Eliza Turner

A rare photo of the Clayton fumigating a house in 1914. The Clayton Disinfector was a fumigation device used to combat plague and other diseases spread by rats and insects in the early 20 th century. The device emitted sulfur-polyoxide gas, usually diluted to 10-12%. The Clayton worked by burning sulfur in the apparatus and blowing the gas through the fumigation tubes.  The gas passed through a device that cooled the gas before entering the area being fumigated. The gas was left for about eight to twelve hours before being removed. One pound of sulfur could be used to fumigate 400 cubic feet. The gas was effective against bubonic plague spores, cholera, and typhoid. In small doses, the gas actually worked as a preservative for meat and was not harmful to other food items, with the exception of fruits and vegetables and any type of liquid. The Clayton Disinfectors were used to disinfect cargo ships to ensure that they did not transport diseases from port to port. The...

I recently heard about a new Catholic mission being built somewhere outside Pahrump. It caught my interest, as this mission was rumored to have relics of a saint, as well as an impressive new cemetery. I looked into it and had the opportunity to meet with Randy Dizon, whose family owns and operates the St. Therese Mission of Old Spanish Trail. As it turns out, the mission has an office in Henderson, which is where I met Randy, the president of the Dizon family owned Magnificat Ventures Corporation. (Both Magnificant Ventures and the non-profit mission are owned and operated by the Dizon family.) The mission itself lies just over the California border on the Tecopa turnoff from the SR 160 (it is about eight miles from the intersection.) While I would like to see the mission, I thought it best to meet up with Randy at his office and get the background information before making the pilgrimage. Randy says that the mission’s aim is to make it into a place that is as much for the ...

I had the pleasure of reading an advance copy of the upcoming anthology, Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction , and I must say that I am impressed. Amok presented with a great lineup of strange stories, all of which push the limits of the imagination (as all good speculative fiction should.) Also, many of the tales incorporated native folkloric and mythological elements into them—a detail I particularly enjoyed. Amok consists of 24 short stories, all set in Asia and the Pacific Islands, and all are in the speculative fiction genre. The editor, Dominica Malcolm, says in the introduction that she sought to have a diverse cast of characters in the anthology, and she has delivered. Each of the stories is unique and distinct from one another.                                     I noticed t...

After a few years of wanting to read this book, I finally got my hands on a copy. I have no background in astronomy or ufology but still find the basic premise of this book very intriguing—namely that the rings of Saturn are not naturally occurring but are in fact “made” by giant vehicles. In this short book, Dr. Bergrun details NASA photos from the Voyager 1 flight that he believes prove the existence of these enormous machines. He begins with a brief history of our observations of the rings, beginning with Galileo and working his way into the 19 th century. The author uses these early findings to begin building his case. Dr. Bergrun believes that these machines are electromagnetic vehicles, or EMVs as he calls them. Exactly what their purpose is (or was) is not made clear, but their size and features are detailed—very big (they are cylindrical and up to 3 or 4 times the diameter of the Earth long) and possibly very old (Dr. Bergrun suggest that they could be as much as 3 ...

I was fortunate enough to receive an advance copy of the upcoming anthology Allusion of Innocence from Solarwyrm Press, and I am very glad that I did. It contained a great selection of short stories, 18 in all, each one very different from the others, but all of them relating to children and childhood themes. Although it deals with children, the collection is intended for an adult audience. There is nothing YA about this one. Some of the stories deal with the supernatural, others are more psychological, and nearly all of them are dark in nature. The editors did a fantastic job of selecting not only stories that deal with the anthology’s theme, but also choosing a cast of diverse authors. Many of the stories are set in and written by writers from different cultures from around the world. This brings a wonderful flavor to each story; one gets an idea of what life is like in different countries. In a way, it is a great sampling of world literature. Like any anthology, so...

"Reaper" by Konstantin Vasilyev In Konstantin Alexeyevich Vasilyev’s painting, simply titled “Reaper” ("Жница"), we find a very unique blend of imagery. “Death and the Maiden” is a long established theme, particularly favored by Scandinavian artists. The maiden is, naturally, a young woman; she is representative of life, whereas death is either a skeleton, Grim Reaper, or just a very old man. Vasilyev has blended both of them into one person in this painting. The maiden has become death as well as life—a profound statement. When one thinks of death, the image of a dark, cloaked, icy figure is likely to come to mind. Here we find just the opposite. Vasilyev’s Reaper is a young, blond woman with piercing eyes resting against a tree, sickle in hand. While she appears nonthreatening, it is her eyes which give the viewer a hint of her true identity. Her expression lies somewhere between fierce and indifferent; do not let her beauty fool you, to know her is to di...

Few realize that women played a pivotal role in the development of science fiction. Even fewer know that feminist science fiction became popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This collection contains a broad spectrum of this genre, many of which have been all but forgotten. Ten novels and short stories and two appendices round out this volume. The anthology is $1.49 and available on  Amazon ,  Barnes & Noble , and  Kobo .  If you prefer, you can also buy directly from us via Payhip in all formats (.mobi, epub, and pdf). Approx. 785 pages or  231,813 words long.  As with all ebooks from The Forlorn Press, Feminist Sci-Fi contains a clickable table of contents. Table of Contents: Herland By Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman Sultana’s Dream By Rokheya Shekhawat Hossein Mizora: A Prophecy By Mary E. Bradley Man's Rights By Annie Denton Cridge Friend Island By Francis Stevens Three Hundre...