SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: TWELVE FOR OCTOBER (THE USUAL SUSPECTS)

 It's the season for scary stories.  Here are twelve that might tingle your spine and give you goosebumps.  All of them are pretty familiar but still worth another look:

• Edward Bulwer-Lytton, "The Haunters and the Haunted; or, The House and the Brain"  (first published in Blackwood's Edinburg Magaazine, August 1859; anthologized by Frederick B. de Berard, William Patten, Julian Hawthorne, Adam L. Gowans, Joseph Lewis French, J. Walker McSpadden,  Ernest Rhys, V. H. Collins, Harrtison Dale, Dorothy L. Sayers, H. Douglas Thonson, John L. Hardie, Bennett Cerf, Phyllis Fraser & Herbert A. Wise [also as Phyllis Cerf Wagner & Herbert A. Wise], Jeremy Scott, Pamela Search, John Keir Cross, Herbert van Thal, Tim Maran, Kay Pankkey, Mary Hottinger, Dr. Milton V. Kline & Don Ward, Basil Rathbone, Joan Kahn, Aiden & Nancy Chambers, Kurt Singer, Dorothy Tomlinson, Robert Aickman, Robert E. Beck, Barbara H. & Jack C. Wolf, Kathleen Lines, Helen Hoke, Peter Underwood, Michael Parry, J. J. Strating, Leslie Shepard, Mary Danby, Alan K. Russell, Tim Haydock, Ales Hayman & Irina Zitkova, Martin H. Greenberg & Charles G. Waugh, Peter Haining, Isaac Asimov with Martin h. Greenberg & Chalres G. Waugh, Adele Olivia Gladwell & James Havoc, Dave Carson & Stephen Jones. Michael Newton, John Gregory Betancourt, T. M. Gray & Charles G. Waugh, Lon Milo DuQuette, Andrew Berger, Laura Bulbeck, Alastair Gunn, John Landis, and many anonymous editors; also available in a number of collections of Bulwer-Lytton's work; also available in Weird Tales, May 1923, and in Weird Terror Tales #1,  Winter 1969/70)   Investigating  hauinted house, a man finds evidence of a long-ago crime and meets a man skilled in Mesmeric science.
• John Collier, "Thus I Refute Beelzy"  (supposedly first published in Atlantic Monthly, October 1940, but one source states that the story was copyrighted in 1931; reprinted in Clllier's collections Presenting Moonshine, 1941, A Touch of Nutmeg and More Unlikely Stories, 1943, Green Thoughts and Other Strange Stories,1945, and Fancies and Goodnights, 1951; anthologized by August Derleth, Julius Fast, Anne Ridler, C. B. Boutell & Sterling North, Basil Davenport, Richard G. Sheehan & Lee Wright, Henry Mazzeo, Betty M. Owen, Joan Kahn, Edmund J. Farrell [with Thomas E. Gage, John Pfordresher, & Raymond J. Rodigues], Stanley J. Cook & Stephen V. Whaley, Joan D. Berbrich, Eugene H. White, Anthony Masters, Michael Parry, Richard Adams, R. A. Banks, Bryon Newton, Bob & Jane Stine, Stefan R. Dziemianowicz [with Martin H. Greenberg & Eobert Weinberg], Dennis Pepper, and Tim Pratt; reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries Combined wiith Fantastic Novels Magazine, October 1952)   It's never wise to make fun of a child's imaginary friend/
• Roald Dahl, "Royal Jelly"  (first published in Dahl's collection Kiss, Kiss, 1960, and later in Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected, 1979, Completely Unexpected Tales, 1986, A Second Roald Dahl Collection, 1987, The Best of Roald Dahl, 1990, The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl, 1991, The Umbrella Man and Other Stories, 2000, and The Great Automatic Grammatizator and Other Stories, 2001; anthlogized by Edmund Crispin, Frederick Pickersgill, Richard J. Sheehan & Lee Wright, Mary Danby, Alfred Hitchcock, and Richard Adams; reprinted on Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine, January-February 1983)   Trying to get their new-born baby to eat, Albert adds royal jelly -- used to make bee larvae grow -- to the baby's milk.
• Lord Dunsany, "The Two Bottle of Relish"  (first published in Time and Tide, Novemner 12, 1932; included in Dunsany's collections The Little Tales of Smethers and Other Stories, 1952, and In the Land of Time and Other Fantasy Tales, 2004; anthologized by Herbert Williams, Basil Davenport, Hallie & Whit Burnett, Herbert van Thal, George Brandon Saul, Isaac Asimov [with Martin Harry Greenberg & Carol-Lynn Rossell Waugh]. Abraham H. Lass & Norma L. Tasman, Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, Bennett Cerf, Don Cogdon, Eric Duthie, Mary E. MacEwen, Rosamund Morris,  Richard Lunn, Dr. Arthur Liebman, Nancy Ellen Talburt & Lyna Lee Montgomery, Stephen P. Clarke, Stuart David Schiff, J. A. Cudden, Mary Danby, Bill Pronzini [with Martin H. Greenberg & Charles G. Waugh], Elliott Roosevelt, Peter Haining, Otto Penzler, Paul D. Staudohar, and various uncredited editors; reprinted in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March 1951)  So now you've killed someone.  How are you going to hide the body?
• Stanley Ellin, 'The Specialty of the House"  (first published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May 1948; reprinted in Ellin's Mystery Stories [also publ;ished as Quiet Horror], 1956, and The Specialty of the House and Other Stories, 1968; antholgized by Ellery Queen, Rex Stout, Herbert van Thal, Anthony Boucher, Elizabeth Lee, Frederick Piskersgill, Christine Bernard, Tony Wilmot, Richard Davis, Eric Protter, Mary Danby, Bill Pronzini [with Martin H. greenberg & Charles G. Waugh], Carol-Lynn Rossel Waugh [with Isaac Asimov & Martin H. Greenberg], Stephen Jones & Clarence Paget, Peter Haining, Otto Penzler, Paul D. Staudohar, Patrick Mansulli, and various uncredited editors; also reprinted in The Evening Standard, March 23, 1950, Escapade, December 1958, Shock -- The Magazine of Terrifying Tales, May 1960, Tales of Terror from the Beyond, Summer 1964, Ellery Queen's Anthology #44, Fall/Winter 1982, and EQMM, September/October 2016)   In an exclusive restaurant called Sbirro's, the food is to die for, but the chef will not allow anyone to enter his kitchen.  Ellin's first short story and an instant claasic, chilling and literate.
• W. W. Jaclobs, "The Monkey's Paw"  (first publlished in Harper's Monthly Magazine, September 1902; reprinted in Jacobs' collection The Lady of the Barge, 1902, and in The monkey's paw and Other Horros:  The Best Horror and Ghost Stories of W. W. Jacobs, 2022, as well in various comvinations of the author's stories; anthologized by Ernest Rhys & C. A. Dawson Scott, V. H. Collins, Dorothy L. Sayers, Colin de la Mare, H. Douglas Thomson, Alexander Laing, W. Somerset Maugham, Bennett Cerf, Phyllis Fraser & Herbert A. Wise, Van H. Cartmell & Charles Grayson, Ronald Flatteau, Basil Davenport, Hereward Carrington, George Bisserov, Charles Higham, George Brandon Saul, Rosamund Morris, Herbert van Thal, Alan C. Jenkins, Kathleen Lines, John H. Bens, David Aloian, Michael C. Flanigan & Lawana Trout, John Edgell, Ada Lou & Herbert L. Carson, Florence A. Harris, Ross R. Olney, Susan Dickenson, Leo R. Kelley, Dave Allen, Dennis Wheatley, Theodore W. Hipple, Peter Underwood, Les Daniels & Diane Thompson, James Gibson & Alan Ridout, Mary Danby, Donald J. Sobol, Leonard Wolf, E. M. Freeman, Deborah Shine, Mike Jarvis & John Spencer, Leslie Shepard, John L. Foster, Martin H. Greenberg & Charles G. Waugh, Elana Lore, Alberto Manguel, Edward Gorey, Lincoln Child, Tim Haydock, Michael Cox & R. A. Gilbert, Isaac Asimov [with Martin H. Greenberg & Charles G. Waugh], Robert Westall, Mary C. Allen, Jorge Luis Borges [with A. Bioy Casares & Silvina Ocampo], Martin H. Greenberg & Robert Silverberg, John Grafton, Margaret Iverson, Peter Haining, Mary Hill, Gary Crew, Greg Ioannou, Barry Moser, Garyn G. Roberts, Davis Sandner & Jacob Weisman, Clint Willis, Lena Tabori & Natasha Tabori-Fried, Leslie Pockell, Megan Dempster [with Mollie Denman, Laura Kuhn, & Alex Lubertozzi], Christopher Krovatin, Robert Westall, Jonathan Wooding, Peter Washington, John Grafton, Devon & Michael Hague, Big Anklevich & Rish Outfield [sic], Michael Kelahan, Michael Newton, Thomas Huff, John Richard Stephens, John Skipp, John Pelan, Otto Penzler, John Betancourt, Luis Ortiz, Michael Sims, Darryl Jones, Stefan Dziemianowicz, Judika Illes, Forrest J. Ackerman & Jean Marie Stine, C. S. R. Calloway, Bill Bowers, John L. Hardie, Crosby E. Redman, Walter R. Bremmer, M. Edmund Speare, Patricia J. Robertson, Marshall Cavendish, Gary Goshgarian, Laurence Schorsch, Bradford M. Day, M. Grant Kellermeyer [with Jon A. Schlenker & Charles G. Waugh], and various uncredited editors; reprinted in Nero Wolfe Mysrtery Magazine, March 1954, John Creasey Mystery Magazine, October 1957, Shock -- The Magazine of Terrifying Tales, May 1960, Startling Mystery Stories, Spring 1970, Alfred Hitchcock's Anthology #14, Summer 1983)   Be careful of what you wish for.
• M. R. James, "Casting the Runes"  (first published in James's collection More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, 1911, and reprinted in various collections by James; ansicthologized by V. H. Collins, Alexander Laing, Lee Wright, Herbert A. Wise & Phyllis Fraser, Alfred Hitchcock, Edward Gorey, John Keir Cross, Don Ward, Stephen P. Sutton, Vic Ghidalia, Jack C. & Barbara H, Wolf, Leopnard R. N. Ashley, Stuart David Schiff, Martin H. Greenberg [with Frank d. McSheery, Jr. & Charles G. Waugh], Peter Haining, Marshall Cavendish, Robert Silverberg & Martin H. Greenberg, Brad Leithauser, David Sandner & Jacob Weisman, Chad Arment, John Pelan, Steve Dillon, Jon A. Schlenker [with Jefffrey A. Linscott & Charles G. Waugh], Michael Dirda, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, Lon Milo DuQuette, Laura Bulbeck, Joshua Perry, The Dark Lords [sic], Brendon Cornell, D. Edward Wright, and various uncredited editors)   Edward Dunning refuses to publish a paper by the reclusive Mr. Karswell, fionding himself the victim of a curse.
• Fritz Leiber, "Smoke Ghost"  (first published in Unknown Worlds, October 1941, as by Fritz Leiber, Jr.; reprinted in Leiber's Night's Black Agents, 1947, The Secret Songs, 1968, the Leiber Chronicles:  Fifty Years of Fritz Leiber, 1990, Smoke Ghost & Other Apparitions, 2002, Fritz Leiber:  Selected Stories, 2010, and Masters of the Weird Tale:  Fritz Leiber, 2016; anthologized by Judith Merril, Basil Davenport, Peter Haining, Leiber himself [with Stuart David Schiff], David G. Hartwell, Stanley Schmidt, Martin H. Greenberg [with Frank D. McSherry, Jr. & Charles G. Waugh], Martin H. Greenberg & Willliam F. Nolan, Martin H. Greenberg & Robert Silverberg, Stefan R. Dziemianowicz [with Martin H. Greenberg & Robert Weinberg], Michael Cox, Garyn G. Roberts, Ramsey Campbell, Peter Haining, Peter Straub, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, Otto Penzler, and at least one uncredited editor)   Leiber reinvents the ghost story for a modern setting -- 20th century Chicago, where a supernatural entity is bron from the soot and anxieties of an indutrial city.
• H. P. Lovecraft, "Pickman's Model"   (first published in Weird Tales, October 1927; published in Lovecraft's collection The Outsider and Others, 1939, and in various other collections of Lovecraft's stories; anthologized by Christine Campbell Thompson, Eric Protter, Mark Ronson, Martin H. Greenberg [with Barry N. Malzberg & Bill Pronzini], Martin H. Greenberg [with Frank McSheery, Jr. & Charles G.Waugh],  Martin H. Greenberg [with Carol Serling & Charles G. Waugh], Pamela Crippen [with Robert Adams & Martin H. Greenberg], Peter Haining, Otto Penzler, S. T. Joshi, Laura Bulbeck, Kaye Lynne Booth & Jonathan Maberry, Dr. Ahmed Al-Rawi, and many uncredited editors; reprinted in Weird Tales, November 1936, and in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, DecembJophn Copurnos,er 1951)   After Pickman, a brilliant painterr who had been ostracized because of his grotesquesly graphioc images, disappears, a friend relates a visit to his studio.  As Pickman led hi deeper an deeper into the studio, the pictures displayed became more and more horrible, culminating in one of an unearthly humanoid chewing on a human victim...  Lovecraft did not need cosmic horros to make one's flesh creep.
• Edgar Allan Poe, "The Tell-Tale Heart"  (first published in The Pioneer, January 1843; included in most collections of Poe's work; anthologized by John Cournos, Alexander Laing, Philiip Van Doren Stern, Boris Karloff, John L. Hardie, Robert K. Brunner, Don Congdon, Charles Higham, Groff Conklin, Marjorie Braymer & Evan Lodge, Eric Protter, Syd Bentliff, Rosamund Morris, Douglas Angus, Elizabeth Scheld, Robert Arthur, David Aloian, Aiden & Nancy Chambers, Peter Haining, Mary Danby, Robert Potter, Les Daniels & Diane Thompson, Deborah Shine, Isaac Asimov [with Martin H. Greenberg & Charles G. Waugh], Betty Ann Schwartz, Simon Petherick, Margaret Iverson & Samuel Robinson, Stefan R. Dziemianowicz [with Martin H. Greenberg & Robert Weinberg]. Leopnard Nimoy, Rex Collings, Italo Calvino, Kathleen Blease, Mike Baker & Martin H. Greenberg, Paul Negri, Leslie Pockell. Megan Dempster [with Mollie Denham, Laura Kuhn, & Alex Lubertozzi], Adele Hartley, Vic Parker, Barry Moser, Chris Mould, Devon & Michael Hague, Andrew Barger, Ann Charters, Keith Gouveia, Big Anklevitch & Rish Outfield [sic], Paul Kane & Marie O'Regan, Karen Henderson, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen Jones, Laura Kati Corlew & Charles G. Waugh, James Daley, Hans-Ake Lilja, Dahlia Adler, Ian Gordon, Abraham H. Lass & Norma L. Tasman, Barrett H. Clark & Maxin Lieber, Claude M. Simpson & Allan Nevins, Wilbur Schramm, Kenneth S. Lynn, John L. Foster, Elliot L. Gilbert, Raymond Wilson, John Long, Jon & Marjorie Ford, Gary Hoppenstand, X. J. Kennedy & Diana Gioia, Lawrence Block, Diana Gioia & R. S. Gwynn, and many uncredited editors; reprinted in Swinton's Story-Teller, November 21, 1883, Romance, November 1892, Ten Story Book, 1902, Weird Tales, November 1923, The Golden Book Magazine, October 1929, The Evening Standard, May 17, 1933, Scientific Detective, October 1946, Argosy, Auigust 1949, Fantastic, Fall 1952, True Strange (Stories), May/June 1957, Startling Mysrtery Stories, Summer 1966, Thrills & Chills #11, 1995, Strange Worlds, July 2000, and Night Frights #2, 2021)   A ghostly tale of the supernatural, or a brilliant display of psychological horror?
• Theodore Sturgeon, "It"  (first published in Unknown, August 1940, rerinted in the collections Without Sorcery, 1948, Alien Cargo, 1984, and The Ultimate Egoist, 1995; anthologized by August Derleth, Groff Conklin, Damon Knight, Basil Davenport, Alfred Hitchcock, Helen Hoke, Peter Haining, Terry Carr, Christopher Lee & Michael Parry, Les Daniels & Diane Thompson, Barbara Ireson, Bryon Newton, Isaac Asimov & Martin H. Greenberg, Mary Danby, Stanley Schmidt & Martin H. Greenberg, David Drake, Martin H. Greenberg & Charles G. Waugh, Robert Silverberg & Martin H. Greenberg, Stefan R. Dziemianowicz [with Robert Weinberg & Martin H. Greenberg], John  Skipp, and Otto Penzler; reprinted in Argosy, January 1947, Worlds of the Unknown #2, 2015, and Nightmare Abbey, Winter 2022/2023)   A muck-monster arises from the samp to terrorize a family.  Curious, it tears likving things apart to see how they work.  Arguably the progenitor of such commic book characters as DC Comics' Swamp Thing, Marvel's Man-Thing, and Hillman Comics' the Heap.
• H. G. Wells, "The Red Room"   (first published in The Idler, March 1896; reprinted in the collectios Thirty Strange Stories, 1897, The Plattner Story and Others, 1897, The Country of the Blind and Other Stories, 1913, Tales of Wonder, 1923, In the Days of the Comet and Seventeen Short Stories, 1925, The Obliterated Man and Other Stories, 1925, The Short Stories of H. G. Wells, 1927, and various later assemblages of wells's short stories; anthologized by William Patten, Joseph Lewis French, Arthur Neale, Marjorie Bowen, H. Douglas Thompson, Dennis Wheatley, William Strode, Alfred Hitchcock, William E. Thorner, Elizabeth Lee, Calvin Beck, Bryan a. Netherwood, Christine Bernard, Susan Dickinson, Vic Crume & Gladys Schwartz, Seon Manly & Gogo Lewis, Les Daniels, Peter C. Smith, Lois A. Markham, Mary Danby, Michaeel Parry & Christopher Lee, E. M. Freeman, Deborah Shine, Marvin Kaye, Raymond Wilson, Betty Ann Schwartz. Tim Haydock, Michael Cox & R. A. Gilbert, Barry Moser, T. M. Gray & Charles G. Waugh, M. Grant Kellermeyer, Stefan Dziemianowicz, Alastair Gunn, J. D. Horn, David Stuart Davies, Grant Overton, Ross R. Olney, Aaron Polson, S. T. Joshi, Laura Bulbeck, and John Landis; reprinted in Short Stories, April 1908, Chicago Ledger, March 4, 1011, Ghost Stories, April 1927, The Argosy, Janaury 1929 and July 1949, The Evning Standard, Decmeber 11, 1933, Magazine of Horror and Strange Stories, November 1963,    A haunted house room story where fear itself is the suopernatural entity.

BONUS:  Ray Bradbury, "The October Game"  (first published in Weird Tales, March 1948; collected in Long After Midnight, 1976, and The Stories of Ray Bradbury, 1980; anthologized by Alfred Hitchcock, Basil Davenport, Peter Haining, Vic Ghidalia, Stuart David Schiff & Fritz Leiber, Mary Danby, Carol Lynn Rossel Waugh [with Martin H. Greenberg & Isaac Asimov], Stefan R. Dziemianowicz [with Martin H. Greenberg & Robert Weinberg], Paula Guran, and Richard Chizmar & Robert Morrish; reprinted in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, June 1957, and Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, November 1963)   A man plots revenge against his wife at a neighborhood Halloween party, but things go horribly wrong.  Unforgettable.

QUESTION #1:  How many of these classics have you read, and which is your favorite?  Which made you find it difficult to sleep?

QUESTION #2:  It's Halloween night, the lights are low, the fireplace is burning, cjhildren are gathered around to hear you read a spooky story.  Which one would you pick for the kiddos?

I'll wrap up my list of short stories for October next week with some lesser-known tales.