Eliza Turner

While doing research for an upcoming bio-anthology—which will be hitting the shelves of The Forlorn Press soon—I stumbled upon an interesting article. I was browsing through newspaper stories for the Tensas Parish region of Louisiana from the 1890s when a title caught my eye, Burned Alive at the Stake . The article was completely unrelated to what I was searching for, but with a header like that I just had to read it anyway. Did I mention I’m a huge fan of True Crime and criminal history? The article turned out to be fairly short—I’ve transcribed it in full at the end of this post—but I was not disappointed. The gist of it was this: a local woman was sent out on an errand by her employer and never returned. A search ensued, and her mutilated body was found; a “tramp” was suspected of murdering her and summarily hunted down. Upon confessing, as the headline states, the tramp was burned alive while tied to a tree. I found a few things interesting about this newspaper article. Th...

This anthology contains some of the best early occult detective fiction from the best late Victorian and Edwardian era authors. Join such illustrious paranormal investigators as John Silence, Carnacki the Ghost-Finder, Flaxman Low, and Jules de Grandin on their adventures into the supernatural and beyond. The collection is $2.99 and is available on  Kindle , Amazon UK , Nook , and Kobo . If you prefer, you can also buy directly from us via  Payhip  in all formats (.mobi, epub, and pdf). Approx. 820 pages or  248,874 words long.  As with all ebooks from The Forlorn Press, Occult Detectives contains a clickable table of contents. Table of Contents: Part 1:  John Silence, Physician Extraordinary 1. A Psychical Invasion 2. Ancient Sorceries 3. The Nemesis of Fire 4. Secret Worship 5. The Camp of the Dog 6. A Victim of Higher Space Part 2: Carnacki the Ghost-Finder 1. The Gateway of The Monster 2. The...

This collection consists of thirteen stories by some of the best authors of speculative fiction. While they all feature ghosts, these are not traditional ghost stories. These tales are all unique and will stay with you long after you read them. The anthology contains a biography of Oliver Onions, the author of “The Beckoning Fair One.” There are also some annotations within the book with additional information pertinent to the stories. The collection is $1.49 and is currently available on  Kindle ,  Amazon UK ,  Nook , and  Kobo .  If you prefer, you can also buy directly from us via Payhip in all formats (.mobi, epub, and pdf). It is even available in the  Google Play Bookstore  for any and all Android devices! Approx. 305 pages or  88,487 words long.  As with all ebooks from The Forlorn Press, 13 Ghost Stories contains a clickable table of contents. Table of Contents: The Attic by Algernon Blackwood ...

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 ...