The cover by Anna Dittmann lured me into reading Where the Veil is Thin: An Anthology of Faerie Tales (2020). Like many of these themed anthologies, there’s a variety of quality among the stories. My favorite story in Where the Veil is Thin is Alethea Kontis’s “The Seal Woman’s Tale.” The Seal Woman is a skin walker, a supernatural being with the power to physically take the appearance of anyone (but she doesn’t like become a man).

“The Seal Woman’s Tale” starts with the changing of appearances and leads to a more sinister circumstance: the Seal Woman becomes the prisoner of the King of Trolls. The King of Trolls is cruel and power-mad. But the Seal Woman plays the Long Game. I also enjoyed “See a Fine Lady” by Seanan McGuire. If you’re in the mood for some stories that will capture the essence of Halloween, give Where the Veil is Thin a try. GRADE: B

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction” by Jim Hines — 5
“The Tooth Fairies” by Glenn Parris — 8
“Glamour” by Grey Yuen –19
“See a Fine Lady” by Seanan McGuire — 33
“Or Perhaps Up” by C.S.E. Cooney — 44
“Don’t Let Go” by Alana Joli Abbott — 65
“The Loophole” by L. Penelope — 90
“The Last Home of Master Tranquil Cloud” by Minsoo Kang — 102
“Your Two Better Halves: A Dream, with Fairies, in Spanglish” by Carlos Hernandez — 113
“Take Only Photos” by Shanna Swendson — 139
“Old Twelvey Night” by Gwen Nix — 152
“The Seal Woman’s Tale” by Alethea Kontis — 164
“The Storyteller” by David Bowles — 182
“Poisoned Hearts” by Zin E. Rocklyn — 186
“Colt’s Tooth” by Linda Robertson –196

THE EDITORS — 204

THE AUTHORS — 205

This 1997 movie based on the Henry James novel from 1902, would confuse money-obsessed Americans today. Young Helena Bonham Carter plays Kate Croy, an emotionally intense impoverished woman whose wealthy Aunt Maud (Charlotte Rampling) keeps trying to marry her off. Kate is in love with a journalist, Morton Densher (Linus Roache). who is equally impoverished. Densher wants to marry Kate but she knows their marriage would never survive without money.

Kate meets an attractive American millionaire heiress Millie Theale (Alison Elliott). Millie has a secret that Kate decides is the answer to her and Densher’s happiness. Kate, Millie, and Densher travel to Venice and a romantic triangle fueled by money blossoms.

I would expect most young Americans today would find the conclusion of the movie and the novel to be inexplicable. Morality and ethics regarding money morphed over the past century. Honor sounds good, but money pays the bills. The title refers to the 55th Psalm, which records the deceit and guile of conspirators and exclaims, “Oh that I had wings like a dove!”

Wings of the Dove, with a strong cast–especially Helena Bonham Carter–provides a cautionary tale that would fall on deaf ears today. Still, this film moved me. GRADE: B+

Scott Newstok’s slim book celebrates Shakespeare and his various works. Newstok organizes his book around topics and then manages to find new insights (at least new to me) about what the Bard was thinking about.

In addition, Newstok folds in writings of writers like Borges, Hunter S. Thompson, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Bishop, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Faulkner depending on the subject of each chapter. Are you a Shakespeare fan? GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

What’s Past Is Prologue ix

1 Of Thinking 1

2 Of Ends 13

3 Of Craft 25

4 Of Fit 37

5 Of Place 47

6 Of Attention 55

7 Of Technology 63

8 Of Imitation 73

9 Of Exercises 85

10 Of Conversation 97

11 Of Stock 107

12 Of Constraint 119

13 Of Making 131

14 Of Freedom 141

Kinsmen of the Shelf 153

Thanks and Thanks 165

Index 173

This game between the Kansas City Chiefs (4-1) vs. the Buffalo Bills (4-1) has been moved by the National Football League–in its infinite wisdom–to Monday, October 19 at 5 P.M on FOX. Meanwhile both the Chiefs and the Bills are battling injuries so we’ll see who shows up to play tomorrow. How will your favorite NFL team perform today?

I found myself exhausted by the end of Jim Butcher’s Battle Ground. It’s a series of battles with Chicago as the prize. Plenty of fighting, plenty of action, plenty of deaths.

Battle Ground is the 17th book in the Dresden Files series. It seems to me that in the 20 years Jim Butcher has been writing these Urban Fantasy novels, all the plot lines have been building to this titanic crescendo of violence and fury. Harry Dresden started out as a wizard who was also a private investigator. Over the span of a couple of decades, Dresden has grown into the Protector of Chicago from Supernatural Threats. The greatest threat Dresden has ever faced shows up in this book: The Last Titan, a nearly invulnerable entity.

If Battle Ground was just a series of fight scenes, the brutal action would become numbing. But, Butcher manages to infuse the plot with some cunning mysteries and surprises that explode at the book’s conclusion. Sadly, much of what happens in Battle Ground depends on knowledge of the preceding volumes in the Dresden Files series. I don’t know how many people in our circle would want to commit to reading 16 books in order to make sense of the 17th–other than me. But, I’m glad I did. GRADE: B+

The March 29, 1929 issue of WEIRD TALES unleashed on the world Frank Belknap Long’s “The Hounds of Tindalos.” H. P. Lovecraft encouraged his friends to contribute to the “Mythos” he constructed and Long’s story might be the best of the bunch. “The Hounds of Tindalos” presents hideous creatures from an alien geometry. Scary hounds from another dimension resonated with readers for almost a hundred years.

Caitlin R. Kiernan, known for her Lovecraft pastiches, returns to the Men (and Women) in Black and Cthulhu mashup that began with Agents of Dreamland (2017) and continued in Black Helicopters (2018) with her newest novel, The Tindalos Asset (2020). Without giving too much away, one of the agents trying to prevent Lovecraftian menaces from destroying our world has a strong connection to a Hound of Tindalos. If you’re a fan of Caitlin R. Kiernan like I am, The Tindalos Asset is a must-buy. If you’re a fan of Lovecraft pastiches, you’ll find The Tindalos Asset a thrilling read. I’m hoping Kiernan continues writing these Agents of Dreamland novels. GRADE: A

Priority Records put out 13 volumes in The Greatest Rock Hits of the 80s in the 1990s. I only have a few. Here’s the first two compilation CDs in the series. As you can readily tell, Priority. Records decided to try to choose songs for these volumes as middle-of-the-road as possible. Most of these songs made the charts in the 80s to various degrees. Do you remember these songs? Any favorites? GRADE: B

TRACK LIST:

PASSION & POWER:

1	–Glenn Frey	You Belong To The City
2	–Sammy Hagar	There’s Only One Way To Rock
3	–Toto	Roseanna
4	–REO Speedwagon	Keep On Loving You
5	–Styx	The Best Of Times
6	–Wham!	Everything She Wants
7	–John Waite	Missing You
8	–Gino Vannelli	Living Inside Myself
9	–Eric Carmen	Make Me Lose Control

LEATHER & LACE:

1	–Tina Turner	What’s Love Got To Do With It
2	–Joan Jett And The Blackhearts*	I Hate Myself For Loving You
3	–Pat Benatar	We Belong
4	–The Go Go’s*	We Got The Beat
5	–Bangles	Walk Like An Egyptian
6	–Scandal (4) Featuring Patty Smyth	The Warrior
7	–The Motels	Only The Lonely
8	–Kim Carnes	Bette Davis Eyes
9	–Laura Branigan	Solitare

I’ve had Ron Goulart’s Author’s Choice Monthly #11 on my shelves since it was first published in 1990 by Pulphouse Publishing. I bought several of the Author’s Choice Monthly volumes in the series…but I digress.

The Idea behind this series was to allow the writer to choose a handful of his favorite stories. Goulart had a fondness for supernatural elements in his stories and the stories in this collection reflect that. I enjoyed the Max Kearney story, “Hello From Hollywood.” Kearney works in advertising, but his hobby is banishing ghosts. This particular ghost has taken possession of a TV executive and is picking winning TV shows for the Fall Schedule.

I also enjoyed “Groucho,” a story of a reincarnated TV script writer who returns as a cat. “Crusoe In New York” doesn’t have any supernatural elements, but it does have Time Travel as a woman from the Future visits our time to meet her favorite writer.

These Author’s Choice Monthly volumes are fun to read. I’ll review a few more for future Wednesday’s Short Stories. GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• 1 · Introduction · Ron Goulart · in
• 3 · Street Magic · Ron Goulart · ss Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine Mar 1984
• 23 · Hello from Hollywood [Max Kearny] · Ron Goulart · ss The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Dec 1983
• 47 · Crusoe in New York · Ron Goulart · ss Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine Mar 1982
• 61 · Skyrocket Steele Conquers the Universe [Skyrocket Steele] · Ron Goulart · ss Espionage Magazine Aug 1985
• 81 · Groucho · Ron Goulart · ss Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine Apr 1981

With over 20 Tennessee Titan players testing positive for Covid-19, it’s astonishing this game is going to be played at all. The Buffalo Bills started out as 3-point favorites, but as the Covid-19 List of the Titans grew, the point spread swelled to 8 points. I don’t have a lot of confidence about this game. The Titans are down several starters because of their infection. The Bills are down a number of players because of their injuries. And, looming on the horizon for next week for the Bills is the Kansas City Chiefs. Tough schedule!