What Female Wrote the First Werewolf Short Story in the English Language?

Who was the first female to write a werewolf short story in the English language? In researching my anthology Shifters: The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849 I uncovered a tale by Catherine Crowe (1790-1872). She called it "A Story of a Weir-Wolf" and published it in 1846. Despite the rather boring title, its a fine lycan tale. At first she appears to be the first woman to write a werewolf story in the English language, but them I remembered that "Hugues the Wer-Wolf: A Kentish Legend of the Middle Ages" was attributed to Sutherland Menzies (1806-1883). That tale was published eight years before Crowe's story. There are some who believe Menzies was a pen-name for Mrs. Elizabeth Stone. If so, she was the first woman to pen a lycan story.

Came Back Haunted in Horror Flash Fiction by NIN

"Came Back Haunted," the new single by NIN, gets my vote as one of the best song titles to come around in a very long time. Much more than just a song title, though, it's horror flash fiction. Those three little words conjure three hundred scary ghost stories in this spectral month of October. "Need more coffins," is one I thought of...

Azra'eil & Fudgie Free Short Story on Kindle This Weekend Only

Azra'eil & Fudgie, one of my favorite short stories, is free on Kindle this weekend only: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006K1G21O/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B006K1G21O&linkCode=as2&tag=bottletreeboo-20

In Azra'eil & Fudgie a group of marines stationed in Afghanistan meet a cute little girl who is not all that she seems. This only adds to the tension for Private Fudgerié ("Fudgie") who is on his first mission to diffuse IED roadside bombs that the team calls "skulls". The question is, can Fudgie overcome the demons of his past and those of the present to triumph in the ever shifting sandscape of Afghanistan?

Review of "Gormenghast" Book II of the Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake

Mervyn Peake

(1911-1968)

Gormenghast is the second book in the fantastic Gormenghast trilogy. In it, Mervyn Peake has managed to make the sprawling, never ending castle of gray and stone, one of the main characters. Death is everywhere, lurking in dark corners and worn stairs and crumbling archways. Furtive and building horror sans blood and guts. As with the first book in the trilogy, Peake doesn't let up and cements his trilogy as one of the great Gothic texts of the twentieth century.

Robert Smith and his band The Cure were heavily influenced by Gormenghast. "A Forest" and "The Drowning Man" draw on Gormenghast and the ghastly doings that happen within it ever moldering walls. A must listen and a must read!

Review of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis - Posted

I have an inkling that C.S. Lewis could have (should have) given his readers much more in The Screwtape letters where Screwtape, a senior demon, writes to his underling about undermining the Christianity of his "patient" on earth. I was disappointed to find that only the letters of Screwtape are included. There are no letters from the underling demon or narrative regarding the moves of the Christian patient. Rarely does the reader know what the patient is doing on earth. The Christian is, after all, the unseen, unknown protagonist of the novel. What work of fiction stands on solid legs under that guise? 

Still, the premise of the The Screwtape Letters is imaginatively presented and unique in the literature on which I always place a premium. The voice of Screwtape is less evil than calculating and that is likely a realistic portrayal of the demon. In the end, the novel left me wanting more; not more of Screwtape but of the junior demon and his Christian patient. For these reasons I was left feeling that I received only half a novel, or just a third. It had so much potential.

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Review of The Raven Movie Starring John Cusack

The Raven movie starring John Cusack is out on DVD this month and I have finally gotten a chance to see it. Overall, I loved the Goth cinematography and the storyline (serial killer acting out Poe's horror stories) works, for the most part. I recommend it.

The trouble with the film is the portrayal of Edgar Allan Poe. After writing Coffee with Poe: A Novel of Edgar Allan Poe's Life, I have a preconceived notion of what Poe was and how he acted in public. It is far removed from the raging alcoholic he is portrayed in the film who is always quaffing other people's drinks when they are not looking. I would've liked to see some background as to how Poe met Emily, his fiancee in the movie. The Raven did not have to have so much gore. There is hardly any gore in Poe's short stories.

Still, the movie is worth seeing if for nothing more than seeing Cusack as Poe on the Big Screen. 

Brief Review of HP Lovecraft Short Stories Book Posted

H.P. Lovecraft

(1890-1937)

Lovecraft is often portrayed as the successor to Poe in the genre of short horror stories, but after reading Lovecraft's stories (and editing Edgar Allan Poe Annotated Short Stories), I can tell you that he is no Poe. Lovecraft is much less a pioneer than Poe in both character and Gothic atmosphere. Lovecraft gave us the Cthulhu Mythos of cosmic horrors, of ancient horrors lying dormant, of horrors that transcend space and time and dimensions. He holds his rightful place of high esteem in horror literature for this and must be remembered as a result. 

Lovecraft studied Poe. He worshiped him and rightly so. He wrote "The Outsider" in apparent homage to Poe. But the similarities stop there. Let's not forget that Poe wrote 80-100 years before Lovecraft, too. Lovecraft also used the word "foetid" more than any other writer that has ever lived by a factor of ten, but that's another article. Plus, he looked downright creepy, too. Although Lovecraft was no Poe he gave us some great stories and these are my favorites:

"The Call of Cthulhu"
"The Colour Out of Space"
"The Dunwich Horror"