SFTB 6.5: “Mop-Head” by Leah Bodine Drake

We conclude this sixth series of Stories from the Borderland—and our 31st episode overall—with one of the genuine “Women of Weird Tales..” Leah Bodine Drake (1904–1964) made her primary contributions to the unique magazine, not with fiction, but with poetry…However, the opening sentence-paragraph of her story “Mop-Head” is pure mid-century Weird Fiction, with an element of cosmic horror: In abandoned cisterns and old wells, in moldy heaps of straw forgotten in the corners of deserted barns, in reedy pools deep in the woods, in fungied hollows of dead trees, in all such secret places apart from man, strange life engenders, drifts in and takes root and form.

SFTB 6.4: “The Whistling Well” by Clifford D. Simak

Have you ever pondered the existence of dinosaur ghosts? The mighty saurians inhabited this Earth for over 100 million years, far longer than any of our ancestors in the genus Homo, and certainly many of them died violent deaths with unfinished business. If you believe that your dog might go to heaven, what of the titanosaurs, the largest animals ever to walk our world?

SFTB 6.2.: "The Botticelli Horror" by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.

“Little deal coming up for you: you’re going to write a novelet [sic] called I think THE BOTTICELLI HORROR for…Fantastic…they’ve got the cover already…shows a gal busting out of a shell or something…a touch of horror and fantasy is effective; science fiction is not ruled out.” Thus, Biggle wrote this novelette to match a preexisting title and cover art—which probably helps to explain why it stands out in his oeuvre for its atypically deep horror elements.

SFTB 5.5: "The Black Stone Statue" by Mary Elizabeth Counselman

If humor was Counselman’s goal, I would find anyone very unfortunate to have her appointed their guardian angel from the afterlife, as her humor was of the darkly ironic variety that turns people away from religion, the kind where success leads to suicide and great gifts are distributed in such a way as to make the received bewail their lot. Sweet little old Mary Elizabeth Counselman. One wonders what Christmas was like at her house…

weird fictionOuter DarkNovember 14, 2024Mary Elizabeth Counselman, The Black Stone Statue, Weird Tales, weird fictionComment

SFTB 5.3: "Dune Roller" by Julian May

Best known for her Galactic Milieu and the Saga of Pliocene Exile series, Julian May launched her book career with a Weird tale titled "Dune Roller."

weird fictionOuter DarkOctober 10, 2024julian may, dune roller, astounding, weird fiction, crematorsComment

SFTB 5.1: "The Idol of the Flies" by Jane Rice

Rather than relying on a single plot device or trope, Jane Rice presents the reader with several at once: the Bad Seed, demonic summoning, and The Weird—the latter arriving in the form of some deeply Weird creatures squirming and swimming about in their own obscure dimension. Most other writers would have been content to deploy only one of these elements, and would likely have split the others across multiple stories in the hopes of selling them separately. Jane Rice, however, does not hold back.