Monthly Archives: April 2011
Thoughts For the Weekend #7
Yes, you lucky people, you get two posts today, because I’m in a good mood and there’s a certain symmetry behind it all that appeals to me. ITEM: Friends and family don’t understand me. Taking pity on me, because I … Continue reading
“Bryson Feeds Families” by T. F. Davenport
This short piece from Black Static #10 is the only time I have encountered the work of T. F. Davenport. It’s written as a series of six interviews, which confers a ‘news’ item or exposé feel to the events detailed and … Continue reading
“They Will Not Rest” by Simon Clark
Back in the early 1990s, Simon Clark was a writer to watch, with his career on the tipping point, poised between the collection Blood and Grit from indie BBR Press (with whom Clark still maintains links, in a gratifying recognition of his … Continue reading
I Should Be Doing Stuff…
…but instead I’ve been watching this train wreck go down. I really should try to wean myself off things like this, but the drama appeals to me. The internet is supposed to be this mean, ugly arena in which every … Continue reading
The Tortoise and The Hare
I started reading Dracula at the weekend, for the third time, no less. First published in 1897, Stoker dedicated the book ‘To My Dear Friend Hommy-Beg’. Hommy-Beg is a Manx phrase meaning ‘little Tommy’, and it was the childhood nickname … Continue reading
Vampire Verse
There was a time when I used to write poetry, but I’m over it now. I still have some odd things hanging round though, like a bat suspended from the ceiling of a cave. This one is for Lucy Westenra, … Continue reading
“Carmilla” by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
‘…and often from a reverie I have started, fancying I heard the light step of Carmilla at the drawing-room door.’ Le Fanu’s novella was first published in the magazine The Dark Blue in 1872, and then in the collection In … Continue reading
Take Snapshots Into the Light
Yesterday, I went to Yarmouth for the day, and very nice it was too. Almost like summer, except there wasn’t any rain (yes, along with everything else, I do irony and weather jokes). I didn’t bring a camera with me, but … Continue reading
Midweek Musings #1
ITEM: Tuesday night, at about ten o’clock and just after I’d washed my hair, there was this almighty banging at the porch door. I turned on the light in the porch, but didn’t unlock the kitchen door to find out … Continue reading
“The Reason for the Season” by Bruce Holland Rogers
I didn’t have much time for reading last night and so decided to tackle something short, and this piece by flash fiction maestro Bruce Holland Rogers is, as far as I can recall, the shortest story to ever appear in … Continue reading
