Supernatural Tales

Hello! In a comment on my previous post, James Quinn remarks that his print issue of ST 62 contains two extra stories not listed in the contents. That's because they belong to issue 63. I dont know what happened there, but I was a bit unwell and in a hurry. Anyway, I've fixed it now, so with luck only a handful of people will have what are extremely rare, and very imperfect, copies of that issue. Oh dear. Or yippee, if you like collecting that sort of thing!  Anyone who would like me to replace their faulty copy (including James of course) please let me know and I'll send one off to you. 

Yes, it's autumn and therefore the autumn issue has manifested itself. Makes sense. There are new stories by spiffing authors, and a little extra one from me. Why have you, yourself, contributed to your own magazine, you ask? Good question!  Quite a long time ago Sam Dawson sent me some artwork and I thought it would make an excellent cover. As I was preparing the magazine earlier this year I thought: "That cover deserves a story." Was I the man to write that story? Maybe not. But, as a certain Winston Smith remarked in a very different context, I did it just the same.  As you can see, we're dealing with some serious Morris action. I mean, WTF? as the young people have it. From this jumping off point, or picture, I came with a story that includes the elements of the drawing and adds a few things, like a plot and a narrator. Anyway, it's not the best story in the issue, though some have found it praiseworthy. But if you'd like to judge for yourself, you can fol...

'These are stories firmly in the M.R. Jamesian tradition with a great sense of place and time (so Jamesian that Rosemary Pardoe, renowned M.R. James expert and head-honcho at Ghosts & Scholars, almost insisted on providing a rather original introduction… alongside Josh… a sort of question and answer that tells us a lot about Josh and his inspirations).' Thus spake Rob Morgan of Sarob . Here indeed is a very good collection of stories that I think MRJ himself would have approved of. Josh Reynolds had done an excellent job of taking a believable character - tough, sensible, and humane Artemis Whitlock - and setting her on a kind of quest that brings her into contact with Things along the weirder byways of folklore. The Introduction reveals that Artemis was partly inspired by Honoria Glossop, one of Wodehouse's most formidable women. She's very much the kind of gal you'd want on your side in a pinch. Cover by Paul Lowe The stories are set in the years following the...

  I received a review copy of this book from the publisher. Canadian author Richard Gavin was an early contributor to ST, but I lost his spoor down the years. Now he is back on my radar with a collection of thirteen tales. To get the easy part out of the way first, these are not conventional ghost stories, or indeed horror stories in the strict sense. Some do fit the Gothic mould well, while at the same time incorporating surreal elements. They are sui generis , assuming that I'm using that term correctly.  The first story in a collection is usually considered the strongest by the author and/or their editor. 'Banquets of Embertide' is impressive, with its depiction of strange rituals in a small Canadian town. White Birch is, unusually, 'not a tightknit community', but is nonetheless held together by an annual ritual-cum-celebration at the town hall. What happens is hard to sum up in a few words, but grotesquerie pretty much covers it. This is a confident start. ...

  I received a pdf of this book from the author. This is one of those short novels that draws you in, as does the bookshop that appears overnight in a small town. The shop's name is Legends - or is it? Some can't read the name on the fascia. They can't see what others see. And that is one of the many curious problems presented by what appears to be a wonderful development for local bookworms.  One of the people who is keen to look inside is Rowan, a young woman with a chequered past. The death of her beloved father left a deep emotional scar. She went off the rails and took to shoplifting. Now she is putting her life back together, keeping her nose clean. Until she browses the shelves of Legends and finds a book entitled STEAL ME. The book knows all about her. It tells her story, in the most disturbing and subversive way.  After Rowan steals the book, she does her best to get rid of it. It proves distressingly hard to lose or destroy. Helen Grant, as always, smoothly take...

I received a physical review copy of this book . R(ay). B. Russell is best known as the co-founder of Tartarus Press, which has achieved global renown for high-quality limited editions. But he is also a prolific author, and this latest collection showcases his talent in the realm of short fiction. The term 'strange stories' is inevitably reminiscent of Robert Aickman, and that author's influence is arguably present here and there. But as I progressed through the volume, I felt other authors - L.P. Hartley, Arthur Machen, and Walter de la Mare in particular - held more sway.  The title story is arguably a manifesto for the volume. A writer researching a biographical subject encounters someone referred to simply as The Poet. This in turn leads the protagonist to the eponymous Sanctuary, a kind of encampment/colony for creative types. There is a somewhat Machenesque encounter that helps shake the writer's rationalist world view. He does not stay in the colony, but it seems...