H.P. Lovecraft had several writers he corresponded with regularly.  One of those men was the great Robert Bloch.  Bloch would become best known as the author of Psycho, from which Hitchcock’s revolutionary film was based.  He wrote a number of stories in Lovecraft’s unique world.  The last story Lovecraft published before his death formed the middle segment of a loose trilogy.  Bloch wrote the other two parts.  Part one was “The Shambler From The Stars”.  In it he made the main character a writer of weird fiction from New England searching for diabolical knowledge, which in the end appears to draw him towards imminent death.  Lovecraft wrote part two, “The Haunter of the Dark”, and made the main character a writer named Robert Blake.  Notice any similarities in the name?  The address given for Blake in the story even matches Bloch’s real address at the time.  He in turn killed off the pseudo-Bloch in his story.  Several years later, Bloch wrote the final installment and included Lovecraft, by his name this time, as a character in the tale. It was titled “The Shadow From the Steeple”.  

Halloween is my favorite holiday.  It's the one time of year when the rest of the world becomes excited by ghost stories and that sort of thing that I love year around.  So I want to do a few extra items here this month to celebrate.  I should have an article about a vintage horror writer up soon and there are a few extras coming as well.  My interview with horror artist Steve Gilberts kicked it off, and I plan to end the month by posting an original, previously unpublished short story of mine here.  There may be another suprise for this month but that is still in the works, so stay tuned.

Happy Haunting,

Matt Cowan

At Gen Con a year ago I had the pleasure of meeting artist Steven Gilberts and his wife Becky.  I noticed Steven’s artwork through the throng of people, and it drew me to their booth with its surreal creepiness.  I ended up buying a print titled ‘Vacation Destination’ that sits on its perch in my office, glowering down at me while I write.   It provides great inspiration.  This year I went to visit and chat with them each day, and Steven graciously accepted my request for an interview.

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The weirdness continues on this episode of Vintage Horror Radio.  We'll hear a radio version of Edgar Allen Poe's The Cask Of Amontillado.  Poe's story was first published in Godey's Lady's Book in November of 1846.  Our story comes from the January 19, 1953 episode of The Hall Of Fantasy.

Halloween is a special time on The Horror, and this year we’ll celebrate with two sets of horror themes.  Every Saturday in the month of  October we’ll hear a haunted house story, and every Wednesday brings you an episode featuring one of the great voices of terror. We’ll hear from Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, and Peter Lorre!

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This week we'll hear a radio adaptation of a story by Wilkie Collins titled The Ghost's Touch.  The story was first published in The Ghost's Touch And Other Stories in 1885.  Our radio version first aired September 17, 1944 on The Weird Circle.

 Ralph Adams Cram was born in Hampton Falls, New Jersey in1863.  He would go on to become one of America’s premiere architects.  He published multiple books on the subject, but his first was a collection of ghost stories titled Black Spirits and White (1895).  I discovered him in elementary school in a Troll book of haunted house tales.  They were actually retelling of older stories.  It was titled ‘The Strange House’, but