Tag Archives: fiction

Blyton and Lovecraft

Posted on August 14, 2026 by Mark Hayes

“What’s the weirdest thing you have discovered today mark?”

Why, I am glad you asked… Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, books, cthulhu, dreamlands, Lovecraft | Tagged book-review, books, cthulhu, fiction, Lovecraft, reading, reads, writerslife, writing | Leave a comment

Dear Edgar 66 ~ Landor’s Cottage

Posted on August 12, 2026 by Mark Hayes

Becoming an overnight success is easy, provided you are prepared to endure the years of relative failure until your night arrives… Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, book reviews, Dear Edgar, Poe | Tagged amreading, books, Dear Edgar, fiction, horror, Poe, poetry, reads, writing | Leave a comment

Nailing my colours to the mast

Posted on August 10, 2026 by Mark Hayes

This is a rant, I make no apologise for this. If you don’t wish to read a rant then you should just stop here, but it is, I feel, an important rant. I also stand by ever word. Originally this … Continue reading →

Posted in amwriting, indie writers, indiewriter, rant, Uncategorized, writes, writing | Tagged AI, artificial-intelligence, books, fiction, rant, writer, writerslife, writing | Leave a comment

Dear Edgar 64 ~ Von Kempelen and His Discovery

Posted on August 2, 2026 by Mark Hayes

By April 1849 our dear Edgar was a widower finding his comfort once more in the bottle. Privately he had started becoming increasingly unstable after Viginia’s death in January 1847. Yet publicly he had never been so successful. The initial … Continue reading →

Posted in Poe, reads, retro book reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged amreading, book reviews, books, Edgar Alan Poe, fiction, literature, reads, writing | Leave a comment

Dear Edgar 63 ~ Hop Frog

Posted on July 28, 2026 by Mark Hayes

“I now see distinctly… what manner of people these maskers are. They are a great king and his seven privy-councillors—a king who does not scruple to strike a defenceless girl, and his seven councillors who abet him in the outrage. As for myself, I am simply Hop-Frog, the jester—and this is my last jest.” Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 62 ~ Mellonta Tauta

Posted on July 21, 2026 by Mark Hayes

In Mellonta Tauta, our Dear Edgar imagines the world a thousand years in his future and writes a letter from it. All be it a letter not address to us, but sealed in a bottle and thrown into the ocean by its writer just before the balloon, on which they will be traveling, collapses into the sea Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, Dear Edgar, Poe, pointless things of wonderfulness | Tagged art, fiction, literature, nonfiction, reads, science, sciencefiction | Leave a comment

Oh what convoluted webs we do weave

Posted on July 21, 2026 by Mark Hayes

Main characters are bad enough, but the incidental characters that hang around the edges get more often than not have their own lives that morph and change as they go from a one chapter, one scene, body with a plot point nailed to it, to someone with a complete back story and who has had their own weird adventures of stage… Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, amwriting, books, fantasy, Hannibal Smyth | Tagged book-review, books, fiction, reading, reads, steampunk, writing | Leave a comment

Cover Stories

Posted on June 11, 2026 by Mark Hayes

‘Don’t judge a book by the cover’ as the old wisdom goes, unfortunately, however, in the real world everyone does. There is going to be some harsh unforgiving honesty with myself in this post, but sometimes that is required Continue reading →

Posted in amwriting, books, fantasy, Harvey Duckman, men in dark tweed, reads, self-publishing, writes, writing | Tagged amwriting, book-review, books, cover design, fiction, reading, reads, sciencefiction, steampunk, writer, writing | Leave a comment

Dear Edgar 60 ~ The Cask of Amontillado

Posted on May 26, 2026 by Mark Hayes

In this grim tale of revenge by our Dear Edgar, the promise of sampling a cask of Amontillado is used by the protagonist Montresor to lure his intended victim Fortunato to his grotesque doom. Fortunato considers himself to be a connoisseur of fine wine, though just how true this may be is debateable. Continue reading →

Posted in book reviews, horror, Poe, reads | Tagged amreading, books, Dear Edgar, fiction, horror, Poe, reads, short stories, writerslife, writing | Leave a comment

Dear Edgar 59 ~ The Sphinx

Posted on May 14, 2026 by Mark Hayes

Nor is it related to the character ‘The Sphinx’ in the movie Gone in 60 seconds, played by former football hard man Vinnie Jones. Though in fairness that would have been some what unlikely and remarkable prescient of Poe if that was the case.
Continue reading →