Category Archives: amreading

Dear Edgar 53 ~ The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade

Truth, as the old saying goes, is stranger than fiction. It is also on occasion harder to believe. Fiction has the advantage of the internal logic of the story. Truth has to actually be true, even if that truth is … Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 52 ~ The Purloined letter

Perhaps it needed a good murder… Continue reading

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Pagan Lines

She utters words of honeyed violence to sooth the savage at her breast.

I harken to her words, but they are as nothing to me. Garbled sounds, senseless, meaningless. Words from across the whale road. Words from the lands of the cross carriers. The land where they worship the murdered god. Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 51 ~ The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq

There is such a thing as a literary in joke. A private reference within a story that only those in the know will appreciate. Such things are oft times carefully constructed in such as way that the sit in the … Continue reading

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The Curse of Amateur Dramatics

Holly Trinity is awake, which never bodes well for the old city. Armageddon may be round the corner. But at least she gets to go to the theater. Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 50 ~ Thou Art the Man

Without Poe’s Dupin there is no Sherlock Holmes, at least not in the form we are familiar with. Poe invented the Sherlock architype, but also the Doctor Watson type everyman who tells us the stories. Holmes and Watson in turn inspired Agatha Christie’s Poirot and inspector Japp among many others. Continue reading

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Preludes in Obscurum

Hello and welcome to what will eventually become the year of the Rusty Hobbyhorse in mid February. While we are now in 2026 it is still the year of the Distressed Snakeskin Belt for a little longer. However, weary travelers, I bring you news of some import before the celestial cladder turns once more. To wit, to help you through the cold darkness of winter there are two new releases coming your way in which to feast this eyes and feed you imagination. Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 48 ~ The Oblong Box

In September 1841 John C Colt, the brother of renown gunsmith and industrialist Samuel, found himself in the unenviable position of being choked to death with his own cravat. In fairness to the elegant neck wear it was not responsible for the attempt on its wearers life, rather Samuel Adams, a printer of text books who had been employed by Colt, was using the cravat as an improvised garrote. This was over the matter of $1.35, an inconsiderable sum even in 1841 to motivate an attempted murder by neckwear, one would think. Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 47 ~ Mesmeric Revelation

Poe, Newton and hypnotism Continue reading

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Minoan Dreams

a window on humanity soul, our pagan past, and the mythology that is the seed from which we grew. Yes these are modern interpretations and yes the are based on mere fragments, but even so these stories remind us of who we once were, of a common past. Something we all need once in a while. Continue reading

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