Wild West Photo Friday: Have you seen. . .The Thing?

One of the many signs advertising The Thing. Photo courtesy C. G. P. Grey.

OK, this is actually a modern subject, but who says the West isn't still wild? If you've ever driven along I-10 between Phoenix and El Paso, you've seen the signs about The Thing. Yup, both words capitalized. Every time. It may be the most advertised roadside attraction in the United States, with around 250 billboards hyping The Thing stretched across more than 200 miles of interstate.

I love roadside attractions. It's a dying bit of Americana that I hope never disappears. The Thing is in the tiny town of Douglas, Arizona, and features a roadside diner, shop, and of course the mysterious museum. I used to love going there when I lived in Tucson.

The museum is filled with displays "said to have been" owned by famous people. The Million Dollar Museum in Carlsbad, New Mexico, used a similar tactic to make dusty old things take on a new shine. Photo courtesy C. G. P. Grey.

The museum consists of three large steel sheds jam packed with dusty old exhibits--old guns, saddles, driftwood carved into weird shapes, and a large display of torture instruments. It all looks a bit tattered, but that's a part of its charm. There's no slick presentation like you'd get in a modern theme park.

On the walls hang garish yellow signs that proclaim the uniqueness and incalculable value of the displays. This is straight out of the carny handbook--hype up an attraction and once the crowd is in, hype it up some more so they don't have buyer's remorse.

The museum is filled with creepy folk art. There's even a whole room displaying of medieval torture techniques. Photo courtesy C. G. P. Grey.

As you make your way through the museum, you follow a trail of monster footprints leading to the final display--The Thing itself! Jump the cut to see what it is. If you're planning on going yourself, you might want to skip this spoiler.

Book Review: The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs

The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up for free from Gollancz at the 2014 Eastercon. Like Barricade, another freebie from the same publisher that I reviewed here earlier, I found it to be a well-written novel that ended up disappointing me.

The setting is an alternative Wild West colonized by the Rumans, an alternative Roman Empire that gets its strength from Hellfire--captured imps and demons that are made to power steamboats, weapons, and other devices. So yeah, you have fantasy, steampunk, and Weird West all wrapped into one. Variants on the Chinese and Spanish are also mentioned.

The action centers around Shoe and Fisk, two scouts employed by a Ruman senator to clear the way for his steamboat as it carries a very important cargo--a captured Spanish princess. Shoe is half dvergar, a dwarf-like race native to the continent. Shoe narrates the plot but does very little, the story mostly being about Fisk, a typical Western hero, a Lone Ranger to Shoe's Tonto.

And this is the first major stumbling block to my enjoyment of the book. The only other dvergar in the book is also in a servile role. The other native race are the vaettir, elf-like savages that scalp, kill babies, carry off women, and burn settlements. Instead of developing some interesting cultures based on, say, the Navajo or Iroquois, Jacobs cops out and reverts to the simplistic Good, Servile Indian vs. Savage, Hostile Indian trope.

This is the 21st century. Do better.

The senatorial family that Shoe and Fisk are guarding are similarly cartoonish. They are so backbiting and clueless as to be unbelievable, and their stupidity extends to putting their captive, upon whom the future of the Ruman Empire rests, into unnecessary danger. This furthers the plot but could have been handled in a more convincing manner. Add a few clichés (black fire, Infernal Combustion Engines) and I was left struggling to finish it.

And that's a real shame. Jacobs is an excellent writer, his prose always flowing well and presenting some beautiful descriptions. His creativity and obvious talent should have resulted in a better novel. I will probably try out one of Jacobs' other works, but I will not be reading the sequel to The Incorruptibles.

View all my reviews

Old West Photo Friday: Cowboy Riding Jackalope

Here's an old postcard showing a cowboy riding the fabled Jackalope. While most Jackalopes are rabbit sized, sometimes they get big enough for cowboys to saddle them up and hop around the plains. A Jackalope, of course, is a cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope.

You can read about Jackalopes and a lot of other weird stuff in my new booklet out by Charles River Editors, The Weird Wild West: Tall Tales and Legends about the Frontier. There was a free giveaway on Amazon for the past couple of days, but since I was traveling up to Oxford I didn't get a chance to tell all of you. Sorry about that! I think a lot of people will be reaidng about Jackalopes this week because it made it to #271 on Amazon!

Charles River has come out with a second booklet of mine on The Trench Warfare of World War I. It got up to #338 on Amazon during the free giveaway. Sadly, that's also over. I should really get a Smartphone and start obsessively checking the Internet like everyone else. On second thought, I think I'll stay in the real world. That's where the Jackalopes live!


Photo courtesy Jackalope postcards, which has an amazing collection online. Seeing is believing!

Second Edition Selfie!

I just got my author's copies of the second edition of Outlaw Tales of Missouri in the post. It's actually been out since October but I've been moving around so much the publisher hasn't had a chance to send them to me! This edition includes two new chapters and brand new cover art. It's available in print and ebook.

I gave a copy to fellow Madrid writer Andrew Leon Hudson, who writes some pretty cool weird west stuff you should check out if you're a fan of the genre. Hopefully it will inspire him!

Spirits of St. Louis anthology out now!

Missouri publisher Rocking Horse Publishing has just come out with Spirits of St. Louis, an anthology of ghost stories set in Missouri.

It includes my story "After the Raid", an offshoot of my Civil War horror novel A Fine Likeness. For those who have read the novel, it follows the story of Helena, the daughter of the German photographer who gets killed by the bushwhacker band, and how she takes a terrible revenge. Of course a terrible revenge comes at a terrible price. . .

The story also stands on its own in case you haven't read the book (ahem).

Here's the back cover blurb.

Lonely Hitchhikers. Dirt Roads. Tired Soldiers. Strange Children. Mysterious Ladies. Dark Houses. What do they have in common? 

They all haunt the pages of this book.

From the Lemp Mansion to The Exorcist, from the 1904 World's Fair to Jefferson Barracks, the history of St. Louis, Missouri and its surrounding river towns is filled with stories of haunts and the supernatural.

Spirits of St. Louis: Missouri Ghost Stories is a collection of over thirty stories from authors across the globe, celebrating these ghosts, banshees, and shadows.

Do you believe in ghosts? If you believe or not, this collection of dark tales of the dead and disturbed is sure to keep you awake at night. Lock the doors, turn down the lights, and prepare to be terrified.