A Fantastic Story of Emotional Dread

I have a story recommendation to make for people who like stories about magic-users (in this case, "witches"), atmospheric stories set in fantastical versions of England, and -- well, I'm not sure how much of the most important thing about the story for me is my own personal reaction to it.  I found K. M. Ferebee's "Seven Spells to Sever the Heart" to be effective story-telling, and above all deeply affecting.  Few are the stories I've read or heard that after captivating me, filled me with emotional dread in the way that Ferebee's short tale of Samuel Crewe (5020 words in just under 39 minutes). I with I had a better phrase than "emotional dread" to describe my reaction. The transformation of the character was heart-gripping. The audio narrator chosen by Fantasy Magazine (podcast version still available on iTunes) is also first rate. I wish I could find out who he was.

As you can see, the story is not new, but I just ran across it and though Ferebee has plenty of credits to her name, she's still new to me, and might be to some my fellow ramblers as well.

Check her out -- especially this dark gem. I'l be returning to it for entertainment and for inspiration in creating atmosphere, emotional dread, and how to portray magic-users.  After reading the story, you might also enjoy this interview.

Happy Halloween!

Yes, I've been crazy busy and having trouble finding time for posting.  I did find time to finally read two contemporary vampire classics that I'd been planning on for this Halloween: 'Salem's Lot and Anno Dracula.  The former hit my horror button harder and the latter hit my Victoriana fanboy button harder, but I enjoyed and recommend both if you haven't gotten around to them.  I am Legend will just have to wait for some other year.  What did you sink your teeth into this year, my blood-thirsty ramblers?

Dark Shadows and Prometheus

I have been ridiculously busy since my move: setting up my apartment, my office, and my classroom -- and then summer school started up right away.  I have had little time for anything else, though I have squeezed in two movies when I felt like my brain just had to do something else: Dark Shadows and Prometheus.  These were two movies that I had been looking forward to, and overall I was not disappointed in either.

I have a special place in my heart for the Dark Shadows franchise, partly because my mother and grandmother were fans.  (I wish I knew how they'd take this turn of the original story towards dark comedy.)  If you don't like the Tim Burton-Johnny Deep take on the macabre, skip it, because this is another addition to that duo's establishment.  However, it may be my favorite of their partnerings, and I enjoyed Burton's placing it in 1972 for all the little period touches -- like the mug that Michelle Pfeiffer's character drinks out of at breakfast, which is almost identical to the one I inherited above from the aforementioned grandmother.  The cast works together as a nice ensemble, keeping up with Mr. Depp, the show ends with the promise of a sequel.  As much as I generally decry sequels, yes, I will give you more money, Mr. Burton, if you bring it.

Prometheus has two annoying flaws in my opinion that both involve verisimilitude in action, but it is great in every other way and lives up to the hype and beyond the facile criticisms I've heard.  It's neck-in-neck between Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender for who takes the brass ring in the this one.  As far as the Alien franchise goes, this movie is second only to the original.  Aside from my spoilerific complaints which I'm keeping to myself for now, the film is brilliant.  While I guess I can stretch my imagination to understand those who don't like Burton, I can't quite do the same for those who don't like Sci-Fi of this quality.

One movie is good plain fun with some thoughtfulness about (gasp) outsiders injected, the other is grand visual sweeps and effects with reflection on what it means to be human threaded throughout.  Though very different kind of films, and likely to earn as much disparity in respect as in profit, I think I'd still give both the same grade.  Don't pass on either of these, is my advice, with the one caveat above.  Here's to 2012: a great year for films so far!

DARK SHADOWS: A-

PROMETHEUS: A-

Yay, more Giger!