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Post by ripper on Dec 19, 2016 12:29:53 GMT
Day eighteen. Who needs the Monster of Glamis when we've the mindless fiend in Arthur's Cellar?. It says much for Anna Taborska's work that, in the context of her stellar début collection, For Those Who Dream Monsters, today's story might be considered among the least harrowing pieces. As recently mentioned by Charlie Black in Pulp Horror #3, Anna has written more than enough new material for a second collection. It can't come soon enough for this reader's liking, and I strongly suspect, he is not alone on that score! Many thanks to Anna for allowing us to revive this short and ghastly nightmare, and to Reggie Oliver for permission to reproduce his gorgeous illustration. Nice to hear about the prospect of another collection from Anna. This creepy little tale was very enjoyable and I loved that the fiendish creature was wearing a tattered SS uniform, equating it with the inhuman creations that they were. Well done, Anna.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Dec 19, 2016 12:48:15 GMT
Classic double bill from Anna and Kate. Both concerning the young and elderly relatives. Both concerning the rural (although Kate slips in some nice City jibes). Both concerning folk tales and their use, origin and standing in the modern world (loved the humour of the 'telly' in Anna's story). By Jove Dem, your selection powers are on overdrive this year!
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 19, 2016 13:39:41 GMT
Day eighteen. Who needs the Monster of Glamis when we've the mindless fiend in Arthur's Cellar?.
This creepy little tale was very enjoyable and I loved that the fiendish creature was wearing a tattered SS uniform, equating it with the inhuman creations that they were. Well done, Anna. Seems to me that the grandfather was something of a monster too, though. Very Nietzschean: "He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster..."
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Post by ripper on Dec 19, 2016 13:52:46 GMT
This creepy little tale was very enjoyable and I loved that the fiendish creature was wearing a tattered SS uniform, equating it with the inhuman creations that they were. Well done, Anna. Seems to me that the grandfather was something of a monster too, though. Very Nietzschean: "He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster..." Yes, the grandfather certainly used the creature for his own villainous ends, and I suppose he and it were as bad as each other. Although we don't get to see, I wonder if part of the creature's evil was its ability to corrupt, and given time maybe it would have worked its influence on Albert, leading him to use it for bad purposes like his grandfather did.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 19, 2016 18:38:53 GMT
Classic double bill from Anna and Kate. Both concerning the young and elderly relatives. Both concerning the rural (although Kate slips in some nice City jibes). Both concerning folk tales and their use, origin and standing in the modern world (loved the humour of the 'telly' in Anna's story). By Jove Dem, your selection powers are on overdrive this year! 'tis all the fault of the contributors, FM. I can only run what I'm sent, and, as always, you, my dear friends, have excelled yourselves. Thanks also to those who take the time to comment on the stories and artwork. Five days to go, seven stories to squeeze in, so business as usual in the planning department. Looks like Craig's motorway man will get his Christmas Eve pile up after all.
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vaultadventcalendar
Black Crow King
Horror chav at the controls/ weird cheerleader #arts&culture
Posts: 143
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Post by vaultadventcalendar on Dec 20, 2016 11:40:24 GMT
Chrissie Demant Day twenty. Time for some Christmas TV. Sit back, relax, enjoy some good old-fashioned family entertainment. Am still sworn to secrecy as to the identity of today's author, so will restrict myself to the following and let you get on with the story (it's a cracker). Drew Salzen, whose epic Three Episodes From Horley Hall received a very favourable response from our readership this time last year, is a prolific professional author. A genre-hopper of the old school, the bulk of his work has been published under a variety of pseudonyms and house names. I reckon you're gonna like this.
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Post by ripper on Dec 20, 2016 13:14:38 GMT
Day twenty. Time for some Christmas TV. Sit back, relax, enjoy some good old-fashioned family entertainment. Am still sworn to secrecy as to the identity of today's author, so will restrict myself to the following and let you get on with the story (it's a cracker). Drew Salzen, whose epic Three Episodes From Horley Hall received a very favourable response from our readership this time last year, is a prolific professional author. A genre-hopper of the old school, the bulk of his work has been published under a variety of pseudonyms and house names. I reckon you're gonna like this. Another fine contribution from our mystery author. I liked the changes of perspective and how the "subject" responded to the stimuli, and you could actually imagine something like this happening in real life.
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Post by ohthehorror on Dec 20, 2016 17:27:29 GMT
Really enjoyed A Murder of Crows. Very well written. I felt like I was there with her a lot of the time.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 20, 2016 21:39:17 GMT
Really enjoyed A Murder of Crows. Very well written. I felt like I was there with her a lot of the time.
Trust me, Mr. Horror, if you like A Murder Of Crows you'll like And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After. A Lot.
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vaultadventcalendar
Black Crow King
Horror chav at the controls/ weird cheerleader #arts&culture
Posts: 143
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Post by vaultadventcalendar on Dec 21, 2016 12:12:08 GMT
Day twenty-one. An IT consultant gets way more than he bargained for when hired to solve a seemingly routine case of data leakage from a lucrative genealogy site. Author, anthologist, and regular contributor to several small press publications - Paperback Fanatic, Ghosts & Scholars and Wormwood among them - James Doig recently enjoyed a remarkable double triumph when his first collection of supernatural tales, Friends of the Dead (Sarob, 2015) , landed the prestigious Ghost Story Award having been voted "the best ghost story book published in English in 2015." The best individual ghost story went to .... James Doig, for Malware. As is invariably the case with Sarob publications, Friends Of The Dead sold out pre-publication, so it's unlikely that, the G&S contingent apart, many among our micro-readership will have read today's offering. Thank you so much, James, for allowing us to include it on VAC #7! Malware.pdf (110.51 KB)
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Dec 21, 2016 12:45:58 GMT
Day twenty. Time for some Christmas TV. Sit back, relax, enjoy some good old-fashioned family entertainment. Am still sworn to secrecy as to the identity of today's author, so will restrict myself to the following and let you get on with the story (it's a cracker). Drew Salzen, whose epic Three Episodes From Horley Hall received a very favourable response from our readership this time last year, is a prolific professional author. A genre-hopper of the old school, the bulk of his work has been published under a variety of pseudonyms and house names. I reckon you're gonna like this. Excellent stuff from Drew, desrves a literary prize for the line 'God, she deserves everything she gets just for that name'. I'm afraid it'll be next Christmas before I catch up on the stories I've missed. Chrissie has excelled herself with the illustrations though.
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Post by ripper on Dec 21, 2016 16:06:59 GMT
Day twenty-one. An IT consultant gets way more than he bargained for when hired to solve a seemingly routine case of data leakage from a lucrative genealogy site. Author, anthologist, and regular contributor to several small press publications - Paperback Fanatic, Ghosts & Scholars and Wormwood among them - James Doig recently enjoyed a remarkable double triumph when his first collection of supernatural tales, Friends of the Dead (Sarob, 2015) , landed the prestigious Ghost Story Award having been voted "the best ghost story book published in English in 2015." The best individual ghost story went to .... James Doig, for Malware. As is invariably the case with Sarob publications, Friends Of The Dead sold out pre-publication, so it's unlikely that, the G&S contingent apart, many among our micro-readership will have read today's offering. Thank you so much, James, for allowing us to include it on VAC #7! View Attachment Very cleverly written story that I thoroughly enjoyed. A nice mixture of bang up to date technology with a slightly seedy undercurrent. James's tale kept me gripped from beginning to end.
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 21, 2016 19:17:14 GMT
Thanks Dem and Rip! Not sure if I thought it was the best ghost story of 2015 but who am I to quibble. Voting forms are out for 2016, so don't hold back...
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Post by franklinmarsh on Dec 22, 2016 8:26:05 GMT
SPOILERS? Perhaps the best Ghost In The Machine story? Are you in computers, James? The tech jargon baffled me but rather wonderfully didn't detract from the story at all. A nice slow-burning lead-in. I must admit to being a little disappointed by the denouement at first, but the tale did it's work because it's still buzzing around in my head long after - these 'time-bomb' stories are great. Us paranoids are always looking for links that may or may nor be there, and , as with Anna and Kate's connections, I think Malware is an intriguing mirror of John Forth's Mary Kelly's Face. Both concern modern day technology being used to investigate an old murder case, one to reconstruct, one to destroy, and one features the future visiting the past, the other the past invading the future. I know Dem's denied it, but I'm convinced he's a far better anthologist than he makes out....
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vaultadventcalendar
Black Crow King
Horror chav at the controls/ weird cheerleader #arts&culture
Posts: 143
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Post by vaultadventcalendar on Dec 22, 2016 8:59:41 GMT
Chrissie Demant Day twenty-two sees the long overdue first calendar appearance of our multi-talented friend and colleague from Vault's earliest days, Noah Brown Leeds-based musician/producer/DJ, artist, and occasional author of full-on horror shorts. The former frontman with brutally uncompromising punk combo's Normal Man and Carer, Noah currently records and performs as Ford Foster - you can sample his most recent raw techno soundscapes (and read an interview) HERE Strikes me that today's viciously pessimistic story, revived from Filthy Creations #5, would have been equally at home in Tom Johnstone & Joel Lane's heartbreaking anthology Horror Uncut! Tales of Social Insecurity & Economic Unease (Gray Friar, 2014). Thanks for letting us run it, Mr. B! A Surprise For Sarah.pdf (135.02 KB)
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