Source: 10 Awesome Short Films Based on Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark!
Category: The Art of Writing
Information on the art of writing in general
Free Fiction Friday: Gluttony by Jesse Orr
by Georg Emanuel Opiz, 1804
Source: Free Fiction Friday: Gluttony by Jesse Orr
No, it is Sunday, but this was originally posted at Horror Addicts on Friday, January 15, 2016.
The Saturday Night Special: “Present at a Hanging” by Ambrose Bierce
Present at a Hanging
by Ambrose Bierce
from Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories
(1913)
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An old man named Daniel Baker, living near Lebanon, Iowa, was suspected by his neighbors of having murdered a peddler who had obtained permission to pass the night at his house. This was in 1853, when peddling was more common in the Western country than it is now, and was attended with considerable danger. The peddler with his pack traversed the country by all manner of lonely roads, and was compelled to rely upon the country people for hospitality. This brought him into relation with queer characters, some of whom
October 7, 1892
were not altogether scrupulous in their methods of making a living, murder being an acceptable means to that end. It occasionally occurred that a peddler with diminished pack and swollen purse would be traced to the lonely dwelling of some rough character and never could be traced beyond. This was so in the case of “old man Baker,” as he was always called. (Such names are given in the western “settlements” only to elderly persons who are not esteemed; to the general disrepute of social unworth is affixed the special reproach of age.) A peddler came to his house and none went away – that is all that anybody knew.
Seven years later the Rev. Mr. Cummings, a Baptist minister well known in that part of the country, was driving by Baker’s farm one night. It was not very dark: there was a bit of moon somewhere above the light veil of mist that lay along the earth. Mr. Cummings, who was at all times a cheerful person, was whistling a tune, which he would occasionally interrupt to speak a word of friendly encouragement to his horse. As he came to a little bridge across a dry ravine he saw the figure of a man standing upon it, clearly outlined against the gray background of a misty forest. The man had something strapped on his back and carried a heavy stick – obviously an itinerant peddler. His attitude had in it a suggestion of abstraction, like that of a sleepwalker. Mr. Cummings reined in his horse when he arrived in front of him, gave him a pleasant salutation and invited him to a seat in the vehicle – “if you are going my way,” he added. The man raised his head, looked him full in the face, but neither answered nor made any further movement. The minister, with good-natured persistence, repeated his invitation. At this the man threw his right hand forward from his side and pointed downward as he stood on the extreme edge of the bridge. Mr. Cummings looked past him, over into the ravine, saw nothing unusual and withdrew his eyes to address the man again. He had disappeared. The horse, which all this time had been uncommonly restless, gave at the same moment a snort of terror and started to run away. Before he had regained control of the animal the minister was at the crest of the hill a hundred yards along. He looked back and saw the figure again, at the same place and in the same attitude as when he had first observed it. Then for the first time he was conscious of a sense of the supernatural and drove home as rapidly as his willing horse would go.
On arriving at home he related his adventure to his family, and early the next morning, accompanied by two neighbors, John White Corwell and Abner Raiser, returned to the spot. They found the body of old man Baker hanging by the neck from one of the beams of the bridge, immediately beneath the spot where the apparition had stood. A thick coating of dust, slightly dampened by the mist, covered the floor of the bridge, but the only footprints were those of Mr. Cummings’ horse.
In taking down the body the men disturbed the loose, friable earth of the slope below it, disclosing human bones already nearly uncovered by the action of water and frost. They were identified as those of the lost peddler. At the double inquest the coroner’s jury found that Daniel Baker died by his own hand while suffering from temporary insanity, and that Samuel Morritz was murdered by some person or persons to the jury unknown
Story Review by Paula Cappa: Horror of the Heights (No Sherlock Here)
Source: Horror of the Heights (No Sherlock Here)
Follow the link to Paula Cappa’s review of the Conan-Doyle short story “Horror of the Heights”. Here is a brief plot synopsis from the article:
“Horror of the Heights is a short story told via Mr. Joyce-Armstrong’s blood-soaked notebook found in a field, one mile to the west of the village of Withyham, upon the Kent and Sussex border in England. On a warm September day, Joyce-Armstrong takes flight “under the hush and heaviness of impending rain.” His mission takes a shocking turn … or should I say leap?”
Article by Brevity’s Laurie Hertzel: Do I Own My Story? But What If It’s Also Your Story, and You Don’t Want Me To Tell It?
Source: Do I Own My Story? But What If It’s Also Your Story, and You Don’t Want Me To Tell It?
Follow the link to an article by Laurie Hertzel at Brevity on the delicate predicament of whether have the right to tell someone else’s story. As she summarizes the problem:
“But when I began working on my first memoir, I realized that it’s not that simple. Yes, I own my story—that is, I have the right to tell the stories of my life. But I don’t live in a vacuum, and in order to tell my stories I cannot help but tell the stories of others. Do I have that right? Do I have the right to recall things that other people did, write them down, attach their names to them, and publish them in a book? Do I have to ask permission? What if they say no?”
The Life of Angus Scrimm
Requiescat in pace.
As a child, one of the more striking things about an initial visit to a funeral home might be seeing a mortician or undertaker for the very first time. Often, these take the shape of white-haired, older gentlemen who maintain a somber but otherwise expressionless demeanor throughout the funeral proceedings. Their age and seeming lack of emotion coupled with the fact that they watch over dead people can be unnerving things for a youngster to consider. What if a certain child were confronted with the fact that a very imposing mortician he knows of is in possession of super-human abilities and has a penchant for both killing people and turning the dead into miniature zombies? That’s what occurs in the 1979 film entitled, Phantasm. In that production the part of the mortician, otherwise known as the Tall Man, is expertly played by Angus Scrimm, who passed away on January 9…
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Essay by Ruth Carmel at Brevity: Writing Actually Is Hard Work, Which Is Fine
Source: Writing Actually Is Hard Work, Which Is Fine
Follow the link to an enjoyable essay on the lovable labor of writing by Ruth Carmel over at Brevity.
rapscallion, rascal
Trivia for the day.
Here they come, a whole battalion – a million, a jillion, all in rebellion. But not a stallion among them, just slubberdegullions fed on slumgullion, slavering for bullion but barely getting bouillon. What do we do with this cotillion of tatterdemalion hellions? Why, rap them with scallions and they’ll scatter, the rapscallions.
Not that that’s where rapscallion comes from. You know what a rapscallion is, don’t you? If the word looks like rascal decked out for a cotillion, you pretty much have it. A rapscallion is a rascal, a rogue, a vagabond (to quote the OED), a raffish scalawag. The word is just rascallion with a rap of p to make it smarter and sharper. And rascallion? Just rascal with a fillip on the end. The OED tells me that rampallion may have had some influence too – it’s a now less-used word with similar sense.
Of them…
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Grammar-ease: “Should have” vs “Should of”
Nice grammar tip.
This is a quick grammar post.
It’s simple: “should have” and its contraction “should’ve” are correct. As are “would have” (would’ve) and “could have” (could’ve).
Incorrect: “should of”; “could of”; “would of”; “shoulda”; “woulda”; “coulda”
- I should have (should’ve) left earlier to avoid traffic.
- He could have (could’ve) told her he was on his way so she wouldn’t leave.
- She would have (would’ve) brought a snack if she knew there was no food.
- I could’ve won that race if I had trained more!
- He should’ve had a V-8 for breakfast instead of a donut.
- She would’ve gone to the movies if she didn’t have to work.
Questions?
Happy writing!
What other grammar topics or tips would you like to see?
Lisa J. Jackson is an independent writer and editor who enjoys working with manufacturing, software, and technology businesses of all sizes. She loves researching topics, interviewing experts, and helping companies tell…
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Graven Craving
Here’s a cute story.
By Sean Dorsey
A green Lincoln rattles its way along asphalt in dire need of repaving, the pizza light on its roof shining on the stone wall to the right and the wiry trees to the left. It creaks to a stop on the dirt outside the cemetery gate. The delivery dude steps out of the car, looks at the order address and then at the fog enshrouded graveyard, nose wrinkled.
“Man, I need GPS.”
A rotten arm reaches out between the bars and snatches the pizza, dropping some gold coins as it grasps the pie.
“No you don’t. Thanks for the grub.”
Pitches, the Anaspoke Pitch Contest, and The Farmington Writers Circle
Source: Win a free book cover custom designed by Ana Spoke!
Tonight at 7:00 p.m, the Farmington Writers Circle will meet once at the Hastings Hardback Café on 20th Street in Farmington, NM. The topic for discussion will be writing pitches and hooks. With that in mind, I am posting the link above leading to an interesting contest from Anaspoke in which the contestant writing the best pitch for an actual or planned novel wins a free cover design. I hope that we will be able to use these pitch examples in our discussion. I believe the deadline for entries is past, but you can still vote.
Visit Anaspoke’s page via the link above for details and to see the contest entries.
Kbatz: Penny Dreadful Season 2
Penny Dreadful Season 2 is Again a Macabre Good Time
by Kristin Battestella
Penny Dreadful’s sophomore year opens with a recap of the the Showtime series’ debut before picking up the Gothic sophistication right where we left off – this time with ten episodes of scorpions, witches, monsters, and devils.
Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) is attacked by a group of Nightcomer witches led by Madame Kali (Helen McCrory), but ex-gunslinger Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett) protects Vanessa along with Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) – whom Madame Kali pursues romantically. Egyptologist Ferdinand Lyle (Simon Russell Beale) helps translate a mysterious demonic tale written on a monk’s relics alongside Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway), but Frankenstein is distracted by his work on the late Brona Croft (Billie Piper) – now resurrected as Lily Frankenstein at the request of the Creature Caliban (Rory Kinnear), himself going by the name John Clare for his…
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Giving grammar advice? Whatever you do, don’t check it
This article is not only good advice on the usage of specific words, but it also serves as a good example of how to meticulously research word usage.
Jim Baumann writes a column in the Chicago Daily Herald under the title Grammar Moses, in which he dispenses (mostly bad) advice on grammar and usage.
This week, Moses has crowdsourced his tablets.
One of his contributors writes that we should use ’til and not till as the short form of until. Till, he says, “can be a noun, meaning a cash drawer, or a rather inexact verb describing what growers do to the soil so as to produce crops or decorative plants”.
No.
Anydictionaryyoubothertocheck will confirm that till is a legitimate word in its own right. It’s not a short version of until. Things are the other way round: till dates back to the ninth century, until only to the twelfth, when it was derived from till (compare the relationship between unto and to).
As for ’til
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Stephen King vs. the Adverb
Nice, enjoyable article about the lack of need for adverbs.
(image via Wikimedia)
The adverb has an undeservedly bad reputation, I believe. The adverb is a part of speech, so it has to have an important role in grammar and sentence structure. I learned that in school. Yet, famous authors often malign the adverb and say its usage hurts writing. Stephen King has said: “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs,…” When the Modern Master of Horror equates a kind of word with eternal damnation, you have to take that seriously.
I just finished reading On Writing by Stephen King. It seems that every writer says that every writer should read it, so if I’m going to be a writer, I thought I’d better read it. I’m not going to review the book because you can get a review of it anywhere. I’ve criticized King recently about how sometimes he doesn’t follow his own writing advice, and…
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Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher 