This & that

I finally made an update at The Last Ancient House, this one a short story called "Lamentry." This story is part of the collection in the book advertised in the sidebar. It's been long enough now that I don't think it will matter if I put it on the web. This is another Lovecraftian western, a classic gunfight tale which doesn't end the way most classic gunfight tales usually end.

"Honey, you look like you could use some company," she said, all smiling and as pretty she could be.

"I don't think so." It was all the stranger said, but his tone of voice had the finality of a grave in it.

Lovey was not to be discouraged. "Oh, come on now, honey," she said, then leaned over and whispered something right in the stranger's ear.

Suddenly he had hold of her wrist and pushed her away, forcing her to leave his knee and stand on her own feet. A look that some believed was only frustration, but others later said might have been fear, shifted across her wide blue eyes as the stranger pinned her with his dark, one-eyed glare. They stared at each other for a few seconds, then the stranger said, "Well, if that's what you really want."

They went on upstairs to the stranger's room and no one thought anymore of it, it was just the usual day's business at the Silver Dollar. It wasn't more than ten minutes before everyone heard a shriek from upstairs, then another, and the general hubbub of the saloon ceased as everyone listened to doors slamming and Lovey screaming something that no one could understand. Tess Harper, who shared a room with Lovey, went up to talk to her and came back down in a few minutes for a bottle of whiskey, saying Lovey just needed something to calm her down. Lovey calmed herself down, all right. She drank herself senseless that night. Tess wasn't able to get much sleep, either. Lovey just kept moaning to herself in her sleep, things like "red hungry eye," "darkness," "black stars," and curiously enough, "buzzards." Tess wasn't able to make heads or tails of it, but whatever happened in that stranger's upstairs room, Lovey didn't want any part of it. Apparently she'd earned herself a couple of those gold coins, though. She bought a seat on the first stagecoach to Abilene the very next morning, and no one in Lamentry ever saw her again. As for the stranger, he never said anything about it. The next day he was just playing poker and drinking whiskey as usual.

In other news, I'm going to take a break from blogging. I've already pretty much forsaken it for several days now. I'm going to use my time to read some actual books, and maybe do some writing or something else creative. I'm pretty much burned out on all the "linky no thinky" type of blogging I've been doing. If I can't come up with something more or less original I'm just not going to say anything.

P.S. But if you find I've left a comment at your blog early in the morning, it's because I'm still checking a few while I have my morning coffee before I leave for work.