Don’t miss our special Drums Around the Fire event tonight at Twilight Tales. It’s our annual event focusing on poetry, and it’s open mic all night. Yes, there are drums. No, there won’t be an actual fire, but you’ll help bring the flames of verse when you participate! Drums Around the Fire is hosted by Richard Engling, who will be joined tonight on the skins by percussionist Eric Cartier.

As always, Twilight Tales shows begin at 7:30pm at the Red Lion Pub, at at 2446 North Lincoln Avenue in Chicago.

Twenty-two people turned out to hear the “three coast” triple feature at Monday’s post-Midwest Literary Festival Twilight Tales show.

Longtime Twilight Tales mailing list regular, Kim Richards, traveled from California to read a tale about an Avon-type saleswoman who discovers that while beauty may only be skin deep, vanity transcends the grave.

Moving eastward, Chicago, the Third Coast, was ably represented by Charlie Brown, and “The Science of Manny Madonaldo”, which told the bittersweet, funny story of how a young man, orphaned by the state penal system and sexually frustrated by a chaste girlfriend (promiscous with others), is lured into a life of porn.

Traveling from NYC, David Thomas Lord read from his second vampire novel, Bound in Flesh, and added a bonus Celtic revenge story of a young boy and his cold-hearted grampa, “Da’s Boy”.

A music jam followed the the readings.

Funeral services will be held Thursday in New Jersey for Charles L. Grant, master of horror, who suffered a fatal heart attack on September 15th. He was 64.

Charles was a past-president and served on the Board of Trustees of HWA. He also served as an officer for the Science Fiction Writers of America and was a ten-year member of the Board of Directors for the World Fantasy Awards.

He was the recipient of two Nebula and three World Fantasy awards. Both the British Fantasy Society and the HWA honored Charles by presenting him with their respective Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Twilight Tales would like to extend our condolences to Kathryn Ptacek, Charles’s wife of nearly twenty-five years, and the rest of his family.

For more information on Charles and his work, please visit his website at: http://charlesgrant.atspace.com/

Ex Cathedra recently received a great review from horror writer J.L. Comeau, on Count Gore’s Tomb of Dark Delights:

This delightfully dark collection of short stories was my introduction to the seductive writing talents of Rebecca Maines, and these eleven toothsome slabs of terror are just what’s needed for a long, dark night. But beware, sleep may be impossible after sampling this deliciously frightful fare.

The term ex cathedra can refer to, among other definitions, ‘a divinely revealed doctrine…’ and these stories are each truly revelations. While the overview of this collection concerns faith, personal power and human fallibility are at the heart of the volume.

These tales travel through time, following formidable women throughout the ages and into the future as they are placed in situations that test the depths of the human soul. One of my favorites is “Plowshares”, set in medieval times, about a woman who must stand up and defy not only her husband, but the Divine Being, in order to save her son. In “Lockdown”, modern-day inner city dwellers are trapped in a totalitarian nightmare from which no one, not even one very brave summer school teacher, is exempt. “The Canterbury Path” leaps into the far future in which an insectile alien being becomes an ordained Episcopal priest who subsequently instructs his superiors about what one must be willing to sacrifice in a true attempt to follow The Word.

This thoughtful, intelligent and finely wrought selection of disturbing stories delves beneath the surface of the human soul and twists into the dark territory beyond. It is a stunning, gorgeous collection. For more information about the author, you will find her fascinating blog at http://www.maines.org/blog.html.

Review written by J.L. Comeau, horror writer and Count Gore reviewer. Originally appeared in Count Gore’s Tomb of Dark Delights. Reprinted with permission.

In an article for Locus, Cory Doctorow provides some interesting insights about Internet technology and copyright concepts.

Read the article on Locus’s web site.

Besides the Midwest Literary Festival, there is another exciting event happening this weekend, though on a smaller scale, and on the small screen.

Beginning tomorrow, Star Trek: The Original Series beings a new, updated look in a brand new broadcast syndication run. The show has been remastered in High Definition and with digital sound, plus has been significantly touched up with modern computer-generated images, particularly in the scenes showing the enterprise or other ships in open space.

Check your local listings for channel and time.

Read more about the new syndication version in this article at cnet news.

Make sure you clear the weekend for the Midwest Literary Festival. Once again, Twilight Tales will have a major presence there with books, other merchandise, and scheduled readings.

Check out our MLF schedule on this page.

More about MLF is available in this previous post.

Google is getting in on the activities as we approach Banned Book Week (beginning 9/23). They’re featuring banned books in a special section of Google Book Search.

Check it out here: http://books.google.com/googlebooks/banned/

“Yet Another Book Review,” a site devoted to science fiction, fantasy, and horror book reviews, gave high marks to the Twilight Tales publication Ex Cathedra, by Rebecca Maines in a recent review by Christina Francine Whitcher.

Whitcher says, “This author holds insight to the human condition with her lively collection. Ex Cathedra is a terrific blend of achingly real possibilities and of fiction.”

Read the whole review here.

People all over the country today are observing the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, speculating on how our lives have changed, and what we remember as we now begin to look back with a little hindsight.

If you’re in or near Chicago, be with us tonight at Twilight Tales as we join in the remembrance in our special 9/11-themed readings tonight. We’ll be featuring authors Mort Castle, Jody Lynn Nye, and others, interspersed with open-mic reading slots all night.

Come and help us heal tonight. Listen to our words, and bring your own to mingle.