Golem100 is currently reading 30 Stories in 30 Days.
I’m 57 years old, male, from the United States. I’ve been a DailyLit member since October 22, 2008. My reading interests include Hard SF, Horror, and Spillane type detective.
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Reader Challenges - Tea with the Queen
"Fqwwl y'engmm, mglwfftg mowll *" Cthulhu said to the Queen as the clock on the royal mantel struck 5 o'clock.
Translation: Pardon me your Majesty, but I must make a quick call.
Reader Challenges - Tea with the Queen
"Are you alright Mr. Lovecraft?" the Queen asked after Howard began shaking upon hearing her description of stars' strange configuration of the previous night.
Reader Challenges - Tea with the Queen
"Jeet yet?" Jeff Foxworthy asked the queen as she stared at him in complete incomprehension.
Reader Challenges - Tea with the Queen
As she gazed appreciatively at the mighty chest of Conan the Cimmerian the queen decided that, yes, he was right, tea was fit only for dandified Stygian wizards.
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #47: Words to Live By
My favorite expression, I use it all the time:
You can't tell which way the train went by looking at its tracks.
Reader Challenges - Tea with the Queen
Oops. Forgot about the one sentence rule.
Reader Challenges - Tea with the Queen
I knew the dame was something special when, from the window of my office, I saw her show up in an open top horse drawn carridge escorted by some moke in an overdecorated military uniform that wouldn't have looked out of place flagging down cabs outside the Ritz. It was four in the afternoon and I was ready to knock off for the day, but the broad had said she wanted to discuss a job over tea in my office.
The door to the inner office opened and my secretary followed the doll and her doorman in. The doorman said "This is Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second."
Yeah, and I'm Pius the Twelth, I thought. Aloud I said with a sigh, "Ok Liz, pull up a chair and tell me what the Hammer Investigative Agency can do for you."
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #46: Childhood Favorites
"Lodestar, Rocketship to Mars", by Franklyn M. Branley, which I read in elementary school. It wasn't the first book I read but it's the one I have the fondest memories of from back then.
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #3: Which books scare you?
The Shining and Salem's Lot. The only books that ever gave me the creeps.
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #45: There Oughta be a Book
Driving at Night with the Top Down
30 Stories in 30 Days - Worthless and Weird or Wonderfuly Weird?
Just read 18.9. Enjoyed it up until the ending. Sounds like the protagonist rediscovered the William Castle Sound of Horror. (pun intended)
DailyLit Selects - Ideas for Book Excerpts in DailyLit Selects
Cresswga: Much better. There are sequels but I haven't read them.
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #42: Whodunnit?
Sherlock Holmes when I was younger, The Shadow later, Micky Spillaine later.still. Now, The Mentalist.
Etc. - Stupid Plot Ideas
This isn't from a book, but in the movie "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" the villian sends a fleet of flying skyscraper sized robots into the city to steal a generator. Now, if I had the industrial capacity to build flying skyscraper sized robots, why wouldn't I use some of that capacity to build my own frackin' generator?
DailyLit Selects - Ideas for Book Excerpts in DailyLit Selects
The Dracula Tape by Fred Saberhagen. Dracula's rebuttal to his story as told by Bram Stoker.
Reader Challenges - Crime-Noir in 50 Words
In from the Rain and the Dark
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I looked up through the rain as the heap pulled up to the curb. The passenger door swung open.
“James.” Susan’s voice. “Randall told me where to find you.”
I looked at her blankly.
“James, it’s over.”
I slid in, closed the door.
“Us?” I asked.
“Just beginning.” She replied.
Reader Challenges - Crime-Noir in 50 Words
Circle of Death
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I sat on the steps of the brownstone, the rain dripping from the rim of my hat. The cops would be here soon but that was just a technicality. I’d found the killer, delivered justice and vengeance. I’d loved her and I’d killed her. It always ends the same.
Reader Challenges - Crime-Noir in 50 Words
The Big Pay Off
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The Boss flicked the ash of his smoke into an ashtray that looked suspiciously like a skull fragment.
"Want the job?" he asked.
"No," I replied. "Already got a job."
He raised an eyebrow questioningly
I pulled my piece, shot him through the heart.
The ashtray made a nice souvenir.
30 Stories in 30 Days - Worthless and Weird or Wonderfuly Weird?
Susan - Thanks.
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #44: Best Banned Books
On that list it's a toss up between Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse Five.
30 Stories in 30 Days - Worthless and Weird or Wonderfuly Weird?
Hey Moderator<
Is David Wellington writing these stories just for the 30 Stories in 30 Days event (kinda like those stunts Harlan Ellison used to do)?
30 Stories in 30 Days - Worthless and Weird or Wonderfuly Weird?
Moengey - Same here.
30 Stories in 30 Days - Worthless and Weird or Wonderfuly Weird?
Empress - Be sure to avoid his longer works. They make the stories so far look like bedtime stories for toddlers.
30 Stories in 30 Days - Worthless and Weird or Wonderfuly Weird?
3? I've only seen 2 so far. But I have enjoyed them both.
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #38: Books on Repeat
Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove. White South Africans from the future deliver AK-47s to the Confederate Army. One of the best War Between the States alternate histories around.
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #38: Books on Repeat
The Technicolor Time Machine by Harry Harrison. A desperate director and his film crew
go back in time to film "Viking Columbus". Hilarity ensues.
A Feast Unknown by Phillip Jose Farmer. Analogues of Tarzan and Doc Savage fight
it out for the secret of immortality while surrounded by violent death.
Killer by Karl Edward Wagner. A vicious space lizard loose in Imperial Rome is
hunted by a Roman trapper and, in disguise and unknown to the Roman, the alien
pit beast trafficker that lost it.
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #11: Your Questions
Once again, need to be able to edit posts to delete "book are you" from above post.
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #11: Your Questions
What book are you book can you not believe was written by the author? My answer: "Planet of the Apes" by Pierre Boulle.
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #41: Back to School
When I was in the eleventh grade back in 1968-69 my English teacher mentioned a book that was all the rage on college campuses. She said it was about elves, dwarves, something called a hobbit and a magic ring. I tracked down the Fellowship of the Ring at the library and have been a Tolkien fan ever since.
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #14: Books You Hate
Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut. I was a die-hard Vonnegut fan until this book. I gave it up and never picked up another of his books.
Reader Challenges - Crime-Noir in 50 Words
Above "Vengence" = "Vengeance" (damn spell checkers)
Reader Challenges - Crime-Noir in 50 Words
The Hunters' Vengence
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The dead girl’s face was a pale jigsaw puzzle. The cops stopped milling around the scene when they noticed me standing at the mouth of the alley, my fists jammed into the pockets of my overcoat. I knew why she was here. And now, that was why I was here.
Reader Challenges - Crime-Noir in 50 Words
Blood Stained Memories
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The door was solid oak and easily supported me as I slouched against it, my hands still tingling with renewed circulation. Benny and the dame were moaning in the room behind me. They had known more than they let on. Too bad they had to repeat it so many times.
Reader Challenges - Crime-Noir in 50 Words
The Answer to all Questions
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“What’s this all about?” I said through bloody lips as I strained against my bonds.
“Beats me,” she replied wistfully. “Benny will be here soon.”
She caressed the strap of the blackjack like it was a Cartier bracelet.
“He doesn’t know either,” she continued. “Just wants in on the fun.”
Reader Challenges - Crime-Noir in 50 Words
Dark Alley Rendezvous
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I leaned against the alley wall, just outside the cone of light from the street lamp. The rain soaked through the seams of my trench coat and the cold had seeped through the wet leather of my shoes. But Shelby always came this way, and a harsher cold awaited him.
Reader Challenges - Crime-Noir in 50 Words
The, the, the, the. Really wish you could edit your posts.
Reader Challenges - Crime-Noir in 50 Words
The Dame in the Shadows
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I had taken the bum low and dirty, heard him curse and felt his ribs crack. But then there was an explosion of pain in my head. I awoke slowly and noticed this dame, a real looker but for the expression on her face as she toyed with a sap.
Reader Challenges - Crime-Noir in 50 Words
Don't Count Your Corpses
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From the floor, I looked at the gumshoe as I bled. He turned as the cops crashed in, giving me a chance to pull the .25 from my blouse and aim shakily at him. A uniform shouted and pointed, the PI spun around as I fired. Then darkness claimed me.
Reader Challenges - Crime-Noir in 50 Words
Death Leads Out
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The dame lay bleeding at my feet. The combat .45 was hot in my hand hanging by my side. The smell of cordite and blood was heavy in the room. The crackling sound of a phonograph needle trapped in the terminal groove of a worn-out record was the only sound.
Reader Challenges - Crime-Noir in 50 Words
The Stuff that Nightmares are Made Of.
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The knife was like the others, solid gold, ornately carved, bloody. It lay on the victim’s desk beside a black stone figure, bulbous head, tentacles, wings, also covered in blood.
“What the fuck is going on?” Chambers said.
Elena, from the university anthropology department, replied.
“Not the worst. Not yet.”
Reader Challenges - Crime-Noir in 50 Words
Blades, Blondes and Darkness
The café was rundown but clean. Benny the Blade sat at the counter. In a booth, a blonde was reading. She looked up and I caught her eye, returned her smile. Benny, leaving, caught my attention. The blonde turned a page as I followed him out into the darkness.
Reader Challenges - Crime-Noir in 50 Words
Blood in the Moonlight
Moonlight filtered through the blinds turning the color of the blood on the hardwood floor from red to black. All the signs clearly pointed to murder, but I knew better.
“She killed herself.” I said.
“Yeah?” the lead detective asked.
“Yeah.”
I turned and left the room without looking back.
Reader Challenges - Summer Vacation in Six Words
Drove around with the top down
Ideas - Select top 10 from readers 6 word challange / 50 word story
"I second that emotion."
Etc. - Question of the Week #16: Favorite Female Writers
Alice Sheldon (wrote as James Tiptree, Jr.) Track down "Houston, Houston Do You Read" and "The Screwfly Solution" and you'll see why she was one of the great SF writers.
Reader Challenges - Classics in 6 Words
Gone With the Wind: The South loses, Scarlett window shops.
Reader Challenges - Classics in 6 Words
I, the Jury: The first time for Hammer time.
Reader Challenges - 6 Word Autobiography
Wish I could stop looking back.
Reader Challenges - Summer Love in One Sentence
On the bay side of Edisto Island, where you can watch the Carolina sun setting over the waves, we sat on the deck of the beach house and shared the first kiss of the summer.
Reader Challenges - Summer Love in One Sentence
Her hair smelled of peaches and rain as I kissed her in the moonlight.
Etc. - 50 Word Challenge
Adama sat staring across the valley until the sun sat and the cool damp of the evening settled over his shoulders. Then he rose, stepped carefully over the rocky hilltop, and climbed into the Raptor. His goodbye to Laura said, he spooled up the FTL, and jumped into the sun.
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Tonight's episode of Battlestar Galactica was the series finale. This is my fan fic tribute.
Etc. - 50 Word Challenge
It was a long walk back from the altar in the forest. The spell failed, Yog-Sothoth did not come for me. It was childish, trying to conjure Him. At home, standing by the car, I hear shouting, crying. Tomorrow night, I think, the spell will work. It has to work.