Saturday, 17 October 2020

It Isn't Just About "pinching info off the net"

I read. I don't get a lot of time for it but uually it is technical books for me.  However, the one thing I do is get books relating to what I publih or write about.

Over the years Varney the Vampyre has appeared in a Reverend Merriwether story and also plays a part in The Green Skies storyline. Varney volumes 1 and 2 are hefty books but even a cursory read through shows just how wrong certain 'authorities' have gotten things. To be fair most of the bookls below use differing forms of Victorianese English and unles you are familiar with the tyles you'll probably put them down as unreadable.




Below, the Monk has also appeared in Black Tower comics. This is a classic Penny Dreadful and, again, cut and paste from one site to another gives an incorrect slant to the story -reading this is when I threw out what I 'knew' before.

The Tours of Dr Syntax -if I need to explain this character to you then...you need to read my books! The larger book is Doctor Syntax A Sil;houette of William Combe, Esq. -Combe might wll be called a richer version of Ally Sloper (you know who Sloper is?)


Another classic of the Dreadfuls era is The Skeleton Crew or Wildfire Ned -a big chunky read and, yes, The Skeleton Horseman has appeared in Black Tower Comics.
Yet another classic is Melmoth (yes, he has been in a Black Tower comic) the Wanderer which is another chunky read.

You need to know the periods you are writing about and these are two excellent, modern English, books. Pity Johnson gave in and bent the knee before his death. 

.Of course I have over 50 years of history reading to fall back on as well as numerous other subjects so I like to think if I write a story set in a certain period I get it as accurate a it needs to be.

Oh...I also have a lot of comics and graphic novels.

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