Category Archives: Dear Edgar

Dear Edgar 42 ~ The Black Cat

Posted on October 1, 2025 by Mark Hayes

Pluto the cat was not named for Pluto the planet. Pluto the planet was not discovered until 1930 (though one suspects it was always there…) which was almost ninety years after this story was written. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 41 ~ The Gold Bug

Posted on August 25, 2025 by Mark Hayes

To an extent then, this Poe story shorted the second world war and saved the lives of many allied soldiers… Which is almost enough to forgive its flaws… And certainly more than the DeVince code ever managed to do. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 39 ~ The Pit and the Pendulum

Posted on July 29, 2025 by Mark Hayes

It is a perfect tale in that respect, in that it does exactly what Poe set out to do. It gets under your skin, and crawls about… Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 28 ~ The Mystery of Marie Roget

Posted on July 21, 2025 by Mark Hayes

‘Based on true events’ is a cliche, a trope so common we pay it no mind. Writers have been using it for years… In fact it is not unreasonable to say they have been using it since the autumn of 1842 when our own Dear Edgar dipped his toes in that particular well. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 37 ~ The Landscape Garden

Posted on July 15, 2025 by Mark Hayes

the Landscape garden, a story by Dear Edgar that is not exactly worth your time… with an explanation of why that is the case. and an expose on 1840’s women’s magazines Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 35 ~ The Oval Portrait

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Mark Hayes

On occasion, when you spend time in the company of dead authors, you come across an obscure little story that inspired something far more well known. Occasionally the original feels like it is a pastiche of the more famous work. … Continue reading →

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The post-con collapse

Posted on July 8, 2025 by Mark Hayes

Working a convention is exhausting. I am not alone in this. Almost every author I know has much the same story. Conventions are draining, much I suspect because writers tend not to be the kind of people who are naturally … Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 30 ~ The Island of the Fay

Posted on May 21, 2025 by Mark Hayes

I observed a singularly-marked difference in their aspects. The latter was all one radiant harem of garden beauties. It glowed and blushed beneath the eye of the slant sunlight, and fairly laughed with flowers. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 29 ~ A Descent into the Maelström

Posted on May 6, 2025 by Mark Hayes

Author C Clark, The Playboy model, the whirlpool , and Edgar Alan Poe Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 27: The Man of the Crowd

Posted on March 31, 2025 by Mark Hayes

 It was well said of a certain German book that “er lasst sich nicht lesen” –it does not permit itself to be read. There are some secrets which do not permit themselves to be told. Men die nightly in their … Continue reading →

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