Category Archives: Books

Christmas Ghost Stories by Lorraine Murphy

Christmas Ghost Stories, by Lorraine Murphy

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Christmas Ghost Stories by Lorraine Murphy
Christmas Ghost Stories by Lorraine Murphy, cover image by John Atkinson Grimshaw
Christmas Ghost Stories is a wild ride through the moody, grave-strewn landscape of the Victorian and Edwardian psyches, a baker's dozen of classics of the genre that run the gamut from light-hearted social satire to dark and nameless horrors. Editor Lorraine Murphy has combed the archives to compile this collection for modern readers, designed so that you can read one story every second day of December leading up to Christmas Day, with each successive story stronger, darker, more terrifying than the last. This anthology of authentic period pieces perfectly captures the feeling of the light dying a little earlier each evening. Before it comes back.
Back Cover Christmas Ghost Stories by Lorraine Murphy, image by Elizabeth S. Tucker

What is this? Dusting off the ol’ raincoaster blog after lo, many a year, to update whoever is still out there on the internet instead of in the streets rioting as all people of sound mind and noble heart should be!

Myself included.

But today I’m being lazy, so am taking some time out from my busy pet-sitting, Pokemon Go-playing, and tv-watching schedule to update y’all on a little thing I like to call…

MY FIRST FUCKING BOOK Y’ALL!!!!!

Yes, and I meant every one of those five exclamation points.

It’s actually the fourth that I’ve worked on, but the first to make it to publication, and although today is the official release date, it’s already shipping out from Space Penis Guy’s site. It is, of course, also available from Canadian behemoth Indigo (their blank web page for it notwithstanding), and your local indie bookstore or school or library can order it from their usual channels, provided their usual channels are Login. And you can go ahead and encourage them to do so; yes, you have my official permission, if not (yet) my official imploration to do so.

It’s designed so that you can read one story every second day of December leading up to Christmas, and then you have the gloomy and ghastly”Tarnhelm”, the creepiest of the lot, to unpack on Boxing Day. These are all classics, varying from 100-200 years old, and include some of the very best ghost story writers in the English language. There are Americans, there’s a Canadian story, some Irish, and a lot of English authors gathered together in 330 pages.

Aside: my publisher rues the day he asked me for a slight 100 pages or so of ghost stories for a little seasonal product. Hi Kyle!

Cannot tell you how badly I wanted a cover image by John Atkinson Grimshaw; he’s the definitive spooky Victorian night scene painter. And the back cover image is by the very talented but less well-known Elizabeth S. Tucker from St John, New Brunswick.

Anyhoodle, it’s ooky, it’s spooky, it makes a perfect seasonal gift, and it’s currently #10 on Amazon for Anthologies and Collections, so what are you waiting for?

Space Penis Guy’s Website Links because it’s the only store I know that’s already shipping the book. Indie links below!

Perfect Books in Ottawa!

And

Octopus Books in Ottawa!

And

Indigo, Canada-wide!

If you know of or represent any other stores that are carrying it, please do let me know! I’d love to give them some exposure via the 15,000 or so lost souls who still follow me on Twitter. I’d rather support the indies anyway.

Christmas Ghost Stories by Lorraine Murphy at Amazon.ca

Christmas Ghost Stories by Lorraine Murphy at Amazon.com

Christmas Ghost Stories by Lorraine Murphy at Amazon.co.uk

And if you’ve already bought it, let me know what you think of it! I can’t wait to hear from the haters!

[forgive the janky formatting. I’m an OG and never got used to Gutenberg]

Fran Lebowitz on the difference between consumers and citizens

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Fran Lebowitz is Frantastic

Fran Lebowitz is Frantastic

We’ve already heard from the revered Fran Lebowitz on this topic, but in this short PBS video she lays it down concisely and precisely: consumers have no responsibilities, citizens have numerous and important responsibilities, democracy is unnatural, and dictatorships are natural. “People are bad.” Somehow, she does it in a way that leaves you feeling optimistic. Hey, she’s a genius, what do you expect?

Occupy Children’s Literature!

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Where's Waldo's Job?

Where's Waldo's Job?

Oh Waldo! You’re such an adorable, accessible, Zeitgeist-defining dude. Tall and gangly in your cute watch cap and your dorky prison shirt, how is it you pass unnoticed (and un-reported-to-police) among us? Waldo, you are our Zelig, the physical embodiment of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Only in 2012, you’ve got lots and lots of company.

It! Is! Time!

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ZOMG Narnia!

ZOMG Narnia!

I know, right???

Fuck this clapping for Tink shit; you can find me inside any wardrobe, frantically shoving against the back wall.

Image via Brosnakes.

Once, Upon a Midnight Cleary

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because up here the sun does not set this time of year until about 1:30 am and then only in a sort of curtseying manner, bobbing back up again in an hour or less. So you can actually read a newspaper by the daylight at midnight here in Yellowknife.

Which is why the market for spooky stories is somewhat depressed, locally. We’ll see what happens when the 24 hour darkness sets in, and to judge by some of the Inuit Art, whatever sets in then, it ain’t equanimity.

Shaman Drum Dancer by Nelson Takkiruq

Shaman Drum Dancer by Nelson Takkiruq

See?

So, the market for ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night appears to be at a minimum now, yet somehow I still managed to drum up a squeal of morbid joy when I saw that the slow-grinding wheels of film production had, at last, released this:

Edgar Allan Poe-ster

Edgar Allan Poe-ster

for lo, opening night cannot come fast enough for those of us here at Operation Global Media Domination HQ. We are indeed looking forward to watching our old Twitter buddy bring to (unsteady, morbid, doomed) life one of the greatest of American Writers. Ah! If only I had my copy of Closed on Account of Rabies with me, and perhaps a bottle of Amontillado (they don’t sell it at the liquor store, but I bet Chef Pierre could rustle me up some) I could set the mood. For now, these small talismans, the poster and this YouTube of Christopher Walken reading The Raven from that very album will have to do.

Cheerful, isn’t it?