Category Archives: horror

The Cultist Prayer

Posted on October 17, 2024 by Mark Hayes

I was raised in The Church of England and thus I learned The lords prayer by rote, as one does when your are sent off to Sunday school every Sunday to listen to bible stories and be taught about the great beard in the sky, my prospective salvation, hell and what not…

I am sure those raised in the Cult of Cthulhu experience much the same. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar #19 The Devil in the Belfry

Posted on August 20, 2024 by Mark Hayes

Order is a wonderful thing, there is a genuine joy to waking up on a morning and knowing there will be breakfast in the cupboard, because there is always breakfast in the cupboard. There is a safety and some would … Continue reading →

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Love, Death and Witchcraft

Posted on November 22, 2023 by Mark Hayes

A couple of short reviews for sequels to books I have previously reviewed. That is the brief here. No waffling on about anything, just do the reviews… Have I ever mentioned I hate sequels. As a writer that is, not … Continue reading →

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Hope is not eternal

Posted on November 3, 2023 by Mark Hayes

All things end, some with a whimper, some with a bang, some too early, some too late, but all things end. The default state of the universe is entropy, and no story is complete until the final line. And so … Continue reading →

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Monomania et le gothique

Posted on October 30, 2023 by Mark Hayes

If a Gothic tale needs one thing to make it a truly Gothic tale, it needs an antagonist in the grip of a profound monomania. Obsessions and obsessional manias are among of the principle building blocks of gothic literature. Be … Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar #12 King Pest

Posted on August 9, 2023 by Mark Hayes

King Pest is also a bit of an odd ball, even amongst other Poe stories. It reveals in description and the grotesque to a far greater extent than even Poe’s usual work. While the story is something akin to a nightmarish romp through a plague ridden London. Think of it as the literary equivalent of a Hieronymus Bosch painting. Continue reading →

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Strange wonders

Posted on July 25, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Tales of Sanctimonious cults, another of a strange tower that do not want to be seen. A story of madness and elder gods returning in the Tees valley, a tale of a magician appointed to the court of Victoria Sax-Coberg. The strange statement of a life repeating in waves of twenty-seven, a tale of a wyrd in the western deserts cira 1850, a story with Sigmond Freud in a rowing boat and finally Hannibal Smyth, who is his as reliably honest as ever, while carrying and aspidistra. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar #9 Morella

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Our own Dear Edgar is, as you are probably aware, much beloved by those who favour clothing themselves in black, wearing dark eye-shadow and catching moon moths while they dance to ‘This Corrosion’. Some might say this is because he and his story’s have a reputation for more than a fleeting obsession with tragedy, love and death. That and his poetry, obsessed with tragedy, love and death…

This is of course an unfair summing up of Poe’s body of work, in some stories no one comes to a tragic appalling end… Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar #8 Berenice

Posted on June 28, 2023 by Mark Hayes

 …she roaming carelessly through life with no thought of the shadows in her path, or the silent flight of the raven-winged hours. Berenice! — I call upon her name — Berenice! — and from the grey ruins of memory a thousand tumultuous recollections are startled at the sound! Ah! vividly is her image before me now, as in the early days of her light-heartedness and joy! Oh! gorgeous yet fantastic beauty! Oh! Sylph amid the shrubberies of Arnheim! Continue reading →

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Lucy and the bear…

Posted on June 8, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Anyway I have to go now, there is someone at the door, a small figure in a white dress holding a bear. I am not worried by this, not at all… Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, books, fantasy, Hannibal Smyth, Harvey Duckman, horror, indie novels, indie writers, steampunk | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment