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Post by Paul Finch on Nov 5, 2023 12:17:31 GMT
I think this next might be the best to date. Don Tumasonis - The Wretched Thicket of Thorn: (Barbara & Christopher Roden [eds.], All Hallows #29, Feb. 2002: Stephen Jones [ed], Best New Horror #14, 2003). With their motor-boat stalled, Brit holidaymakers Charles and Elizabeth are stranded on a Greek island uniquely bereft of church or chapel. While his wife waits behind on the beach, Charles climbs up through a maze of thick vegetation, hoping to attract the attention of a diving crew operating in the vicinity. Hopelessly lost and frightened, Charles becomes horribly aware of something stalking him through the tangled foliage. Meanwhile, Susan has discovered pottery fragments depicting a leprous ogre ... The Blue Room: The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, the shipwrecked sailor’s curse and the chamber of phantom inferno's at the Palacio de Narros, Zarautz. Not many may be aware, DB, but Don Tumasonis has sadly passed away since that marvelous story was written. I'd already secured permission from him to use it in the book, and Tone, the partner who survives him, was wonderfully helpful. This is one of the reasons why we placed a little dedication to Don at the front of the volume. |
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Post by dem on Nov 7, 2023 19:25:12 GMT
Not many may be aware, DB, but Don Tumasonis has sadly passed away since that marvelous story was written. I'd already secured permission from him to use it in the book, and Tone, the partner who survives him, was wonderfully helpful. This is one of the reasons why we placed a little dedication to Don at the front of the volume. I once attended a Best New Horror launch at Goodge Street Waterstones on Halloween night. MC Stephen Jones, guest readers, Michael Marshall Smith, Mark Samuels, the late Christopher Fowler and ... Don Tumasonis. Didn't have a clue who he was, and whatever story he read from left no impression. And then last year I encountered his The Prospect Cards ... And the hits just keep on coming. Can we make it to the end without me finding one to dislike? Reggie Oliver - This Haunted Heaven: "I swung my torchlight up the steps and let out a gasp as I saw a figure standing above me on the stairway. It looked down at me and gave a shrill, unnatural shriek, like the cry of a fox in pain. I wore a long print dress of floral design and its mouth had been smeared with a gash of red lipstick. There seemed to be blood on his hands. I was so startled that it took me a full ten seconds to make sense of what I saw." Skliros, early ninteen-'seventies. Dr. Amyas Frith's youthful archaeological team press on with the dig at the Temple of Cybele in the face of disapproval from Madame Dimitriou, matriarch of an unnerving hippy commune at Villa Attis, whose numbers include Ludwig Krull, a maimed, obese Viet Vet, and Persephone, Madame's "granddaughter," the most gorgeous woman narrator John has ever clapped disbelieving eye upon. Fifty years later, still haunted by nightmare memories of the excavation and the abrupt end to a one-sided love affair, John returns to the island ... Born of Blood and Mystery: Thessaloniki, land of strangeness. Zeus versus Typhon; the Bleeding Stone of Hippodrome Square; the grim ferryman on the River of Pain; Black Rock Street, gateway to hidden realms. Sean Hogan - The Quiet Woman: Mira flees London for Ravenna, Northern Italy to put distance between herself and a disastrous marriage to a tyrant. Her stalker husband eventually corners her in the derelict asylum at Imola where she has come to offer a prayer for the Tamburini. "They would send women here for resisting their husbands." Holy Terrors: Ghosts of the Vatican, a multitude of spectres and revenants, including those of Julius Caesar (some fool Pope unlidded the urn containing his ashes) and a phantom carriage driving a screaming noblewoman. |
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Post by dem on Nov 9, 2023 18:49:09 GMT
Jasper Bark - The Teeth of the Hesperides: Aspiring botanist Sarah Mágissa continues her late great-uncle's quest to locate Dryadis Pygocentrus, a supposedly mythological carnivorous plant. To this end, she recruits Nils Lundberg, a specialist in procuring the rarest exotic specimens for wealthy collectors. The trail leads to a fenced glade in Aegle, North Africa ... Cyclops: Odysseus versus ol' one-eye, the sailor-eater of Sicily. Paul Finch - Reign of Hell: (Jonathan Oliver [ed.], World War Cthulhu, 2013). Messia, World war two, during the German-Italian occupation. Pavlos, an archaeologist lures his brother Anton, merciless Commandant of the Security Battalion, through a series of tunnels beneath the swamp that, according to him was once Lake Lerna, gateway to the Underworld. Anton has demanded Pavlos inform on local dissidents. His brother obliges. Meanwhile, above ground, a beautiful corpse-white "vampire" distracts a guard from his duty ... On noting the original source, thought this might be the story I didn't get along with, but it's great fun, kind of Hammer films does the Mythos. Thea is magnificent. In Human Guise: Prolific serial killers of the Med, including the Soap-maker of Corregio, the werewolf of Allariz, the brothers Retzos, and the head-hunting monster rapist of Marrakesh whose murders and ghastly comeuppance are the epitome of Gothic horror as I (mis?)understand it.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 9, 2023 20:13:21 GMT
This sounds like a really cool anthology. I'm quite intrigued by Paul Finch's tale. I loved one that he wrote set in Padstow on May Day for another of his anthologies.
Hel.
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Post by dem on Nov 11, 2023 11:07:36 GMT
This sounds like a really cool anthology. I'm quite intrigued by Paul Finch's tale. I loved one that he wrote set in Padstow on May Day for another of his anthologies. Hel. That will be The Old Traditions are the Best in Terror Tales of Cornwall. It's the story of Mr. F's comes first to my mind whenever his name comes up! Mark Morris - Mistral: Holidaying at a farmhouse in the South of France, the Barnes family — Lucy, Ross and eight-year-old Poppy — are prevailed upon by their hosts, the Blanchet's, to attend the family banquet. They're having a roast. .... Mediterranean's most Pan horror entry to date. Ghosts of Malta: The spectre priest of St. Philips, Seglia; Ghosty vengeance from the well; and the phantom decapitated bride of Verdala Palace. Carly Holmes - Mammone: Salerno, SW Italy. Billie, middle-aged, reluctantly single, and still holidaying with an entitled, overbearing sometimes-I-could-throttle-her mother. Passing through a park, she stops to pet a black cat outside a cafe. Its owner relates the legend of Mammone, the demon feline ... Extinctor Draconis: The life and heroic campaigns of Deudonne de Gozen, the dragon slayer of Rhodes. Could there be a semblance of truth in the legend? Was the man-eating monster a nomadic crocodile? An extraordinary achievement to reach 15 volumes and no sign of flagging, especially when you consider the editor is a prolific novelist. And those of us who love both supernatural horror fiction and ghost non-fiction/ "non-fiction" get the best of both worlds. |
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Post by dem on Nov 13, 2023 21:42:37 GMT
David J Howe - Vromolimni: A tourist trap on Agioi Pantes. Toby and Sally linger too long at a Taverna overlooking a pool locally infamous for its slimy inhabitant. The Other Devils: A plague of demonically possessed Ursuline nuns at Aix-en-Provence in 1611, culminating in the torture and execution of a parish priest. Twenty years later, the hysteria resurfaced at Loudun .... Simon Clark - Gerassimos Flamotas: A Day in the Life: (Stephen Jones & David A. Sutton [eds], Dark Voices #5, 1993). Flamotas despises mute daughter Rose, 19, as a millstone around his neck — if only she were beautiful or even NORMAL, so some rich guy might be stupid enough to marry her. Facing bankruptcy, he is approached by a stranger, who offers him €1 million for the loan of the girl aboard his yacht. There really is no cause for concern. It's only for a few hours, and she'll be returned him in one piece ... Supremely horrible, even nastier than I remembered it. Lord of the Undead: Life, unlife and gory exploits of Guifredo Estruch, the mass-murdering torture vampire of Llers Castle, Emporda, "so evil in life that Satan had sent him back to wreak further havoc in death." Gary McMahon - Should Not Be: Archaeologists locate a necromancer's deadly legacy to a cavern in the mountains at Koyuluk. It is alleged that, should the box of Yabbul be opened, it will bring an end to all existence. And ... damn it. I've run out of book. Of the anthologies I've read so far this year, this and the Ed Hulse Marvel shudder pulp duo have been the three I most enjoyed.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 16, 2023 2:38:51 GMT
I added this anthology to my electronic reader this morning and read Paul Finch's "Reign of Hell" on my commute home tonight (it was a lengthy commute). As my friend Danielle aka Penny Dreadful would say, HEXCELLENT. A grim tale indeed, laced with some iridescently eldritch thrills. More please!
I look forward to reading further in the book!
cheers, Hel.
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Post by dem on Nov 16, 2023 17:04:37 GMT
As my friend Danielle aka Penny Dreadful would say, HEXCELLENT. The Horror Hostess? I remember her from, I think, MySpace in the v. early days of Vault. We used to swap horrible reading recommendations. Hope you enjoy the rest of the book! |
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Post by helrunar on Nov 16, 2023 20:38:42 GMT
Hi Dem, the Penny Dreadful I know started her horror host gig sometime in the early 2000s, I believe. We first met sometime circa 2007 in Salem Mass., and her delightful husband Magoo (now alas on the Other Side) was along for the fun, too. In her day job, Penny teaches courses on Gothic literature and film and other topics in a local college English department.
We're talking about doing an episode of her podcast, Terror at Collinwood (which, in case you can't tell, is Dark Shadows themed) about this somewhat obscure 1950s supernatural suspense novel, The Dreamers, by one Roger Manvell; it inspired a plotline on Dark Shadows back in 1968. I've done two other episodes of the show with Danielle, and she's great fun. I just do these for kicks. Most of her guests are professionals. The Don Glut interview might be of interest and there are a couple of other ones that have broader appeal. It's been fascinating to learn just how many movers and shakers in genre circles have a love for DS.
cheers, Hel.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 17, 2023 3:01:27 GMT
Jasper Bark, "The Teeth of the Hesperides," was another excellent yarn. The characterization of the protagonist, a paranoid, impatient, entitled trust fund dabbler, was so deftly accomplished and quite plausible (given that I'm employed by an old American institution of higher learning and have seen lots of these individuals in action over the years). The imagery of the finale was, in a word only barely metaphoric, blood-curdling.
Hel.
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