{"id":2124,"date":"2021-10-29T13:32:45","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T17:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/?p=2124"},"modified":"2021-11-18T14:58:12","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T18:58:12","slug":"free-as-in-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/2021\/10\/29\/free-as-in-halloween\/","title":{"rendered":"Free as in Halloween"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here at Stinkbug Manor, we&#8217;ve passed through second (or third) false summer and are finally into sweater weather in time for Halloween.  I read weird and supernatural short fiction all year round, but there are few things as nice as glass of rye and a short tale while the wind howls outside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, I bring you some free audio fiction (and what the heck, a book to read), to supplement your spookytime dog walks.  It is free, but you should throw some change at these cats, if you have the means. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\"><p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Today on the Lstrblg...<\/p>\n<\/div><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/2021\/10\/29\/free-as-in-halloween\/#The_Colossus\" >The Colossus<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/2021\/10\/29\/free-as-in-halloween\/#Two_Classic_Weird_Tales_Told_Well\" >Two Classic Weird Tales Told Well<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/2021\/10\/29\/free-as-in-halloween\/#Do_It_Yourself_Horror_Tale\" >Do It Yourself Horror Tale<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Colossus\"><\/span>The Colossus <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hppodcraft.com\/\">H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast<\/a>, co-host Chad Fifer became enchanted by Clark Ashton Smith&#8217;s The Colossus of Ylourgne, a fairly whacked tale about wizards and necromancers in a fictional medieval France.  I can&#8217;t seem to find the text free online, but you find other CAS stuff <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freesfonline.net\/authors\/Clark%20Ashton_Smith.html\">here<\/a>, which I hope is all public domain. Smith was one of the three Colossi of weird fiction, in addition to Lovecraft and Conan-creator Robert E. Howard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fifer scripted, directed and scored this truly insane version of the tale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4kGzDtem9FM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thank Chad by buying one of his albums, like the very excellent <a href=\"https:\/\/chadfifer.bandcamp.com\/album\/the-monster-party\">Monster Party<\/a>, which should be embedded below if I can get the damn thing to work.  UPDATE: Added his band: <a href=\"https:\/\/pitchblackmanor.bandcamp.com\/\">Pitch Black Manor<\/a>. Duh. <\/p>\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"120\" style=\"position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/v=2\/album=1217687700\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/\" allowtransparency=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"120\" style=\"position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/v=2\/album=3773345269\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/\" allowtransparency=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Two_Classic_Weird_Tales_Told_Well\"><\/span>Two Classic Weird Tales Told Well <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another podcast pleasure of mine is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hplhs.org\/voluminous.php\">Voluminous<\/a>, from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hplhs.org\/\">H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society<\/a>&#8216;s Andrew Lehman and Sean Branney.  Lovecraft was a prolific letter-writer and, each month, Lehman and Branney read\/dissect one of his letters.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To celebrate Halloween, HPLHS released two classic weird fiction tales read by Lehman and Branney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Branney takes on &#8220;What Was It&#8221; by Fitz-James O&#8217;Brien, an Irish-born veteran of the American Civil War. You need to go through the <a href=\"https:\/\/store.hplhs.org\/collections\/frontpage\/products\/hplhs-the-monkeys-paw-audiobook\">store to download<\/a>, but it is free. You can also try your own reenactment with the text, which you can find in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/ebooks\/15143\">this collection<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lehman voices a longer tale, &#8220;Seaton&#8217;s Aunt&#8221; by Walter de la Mare, a British writer and poet known for his children&#8217;s stories as much as his supernatural tales. <a href=\"https:\/\/store.hplhs.org\/collections\/frontpage\/products\/hplhs-seatons-aunt-audiobook\">Download it here for a listen<\/a>. This one I first heard about on the HPL Literary Podcast, and I was quick to grab the entire text. You can find a copy in this <a href=\"https:\/\/gutenberg.ca\/ebooks\/delamarew-beststories\/delamarew-beststories-00-h.html#Page_74\">collection<\/a> . <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Do_It_Yourself_Horror_Tale\"><\/span>Do It Yourself Horror Tale<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Lovecraft was moodily atmospheric and Smith genuinely strange, Robert E. Howard was truly the pulpiest of the bunch. His stories were all brawn and action, with a lot more thoughtful world building than most folks appreciate. He didn&#8217;t write much straight horror fiction, but his best was <a href=\"https:\/\/gutenberg.net.au\/ebooks06\/0600721h.html\">Pigeons from Hell.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read it yourself and roll your own audiobook. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here at Stinkbug Manor, we&#8217;ve passed through second (or third) false summer and are finally into sweater weather in time for Halloween. I read weird and supernatural short fiction all year round, but there are few things as nice as glass of rye and a short tale while the wind howls outside. Today, I bring [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7V2xo-yg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2124"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2129,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124\/revisions\/2129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}