One Last Bedtime Story
TALES OF HISTORY AND IMAGINATION
What would-be author has not at some point dreamed of writing a great novel? The great novel? Or better still, a bunch of great novels? And, of course, a cavalcade of Hollywood types knocking down your door, throwing haymakers at one another, and blank chequebooks at you, in the hope of earning the right to turn your books into a host of big budget blockbusters – well that would just be the icing on the cake wouldn’t it?
Then again, why not cut out the middle person, and write your own blockbuster must-see screenplay and/or a series thereof?
Unfortunately novels and screenplays are a lot of work friends. I mean serious work. Especially when you have a perilously short concentration span, and a chronic inability to FINISH THE TASK AT HAND.
So here we are. Short stories it is.
Edgar Allan Poe died at the age of just 40, but had already by then written a number of highly influential stories and poems – many of which have been subsequently adapted for film and television, with quite a few of those adaptations produced more than a century after his passing. An extraordinary legacy indeed.
A collection of Poe's short stories was released under the title “Tales of Mystery and Imagination” following his premature death in 1849. Not wanting to leave the heavy lifting to those who remain behind when I am gone, I have decided - with admirable humility I’m sure you’ll agree (correction, hubris) - to progressively release my own collection under a similar name.
A name chosen not just as an homage to the great man, but to reflect the fact that a number of the stories within it are grounded in actual historical reality.
So whether or not these tales fit neatly between the bookends of your own literary interests, I am hopeful you might have some fun in any event separating the fact from the fiction.
Read on!