TITLE PAGE #0 (Bumper 2021 Promotional Issue) Edited by Dave Brzeski and John Linwood Grant FRONT MATTER OCCULT DETECTIVE MAGAZINE #0 ISBN: http://greydogtales.com/blog/occult-detective-magazine/ [email protected] Publishers: Jilly Paddock and Dave Brzeski Editors: Dave Brzeski and John Linwood Grant Logos: Bob Freeman Cover: Enrique Meseguer Interior design: Dave Brzeski and Jilly Paddock Vinnie de Soth and the Vampire Definition art © 2021 ODM/Autumn Barlow The URLking art © 2019 ODM/Adam Benet Shaw ‘Frostbite’ was previously published as a standalone paperback and ebook – Sacred Oaks Press 2018. ‘Vinnie de Soth and the Vampire Definition’ was previously published in Occult Detective Monster Hunter: A Grimoire of Eldritch Inquests, Volume 1 (edited by Josh Reynolds and Miles Boothe) – Emby Press 2015. ‘The URLking’ was previously published in Dead Men Rise Up Never (by Jilly Paddock) – Pro Se Press 2015. ‘The Witch of Pender’ was previously published in The Witches Megapack: Weirdbook Annual #1 (edited by Doug Draa) – Wildside Press 2017. ‘We’ll Always Have Paris’ was previously published in Dark Cities (edited by Christopher Golden) – Titan Books 2017. It is also included in The Complete Short Stories of Mike Carey – PS Publishing 2019. ‘Good Evening, Princess’ was previously published in The Paladin Mandates (by Mike Chinn) – The Alchemy press 1998, and in slightly revised form in The Paladin Mandates (expanded and revised edition) – Pro Se Press 2020. ‘Shadows in the Rafters’ was previously published in The Derelict of Death and Other Stories (edited by John B. Ford and Steve Lines) – Rainfall Books (2003), and is also included in the Kindle collection Major Craddock Investigates – Brentwood Press 2019. ‘Joan’ was previously published (as by Mary Ann Allen) in Tales by Moonlight (edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson) – Robert T. Garcia 1983 / Tor 1986, and collected in The Angry Dead – Crimson Altar Press 1986, which was later republished in an expanded edition by Richard H. Fawcett 2000. It has been extensively revised for this publication. ‘The Twin Roots of Occult Detective Fiction’ was originally published in slightly different form as the introduction to Ghostly Clients & Demonic Culprits: The Roots of Occult Detective Fiction (edited by Tim Prasil) – Brom Bones Books 2019. 3 ‘Carnacki- The Parliament of Owls’ was originally published in the Deluxe hardcover edition of Carnacki: The Watcher at the Gate (by Willam Meikle) – Ghost House Press (an imprint of Dark Renaissance) 2015. All other material original to this issue. All stories and articles are copyright © by their authors and printed with permission; anthology and layout copyright © 2021 by Cathaven Press. Published by Cathaven Press, Peterborough, United Kingdom [email protected] 4 Table of Contents TITLE PAGE............................................................................................................................................1 FRONT MATTER.....................................................................................................................................3 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................................6 Dave Brzeski A HISTORY OF MEDDLING.....................................................................................................................8 John Linwood Grant FICTION WE’LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS.................................................................................................................10 Mike Carey CARNACKI: THE PARLIAMENT OF OWLS.............................................................................................22 William Meikle FROSTBITE...........................................................................................................................................30 E.J. Stevens VINNIE DE SOTH AND THE VAMPIRE DEFINITION..............................................................................42 I.A. Watson………...Illustration by Autumn Barlow SHADOWS IN THE RAFTERS................................................................................................................53 Paul Finch JOAN...................................................................................................................................................78 Rosemary Pardoe THE NIGHTMARE FILES.......................................................................................................................84 Adrian Cole MRS LILLICROP’S TRIP TO THE HIGHLANDS........................................................................................92 Bev Allen THE MERE.........................................................................................................................................109 Josh Reynolds GOOD EVENING, PRINCESS...............................................................................................................123 Mike Chinn THE URLking......................................................................................................................................144 Jilly Paddock………...Illustration by Adam Shaw THE WITCH OF PENDER....................................................................................................................155 John Linwood Grant DIRT IN THE BLOOD..........................................................................................................................167 S.L. Edwards NON-FICTION THE CASE OF THE INCOMPLEAT GHOST HUNTER—NEILS ORSEN......................................................38 G.W. Thomas THE TWIN ROOTS OF OCCULT DETECTIVE FICTION..........................................................................104 Tim Prasil COLD CASES: SÂR DUBNOTAL...........................................................................................................134 Dave Brzeski REVIEWS...........................................................................................................................................178 5 INTRODUCTION Dave Brzeski This special promotional issue of Occult Detective Magazine has been a long time coming. I originally suggested it back in the Occult Detective Quarterly days. The magazine was getting such good feedback. The readers we had seemed to really like what we were doing, but very few people were even aware we existed! We currently live in a time when it’s really easy to get things published. The downside of that is that there’s an awful lot more competition for the reader’s hard-earned money. Every week countless thousands of new books and magazines are added to the servers at Amazon. The upshot of this is that it’s much, much harder to market a product well enough that it actually sells enough copies to break even, let alone make any money. Don’t get me wrong… money has never been a huge factor for us. We just want to make enough to pay the authors and artists properly, and on time, and make the magazine better. Neither John Linwood Grant, nor I (or anyone else involved in the production side of the magazine) has ever made a penny out of it through three publishers. In fact it would be fair to say that it owes us all money. On the other hand, we do want the magazine to be read by as many people as possible. So, I came up with the idea of an ebook only, promotional issue which would feature freely donated reprints of stories that weren’t actually ever published in the magazine, but could have been. We were overwhelmed by the support we received when I put the word out about our plans. Not only do we have reprints of great stories from some excellent authors, but we even have several originals – never before published stories! Josh Reynolds has supported us from the beginning, and we’re so grateful that he decided to offer us an unpublished tale of Charles St Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass. Bev Allen’s character Mrs Lillicrop first appeared in Occult Detective Quarterly Presents – an anthology we created to make a home for some of the great stories we’d received that were simply too long to go in the regular magazine. Bev has graciously donated Mrs Lillicrop’s second adventure to this promotional issue. S.L. Edwards has given us a brand new Joe Bartred story, and Adrian Cole, sent us an interesting piece on his British Fantasy Award winning creation – Nick Nightmare. There’s some amazing material amongst the reprints too. Best-selling crime author, Paul Finch has donated a story featuring his occult detective, Major Craddock. You’ll notice that this one is a bit longer than usual for the magazine. While we don’t plan on publishing a second volume to Occult Detective Quarterly Presents, we have decided to make the tenth issue of the regular magazine a bumper, longer stories special issue, so we figured it wouldn’t hurt to include a story that represented that side of our output. The best news of all is that Paul Finch has promised us a new tale for a future issue. We also have a superb story from no less than BAFTA Award nominated author Mike Carey! I dare to hold out some hope that he’ll offer us something new at some point. You may have noticed Jilly Paddock’s name in the production credits as publisher and formatter. In fact, Jilly is the person everyone has to thank for the continued existence of Occult Detective Magazine. When our great friend, and previous publisher, Sam Gafford, tragically died, 6 we all thought we were done. Jilly suggested we could publish it ourselves, under her Cathaven Press imprint. I confess that I was initially