Given the current global financial apocalypse I assume that most of you are now eating shoe leather for dinner, wailing yourselves to sleep in damp & draughty cardboard boxes, and shaking your sore-encrusted fists at an indifferent god. While I can't guarantee that the following cheap/free bits 'n' bobs will rouse you from your wretched misery, they may provide some small crumbs of comfort.

1) A Ghostly Genre: Short Fiction and the Supernatural.

From some of the same team of mad geniuses who brought us "It Came from the 1950s: Popular Culture, Popular Anxieties" comes "A Ghostly Genre: Short Fiction and the Supernatural". Taking place in the august surrounds of Trinity College Dublin this coming weekend (24-25 October), the conference features tasty talks on Robert Aickman, Sheridan Le Fanu, Henry James, M. R. James, Edith Wharton and many more besides. Yummy.

It's the closest thing to "Dreadful Thoughts: The Conference" we're ever likely to see, so I encourage (nay, demand) attendance…even though I can't (alas) make it myself. Pester Bernice or Elizabeth at this address for more info (tell 'em I sent you).

2) Wordsworth Editions – Tales of Mystery & The Supernatural.

I gleefully spat in the pinched and mean face of the recession today by purchasing six books. On my meagre wage that may (at first glance) seem the foolhardy extravagance of a doomed man, but look closer. The volumes in question – part of Wordsworth's groovy "Tales of Mystery & The Supernatural" series – all clock in at well under €4.00. Thrift and classic horror – together at last.

While it is (of course) a giddy joy to be able to pick up the collected stories of renowned authors (Conan Doyle, Henry James, Ambrose Bierce etc) for a modest fee, I get even more of a kick out of snapping up lesser-known delights. Today, for example, I got my mitts on Night Shivers: The Ghost Stories of J. H. Riddell and H. D. Everett's The Crimson Blind & Other Stories. Two relatively obscure gems, with funky covers, for the price of a bog-standard lunch. How can you refuse…even if the bailiffs are kicking down the door?

3) Dreadful Thoughts: Where Do We Go From Here?

Last Monday's meeting of the story club witnessed sad and raggedy clumps of tumbleweed blow through the blog. Numbers were down. Spirits were low. Your host was deflated.

However, with the passing of a week (and the buying of the aforementioned books) a sense of reinvigoration and renewal is in the air. "Damn it", thought I the other day, "There are still so many nooks & crannies of horror to explore and discuss. Without this damn'd club I'll stop reading these lovely, lonely tales and move on to something else." I don't want to do that just yet. For one thing, it wouldn't be fair to J. H. Riddell.

And so…I ask you. Does enthusiasm for, and interest in, the project still remain? Would changing times and days make a difference in terms of gathering people simultaneously together? Are there any changes to the (low-tech) format that might jazz proceedings up?

I'm still (almost in spite of myself) feeling the love for Dreadful Thoughts. With Halloween rapidly approaching it's an apt time to ask – "Is there life in the old dog yet?".

P.S: Don't forget. It's completely free.

I believe that everyone who sets about writing in earnest does his work, as a friend of mine phrased it, on something – tea, or coffee, or tobacco.¹

The weary words of the unfortunate Rev. Mr Jennings – a character doomed by the tragic flaw of loving tea much too "extravagantly". For my own purposes tonight I turn (as always) to reliable ol' red wine – a substance not generally noted for whipping one's nerves up into states of high agitation. I urge club members to follow this lead.

Those who persist in slurping down mugs of hot 'tay' (God help them) do so at their own risk.

Should you require an alternative stimulant (to get the synapses fizzing) then please feel free to sample some of the delights contained on either of the Dreadful Thoughts mix/muxtapes:

1) "O, Whistle and I'll Come to You – Eerie Musicks for Dreadful Thoughts"

2) "Dreadful Thoughts Two …Dread by Dawn"

Scrub the face, mutter a prayer or two, tuck the children in and let's get cracking.

1. "Green Tea" in The Wordsworth Collection of Irish Ghost Stories (Wordsworth, 2005), pg. 24. [back]

Though the rosy-fingered sun continues to blaze away impressively, filling parks & beaches with ruddy little children, we here at Dreadful Thoughts HQ shun such heliolatry – drawing the curtains close and morbidly focusing our grim attentions on matters horrific.

Accompanying us on our sixth wander down literature's darkened halls will be Dublin's 19th century master of the macabre – Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.

If you thought a mere monkey's paw was cause enough for concern, then "Green Tea", with its full simian compliment of paws, eyes, teeth (etc), may push your fragile & ragged nerves beyond the limits of their endurance.

Enjoy.

Story: "Green Tea" (html), (html)

Meeting: Monday, 19th May, 9.00 p.m.