Overhanging Second Stories

We found this kinda-sorta review of The Face in the Frost a number of years ago. We wondered about it then and – as we clean out some of the darker corners of our email inbox – we wonder about it again now. We thought maybe you’d like to wonder about it with us. Here goes:

Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown

The Grim Blogger reported earlier this week that a clip for an upcoming H.P. Lovecraft documentary is making the rounds online.

N-QB3: Chessmen on the Move!?

There are efforts to move the famed Lewis Chessmen from their perch in the Europe AD 1000-1540 gallery at the British Museum back to their native Scotland, where they were found in the early 1800s off the Bay of Uig on the Isle of Lewis.

The fight for the pallid dwarves has been long-running but recent activities have brought the story back into the news: 

The Legend of the Poinsettia

A bit of a Christmas story written by Brad Strickland and performed by the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company, Dec. 22 and 23, 2007:

Now, it came to pass in the days when the Wise Men were journeying, yea, even unto Bethlehem, that they came bearing gifts. Balthasar bore unto the babe a gift of gold; and Caspar bore unto the babe a gift of frankincense; and Melchior bore unto the babe a gift of myrrh…and Irving bore unto the babe a gift of a poinsettia.

Diaphanous Sprites of the Upper Air

You don’t see references to Snodrog from The Pedant and the Shuffly often but here’s one: a ghost made of bed sheets in a M.R. James story reminds someone of the Flimsies “flying out into the night to do his [Snodrog’s] bidding and smother people in their sleep.” 

Something About Amazing Stories

Blogger Madripoor_rose posted the titles of fiction pieces from the July 1986 edition of Amazing Stories - in which Brad Strickland’s short piece, "The Winds Of Oberon," was printed - and asks:

Sorcerers vs. Wizards?

Something caught our eye about the definition of a sorcerer verses a wizard, albeit in a D&D setting:

The Chessmen of Death

We’re not comic book experts but this bit caught our eye. One of the stories in the Wonder Woman comic from September/October 1952 (#55) was entitled "The Chessmen of Doom". It appears to have been rewritten as The Chessmen of Death! for issue #208 (Oct. 1973). The only bit of story we've ever found is that the Chequerians play chess with entire planets as pieces.