Supernatural Tales

The 59th issue of the long-running magazine offers a wide range of stories by British and American authors. From an anecdote told in a Yorkshire hair salon to a worried academic wandering an East Anglian beach... from an art class in a US school to a place of the dead that may be nowhere... these stories take you to strange places where you will encounter weird phenomena. Ghosts? Yes, but things other than ghosts can be even more terrifying. People, for instance. Contents: 'The Ingress' by James Machin 'The Eternal Woman' by Stephen Cashmore 'Pastepot' by Rex Burrows '…and the traces of his memory fade' by Victoria Day 'Fire and Stick' by Charles Wilkinson 'Heron' by Sarah LeFanu 'On Dunwich Beach' by Roger Luckhurst Author Notes Rex Burrows writes dark speculative fiction. His stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies including Weird Horror Magazine, Cosmic Horror Monthly, and Tenebrous Antiquities: An A...

  New stories by: James Machin Rex Burrows Stephen Cashmore Roger Luckhurst Sarah LeFanu Victoria Day Charles Wilkinson Cover by Sam Dawson

Clive Ward is one of the veteran contributors to Ghosts & Scholars who can always be relied upon to produce fiction in the M.R. Jamesian tradition. His stories usually offer slow-burn hauntings rather than gut-punch visceral horror - though he does sometimes deliver that punch very effectively. There is often that 'slight haze of distance' MRJ valued. This new collection from Sarob displays all Ward's virtues in four novellas (or 'Quarters'), longer tales in which there is sufficient elbow room to let the uncanny bubble slowly to the surface. The first story, 'Promenade Walk', concerns a Norfolk seaside town which has seen better days. The narrator recalls a series of visits, each one punctuated by revelations about a notorious local family. Many of the ingredients will be familiar to fans of ghost stories. There's a Punch & Judy show, a tumbledown Martello Tower, and a lighthouse where a lone keeper went insane. At times, I could almost smell ...

The final volume of Collected Speculative Works from Swan River Press covers the period 1858 to 1864. It was in the opening stages of the American Civil War that O'Brien joined that small but august company of authors who died in war or revolution. Some had already demonstrated their potential, others had yet reach it in full. O'Brien falls into the latter category, judging by the stories gathered here. As always, the book begins with a masterly essay by John. P. Irish. 'Premonitions of Death' makes clear that O'Brien was strongly committed to the Northern cause early on, unlike many in his Bohemian circle. Combined with this, he was pugnacious and a bit of a scrapper. So it's not surprising that, not long after enlisting, he was shot in a skirmish with a rebel patrol and died of his wounds.

 What are the tell tale signs of AI writing? There are definitely some fingerprints that AI tends to leave behind—especially when it's not trying to hide. Here are a few of the most common tells researchers and editors have spotted: Overuse of formal or Latinate vocabulary : Words like “utilize,” “commence,” or “ameliorate” pop up more often than they would in natural human writing, especially when simpler words would do. Repetitive phrasing or tautologies : AI sometimes says the same thing twice in slightly different ways—e.g., “Let’s come together to unite” or “a true fact.” Paragraphs that start with discourse markers : Words like “However,” “Moreover,” or “Overall,” followed by a comma, are a common AI tic 2 . Frequent use of the Oxford comma : That’s the comma before “and” in a list—AI tends to use it consistently. Numbered lists with colons : AI loves structure, and it often defaults to tidy, formulaic formats. Bland or journalistic tone : The writing can feel polished but em...

I received a review copy of this book. This is the second volume of three in the impressive Swan River Press collection of O'Brien's speculative works. It covers the years 1855-58 and shows the flowering of the Irish-American author's talent. As with the first volume (see review above) the book begins with a masterly essay by John P. Irish. In 'Bohemian Horrors', Irish gives an overview of the fashionable literary world of mid-19th century New York. O'Brien threw himself into the Bohemian lifestyle, which of course retained its glamour well into the 20th century. The first story in the volume is aptly entitled 'The Bohemian' and is an interesting twist on a familiar theme - the treasure hunt. The narrator, impoverished and obsessed with wealth, encounters the eponymous character, a louche Englishman called Brann, who promises him riches via startling and questionable methods. Brann is a powerful mesmerist, while the narrator's fiancée has clairvoyan...

I watched this Italian mystery on Prime and got a bit confused from about the tenth minute in. It was recommended by an algorithm when I asked for genre movies from the continent. So it came along with a bunch of Euro-cinema devoted to horror, sci-fi, the paranormal etc. And yet at first it seems to be nothing of the sort. Here's the synopsis from IMDb. A man is found dead in an office. Sonya, a charming 55-year-old woman, has abandoned her family for a love affair with a younger man. The two stories end up intertwining but nothing is as it seems. First things first, this is a short, beautiful film. We see Italy at its loveliest, the weather perfect, the people stylish and attractive. Even though a brutal murder is at the centre of the mystery, the pace is languid, punctuated by some sex and intrigue. But what's it actually about?  One reviewer described it simply as a confusing mess, which is fair enough. To me it was an intriguing mess, as if an episode of Inspector Montalban...