Horror Story for Halloween

My room was pitch black as the electricity supply had been cut.  The screaming had stopped but the floorboards creaked.  Before the silence I had heard someone cry out, “He’s got an axe!”  I heard the sound of dripping.  Was it blood falling from the axe?  Sounds like scrapping came from the direction of the door.  I cowered on my bed pulling the blankets around me.  Then I heard a voice.

It was a raspy male voice which spoke in a whisper.  “Open the door, Dorothy.  And it will be over quickly.”

There was a pause while he waited for a response which I dare not give.

“If you do not comply I will use my knife and not the axe.”

Another pause followed.

“It will be slower.  First I will cut your vocal cords so you cannot hear yourself scream when I cut you open.  I have a light with me so you will see everything that happens to you.  You will see your internal organs as you die but open the door and I will use the axe.  Any pain will soon be gone.

It was if I was in a bad dream.  But I was not.

Book Review – Telling Stories from Chaucer to Joyce by David James

This is not something I would normally read or buy but I know some of the author’s other works and know he is a fine writer in his own right.  This book takes us through the work of seven major literary figures from the 14^th to 20^th centuries.  It chooses one example from the writings of each namely, Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales, Bunyan – The Pilgrim’s Progress, Laurence Sterne – Tristram Shandy, Jane Austen – Mansfield Park, Charles Dickens – Great Expectations, George Elliot – Middlemarch and James Joyce – Ulysses.

David James reviews and contrasts each of these writings with each other, and provides an ongoing commentary on what he believes is the thoughts of the author behind each work.  This clearly provides helpful notes for any budding student of literature.  I have read examples or either watched or listened to screen or radio adaptations of the books listed here.  I have not studied literature formally since my schooldays but David’s analysis provides me with a good insight into the minds of seven great literary geniuses and for this I am grateful.  I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in great literature.  Hopefully, it will also serve to help me in my own writing.

Keith Jahans

Available on Amazon as a paperback and ebook

Book Excerpt – Magic Bullets by Keith Jahans

Absent-mindedly, he stuffed his right hand in his jacket pocket and felt the jar.  He drew it out, looked through the glass at the white lumps of organic matter inside and said aloud to himself, “Magic I don’t think so.”  He tossed it in the metal waste bin then, as the clanging sound his action had caused resonated around the room, he had another thought and looked in the bin.  The jar was still intact.  He retrieved it, put it down on the laboratory bench, discarded his jacket and put on his labcoat.  What followed next led to the discovery of Floracillin.

Read http://peatmore.com/magicbullets.htm