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Post by ropardoe on Sept 5, 2020 11:04:35 GMT
Fine if you want a book of stories about woods, trees not in woods and stories which only mention trees in passing! Some of the stories are very good, even excellent, but at least half don’t belong in the book. I must say that the introduction is good though - pointed and quite timely. Almost (but not quite) worth getting for that alone. Yes, the main criterion for inclusion seems to be that the story mentions a wood or forest in Britain that can be given a definite geographical location, rather than them actually being central to the story itself. Not sure. The location of “A Neighbour’s Landmark” isn’t identifiable - the existence of a real Betton Wood seems to be coincidence.
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Post by ropardoe on Sept 5, 2020 8:41:37 GMT
Not sure if we have a dedicated trees/forests thread, but here are the contents for Weird Woods - Anon. – The Whisperer in the Woods (1880) Edith Nesbit – Man-Size in Marble (1887) Getrude Atherton – The Striding Place (1896) EF Benson – The Man Who Went Too Far (1912) WH Hudson – An Old Thorn (1920) Elliot O’Donnell – The White Lady (1912) Algernon Blackwood – Ancient Lights (1912) Mary Webb – The Name-Tree (1923) Walter de la Mare – The Tree (1922) Marjorie Bowen – “He Made a Woman” (1923) MR James – A Neighbour’s Landmark (1924) Arthur Machen - N (1934) I know for a fact that I've already got the Nesbit, Benson, Blackwood, James, and Machen elsewhere - but I've ordered it anyway. It was probably the de la Mare that swung it for me, as I don't think I've come across that one before - I've checked and it is not the same story as The Almond Tree (1909). Thanks for the listing, Dr. S. Turns out we did have a dedicated thread of sorts - it just didn't take off yet. Fine if you want a book of stories about woods, trees not in woods and stories which only mention trees in passing! Some of the stories are very good, even excellent, but at least half don’t belong in the book. I must say that the introduction is good though - pointed and quite timely. Almost (but not quite) worth getting for that alone.
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Post by ropardoe on Aug 15, 2020 15:34:59 GMT
I really enjoyed 'England's Screaming', and also Sean Hogan's 'Midnight Movies Monograph' book on 'Death Line', which is a precursor to the book, as the bulk of it is written in character by Donald Pleasence's Inspector Calhoun, and touches on other films of the era, or with comparable themes. I particularly enjoyed the threads that become more apparent as the book goes along, and incidents or characters begin to recur. For the handful of films I hadn't seen, I thought there was more than enough context to keep me from feeling lost, though I imagine that there's more fun to be had with characters you're familiar with, even in unfamiliar settings. I've since gone back and read a few of the stories in isolation. I've also reviewed the Jamesian links in the book for a forthcoming 'Ghosts & Scholars', though as Dr Strange notes, the Jamesian figures are represented as their TV or film counterparts, not MRJ's originals. Yes, I was just proofreading the review today, in fact. This G&S will be going to the printer next month all being well (once we've checked that the printer still exists!).
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Post by ropardoe on Aug 15, 2020 15:31:57 GMT
I'd heard the name Jessica Salmonson but knew nothing about her. I looked her up... interesting to learn that her mother, who abandoned her at an early age, was a sword swallower. So perhaps there is a Freudian edge to the story you mention--which might account for why it does not scan well. zagria.blogspot.com/2019/06/jessica-amanda-salmonson-1950-science.html#.XzaiKyMrKRYSalmonson collaborated with Willum Pugmire, and no doubt many others. There's another entry in this thread to which I have not given proper attention. I must remedy that. There was some amazing art, and from your account Richard, extraordinary literature produced from these zines. S. She was also responsible for the publication of The Angry Dead book. And much else. I knew her very well back then and stayed with her a couple of times in Seattle. She can rub people up the wrong way and certainly doesn't suffer fools gladly, but Darroll and I loved her. Still do, although we're only vaguely in touch now via Facebook.
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Post by ropardoe on Aug 11, 2020 8:21:49 GMT
The only fanzine that I'm aware of that did succeed in evolving from a kitchen table paste and staple job to a fully fledged professional magazine is Gordon Linzner's Space & Time which is still going strong today, I believe, more than fifty years after its first issue. Not a fantasy fanzine as such, but certainly originally a fanzine - Fortean Times (or The News as it was back then) started exactly that way, and was a product of SF fandom. Now, of course, it's a newsstand magazine.
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Post by ropardoe on Aug 4, 2020 8:54:18 GMT
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Post by ropardoe on Jul 20, 2020 8:42:09 GMT
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Post by ropardoe on Jul 18, 2020 18:09:45 GMT
Thanks for citing that deftly written review, humgoo! So glad I don't own this volume. The cover art is cool but that may be the only cool thing about it. Perhaps there were other stories in this thing that were of suitable calibre. Rosemary is a Gothic Jamesian Goddess! cheers, Steve Goodness. I've only just spotted this thread. I've been called many things in my time, but "Gothic Jamesian Goddess" is new. I shall bear the title with pride.
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Mazes
Jul 17, 2020 17:49:14 GMT
Post by ropardoe on Jul 17, 2020 17:49:14 GMT
I finally have my copy of 'The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Mazes', as I finally had the chance to nip into my office for the first time in 4 months and pick up all the parcels I forgot to have redirected to my home address. It looks like Christmas morning in my living room, the amount of freshly unwrapped stuff there now is. The book, as I've come to expect from Sarob Press, looks gorgeous. That'll be my next read once I've finished the book I'm currently on. Hope it was worth waiting for! It's my favourite of all my Sarob collections, I must admit. I hope I'll be able to equal it with the next one (I think I've probably mentioned that to you already, but I'll officially announce it here soon!).
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Post by ropardoe on Jul 17, 2020 15:33:02 GMT
It's also told in the first person in THE BLACK VEIL edited by Mark Valentine. M.R. James would have fainted at the ending. I'm reminded that I originally wrote THE OVERNIGHT as a series of first-person narratives, but Jenny rightly pointed out that the voices weren't individual enough, and so I went to third in the rewrite. "Sheelagh-na-gig" is actually the only 'Mary Ann Allen' story written originally in the third person. It really didn't suit me. Mind you, fiction writing in general doesn't suit me, which is why I haven't written any other stories! I found that once I started a story I became obsessed with finishing it, whatever the hour. There was no way I was going to sleep until it was done. So after producing twelve stories, I decided to revert to the much healthier (for me) non-fiction! Goodness knows what state I'd be in if I tried to write a novel
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Post by ropardoe on Jul 16, 2020 12:21:52 GMT
It's also told in the first person in THE BLACK VEIL edited by Mark Valentine. M.R. James would have fainted at the ending. I just read it, and I have to say I do not see what the big deal is. I lost consciousness only very briefly. That'll do for me!
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Post by ropardoe on Jul 16, 2020 8:17:59 GMT
Brilliant - just what I needed to know. Thanks. So I must have changed it from third to first person before original publication. You'd think I'd remember when I did it, as it can't have been an easy job. It's also told in the first person in THE BLACK VEIL edited by Mark Valentine. M.R. James would have fainted at the ending. Yes, I knew it had been changed by then, but thanks. As for MRJ fainting at the ending - pleased to hear it: I still think it's the most original idea I've ever come up with!
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Post by ropardoe on Jul 15, 2020 12:24:15 GMT
Just checked my copy of 'Midnight Never Comes', and the story is told in the first person there. Brilliant - just what I needed to know. Thanks. So I must have changed it from third to first person before original publication. You'd think I'd remember when I did it, as it can't have been an easy job.
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Post by ropardoe on Jul 15, 2020 8:28:19 GMT
I've got a slightly weird, but hopefully easily answered question. I no longer have my copy of the Ash-Tree Press anthology Midnight Never Comes. I'm sure there must be folk here who have a copy. Could you do me a favour and go and check my story "The Sheelagh-na-gig", and tell me whether it's written in the first or third person? The story was originally written in the third person and at some point I changed it to the first person. I need to know whether it was before or after Midnight Never Comes (which was its first appearance in print). Thanks in advance to whichever kindly person comes to my rescue!
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Post by ropardoe on Jul 13, 2020 17:31:51 GMT
One of the guest G&S editors ought to persuade you to write a piece on the Jamesian aspects! That would be fascinating. Now there's a thought I hadn't considered. With his recent 'Grim's Ditch' intended as a Jamesian homage, his stage adaptation of 'Oh, Whistle' from a few years back (which I didn't see, admittedly), and his adaptation of 'The Ash-Tree', there's a certainly a thread through Rudkin's work that 'Artemis 81' forms part of (I'm inclined to think of A81 as being formed from a series of interlinked fictions and gleefully embraced homages). I may have to give this some thought... Do please. Shall I have a word with the appropriate people at the appropriate time? This would probably be for the Helen Kemp edited issue next Spring, if you could manage it.
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