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Post by ramseycampbell on Dec 11, 2014 12:04:53 GMT
Oh lord, I can only apologise for that estate agent - for my ludicrous characterisation of him, I mean. There's another highly unconvincing one in "The Inhabitant of the Lake". I seem to have had a weird idea of the profession.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 11, 2014 20:04:04 GMT
Oh lord, I can only apologise for that estate agent - for my ludicrous characterisation of him, I mean. There's another highly unconvincing one in "The Inhabitant of the Lake". I seem to have had a weird idea of the profession. He was my favourite character!
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Post by dem bones on Dec 12, 2014 13:14:08 GMT
Chrissie Demant Day twelve. " ..... Ideally, I would have liked to have extended this deception further by hiring an actress to 'be' Linda Lovecraft and go out and promote the book and do signings and the like. Needless to say, Corgi's promotional budget (if there was one) didn't extend to such surreal endeavours"Michel Parry on The Devil's Kisses books, Pulpmania!, 2006. Linda Lovecraft, Eric Pendragon, Carlos Cassaba, Nick Fury, uh, Steve Lee, ... he had a flair for the catchy pseudonym, did Michel Parry. For many years I was under the impression that the sum total of his published short fiction amounted to just the one story, The Last Bus ( Tandem Horror 2, 1968), and it seems many bibliographers still believe this to be the case. It was only in November 2011, when B! publications prepared the slim-line booklet, Michel Parry - Three Demonic Tales to commemorate the [sadly discontinued] annual Paperback and Pulp Book, that we learned Michel and 'Roland Caine', who authored two snappy vignettes for the Mayflower Books of Black Magic, were one and the same entity. Mr. Caine's Red Christmas you may recall from last year's calendar. A very slightly modified version of The Eye Of The Beholder appeared in Three Demonic Tales, but the version you are about to read is the raw original.
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Post by ohthehorror on Dec 12, 2014 15:05:35 GMT
Heh heh... that was cute. Great picture too.
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Post by David A. Riley on Dec 12, 2014 16:49:31 GMT
Wonderful! Like most people, I must admit I was only aware of the story in Tandem Horror, which stands out as the only one in that anthology I can distinctly remember - which says a lot for it. I always wondered why he didn't write more. I'm glad he did!
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Post by ripper on Dec 12, 2014 19:28:29 GMT
I well remember this one from 2nd Mayflower Black Magic Stories, along with The Likeness of Julie by Richard Matheson and The Witch-Finder by Fred Cowles. A fine story, short and sweet, and I could easily imagine it appearing in a pre-code horror comic. Good to catch up with it again after so many years.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 12, 2014 20:05:09 GMT
Eye Of The Beholder was secured for last years effort, but I reluctantly conceded that three from the same author was pushing it! I think Michel maybe intended the story as a tribute to Frederic Brown, although a slightly raunchy Chetwynd-Hayes is another possibility.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 13, 2014 5:04:51 GMT
Chrissie Demant Day thirteen. What better way to start the weekend's reading than with a previously unpublished story by her ladyship, Thana Niveau, the beautiful Vulnavia to Lord Probert's thoroughly Abominable Dr. Anton Phibes? Thana Niveau's tales of supernatural and psychological horror explore such choice subjects as sadism, scuba-diving, live sex shows, frozen-waterfall climbing, Japanese torture porn, Victorian vileness, vengeful wild pigs and .... antlers. From her book début with The Pier in The Seventh Black Book of Horror (Mortbury Press, 2010), Thana has clocked up more anthology appearances than I can ever quite keep up with, including regular contributions to Best New Horror and the aforementioned Black Books, plus such splendid one-offs as The 13 Ghosts of Christmas, Horror Uncut, Terror Tales of the Cotswolds, Terror Tales of Wales, Death Rattles, Delicate Toxins, The Burning Circus, Never Again, and Demons & Devilry. Where to start? Try her first extraordinary collection, From Hell To Eternity! You can catch up with Thana's latest adventures on her From Hell To Eternity: All The Colours Of The Dark blogspot.
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Post by ripper on Dec 13, 2014 9:39:13 GMT
I have enjoyed all of Thana's contributions to the advent calendar. I shall be saving this current tale for a reading tonight.
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Post by ohthehorror on Dec 13, 2014 21:57:01 GMT
Have been reading some of the past year's stories, and came across 'Three Skeleton Key', a story that I'm very familiar with from my listening to the 'Old Time Radio' episodes. It never occurred to me that it might be from a short story. I'd always thought that it was written as a radio play, came as some surprise to see it in short story form. Loved it. Very good.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Dec 13, 2014 22:18:00 GMT
Thana Niveau brilliant as always with Whispering Woman with the single defect that it should be a novel
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Post by dem bones on Dec 14, 2014 9:03:40 GMT
Day fourteen. The second half of the calendar is traditionally where matters take a turn for the Mortbury Press/ Grey Friars tribute act, and this year is no exception. Following on from Thana we have: The "master of the macabre"'s home voodoo altar. Author's portrait: Dame Franklinetta MarshManaging director of Larrikins Dot Com (of city of dreadful night-bus tours infamy), booking agent to the stars - Gregory Pendennis, Ripton Torn, Ker-Pow! ("Britain's #1 T'Pau tribute act"), guitar-toting clergyman Vic "the Rocking Reverend" Riffle etc. - and co-founder of Vault, Renaissance man Franklin Marsh's ghoulish tales of black sorcery, cricket, Hellfire Club revivalists, werewolves, ultra-violent morris dancers, and partying undertakers have appeared in Black Books of Horror one, three, and four, 2nd BHS Book Of Horror Stories, (From The Workshop of) Filthy Creations and The Thinking Man's Crumpet. His non-fiction has seen publication in the pulp dependant's Bible, Paperback Fanatic. And so to the economically titled Notes. Shades of the Joe Meek tragedy about this one as a charity shop-haunting vinyl junkie learns to his cost that music hath charm. Bloody, evil charm.
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Post by ripper on Dec 14, 2014 9:05:11 GMT
Another good 'un from Thana. I really liked the central idea.
The radio adaptation of 3 Skeleton Quay with Vincent Price is great and was one of the first OTR episodes I ever listened to.
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Post by ohthehorror on Dec 14, 2014 9:44:03 GMT
Re: Three Skeleton Key - There's also another version by a Mr Elliot Read, which I much prefer.
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Post by ripper on Dec 14, 2014 10:44:16 GMT
OhThe Horror, is the alternative you mentioned the one that Escape (I think) did? I have listened to it only once, so really should give it another go.
Great selection of stories for this year's calendar, Dem, as is always the case, and it is with pleasure that I see that Franklin is represented again. Looking forward to reading this one tonight......
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