Happy Hallowe’en!

Well, I hope all my readers in the path of Sandy made it through with as little damage and power loss as possible. I’m writing this post on Monday, just in case I’m not so lucky. Thank you, WordPress, for your awesome scheduling feature! [ETA: We came through Sandy with few hitches. Lost power for a few hours and one of our trees came down.]

Before getting into the meat of things, I want to announce the winner of the Mr. Blank giveaway. As you may recall, I asked folks to comment with their guesses about which two monsters were “better known” than the chupacabra. A fellow named Roy thought that aliens and Bigfoot were the two. Since I’m using the Fortean Times article that Justin Robinson linked to in his guest post as my source, I have to report that Roy was only half right, with the answer being Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. That said, I thought Roy brought up a good point, questioning the concept of “fictional” and “real.” If, as he said, monsters like Godzilla and Frankenstein ” are dismissed as ‘fictional monsters’ then does that mean Nessie is real?”

So, what is real? The Loch Ness Monster? Frankenstein? The “vulture eye” of an old man? What can our belief in “reality” make us do?

Let’s find out, shall we? In honor of the holiday, let’s watch some horror, as written by Edgar Allan Poe and performed by my favorite master of the genre, Vincent Price. Vinnie recorded this piece as part of the film, An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe, in 1970. The film includes four pieces that Price performed for a live audience: “The Sphinx”, “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and the one I want to share with you, “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

I think this is one of Price’s best works (he leaves his knowing looks and campy demeanor at the stage door), exploring the madness of a murderer who insists that he’s completely sane, albeit a little “nervous.”  The piece makes me laugh, but it’s also quite chilling (and is one of my favorite tales by Poe). I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do. I’d love to know your thoughts.

Part one:

Part two:

Weekly Linkroll

Happy October, everyone! We’re even further into autumn up here in the northern tier of the US (not counting Alaska, of course–it’s winter up there already). The yard is full of red and yellow leaves from the sugar maples out front and the staghorn sumacs in back. And it’s a brisk 39 degrees this morning. Time for hot coffee and a list of the favorite places I visited online in the last 7 days.

Lilith by Christine Emmert – A Review

The enemy of every hearth, Lilith visits homes and devours children. When a graduate student writing a thesis on Lilith meets the demoness in the shape of a barn owl, she sees the perfect research opportunity … until she learns Lilith is hungry for her child! Will Evelyn be able to protect her son from the owl’s tearing beak and dark heart? Will she be able to keep her husband from falling to Lilith’s wiles? Will she be able to learn who — and what — Lilith is in time to save her child, her marriage, and her mind?

Just this week, I signed up at the new book review website, Book Bloggers. Rob Kroese created the site to make it easier for publishers and writers to get their books seen and reviewed. You can read about what inspired him and what his motivations are here.

I don’t have books that need reviewing yet (soon, my pretties, soon), but the idea of reviewing books for other writers needing their signals boosted was very appealing, so, here we are with my first Book Bloggers review: Lilith by Christine Emmert.