Tag: Avon Books

A Night in the Lonesome October —
All is not what it seems…

In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff – gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate.

Some have come to open the gates. Some have come to slam them shut.

And now the dread night approaches – so let the Game begin.

Author: Roger Zelazny
Illustrator: Gahan Wilson
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Gaslamp
Publisher: Avon Books
Publication Date: September 1, 1994
Pages: 280

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October 16th

After checking on the ‘things’, and rebuffing the one in the basement which now looks like a very alluring Afghan hound, Snuff makes a morning attempt to move the body but is too exhausted. Besides, bits of the body have been eaten during the night, and other bits are dropping off as he moves it. He hides it away and heads home for more rest.

He finds Jack in conversation with Larry Talbot. They have both been questioned by the police that morning, but Jack appears to be more interested in finding out what Mr. Talbot’s ‘game’ is, as he doesn’t have a familiar and doesn’t appear to be gathering materials or preparing any rituals. Talbot pleads innocence, saying only that he knows what he is doing, but Jack is not so sure.

A later conversation with Greymalk informs Snuff that all of the players have been interviewed by the police, with the angry Vicar present as ‘witness’. Jill has escaped being probed by doing her ‘away with the fairies’ routine, the mad monk’s command of English suddenly deserted him, and the Good Doctor pulled out his ‘I am above all this common nonsense’ shtick, all of which has left the authorities little further forward. They are, however, determined to find the lost policeman, so Snuff has to go back to trying to drag the body away. It’s in boggy ground now, and proving to be terribly hard going.

An end of the day chat with Graymalk sees her and Snuff reinforcing their friendship ‘despite what is to come’. Are Jack and Jill on different sides? And which is the closer, which the opener? We still have more questions than answers, and this small patch of English countryside is getting very busy. Rather than Herculean, Snuff’s attempts to hide the body appear almost Sisyphean. Is his struggle going to prove futile in the end after all?

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Boo-graphy:
William Meikle is a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with more than thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries.

He has books available from a variety of publishers including Dark Regions Press, Crossroad Press and Severed Press, and his work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and magazines.

He lives in Newfoundland with whales, bald eagles and icebergs for company.

When he’s not writing he drinks beer, plays guitar, and dreams of fortune and glory.

Website

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The Green & the Black —
A small group of industrial archaeologists head into the center of Newfoundland, investigating a rumor of a lost prospecting team of Irish miners in the late Nineteenth century.

They find the remains of a mining operation, and a journal and papers detailing the extent of the miners’ activities. But there is something else on the site, something older than the miners, as old as the rock itself.

Soon the archaeologists are coming under assault, from a strange infection that spreads like wildfire through mind and body, one that doctors seem powerless to define let alone control.

The survivors only have one option. They must return to the mine, and face what waits for them, down in the deep dark places, where the green meets the black.

William’s Halloween Giveaway

A Night in the Lonesome October —
All is not what it seems…

In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff – gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate.

Some have come to open the gates. Some have come to slam them shut.

And now the dread night approaches – so let the Game begin.

Author: Roger Zelazny
Illustrator: Gahan Wilson
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Gaslamp
Publisher: Avon Books
Publication Date: September 1, 1994
Pages: 280

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October 15th

Snuff continues his attempt to drag the body to hiding, being hampered both by the vicar and his new, crossbow-wielding recruits, and by a new police presence in the area, consisting of an Inspector, constables, and the Great Detective snooping around. Holmes seems particularly interested in the Good Doctor, and Snuff is happy that Jack isn’t a point of focus…yet.

He has to halt in his dragging for rest and recuperation and the day starts to close with him still far from the river and having to hide the body again in order to go into the city with Jack.

They find London a busy place. Not only are the police out in force but the players of the game appear to have chosen this night to party and many of them are in a state of inebriation. The Great Detective is also on the watch, disguised as a street vendor although Snuff quickly sniffs him out. All the noise and bluster and attention makes Jack’s activities more difficult to pull off. He has a successful hunt for wet ‘materials’ but is almost captured, and only evades the police with the aid of Larry Talbot who provides them with an opportune bolthole…and something with which to contain the blood.

So, one last party as the game grows near, with players letting their hair down. The long day ends with Snuff, exhausted, dragging the dead policeman a wee bit closer to the river. This is turning into a Herculean effort and shows us the lengths Snuff will go to to protect his master. He truly is a good boy, even if he is blind to the fact that his master is clearly a monster. Or maybe he’s not really blind. Is Snuff as reliable a narrator as we’ve been believing so far, or is he perhaps hiding something in his telling of the tale? I’m beginning to suspect the latter, although Zelazny has done such a good job of making us like Snuff it would be a bitter pill to have to swallow.

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Boo-graphy:
William Meikle is a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with more than thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries.

He has books available from a variety of publishers including Dark Regions Press, Crossroad Press and Severed Press, and his work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and magazines.

He lives in Newfoundland with whales, bald eagles and icebergs for company.

When he’s not writing he drinks beer, plays guitar, and dreams of fortune and glory.

Website

• 

• 

The Green & the Black —
A small group of industrial archaeologists head into the center of Newfoundland, investigating a rumor of a lost prospecting team of Irish miners in the late Nineteenth century.

They find the remains of a mining operation, and a journal and papers detailing the extent of the miners’ activities. But there is something else on the site, something older than the miners, as old as the rock itself.

Soon the archaeologists are coming under assault, from a strange infection that spreads like wildfire through mind and body, one that doctors seem powerless to define let alone control.

The survivors only have one option. They must return to the mine, and face what waits for them, down in the deep dark places, where the green meets the black.

William’s Halloween Giveaway

A Night in the Lonesome October —
All is not what it seems…

In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff – gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate.

Some have come to open the gates. Some have come to slam them shut.

And now the dread night approaches – so let the Game begin.

Author: Roger Zelazny
Illustrator: Gahan Wilson
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Gaslamp
Publisher: Avon Books
Publication Date: September 1, 1994
Pages: 280

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October 14th

Snuff and Greymalk have a conversation that serves as an infodump bringing us up to speed on the current situation. The vicar has been taking potshots at the players with his crossbow, the Great Detective is prowling in the area and we discover that the players not only have familiars, but each is in possession of at least one magic item; Jack’s blade, Jill’s broom, the mad monk’s icon ( stolen from a Mad Arab…I think I can guess what that must be), the Count’s ring, the Druid’s scythe and so on. The conversation doesn’t just provide us with more depth on the game though, it moves the plot along to the next level when Greymalk announces she has found a body.

We discover that Snuff’s mental map is more magical than we thought, in that in some cases it might allow him to track backwards in time along the lines to find out what was going on in the past. Not this time though; the body Greymalk takes him to see is that of a policeman up from the city. His throat has been cut, his eyes pecked out by crows. Snuff cannot allow it to be discovered so close to Jack’s house and resolves to drag the body to the river and drop in it where it can be carried far away. It’s going to take him a while though, and at the end of the day he has to hide the body in a copse and return home for some well earned sleep. He’s only got halfway to the river.

We’ve had a lot of info given to us in that chapter, all skillfully woven into snappy dialogue to make it palatable. And the death of the policeman means that the stakes have just got that much higher for everyone; the players have, up till now, been mostly minding their own business. I suspect that’s all about to change. We’re into the meat of it now; the chapters are getting longer, the cast are moving about more frantically and interacting more often. I expect some mayhem soon.

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Boo-graphy:
William Meikle is a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with more than thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries.

He has books available from a variety of publishers including Dark Regions Press, Crossroad Press and Severed Press, and his work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and magazines.

He lives in Newfoundland with whales, bald eagles and icebergs for company.

When he’s not writing he drinks beer, plays guitar, and dreams of fortune and glory.

Website

• 

• 

The Green & the Black —
A small group of industrial archaeologists head into the center of Newfoundland, investigating a rumor of a lost prospecting team of Irish miners in the late Nineteenth century.

They find the remains of a mining operation, and a journal and papers detailing the extent of the miners’ activities. But there is something else on the site, something older than the miners, as old as the rock itself.

Soon the archaeologists are coming under assault, from a strange infection that spreads like wildfire through mind and body, one that doctors seem powerless to define let alone control.

The survivors only have one option. They must return to the mine, and face what waits for them, down in the deep dark places, where the green meets the black.

William’s Halloween Giveaway

A Night in the Lonesome October —
All is not what it seems…

In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff – gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate.

Some have come to open the gates. Some have come to slam them shut.

And now the dread night approaches – so let the Game begin.

Author: Roger Zelazny
Illustrator: Gahan Wilson
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Gaslamp
Publisher: Avon Books
Publication Date: September 1, 1994
Pages: 280

---

October 13th

Snuff is disturbed by something at the window. It is the Count’s bat familiar, in some distress. The cause soon becomes clear. The local vicar, having had a ‘vision’ of evildoers preparing for a terrifying ritual at Halloween, and aware of strange blood losses among his parishioners, has gone on the rampage with a crossbow and stakes. The vicar tries to force an entry to Jack’s house but is easily rebuffed.

Snuff and the bat form a pact to tell the other familiars in the game, friend or foe, to be wary of this new menace.

The idea of the big ritual is now coming more to the fore, and it seems the players, no matter which side they are on, are also, in some cases, willing to protect each other. Zelazny’s tightly woven plot, much like Snuff’s mental map of the players’ positions, is coming together nicely now. There’s a definite rhythm to this story, one that is building in tempo with each passing chapter. Things seem to be pointing towards some big event coming along soon even before the final ritual. It took some mental strength today not to rush on to the next page.

---

Boo-graphy:
William Meikle is a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with more than thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries.

He has books available from a variety of publishers including Dark Regions Press, Crossroad Press and Severed Press, and his work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and magazines.

He lives in Newfoundland with whales, bald eagles and icebergs for company.

When he’s not writing he drinks beer, plays guitar, and dreams of fortune and glory.

Website

• 

• 

The Green & the Black —
A small group of industrial archaeologists head into the center of Newfoundland, investigating a rumor of a lost prospecting team of Irish miners in the late Nineteenth century.

They find the remains of a mining operation, and a journal and papers detailing the extent of the miners’ activities. But there is something else on the site, something older than the miners, as old as the rock itself.

Soon the archaeologists are coming under assault, from a strange infection that spreads like wildfire through mind and body, one that doctors seem powerless to define let alone control.

The survivors only have one option. They must return to the mine, and face what waits for them, down in the deep dark places, where the green meets the black.

William’s Halloween Giveaway

A Night in the Lonesome October —
All is not what it seems…

In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff – gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate.

Some have come to open the gates. Some have come to slam them shut.

And now the dread night approaches – so let the Game begin.

Author: Roger Zelazny
Illustrator: Gahan Wilson
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Gaslamp
Publisher: Avon Books
Publication Date: September 1, 1994
Pages: 280

---

October 12th

A very short, single page chapter today. Jack is at home, preparing ‘materials’ but not yet ready to use them. The ‘things’ in their various traps are under control. Snuff is happy to have a ‘domestic’ day. The only thing of note is news that the owl and the snake have had a falling out and that the owl transported the snake out of the game, leaving it a long slither back to its master. So the familiars, like their masters, seem to be getting slightly tetchy.

The month is drawing on and preparations are well underway, yet we still don’t know what the players are preparing for, and Zelazny is more than happy to keep us in the dark at this stage. There’s longer, more pertinent passages of action coming up soon I’m sure. But for now, we’ll allow Snuff a quiet day. He’s a good boy. He deserves it.

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Boo-graphy:
William Meikle is a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with more than thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries.

He has books available from a variety of publishers including Dark Regions Press, Crossroad Press and Severed Press, and his work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and magazines.

He lives in Newfoundland with whales, bald eagles and icebergs for company.

When he’s not writing he drinks beer, plays guitar, and dreams of fortune and glory.

Website

• 

• 

The Green & the Black —
A small group of industrial archaeologists head into the center of Newfoundland, investigating a rumor of a lost prospecting team of Irish miners in the late Nineteenth century.

They find the remains of a mining operation, and a journal and papers detailing the extent of the miners’ activities. But there is something else on the site, something older than the miners, as old as the rock itself.

Soon the archaeologists are coming under assault, from a strange infection that spreads like wildfire through mind and body, one that doctors seem powerless to define let alone control.

The survivors only have one option. They must return to the mine, and face what waits for them, down in the deep dark places, where the green meets the black.

William’s Halloween Giveaway