7/9/26

The migration of THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE from big-tech platforms to here on my website is now complete. You can listen to them in their entirety for free right here. The only episode not currently posted is number 168 (Lynne Hansen and Armand and Shelly Rosamilia) because that file needs some work done to it, which I’ll get to this weekend. This migration will be followed in the weeks ahead by DEFENDERS DIALOGUE.

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In comic collecting circles, there’s been much buzz and confusion about what happened to NewKadia, one of the oldest and best online retailers for back issue comic sales. The site seemed to literally change overnight to something different called ‘Comic Source’. Well, I researched it with five minutes of Google, and it turns out NewKadia owner Jim Drucker sold the company to someone else. Salud to him. Everyone should be able to enjoy retirement. I hope to do so soon, as well. But yeah, some sort of announcement or communication with long-time customers would have been great.

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Women In Horror Year: Day 78

Dragonfly and Other Songs of Mourning by Michelle Scalise

Hardcover - Paperback - eBook - Audiobook

Dragonfly... And Other Songs of Mourning contains the collected poetry works of Michelle Scalise, dedicated to her husband and author, Tom Piccirilli. Cover art by CANIGLIA, interior illustration by Luke Spooner, and cover design by Kealan Patrick Burke.

Mary and I were on a convention panel years ago (I can’t remember where or when because they all blur together after a while). The topic was Horror Fiction Couples or some such thing. Weston Ochse and Yvonne Navarro were on it with us. I think there might have been two other couples? One thing I do remember is that we all brought up Steve and Melanie Tem as our spiritual guideposts, and we also talked a lot about Tom Piccirilli and Michelle Scalise.

I was lucky enough to be there for the entirety of Pic and Michelle’s relationship — from those first few conventions through their marriage, and their move from Estes Park to Pic’s illness and the aftermath. I genuinely don’t believe that I have ever had a friend who loved his partner more than Tom Piccirilli loved Michelle. I know this because he confided in me several times over whiskey and cigars how he felt about her, and I know it because of the way his fiction and especially his poetry changed after she entered his life. Sure, there were other tells that ran a throughline in Pic’s stuff. The character who lost their father is probably the main one that most readers have noticed, and that, too, was informed by his own personal experiences. But the way he wrote about love, and lust, and trust … those things changed after Michelle. They grew deeper in his work, and formed the basis for some of his most beautiful passages.

It is fitting then that, after his death. Michelle released this collection of poems that all, in some way, are about their time together, and about her loss — and indeed, the world’s loss. That same love for her that imbued everything he wrote is repaid here in a beautiful, heartbreaking display. I’ve read it four times in my life — once when Michelle first sent it to me, twice after both Dave Thomas and Weston’s passing, and again this week in preparation for this Blog entry. I think that, much like grief itself, the poems within change over time, taking on new meaning. And lest you think there’s no horror to be found in such a book, well my friend… you need to read more Horror. There’s a reason Grief Horror is a thing. And there’s imagery within this collection that will absolutely haunt your dreams… and possibly your waking mind.

‘For a moment he was there,
reflected on the shore and calling to me.
Then all I could hear was the buzzing of wasps,
thousands shaped like the hand of a god.
Pulling, pulling
him back to the sea.’

— From “The Departed Come and Go” (one of the poems in the collection)

He would have been honored, Michelle. And he remains proud of you.

Dragonfly and Other Songs of Mourning is available in hardcover, paperback, eBook, and audiobook from Lycan Valley Press.