Marching on…let’s brighten the dreary month of March celebrating Tobias Smollett’s birthday with a Smollett Family Reunion. Born around 16 March 1721, Smollett wrote picaresque (not picturesque) novels like The Adventures of Roderick Random and other writings, and translated Don Quixote. He wrote and wrote until he left us in 1771. Funny how much someContinue reading “Smollett Family Reunion”
Category Archives: Horror
“It’s the Most Horrible Time of the Year”…if you’re a pine or a spruce or a fir.
Humorous comment and original illustration and poem regarding the slaughter of live trees over the Christmas holiday, featuring The Eve of the Undead Christmas Trees!
Beasts in the Books
Trotting along on my little hooves… oh, sorry there! Clackety-clack, slow it down from a trot to a walk to a tie-up at the blog post. While researching Russian literature as part of a book I’m writing and will shamelessly promote when ready, I came across a curious passage from Alexander Pushkin’s 1837 version ofContinue reading “Beasts in the Books”
Horror and the Holidays
I thought I was done with any horror themes for a while, then remembered a blast from the past–watching horror movies during the holidays, particularly Dracula and Mary Reilly. An antidote to the requisite cheerfulness and overabundance of sweets? Perhaps, but upon reading the introduction in the Biblioasis version of Daphne Du Maurier’s 1952 shortContinue reading “Horror and the Holidays”
Turkey Reprieve
Pen and ink characters Hankry and Hankrietta Grunt celebrate Thanksgiving with their friend Renfield and a surprise turkey substitute.
Syncopated Logic: Life in the Twenties
featuring Hankry Grunt & wife Hello, and welcome back to Wander in a Box. Today I’d like to introduce you to Mr. Hankry Grunt and his wife Hankrietta, stuck in the Twenties yet living in the Twenties nonetheless. Mr. Grunt’s behavior may offend, but have patience and grace, as he is no more or lessContinue reading “Syncopated Logic: Life in the Twenties”
Dracula vs a Twelve-Year Old Girl
You gotta figure for as long as Dracula has been around, he must have met his match once in a while. Fearless priest with a stake and a cross? Angry villagers armed with pitchforks? Wily, wizened doctor with every known antidote to Dracula? Perhaps, but sometimes a smaller, unexpected challenger shows up… My creative sisterContinue reading “Dracula vs a Twelve-Year Old Girl”
10 Questions for Count Dracula
Dear Readers, few harbingers of horror have hung around as long as Count Dracula. There are many accounts of Dracula and vampires, but so far all I have read include Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) and John Polidori’s The Vampyre (1821). Therefore, my knowledge of Dracula remains incomplete, and I’ve composed ten questions I’d ask him,Continue reading “10 Questions for Count Dracula”
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