Trusted by 650+ fans to find the fun in the funereal, the absurd in the macabre, and delight in the darkness. Join fiction author Morgan Delaney three times a week for genre-bending stories of cozy horror, dark fantasy and a brain with mind of its own...
Getting the Future Gently Right
 This might be controversial, but I prefer Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently books to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I re-read them this week, and couldn’t believe it when I saw 1987 on the copyright page. So I bought Dirk Gently’s Detective Agency when it first came out… 39 years ago! Which makes me 21-plus and a bit, I suppose. Luckily, we’ve aged well, for the most part. There’s a joke about not being able to get pizza delivered in London, which might have been cutting-edge at the time, but is hard to believe these days. But the Electric Monks… Wow! That was spot on. The joke there is that, just as dishwashers wash tedious dishes for you, and video recorders watch tedious television for you, an Electric Monk will believe tedious things for you. Don’t tell me there are no Electric Monks. I can’t say much without giving away the ending, but comparing criticism of how people are using AI and how the Electric Monk fits into the plot gave me shivers at how prescient it was. And Adams makes it all seem effortless. I gulped the whole thing down in two nights. The story – and jokes – trip off the page. If you didn’t know how much he struggled to write, you’d swear he banged the whole thing out with one hand while eating brunch. A sliver of smoked salmon dangling from his fork in his other hand. Writing good comedy is hard. What gets me through it is being able to spend the time with all my pals. The Alumières, de Glube, Curly, Mrs Sniffacre, Lorry Tassel. And best pals, Mr Ball and Mr Nooney, who are up on the church roof for the epic finale of The Forgotten Creatures! Chat soon, Morgan P.S. More Morgan? Get 2 of my books free here: morgandelaney.info/newsletter |
Dark, Strange and Fantastic Fiction
Trusted by 650+ fans to find the fun in the funereal, the absurd in the macabre, and delight in the darkness. Join fiction author Morgan Delaney three times a week for genre-bending stories of cozy horror, dark fantasy and a brain with mind of its own...
Names are damn important. Consider the hyrax. Wikipedia describes the hyrax as a “well-furred, rotund animal.” Now look at the pictures! What Wikipedia is trying to say is that these are cute, fluffy, squeezable cuddle-chums! There’s just one problem. Not that they are genetically closer to elephants than to other rodents. Who cares? If anything, that makes them cuter (watch the video of them chewing on Wikipedia if you’re not smitten yet). It’s their poor marketing. Come on. Hyraxes. They...
Are you sporty? On a scale of one to 1-100, I’m 0. I know balls and things, but want no part of them. I mean, I’ve played on the company soccer team, and I do stretching and stuff to keep my spine from curling right over my keyboard. But watching sports? Get off, that’s my leg you’re pulling. Have you heard of “music anhedonia”? That’s when people don’t enjoy any music. Well, I suppose I have sport anhedonia. I’d pay to watch a UFC match between Elon Musk and, er, whoever is currently really...
I took a huge risk at the cinema this week. I went twice. Backrooms and Obsession. Backrooms received good reviews, but Obsession got better reviews. So we went to Backrooms first. Saving the best for last, a trick I picked up from Jesus in the Bible.* But Backrooms was fantastic. So I was terrified! That Obsession would disappoint me. I’m fussy about what I like. Ask Nadine if you don’t believe me. So two good films in a row seemed like asking a lot. But I loved it, too! Even the young ‘uns...