Eliza Turner

"Truck Cab in the Desert" by Osie Turner (2014) Abandoned vehicles are a common sight on the backroads of Nevada. This classic truck cab was a great, unexpected find. I found it alongside Nevada State Route 375, also known as the “Extraterrestrial Highway” because of its proximity to Area 51, near the turnoff from US Route 6.   The remains of this truck were too nondescript for me to identify much about it; I don’t know what type of truck it was, what year it is from, or much else. I would guess that it is from about the 1960s or so, but that is, of course, just a guess. What I do know is that this rusting old shell has sat there, a short walk off the highway, for so long that it has become a part of the landscape. It was probably used by some rancher back in the day until it stopped running—possibly where it lies today. I also know that this is not just some lump of slowly decomposing metal; this truck has a story—of that I am certain. How many miles was it...

A few months ago, I got a full-access tour of the historic Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah, Nevada, and wrote a three page article for Examiner.com about the hotel. It would be redundant to go over the same info again here, so I will post a link to the article at the end of this post. The purpose of this post is to show some of the photos and share some of my personal observations that didn’t fit in with the previous article. As you could probably guess, since the hotel is well over one hundred years old, it is said to be home to a few ghosts. The Lady in Red, the ghost of Senator Pittman, and some impish children are some of the resident spirits of the old hotel. One oddity that I noticed was that my camera had a hard time focusing in certain areas of the hotel. Specifically, the shots taken in the basement and on the 3 rd floor of the hotel all came out strangely blurry. No apparitions or anything like that, but the photos were atypically blurry, sort of like an Orton-ish effect,...

This collection contains the bulk of Alma Newton’s work, as well as the only biography available for the obscure author. Newton wrote mystic fiction, with a touch of romanticism. Her style is particularly unique; all of her strange stories have dream-like quality that treads the borderlands between reality and the ethereal. The collection concludes with the only biography ever written about the life of Alma Newton; the biography includes rare photographs. Approx. 388 pages, or 103,315 words long. Available at  Amazon ,  Nook , and  Kobo . Or download it directly from us on  Payhip.com . No matter where you buy it, the price is $1.49. Table of Contents: Introduction Memories The Blue String and Other Sketches A Jewel in the Sand Dreaming True Shadows The Contrasts of Life Algernon Blackwood, Nature Mystic Alma Newton: The Life of the Romantic Mystic Bibliography

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 ...

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...