I'm still volunteering at my local library bookstore too (which carries a bit of everything), and am happy to look around for people.
Jayne: Yeah, that was some pretty risky sittin' you did there. Wash: That's right, of course, 'cause they wouldn't arrest me if we got boarded, I'm just the pilot. I can always say I was flying the ship by accident.
'Serenity'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
sj - Oct 12, 2018 8:42:37 am PDT #25184 of 28197
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
Matt the Bruins fan - Oct 26, 2018 6:57:26 am PDT #25185 of 28197
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
Can the hivemind help me track down a Halloween-themed short story? I read it a few years ago in an anthology of horror or generally scary stories. It's about a children's scary book author (female, middle aged or elderly) who gives a Halloween reading at a library and then seems to be ambiguously haunted by the unseen fictional mischievous boy character she's famous for. It's told in first person, had a feel that vaguely reminded me of Thomas Ligotti's work. Sadly I cannot recall title, author, or any of the proper names in the story.
I'd thought it might be in one of Ellen Datlow's Year's Best Horror collections, but I haven't been able to turn it up in any of the ones at my library and it would have to be in some book I ran across there at one point.
sj - Oct 26, 2018 7:26:09 am PDT #25186 of 28197
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
It doesn't sound familiar, Matt.
DavidS - Oct 27, 2018 8:51:34 am PDT #25187 of 28197
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
It's about a children's scary book author (female, middle aged or elderly) who gives a Halloween reading at a library and then seems to be ambiguously haunted by the unseen fictional mischievous boy character she's famous for. It's told in first person, had a feel that vaguely reminded me of Thomas Ligotti's work. Sadly I cannot recall title, author, or any of the proper names in the story.
That is a Ligotti story. I just read it this last year in his reissued collection with Penguin.
Let me see if I can find the title.
DavidS - Oct 27, 2018 8:53:37 am PDT #25188 of 28197
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
These are the story titles. It's one of these.
Dreams for Insomniacs --The Christmas Eves of Aunt Elise --The Lost Art of Twilight --The Troubles of Dr. Thoss --Masquerade of a Dead Sword: A Tragedie --Dr. Voke and Mr. Veech --Professor Nobody's Little Lectures on Supernatural Horror
Dreams for the Dead --Dr. Locrian's Asylum --The Sect of the Idiot --The Greater Festival of Masks --The Music of the Moon --The Journal of J. P. Drapeau --Vastarien
Grimscribe
--Introduction
The Voice of the Damned --The Last Feast of Harlequin --The Spectacles in the Drawer --Flowers of the Abyss --Nethescurial
The Voice of the Demon --The Dreaming in Nortown --The Mystics of Muelenburg --In the Shadow of Another World --The Cocoons
The Voice of the Dreamer --The Night School --The Glamour
The Voice of the Child --The Library of Byzantium --Miss Plarr
The Voice of Our Name --The Shadow at the Bottom of the World
DavidS - Oct 27, 2018 8:57:47 am PDT #25189 of 28197
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I think it's either the Christmas Eves of Aunt Elise or Professor Nobody's Little Lectures.
Let's see if I can get a synopsis...
It's not in Grimscribe, I just read a synopsis of all the stories.
Still looking on Ligotti.net...
Matt the Bruins fan - Oct 27, 2018 2:57:33 pm PDT #25190 of 28197
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
Got it! It's "Alice's Last Adventure" from Songs of a Dead Dreamer. Thanks David, your certainty that it actually was Ligotti rather than someone with a reminiscent style made me go back and take a closer look at his bibliography.
DavidS - Oct 27, 2018 6:21:21 pm PDT #25191 of 28197
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Phew! Glad you found it!
Connie Neil - Oct 31, 2018 7:36:47 am PDT #25192 of 28197
brillig
Boy, this author, Fran Wilde, who was just recommended by my Book Bub email this morning looks interesting!
EpicTangent - Oct 31, 2018 7:54:32 am PDT #25193 of 28197
Why isn't everyone pelting me with JOY, dammit? - Zenkitty
*Runs to Deleted folder where she sent her Bookbub email this morning without looking at it because it's such a hectic day*