Posts Tagged ‘Poe’

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PseudoPod 702: At the Farmhouse


At the Farmhouse

by E.F. Benson


The dusk of a November day was falling fast when John Aylsford came out of his lodging in the cobbled street and started to walk briskly along the road which led eastwards by the shore of the bay. He had been at work while the daylight served him, and now, when the gathering darkness weaned him from his easel, he was accustomed to go out for air and exercise and cover half a dozen miles before he returned to his solitary supper.

To-night there were but few folk abroad, and those scudded along before the strong south-westerly gale which had roared and raged all day, or, leaning forward, beat their way against it. No fishing-boats had put forth on that maddened sea, but had lain moored behind the quay-wall, tossing uneasily with the backwash of the great breakers that swept by the pier-head. The tide was low now, and they rested on the sandy beach, black blots against the smooth wet surface which sombrely reflected the last flames in the west. The sun had gone down in a wrack of broken and flying clouds, angry and menacing with promise of a wild night to come. (Continue Reading…)

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PseudoPod 701: Technicolor

Show Notes

The inspiration, “The Masque of the Red Death”, was read on PodCastle and can be found here

The Tor article that Alasdair mentions: https://www.tor.com/2019/11/13/the-things-we-do-for-course-credit-john-langans-technicolor/


Technicolor

by John Langan


Come on, say it out loud with me: “And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.” Look at that sentence. Who says Edgar Allan Poe was a lousy stylist? Thirteen words—good number for a horror story, right? Although it’s not so much a story as a masque. Yes, it’s about a masque, but it is a masque, too. Of course, you all know what a masque is. If you didn’t, you looked it up in your dictionaries, because that’s what you do in a senior seminar. Anyone?

(Continue Reading…)

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PseudoPod 699: Flash on the Borderlands LI: Quaint and Curious Forgotten Lore

Show Notes

Spoiler

Dr. Lambshead’s Dark Room:

“I started my publishing career writing about Edgar Allan Poe, who has been a formative influence on my work since I was a child. I wrote an article in which I coined the term Poepathy to describe the uncanny and infectious influence he seems to have not only on US letters, but throughout the world. In writing it, I realized in diagnosing others I was diagnosing myself, and so “Dr. Lambshead’s Dark Room” became the satirical “therapy notes” for my own Poepathy.”

Alasdair’s Notes:
Beneath the Rising
Premee’s twitter
Preemie’s interview on Breaking The Glass Slipper

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A Dark Bird

by Bradley H. Sinor


She closed the book, placed it on the table, and finally, decided to walk through the door.  The words of the poems echoed in her head.

She hesitated for only a moment before crossing the threshold, as the blue flames wrapped around her, sending a tingling cold into the deepest bits of her.

For the longest time there was nothing, finally in the distance came the sound of water gently lapping against the piers of a dock, the cold December winds reaching out onto the water. A dark bird of her desire circled near her.

“The one you seek is near,” said the creature.

Two men in the heavy jackets and caps of seamen shivered as she passed, one crossing himself and drawing deeper within his jacket. The other crossed himself, glancing up into the sky at the full moon.

“Why do you torment me?” she asked the bird. (Continue Reading…)

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PseudoPod 561: Better to Curse the Darkness than Light a Candle

Show Notes

Check out PAPERBACKS FROM HELL by Grady Hendrix. Listen to the interview on the Know Fear Podcast with Grady and Will Erikson about the book and the paperback boom of the 70’s and 80’s.

 

Thanks to our sponsor, ARCHIVOS – a Story Mapping and Development Tool for writers, gamers, and storytellers of all kinds!


Better to Curse the Darkness than Light a Candle

by Joseph Cusumano


They mockingly call me “Diogenes,” believing my lantern is carried merely to illuminate my path each night through the dark streets of Philadelphia. Yet it is not an honest man for whom I search, but a scoundrel, a liar, an adulterer, a thief, a murderer – ideally someone who has been all of these – for I must find a soul darker than my own.

This quest resulted from an earlier and more innocent one, first undertaken while I was a young man blissfully wed to Patience, who brimmed with optimism over what heaven had apparently planned for us. Not content with the considerable success that I enjoyed as the proprietor of Silsbury Shipping Company, I sought more wealth, the respect of Philadelphia’s business and merchant class, and especially the adoration that Patience showered upon me with each step my growing business took. On the occasion of my boasting to her that I now employed upwards of fifty men who labored on my behalf, moving goods from our warehouses to multiple sites hundreds of miles west, she swelled with pride in my accomplishment and even her passions were aroused.

(Continue Reading…)

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PseudoPod 413: Variations Of Figures Upon The Wall


Variations Of Figures Upon The Wall

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia


The maid slowly buttoned the dress, her hands inching along Rowena’s back. Rowena looked out the sole window in the room – a great sheet of unbroken, tinted Venetian glass – and across the desolate, green fields.

‘What was the Lady Ligeia like?’ Rowena asked.

The maid’s fingers stilled against Rowena’s back.’

‘She was a harsh mistress,’ the girl said.

‘How so?’

But the girl did not reply.

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Pseudopod 248: Killing Merwin Remis


Killing Merwin Remis

by Jason Helmandollar


How long?

I’ve already answered the question a dozen times. How many times must I explain? Once more, it seems, although I assure you my story will not change. The facts are the facts. The truth is the truth.

Four months.

It was nearly four months after Merwin Remis moved into the apartment upstairs when I decided to kill him. It was a rational decision – one that came about only after much careful consideration. In the end, I had no other choice. The man was driving me insane.

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PseudoPod 166: Something There Is


Something There Is

by Joe Nazare


As if reading Montresor’s thoughts, Luchesi reached down toward his feet; his hand came back proffering a long-necked bottle. “Here,” he spoke in a conspiratorial whisper, after shooting a look towards the palazzo’s attendant-less hallway. “Medoc — what I just happen to have handy with me, you understand. But it should serve as a worthy substitute.”

“Substitute?”

“In your sleep, just now: you were calling out for Amontillado.”

Vestiges of his nightmare shrouded Montresor’s thoughts. Dry-mouthed, he attempted to swallow nonetheless. “You must have misheard me, I’m sure.”