Spent another fantastic day at the semi-annual, star-studded Chiller Theatre in Parsippany, NJ. This time, I was honored to meet actors Ed Begley, Jr., Nicholas Lea, Steven Weber, Raj Singh, and John Schuck. Good times!
All posts by philgiunta@ptd.net
Book Review: The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft
This anthology of seven eerie, suspenseful tales by the legendary H.P. Lovecraft includes three that involve his famous mythology of the Ancient Ones—especially the monstrous entity, Yog-Sothoth—as well as the grimoire of black magic known as the Necronomicon. 
“In the Vault” – After finding himself locked in a tomb, a despicable, cantankerous undertaker successfully escapes by stacking six occupied coffins to create a platform, allowing him to reach a small opening above the door. However, just before crawling free, his leg punches through the lid of the top coffin, leaving him with wounds that were not merely inflicted by jagged wood…
“Pickman’s Model” – An artist of the macabre develops a new and startlingly realistic style when he begins painting demonic figures too grotesque to be displayed in public… but where did he find this latest inspiration?
“The Rats in the Walls” – After restoring the cursed, ruined estate of his ancestors, a young man begins hearing rats scurrying in the walls. An exploration of the cellar reveals an opening to a large chamber, the contents of which divulge the true and terrible history of the property.
“The Music of Erich Zann” – Each night, on the top floor of an apartment building, an elderly violinist plays a haunting, otherworldly melody… and receives a response from somewhere beyond our dimension.
“The Haunter of the Dark” – Robert Blake takes an unhealthy interest in the ruins of a long-abandoned Gothic church whose distant spires are visible from his apartment window. After venturing across town, Blake learns that local residents fear the church and do not speak of it. Undaunted, Blake presses on and finds a way inside. While exploring, he encounters an artifact that conjures frightening visions of the Ancient Ones—one of which is soon unleashed.
“The Dunwich Horror” – In the isolated, backwoods village of Dunwich, Massachusetts, the primitive Whateley family welcomes a grandson named Wilbur, born of Lavinia and an unnamed father who is believed to be the ancient creature known as Yog-Sototh. Other villagers become fearful of Wilbur’s rapid physical development and inhuman countenance—not to mention the strange growling and rumbling from the surrounding hills that began after his birth. Following Lavinia’s unexplained death, Wilbur and his grandfather begin boarding up the windows of their home as if to imprison something inside. After the deaths of Old Man Whateley, then of Wilbur, the invisible creature bursts from its confinement to wreak havoc on the village. Three professors from nearby Miskatonic University undertake a mission to destroy the creature using the Necronomicon, the grimoire of black magic that initially spawned the beast.
“The Thing on the Doorstep” – Edward Derby, an intelligent, but weak-willed young man with an interest in the macabre, marries a homely, eccentric woman named Asenath who is reputed to have a beguiling effect on others. It is claimed by some that once captured by her stare, they found themselves gazing upon their own bodies through Asenath’s eyes. It isn’t long before Derby undergoes a bizarre and dangerous change of demeanor…
Book Review: Farnham’s Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein
It is the early 1960s and the United States is on the verge of nuclear 
war. To prepare for this, Hugh Farnham constructed a fully stocked bomb shelter beneath his house years before. On a night when Hugh’s daughter, Karen, invites her friend Barbara to the house, the local radio station in their Midwestern town begins transmitting warnings of a possible nuclear strike. Hugh’s son, Duke, is skeptical that either side would commit such an act of suicide. He considers the bomb shelter an overreaction on the part of his father—until the radio station issues its first bomb warning during a round of bridge (a game that features prominently throughout the story).
All hands rush into the shelter where the pragmatic Hugh assumes the role of a supreme commander, giving orders and demanding unswerving obedience as he tries to get the situation—and his alcoholic wife, Grace—under control.
After a series of blasts rock the shelter—resulting in minor injuries to the occupants and superficial damage to the shelter—the family ventures outside expecting to find the radioactive remains of their obliterated neighborhood. Instead, they find themselves surrounded by a serene woodland paradise unblemished by even the slightest mark of humanity. At first, the area is completely unfamiliar, until Hugh, Duke, and the Farnham’s servant, Joe, begin scouting the area and recognize natural landmarks. To complicate their dire survivalist predicament, both Karen and Barbara announce that they are pregnant.
Hugh and Grace’s marriage was disintegrating long before this catastrophe and on a day when Grace decides to leave Hugh and the shelter to strike out on her own (albeit with Duke to protect her), the entire lot are captured by a group of dark-skinned humans in a flying craft unlike any they’ve ever seen… and from that moment on, the fate of the Farnhams takes more than one otherworldly turn.
Heinlein spares no details in this well-paced adventure, from the graphic descriptions of births (both human and feline) to a thoroughly developed caste system of a future Earth that is at once fascinating (reverse-racism, adherence to a diluted form of Islam) and disturbing (benevolent dictatorship, cannibalism, female servants labeled—and used as—sluts or “bedwarmers”).
Although Farnham’s Freehold sparks much debate among hardcore Heinlein fans and general SF readers alike for its political and sociological views, it was not my favorite of Heinlein’s works by far. The story itself did not appeal to me and sometimes I find Heinlein’s portrayal of his female leads to be doltish, naive, or unrealistic and nowhere was this was more evident than in the character of Barbara.
Book Review: Robert A. Heinlein’s Assignment in Eternity
Arguably some of Heinlein’s best short fiction, Assignment in Eternity offers four fantastic tales including:
“Gulf” – A secret agent named Gilead is rescued from captivity by a clandestine organization of highly trained supermen and women. Although they seem nefarious at first, Gilead soon realizes that they are, in fact, noble and agrees to join them. After being trained in their ways, he undertakes a mission to stop a weapon of mass destruction.
“Elsewhen” – A university professor engages five students in an experiment to travel to across space and time merely by the power of hypnotism, opening portals to strange and distant worlds, one of which is engulfed in war with an alien race while the other is a serene paradise of godlike beings.
“Lost Legacy” – A physician, a psychologist, and a parapsychologist manage to tap into their latent abilities of clairvoyance, telepathy, levitation, and telekinesis. Soon after, they find themselves drawn to Mount Shasta in Northern California where they encounter a group of mystics who have long ago mastered such abilities and are waiting for the right opportunity to reveal themselves to the world in the hopes of setting humanity on a path to enlightenment. First, they must overcome evil forces as ancient and powerful as they, forces who wish to keep humanity ignorant and servile.
“Jerry was a Man” – A wealthy couple visits a genetic engineering firm where animals of almost any configuration can be manufactured. During a tour, the wife encounters a polite, elderly ape named Jerry who can speak, but is on death row as he has outlived his usefulness. She is appalled and demands to adopt Jerry, against the company’s policy. The situation escalates to a court hearing for the purpose of determining whether Jerry is entitled to the same rights as humans.
About This Writing Stuff…
This week, Jami Gold explains the role of a line editor while K.M. Weiland cautions us about using coincidence in our fiction. Gill Andrews offers advice to improve your author website (I made some minor changes to this site as soon as I read his article!).
After nine novels, soon ten, Jeff VanderMeer shares eight insights into the writing process. Over at Mythcreants, Oren Ashkenazi analyzes Kurt Vonnegut’s Eight Rules of Writing and presents common pitfalls of deep story ideas.
All that and a little more… Enjoy!
How Useful are Kurt Vonnegut’s Eight Rules of Writing? and Five Common Pitfalls for Stories with Deep Ideas by Oren Ashkenazi
Inhabiting Our Scenes: Information Versus Experience by Peter Selgin
8 Writing Tips from Jeff VanderMeer via Chicago Review of Books
Want More Readers for Your Blog and Books? Fix These 5 Website Mistakes by Gill Andrews via Anne R. Allen
Zoom In, Zoom Out: An Exercise in Creating a Memorable Setting by Steven Cooper
How Long Should a Book Be? Word Count Guidelines by Anne R. Allen
Coincidences in Fiction: What You’re Doing Wrong by K.M. Weiland
What is Line Editing and What Should Line Editors Do? by Jami Gold
Complete Fiction: Why the ‘Short Story Renaissance’ is a Myth by Chris Power
This will be the last edition of About this Writing Stuff for the next six to eight weeks (at least). Over the next few months, I shall be busy prepping not one, but two new books for release while projects at my full time job threaten to consume much of my personal time. On top of all this, I have the first draft of a science fiction novel in progress that I am determined to finish this year. I’m treading water and the tide is rising. Hey, two clichés in one sentence. Go me!
Book Review: The Best Short Stories of the Modern Age selected by Douglas Angus
This superb collection of 20 stories gathers the work of such legends as Edgar Allan Poe, Ernest Hemingway, Shirley Jackson, Jean Paul Sartre, Franz Kafka, William Faulkner, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Anton Chekhov, and more. I’d read about half of these stories in years past and was delighted to find just how much detail remained with me. My favorites included
“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe – A deranged killer, sickened by an elderly man’s bulging eye, murders the man in the middle of the night and buries the body under the floorboards. He considers it a perfect crime, even when the police arrive, until he hears a ringing in his ears, which turns into a ticking, then a heartbeat…
“The Jewels” by Guy de Maupassant – A young clerk becomes annoyed at his wife’s penchant for collecting costume jewelry. When she passes away, he eventually takes to them to a jeweler for an appraisal…
“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway – A lonely man refuses to leave the outdoor cafe he frequents—to the chagrin of one young exhausted waiter, but his coworker understands that there are those, desolate and unloved, who need a clean, well-lit place…
“The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence – A young boy flawlessly predicts the winners of horse races by rocking on his hobby horse, but each time he must exert more effort until…
“The Devil and Daniel Webster” by Stephen Vincent Benét – A hapless farmer strikes a deal with the devil, but when it comes time to pay up, he reaches out to legendary farmer, lawyer, and patriot Daniel Webster to save his soul.
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner – An reclusive elderly woman, once popular in the town and a source of gossip, passes away, leaving behind a grisly revelation.
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson – A small town, steeped in tradition, holds an annual lottery, but the winner is far from lucky.
“The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka – A young traveling salesman awakens one morning to find himself transformed into a giant cockroach.
“The Ledge” by Lawrence Sargent Hall – A fisherman and two boys venture out to a small island for Christmas morning for a day of duck hunting—until they find themselves stranded as high tide rushes in.
