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Lovely literary links!
Turns out my poor dog has arthritis and/or bursitis in his shoulder... and a bit of gravel wedged between the pads of his paw. The doctor's advice for the aches brought on by cold weather? "Get him a sweater." I am totally going to ask the Lovely Emily to knit him a giant muffler that I can wrap all around his neck and front legs (because God knows I'd never get sleeves on the boy).
Those messages from yesterday? Farsi.
More seasonal reading!
"The Dionaea House," from last year. (Note: "An online Halloween story was based on the 'dionaea' concept. It was called the "Dionaea House", and the writer has reported the concept has been optioned for a movie.")
If you want more (and are prepared for an extremely intellectual, multimedia/print book approach), check out Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves, which seemed to inspire the Dionaea story, and his sister Poe's (Ann Danielewski) album Haunted. (The Idiot's Guide to House of Leaves. Be prepared to spoiler-swipe the entire page, because the white text blocks aren't marked very clearly, and you may miss a lot.)
Algernon Blackwood: "The Man Whom the Trees Loved," "The Willows," and "The Empty House."
F. Marion Crawford: "The Screaming Skull." I seem to remember another story of his, "The Upper Berth," that was in an oversized picture-book anthology called Mostly Ghostly. Mostly a showcase for the illustrations, but fun nonetheless.
E.F. Benson: "The Room in the Tower." I really like this one for some reason.
Louisa May Alcott: "Behind a Mask." I love the stuff she wrote for adults--neither "Gothic" nor "thriller" really cover it. Maybe "scheming and intrigue" is the best way to put it, although some of the stories do have a supernatural bent. Not this one, though--the Jean Muir character just completely pwns, is all.
From the site where I got the Alcott story: Gothic Tales from the Past. and Some Weird & Horror Tales. Seriously, I'm just bookmarking this here because if I start reading I'll be here all week.
The works of H.P. Lovecraft. I promised to post links to a few of his, ahem, less-tentacled works, so... well, okay, there are some tentacles. But I wanted to put up stories that didn't depend on the Cthulhu Mythos per se--a scary story about a wax museum is, at the end of the day, just that.
"The Picture in the House." " I thought of the rain and of a leaky roof, but rain is not red."There are others I have printed from a site no longer in existence--sadly, the wax museum story seems to be one of them.
"The Rats in the Walls." Try to ignore the cat's name if you can. It bothered me like hell, but it was published in 1924. Sigh.
"The Strange High House in the Mist." It makes me think a little of a Lovecraftian Tom Bombadil.
"The Thing on the Doorstep." One of my favorites.
"The Shunned House." This is one of the stories that reminds me of Bierce--only a lot wordier, a lot more baroque, and with more ooze.
"Herbert West: Reanimator." Yes, that Reanimator.
"The Whisperer in Darkness." BPAL fans will get a kick out of this one--to say why would give the twist away, but you'll know it when you see it.
Speaking of wax museums, however, Marie Belloc Lowndes' "The Lodger" is another favorite. Take a guess as to who the lodger is.
Gothic novels, with links to e-texts where available. I particularly recommend Northanger Abbey (Austen's semi-parody of the genre) and The Castle of Otranto.
Speaking of both of those, there's Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho.
If you're in the Gothic mood or perhaps waiting for the Fifteen Minutes book to arrive, you can always go back and read the first three chapters of Black Ribbon. (Yes, I do remember the story about the girl with a yellow/green/red/black ribbon tied around her neck, and what happened when her fiance/husband pulled it off. Yes, my Black Ribbon is kind of named in homage to that story, although not really for the same reason. Mostly just so people would go, "Oooo, I remember that story about the girl with the yellow/green/red/black ribbon around her neck...!") I'm going to try to put up the last two chapters (rough versions or not) next month in the spirit of NaNoWriMo. Black Ribbon 1, therefore, is five chapters. Black Ribbon 2 will in theory follow the same lines, but who knows? Besides, I'm writing that one for my creative writing thesis.
And just one more link, unrelated but interesting: Hollywood Boulevard Just Isn't Big Enough For Elmo and Friends. I'm hearing that the Fiona and the Puss 'n Boots mentioned are Hall of Fame wankers you may remember if you kept up with the Jordan Wood/Bit of Earth saga.
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