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Michael Hartford

writer, photographer, programmer, dad

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“Learning to Talk” by Hilary Mantel

Posted on January 2, 2023

Not having read Mantel’s memoir, “Giving Up the Ghost,” I was a little befuddled by some of these stories – they return again and again to similar settings and situations but with…

“Blodsuger” by John Langan

Posted on January 1, 2023

All of the stories in Ellen Datlow’s anthology “Screams From the Dark” are great – she is far and away the best collector of horror, science fiction, and fantasy stories working today…

The Girl From Rawblood by Catriona Ward

Posted on December 16, 2022

The story of a cursed family is told through several voices in three different time periods – around 1840, around 1890, and in the aftermath of the First World War.

A brief personal history of social media: Usenet

Posted on December 15, 2022

The ongoing fiasco of Twitter, once my favorite social media site, has put me in a nostalgic mood.

“Ravissante” by Robert Aickman

Posted on August 17, 2022

A story within a story – a man inherits the papers of a painter of fantastical scenes, and finds a memoir of the painter’s visit with the widow of another painter of…

“The Game of Rat and Dragon” by Cordwainer Smith

Posted on August 17, 2022

Humans and cats form a psychic bond to fight against monsters lurking in the deep space between stars. This is a subtle and intriguing story of interspecies communication that manages to give…

“The Stains” by Robert Aickman

Posted on August 17, 2022

A widower visiting his vicar brother in the country encounters a strange young woman on the moors and moves into an abandoned house with her, where they are pursued by the girl’s…

“Apate’s Children” by Brendan Vidito

Posted on August 13, 2022

A man’s guilty conscious and his wife’s refusal to forgive him create a monstrous creature and its evil children that torment his dreams.

“Mother’s Mark” by Brendan Vidito

Posted on August 13, 2022

A woman seeks to create a perfectly un-man-like man through black magic but is unable to exorcise its worst traits.

“Walking in Ash” by Brendan Vidito

Posted on August 13, 2022

A man has a panic attack and is granted premonitions into a horrific apocalypse he is powerless to alter or avoid.

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