I read it out loud to my ten-year old kid brother. With a little background he understood its use of the N-word, and how Twain was being ironic. Now if only EdD's like Doctor Jill could get this

Posted by: Ignoramus at October 30, 2022 10:23 AM (SJsWC)

201 Anyone who wants a horror book should try The Bloodlands.

Had to put it down. Just too much.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 10:21 AM (llXky)

I've got that one. I don't think I was able to finish the chapter on the Ukrainian famine.

Posted by: Dr. T at October 30, 2022 10:23 AM (tp+tP)

202 161 ... "Could you leave a review yourself, if you don't mind?"

MP4,

I left a comment yesterday. It should appear by now.

PS: I liked the 'playful' aspect that ends the story.

Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2022 10:23 AM (7EjX1)

203 The Greeks were into that kind of thing.

The modern meaning is "A sudden mortification, or a sudden deprivation of sense, as in an apoplexy". As in "I came to the AOSHQ in a siderated state, and was healed".
Posted by: fd at October 30, 2022 10:18 AM (sn5EN)

It's been a long time since I read this, but I remember enjoying it immensely: Celestial Matters, by Richard Garfinkel.

The premise of the book is the assumption that the beliefs of the Ancient Greeks (geocentric, four elements, etc.) are literal scientific fact.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at October 30, 2022 10:23 AM (PiwSw)

204 Bliss.
Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2022 10:12 AM (7EjX1)

That's my favorite reading weather, too. Favorite baking weather, also, so add apple pie to that list.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at October 30, 2022 10:23 AM (OX9vb)

205 My favorite writers growing up were pulpy novelists, everything from detective stories to science fiction. One way I got to read new writers was through collections of short stories or short novels.

Would an Ace Of Spades Author collection be worth constructing? Similar to our much-used (at least in my house) recipe book?

All of our authors could contribute a representative effort and we could each get a taste of the horde's finest work.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 10:24 AM (/3XyA)

206 204 Bliss.
Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2022 10:12 AM (7EjX1)

That's my favorite reading weather, too. Favorite baking weather, also, so add apple pie to that list.
Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at October 30, 2022 10:23 AM (OX9vb)

And napping!

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, what likes a nap at October 30, 2022 10:24 AM (PiwSw)

207 > With a little background he understood its use of the N-word

You mean slave owners in the South before the Civil War didn't call them "African-Americans"? The hell you say.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022 10:25 AM (bW8dp)

208 And I just added Simmons' "Summer of Night" to my library hold list.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 30, 2022 10:25 AM (Dc2NZ)

209 This is the time of year I enjoy searching for and editing (yes, they need it even at that length) Two-Line Horror Stories:

I received an official text alert saying DO NOT LOOK AT THE MOON. Now I'm getting message after message from my contacts, saying "It's a beautiful night, you should go outside."

My brother and I sit down at the Ouija board and place our hands on the planchette. He says, "Justin, are you here with me?", and I move the planchette to YES.

"You look like death", he said, his brow furrowed with concern. I smile, flattered to be recognized, as I hook him with my scythe and pull him into the abyss.

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at October 30, 2022 10:25 AM (5YmYl)

210 Well, now, silly me. I say I don't care for horror genre, then I recalled my own short "shaggy gothic horror" comic,
The Beast with Four Heads
http://bit.ly/tbw4hd

Alas, the "motion comic" version is unavailable since the tyrants at YooToob cancelled my account.

Posted by: mindful webworker - YooToob ate my cat-alog at October 30, 2022 10:26 AM (qtUpJ)

211 "The premise of the book is the assumption that the beliefs of the Ancient Greeks (geocentric, four elements, etc.) are literal scientific fact.
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper

Who are we to question their reality?

Posted by: fd at October 30, 2022 10:26 AM (sn5EN)

212 elements of horror can be found back as early as the plays of William Shakespeare, if not earlier.

-
The ancient Romans had horror stories about witches, ghosts, and werewolves.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 30, 2022 10:26 AM (FVME7)

213 2. Can I lose enough weight for NoVa to fit in my dinner jacket?
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 10:18 AM (AW0uW

3. Get a bigger dinner jacket?

*spoken as one who had to get a bigger pair of jeans to be comfortable at the TxMoMe.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at October 30, 2022 10:27 AM (OX9vb)

214 Who will participate in NaNoWriMo?

Starts Nov.1.
Posted by: Anna Puma at October 30, 2022 10:12 AM (gwTXI)

I'm participating. Mostly as another spur to finish the current novel I'm working on.

I've got a couple of more I'd like to write and am standing in my own way.

*applies horsewhip to brain*

Posted by: naturalfake at October 30, 2022 10:27 AM (KLPy8)

215 Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at October 30, 2022 10:27 AM (OX9vb)

I was thinking the same thing.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, what likes a nap at October 30, 2022 10:27 AM (PiwSw)

216 I'm thinking of doing NaNoWriMo to get a rough draft of a story, but I'm not going to worry about keeping up with the word count. Anything I manage will be more writing than I've done in 30 years.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2022 10:27 AM (nC+QA)

217 >>>Anyway, husband is visiting his sister on LI
===============
That made my head turn. The only communication I get from my sister is via angry emails concerning politics.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 10:27 AM (/3XyA)

218 63 Howard seemed to really enjoy writing about savage negros getting whacked in many different ways.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

I read the first three Tarzan books a few years back (Not Howard, I know, but from a similar era) and one thing that struck me was that Tarzan started out encountering some really horrible Africans. But in a later adventure he went back to Africa, and encountered some perfectly civilized Africans. Arabs received a similar treatment: sometimes civilized and honorable, sometimes heartless slavers.

Basically, the pulp writers didn't shy away from making villains truly despicable, even if it was a whole 'race' of villains. But in that context, they defined 'race' a bit more narrowly than today, and assumed that we readers could tell the difference between a reasonable tribe and an unreasonable tribe....

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 30, 2022 10:28 AM (Lhaco)

219 Horror? Meh
Deadlines and arbitrary word count quotas? Meh

To paraphrase Tuco: "If you're gonna write, write. If you're gonna count, count."

I'll sit this one out, thanks.

Posted by: Muldoon at October 30, 2022 10:28 AM (kXYt5)

220 I bid a nickel !

Posted by: JT at October 30, 2022 10:06 AM (T4tVD)

I have a nice, short movie script someone liked. Might be worth a dime or more, though.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 10:29 AM (7bRMQ)

221 Anyone who wants a horror book should try The Bloodlands.

-
And now they're doing a sequel.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 30, 2022 10:29 AM (FVME7)

222 Bought a signed copy of "I, Juan de Pareja" by Elizabeth Borton Trevino at the library book sale. A childhood favorite, it was my introduction to historical fiction and it was the Newberry Medal book of 1965.

Inside was a note from one of the owners' 7th grade teachers, warning his parents he was skipping his work in English. It was dated 1971 and is written in lovely "teacher's cursive".

Posted by: sal at October 30, 2022 10:29 AM (y40tE)

223 > Arabs received a similar treatment: sometimes civilized and honorable, sometimes heartless slavers.

Russians and Germans, too. I think that might've varied depending on what our status was with those countries at the time.

I know ERB hated, hated, hated Bolsheviks.

Sort of like the way Kato from the Green Hornet varied between Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino depending on our current relations with the country in question.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022 10:30 AM (bW8dp)

224 I did see that, thank you. Unfortunately, her death was in 1923 and my new book is set in 1922. I might be able to hint at it, though.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 10:17 AM (AW0uW)

Could be a hook for your next one.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 10:30 AM (7bRMQ)

225 I just noticed that Cthulhu looks a lot like Nixon.

Posted by: fd at October 30, 2022 10:30 AM (sn5EN)

226 Nice overviews of short horror fiction:

Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, ed. by Phylis Cerf Wagner & Herbert Wise

The Dark Descent, ed. by David G. Hartwell

The Arbor House Treasury of Horror and the Supernatural, ed. by Martin Greenberg, Bill Pronzini, and Barry Malzberg

The Weird, ed. by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer

Lotsa good stuff in all four.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 30, 2022 10:32 AM (a/4+U)

227 72 There is a YouTube video on the HMS Victory which explains lots of how the crew worked that if reading a Aubrey or Horatio story might help .
Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2022 09:30 AM (xhxe

Is there a video that shows how fully-rigged ships 'tacked into the wind'? I tried looking that up recently, but only found explanations for how modern yatchs (with a sail parallel to the ship) sail against the wind. Fascinating, but not what I was looking for...

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 30, 2022 10:32 AM (Lhaco)

228 225 I just noticed that Cthulhu looks a lot like Nixon.
Posted by: fd at October 30, 2022 10:30 AM (sn5EN)

Nixon was the Left's Hitler between Goldwater and Reagan. (Sorry, Gerald)

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, what likes a nap at October 30, 2022 10:32 AM (PiwSw)

229 Unfortunately I will be moving twice in the next few months, so one of the things I decided is I'm not carrying all my books with me. I'm going to pare them down to as close to nothing as possible.

I did the same with videos, and will do so with CDs. Clothing is easy, even furniture and all that, if I don't think I need it, out it goes.

But books...

Posted by: BurtTC at October 30, 2022 10:33 AM (NWBBy)

230 Lovecraft has been sort of cancelled by the left. But...he is too important to the whole genre of horror so this is a case where they weren't able to fully succeed.

And I will say connecting Massholeachusetts to existential horror was an example of fiction getting the real world right.

Posted by: 18-1 at October 30, 2022 10:33 AM (ESjRY)

231 @196 --

Someone took the shelf?! That's sad.

As for the books, someone might have taken them to unload at a used-book store.

I put one in our LFL a week ago. If it's still there in another week, I'll reclaim it for the next bunch to take to the store.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 10:33 AM (Om/di)

232 Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2022 10:23 AM (7EjX1)

Yes, your review is there. I am humbled. It means a lot to me that someone likes my scribbles.

Thanks again.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 10:34 AM (AW0uW)

233 I just noticed that Cthulhu looks a lot like Nixon.

The two-handed V sign is undoubtedly intended to make you think of Nixon. Just judging from the overall style of the drawing, I wonder if it doesn't originally date to the mid-70s.

Posted by: Oddbob at October 30, 2022 10:34 AM (nfrXX)

234 Been listening to a mystery series by WWII era writer Cyril Hare. His sleuth is a middle-aged barrister who accidentally gets involved in cases, generally because he is a witness of some fact about the case.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2022 10:35 AM (nC+QA)

235 I think the assumption is that these people are or want to be professional writers and have lots of time on their hands.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

I think it must be cooked up by students who are goofing off in November -- Nov & Dec are very busy months for most.adults

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 30, 2022 10:35 AM (5rCWs)

236 Morning.

Posted by: Robert at October 30, 2022 10:35 AM (1Yy3c)

237 166 ... "Those portions of The Silmarillion that Tolkien wrote out in detail are quite scary at times. "

A good reminder. I need to get my copy of the Silmarillion off the shelf. This will be the first time I've re-read the whole book in years. I wonder if my older self will get more from it than when it first came out.

Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2022 10:36 AM (7EjX1)

238 Nixon was the Left's Hitler between Goldwater and Reagan. (Sorry, Gerald)
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, what likes a nap at October 30, 2022 10:32 AM (PiwSw)
=====================
Hillary is a Nixonian Democrat. I bet she didn't intend to become that person, when she started out cheating her way through the Watergate Hearings

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 10:36 AM (/3XyA)

239 reading "The River Of Doubt", the great story by the lovely Candice Millard of Teddy Roosevelt's trip in the Amazon after his political fall. The trip almost killed him, and did kill several on the expedition. Highly recommend.
Posted by: Huck Follywood

I liked it as well.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 30, 2022 10:37 AM (FVME7)

240 Fiinshed In the Garden of Beasts and it was a fascinating look into pre-WWII Germany. 4 Stars for sure. I read Murder in the White City years ago and liked that, too. If I see any more books by Larson I will pick them up for sure. Well into the first of the Theda Bara mysteries and alttough I'm not much fr reading mysteries, I'm thoroughly enjoying this one.

Posted by: who knew at October 30, 2022 10:37 AM (4I7VG)

241 I am one of those who don't care for the horror genre, but I enjoyed reading about the sub-genres which I never really thought about.

Thank you for always keeping the book thread interesting, Perfessor.

Posted by: bluebell at October 30, 2022 10:37 AM (aeePL)

242 MP4, you need to put "http://" in front of the "www" in your URL box.

Posted by: Oddbob at October 30, 2022 10:38 AM (nfrXX)

243 I bid a nickel !

Posted by: JT at October 30, 2022 10:06 AM (T4tVD)

I have a nice, short movie script someone liked. Might be worth a dime or more, though.
Posted by: OrangeEnt

(shakes head.....) Inflation !

Posted by: JT at October 30, 2022 10:38 AM (T4tVD)

244 The ancient Romans had horror stories about witches, ghosts, and werewolves.

The Romans had an interesting connection to werewolves.

Their founding legend has Romulus and Remus raised by a wolf, and they had the Lupercalia festival which may have been related to a wolf goddess

Posted by: 18-1 at October 30, 2022 10:38 AM (ESjRY)

245 Life Unworthy Christopher Taylor... werewolf v nazis

Posted by: Qmark at October 30, 2022 10:38 AM (ttO/Q)

246 Is there a video that shows how fully-rigged ships 'tacked into the wind'?

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 30, 2022 10:32 AM (Lhaco)

They could tack, but it was very difficult. Mostly the would "Wear Ship," which was going the other way...falling off the wind and coming up on the opposite tack.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 30, 2022 10:39 AM (XIJ/X)

247 Let the Right One In, John Ajvidi Lindquist

The Other, Thomas Tryon

Posted by: Lola at October 30, 2022 10:39 AM (NIYa7)

248 My brother and I sit down at the Ouija board and place our hands on the planchette. He says, "Justin, are you here with me?", and I move the planchette to YES.

"You look like death", he said, his brow furrowed with concern. I smile, flattered to be recognized, as I hook him with my scythe and pull him into the abyss.
Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at October 30, 2022 10:25 AM (5YmYl)
===================
that's haunting.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 10:40 AM (/3XyA)

249 April and Sharon, I just finished the most recent Cormoran Strike book, The Ink Black Heart, it is over 1000 pages. I found it a wee bit different from her previous efforts. I will be interested to read your thoughts on it when you read it.

Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at October 30, 2022 10:40 AM (a4EWo)

250 Hiya Bluebell !

Posted by: JT at October 30, 2022 10:40 AM (T4tVD)

251 Posted by: Oddbob at October 30, 2022 10:38 AM (nfrXX)

Thanks. The website's offline right now, though, as it needs a major update.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 10:41 AM (AW0uW)

252 Sort of like the way Kato from the Green Hornet varied between Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino depending on our current relations with the country in question.
Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022 10:30 AM (bW8dp)

In one of Angela Thirkell's wartime novels, the couple modeled on Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas keep re-naming their dog after the leader of whatever country they think is being "valiant" at the moment.

Posted by: sal at October 30, 2022 10:41 AM (y40tE)

253 Won Steven Price Blair's The Dream of Poor Bazin at the MoMee but haven't started it yet. From the blurb it looks like a political thriller based on US current events and I need to get my Christmas presents made before I can sit down with an actual paper book.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2022 10:41 AM (nC+QA)

254 Those pants... Does Walmart have a library?

Posted by: Commissar of Plenty and Lysenko Solutions at October 30, 2022 10:41 AM (w6Zzw)

255 I was thinking the same thing.
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, what likes a nap at October 30, 2022 10:27 AM (PiwSw)

I suspect, from what I've learned about MP4 in this here forum, he has a fine, vintage dinner jacket that can't just be replaced without scouring every thrift and consignment store on the eastern seaboard.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at October 30, 2022 10:42 AM (OX9vb)

256 Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at October 30, 2022 10:40 AM (a4EWo)

I've heard it casts right wing hate groups as the villains. Gonna skip it.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 30, 2022 10:42 AM (5rCWs)

257 Hiya JT! I'm going to put on my ghost costume and open up the fridge soon.

Posted by: bluebell at October 30, 2022 10:43 AM (aeePL)

258 Is there a video that shows how fully-rigged ships 'tacked into the wind'? I tried looking that up recently, but only found explanations for how modern yatchs (with a sail parallel to the ship) sail against the wind. Fascinating, but not what I was looking for...
Posted by: Castle Guy at October 30, 2022 10:32 AM (Lhaco)

Square rigged ships didn't really tack across the wind like we're used to seeing on modern fore and aft rigged sails. They did a maneuver called waring ship where they turned downwind and kept going for 270 degrees, kind of a figure 8.

Posted by: Napoleon XIV at October 30, 2022 10:43 AM (AiZBA)

259 (shakes head.....) Inflation !

Posted by: JT at October 30, 2022 10:38 AM (T4tVD)

Twenty cents now! Thanks, Joe B!!!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 10:43 AM (7bRMQ)

260 I suspect, from what I've learned about MP4 in this here forum, he has a fine, vintage dinner jacket that can't just be replaced without scouring every thrift and consignment store on the eastern seaboard.
Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at October 30, 2022 10:42 AM (OX9vb)
---------

Can confirm. He's a dashing fellow.

Posted by: bluebell at October 30, 2022 10:44 AM (aeePL)

261 Inside was a note from one of the owners' 7th grade teachers, warning his parents he was skipping his work in English. It was dated 1971 and is written in lovely "teacher's cursive".
Posted by: sal at October 30, 2022 10:29 AM (y40tE)
---

A kid after my own heart. I always had trouble studying when there was a good book to read.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 30, 2022 10:44 AM (Dc2NZ)

262 If I see any more books by Larson I will pick them up for sure. Well into the first of the Theda Bara mysteries and alttough I'm not much fr reading mysteries, I'm thoroughly enjoying this one.
Posted by: who knew at October 30, 2022 10:37 AM (4I7VG)

"Isaac's Storm" about the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. My grandfather survived that as a young boy.

Posted by: sal at October 30, 2022 10:44 AM (y40tE)

263 'Yo! Squirrel! Where's your cover? Drop that book and give me 20!'

Posted by: Eromero at October 30, 2022 10:44 AM (/RDPd)

264 > Square rigged ships didn't really tack across the wind like we're used to seeing on modern fore and aft rigged sails.

Sure they did.

They could also wear ship as an alternative, but that was considered a pussy move, other than in special circumstances.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022 10:45 AM (bW8dp)

265 Life Unworthy Christopher Taylor... werewolf v nazis
Posted by: Qmark at October 30, 2022 10:38 AM (ttO/Q)
---
That's a good one! Of all the Horde-written books I've read, it's probably my favorite...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 30, 2022 10:45 AM (WFaF3)

266 34 ... HF,

Thanks for the link to the Patrick O'Brian book site. The damn books are addictive, almost as bad as Tolkien and CS Lewis.

Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2022 10:46 AM (7EjX1)

267 >>> 263 'Yo! Squirrel! Where's your cover? Drop that book and give me 20!'
Posted by: Eromero at October 30, 2022 10:44 AM (/RDPd)

The Perfessor needs to get a real purple hat to wear at the next MoMee he attends.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 30, 2022 10:46 AM (llON8)

268 Millard has written several other books, including one on the young Winston Churchill's adventures in the Boer War. I've been meaning to read it, but haven't yet got a copy.

I did just buy myself a biography of Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff called "The Revolutionary". It won a Pulitzer, which would ordinarily mean I avoid it like the plague, but my parents recommended it to me so I am giving it a try. Warily.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 10:46 AM (PjWJz)

269 I did just buy myself a biography of Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff called "The Revolutionary". It won a Pulitzer, which would ordinarily mean I avoid it like the plague, but my parents recommended it to me so I am giving it a try. Warily.
Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 10:46 AM (PjWJz)

I checked, Stacy is not related to Adam. Carry on.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, what likes a nap at October 30, 2022 10:47 AM (PiwSw)

270 OT but funny as hell: Musk just got an automated email from Twitter HR letting him know that he has 30 days to complete mandatory Twitter "management training".

I'm guessing some more people just went on The List. Musk doesn't seem too impressed by this.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022 10:48 AM (bW8dp)

271 I read the first three Tarzan books a few years back (Not Howard, I know, but from a similar era) and one thing that struck me was that Tarzan started out encountering some really horrible Africans. But in a later adventure he went back to Africa, and encountered some perfectly civilized Africans. Arabs received a similar treatment: sometimes civilized and honorable, sometimes heartless slavers. . . .

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 30, 2022

***
Yes. The Gomangani (as Tarzan's great ape language had it) were uncivilized, untrustworthy, and fond of torture and the like, and Tarzan had great fun tormenting them. Years later his tribe of Waziri warriors were the complete opposite, loyal to Tarzan and he to them. Burroughs didn't shy away from having villainous Europeans, either: One book features a nasty Russian, and there were Germans and other white villains.

Posted by: James Harris at October 30, 2022 10:48 AM (c6xtn)

272 I've not read any horror books . Only Stephen King book I've ever read was Running Man. Like movies it's not a preferred genre.

Was sort of willowed last book thread regard to Lucifer's Hammer. Anyone else have trouble finishing this book or I should say , getting started . I've tried three different times and just put it aside after a bit.

Posted by: polynikes at October 30, 2022 10:48 AM (hg4Xf)

273 I need to re-read Something Wicked This Way Comes by Bradbury. I've been looking for the movie as well, though none of the main streaming sites seem to carry it (I figured it might pop up for Halloween at least). I do see that someone uploaded it to Youtube. Surprised it hasn't been taken down yet.

Posted by: No One of Consequence at October 30, 2022 10:49 AM (uPgE/)

274 OT but funny as hell: Musk just got an automated email from Twitter HR letting him know that he has 30 days to complete mandatory Twitter "management training".

There is a whole lot of stupid compliance training stuff at tech companies.

Last time I worked at one I had to take courses so I'd know I couldn't bribe, sexually harass, or embezzle. Which...obviously I already knew.

But...it gives the companies CYA so...

Posted by: 18-1 at October 30, 2022 10:49 AM (ESjRY)

275 The Romans had an interesting connection to werewolves.

Their founding legend has Romulus and Remus raised by a wolf, and they had the Lupercalia festival which may have been related to a wolf goddess
Posted by: 18-1 at October 30, 2022

***
Their word for the werewolf was versipellis -- literally "skin-turner."

Posted by: James Harris at October 30, 2022 10:50 AM (c6xtn)

276 Last time I worked at one I had to take courses so I'd know I couldn't bribe, sexually harass, or embezzle. Which...obviously I already knew.

But...it gives the companies CYA so...

Posted by: 18-1 at October 30, 2022 10:49 AM (ESjRY)

And the perp was almost always the white male.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 10:51 AM (7bRMQ)

277 I need to re-read Something Wicked This Way Comes by Bradbury. I've been looking for the movie as well, though none of the main streaming sites seem to carry it (I figured it might pop up for Halloween at least). I do see that someone uploaded it to Youtube. Surprised it hasn't been taken down yet.
Posted by: No One of Consequence at October 30, 2022 10:49 AM (uPgE/)
---
I would go ahead and spring for the DVD if I were you. Totally worth it!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 30, 2022 10:51 AM (WFaF3)

278 There is a whole lot of stupid compliance training stuff at tech companies.

Last time I worked at one I had to take courses so I'd know I couldn't bribe, sexually harass, or embezzle. Which...obviously I already knew.

But...it gives the companies CYA so...
Posted by: 18-1 at October 30, 2022 10:49 AM (ESjRY)
---

Try working for the gubmint. That silliness is nonfuckingstop, and yes, it is CYA.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 30, 2022 10:51 AM (Dc2NZ)

279 Howard seemed to really enjoy writing about savage negros getting whacked in many different ways.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:18 AM (llXky)

I would point out there are very few Oompa-Loompas in Africa, after all. So if Kane is going to Africa, he hasn't much of a choice for opponents

I was surprised when I finally got around to reading Herodotus' Histories, especially the section on the Black Sea and the Scythians, how REH must have pulled the Cimmerians from there, as well as Conan's world from Theosophy.

And no one seems offended at the numbers of Picts, Atlanteans and Black Priests from Mu got whacked.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2022 10:51 AM (xhaym)

280 OT but funny as hell: Musk just got an automated email from Twitter HR letting him know that he has 30 days to complete mandatory Twitter "management training".

It would be funny as all hell if he signed up, went, and just sat through it like some ordinary schlub.

Posted by: Oddbob at October 30, 2022 10:52 AM (nfrXX)

281 It would be funny as all hell if he signed up, went, and just sat through it like some ordinary schlub.
Posted by: Oddbob at October 30, 2022 10:52 AM (nfrXX)

I wouldn't put it past him.

Posted by: polynikes at October 30, 2022 10:53 AM (hg4Xf)

282 It would be funny as all hell if he signed up, went, and just sat through it like some ordinary schlub.
Posted by: Oddbob at October 30, 2022 10:52 AM (nfrXX)

With a wig and a nametag that read "Elonia"

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, what likes a nap at October 30, 2022 10:53 AM (PiwSw)

283 I've not read any horror books . Only Stephen King book I've ever read was Running Man. Like movies it's not a preferred genre.

Was sort of willowed last book thread regard to Lucifer's Hammer. Anyone else have trouble finishing this book or I should say , getting started . I've tried three different times and just put it aside after a bit.
Posted by: polynikes at October 30, 2022

***
The Running Man is more of a 1984-ish thriller, future society SF, not "horror" like a lot of King's works.

Lucifer's Hammer starts slowly, I admit. If you're not already hooked by the characters, the things they know, and the sense of humor, plus the impending disaster, it may not be your style.

Posted by: James Harris at October 30, 2022 10:53 AM (c6xtn)

284 "young Blair Brown's awesome nekkid body" OK, now I have to watch Altered States

Posted by: who knew at October 30, 2022 10:53 AM (4I7VG)

285 One of my deal-breakers when reading a novel. I'll bring it back to the library if it's written in first person, present tense.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 30, 2022 09:33 AM (45fpk)

Why is that? I believe I've heard first person, present tense is a no-no, but I don't know of another way to present my proposed story.

Although, come to think of it, I think all the verbs in the paragraph I've written may be in past tense ("I looked up", instead of "I look up")

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2022 10:53 AM (nC+QA)

286 Sharon(willow's apprentice) -- I'm glad my books are going to a happy home. Hope you enjoy them!

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 30, 2022 10:56 AM (zNcSj)

287 > One of my deal-breakers when reading a novel. I'll bring it back to the library if it's written in first person, present tense.
Posted by: grammie winger at October 30, 2022 09:33 AM (45fpk)

Yes, that is super annoying 99.9999% of the time.

While I've seen it done successfully, it's extremely rare.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022 10:56 AM (bW8dp)

288 Castle Guy yes there are try this
https://youtu.be/TrC3yMMDsc8

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2022 10:57 AM (xhxe8)

289 Howard seemed to really enjoy writing about savage negros getting whacked in many different ways.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 30, 2022 09:18 AM (llXky)
*
I would point out there are very few Oompa-Loompas in Africa, after all. So if Kane is going to Africa, he hasn't much of a choice for opponents. . . .

Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2022

***
Burroughs got around that by having Tarzan encounter a remnant of the Roman Empire in Africa, as well as various "lost" cities. In one story, he encounters a hidden valley w/ 2 races of civilized, tailed humanoids and several species of still-living dinosaurs.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 10:57 AM (c6xtn)

290 It would be funny as all hell if he signed up, went, and just sat through it like some ordinary schlub.
Posted by: Oddbob at October 30, 2022 10:52 AM (nfrXX)

It would be funnier if he took it and criticized it, especially from the point of view of growing up in South Africa.
What would they do, flunk him and terminate him?

Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2022 10:57 AM (xhaym)

291 OT but funny as hell: Musk just got an automated email from Twitter HR letting him know that he has 30 days to complete mandatory Twitter "management training".
------------
It would be funny as all hell if he signed up, went, and just sat through it like some ordinary schlub.
Posted by: Oddbob at October 30, 2022 10:52 AM (nfrXX)

A place I used to work, I tried my best to get out of an annual training for which I was one of the organization's trainers. No go.

When I got there, sitting in front of me was the guy who trained all the trainers, having to take the training from a guy who he trained.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 30, 2022 10:57 AM (NWBBy)

292 At the office there was a mandatory session every year dealing with sexual harrassment.

A few of us would always ask why we needed this training as we already knew how to sexually harrass.

Never got a laugh from HR for some reason...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 30, 2022 10:58 AM (a/4+U)

293 Posted by: James Harris at October 30, 2022 10:53 AM (c6xtn)

Yes Running Man part of King's non horror inventory. Just pointing out I really haven't read the most popular horror author.

I'll have to just power through the beginning of Lucifer's Hammer I guess. Though I did the same with Confederacy of Dunces and didn't get the hype.

Posted by: polynikes at October 30, 2022 10:58 AM (hg4Xf)

294
I listened to a recording of Tolkien's "The Hobbit". Much of it was as I remembered from my previous reading sometime several decades ago, but there were enough unremembered things to make it seem like an entirely new work. One aspect that I noticed was my perceiving it as being less of a children's tale and being more of a less dark introduction to the deeper snd broader works to come.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars at October 30, 2022 10:58 AM (ZvxPV)

295 One of my deal-breakers when reading a novel. I'll bring it back to the library if it's written in first person, present tense.
Posted by: grammie winger at October 30, 2022
*
Yes, that is super annoying 99.9999% of the time.

While I've seen it done successfully, it's extremely rare.
Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022

***
Jay McInerney's Bright Lights Big City goes that one better: present tense, *second* person. And it works. It helps that the novel is often very funny, and is short. But it works.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 10:59 AM (c6xtn)

296 I'd just finished a couple year old book by Kali Wallace, Salvation Day, and saw he had a new release, Dead Space. These are both science fiction murder mysteries of a sort. I thoroughly enjoyed Salvation Day, good hard science, interesting mystery, no sucker punches.

Dead Space is good, EXCEPT in the intervening years either Kali or his publisher has decided to up the wokeness level. Now one of the characters is a 'they', not a 'him' or 'her'. It adds nothing to the story, does not have nothing to do with the plot or the relationships, just signals woke virtue.

Every time I see it I get confused for a second, as 'they' is a plural, then I get pissed.

It's a shame because other than that it's a good read. But 2/5 for woke nonsense.

Posted by: Candidus at October 30, 2022 10:59 AM (LtKhO)

297 It would be funnier if he took it and criticized it, especially from the point of view of growing up in South Africa.[/]

Walk in, sit down, take out a note pad and say "How do you spell your name? I want to be sure I get it right."

Posted by: Oddbob at October 30, 2022 10:59 AM (nfrXX)

298 > A few of us would always ask why we needed this training as we already knew how to sexually harrass.

A friend of mine in undergrad often threatened to sign up for a Women's Studies course, sit silently for a week or so, then raise his hand and ask "When do we get to thighs?"

Sadly, he never quite got the nerve to actually do it.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022 11:00 AM (bW8dp)

299 > Jay McInerney's Bright Lights Big City goes that one better: present tense, *second* person. And it works.

Good example. Yep, it worked fine in that book.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022 11:01 AM (bW8dp)

300 Hooray for nic tags!

Posted by: Oddbob at October 30, 2022 11:01 AM (nfrXX)

301 I'm definitely going to participate in NANORIMO but not officially. (Wouldn't know how to.) But if a handful here are also doing it, it might be fun to compare notes/cheer one another on daily. Is there a way to do that?

Posted by: Wenda at October 30, 2022 11:01 AM (xHwJ5)

302 'll have to just power through the beginning of Lucifer's Hammer I guess. Though I did the same with Confederacy of Dunces and didn't get the hype.
Posted by: polynikes at October 30, 2022

***
I'll be the first to admit that CoD is not the laugh-out-loud romp some people seem to think it is. If you want funny plus touching, Richard Bradford's Red Sky at Morning is vastly better.

Niven and Pournelle (Lucifer's Hammer) are an excellent team. (Were, now that Pournelle is gone.) Nearly all I've read of Pournelle's solo work has bored me; but with Niven he struck gold.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 11:01 AM (c6xtn)

303 Wenda! How the heck are you? Nice to see you.

What will you write about?

Posted by: bluebell at October 30, 2022 11:02 AM (aeePL)

304 OK, folks, all this talk about writing has made me decide to get dressed, grab my notebook and go somewhere to write in peace.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 30, 2022 11:03 AM (AW0uW)

305 Long time ago I read some short stories that I am trying to relocate. The setting was an English Gentleman’s club in which different men would relate horror stories they had lived in their adventures. The butler or waiter seemed all knowing. I thought it was Lovecraft, but can’t seem to find them.

Posted by: Shark at October 30, 2022 11:03 AM (jty/C)

306 >>Is there a video that shows how fully-rigged ships 'tacked into the wind'? I tried looking that up recently, but only found explanations for how modern yatchs (with a sail parallel to the ship) sail against the wind. Fascinating, but not what I was looking for...

They really didn't. The most common technique for a square rigged ship was wearing or gybing.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 30, 2022 11:03 AM (ZLI7S)

307 Last time I worked at one I had to take courses so I'd know I couldn't bribe, sexually harass, or embezzle. Which...obviously I already knew.

But...it gives the companies CYA so...
Posted by: 18-1 at October 30, 2022 10:49 AM (ESjRY)
============
One of our customers wrote me recently asking for our written policies, asap. The internet was my deliverance.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 11:03 AM (oMQtW)

308 Niven and Pournelle (Lucifer's Hammer) are an excellent team.

Also can recommend Legacy of Heorot, clearly written with an eye toward being adapted to a screenplay starring Arnold. Would have been a great movie.

Posted by: Candidus at October 30, 2022 11:03 AM (LtKhO)

309 I think you would say Stephen Pressfield writes in first person or through the telling of the story through a person observing the events.

Posted by: polynikes at October 30, 2022 11:04 AM (hg4Xf)

310 OK, folks, all this talk about writing has made me decide to get dressed, grab my notebook and go somewhere to write in peace.

Just clicked submit on an Amazon review for Stuff. They said it could take several days to appear. Pretty sure I didn't say anything censorable, like "MAGA."

Posted by: Oddbob at October 30, 2022 11:05 AM (nfrXX)

311 Outside time.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 30, 2022 11:05 AM (ZLI7S)

312 I haven't been reading much, I am slowly working through a 1903 book about a motor tour through Southern France by a rich American debutante, her aunt, and her driver who is actually some young English peer who is pretending to be a chauffeur.

The Lightning Conductor by C.N. Williamson, A.M. Williamson

Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2022 11:06 AM (xhaym)

313 While a square-rigged ship can't sail as close to the wind as a fore-and-aft rig, it is absolutely possible to tack one, and this was done routinely.

You had to have enough way on the ship to carry it through the eye of the wind, lest you "miss stays", but being able to do it was the mark of a skilled crew.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022 11:07 AM (bW8dp)

314 I am a big Gibson fan so The Peripheral being a series on Prime was a big deal. Two episodes in and they seem to have the main concepts but not the actual book, so I went back to reread - I am now 2/3 of the way through.

I first read after a long time away from reading and Gibson really immerses you in his world by throwing you off the deep end. First reading I had to get about where I am now to really start getting the book. Knowing the major conceit of the story actually helps to understand. Enjoying it more on second reading.

Posted by: blaster at October 30, 2022 11:07 AM (pwExq)

315
Sure they did.

They could also wear ship as an alternative, but that was considered a pussy move, other than in special circumstances.
Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022 10:45 AM (bW8dp)

Have a book called USS Constitution A Midshipman's Pocket Manual 1814 on the shelf here at Castle Nut. Ima dig into that today. Thanks. I was having an issue on what to read next.

Posted by: Reforger at October 30, 2022 11:07 AM (wzO3f)

316 Perfesser -

Thanks for another GREAT Book Thread !

Posted by: JT at October 30, 2022 11:10 AM (T4tVD)

317 One more thing.

Hitler tried by special court-martial the scapegoats of the Germans who failed to blow the bridge at Remagen into the Rhine before the Americans captured it.

The lack of justice, the missing higher-ups who made that capture possible, and the killing of the defendants showed some similarities to the J-6 crowd of Nazi's.

Ashli Babbitt paid for lack of justice with her life. Some totalitarian instincts do not change. They seem to be deep in our ur-DNA. Can we change that culture before we become an agrarian society again?

Chores continue. Have a great day, and may the evil in the US Government stay well away from you and yours.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at October 30, 2022 11:11 AM (u82oZ)

318 I am a big Gibson fan so The Peripheral being a series on Prime was a big deal.

Wut? I used to be a big Wm Gibson fan but I gave up somewhere around Pattern Recognition. I have seen the promo for Peripheral on the Amazon menu screen but had no idea it was Gibson. I should check this out.

Posted by: Oddbob at October 30, 2022 11:12 AM (nfrXX)

319 Perfesser -

Thanks for another GREAT Book Thread !
Posted by: JT at October 30, 2022 11:10 AM (T4tVD)
---
You are quite welcome and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I do have some stuff lined up for November...And several great Books by Morons for next week!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 30, 2022 11:13 AM (WFaF3)

320 I'll have to just power through the beginning of Lucifer's Hammer I guess. Though I did the same with Confederacy of Dunces and didn't get the hype.
Posted by: polynikes at October 30, 2022 10:58 AM (hg4Xf)

It is kind of a brutal book. It is about the end of the world.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2022 11:14 AM (xhaym)

321 I've finished the first two Robert Gailbraith-Rowling Cormoran Strike detective stories.
I liked the second better than the first. Always a good sign.
On to the third (of six, so far, I think).

Posted by: From about that time at October 30, 2022 11:15 AM (4780s)

322 Good morning, Perfessor, Horde. Finished Alex Jones' "The Great Reset" recently. A worthwhile read.

Posted by: callsign claymore at October 30, 2022 11:16 AM (9RJZB)

323 Pants are on*, and the world awaits.

Thanks for another fantabulous book thread, Perfessor! I'll check in again later.

*Sorry, OM!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 30, 2022 11:17 AM (Dc2NZ)

324 Lucifer's Hammer is an exciting read, very interesting considerations on surviving the end of the world. The books would absolutely never get published today, due to the choice of bad guys, and I am a bit surprised the authors have not been retroactively cancelled.

Posted by: Candidus at October 30, 2022 11:18 AM (LtKhO)

325 Video: tacking v. wearing a square-rigged ship.

https://tinyurl.com/tcs733dz

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022 11:18 AM (bW8dp)

326 Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at October 30, 2022 10:27 AM (OX9vb)

Those were your *bigger* jeans?! I was thinking how slim and elegant you were. You must normally be in danger from a strong breeze

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2022 11:21 AM (nC+QA)

327
Neighbor down the road is doing target practice with his rifle from his back porch.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 30, 2022 11:21 AM (1Nxff)

328 Of course Gogol's Diary of a Madman was first person, present tense and it is a classic of literature.

Posted by: Regular joe at October 30, 2022 11:22 AM (nnp+f)

329 Further on Jones' "Great Reset" -- especially if you like your Halloween horror to be fact, not fiction.

Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" is superb.

Posted by: callsign claymore at October 30, 2022 11:23 AM (9RJZB)

330 Neighbor down the road is doing target practice with his rifle from his back porch.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 30, 2022 11:21 AM (1Nxff)

Sounds like a nice place to live.

Or maybe not.

Posted by: blaster at October 30, 2022 11:23 AM (pwExq)

331 (shakes head.....) Inflation !

Posted by: JT

It's now a buck fitty for your thoughts.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 30, 2022 11:24 AM (FVME7)

332 One of our customers wrote me recently asking for our written policies, asap...
Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 11:03
---------------------

Why?

Posted by: olddog in mo at October 30, 2022 11:25 AM (ju2Fy)

333 I've finished the first two Robert Gailbraith-Rowling Cormoran Strike detective stories.
I liked the second better than the first. Always a good sign.
On to the third (of six, so far, I think).
Posted by: From about that time

I was amazed in the first by the way the seemingly irrelevant details fit perfectly into the solution.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 30, 2022 11:26 AM (FVME7)

334 Hi, Bluebell. My stories always start with a dream, so I know what I assume will be the two main characters, but not what the book is about: Robbie Verendrye, a financial big shot, and Cressie Cassidy. They're both a little reckless and have so far gotten away with it. (Obviously that's about to change!)

Two Verendrye brothers were amongst the earliest settlers of Wyoming, so I must have been reading something relevant for the name to pop up in a dream.

I'm sort of half looking forward/half apprehensive of November!

Posted by: Wenda at October 30, 2022 11:28 AM (xHwJ5)

335 It is kind of a brutal book. It is about the end of the world.
Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2022 11:14 AM (xhay

End of the world books don't bother me because in my reality it's just the beginning of the next one.

Posted by: polynikes at October 30, 2022 11:28 AM (hg4Xf)

336 Hadrian at least it's not from his living room

Posted by: Skip's phone at October 30, 2022 11:28 AM (xhxe8)

337 'The Upper Berth" by F. Marion Crawford is one of my favorite horror short stories.

Posted by: Machiavelli at October 30, 2022 11:29 AM (HKzcR)

338 Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 30, 2022 10:44 AM (Dc2NZ)

Lol, yeah. I almost was late on a book report in Jr. High because I couldn't decide which of the three books I'd read in the meantime I should use.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2022 11:29 AM (nC+QA)

339 Why?
Posted by: olddog in mo at October 30, 2022 11:25 AM (ju2Fy)
==============
they are a government agency, checking boxes on their vendor file.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 11:30 AM (KXsyo)

340 similarities to the J-6 crowd of Nazi's.

-
David Pepper@DavidPepper
Speaker Pelosi protected the lives of EVERY one in the Capitol on Jan. 6, Republican & Dem, up to & including the VP
Then her good judgment that day saved our Republic
The ongoing hate & sneering disrespect from people she PROTECTED that day is sickening.
As is today’s attack.

-
And they make such a BIG DEAL out of Audie Murphy!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 30, 2022 11:31 AM (FVME7)

341 Long time ago I read some short stories that I am trying to relocate. The setting was an English Gentleman’s club in which different men would relate horror stories they had lived in their adventures. The butler or waiter seemed all knowing. I thought it was Lovecraft, but can’t seem to find them.
Posted by: Shark at October 30, 2022

***
I know Stephen King has done at least two in a series that sounds like your description. The first and longer was "the Breathing Method," one of the novelettes in Different Seasons. He followed that up with another short story with the same private-club setting in one of his collections.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 11:32 AM (c6xtn)

342 The Upper Berth" by F. Marion Crawford is one of my favorite horror short stories.
Posted by: Machiavelli at October 30, 2022

***
Oh, yes; I read that at age 11 in the Hitchcock anthology Bar the Doors.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 11:33 AM (c6xtn)

343 Video: tacking v. wearing a square-rigged ship.

https://tinyurl.com/tcs733dz
Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 30, 2022 11:18 AM (bW8dp)

Nice.

Posted by: Napoleon XIV at October 30, 2022 11:33 AM (AiZBA)

344 Jan6 was very comparable to D,-Day

( rolls eyes)

Posted by: Skip's phone at October 30, 2022 11:34 AM (xhxe8)

345 Musked!

Biden's let-me-give-you-the-facts tweet is flagged as bullshit.

https://bit.ly/3FuWMzP

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 30, 2022 11:35 AM (FVME7)

346 I've finished the first two Robert Gailbraith-Rowling Cormoran Strike detective stories.
I liked the second better than the first. Always a good sign.
On to the third (of six, so far, I think).
Posted by: From about that time
*
I was amazed in the first by the way the seemingly irrelevant details fit perfectly into the solution.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 30, 2022

***
Sounds like Ellery Queen meets John Dickson Carr. Bother were masters of the chain-of-clues and the clues that seemed to mean nothing at the time. I've got to try these novels.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 11:35 AM (c6xtn)

347 FIRST!!!!!

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at October 30, 2022 11:36 AM (Zz0t1)

348 When your pants can't contain your ass, it's time to reconsider a few things.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at October 30, 2022 11:37 AM (Zz0t1)

349 Of course Gogol's Diary of a Madman was first person, present tense and it is a classic of literature.
Posted by: Regular joe at October 30, 2022

***
Isn't that one supposed to be composed of diary entries? That would make every bit of sense for it to be in first person-present tense. "I seem to feel a creeping dread. . . ."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 11:37 AM (c6xtn)

350 re: old sailing ships: Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana, might be relevant. I read it many years ago, because I have an ancestor who was one of those guys up in the masts, and I was lucky enough to inherit is needles--all wood, different shapes, about a foot long.

He gave up and decided to the Union Army in the Civil War because it seemed like an easier gig.

Posted by: Wenda at October 30, 2022 11:38 AM (xHwJ5)

351 About those pants....

Which one of you bastards posted pictures of my ass without permission?

Posted by: Madamemayhem (uppity wench) at October 30, 2022 11:38 AM (Wy1BU)

352 256 Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at October 30, 2022 10:40 AM (a4EWo)

I've heard it casts right wing hate groups as the villains. Gonna skip it.
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 30, 2022 10:42 AM (5rCWs)

There is a subplot about right wing hate groups, but the main mystery is who is killing off people associated with an on-line game, starting with the creator. And of course, new developments in Strike and Robin's personal lives.

Posted by: Wethal at October 30, 2022 11:39 AM (ZzVCK)

353 Biden's let-me-give-you-the-facts tweet is flagged as bullshit.

https://bit.ly/3FuWMzP
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 30, 2022 11:35 AM (FVME7)

Just exactly how does taxing the shit out of companies solve inflation?

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at October 30, 2022 11:41 AM (Zz0t1)

354 Well just voted. First time in my life I did not vote in person on Election Day

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2022 11:44 AM (Irn0L)

355 Taxes on corporations raises prices of their products

Posted by: Skip's phone at October 30, 2022 11:46 AM (xhxe8)

356 I just finished reading Hell on Two Wheels, about the Race Across America ultra endurance bicycle race. Most of the serious competitors get about one hour of sleep per night and start to hallucinate. Seems more like torture than a sport.

Posted by: MammaB at October 30, 2022 11:46 AM (2rTSy)

357 Well just voted. First time in my life I did not vote in person on Election Day
Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2022 11:44 AM (Irn0L)

Your polling place was open on Sunday?

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at October 30, 2022 11:46 AM (Zz0t1)

358 In one story, he encounters a hidden valley w/ 2 races of civilized, tailed humanoids and several species of still-living dinosaurs.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere

San Francisco?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 30, 2022 11:47 AM (FVME7)

359 Sundowner plays Marxism with class warfare unlike many new Marxists who has moved to race warfare

Posted by: Skip's phone at October 30, 2022 11:47 AM (xhxe8)

360
San Francisco?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 30, 2022 11:47 AM (FVME7)

HAMMER TIME!

Posted by: Paul Pelosi at October 30, 2022 11:48 AM (Zz0t1)

361 "One of the remarkable things about PG Woodhouse was his highly structured writing practices."

I'm reminded of Wodehouse's three steps to being a successful writer:

1. Prepare your working area: paper, pens, blotters, chair, light.
2. Put your ass in the chair.
3. Keep it there.

Posted by: Nemo at October 30, 2022 09:49 AM (S6ArX)
==
My grandfather wrote about 100 westerns. He went out on the trails with cowboys to get source and authenticity.

His rule was that he always wrote at least 100 words a day.

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable a Clear and Present Danger at October 30, 2022 11:48 AM (u4CEu)

362 Sundowner plays Marxism with class warfare unlike many new Marxists who has moved to race warfare
Posted by: Skip's phone at October 30, 2022 11:47 AM (xhxe

Well, LeBitch James says there's been a HUGE increase in the n- word used against him since Musk took over and made no changes to content moderation.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at October 30, 2022 11:49 AM (Zz0t1)

363 In one story, he encounters a hidden valley w/ 2 races of civilized, tailed humanoids and several species of still-living dinosaurs.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere
*
San Francisco?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 30, 2022

***
I said "civilized"!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 11:50 AM (c6xtn)

364 Your polling place was open on Sunday?
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at October 30, 2022 11:46 AM (Zz0t1)

Yes which is kinda amazing here in Bergen County NJ which has Blue Laws LOL?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2022 11:50 AM (Irn0L)

365 Well, LeBitch James says there's been a HUGE increase in the n- word used against him since Musk took over and made no changes to content moderation.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden
==

As my French friends say "Proofs."

I bet there is none or that it is friends or activists. If not Queen James should quit the platform.

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable a Clear and Present Danger at October 30, 2022 11:51 AM (u4CEu)

366 So the nfl has a game this AM from London on something called ESPN+???? So nobody can see it? Who the Fuck advised them to do that? Morons

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2022 11:52 AM (Irn0L)

367 20 "As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing these pants...(WARNING! EYE BLEACH REQUIRED!)"

those aren't the worst pants ever. THESE are the worst pants ever!!!

https://tinyurl.com/y76esjt9

(aka The Eye of Sauron)

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 30, 2022 09:07 AM (r46W7)
----
Agreed. I was looking for that to post here but you beat me.

Posted by: Ciampino - Beach Umbrella material? at October 30, 2022 11:52 AM (qfLjt)

368 I remember reading a book as a kid that was written in first-person present. Can't remember the title, but the protagonist was a mouse that was trying to track down a store Santa Claus that had been kidnapped. I enjoyed it, but the perspective was a bit jarring (it has certainly stuck with me).

Posted by: No One of Consequence at October 30, 2022 11:52 AM (uPgE/)

369 Two series of books suitable to start reading on All Hallows Eve:

The Passage Trilogy (The Passage; The Twelve and The City of Mirrors) Justin Cronin
Long reads all, with Stephen King like mutant vampires vs Red Dawnish Wolverines. I read them as they were published, would recommend a break between volumes

The Jimmy Paz Trilogy (Tropic of Night; Valley of Bones; Night of the Jaguar) Michael Gruber
Miami Noir detective novels with strong elements of Cuban Vodoo. Re-read these recently and remembered why I liked them. The occult plays a central role throughout, but it is grounded enough to not require outlandish suspension of disbelief. These are quick reads for a Gruber marathon. He has written some standalone novels that are good too.

Posted by: Leon Sphinx at October 30, 2022 11:52 AM (UIngH)

370 https://tinyurl.com/y76esjt9

(aka The Eye of Sauron)

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 30, 2022 09:07 AM (r46W7)

LOL

Posted by: Napoleon XIV at October 30, 2022 11:53 AM (AiZBA)

371
I bet there is none or that it is friends or activists. If not Queen James should quit the platform.
Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable a Clear and Present Danger at October 30, 2022 11:51 AM (u4CEu

Just like that century old chick Taylor Lorenz that said she's getting tons of rape threats now.......but retweeted NONE of them.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at October 30, 2022 11:53 AM (Zz0t1)

372 Somehow I've managed to do nearly all my Sunday chores while this thread has been going on! Well, okay, the grocery store and my stretch/exercise routine were before the book thread, but the household things, including eating breakfast and cleaning up, and running around the corner to get a new tub of kitty litter, have all been since 8 am. Amazing.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 30, 2022 11:53 AM (c6xtn)

373 Thinking about you real writers writing books, I just wandered off and started re-reading my one longform story, Invulnerable, from, wow, back in 2011. Been a while since I last burdened the book thread about it.

When I think about it, I think of it still as a rough draft. Then I start reading it and although it's quirky, I actually like it as it is. I've finished reading Part 1, and the only correction I made was to a malformed close-italics tag. Amazing what can escape the editing process for years! Available only in web format at my website. Free, though.

http://mindfulwebworks.com/invulnerable

Fantasy/SF I guess. [Spoilers] It's about a young man with a particular psychic superpower (no costumes or fight scenes). Or the despondent bum who first met him. Or maybe it's about world peace, and interplanetary war.

Safe!

Posted by: mindful webworker - strange days have found us at October 30, 2022 11:53 AM (qtUpJ)

374 NGU hope you dropped a hundred in that open street voter box

Posted by: Skip's phone at October 30, 2022 11:53 AM (xhxe8)

375 ΣΦΟΥΓΓΆΡΙ!!!

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 30, 2022 11:53 AM (llON8)

376
https://tinyurl.com/y76esjt9

(aka The Eye of Sauron)

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 30, 2022 09:07 AM (r46W7)

The fact that they point you to the crotch makes it even that much, much worse.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at October 30, 2022 11:54 AM (Zz0t1)

377 This week, the 5th in the 'Ramage', Dudley Pope series, and (for weeks to come, it's a tome) 'Japan at War', Cook & Cook.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 30, 2022 11:54 AM (esps4)

378 ΣΦΟΥΓΓΆΡΙ!!!
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 30, 2022 11:53 AM (llON8

Heh.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at October 30, 2022 11:54 AM (Zz0t1)

379 NGU hope you dropped a hundred in that open street voter box
Posted by: Skip's phone at October 30, 2022 11:53 AM (xhxe

It was electronic voting in the local Community College. Actually quite well done.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2022 11:55 AM (Irn0L)

380 4 Those pants are fine, but I wouldn't wear them.

Posted by: Sir Mix-A-Lot at October 30, 2022 09:02 AM (sn5EN)
----
I missed something, what pants?

Posted by: Ciampino -- Beach Umbrella material? at October 30, 2022 11:55 AM (qfLjt)

381 Well, LeBitch James says there's been a HUGE increase in the n- word used...
------

Well, if you go from one to two, that's a 100% increase. But who knows...

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 30, 2022 11:57 AM (esps4)

382 Just exactly how does taxing the shit out of companies solve inflation?
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at October 30, 2022 11:41 AM (Zz0t1)

If you are seriously asking, Modern Monetary Theory states that you can print all the money you want but you have to destroy it by taking it from the end user (you) and applying it to the debts that were created.

However, in this case I suspect it is merely class warfare by the Biden administration.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2022 11:57 AM (xhaym)

383 Well gotta give credit to brady and gisele for having a dignified divorce. Not a lot of "stick to it" but at least they did not make a travesty of it

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2022 11:57 AM (Irn0L)

384 Marching band finished 3rd in Area last night and qualified for the State Championships in San Antonio next week. We didn't get off the lot after unload till 2:45AM. We left the school yesterday at 6:20AM.

THAT was a loooonnnggggg day......My feet hurt.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at October 30, 2022 11:57 AM (Zz0t1)

385 Oh, and it was quality spending some time chatting with the Professor at the TxMoMe.

Good times, man. Good times.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at October 30, 2022 11:58 AM (Zz0t1)

386 Well, LeBitch James says there's been a HUGE increase in the n- word used..

Maybe he should pay more attention to basketball since his team is 0-4 or something like that?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2022 11:58 AM (Irn0L)

387 Wenda, starting a story from a dream sounds like a fun way to write! Good luck, and don't be apprehensive. No one ever has to see it but you!

Posted by: bluebell at October 30, 2022 11:58 AM (aeePL)

388 >>> 386 Well, LeBitch James says there's been a HUGE increase in the n- word used..

Maybe he should pay more attention to basketball since his team is 0-4 or something like that?
Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2022 11:58 AM (Irn0L)

Maybe this is what he's come up with as an excuse for sucking at his job lately?

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 30, 2022 11:59 AM (llON8)

389 Posted by: mindful webworker - strange days have found us at October 30, 2022 11:53 AM (qtUpJ)

Did you create your original vids with their software? Can't you threaten legal action for "stealing" your work?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 30, 2022 12:00 PM (7bRMQ)

390
Maybe this is what he's come up with as an excuse for sucking at his job lately?
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 30, 2022 11:59 AM (llON

He who had the word painted on garage door of his gated and guarded mansion is TRIGGERRREEDDDDD!!!!

Yeah, no.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at October 30, 2022 12:00 PM (Zz0t1)

391 IMMIGRATION NOOD

Posted by: Skip's phone at October 30, 2022 12:01 PM (xhxe8)

392 Well, LeBitch James says there's been a HUGE increase in the n- word used..

Hey we no pay you to whine. Tell round eyes they all racist all the time.

Posted by: LeBitch's chinese masters at October 30, 2022 12:01 PM (ESjRY)

393 I *should* be reading Sarah Hoyt's Bowl of Red, the latest in her Shifter series, since that's now available on Kindle...

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 30, 2022 12:01 PM (llON8)

394 Having recently gone on a P.D. James binge, I acquired and read her autobiographical book 'Time to be in Ernest'.

It's an interesting read. I generally perceived her as being a reclusive writer, but nothing could be further from the truth. She was a very vital, active, woman. An interesting life, very well lived. Her insights regarding writing, let alone life, make it worth reading

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 30, 2022 12:02 PM (wQZYr)

395 Morning Hordemates!

Posted by: Diogenes at October 30, 2022 12:03 PM (anj39)

396
It was electronic voting in the local Community College. Actually quite well done.
Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2022 11:55 AM (Irn0L)

Electronic/mail-in voting: It's how the basic pillar of our republic has been corrupted.

Posted by: Pork Chops & Bacons at October 30, 2022 12:04 PM (BdMk6)

397 I finished Jane Eyre and I’m moving on to middlemarch in my trip thru the classics. And my favorite son got married yesterday to a wonderful young woman in a full, traditional mass. An Exhausting but a perfect day. .

Posted by: LASue at October 30, 2022 12:04 PM (06uNF)

398 Congrats all around, LASue!

Posted by: bluebell at October 30, 2022 12:09 PM (aeePL)

399 55 Genres are funny things. As a kid I loved reading heroic literature, even fantasy, but lost interest when mythic creatures started showing up, and actively dislike most magic stories. Pull a sword out of a stone and grow up to be king of England? Sure, I'll read that. But keep your two-headed dogs in the closet and your baseliks in the basement, please.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 30, 2022 09:23 AM (8CMl+)
----
Describes my reading taste to a T. I love SciFi with Sci in bold but dislike Fantasy. Now horror has never bothered me, even as a kid and movies included. I did like "The Exorcist" and did find it disturbing since it isn't a fictional topic. I was less disturbed by "Rosemary's Baby" even that is also religious horror.

Posted by: Ciampino --- Beach Umbrella material? at October 30, 2022 12:14 PM (qfLjt)

400 Political horror but no fantasy is what we see. They see Political fiction fantasy.

Posted by: humphreyrobot at October 30, 2022 12:18 PM (sAeui)

401 Just finished rereading “The Machiavellians” by James Burnham. Still one of the best books on politics ever. Should be required reading for all.

Posted by: Paco Pacem at October 30, 2022 12:19 PM (pDoSw)

402 Scariest book I ever read was “The Wolfen”

Terrible, terrible movie, but a brilliant book.

Posted by: Paco Pacem at October 30, 2022 12:22 PM (pDoSw)

403 OrangeEnt: Did you create your original vids with their software? Can't you threaten legal action for "stealing" your work?

Naw, I edited them and just uploaded to YT. I don't imagine there's any legal recourse like that, but, now, suing for whattayacallit emotional damages, tossed out with no explanation, that hurts $$$sooo much.

[falls on floor and writhes in pain like a soccer player]

Posted by: mindful webworker - YooToob owes me an apology at October 30, 2022 12:29 PM (qtUpJ)

404 Read another food book this week: Clementine in the Kitchen, by Samuel Chamberlain.

It's half memoir, half cookbook. The first part is about the American "Beck" family (more on that anon) and their idyllic life in the French town of Senlis in the 1930s, with their amazing French cook Clementine. Around 1939 the home office back in Boston decided that it was time to wind up European operations because Round Two was about to start. The Becks asked Clementine to return to the USA with them, and since she was a fortysomething Frenchwoman with no prospect of marriage, she agreed. There's a couple of chapters about Clementine adjusting to life in Marblehead, and American foodways. I was struck by how much of a vanished world both Senlis and Marblehead are nowadays.

Eventually Clementine meets a nice French-Canadian widower who doesn't give a damn about a dowry, and exits the stage to the sound of wedding bells. But before leaving she lets the Becks go through her recipes, and that makes up the second half of the book.

I put Beck in quotations because the real family name was Chamberlain, and that's what it says on the spine of the book in the current edition.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 30, 2022 12:41 PM (msIIC)

405 I recommend William Hope Hodgson's horror novels. Written in the early 20th century, they inspired Lovecraft, among others. Maybe start with The House on the Borderlands, then some Sargasso Sea tales, and then get to his masterpiece, The Night Land.

Posted by: Davie at October 30, 2022 12:58 PM (L/HBr)

406 Wow! Got to comment before 500. 😉

Two novels I was almost too scared to finished were "Pyscho" by Robert Bloch (I read it during the day while in a large dorm at college and was still scared) and "Salem's Lot" by Stephen King (called boyfriend, now Hubs, at 11:00 p.m., b/c the book scared me so much but I had to finish it.). I think what got me was how ordinary the characters were and I could see myself as one of them.

Posted by: March Hare at October 30, 2022 01:16 PM (lwrAe)

407 First-person present?

I think several Damon Runyon stories used that style.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 30, 2022 01:59 PM (Om/di)

408 "Square rigged ships didn't really tack across the wind like we're used to seeing on modern fore and aft rigged sails. They did a maneuver called waring ship where they turned downwind and kept going for 270 degrees, kind of a figure 8."

Sure they did; see, for example, John Harland's "Seamanship in the Age of Sail." Harland has a whole chapter on "Tacking, Wearing and Boxhauling" as well as numerous examples in other chapters.

Tacking across the wind, if done properly and if successful, was faster, and didn't result in as much loss of headway as did wearing.

Wearing the ship, on the other hand, was more reliable (no chance of missing the tack and losing all headway), but the process of turning, as the poster said about 270 degrees (exactly how close to 270 degrees would depend on how close the specific ship could sail to the wind) away from the wind resulted in the ship ending up some distance downwind from where it was when it began to wear ship-albeit now sailing on the opposite side of the wind.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at October 30, 2022 02:01 PM (cYrkj)

409 Sabrina Chase @164, re Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John stories, I just a few days ago discovered that a small publisher, Haffner Press, is planning to bring out a two volume collected edition of those stories. It is to include the original short stories, the short-shorts and the five novels Wellman wrote when he returned to the character in the '80s. They are asking $110 for pre-orders on this so I am going to have to start saving my nickels.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at October 30, 2022 03:11 PM (L1mkL)

410 Shark @305, I don't recall the exact series you describe and I am pretty sure it was not by Lovecraft. It sounds somewhat like Isaac Asimov's "Tales of the Black Widowers" a series of mystery short stories. He based the setting on an actual dinner club he belonged to ("The Trapdoor Spiders") and the members include recognizable portraits of his real life friends (they included L. Sprague DeCamp and Lin Carter). In the stories the club members tackle a mystery presented to them by a guest. The solution is always solved by their waiter, Henry.

Other possible sources might be the "Jorkens" stories by Lord Dunsany and the "Brigadier Ffellows" stories by Sterling Lanier. These are classic examples of the weird/spooky stories told in a gentlemen's club to an audience never quite sure whether they are hearing marvelous lies or stark truth.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at October 30, 2022 03:25 PM (L1mkL)

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Posted by: Tom at October 30, 2022 03:47 PM (ooQYL)

412 @ wolfus
341 Long time ago I read some short stories that I am trying to relocate. The setting was an English Gentleman’s club in which different men would relate horror stories they had lived in their adventures. The butler or waiter seemed all knowing. I thought it was Lovecraft, but can’t seem to find them.
Posted by: Shark at October 30, 2022

***
I know Stephen King has done at least two in a series that sounds like your description. The first and longer was "the Breathing Method," one of the novelettes in Different Seasons. He followed that up with another short story with the same private-club setting in one of his collections.

—————-
Yes that is it, it was on my shelf. I haven’t read that one too often because my sister gave me a signed copy. Thank you!,,

@ John F. McMichael 410 - I will seek those out. Thank you.

Posted by: Shark at October 30, 2022 06:55 PM (jty/C)

413 The other is apparently “The man who would not shake hands” in Skeleton Crew.

Posted by: Shark at October 30, 2022 07:04 PM (jty/C)

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Posted by: Brigida at November 02, 2022 07:39 AM (pazw1)

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