Tales from the Nightside by Charles L. Grant was published by Arkham House in 1981. There were 4121 copies printed. Futura (London) reprinted the book in 1988 and Tor (New York) reprinted it in 1990.
The contents are as follows:

Foreword (by Stephen King)
Coin of the Realm
Old Friends
Home
If Damon Comes
A Night of Dark Intent
The Gentle Passing of a Hand
When All the Children Call My Name
Needle Song
Something There Is
Come Dance With Me On My Pony's Grave
The Three of Tens
Digging
From All the Fields of Hail and Fire
The Key to English
White Wolf Calling

I have not read anything of Grant's before so had no idea what to expect. In the foreword, Stephen King had nothing but praise so I was hoping for one of those books that I would never forget. However, I came away feeling indifferent about it.
Some of the stories (mostly the ones in the first half) left something to be desired. In each one, I was pulled into the story and loving it but then at the end was either left confused or thinking it could have ended better. It became almost funny to me. The last half was much better though. My favorites were "The Three of Tens", "Digging", and "From All the Fields of Hail and Fire". I felt like all of these ended well and kept me wanting to read the next page the entire time.
I may go back and read this one again in the not too distant future but for now let me just say that if you pick it up, you may want to read it in reverse order.

More Arkham House Books!

	I picked up a few more Arkham House titles this week. I can't wait to read them. I haven't been collecting books for long but I can tell you it's a worse addiction than record collecting (which I did for years). Right now I'm reading "Tales From the Nightside" by Charles L. Grant but I'm just about finished with it. I'm not sure yet if I'll start one of these next or something else...we'll see I guess.

The Three Impostors by Arthur Machen

I really had not read Machen until I picked up this book. I had heard great things for years but for some reason just never got around to picking up one of his books. Now I wish I had done so sooner.
Arthur Machen was a mystic and a genius. I found myself reading this book at rapid speed because I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. It consists of short stories that are all related by the search for a gold Tiberius coin and a man with spectacles.
Machen has been noted as an influence on H.P. Lovecraft. While I don't see Machen's work influencing Lovecraft in his treatment of mood, I do see it influencing him in the way of content and delivery. However, as I said earlier, this was my first Machen book. He may have other stories that convey mood in a way that is similar to Lovecraft.
In addition to containing themes that will make any reader of Lovecraft feel at home, Machen's stories also contain hints of his occult knowledge. My favorite story of the book, "The Novel of the White Powder", definitely shines through in this regard.
I'm definitely planning to read more Arthur Machen in the future but next I plan to crack open Tales From the Nightside by Charles L. Grant. See you then.

In the Mist and Other Uncanny Encounters by Elizabeth Walter

I don't have many Arkham House books at the moment but have been trying to collect them lately. Many are out of my price range but there are still quite a few that I can afford. I've been trying to pick up as many as I can by female writers. I think it's important to note that, while the genres of sci-fi, fantasy and weird fiction are primarily written by male authors, females do exist and should not be overlooked.
In the Mist and Other Uncanny Encounters by Elizabeth Walter was published by Arkham House in 1979. According to the Wikipedia entry, there were 4,053 published. The book was meant to be a "best of" compilation of Walter's work up until that time.
The stories included are "The Concrete Captain", "The Sin Eater", "In the Mist", "Come and Get Me", "The Island of Regrets", "The Hare", and "Davy Jones's Tale". My favorite was probably "Come and Get Me" but I also really enjoyed "The Sin Eater" and "The Island of Regrets". Overall, the stories are all good with a few of them being stronger than others. If you're a fan of traditional ghost stories then you will like this book. If you're also a fan of stories involving the sea or ports then you will love this book.
One thing I enjoy about reading books like this is that I sometimes discover a part of history that I was previously unaware of. In this case, I learned about the custom of sin eating. A sin eater is a person that absolves a deceased person of their sins by eating food that is symbolically "charged" with them. The sins are believed to be transferred to the sin eater and allows the dead to rest in peace. However, the sin eater would then need to live with the burden of the newly acquired sins.
I'm sure there are many different customs/rites involved but the method used in "In the Mist" involved a plate of food being passed over the deceased to the sin eater. This ritual was believed to transfer the sins into the food so they could be consumed. As you can probably imagine, sin eaters were typically pariahs of their community. They were avoided except for when they were sought out for their trade. I do not know if this custom still exists anywhere in the world but it may. If anyone knows and/or has a story related to sin eating, I would love to hear it.

The Night Land

It has been a very long time since I've sat down and created a blog post. My intent in the beginning was to post much more frequently. Hopefully at some point I can do that.
I've been deep into various occult books as of late but always have at least one fantasy, sci-fi or weird fiction book that I am reading in parallel. I've also become more of a collector these days.
I just finished up The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson. The edition that I have was published as part of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series and was split into two volumes. Many mentions of this story in print or online say to just skip the first chapter but I actually feel like you should read it. While it's true that it really doesn't add anything to the rest of the story, I felt like it was a mini-story within the novel. It also gives you a more detailed background on the character of Mirdath who is mentioned often in the story. However, I did not like the way the story transitioned into the main plot line as you will see.
There are two things about this story that I didn't really enjoy. First, there is the transition into the world of the Night Land. The main character enters the world through a dream/vision. This is very similar to the way that the main character in The Worm Ouroboros enters into Demonland. In my opinion, both books would have been better if the story left this detail out and just started in the fantasy world. The second thing I didn't like was all of the detail given to the romance between the main character and Naani/Mirdath. I felt like a lot of this could have been left out without hurting the story. Some readers have complained about the prose style used in this book but I didn't have any problem with that.
The world and mythology of The Night Land is rich and expansive. Like Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, the potential stories of this world are infinite. I've already discovered blogs (i.e. http://williamhopehodgson.wordpress.com/) and anthologies of fiction set within the Night Land (i.e. http://www.thenightland.co.uk/). Wildside Press has already released the first collection of stories and I plan to pick this up soon. You can find it at http://www.wildsidebooks.com/William-Hope-Hodgsons-Night-Lands-Eternal-Love-edited-by-Andy-W-Robertson-Hardcover_p_777.html.
This story is definitely worth reading.