Story: Drownings (conclusion)

Story: Drownings (conclusion)

        Drownings (part eleven)     “How…? I don’t believe you.” “Our own provincial da Vinci, Stephen…now I recall. Victor Tambinder himself, the ancestor. The magnets in their circles, the great ring of smaller rings, to move perpetually with the rotation of the earth.”   Among attractions in this district of the […]

Story: Drownings (part ten)

Story: Drownings (part ten)

        Drownings (part ten)     In the morning… Fog more than fogs of memory, riddled with corpse dust, one could only call it, figures in the dress of ages, with a fish-belly gleam to their skins, pressing into visibility but eased back. As though the heavy mist were a membrane. McAlley […]

My Blog Week: January 26 to February 1 2025

My Blog Week: January 26 to February 1 2025

Posted by ractrose on 29 Dec 2025 in The Latest

All the Latest from Torsade!                                     Four episodes of “Fellyans”, in which one or two dangerous meetings are avoided. A “Resident”, with John finding something unavoidable about Claudine; and a “Tambinder” with Deenie reviewing her unknown correspondent’s list […]

The Totem-Maker (part eighty-four)

The Totem-Maker (part eighty-four)

Posted by ractrose on 25 Dec 2025 in Fiction, Novels

  The Totem-Maker Chapter Nine The Recalcitrant One (part eighty-four)                       The road to Balbaec followed a watercourse; and what, looking down from my mountain, I’d taken for hedgerows, were grown trees, the stream cutting a jagged way under their branches. Pines grew in thickets […]

Story: Drownings (part nine)

Story: Drownings (part nine)

        Drownings (part nine)     Victor Tambinder, or Dustin Carmadge, or some other, had in his kitchen four kinds of cereal, soured milk in the refrigerator, blackened bananas on the countertop, a bucket of dirty mop water on the floor. Faia in the medicine cabinet found nasal spray, eyedrops, coated aspirin, […]

Are You Haunted (part twenty-eight)

Are You Haunted (part twenty-eight)

        Are You Haunted (part twenty-eight)           “She,” Powell said. Had a load to bear, looking after her husband. And why are you taking her part? Isobel would say. “Don’t carry too much, you’ll lose your footing,” Isobel said. He weighed the radio. A cabinet model, an armful, […]

Story: Drownings (part eight)

Story: Drownings (part eight)

        Drownings (part eight)     The outer door was unlocked, the lobby a commercial corridor of glass doors and display windows. A quartet of businesses and a stairwell. Faia rapped at Joanel Properties, A. Jellison, but McAlley strolled on, noting what else. Fentz Aquarium Supply; Colburn Studio; BCB2. Curious, this last. […]

My Blog Week: January 19 to January 25

My Blog Week: January 19 to January 25

Posted by ractrose on 17 Dec 2025 in The Latest

All the Latest from Torsade!                                     Four episodes of Bedlam, and Élucide’s second visit to Nashville, with a surprise meeting of the Demroses. A “Fellyans”, and a second surprise meeting, between two who’d once had an understanding.   […]

Story: Drownings (part seven)

Story: Drownings (part seven)

        Drownings (part seven)     For good or ill, at this moment her phone rang. She put it on speaker. “Julia.” “Julia?” the man asked anyway. “Is this Mr. Herberston?” “Are you some sort of reporter?” Her eyes said to McAlley, he’s been checking. “Mr. Herbertson, I’m enquiring after the job. […]

Are You Haunted (part twenty-seven)

Are You Haunted (part twenty-seven)

        Are You Haunted (part twenty-seven)           Facing the ruin, he saw only the barbed upper tier of the fence, and a tin-hatted silo patchy with rust, the water tower. “He was Lettie’s nephew, born the year she died. His father was Davis as well. Papa Drybrook died […]