5/23/26

A reminder that vendor tables for the 2027 Scares That Care AuthorCon event go on sale tonight at 6pm. They will sell out very quickly. The link will be posted first in the Facebook Group Page.

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Dallas has pretty much settled back into his routine here at home, but the pills they gave me for him cause mild sedation, so he slept a lot the last 24 hours. Mostly in my lap, while I typed, and also on top of Mary, while she, too, was asleep. He seems to be doing fine though, other than that.

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Probably 50% of my retirement is based on dividend-paying stocks, so this article was of interest to me:

The dividend yield on the S&P 500 is on the verge of an all-time low, and dividend investing has proved deeply disappointing.

Blame artificial intelligence. Excitement about the prospects for the new technology has encouraged companies to plow their profits back into capital spending rather than paying them out to shareholders, while boosting interest in stocks whose profits, and dividends, are merely hopes for the distant future…

If this is a bubble, missing it is exactly the feature a slow-and-steady investor should want. If AI lives up to the hopes of the bulls, dividend investing will be, if not dead, in an even deeper slumber.

I believe AI stocks are a bubble, just like the Dot Com stocks back in the day., and intend to stick with slow-and-steady. Although, given that Mary and I intend to retire very soon, it’s a bit nerve-wracking.

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Stephen Colbert’s show wasn’t the only thing we lost this week:

CBS News Radio, which provides news programming to an estimated 700 stations spanning the United States, signed off the air Friday night after nearly a century of broadcasting.

The storied service, launched in September 1927, was home to broadcast legends Edward R. Murrow, Robert Trout, Douglas Edwards, Charles Osgood, Dan Rather and many other familiar and trusted voices over its decades in operation.

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Women In Horror Year: Day 42

Dahmer’s Not Dead by Elizabeth Steffan and Edward Lee

In November 1994, one of history's most diabolical serial-killers is beaten to death by another inmate in the prison where he was serving fifteen consecutive life sentences. Jeffrey Dahmer is dead. Or is he?

Two weeks after the madman's body is buried, another cannibalistic murder spree begins. Fingerprints, DNA, and modus operandi all link Dahmer to the hideous crimes.

Homicide cop Helen Closs is certain it's all a hoax or a clever copycat...until the night her own phone rings, and Jeffrey Dahmer himself begins to speak...

Most people, when they think of Edward Lee, immediately think of Extreme Horror, which is valid, given that he’s one of the faces on Extreme Horror Mount Rushmore, alongside Laymon, Ketchum, and _____ (face number four varies, depending on whom you ask. Many make the argument for Rex Miller, James Herbert, or Shaun Huston, all of whom are fine choices, but I argue it should be David G. Barnett). What Lee frustratingly doesn’t get enough credit for are other things he excels at, such as his exhaustive knowledge of the work of Machen or Lovecraft, or his nuanced and accessible non-ficton such as his book-length examination of JFK’s assassination. Something else nobody ever talks about is the fact that for three decades, the man has lifted up women writers, be it by blurbs and Introductions, or helping them navigate the business, or collaborating with them. Women such as Christine Morgan and my wife, Mary SanGiovanni, have seen their profiles raised after such endeavors. And these collaborations are fun for Lee, as well, because it gives him a chance to get away from the gross-out and show what else he can do.

Such is the case with what is considered by many to be one of the best books in his bibliography — Dahmer’s Not Dead, cowritten with Elizabeth Steffan. And if right now you’re saying, “I thought this was WOMEN In Horror Year, Brian. Not Edward Lee In Horror Year…” well, yes, you’re right, skippy. My point is that one of the best books of Lee’s storied career wouldn’t have been possible without his cowriter, who is a woman.

And Lee will tell you the same thing.

A member of federal law enforcement and an expert on serial killers, (including Dahmer), Elizabeth Steffan elevates what could have just been a lurid thriller into a brilliant and technically accurate police-procedural that is all the more chilling for its uber-realism. Whether it’s the actual investigative techniques or the true psychological toll hunting real-life monsters like Dahmer has on law enforcement, Dahmer’s Not Dead reads like an edge-of-your-seat true crime documentary, rather than a fictional novel. It is haunting, and stays that way upon rereads.

Unfortunately, the book is out of print in America (but can be found fairly cheaply on the secondary market). It is, however, available in Germany via paperback and eBook via Festa Verlag.