We all love our furry friends. They keep us company, let us feed them, and grace us with their presence. But, sometimes they look off into corners where we don’t see anything there. It’s quite possible that they are more familiar with the unseen universe than ourselves and knowing what we do not, may have the tools to either save us or outlive us all.

The Godfall Taproom by Cassandra Celia

The Cat Alone Remembers, a poem by Holt Keystone

Narration and music by the librarian, Bridgette Brenmark

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Cassandra Celia (they/them) is a Maryland bookseller turned author who writes dark, weird, and horrific lit fiction. Their work includes The Elric Undoing and their newest release, House of Harrow. They’re obsessed with stories that blur the lines between love and death, beauty and rot, and endings that don’t feel like endings at all. Cassandra finds inspiration in haunting art, unsettling media, and has a particular fondness for angry, scorned women clawing their way through the dark.

Holt Archambaud Keystone was born in the fall of 1901 on a plantation manor in the Appalachian foothills of Georgia’s legend-haunted Red Wolf River Valley. After convalescing from injuries sustained as a soldier in WWI, he limped his way across Europe, the Middle East, and much of Asia, all while honing his skills as a writer. Though true fame and critical praise only came posthumously, Keystone was hailed by his contemporaries for his prose and poetry, particularly in the genres of weird fiction, dark fantasy, and “sword and sorcery”.

The darkly irreverent cosmic nihilism he displayed in much of his work saw him affectionately referred to as The Gentleman Blasphemer by none other than Samuel “Skipper” Clemens. In his controversial biography of Keystone, author Lymon W. Lyon described the man as “what might have happened had Lovecraft grown up in the Jim Crow South, traveled the world by foot, and bothered actually getting to know the various races and cultures the Old Man from Providence feared and despised.”

Due to the eerily prescient nature of some of his work, Keystone also earned the moniker of Great Prophet of the South. This and other aspects of his life led to rumors of psychic abilities or even divination via the same dark forces about which he wrote. This reputation has only grown since his untimely death and purported cannibalism at the hands of his murderously insane mother in 1930.

All of the preceding facts are true. Just not in our universe.

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Welcome to THE WEIRD LIBRARY, a horror anthology podcast featuring modern voices in weird fiction.

Learn more at www.weirdlibrary.com

———

Subscribe to THE WEIRD LIBRARY:

Substack: https://theweirdlibrary.substack.com/

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weird-library/id1761076604

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a60f056b-8344-4b56-b365-f32817885ab0/the-weird-library

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0ENkdzI11EnnfBg1qtODWw

YouTube: @theweirdlibrary

Podbean: https://theweirdlibrary.podbean.com/

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/weird.library

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The Weird Library is produced by Dark Side of the Bridge Studios, LLC.

https://www.darksideofthebridgestudios.com/

IG @dark_side_of_the_bridge

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#horrorstories #horrorstory #weirdfiction #horrorfiction

A dimensional anomaly is occurring in the library this week. Though the library itself fluctuates in time and space, our portals within have suddenly become active. Locations that poets have described are suddenly glitching in and out of existence. There is some sort of cosmic soundtrack underneath it all…

POEMS:

A Dream of the Abyss - Clark Ashton Smith

Pangaloor - Holt Keystone

The Nightmare Lake - H.P. Lovecraft

Cassilda’s Song - Robert W. Chambers

Zothique - Clark Ashton Smith

Locations in Fungi From Yoggoth - H.P. Lovecraft

The Castle of Dreams - Clark Ashton Smith

Narration and music by the librarian, Bridgette Brenmark

Holt Keystone bio: Holt Archambaud Keystone was born in the fall of 1901 on a plantation manor in the Appalachian foothills of Georgia’s legend-haunted Red Wolf River Valley. After convalescing from injuries sustained as a soldier in WWI, he limped his way across Europe, the Middle East, and much of Asia, all while honing his skills as a writer. Though true fame and critical praise only came posthumously, Keystone was hailed by his contemporaries for his prose and poetry, particularly in the genres of weird fiction, dark fantasy, and “sword and sorcery”.

The darkly irreverent cosmic nihilism he displayed in much of his work saw him affectionately referred to as The Gentleman Blasphemer by none other than Samuel “Skipper” Clemens. In his controversial biography of Keystone, author Lymon W. Lyon described the man as “what might have happened had Lovecraft grown up in the Jim Crow South, traveled the world by foot, and bothered actually getting to know the various races and cultures the Old Man from Providence feared and despised.”

Due to the eerily prescient nature of some of his work, Keystone also earned the moniker of Great Prophet of the South. This and other aspects of his life led to rumors of psychic abilities or even divination via the same dark forces about which he wrote. This reputation has only grown since his untimely death and purported cannibalism at the hands of his murderously insane mother in 1930.

All of the preceding facts are true. Just not in our universe.

———

Welcome to THE WEIRD LIBRARY, a horror anthology podcast featuring modern voices in weird fiction.

Learn more at www.weirdlibrary.com

———

Subscribe to THE WEIRD LIBRARY:

Substack: https://theweirdlibrary.substack.com/

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weird-library/id1761076604

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a60f056b-8344-4b56-b365-f32817885ab0/the-weird-library

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0ENkdzI11EnnfBg1qtODWw

YouTube: @theweirdlibrary

Podbean: https://theweirdlibrary.podbean.com/

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/weird.library

———

The Weird Library is produced by Dark Side of the Bridge Studios, LLC.

Ghosts of the Pantal by Daniel Braum

Rio may be a modern town, but it holds forces much older. Money and privilege can’t save you from your own misdeeds.

Daniel Braum writes short stories that explore the tensions between the psychological and the supernatural. He intentionally adopts the term “strange tales” for his Twilight Zone-like stories in homage to Robert Aickman and the international ambiguities of his work. His stories have appeared in places ranging from The Best Horror of the Year Volume 12 edited by Ellen Datlow to Shivers 8 edited by Richard Chismar along with his own collections. He is the host of the Night Time Logic reading and interview series. Find him at bloodandstardust.wordpress.com.

You can read Ghosts of the Pantal and more in Daniel’s latest collection, Phantom Constellations from Cemetery Dance publishing.

———

Welcome to THE WEIRD LIBRARY, a horror anthology podcast featuring modern voices in weird fiction.

Host and music by the librarian, Bridgette Brenmark

Learn more at www.weirdlibrary.com

———

Subscribe to THE WEIRD LIBRARY:

Substack: https://theweirdlibrary.substack.com/

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weird-library/id1761076604

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a60f056b-8344-4b56-b365-f32817885ab0/the-weird-library

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0ENkdzI11EnnfBg1qtODWw

YouTube: @theweirdlibrary

Podbean: https://theweirdlibrary.podbean.com/

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/weird.library

———

The Weird Library is produced by Dark Side of the Bridge Studios, LLC.

https://www.darksideofthebridgestudios.com/