Tomes and Talismans

Tomes and Talismans been on this Tumblr game for two years now. Do I have something better than that...

Sat, 18 May 2013 13:37:23 -0500

Tomes and Talismans been on this Tumblr game for two years now.

Do I have something better than that to announce?

You’d hope so, huh.

Photo

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:05:13 -0500

He lingered by the door. “Perhaps – you do not care for...

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:21:05 -0500

He lingered by the door. “Perhaps – you do not care for prayers. Perhaps you would like… I know a good conjuring trick.”

“I like tricks.”

“You do it with cards. Have you any cards?”

“No.”

He sighed, “Then that’s no good,” and giggled – she could smell the beer on his breath – “I shall just have to pray for you.”

She said, “You don’t sound afraid.”

“A little drink,” he said, “will work wonders in a cowardly man. With a little brandy, why, I’d defy – the devil.” He stumbled in the doorway.

“Good-bye,” she said. “I hope you’ll escape.” A faint sigh came out of the darkness. She said gently, “If they kill you I shan’t forgive them – ever.” She was ready to accept any responsibility, even that of vengeance, without a second thought. It was her life.

The Power and The Glory by Graham Greene, 1940

Shut up baby I know it.

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:28:06 -0500

Shut up baby I know it.

Millennium Films is proud to present a multi-million dollar C+...

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:55:22 -0500

Millennium Films is proud to present a multi-million dollar C+ book report by James Franco.

Overheard some young buxx on the train discussing how “Baz Luhrmann constructed a metaphor for...

Mon, 13 May 2013 19:17:12 -0500

Overheard some young buxx on the train discussing how “Baz Luhrmann constructed a metaphor for the Twenties” but the good news is I’m not the first person to have searched for ‘how to get blood out of velour’ on the internet.

In the late ’70s, Harlequin published the Laser Books line...

Sun, 12 May 2013 19:39:41 -0500

In the late ’70s, Harlequin published the Laser Books line of science fiction paperbacks. They were advertised on TV and available through subscription - in fact, you’d have had to subscribe to get the last few, rare entries in the series.

Wikipedia claims Laser Books “greatly expanded the market for 50,000 to 60,000 word books” which seems pretty generous/unlikely. These were mass-marketed but not hits, although the author list is fairly legit. Tim Powers wrote Laser Books #47, Epitaph in Rust, when he was twenty-three and claims it sold “about 17,000 copies.”

I don’t know where to begin finding comprehensive (or even vague) sales data for something like this, but if each Laser Book’s sales averaged ~17k, the total sales would be about a million, a modest total weighed against the insane paperback market of the 1970s.

"Something must be done about this practice of publishing authors’ photographs."

Sat, 11 May 2013 16:06:47 -0500

“Something must be done about this practice of publishing authors’ photographs.”

- P.G. Wodehouse, 1945

“It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such – such...

Fri, 10 May 2013 14:14:59 -0500

“It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such – such beautiful shirts before.”

Grand opening, grand closing.

Wed, 08 May 2013 16:11:34 -0500

Grand opening, grand closing.

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t press F5 once in a while, you could miss it.

Tue, 07 May 2013 11:50:15 -0500

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t press F5 once in a while, you could miss it.

City living engenders a certain amount of willed ignorance, a denial of the quotidian threats to our...

Mon, 06 May 2013 20:13:21 -0500

City living engenders a certain amount of willed ignorance, a denial of the quotidian threats to our continued existence.

Workers blasting your building’s brick facade; if they were doing anything prohibitively dangerous, you’d have been warned.

Practically we know this to be untrue. And yet.

I was in the alley, laden with recyclables (did I really drink all of these?) when a machine whined in failure, the shrouded figure upon his scaffolding cursed, and the air became a dull bank of dust.

An aproned geezer emerged from the murk. “You’ll want to go around the corner,” he said, and grinned beneath his crushed cap while he held the bin lid open for me.

He followed me out to the street. “Silicosis,” he announced happily, “is what we deal with. Now when you’re buried you’ll have a part of this building inside you.”

I have all sorts of things inside me, I thought. Like the word that lost me the sixth grade spelling be.

D - A - the pause before the failure - U - the dooming jingle of the judge’s bell. The echo of that bell was in this goblinish grin.

I have all sorts of things inside me, I thought. But what I said was, I will never be buried.

He recognized her defenselessness, but he recognized, at a much...

Sun, 05 May 2013 17:33:56 -0500

He recognized her defenselessness, but he recognized, at a much deeper level, her human excellence, the touching qualities of a wanderer, for she was that and said so and while she would play all the parts of love she would not tell him that she was in love.

The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever, 1957

HIGHLIGHTS OF TWO YEARS WORKING IN A SEX SHOP

Sun, 05 May 2013 13:15:01 -0500

shadesofwhatever:

We called ourselves “dongslingers” - proudly - for what better job title is there for a sex toy pusher? We were a merry band of smartass tattooed girls in our late teens and early 20s who thought we knew everything. And unfortunately, we may have learned a little too much. What follows is a list of tiny bits of life behind the counter - some good, some awful, all memorable.

We were located in a strip of stores in semi-dilapidated buildings. The walls were extremely thin. One night at closing, my co-worker Liz asked me in her thick valley girl accent, “Do yeew everrr.. cry after sex? Liike, a lot?” And before I could answer, we heard a girl’s voice through the wall- “No, but the guy I’m seeing rolls off and laughs like the jackals from the Lion King afterward. Should I leave him?”

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Oh I just can’t wait to be king (of the dongslingers).

Seemed important at the time.

Sat, 04 May 2013 13:34:12 -0500

Seemed important at the time.

Did you hear that when they found Ian Curtis the last episode of...

Fri, 03 May 2013 17:14:22 -0500

Did you hear that when they found Ian Curtis the last episode of David the Gnome was playing on a loop on his TV.

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Thu, 02 May 2013 21:26:17 -0500

If I call a story collection Severe Structural Problems it’ll be a title and a review all in...

Thu, 02 May 2013 11:15:35 -0500

If I call a story collection Severe Structural Problems it’ll be a title and a review all in one.

Failed Seductions running a close second.

Tonight I’m gonna read “May Day” and sharpen my claws for that transparently...

Wed, 01 May 2013 13:55:36 -0500

Tonight I’m gonna read “May Day” and sharpen my claws for that transparently hideous Gatsby movie.

Watch this space.

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:10:21 -0500