The Monster of Lake LaMetrie by Wardon Allan Curtis, first published in Pearsons Magazine in September 1899 and collected in Michael Moorcock's anthology England Invaded is a classic Victorian short story of a lake monster and is told through the extracts of a diary written from 1896 to 1897 by a professor and medical doctor named James McLennegan, addressed to a colleague.

From vampires and demons to ghosts and zombies, interest in monsters in literature, film, and popular culture has never been stronger. This concise Encyclopedia provides scholars and students with a comprehensive and authoritative A-Z of monsters throughout the ages. It is the first major reference book on monsters for the scholarly market. Over 200 entries written by experts in the field are accompanied by an overview introduction by the editor. Generic entries such as 'ghost' and 'vampire' are cross-listed with important specific manifestations of that monster. In addition to monsters appearing in English-language literature and film, the Encyclopedia also includes significant monsters in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, African and Middle Eastern traditions. Alphabetically organized, the entries each feature suggestions for further reading. The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters is an invaluable resource for all students and scholars and an essential addition to library reference shelves.

"This literary survey examines how paleoliterature originated, developed and matured from its inception to the present day. It follows trends on the crafting of classic dinosaurs, investigating the figurative and metaphoric meaning of fictional dinosaursand related prehistoria. An appendix provides brief summaries of deserving dinosaur texts, organized alphabetically by author. "--Provided by publisher.

Written by one of the leading authorities on writing, publishing and teaching science fiction, The Science of Science Fiction Writing offers the opportunity to share in the knowledge James Gunn has acquired over the past forty years. He reflects on the fiction-writing process and how to teach it, and the ideas he has shared with his students about how to do it effectively and how to get it published afterwards. The first section discusses why people read fiction, the parts of the short story, the strategy of the science fiction author, scene as the smallest dramatic unit, how to speak well in print, suspense in fiction, how to say the right thing, and how to give constructive criticism. The second section takes a more philosophical approach. Here, Gunn elaborates on the origins of science fiction, its definition, the worldview of science fiction, and the characters that appear in science fiction novels. The third section highlights well-known sci-fi authors: H.G. Wells, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Henry Kuttner, C.L. Moore, and others, and the impact they have had on the development and progression of science fiction.

These early works by various authors were originally published in the late 19th century and early 20th century and we are now republishing them with a brand new introduction as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'Sea Monsters and Other Beasts of the Oceans' contains a collection of short stories that include 'A Matter of Fact' by Rudyard Kipling, 'The Monster of Lake LaMetrie' by Wardon Allan Curtis, 'A Tropical Horror' by William Hope Hodgson, and many other classic tales in the genre. Sea monsters hold a special place in the human imagination. Virtually every culture has at some point feared a creature of the deep, and to this day such tales have an enduring affect. True or not, these and other tales of creatures of the deep carry an almost irresistible allure. Short of taking a search party to Loch Ness, the stories which follow may well be the best method we have for getting to grips with how the symbol of the sea monster intersects with the human imagination, and even for envisioning oneself at the moment of encounter.

SIZE MATTERS From the dragons of legend to Jack the Giant Killers colleague to King Kong and Godzilla, people have found the idea of giant creatures both scary and fascinating. Why so many should find accounts of a critter big enough to gulp down a puny human like an insignificantly small hor doeuvre or step on said human and leave a grease spot might be explained by the psychologists, but such yarns are undeniable fun, and heres a book crammed full of things that you cant outrun because they take_bigsteps, by writers with equally large reputations, including: David Drake, best-selling author of the Hammers Slammers and RCN series, describes the far future plight of an unusual descendant of present-day humans, whos being pursued by the descendants of another species, which are much larger than they were in our time. Robert Bloch, winner of the Hugo award and the lifetime achievement award of the World Fantasy Convention, and author of the classic horror novel_Psycho, introduces an unusual orphan and aspiring thespian who was much more than he seemed and was destined to play the biggest role of anyones lifetime. Philip Wylie, co-author of the SF classic,_When Worlds Collide_and other imaginative works, tells of the arrival of a very,_very_tall giant on Earth and what happened next, in a sharp-edged satiric tale. Murray Leinster, known as the Dean of Science Fiction Writers, spins a yarn of a stranded starship whose crew must get replacement parts from an abandoned outpost in order to take off again¾if they can reach the outpost through the swarming gigantic insect life of the planet. H.P. Lovecraft,_renowned master of horror, is on board with a story of a star-spawned thing which was not only huge, but invisible as well. Plus all-new stories by_New York Times_best-selling author Larry Correia, and_award-winning authors Sarah A. Hoyt and Wen Spencer. And much more. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). About some of the contributors: _[David Drake is] a superb storyteller.Ó ¾Library Journal _[Robert] Bloch has become a virtual fixture on the popular culture landscape.Ó ¾Publishers Weekly _Dont plan on getting anything else done if you start a Wen Spencer novel; they are exceedingly hard to put down!Ó ¾Catherine Asaro, Nebula Award winning author _[Sarah A. Hoyts science fiction is] exciting and appealing . . . so fast-paced . . . the reader will reach escape velocity.Ó ¾Kevin J. Anderson _[H.P. Lovecraft was] the twentieth centurys greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale.Ó ¾Stephen King

“Vivid with a Mesozoic bestiary” (Tom Holland), this on-the-ground, page-turning narrative weaves together the chance discovery of dinosaurs and the rise of the secular age. When the twelve-year-old daughter of a British carpenter pulled some strange-looking bones from the country’s southern shoreline in 1811, few people dared to question that the Bible told the accurate history of the world. But Mary Anning had in fact discovered the “first” ichthyosaur, and over the next seventy-five years—as the science of paleontology developed, as Charles Darwin posited radical new theories of evolutionary biology, and as scholars began to identify the internal inconsistencies of the Scriptures—everything changed. Beginning with the archbishop who dated the creation of the world to 6 p.m. on October 22, 4004 BC, and told through the lives of the nineteenth-century men and women who found and argued about these seemingly impossible, history-rewriting fossils, Impossible Monsters reveals the central role of dinosaurs and their discovery in toppling traditional religious authority, and in changing perceptions about the Bible, history, and mankind’s place in the world.

These early works by various authors were originally published in the late 19th century and early 20th century and we are now republishing them with a brand new introduction as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'Cryptofiction - Volume II.' contains a collection of short stories that include 'The Messenger' by Robert W. Chambers, 'The Brazilian Cat' by Arthur Conan Doyle, 'A Relic of the Pliocene' by Jack London, and many other classic tales of strange creatures. The genre of cryptofiction has grown up in the shadow of its older brothers, science fiction and fantasy, and specialises in the concept of mysterious creatures such as sea monsters, wolf-men, and lost pre-historic creatures. Cryptofiction takes its name from another, non-literary practice: cryptozoology. This is generally regarded as a pseudoscience by mainstream scientists, relying as it does upon anecdotal, often unverifiable evidence. However, it still boasts many enthusiasts, and continues to exert considerable artistic allure. Cryptofiction is here to stay, and the stories in this collection map the development of a genre which is as strange as it is fascinating. The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be giant spiders, werewolves, lake monsters, or dinosaurs, the Cryptofiction Classics series offers a fantastic introduction to the world of weird creatures in fiction.

Interest in preternatural and supernatural themes has revitalized the Gothic tale, renewed explorations of psychic powers and given rise to a host of social and religious movements based upon claims of the fantastical. And yet, in spite of this widespread enthusiasm, the academic world has been slow to study this development. This volume rectifies this gap in current scholarship by serving as an interdisciplinary overview of the relationship of the paranormal to the artefacts of mass media (e.g. novels, comic books, and films) as well as the cultural practices they inspire. After an introduction analyzing the paranormal’s relationship to religion and entertainment, the book presents essays exploring its spiritual significance in a postmodern society; its (post)modern representation in literature and film; and its embodiment in a number of contemporary cultural practices. Contributors from a number of discplines and cultural contexts address issues such as the shamanistic aspects of Batman and lesbianism in vampire mythology. Covering many aspects of the paranormal and its effect on popular culture, this book is an important statement in the field. As such, it will be of utmost interest to scholars of religious studies as well as media, communication, and cultural studies.

From Mary Shelley to H.G. Wells, a collection of the best Victorian science fiction from Michael Sims, the editor of Dracula's Guest. Long before 1984, Star Wars, or The Hunger Games, Victorian authors imagined a future where new science and technologies reshaped the world and universe they knew. The great themes of modern science fiction showed up surprisingly early: space and time travel, dystopian societies, even dangerously independent machines, all inspiring the speculative fiction of the Victorian era. In Frankenstein Dreams, Michael Sims has gathered many of the very finest stories, some by classic writers such as Jules Verne, Mary Shelley, and H.G. Wells, but many that will surprise general readers. Dark visions of the human psyche emerge in Thomas Wentworth Higginson's "The Monarch of Dreams," while Mary E. Wilkins Freeman provides a glimpse of “the fifth dimension” in her provocative tale "The Hall Bedroom.' With contributions by Edgar Allan Poe, Alice Fuller, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, Arthur Conan Doyle, and many others, each introduced by Michael Sims, whose elegant introduction provides valuable literary and historical context, Frankenstein Dreams is a treasure trove of stories known and rediscovered.