Their eps are keeping me going through grad school at the moment (lol). Also a host recommended Robert Hugh Benson a few eps back and his work has been my obsession the last couple weeks. Really, really, consistently solid recs. Anyways, check 'em out! Enjoyment of Whiskey not required.

Nothing to do with nothing, but if you're into weird horror check out Whiskey and the Weird. Weird horror book club sorta thing, hosts are great, banter's great, they use the British Library Weird Horror books to structure their selections BUT many of the stories covered are public domain (so, free)

Why don't we do a little Bar Talk for Episode 1 of the new season? @thejessicaberg.bsky.social is reading the best book she's read in a long time (The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard) and washing it down with a Labatt's NA. Yum.

We’re baaaaaaaccckk!!!!

“Lost in the Dark” by John Langan. Org. pub. HAUNTED NIGHTS, ed. Ellen Datlow, Lisa Morton, Blumhouse Books, 2017. Read in LOST IN THE DARK AND OTHER EXCURSIONS by John Langan, Word Horde, 2025.

“The Face of the Monk” by Robert Hichens. Org. pub. BYE-WAYS, by Robert Hichens, 1897. Read in HOLY GHOSTS: CLASSIC TALES OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL UNCANNY, ed. Fiona Snailham, pub. British Library, 2023.

“The Great God Pan” by Seabury Quinn. Org. pub. in Weird Tales, October 1926. Read in: THE HORROR ON THE LINKS: THE COMPLETE TALES OF JULES DEGRANDIN, Vol. 1, pub by Night Shade Press, 2017.

“Madame Painte: For Sale” by @johnlangan.bsky.social, org. pub. In BEHOLD! ODDITIES, CURIOSITIES, AND UNDEFINABLE WONDERS, ed. by Doug Murano, Crystal Lake Publishing, 2017. Read in: LOST IN THE DARK AND OTHER EXCURSIONS by John Langan, pub. @wordhorde.bsky.social, 2025.

“Lot No. 249” by Arthur Conan Doyle. Org. pub. in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, September 1892. Read in: HAUNTINGS: TALES OF THE SUPERNATURAL, ed. Henry Mazzeo, pub. Doubleday, 1968. Illus. Edward Gorey

“Still[er] Life, From Hunger” by Caitlín R. Kiernan. Org. pub. In Sirenia Digest #173, June 2020. Read in: BRIGHT DEAD STAR, pub. Subterranean Press (@subpress.bsky.social) , 2025.

“The Chartreuse” by Mona Awad. Org. pub. The New Yorker, July 28, 2025. Read in: the same.

“Passage to Dilfar” by Roger Zelazny. Org. pub. in Fantastic, February 1965. Read in: POWER AND LIGHT (THE COLLECTED STORIES OF ROGER ZELAZNY, VOL. 2), NEFSA Press, 2018.

“The Black God’s Kiss” by C.L. Moore, org. pub. in Weird Tales, October 1934. Read in JIREL OF JOIRY pub by Paperback Library (1969). While not a bad story at all, I had somewhat higher hopes for this one.

“No Abiding Place on Earth” by Matthew M. Bartlett, org. pub. in Nightscript, Vol. 2, ed. by C.M. Muller (2016), pub. by Cthonic Matter.

“The Bingo Master” by Joyce Carol Oates. Org pub in DARK FORCES ed by Kirby McCauley (1980), by The Viking Press. Read in the same.

“In the Lost Lands” by George R. R. Martin. Org pub in AMAZONS II (DAW Books), 1982, ed by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. Read in DREAMLANDS, VOL. I Honestly, I read this because I saw a Netflix movie of the same name advertised and I wanted to read the original first.

“Jack O’Dander” was tonight’s scary story & it confirms @priya101.bsky.social place among the S-tier of contemporary horror writers. Her prose is exquisite & her command of characters & their motivations, their “moments before” (as actors say), is stupefyingly precise. The mother in this one…lawd!

Someone in another group asked what was the best horror anthology around. I said it was a tie: David Hartwell’s THE DARK DESCENT and Kirby McCauley’s DARK FORCES. What say you?

Read Ray Cluley’s story in Best Horror of the Year Vol. 16 tonight and man, was it good! I’m reading them in order; this was the standout of the first four by far. Told in kind of an old style, it details the demise of a village woman and only gives dark hints to the why. Subtle, deft, & brilliant.

The Christmas haul! 📚

2024 Books Read #43 THE PREFECT by Alastair Reynolds 4.25 ⭐️ - Reynolds proves, over and over again, to be a master of intimate stories played out over cosmically enormous backdrops. I always love how his sci-fi dips a few toes into horror.

🚨 New John Langan @mrgaunt.bsky.social incoming in 2025 AND 2026! Brought to us by the good folk at Word Horde!

I watched HERETIC this afternoon and my goodness, what a bloody masterclass in acting by Hugh Grant. Serious dread and edge of your seat anxiety throughout! That aside, were I an acting coach, I’d make my students watch this over and over again.

2024 Short Stories Read #93 “Ymir” by John Langan Had to stay up to switch the kid’s laundry over to the dryer last night and so chose some Langan to keep me awake. What an awesome story, and the ways it slipcases into the Barron-Verse were super fun. Oh yeah, and it's creepy!

Here’s a book of stories I don’t see talked about nearly enough. Livia Llewellyn’s FURNACE. Her story “Stabilimentum” here has and likely always will stick with me, like waking through a spider web.

Oh hey! Now hitting the first novel in the Alastair Reynolds ‘Revelation Space’ universe chronological reading order. Several novellas came before this. I have not read THE PREFECT before and so far it is awesome. Cocoa, however, turns up her nose at it.

Of a Saturday morning, my reading buddy and I.

Kicked the new year off with some Zelazny - “The Engine at Heartspring’s Center”

Breakfast of (horror) champions.

Current read 👇 #christmasgift EMPIRE OF SILENCE by Christopher Ruocchio

Festive reading! 🎄 👻 ❄️

What an indicting, important book. Every serious student of the United States should read this.

List 5 famous people you’ve met, but one is a lie: 1. Oprah Winfrey 2. James Lovell 3. Reeve Lindbergh 4. Jimmy Carter 5. Maya Angelou

Here’s one I’ve been patiently waiting for a while and finally snagged a good condition, low cost copy. I’m collecting Marvin Kaye’s GuildAmerica hardcover anthos and have now successfully summoned WITCHES AND WARLOCKS to my shelf. All the jacket designs are by Edward Gorey.

#FridayReads What are you reading today? I’m finishing up Allison Rumfitt’s BRAINWYRMS. I do not know what to think of this book. Great writing but wow, this kind of extreme thing is not my jam. I’ll probably also get a classic weird/horror story in there. Not sure what yet, though.

And now I’m on to this. Based on what friends have said, I’m not sure I’m prepared for Rumfitt or will care for this, but nevertheless, we read on.

Great horror book club tonight with special guest Justin Steele!

Today’s used book store totals: 1. A King non-fiction 2. Two Peter Straub’s 3. Three Westerns 4. Two hard Sci-Fi’s 5. A new-to-me horror author

BASKIN is on Tubi. That is all.

“People forget that the colliers didn’t just bring the canaries into the mines to warn them against the poisonous gases. They took them down because they sang so beautifully, even in the dark.” —Elizabeth Hand, WYLDING HALL Gorgeous writing.

An absolute banner book day! Two monstrous collections of historic and epic significance!

Today’s #fridayreads pick is @casorensen.bsky.social THE NIGHTMARE ROOM. I picked this up a while back but hadn’t gotten to it yet. Now, mid-October, and I wanted a good haunted house story. I can’t put this down! Its pacing is excellent and I love the characters. Don’t sleep on this one!

“The Ghost of a Flea” by Priya Sharma (found in SCREAMS FROM THE DARK ed by Ellen Datlow) is one of the most brilliant stories I have ever read. Find it now. Read it. Savor it. Look all that shit up and savor it again. Art: “The Ghost of a Flea” by William Blake, 1820.

🕯️ 💀 👻 Some stories stick with you even years after reading by them. Here’s four that did for me. I commend them to you for spooky season! 🎃 🌙 🕯️ 1. Stabilimentum by Livia Llewellyn 2. The Band Plays On by Alan Baxter 3. Mysterium Tremendum by Laird Barron 4. Mother of Stone by John Langan

My horror movie for today was VHS ‘94. What a waste of time. The first segment was promising but you can really stop watching after that one.

BARBARIAN - a hell of a creative idea, and horrific, but ultimately marred by too many flaws of the genus “character makes awful, unbelievable decisions.” I enjoyed it but rolled my eyes at the decisions made.

Perfect reading for Fall spooky season. Even if I have to crank the A/C down in my Florida house so I can tolerate my sweater.

Well, now I have to live here. (House from 2015 del Toro film, CRIMSON PEAK)

Do you know Dim Shores? Publishers of unique and very fine weird fiction stories in different formats. LOOMING LOW VOLUME II is out now and very much worth your time and money. Sam and Justin do a great job!

In our first case w/ The Case in the title, we question the validity of demon death cults, the existence of pudding at the possibly Mandela-effected Wendy's buffet, and the use of Squirt in a cocktail. Plus, Ryan's reeeeeally into westerns now. 🤠 www.whiskeyandtheweird.com/episodes/s5e...