Next up: A Dark Regions Press book that I purchased through CD so qualifies for thread.
The Year of Cemetery Dance 2018
- Thread starter Dana Jean
- Start date
-
This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.
kingricefan and GNTLGNT -- both of you were reading Flight or Fright -- what were your standout stories?
edited to add: anyone else reading this and care to throw out your favorites?
edited to add: anyone else reading this and care to throw out your favorites?
Last edited:
Just finished today's episode. I have no idea what's going on. Each episode leaves me with more questions than answers. Does anyone have any theories as to what is happening?
Good catch. I hadn't considered that.
Not I, but I think we'll find out when Warden Lacy gets his own episode.
With my uneasy relationship with flying, I think I should avoid this one. But I loved reading your review, Deej.
My grandfather was an airplane mechanic for Lockheed.He was the head mechanic for the SR-71 Blackbird, I have many fond memories of going to watch the planes land. He would tell me what model, make, etc. That knowledge has stuck with me a bit. So much so that, when I get nervous in a plane, I can hear him voice admonishing me and reminding me how safe it really is,
My grandfather was an airplane mechanic for Lockheed.He was the head mechanic for the SR-71 Blackbird, I have many fond memories of going to watch the planes land. He would tell me what model, make, etc. That knowledge has stuck with me a bit. So much so that, when I get nervous in a plane, I can hear him voice admonishing me and reminding me how safe it really is,
I didn't realize you didn't like to fly. Was there something that happened to lead you to that feeling?
Watching later tonight. As for theories... 
Just finished watching the latest episode of Castle Rock. Absolutely mind blowing!!! So good!! The B&B owners were hilarious (I know I have a warped sense of humour) Still wondering if Bill Skarsgard is really gone.
I know they where awsome. I loved the shinning references to the axe and calling him Johnny boy. I think I have it figured out. I think that the same spirt in both Derry and castle rock are the same. For example. It has been 27 since needful things was written, it was written in 1991, pennywise stays dormant for 27 years...... I think bill is making people do the killings for him. I think some how the bad stuff in both towns are related. That being said I have not read all of kings works. I have yet to read it or needfull things. But I have seen both the movies of it. Not shure why he needs Molly’s help.
I missed the 27 reference. I am thinking that Molly has been like a conduit through all this. Also wondering if she will make it through the next episode alive.
You have a good point about the towns being related. Hadn't thought of that either. The series is a real cliffhanger. After I watch an episode I seem to have more questions than answers.
[automerge]1535600803[/automerge]
I missed the 27 reference. I am thinking that Molly has been like a conduit through all this. Also wondering if she will make it through the next episode alive.
You have a good point about the towns being related. Hadn't thought of that either. The series is a real cliffhanger. After I watch an episode I seem to have more questions than answers.
[automerge]1535600803[/automerge]
I missed the 27 reference. I am thinking that Molly has been like a conduit through all this. Also wondering if she will make it through the next episode alive.
You have a good point about the towns being related. Hadn't thought of that either. The series is a real cliffhanger. After I watch an episode I seem to have more questions than answers.
Had a bad experience flying into -- and, later, out of -- the Denver airport. The turbulence was terrifying and it traumatized me to the point where I can't fly without a Xanax or "special" cookies.
There are a number of interesting hypotheses being discussed on the CastleRockTV Reddit thread.
Several of them suggest that
The Kid and Henry are variants of the same person, originally from alternate universes, and that the man in the woods who locked Henry in the camper was a variant of Henry's father the pastor
I was interviewed by Sci Fi Bulletin in the UK yesterday, and one of the things we marveled over was the fact that neither of us had heard Steve's anecdote from the introduction before.
"Lucifer!" is one messed up story. The protagonist is immensely unlikable, and yet does anyone deserve what happens to him at the end? "Cargo" is THE story that sticks with me from our book more than any other. Very disturbing. Cortney Skinner came up with the perfect illustration to accompany it.
Glad you enjoyed the book!
I loved this write up, Deejers... just beautiful. I want to go get this now.53. Flight or Fright
Edited by Stephen King and Bev Vincent
About the Book:
"Stephen King hates to fly.
Now he and co-editor Bev Vincent would like to share this fear of flying with you.
Welcome to Flight or Fright, an anthology about all the things that can go horribly wrong when you're suspended six miles in the air, hurtling through space at more than 500 mph and sealed up in a metal tube (like—gulp!—a coffin) with hundreds of strangers. All the ways your trip into the friendly skies can turn into a nightmare, including some we'll bet you've never thought of before... but now you will the next time you walk down the jetway and place your fate in the hands of a total stranger.
Featuring brand new stories by Joe Hill and Stephen King, as well as fourteen classic tales and one poem from the likes of Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, Roald Dahl, Dan Simmons, and many others, Flight or Fright is, as King says, "ideal airplane reading, especially on stormy descents... Even if you are safe on the ground, you might want to buckle up nice and tight."
Book a flight with Cemetery Dance Publications for this terrifying new anthology that will have you thinking twice about how you want to reach your final destination."
My Thoughts:
Artwork for the trade hardcover is done by François Vaillancourt and definitely fits the ominous and foreboding bill. Nice job.
The artist edition, which I am also getting, has artwork by Cortney Skinner and I am really looking forward to that edition.
My grandfather had his pilot's license and owned his own small plane. He flew a lot after he lost all but 3 fingers in a farm accident. I wish I would have had the presence of mind to ask him more about this time in his life, but I was young when he died and didn't get my chance.
Also, I live on the line between two cities. Both have small, commuter airports. Good for crop dusters, air traffic helicopters, experimental one-man death-machines that look like go-carts with propellers jerry-rigged to the back, gliders, parachuting businesses, small planes and old war machines.
Both of these airports have hosted air shows. And I happen to live where these stunt pilots and big bombers swing out in their holding patterns waiting for their turn to zoom back to their prospective air fields to thrill the crowds. The airport closest to me does accommodate private jets as we have a billionaire that lives in the state and has businesses in this town, so he would fly in frequently and paid for the runway to be extended for his use.
It's also fun to watch a local business with a fleet of small craft send one up to lazily circle and circle and circle higher and higher so it can spit out human beings like watermelon seeds -- their parachutes opening in a splash of color as they drift down. It looks so peaceful watching them from the ground. You don't think as you move back and forth in your rocker gazing upward that these "seeds" have lips and cheeks that are flapping like laundry sheets caught in a tornado. Unfortunately, I do know someone whose chute didn't open and they lived because they landed in a farmer's field that had just been tilled, so the soil was nice and fluffy. Lots of damage, but she walks today and has her faculties about her. A miracle.
Neither airport is big enough for the big birds, but our state capitol has our main airport, and even though I live about 25 minutes away, those large, lumbering aircraft also circle over my tiny little house in their holding patterns on occasion. So lots of sky watching going on. And yes, I'm the idiot who waves.
So, many a day or evening I have sat on my patio and watched and wondered about all these men and women in their flying machines.
This book gave me great anxiety about my casual viewing and I am forever going to look at the skies and those aeroplanes differently. And actually flying? These stories might put ideas in my head to think about at the most inopportune time.
I loved the foreword and afterword by Stephen and Bev respectively. Clever and fun entries. And Stephen's comments before each story to set them up and prime our pumps were great. Love when authors do that.
Being Stephen King fans, we tend to hear a lot of the same stories when he is interviewed because no one asks him anything remotely original. But his airplane story in this foreword was one I had never heard and I would love to hear more about it! Good God!
My standout stories would be:
Lucifer! by E. C. Tubb. Just the futility and inevitable outcome of those last couple pages left me right there with this person, frantic.
Cargo by E. Michael Lewis. A story around a very dark and infamous event.
The Flying Machine by Ray Bradbury -- A very Aesop-fabley tale.
and
Murder in the Air by Peter Tremayne. I love locked-room stories.
Our host, Stephen King, has a very nice entry that was totally him. And Bev Vincent's contribution was also well done. Still waiting for his book of short stories to be published.
I am very pleased to have this on my bookshelf and again, so excited to get the artist edition for that beautiful art to accompany each story.
There was that picture where the kid is wearing Henry’s shirt from the missing poster. My weird theory is the kid is something like a reincarnation of Henry’s father. A question just occurred to me. What happened with the forest fire?
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm so sorry that happened. And scary too.
I can't wait to see Mr.Skinner's take on all the stories. Talented artist so should be a really beautiful book.
So, since most of us have never heard Stephen's story before, that means we are asking the wrong questions to get more of those odd, quirky, fascinating life experiences from him. I'm not talking intrusive personal questions. I'm talking stories he would sit around the camp fire and tell us.
We need new fresh fun questions that aren't all about publishing and writing because his life experiences, like this one, eventually come out in his writing and answers that tired old question: Where do you get your ideas?
After reading that anecdote, I'm beginning to think that "where do you get your ideas" isn't so tired and old after all, we just aren't asking him in the right way.
Last edited:
The locked room story, while not a particularly tense story, was still fun just because it was a locked room. Or as Steve says, two rooms. I always love to see how an author handles it so that was fun for me.
Lucifer! is one messed up story especially at the end. For a number of reasons. I suspended some disbelief there, to just feel what the guy was feeling. It worked for me. I was in that mindset that last page.
Could someone fall from that height and remain conscious? Not freeze? Not be torn to pieces?
Cargo is just so traumatic. It reminded me of an old movie
starring Richard Basehart. 1970s Sole Survivor. It's about a group of air force guys who crash land in Libyan desert. They think they are still alive, but in actuality, they are all dead and are waiting to be found. As they are found, an American flag is draped over their shoulders and they can rest in peace. Eventually, they give up the search, leaving one soldier lost. Thus, the Sole Survivor.This is based on an actual airplane and crew, The Lady Be Good. I watched this as a made for T.V. movie in the 70s and it devastated me. And I knew it was a powerful story. They all believed they were alive. The realization that they were all dead was heartbreaking for them, and me. I think the movie is available on youtube.
Sole Survivor (1970 film) - Wikipedia . Fascinating bit of history on the actual crash of The Lady Be Good. Why did the crew walk when the radio was still in working order? A Twilight Zone episode was also about this crew. [/SPOILER]
Sole Survivor (1970 film) - Wikipedia . Fascinating bit of history on the actual crash of The Lady Be Good. Why did the crew walk when the radio was still in working order? A Twilight Zone episode was also about this crew. [/SPOILER]
Last edited:
thanks flakers. I just babble. I just capture my version of stream of consciousness thoughts. And I do it quickly while the book is still fresh. I go back and clean up here and there as I need to, but I don't sit and do draft after draft like a professional reviewer might.
Also, I loved that James Dickey had a piece in there since I just just just finished Deliverance. Great writing and I was tickled to get the chance to read what he was best known for included in the book -- poetry.