255. Great horror stories? } & Necronomicon.

 

What is Betty M. Owen’s 11 Great Horror Stories? Did human beings write the two Amazon reviews of this anthology? (“Eleven very good short stories of the horror titles which interest me” sez David from the U.K. who gives it 5 stars; “Bought this copy of book that I borrowed and it fell apart before finishing. Bought to finish the book and return a usable item to it's [sic] owner” reports Ted from the U.S.) It’s a Scholastic Book Services title—probably made for a school age market in 1969. Betty M. Owen “selected” the stories—but her choices are perplexing. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror” & Stoker’s “The Judge’s House” are good horror stories (not “great”—though both have much to recommend them); Poe’s “The Oblong Box” is wonderfully mysterious until suddenly it isn’t—Poe explains everything. I’m not sure it’s a horror story—it depends on how you interpret the last act of the artist who owns the box. John Collier’s “Thus I Refute Beelzy,” Anthony Vercoe’s “Flies,” & Fielden Hughes’ “The Mistake” are fun—B-stories, if you will (all could be made into A-stories if developed beyond the single idea that drives them). L.P. Hartley’s “W. S.” & E. Everett Evans’ “The Shed” are not good—but it’s interesting to me that both resemble (good) Stephen King stories (The Dark Half & “The Raft,” respectively). King could’ve read both when he was a boy. John Collier’s “The Love Letter” is science fiction/romance (& charming); Gerald Kersh’s “The Ape and the Mystery” is fantasy—but if you didn’t know anything about Leonardo DaVinci you might not notice. I enjoyed this story. A. E. Sandeling’s “Return of the Griffins” is also fantasy & good. I will send this book back out into the world, complete w/ my (very minimal) annotations.

I might leave it on the freebie table at Necronomicon, where I’ll be next weekend.

Friday, at 12:30pm, I’ll join a roundtable discussion w/ Mike Allen, Paula D. Ashe, Tiffany Morris & Sheree Renée Thomas about “the state of the weird”—hosted by The Outer Dark podcast. I assume the others will have a better handle on trends in the genre than I do; I look forward to their speculations re. weird fiction in the future. At 3:30 I moderate a panel on the fiction of the Joel Lane w/ Timothy Jarvis (a writer I don’t know), Billy Martin (a writer I do know), & editor Justin Steele. My prep was to reread The Lost District & some Lane miscellany—I have questions!

Saturday, at 11am, I’ll discuss Leonora Carrington w/ fellow panelists Victoria Dalpe, Anya Martin, Gabriel Mesa, & Jeff VanderMeer. Her body of work is small enough it was possible to read most of it before the con—though I’ll confess I skimmed “Little Francis” & have not read The Stone Door. A good thing about a panel: collectively, we may be able to fill in the gaps of individual panelists. At 3:30, I’m scheduled to read (from Stone Gods) w/ Khôra Martel & Paul Tremblay. My guess is you know Paul—I remember a time when he asked permission to sell copies of City Pier on the New Genre table at Boskone (sure!). I don’t know Khôra (I’m eager to!).

I’ll try to attend publisher John M. Thompson’s panels—although the first is at 8am on Friday. Scott Dwyer will be there, too. John will have copies of Mooncalves & Stone Gods for sale—I know this because two boxes of said titles currently dwell in my cellar.