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Tuesday, September 20, 2016

The Writer's Life 9/20 - The Horror

I didn't spot anything particularly interesting in today's news, so I went to listverse.com for inspiration and found the following, which is in line with the literary pretensions of this blog. I pared it by at least two-thirds:
Top 10 Spine Tingling Short Story Collections
10. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and Other Stories by Ambrose Bierce: Satirist and journalist, his works tend to focus on the horrors of war and absurdities of death. The highlight is the title piece, famously adapted into a short film in 1963 by a French production company. It is also one of its most well-known episodes of The Twilight Zone, rated 8.6 of ten at IMDb.
9. Books of Blood, Volumes 1-3 by Clive Barker
8. 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King: One of its scariest stories is 1408. which was adapted for the screen as The Little Sisters of Eluria (2007), and In The Deathroom is one of the most gripping and shocking short stories ever.
7. Alone With The Horrors by Ramsey Campbell: The British author has been writing for over 50 years. His work influenced Barker and King, and many consider his influence to be equal to that of H.P. Lovecraft. This collection represents the very best examples of his work from the first 30 years of his career, selected by the author himself.
6. The White People and Other Weird Stories by Arthur Machen. Most of his work was published in the 1890's and early 1900's. Stephen King has called Machen’s short novel The Great God Pan perhaps the finest English-language horror story ever written.
5. Final Reckonings by Robert Bloch: Before Barker and King, Bloch, the author of Psycho, was one of the two premier purveyors of American horror. This volume is an examination of the deepest human fears through the lens of monsters. In the foreword he writes: “Some of the monsters are human, some are not– but all of them embody, in one way or another, the fears common to us in our dreams.”
4. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Horror Stories by Richard Matheson. Bloch’s only real contemporary, Matheson wrote many episodes of The Twilight Zone, including an adaptation of the titular story of this collection.
3. Peaceable Kingdom by Jack Ketchum: One of the more acclaimed horror authors of the last couple of decades, Ketchum has won four Bram Stoker awards and many other industry honors.
2. Charles Beaumont: Selected Stories: He has faded into semi-obscurity, his untimely death at 38 from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease a major factor. He was a regular contributor to The Twilight Zone. These 30 stories are prefaced by such luminaries as Bloch, Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison.
1. Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King: This 1993 publication contains much of his scariest work. From the mounting insanity of Dolan’s Cadillac, to the horrifying bleakness of Suffer The Little Children, to the monster-movie frights of Popsy, King is in top form. Anyone who values sleep may want to skip Crouch End, perhaps the most nightmarish and frightening story ever written.

There was an oddity last night in the season three premiere of Gotham. A new character appeared and introduced herself as Valerie, not Vicki, Vale. I don't know why the creators would do that, since they've remained true to all the other names - at least as far as I know. Will she be knocked off and replaced by a sister? Curious.

My thanks to the old timer who delivered at least 20 cook books, several of which sold, and to Natalya and Benedict, who donated five thrillers in Russian, replacing the four that had just been bought. My thanks also to the kind folks who purchased works across a broad spectrum.
Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc
Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tinyurl.com/l84h63j

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