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Post by dem bones on Mar 6, 2008 8:21:05 GMT
Karl E. Wagner - The Years Best Horror Stories 11 (DAW, 1983) cover illo: Michael Whelan Karl Edward Wagner - Introduction: One from the Vault
Richard Laymon - The Grab Ramsey Campbell - The Show Goes On Frances Garfield - The House at Evening John Alfred Taylor - I Hae Dream’d a Dreary Dream Dennis Etchison - Deathtracks Sheila Hodgson - Come, Follow! Jeffrey Goddin - The Smell of Cherries David Campton - A Posthumous Bequest Michael P. Kube-McDowell - Slippage David G. Rowlands - The Executor Lawrence C. Connolly - Mrs. Halfbooger’s Basement Manly Wade Wellman - Rouse Him Not Thomas F. Monteleone - Spare the Child John Harrison - The New Rays Donald Tyson - Cruising Ramsey Campbell - The Depths Al Sarrantonio - Pumpkin Head includes: Frances Garfield - The House at Evening: Gorgeous vampire hooker Garland invites two freshmen home to party with she and friend Claudia. She takes one boy up to her room and, while he lies entranced on the bed oblivious to the knockings and scratchings at the door, Garland fends off her hungry army of former victims, promising they can have all she leaves. Ramsey Campbell - The Depths: Crime writer Miles pays a visit to the house in a West Derby village where a bank manager sadistically slaughtered his boutique-owning wife before doing away with himself in an equally gory, spectacular fashion. Miles overcomes his writers block, but at what cost? Richard Laymon - The Grab: "Short of a bucking machine, the Bar None had the trappings needed to warm the heart of any yearning cowpoke: sawdust heaped on the floor, Merle Haggard on the jukebox, Coors on tap, and skintight jeans on the lower half of every gal. We mosied up to the bar."We" being narrator Steve and his friend Clark Addison, ex-disco boy now plastic cowboy. The Bar None Saloon is home to a TEST YER GUTS challenge, "The Grab". Many hard men have tried to snatch the diamond ring from the mouth of what's inside the aquarium and tonight even a girl gives it a go, but nobody's had any joy. Clark, being a mortuary assistant, thinks he has an advantage .... Donald Tyson - Cruising: Johnny Sheen is out cruisin' in his beloved '78 Camero with flames on the side when he encounters the sexy blonde and brunette in the Chevy. They signal that they wanna race and he good-natured lets them win the first of what turns out to be several heats. The going gets flirtatious, but the girls have something other than sex on their minds. Dr. TerrorMy picks here are Slippage which is pure Twilight Zone, and Spare the Child.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Aug 14, 2011 9:24:28 GMT
Richard Laymon - The Grab. I've read very little Laymon and only short stories. But everything I've read has been absolutely on the button. This one has an EC-like sensibility, right down to the 'funny' ending. I loved it.
Ramsey Campbell - The Show Goes On. Someone's made a hole at the back of Lee's shop that leads into an abandoned cinema and a whole collection of memories Mr Lee would rather forget. But there's no escaping your past, especially not in a Campbell story, and this time it's the shop proprietor's turn to be put through the RC mill. Some great descriptions of the things that still haunt the cinema and its environs before everything ends on a bleak or optimistic note depending on your own attitude to life(!).
Frances Garfield - The House at Evening. You guess pretty quickly that the prostitutes in this are vampires. What makes the tale delicious is the ??Strieber/Hunger - like ending.
John Alfred Taylor - I Hae Dream’d a Dreary Dream. Horrible rotting corpses that live at the bottom of a remote valley in not-so-Bonnie Scotland! This tale really kicks into gear when they start to chase our old-fashioned rambling protagonist who ends up jolly glad he wore all that tweed.
Dennis Etchison - Deathtracks. A couple are busy filtering out laughtracks from old TV shows to try and ascertain some meaning behind their son's death.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 21, 2011 12:52:33 GMT
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Post by Johnlprobert on Oct 13, 2011 20:51:04 GMT
I've been neglectful of my duties here, so much so in fact I can't remember enough about two of the stories to comment on them! Anyway:
David Campton - A Posthumous Bequest. I love this man's work! Here's a great tale of an old lady's bequest from beyond the grave, where she decides to 'leave her nephew to the garden' and to leave the solicitor from whose perspective we see this story 'her dead eyes' leading to smashing punchline where his sexy secretary turns over in bed and he sees.....argggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
Michael P. Kube-McDowell - Slippage. First he doesn't get invited to his class reunion, then he doesn't get his paycheck for the month, then his mother claims she's never met him. What's going on, and will he be able to get home in time for his best friend and his wife to remember him and not think they're married to each other? What do you think? I've not read any Kube-McDowell before but this wasn't half bad either
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Post by noose on Oct 13, 2011 21:42:36 GMT
And fitting that you posted this on the anniversary of KEW's passing.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Oct 14, 2011 6:22:44 GMT
Centipede Press are putting out a nice double volume set of his work later in the year, I believe.
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Post by David A. Riley on Oct 14, 2011 7:40:57 GMT
Centipede Press are putting out a nice double volume set of his work later in the year, I believe. That sounds great news, John. I already have one of their books - Reggie Oliver's. The only downside is the price and the fact they're so huge you need a lectern to read them on!
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Post by dem bones on Oct 14, 2011 9:39:49 GMT
David Campton - A Posthumous Bequest [/color]. I love this man's work! [/quote] me too! it's such a pity that his horror stories don't seem to have been collected. if this scratch biblio is anything near comprehensive, it will be no fault of mine as i just listed the stories mentioned on here, but i'm not sure Mr. Campton was particularly prolific in the genre as he was primarily a playwright. Alderman Stratton's Fancy - Richard Davis (ed.). Tandem Horror 3, (1969) Goat - David. A. Sutton (ed.) New Writings In Horror & Supernatural, (Sphere, 1971): Whispers, Doubleday, 1977) At the Bottom of the Garden - Richard Davis (ed.), Armada Sci-Fi 1, 1975: Stuart David Schiff (ed.), Whispers (magazine), Dec. 1976: Gerald W Page (ed.), Years Best Horror Stories 6, (DAW 1978) Provisioning - David. A. Sutton (ed.) The Satyr’s Head & Other Tales Of Terror, (Corgi,1975) I'm Sorry, Mrs. Baxter - Richard Davis (ed.), Spectre 3, (Abelard-Schuman, 1976) Spawn - Richard Davis (ed.). Jon Pertwee Book of Monsters, (Magnet Books, 1979) Cold Spell - Mary Danby (ed.), Fontana Horror 13, (1980)
(my bad. It's one of David Langford's!) Firstborn - Stuart David Schiff (ed.), Whispers III, (Doubleday 1981): Karl E. Wagner (ed.), Years Best Horror Stories 10, (DAW 1982): Mary Danby (ed.), Fontana Horror 17, 1984: Stephen Jones (ed.), The Mammoth Book of Terror, (Robinson 1991) A Posthumous Bequest - Stuart David Schiff (ed.), Whispers (magazine), Aug 1982: Karl E. Wagner (ed.), Years Best Horror Stories 11, (DAW 1983) Repossession - Stuart David Schiff (ed.), Whispers VI, (Doubleday 1987): Karl E. Wagner (ed.), Years Best Horror Stories 16, (DAW 1988)
Do There Embrace - Colin Langeveld (ed.) - All Hallows # 5, (The Ghost Story Society, 1994)
He was also a regular contributor to Richard Davis's young adult SF series, Space
A Walk in the Woods - Richard Davis (ed.) - Space 3 (Abelard-Schuman, 1977) The Giftie - Richard Davis (ed.), Space 5 (Hutchinson, 1979) Missing Link - Richard Davis (ed.), Space 6 (Hutchinson, 1980) A Quiet Night at the Embassy - Richard Davis (ed.), Space 7 (Hutchinson, 1979)
perhaps some of our other contributors can plug any gaps!
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Post by jamesdoig on Oct 14, 2011 21:12:49 GMT
perhaps some of our other contributors can plug any gaps! Now you see it in Richard David (ed) Animal Ghosts (1980) and reprinted in Spooky Tales (Octopus Books, 1984)
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Post by dem bones on Oct 15, 2011 19:57:43 GMT
Thanks James. it just goes to show, i thought we'd listed all of the Octopus books but i don't remember anything called Spooky Tales. could you provide some info if it's not too much trouble?
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Post by jamesdoig on Oct 15, 2011 22:03:43 GMT
Spooky Tales, no editor given but evidently it was Mary Danby (Octopus, 1984)
Contents Walter R. Brooks, Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons Philippa Pierce, The Shadow-Cage Robert Arthur, The Haunted Trailer Pamela Vincent, Let's Play Ghost David Campton, Now You See It F. Marion Crawford, The Doll's Ghost Ruth Ainsworth, Through the Door Pamela Hansford Johnson, The Empty Schoolroom Jean Stubbs, The unquiet Spirit W.W. Jacobs, The Well Kenneth Ireland, Children on the Bridge Catherine Gleason, The Woodseaves Ghost E. Nesbit, The Violet Car Joyce Marsh, The Woman in the Green Dress Lance Salway, Such a Sweet Little Girl Sir Arthur T. Quiller-Couch, A Pair of Hands Agatha Christie, The Lamp
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Post by noose on Oct 15, 2011 23:33:38 GMT
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Post by dem bones on Oct 16, 2011 21:10:13 GMT
that's me, memory like a sieve. it looks allright, too. thanks gents (and Vickie, wherever you are).
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Post by Johnlprobert on Oct 20, 2011 20:09:00 GMT
David G. Rowlands - The Executor. For some reason this sounds like it should be a mid-1980s Dolph Lundgren film (yes I know it's probably just me) but in fact this is firmly in the MRJ style of ghost story, about a tale of adultery and revenge in deepest Herefordshire.
Lawrence C. Connolly - Mrs. Halfbooger’s Basement. A bunch of young lads set out to make fun of poor old lonely Mrs Halfbooger, only to discover where all those children who've recently disappeared in the neighbourhood have gone, and just what the not-so-innocent-looking old lady has been up to.
Manly Wade Wellman - Rouse Him Not. It's big tough supernatural detective John Thunstone on the case again, this time investigating a circular patch of dodgy-looking grass in someone's back garden. Only his special cane can help protect from the monstrous creature that lives there.
Thomas F. Monteleone - Spare the Child. A seriously cracking story, this. Russell Southers' wife Mitzi, moved by a full page ad in the New York Times, coerces him into sponsoring a child in the third world. All is well until Mitzi gets bored and wants to spend their monthly donation on curtains instead. Then the letters he gets from their adopted child change from 'thank you for being my other daddy' to 'you're going to be punished for not sending me money anymore' and oh my he is. Anyone familiar with a certain story of mine might guess I'd get a kick out of this but it really is a great treatment of the subject.
John Harrison - The New Rays. Harrison is one of those writers who has been lauded frequently, writes dense, descriptive prose 'akin to necking half a pint of neat scotch' I remember The Third Alternative saying many years ago, and he's yet another highly praised author, like Dennis Etchison, whose work I just don't get on with. The New Rays reads more like a science fiction story, with someone being given treatment akin to radiotherapy that results in weird alien creatures suffering but I didn't really get it.
Donald Tyson - Cruising. Tiny story. Bloke with presumed penis size issues attempts to race young ladies who have a few things up their sleeves, including a pair of handcuffs. Ouch.
Ramsey Campbell - The Depths. I've written a massive essay on this one over at RCMB so I won't repeat myself here.
Al Sarrantonio - Pumpkin Head. Nasty litle Halloween story ends this volume, which I have to say is one of the best yet.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 21, 2011 5:58:26 GMT
thanks for tackling this one, Lord P., brought back all sorts of memories though i can see i'm in need of a refresher course on the Monteleone or Kube-McDowell stories.
Al Sarrantonio's delightful Pumpkin Head is essential Halloween reading if you ask me. Raylee's first day at her new school and already the kids are picking on her and calling her names. Ms Grinley's heart goes out to this sad-faced, nervous, crushingly shy little girl but she can't get a word out of her. But once the class have started reading spooky tales, Raylee perks up and asks if she can tell a story she "made up". Ms Grinley is delighted ... until Raylee gets going. It's the story of a little boy with an out sized head on account of his father being involved in an accident at the atomic plant where he worked. Ms Grinley draws a halt when Raylee reaches the bit where Pumpkin Head pulls a knife on his classroom tormentors and is carted off to a mental hospital, but it seems to have endeared her to the other children. Cleo even invites her along to her Halloween party! So, that night, Raylee get's to finish her story ...
There's more than a touch of the Ray Bradbury's about Pumpkin Head and even more of Richard Matheson in Blood Son (Drink My Red Blood) mode.
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