Young Valentines will jump for joy as they count their way through Valentine's Day. This delightful book features Valentine's Day cards, chocolates, heart-shaped cakes and cookies, writing love poems and notes, painting hearts, decorating the house, making a Valentine's Day heart catcher, stuffed animals, and more. This book is part of the bestselling Good Night Our World series, which includes hundreds of titles exploring iconic locations and exciting, child-friendly themes. Little counters will love counting their favorite Valentine delights.
Always fresh and original, Mark Onspaugh, author of the popular new "Christmas Ghost Stories," brings us another thematically organized collection in his new book "Dark Valentines." Unexpected twists on the classic themes of love, loss, passion and horror are included in this bouquet of old and new offerings from Onspaugh's fertile imagination. Among the previously published stories are "The Broken Hand Mirror of Venus," nominated for a prestigious Pushcart Prize, "A Sweet Girl for Todd" a lonelyhearts tale that exposes the dark side of the tanning industry, and the hauntingly heartbreaking "Song of Absent Birds," which explores the true meaning of love in the post-apocalypse. New stories include the sweepingly timeless romance of "Let My Love Carry Me Home," a few comedic turns such as "Cupid Versus Dracula" and three new Red Lion fairy tales which readers of Christmas Ghost Stories have loved so much. Whether intended as a treat for your nearest and dearest or just a delicious indulgence of your own, the thirteen tales of "Dark Valentines" offer a sumptuous feast for readers of new adult fiction.
THE WOODS - Michael Kelly Michael Kelly reveals "The Woods' was written for an anthology seeking regional horror and ghost stories. I'd just read Hemingway's 'Hills Like White Elephant's'. Now, in no way am I comparing myself to Hemingway but I wanted to write a similarly brief tale, with only two main characters, and where the horror was off-stage. As well, the setting had to be distinctly Canadian. What, I thought, could be more Canadian than the frozen north and allusions to mythical beasts?" MAMI WATA - Simon Kurt Unsworth Unsworth reveals, "When I was first asked to contribute to Exotic Gothic 3 (which was to feature Gothic-influenced stories in non-Gothic environments), I agreed without really thinking about it, and then spent a long time struggling, trying to work out how, precisely, I was going to manage it or quite how to make a start. "I knew what I wanted to do, sort of, but not exactly how to do it, so one day alarmingly close to the deadline I did a fun thing: I freewheeled through Google. Using a small document about Zambian myths and cultures I found online (I set the story in Zambia for no reason other than an old family friend lives there and it seemed exotic in Gothic terms), I used one Zambian word from it as a search term and read what came up, took one intriguing Zambian term from the search results and searched for that, etc, and disappeared into Google's merry depths. "I ended up with an academic paper about a particular myth, a travel blog about a sort of beer made from corn and a weird little 'my God's better than your God' blog by a kid in Africa, and somewhere in the middle of that, the story appeared." THE AXHOLME TOLL - Mark Valentine "In the following story, the book called The MS. in a Red Box really exists," the author reveals. "All of the legends about the Isle, and about Beckett's assassins, are also genuine, except (so far) that of the Toll, and their final place of rest - or unrest." TWO STEPS ALONG THE ROAD - Terry Dowling "Two Steps Along the Road' came out of a conversation with US editor Danel Olson," Dowling explains, "where we discussed me doing a ghost story set in Vietnam for Exotic Gothic 3, and the interesting possibilities it might provide for delivering atmosphere and an interesting perspective on familiar things. "Before I knew it, I was blending two separate elements that were demanding attention: the notion of a root-form behind all hauntings, regardless of what form they took, and the unnerving realization that the eyes of a quite attractive teaching colleague would be truly terrifying to behold if they were set just a tad closer together. "The ideas were intended for very different stories but, as so often happens, they decided they were meant for each other.
In Haunted by Books Mark Valentine explores the more curious byways of literature. He presents the author who was always being told he had nearly written a masterpiece, and the genius of the short story who brewed his own cider and lived in a railway carriage. Then there's the figure of the 1890s, praised by Max Beerbohm, who liked to wander around London wearing horns and chewing railings, and the young man in the 1930s who tried to sell his poetry door to door. There are also new angles on key figures: the strange case of Robert Aickman, sailor and philosopher; the book that Sax Rohmer really wanted to write; the enigma of Walter de la Mare's 'Seaton's Aunt'. And there are literary mysteries; what was the MS in a Red Box? Who wrote Shakespeare's Gunpowder Plot? What became of Dr Ludovicus? Other essays celebrate neglected writers worth discovering, such as Mary Butts, Claude Houghton, and Vernon Knowles, or offer fresh perspectives, looking at Lewis Grassic Gibbon's fantasies, Malcolm Lowry's reading in occult fiction. There are even studies of books that were never written. Haunted by Books will delight all readers and book collectors who like to leave the beaten path and wander in the wild woods, forgotten lanes and lonely houses of literature.
Love is in the air! Welcome to romance paradise as your favorite DC characters take you on a love-filled adventure. Collected for the first time ever, DC Valentine's Day/Love Stories collects love stories from award-winning author Jack Kirby, Jimmy Palmiotti and many more! This book collects stories from Young Romance, Young Monsters in Love and Harley Quinn's Valentine's Day Special. Fall in love all over again with your favorite DC characters in these adventures: Wonder Woman consults Eros himself about her feelings for The Man of Steel. Barbara Gordon has always been too busy for romance, but could her role as Batgirl bring her back to the first guy she ever kissed? Aquaman makes waves as he treats his wife like a queen for a day. Plus: perforated Valentine's Day cards featuring the stars of these stories! Collects Young Romance #1, Young Monsters in Love #1 and Harley Quinn Valentine's Day Special #1.
Black Country - Joel Lane "'Black Country' is one of a sequence of weird crime stories set in the West Midlands that I've been working on for years," says Joel Lane. "A collection of them is forthcoming with the title Where Furnaces Burn. 'Black Country' is also a sequel to my earlier story 'The Lost District', which describes another narrator's experience of Clayheath. "I'd like to thank The Nightingales and Gul Y. Davis, whose words influenced this story. It was originally published as a chapbook by Nightjar Press, with an enigmatic cover illustration by Birmingham photographer Trav28." We All Fall Down - Kirstyn McDermott "I carried the bones of this story around for quite a few years before I finally stumbled upon its beating heart," explains the author. "In my head was the image of a doll house, huge and not quite right, and a woman searching desperately for something concealed inside. But I could never work a story around it that didn't seem twee. Doll houses, you know? "But then Emma and Holly appeared - trapped within their own fractured, futile relationship - and everything just, well, fell together. Beautifully. Awfully. And now I have a doll house story. Of a kind." Telling - Steve Rasnic Tem "As for the following story," reveals Steve Rasnic Tem, "it began with a dreadful image at the end of a dream. I couldn't remember the other details of that dream, but I was determined to find out where that image might have come from." A Revelation of Cormorants - Mark Valentine "'A Revelation of Cormorants' first appeared in the excellent series of chapbooks published by Nicholas Royle's Nightjar Press," explains Valentine, "and I first encountered the dark grace of the cormorant while visiting Galloway with Jo." Just Outside Our Windows, Deep Inside Our Walls - Brian Hodge "I hardly ever write extended fragments of things and then leave them indefinitely," Brian Hodge reveals, "but that's how 'Just Outside Our Windows, Deep Inside Our Walls' got started. "I first wrote the part about the fantasised magic show, plus the earliest bit about Roni moving in, after rereading a Thomas Ligotti collection. It may not be apparent to anyone else, but some flavour of his lingered in me for a little while and wanted to come out, and the magic show was the result. "Then it sat idle for three years or so before I knew what more to do with it. Maybe because I had to forget about how it had begun and get back to being myself again.
Why did Queen Victoria demand to see the disembodied head of a talking sphinx? Why will you never find the fabulous art deco book In That Look the Unicorn Stood? What was the slight flaw in the idea of racing cheetahs at the White City? What was the date confidently given for apocalypse at a Somerset railway station book-stall? Who had visions of Atlantis in an old house in Nightingale Lane? These and many other enigmas are discussed in this new book of essays from Mark Valentine. As in his previous well-received collections, you will also be offered suggestions for recondite reading in overlooked books that ought to be better known: an interplanetary fantasy by a Welsh squire; a timeslip into a mysterious England by a priest once called the original of Dorian Gray; an avant-garde novel about a tea-party and the Holy Grail. Whether he is discussing old inn signs, Cornish tin mine ruins, how to play Cat-at-the-Window, or the joys of book-collecting expeditions, the author shares with us an array of enthusiasms and explorations, told in an enquiring and engaging way.
What is the secret of the house of days? Who are the shadowy figures gathered along an old green road? What is the winged thing seen flitting from an ancient church? Herald of the Hidden collects ten adventures of the occult detective Ralph Tyler, inspired by William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki the Ghost-Finder, Algernon Blackwood's John Silence, and Arthur Machen's Mr Dyson of The Three Impostors. But Ralph Tyler is different. He is without private means, or any special esoteric knowledge. Sometimes he doesn't play fair with his clients or his friend, the narrator. He smokes foul cigarettes, slumps in his chair, and wears a threadbare jacket. And he's from an obscure shire in the darkest heart of England . . . Mark Valentine's Ralph Tyler stories first appeared in hard-to-find small press publications. Three of the stories in this volume are previously unpublished, including two newly written for this collection. Along with six further supernatural tales, all the stories are previously uncollected in book form.
The English landscape was made . . . not just for food and shelter and pleasure, but also for the journey of the soul. There is a field of supernatural stories set in this "other" country, the country of the spirit . . .' In A Country Still All Mystery, Mark Valentine explores how certain writers have used their fiction to convey the idea of numinous terrain, places where we might at any moment stray into the realms of the unearthly and uncanny. These essays continue similar literary and antiquarian themes to his well-received earlier volume, Haunted By Books (2015). When and where was the last wolf seen in England? Why were certain lonely houses left beyond parish boundaries? Is there a missing book by T.E. Lawrence? What was the secret history of Cope & Fenwick, liturgical publishers? What became of the original Tower of Moab? A Country Still All Mystery will be read with pleasure by those who enjoy the out-of-the-way, the obscure, the eccentric and the outré. It will appeal to anyone who has ever strayed into remote country which seems to be not quite fully in this world.
Mark Valentine's stories have been described by critic Rick Kleffel as "consistently amazing and inexplicably beautiful". He has been called "A superb writer, among the leading practitioners of classic supernatural fiction" by Michael Dirda of The Washington Post, and his work is regularly chosen for year's best and other anthologies. This new selection offers previously uncollected or hard to find tales in the finest traditions of the strange and fantastic. As well as tributes to the masters of the field, Valentine provides his own original and otherworldly visions, with what Supernatural Tales has called "the author's trademark erudition" in "unusual byways of history, folklore and general scholarship". Opening a book will never seem quite the same again after encountering this curious volume of Seventeen Stories . . . Contents Three Singular Detectives "The Adventure of the Green Skull" "Prince Zaleski's Secret" "The Return of Kala Persad" Four Curious Books "The 1909 Proserpine Prize" "The Late Post" "An Incomplete Apocalypse" "The Seer of Trieste" Three Strange Places "The Axholme Toll" "The Fall of the King of Babylon" "The Other Salt" Three Odd Societies "The Tontine of Thirteen" "Morpheus House" "Without Instruments" Four Haunted Figures "Fire Companions" "The Antioch Imperial" "Yogh" "You Walk the Pages" Acknowledgements Mark Valentine's stories have been selected for Best British Short Stories edited by Nicholas Royle, Best New Horror edited by Stephen Jones, The Mammoth Books of Ghost Stories edited by Richard Dalby, and the Ghosts & Scholars books edited by Rosemary Pardoe, as well as for many other anthologies. Along with The Swan River Press, he also publishes with other independent imprints such as Tartarus Press (UK), Sarob Press (France) and Zagava (Germany). His twenty or so books include studies of Arthur Machen and the diplomat and fantasist Sarban, and essays on book-collecting and the esoteric. He also edits Wormwood, a journal of the fantastic.
Drawing together international research from the fields of geography, alcohol studies, sociology, psychology and childhood studies, Jayne and Valentine explore children’s understandings and experiences of alcohol consumption and the role of alcohol in family life. Chapters address both extra-familial ’norms’ about parenting and drinking cultures which are generated in wider society (through law/regulation, media/advertising and social networks etc.) and intra-familial ’norms’, including the modelling behaviour of family members’, attitudes to alcohol, drinking habits and practices, rules and guidance, and initiating children to drinking. Based on empirical research undertaken in the UK, and drawing on studies from around the world, Childhood, Family, Alcohol advances theoretical debates and offers insights relevant to policy and practice by: · adopting a cross-generational perspective on drinking cultures · exploring pre-teen children’s understandings of alcohol · focusing on the significance of the spaces of everyday family life · considering adult alcohol consumption, drinking practices and drunken performativities · reflecting on social/individualized consumption, social reproduction, adult-children interaction and materialities · showing the importance of non-(and more-than) representational understanding of the complexities of childhood, family life and alcohol consumption.
While disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, politics, social policy and the health and medical sciences have a tradition of exploring the centrality of alcohol, drinking and drunkenness to people's lives, geographers have only previously addressed these topics as a peripheral concern. Over the past few years, however, this view has begun to change, accelerated by an upsurge in interest in alcohol consumption relating to political and popular debate in countries throughout the world. This book represents the first systematic overview of geographies of alcohol, drinking and drunkenness. It asks what role alcohol, drinking and drunkenness plays in people's lives and how space and place are key constituents of alcohol consumption. It also examines the economic, political, social, cultural and spatial practices and processes that are bound up with alcohol, drinking and drunkenness. Designed as a reference text, each chapter blends theoretical material with empirical case studies in order to analyse drinking in public and private space, in the city and the countryside, as well as focusing on gender, generations, ethnicity and emotional and embodied geographies.
Designed as a reference text, this book represents the first systematic overview of geographies of alcohol, drinking and drunkenness. Each chapter blends conceptual material with empirical case studies to analyse drinking in public and private, urban and rural drinking patterns and practices, gender, life course, and emotional and embodied geographies.
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