Giant Squid Creations

I’ve decided to start a series of author profiles. Not just any authors of course, but ones who have influenced me – positively – or that I’m interested in, intrigued by or who fit in the nebulous conglomerate of sub-genres I’m most ‘in’ to. So who better to start with than Edgar Allan Poe who is all those things? It’s worth noting that in more recent times he would probably have been known as Allan-Poe as he adopted Allan into his name from his foster father who was a more positive role model than his biological one. So from the get-go Edgar had emotional damage and an alcoholic father. The course for this tormented genius was pretty much set from there. I won’t get into his biography that can be found out easily enough if you’re interested. What I do want to talk about is his broad scope of influence. Some call him the father of modern horror, which is debatable but certainly he is best known for his macabre works. He’s also possibly the father of modern crime fiction, with his ...

Sometimes as a means of procrastinating I go to certain sites and look at free ebooks. I've downloaded a heap of books and short stories in the process many of which I'll never read but when the only cost is a click of the mouse and they take up no physical room and very little room in terms of file space I don't see the harm and those I do read are a bonus in many more ways than one. I started off getting things by authors I knew or knew of and wanted to know - Wells, Verne, Lovecraft, Howard etc. But I found it took more time and was therefore a better form of procrastination to look into authors I'd never heard of before. As such I downloaded books that 'might be interesting'. Since doing that I've forgotten what most of them were and who the authors were too. I have made some great discoveries this way though. Through a link I followed and a snippet someone had written about it I discovered Thomas Peacock's Nightmare Abbey, for instance. It's...