Month: October 2020

Vampires and Gravediggers

Pop Fiction

WHO’S AFRAID OF VAMPIRES?

Are you?

What could me more in tune with October and the Halloween season than a story about gravediggers looking for vampires?

The story is “Vampire Hunt” by Geoff Orens. We promise it’s not scary!

We turned on our flashlights and walked over to the plot. There, Paul Smith’s grave was still a bunch of turned over dirt. Jeremy Sylvester passed out some garlic while Frank and Clarence proceeded to dig up the coffin. I did feel nervous that someone was going to catch us, but I was also excited to see what an actual vampire would look like. 

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(Featured art: “The Vampire” by Philip Burne-Jones, plus a movie poster c/o Universal Studios.)

Murder Ballads: New Poetry

Poetry

HALLOWEEN draws closer! So today we present at least one poem with a Halloween theme, along with another that’s creepy, and a third which, well, you’ll have to read it. The feature is titled “Life of Murder Ballads and Other Poems” and the poet is John Tustin. Please enjoy.

Living my night of murder ballads, Frankenstein’s Monster
And the poetry of Poe
While you imagine your heart rests in black lipstick and torn fishnet hose.

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(Art: “I Love Eva” by Pablo Picasso.)

Angels and Demons

Pop Fiction

WITH HALLOWEEN soon upon us, we’re considering briefly the idea of angels and demons. Are they mere metaphors for the emotions of good and evil– or unseen forces influencing us in mysterious ways?

As Hamlet said, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

Which brings us to our new fiction feature, “Fatima” by Karl Miller. Novella-length noir in which a pair of insurance investigators look into two deaths at a construction site. There is more to the deaths than appears at first glance– and more to the story. Not your typical detective tale. We know you’ll enjoy it.

Next to an overturned fourteen-foot aluminum fishing boat, its engine blade stopped in a last futile cut at the air, two fully-clothed bodies, face down, gently moved back and forth with the motion of the waves.

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(Art: “Demon Seated” by Mikhail Vrubel.)