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PseudoPod 622: En Plein Air

“En Plein Air” first appeared in volume two of Nightscript, an anthology series edited by C.M. Muller that focuses on “subtle and darksome literary horror.” Stephen Jones subsequently picked it up for reprint in his Best New Horror anthology series, for volume 28.

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Show Notes

“A colleague in the English department at VCU, where I work as a librarian, gave it to the students in her Gothic seminar to read. I sent them the following notes: Writing and reading heavily, as well as being a librarian by profession, I found several years ago that I needed a pastime that was not about words. I have a longtime interest in the arts, and so I decided to try my hand at painting. As often happens, I rushed in headlong, taking classes and working late into the night. The more I painted, though, the less I was writing, and eventually I had to step back from the easel for a while. I still enjoy painting occasionally, but it’s produced an unexpected side effect. Some authors frequently use writers as protagonists, and I now have a similar tendency with artists, though I try to cycle through different media, with a sculptor in one story, a photographer in another. “En Plein Air” came along just after I’d been working on a landscape, as well as finally reading all of M.R. James’ ghost stories, so I expect both of those things influenced the story. I like to think that my art-inflected work fits into a lineage that includes The Red Tree, “Pickman’s Model,” “The Mezzotint,” The Picture of Dorian Gray, etc. These stories are a pleasure to write, in any case, and I’m always pleased when they make their way into print.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._R._James
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Sinclair

En Plein Air

by J. T. Glover

A gust of wind boiled off the James without warning, flattening cattails and clumps of spikerush as it swirled around the inlet where I was painting, and of course it caught my canvas. The morning’s work rushed away from me like a sailboat before a storm, taking my field easel with it. Just as I was sucking in breath to howl with frustration—it shuddered to a stop in midair. Two pale hands held it fast, reaching around from the back. (Continue Reading…)

The Clan Novel Saga: Setite

Show Notes

This blog series starts here: https://pseudopod.org/2018/10/25/the-clan-novel-saga-a-revisitation/

Clan Novel: Setite covers events that happen between June 21 and July 31, 1999. It is Book 4 in the original clan novel saga (but third chronologically that ties up its events) and was published in July 1999. It was written by Kathleen Ryan, who also wrote the Ravnos book.

While this novel interacts with the events of the previous books, it practically stands alone. It is structured in three acts and follows a cohesive plot. The events in this book do not rely on knowing the events happening elsewhere in the world, yet they still build on them. Hesha seems unperturbed by most of the upheaval in the vampire world in the eastern United States. The events are inconveniences that require adjustments, but there are no major changes to what he does. (Continue Reading…)

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PseudoPod 621: Voices

PseudoPod 621: Voices is a PseudoPod original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:24 — 24.7MB)

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Show Notes

“This story showed up nearly fully formed in a dream one night. I probably should have been freaked out by it, but instead I woke up thinking, ‘Ooh, I better get that written down!'”

Voices

by Ira Brooker

It was just after sundown when we heard the first voice, a faraway voice, whispery, wheezy, barely distinguishable from the howl of the wind that bore it. “Lessss… innnnn…” was what I heard. Not quite words but near enough that I ran to Mother on the other side of the room.

“Mother, did you-” I began. She silenced me with a raised index finger.

“Yes, I heard it,” she said. Her face was cautious, a look that was not quite fear but concern that soon it would be time for fear. Tomas huddled close to the hem of her skirt, happily pushing a stone around the barnwood floor. “Hush now and listen,” Mother said.

I kneeled beside Mother and we listened. The wind was strong, stronger than I had heard yet this season, screeching across the prairie in a fury that told us snow was imminent. We listened hard, trying to ignore Tomas’s occasional babbles and squeals. After a few moments the voice came again, clearer this time, closer, but still that eerie whisper. “Let… usss… innnnn…” (Continue Reading…)

The Clan Novel Saga: Tzimisce

Show Notes

This blog series starts here: https://pseudopod.org/2018/10/25/the-clan-novel-saga-a-revisitation/

Clan Novel: Tzimisce covers events that happen on and around the attack on Atlanta on the evenings of June 19 through July 7, 1999. I read Part 1: The War Council (6/19-21) before the TOREADOR book, the Part 2: The Firedance (6/22) and Part 3: The Deception (6/22-7/2) after TOREADOR. After TZIMISCE, I went to Part 1 of SETITE. TZIMISCE is Book 2 in the original clan novel saga and was published in May 1999. It was written by Eric Griffin, who also wrote the Tremere novel.

Let’s take a moment to appreciate the lush cover art. The vampire depicted is monstrous in countenance and action, enjoying a meal in debauched hedonism. Surrounding the primary figure are leering faces born of nightmare with just enough detail to suggest the worst in the shadows. (Continue Reading…)

Farewell Concert

PseudoPod 620: Farewell Concert at the World’s End

PseudoPod 620: Farewell Concert at the World’s End is a PseudoPod original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:05 — 25.2MB)

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Show Notes

“Worlds End state park is a real, quite pretty, place in Sullivan County Pennsylvania, where I have often had the privilege to stay in a friend’s cabin. I never really thought of how creepy the name was until I began writing this story, but it fit too well to ignore once I thought of it.

I usually do ignore Halloween these days, at least in terms of the candy and costumes celebration, but I’m always attracted to the idea of a liminal space, a time when living and dead, seen and unseen draw closer together, and things cross over that cannot at other times.”

Farewell Concert at the World’s End

by R. K. Duncan

On October 30th, 1968, Luther killed a pair of wannabes a little way behind a roadhouse in southern Virginia. He’d smelled the power on them while they played with a pickup band for tips from truckers taking a late lunch. A scent like sage and engine grease cut through the rockabilly trash and the tortured picking that chased chords from chart-toppers that never should have been attempted on that battered, out of tune guitar. They hadn’t looked like much, the pair of thickset men with matching dirty-blonde mustaches and weathered jeans, but the scent was unmistakable for an Enthusiast like Luther. He’d thought of stepping up to play himself, hooking them that way, but his guitar was out in the lot, in the last car he’d stolen, and he had sudden flashes of the last time he’d played without it, the booing laughs and the bottles when he stayed and tried to save the set. (Continue Reading…)

The Clan Novel Saga: Toreador

Show Notes

This blog series starts here: https://pseudopod.org/2018/10/25/the-clan-novel-saga-a-revisitation/

Clan Novel: Toreador covers events that happen on and around the attack on Atlanta on the evenings of June 20-22, 1999. It is Book 1 in the original clan novel saga, and was published in February 1999. It was written by Stewart Wieck, who also wrote the Malkavian novel (please let that one be stronger).

This story is divided into three parts. Part 1: Leopold primarily follows a very young Toreador vampire, and events related to the planning of a big Summer Solstice party at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Part 2: Victoria spends more time with the leading Toreador vampire in the city, and the early political machinations of this Summer Solstice party. Part 3: The Eye focuses on the unfriendly Sabbat vampires attacking the party, along with a subplot related to an artifact of great power, The Eye of Hazimel.

I started my read-through with the first section of the Nosferatu book, followed by the first section of the Tzimisce book, which brought me to the Toreador novel. There must have been something in the water in 1999. Because clearly what we wanted in a Star Wars film that opens a multi-part epic was a plotline about trade negotiations. Just like the opener to a Vampire series about the end of the world should be about party preparation and existential ennui. Practically nothing happens until section 3. It’s good that I didn’t start here, because Leopold is more annoying than peak whining-Louis. I know that he is the neonate vampire mechanism for us to be introduced to the World of Darkness, but if I started here, I would not have the fortitude to continue. I cannot wait until the soft and squishy angsty vampire Leopold dies horrifically. Please let it be sooner rather than later. (Continue Reading…)

Pseudopumpkin

PseudoPod 619: The Ghost Guide’s Tale & The Halloween Parade

“The Ghost Guide’s Tale” first appeared in Quantum Theory for Cats which is available in both print and audio.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:13 — 22.3MB)

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The Ghost Guide’s Tale

by Ian Stuart

Outside the Minster, every eventide,
You’ll see him wait- the smiling Ghostly Guide.
Top hat on head, dressed in Victorian fashion,
He’ll tell you stories full of gore and passion.
“For just three pounds I’ll chill your blood,” he cries.
And people pay him, though they know he lies.
At half past seven by the Minster clock
He’ll gather them to him, like a dog his flock
And fleece them.Then when all have paid him money,
He’ll charm them with a voice as sweet as honey.
Dead Romans,phantoms, corpses limp and gory
Drag bloodstained footprints through each shocking story.
From Minster on to Bedern and the Shambles
He’ll lead his nightly paranormal rambles.
Then, at the end, he’ll finish with a joke-
A jolly, cheerful, normal sort of bloke. (Continue Reading…)

VTG-HALLOWEEN-GREETINGS-GOBLINS-1910

PseudoPod 618: Goblins & Little Orphant Annie

“Goblins” was first published in order to add an original story to the deluxe hardcover edition of my first collection NEVER BET THE DEVIL, which was release last year (2017) by Strix Publishing.

“Little Orphant Annie” is an 1885 poem written by James Whitcomb Riley and published by the Bowen-Merrill Company. First titled “The Elf Child”, the name was changed by Riley to “Little Orphant Allie” at its third printing; however, a typecasting error during printing renamed the poem to its current form.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:31 — 37.3MB)

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Show Notes

Goblins: “I don’t remember why my friend Reyna and I ended up having a discussion about a creepy undertaker pickling kids and turning them into goblins, but we did, and the idea was so perfect that I knew immediately that it had to turn into a story someday. So she deserves at least some of the credit for this one.”

Little Orphant Annie

by James Whitcomb Riley

Little Orphant Annie’s come to our house to stay,
An’ wash the cups an’ saucers up, an’ brush the crumbs away,
An’ shoo the chickens off the porch, an’ dust the hearth, an’ sweep,
An’ make the fire, an’ bake the bread, an’ earn her board-an’-keep;
An’ all us other childern, when the supper things is done,
We set around the kitchen fire an’ has the mostest fun
A-list’nin’ to the witch-tales ‘at Annie tells about,
An’ the Gobble-uns ‘at gits you
             Ef you
                Don’t
                   Watch
                      Out!
							 
Onc’t they was a little boy wouldn’t say his prayers,--
So when he went to bed at night, away up stairs,
His Mammy heerd him holler, an’ his Daddy heerd him bawl,
An’ when they turn’t the kivvers down, he wasn’t there at all!
An’ they seeked him in the rafter-room, an’ cubby-hole, an’ press,
An’ seeked him up the chimbly-flue, an’ ever’wheres, I guess;
But all they ever found was thist his pants an’ roundabout--
An’ the Gobble-uns’ll git you
             Ef you
                Don’t
                   Watch
                      Out!
							 
An’ one time a little girl ‘ud allus laugh an’ grin,
An’ make fun of ever’one, an’ all her blood an’ kin;
An’ onc’t, when they was “company," an’ ole folks was there,
She mocked ‘em an’ shocked ‘em, an’ said she didn’t care!
An’ thist as she kicked her heels, an’ turn’t to run an’ hide,
They was two great big Black Things a-standin’ by her side,
An’ they snatched her through the ceilin’ ‘fore she knowed what she’s about!
An’ the Gobble-uns’ll git you
             Ef you
                Don’t
                   Watch
                      Out!
							 
An’ little Orphant Annie says when the blaze is blue,
An’ the lamp-wick sputters, an’ the wind goes woo-oo!
An’ you hear the crickets quit, an’ the moon is gray,
An’ the lightnin’-bugs in dew is all squenched away,--
You better mind yer parents, an’ yer teachers fond an’ dear,
An’ churish them ‘at loves you, an’ dry the orphant’s tear,
An’ he’p the pore an’ needy ones ‘at clusters all about,
Er the Gobble-uns’ll git you
             Ef you
                Don’t
                   Watch
                      Out!

Goblins

by Orrin Grey

The undertaker lived with his wife in a long, low house in the farthest corner of the cemetery, built of dark brown stone that looked perpetually damp and covered almost completely with trumpet vines and creeping ivy. It had been the town’s mortuary once, before the mortuary facilities moved into a larger and more modern building a few blocks down the street. (Continue Reading…)