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Post by helrunar on Jan 24, 2020 21:32:58 GMT
Maybe you and I like a lot of the same things, Swampi.
I don't think I could get through that much Guy N. Smith, though,
cheers, Hel
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Post by dem bones on Jan 25, 2020 8:01:26 GMT
He was cute. I wonder if he's still writing. H. Probably not. Tim suffered from Alzheimer's disease and died 5 June 2011, aged 64. He was the editor of the sadly short-lived late 'sixties horror film review, Supernatural, and contributed a lengthy overview of The Vampire in Films to Haining's original The Dracula Scrapbook (NEL, 1976).
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Post by mrhappy on Jan 25, 2020 14:46:33 GMT
Tim's second collection (and I think his last of the sort that would be of interest here) was equally enjoyable.
THE DOOMSDEATH CHRONICLES (1980)
The Adam Tracks The Tears of Shagool Good Night Irene Not Rubber Mice The Rattlesnake Kid Daddy's Gone A-Fighting The Master of the Macabre
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Post by helrunar on Jan 25, 2020 15:37:59 GMT
That is so sad, Kev. Thank you for letting us know. May his spirit know peace.
Mr Happy, that 1980 book sounds like fun.
cheers, Hel.
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Post by dem bones on May 21, 2020 18:17:27 GMT
Tim Stout - The Doomsdeath Chronicles (Abelard, 1980) Nick Yates The Adam Tracks The Tears of Shagool Good Night, Irene Not Rubber Mice The Rattlesnake Kid Daddy's Gone A-Fighting The Master Of The MacabreBlurb This is the second collection of gruesome tales by a master of the supernatural. Tim Stout plays games with your fears and expectations and these grimly humorous stories, with their ironic twists and turns, are guaranteed to make you shudder but long for more.The Adam Tracks: A gang of Sussex labourers unearth petrified giant footprints of a previously unsuspected 70 feet tall man-eating dinosaur at Stourness on Sea, which hip archaeologist Dr. Neville Skeller of Wealden University identifies as Diablosaurus. Soon Skeller's team have located and excavated the creature's enormous skeleton - and that of it's fatal last meal, a man so toxic with traces of lead poisoning, radioactive fallout and strontium residue, he might have come from the here and now rather than three million years ago. Told in newspaper articles, interview transcripts, journal entries, & Co. TV documentary on the Dinosaur controversy includes a clip from Frontier's 1979 release, Primeval!, in which "husky Denzil Drango rescues a scantily clad Rapunzel Walsh from the clutches of the special effects ..." I mostly loath dinosaur fiction, but this sees collection off to a promising start, though I'd imagine most readers will have anticipated the twist. Dr. Skeller is like the Jason King of the fossil kingdom, only cooler.
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Post by dem bones on May 22, 2020 16:44:07 GMT
The Tears of Shagool: Professor Haines, archaeologist, hires hit-man Monk to shoot him dead before five VIP witnesses in Brentgate Cemetery. The five - Sir Cedric, a Harley Street big noise; Eden Cade, the new James Bond; Dave Turnbull, Grand Prix champion; Guy O'Brien, celebrity TV reporter; and pop star Lady Fay - are strangers to one another, their sole common denominator, a robust bank balance. Each keep their peace until Haines launches into some preposterous fairy tale about a Chinese God who is half man, half fish, and a flask containing the elixir of life. Like they travelled all this way just to meet a lousy snake-oil salesman!
Perhaps a live demonstration will win them back onside.
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Post by dem bones on May 25, 2020 10:26:43 GMT
Goodnight, Irene: "The cat trotted briskly towards the pond, head down in the drizzle. Behind him crept the hands, stealing through the long wet grass like a horde of ghostly white tarantula's."
Author hits top form with this gleefully gruesome supernatural horror tale. Arthur Teeder, henpecked Town Hall clerk, adopts a bedraggled black cat abandoned on the moors at Golden Cross, much to the disapproval of wife Irene, who hates 'Zorro' (as Arthur names his pet) even more than she does her puny spouse (the feeling is mutual). Zorro is soon the scourge of the local wildlife community, nightly depositing the severed heads of his many kills on the doorstep of chez Teeder, the laughably named 'Peacehaven.' An outraged Irene invests in a psychotic cocker spaniel to see off the malign moggie but Zorro makes short, gory work of him, too. In a final act of spite, while Arthur is at work, Irene has the vet collect her nemesis to have him put down. Zorro escapes death row and leads Arthur to the disused sports pavilion to view his proud trophy haul - a vast collection of severed human hands writhing beneath the floorboards.
Arthur is suitably impressed. He learns from a local historian of Devil Cat Cailey, a notorious seventeenth century highwayman, who lopped off the hands of many a wealthy traveller should they prove unwilling to stand and deliver. The offending limb was then thrown to his feline familiar, who'd amassed an impressive stash by the time they were both executed and buried - with all hands - at the crossroads.
A swift massacre at the duckpond to get in the mood and Zorro and his five fingered cronies head for 'Peacehaven' for a final showdown with the formidable Irene.
Not Rubber Mice: Sir Basil Lomax and jeweller Blantyre embark on a dastardly scheme to convert OAP's into precious gems, utilising the involuntary cooperation of a snake-haired creature from Greek 'mythology.' Mr. Stout now well in his stride.
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Post by humgoo on May 25, 2020 17:33:51 GMT
For those of us who will never get a copy, "Goodnight, Irene" can be listened to on the podcast Hypnogoria by Jim Moon (at around 9:09):
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Post by dem bones on May 28, 2020 8:40:12 GMT
The Master of the Macabre: Driving home through Epping Forest, Ivan McBane, the great horror movie star, is almost flattened by a falling tree. His car written off, McBane is rescued by a fellow motorist who "just happened to be passing." The Good Samaritan, who lives locally, invites the actor home to his mansion for a nightcap. Dr. Gilbert Alladyne is an experimental psychiatrist who specialises in curing phobias. This is achieved by means of an apparatus of his own invention which removes a patient's fears to cassette tape. Of course, by reversing the process he could implant that same fear into the mind of an unsuspecting victim, simply by wiring them up and replaying the tape, but mad scientists only exist in x-rated films. McBane has a guilty secret. Eighteen years ago, shortly before his big breakthrough, he attended a a drug-fuelled beach party at Coven Cove. His ghoulish "voodoo" clowning so freaked out a sensitive young woman that she took a red hot poker to her face, to cleanse it of blood. He never found out what became of her but it can't have been pleasant. Dr. Alladyne's beloved daughter, hideously disfigured as a nineteen year old, recently took her own life. He is sworn to avenge her .... Another winner. McBane's several movies include When The Ghoul Feeds, Lurch of the Mummy, It Came From Beneath The Swamp, The Moon Is My Heritage and Return of the Pharaoh. We never find out "....Why [had] the censor scissored the climax of Wake Up Dead ... "
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Post by dem bones on May 29, 2020 18:25:02 GMT
The Rattlesnake Kid: "Hot Gospel can wait. Let's talk about hot lead." The Reverend Simon Goodchild of Little Burford parish leads a double life. Away from his clerical duties, he is the popular author of the 'Ranger Clem of Sunny Skies Ranch' westerns, as highly regarded by subscribers to the Frontier Fiction club. On receipt of a £300 royalty cheque, Rev. Goodchild squanders the lot on an authentic Peacemaker Colt 45. Too late he discovers the pistol is accompanied by the ghost of its long dead owner,'The Rattlesnake Kid.' The phantom gunslinger, a bandit so evil historians dared not record his name, demands the Reverend pen his biography. The lurid Bullet In The Guts is a best-seller.
A Miss Mary Lou Mortis of New Orleans is so impressed with the period authenticity of the she sends the Reverend her Great Great grandfather's trusty Remington .44 as a gift. Timothy R. 'Trigger' Mortis was a peace officer operating between Texas and New Mexico. He and the Rattlesnake Kid have unfinished business.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 2, 2020 18:50:04 GMT
Daddy's Gone A-Fighting: The amateur dramatic society perform the Scottish Play at the Arts College. Jim Sand, a keen fencer, doubles as fight arranger and MacDuff opposite portly director Austin Winterflood's MacBeth. The self-deluded old ham regards the deaths as entirely superfluous to the story - that Shakespeare clown was a hopeless playwright - so to learn even the basics of wooden swordplay is quite beneath him. Gareth, Jim's six year old, horror-mad son, is infuriated with Winterflood. "I want the real MacBeth to come. Then you could have a good fight with him instead of silly old Austin." Following the three hags' lead, Gareth scrapes together the ingredients for a potion he hopes will summon the mad Thane of Cawdor - and guarantee a bloodbath.
Damn, I've ran out of book. After a steady start, The Doomsday Chronicles steps up a gory gear with Goodnight, Irene and doesn't let up. Only negative thing I can think to say about this collection is there's not enough of it.
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