I was in the Farmington public library yesterday trying to pull together some ideas for a story, but I could not concentrate long enough to formulate many good thoughts, because I felt more in a mood to receive information rather than to transmit. Within the last few days I have started reading a collection of Lovecraft stories … Continue reading “Impressions of Five Writing Styles”
Surfing the ‘net today I found an interesting article at davidsearls.com on the art of writing novel titles: Your Beast, By Any Other Name. If you are in the process of writing a story or novel, it will probably be worth a few minutes of your time to check out this article. In it, Mr. Searls … Continue reading “Your Beast, By Any Other Name”
On June 22, I was continuing my reading of Lovecraft’s “Supernatural Horror in Literature” when I encountered an interesting tidbit. When Mary Shelley was writing Frankenstein in the famous competition with her husband, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron, another competitor was Dr. John William Polidori, whose story story from that competition, “The Vampyre”, went … Continue reading “Dr. Polidori and “The Vampyre””
Albert Bitzius (1797-1854) was a Swiss pastor and author, who is better known by his pen name of Jeremias Gotthelf. Gotthelf was a prolific writer whose novels and stories were based on the people of his village, Luetzelflueh, in the Bernese Emmental. Gotthelf is considered an important writer not only in Switzerland, but also as … Continue reading ““The Black Spider””
If you would like a short trip to the weird side of the horror news, follow the link to a law article about a case in Romania in which a couple sued four priests for failing to rid their home of flatulent demons: Romanian Religious Malpractice.
According to the Wikipedia definition (as of April 21, 2013), an idiolect is “…a variety of language that is unique to a person, as manifested by the patterns of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation that he or she uses.” This accords to the definition I learned in graduate school many years ago. In my writing, I … Continue reading “Idiolects”
If you are not familiar with the works of Swiss artist Hans Rudolf Giger, you are probably familiar with movies that use his art: the Alien series, Poltergeist II, Batman Forever, and Prometheus among others. Though his works are considered surreal or of science fiction rather than horror, to me there seems to be something of … Continue reading “H.R. Giger’s Necronomicon”
The first paragraph of the Wikipedia article (as of April 17, 2013) gives a good, very basic introduction to Hanns Ewers: “Hanns Heinz Ewers (3 November 1871 in Düsseldorf – 12 June 1943 in Berlin) was a German actor, poet, philosopher, and writer of short stories and novels. While he wrote on a wide range … Continue reading “Hanns Heinz Ewers: A First Impression”
I had never heard of Maurice Level (the pseudonym of Jeanne Mareteux-Level) before tonight, but after reading a couple of his short stories and a few critques of his work in general, I shall have to find more of his stories. Level was a French writer known for his macabre stories, which were sometimes staged … Continue reading “Maurice Level”
I am a member of GoodReads.com as are several of my friends. One, a gentleman named Tim Stamps, whom I have known since my college days at Eastern Kentucky University, recently posted a review of Dracula, on which I commented. Thus began a brief conversation which I think you may find interesting for … Continue reading “The “Dracula” Conversation”
Since “Murder by Plastic” was published by Every Day Fiction on March 24, I have been getting some interesting comments on it: some critical, some laudatory. For those of you who haven’t had a chance to visit the site yet, here they are: 9 Responses to “MURDER BY PLASTIC • by Phil Slattery” lizardyoga Says: … Continue reading “Comments on “Murder by Plastic””
I ran across an interesting article today at http://www.quintadimension.com/article66.html, entitled “Archetypal Horror: H.P. Lovecraft and Carl Gustav Jung”. It was written by Jorge Oscar Rossi, an Argentinian writer of science fiction (and fantastic literature in general), and published on December, 8, 2000. Please note that the article and his autobiography are in Spanish. I am no master of … Continue reading “Jorge Oscar Rossi’s “Archetypal Horror: H.P. Lovecraft and Carl Gustav Jung””
I confess. I don’t know how to begin tonight’s article. It is just so weird that it boggles the mind. If you are a fan of horror, you may know of Elizabeth, Countess Bathory, the infamous “Blood Countess” and the subject of many books and at least 2-3 movies. I happen to have a modicum … Continue reading “Shades of Countess Bathory”
I love maps and found an interesting one at Wikimedia tonight. The above is an illustration of “Lovecraft Country” as drawn by Miihkali (from Finland) in 2009. It is in the public domain. The description that accompanies the map (the bottom paragraph is in Finnish) reads: English: So called ‘Lovecraft country’ of Cthulhu Mythos, showing some of … Continue reading “Lovecraft Country”
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:..” Ecclesiastes 3:1 (New International Version) So when is the right time for profanity in literature? I have my beliefs, but I thought it would be interesting in finding some quotations from more respected writers (and entertainers) other than myself, so I … Continue reading “Slattery’s Tao of Writing, Part 6: Profanity”
Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher 