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Skeleton Crew (short Story Collection)
''Skeleton Crew'' is a collection of short fiction by American writer Stephen King, published by Putnam in June 1985. A limited edition of a thousand copies was published by Scream/Press in October 1985 (), illustrated by J. K. Potter, containing an additional short story, " The Revelations of 'Becka Paulson", which had originally appeared in ''Rolling Stone'' magazine (July 19 – August 2, 1984), and was later incorporated into King's 1987 novel ''The Tommyknockers''. The original title of this book was ''Night Moves''. Stories collected Overview The collection features 22 works, which includes eighteen short stories, two novellas (''The Mist'' and ''The Ballad of The Flexible Bullet''), and two poems ("Paranoid: A Chant" and "For Owen"). In addition to the introduction, in which King directly addresses his readers in his signature conversational style, ''Skeleton Crew'' features an epilogue of sorts entitled "Notes" wherein King discusses the origins of several stories in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Experimental Rock
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with some of the genre's distinguishing characteristics being improvisational performances, avant-garde influences, odd instrumentation, opaque lyrics (or instrumentals), unorthodox structures and rhythms, and an underlying rejection of commercial aspirations. From its inception, rock music was experimental, but it was not until the late 1960s that rock artists began creating extended and complex compositions through advancements in multitrack recording. In 1967, the genre was as commercially viable as pop music, but by 1970, most of its leading players had incapacitated themselves in some form. In Germany, the krautrock subgenre merged elements of improvisation and psychedelic rock with electronic music, avant-garde and contemporary classica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gallery (magazine)
''Gallery'' is an adult sex magazine published by Magna Publishing Group. It is one of the more popular "skin" magazines that arose on the ''Playboy'' magazine pattern in the 1970s. Publication history ''Gallery'' was launched by Ronald L. Fenton and trial attorney F. Lee Bailey in Chicago, Illinois. The first issue appeared on newsstands in November, 1972 bearing an uncanny resemblance to ''Playboy'' magazine, even using the same style font for the cover. Many people therefore assumed ''Gallery'' was also published by Hugh Hefner as a companion publication to ''Playboy''. After Hefner sent a letter to Bailey pointing out the magazine's similarities, the layout of ''Gallery'' was quickly changed. Financial difficulties plagued the magazine from the start, causing Bailey to leave during its inaugural year. Following publication of the January 1974 issue, Fenton was forced to forfeit ownership of the magazine to its distributor. Montcalm Publications, based in New York, even ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beachworld
''Beachworld'' is a short science fiction story by Stephen King, first published in ''Weird Tales'' in 1984, and collected in King's 1985 collection ''Skeleton Crew''. Plot summary ''Beachworld'' is set at an unspecified time in the distant future. Among the few clues to the date is the passing reference that the last of the Beach Boys had died eight thousand years previously. The catastrophic crash-landing of a Federation spacecraft on an uncharted planet made up entirely of sand leaves one crewman, Grimes, dead while Rand and Shapiro survive. Rand stares out over the sand dunes as both men associate the endless rolling dunes with a beach. Rand becomes hypnotized by the dunes and refuses to move from the very spot he's standing on or drink water. Shapiro also feels drawn to the dunes but, unlike Rand, finds this hypnosis frightening and is relieved to go inside their ship where the dunes are out of sight. When a trader spacecraft arrives in response to Shapiro's beacon, the cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shadows (anthology)
''Shadows'' was a series of horror anthologies edited by Charles L. Grant, published by Doubleday from 1978 to 1991. Grant, a proponent of "quiet horror", initiated the series in order to offer readers a showcase of this kind of fiction. The short stories appearing in the ''Shadows'' largely dispensed with traditional Gothic settings, and had very little physical violence. Instead, they featured slow accumulations of dread through subtle omens, mostly taking place in everyday settings. While Grant himself was very adept at this kind of fiction, he contributed no stories to the anthologies, writing only the introductions and author profiles. The first volume in the series won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology. Anthology Contents Shadows (first volume) Published by Doubleday, 1978 *"Naples" Avram Davidson (Winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction) *"The Little Voice" Ramsey Campbell *"Butcher's Thumb" William Jon Watkins *"Where All the Songs Are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands
"The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands" is a short story by American writer Stephen King, first published in the 1982 horror anthology '' Shadows 4'', edited by Charles L. Grant. It was collected in ''Skeleton Crew'' in 1985. Like the novella "The Breathing Method" from King's collection ''Different Seasons ''Different Seasons'' (1982) is a collection of four Stephen King novellas with a more dramatic bent, rather than the horror fiction for which King is famous. The four novellas are tied together via subtleties that relate to each of the four se ...'', the story takes the form of a nested narrative told in a strange 'club' in Manhattan. Plot summary At a private club in Manhattan, an elderly man named George Gregson recounts a card game he played many years ago where he met an odd man named Henry Brower who refused to touch anyone, recoiling from contact in fear. After Brower wins the game, another player, Jason Davidson, leaps up and shakes his hand enthusiastically, caus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Playboy (magazine)
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. Known for its centerfolds of nude and semi-nude models (Playmates), ''Playboy'' played an important role in the sexual revolution and remains one of the world's best-known brands, having grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (PEI), with a presence in nearly every medium. In addition to the flagship magazine in the United States, special nation-specific versions of ''Playboy'' are published worldwide, including those by licensees, such as Dirk Steenekamp's DHS Media Group. The magazine has a long history of publishing short stories by novelists such as Arthur C. Clarke, Ian Fleming, Vladimir Nabokov, Saul Bellow, Chuck Palahniuk, P. G. Wodehouse, Roald Dahl, Haruki Murakami, and Margaret Atwood. With a regular display of full-page c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Word Processor Of The Gods
"Word Processor of the Gods" is a short story by American writer Stephen King, first published in the January 1983 issue of ''Playboy'' magazine under the title "The Word Processor", and collected in King's 1985 collection ''Skeleton Crew''. Plot summary Richard Hagstrom, a middle-aged writer, is disenchanted with his tyrannical wife Lena, his disrespectful teenage son Seth, and his life in general. His teenage nephew Jonathan suddenly dies in a car accident caused by the writer's abusive brother Roger, who was driving drunk. Roger dies in the crash, along with Jonathan's gentle, kind mother, Belinda. From the boy's effects, the writer is given a word processor, which Jonathan was seemingly in the process of cobbling together from a dozen different sources before he died. When the writer turns it on, the startup message displays "Happy birthday, Uncle Richard", revealing that it was intended as a birthday gift for the main character. At home, Richard discovers that the processor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Raft (short Story)
"The Raft" is a horror short story by Stephen King. It was first published as a booklet included with ''Gallery'' in November 1982 and was collected in King's 1985 collection '' Skeleton Crew''. Plot summary Four college students – Randy, Deke, Rachel, and LaVerne – swim to a wooden raft on a remote Pennsylvania lake in October as a final outing before winter. Randy notices a mysterious black substance floating on the surface that appears to chase the girls as they reach the raft. Deke and LaVerne ridicule Randy's suspicions until Rachel remarks on the beautiful bands of colors on the patch's oily surface and touches it. The black patch pulls her into the water, coats her, and rips her to shreds. The horrified trio helplessly watch her be devoured, expanding the size of the black shape. After the initial panic, the three contemplate their next action, realizing they are trapped, since swimming past the black substance is impossible, as it moves too fast. The group told n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Chant
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' is a bi-monthly American digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction, and mystery fiction. Launched in fall 1941 by Mercury Press, ''EQMM'' is named after the fictitious author Ellery Queen, who wrote novels and short stories about a fictional detective named Ellery Queen. From 1993, EQMM changed its cover title to be ''Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine'' (without the 's), but the table of contents still retains the full name. Background Ellery Queen was the pseudonym of the team of Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, who had been writing under the name since 1929. ''EQMM'' was created to provide a market for mystery fiction above the common run of pulp crime magazines of the day. Dannay served as the magazine's editor-in-chief (although still under the name Ellery Queen) from its creation until his death in 1982, when managing editor Eleanor Sullivan succeeded to the post. Following her death in 1991 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wedding Gig
"The Wedding Gig" is a short story by Stephen King first published in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' in 1980 and collected in King's 1985 collection ''Skeleton Crew'', as well as in the 1999 mystery story anthology ''Master's Choice'', edited by Lawrence Block. Plot summary Told from the viewpoint of a bandleader during Prohibition, the story centers around a small-time racketeer Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and ..., Mike Scollay, who hires the narrator's jazz band to play at the wedding of his 300-pound sister, Maureen, and her 90-pound fiancé. At the gig, Scollay's enemy, the Greek, blackmails a man to come to the wedding reception and insult Maureen in front of the guests. Shortly after, Mike is shot down in a hail of gunfire from the Greek's men. The ban ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Twilight Zone Magazine
''Twilight Zone'' literature is an umbrella term for the many books and comic books which concern or adapt ''The Twilight Zone'' television series. Comics Gold Key Comics published a long-running ''Twilight Zone'' comic that featured the likeness of Rod Serling introducing both original stories and occasional adaptations of episodes. The comic outlived the television series by nearly 20 years and Serling by nearly a decade. A later revival of ''Twilight Zone'' comics was published by Now Comics, spinning off of the 1980s revival of the show. In 2008, The Savannah College of Art & Design and publisher Walker & Company collaborated to produce a series of graphic novel adaptations of episodes from the series that were written by Rod Serling. Beginning in December 2013, comics publisher Dynamite Entertainment ran a multi-issue series, written by J. Michael Straczynski and with art by Guiu Vilanova. Guides Marc Scott Zicree's episode-by-episode guide of the original series, ''Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
