Greetings, Manor Hors! Periodically, "The Roving Pecker" presents urgent missives from filthy esteemed guest writers. Today's entry is from Raincoaster! If there's one thing we know about Jerome K. Jerome , it's that his parents were people of remarkably little imagination. That said, it's a flaw their son did not share. One of the most famous and popular humourists of his time, Jerome K. Jerome had a talent that hasn't become stale with age, unlike many of his peers. For that reason, today we're posting his explanation of why, exactly, ghost stories are traditional at this time of year.  It's the old pagan idea,  evolved over centuries,  that the powers of evil grew stronger with the darkness; with Christianity, it's the idea of evil becoming more powerful until the birth of Jesus, who beat them all back, leaving them to flee until Halloween. But there, I'm getting ahead of my betters. Let's learn from the very best - and the funniest ...

Greetings, Manor Hors! Periodically, "The Roving Pecker" presents urgent missives from filthy esteemed guest writers. Today's blood-cirdling entry is from Raincoaster! You won't thank me for this one. If Tarnhelm was creepy, this seasonal story is next-level terrifying. Ready your night light; you'll need it. A jarring mashup of an anticipated jolly holiday for a joyful young man, and a terrifying, yet morally understandable haunting by the most horrific of criminals, this tale shows the true mastery of the short story form by Anglo-Canadian author Algernon Blackwood . He wrote several seasonal stories, and his catalogue is rich, even if he never was. Blackwood had the kind of resume to which modern writers can only aspire: dairy farmer, theosophical society founder, yellow press reporter, proto-pulp author who skillfully wove indigenous legends into contemporary fiction, whether the setting were the French marshes (The Willows) or the northern Canadian woodland...

Greetings, Manor Hors! Periodically, "The Roving Pecker" presents urgent missives from filthy esteemed guest writers. Today's chilling entry is from Raincoaster! It's your lucky day...but maybe not Toby Crooke's. He's dead, you see. Although inert from the opening of the story, he's the central and titular character of J. Sheridan Le Fanu 's complex, charming, and chilling Christmas ghost story, "The Dead Sexton." Le Fanu's lesbian vampire tale, "Carmilla," helped inspire Bram Stoker's "Dracula," and is certainly responsible for the great lashings of sex appeal in most of the Dracula legacy. His style is what people think of as the "classical" ghost story, because he is one of the foundational authors of modern horror. The reason it feels familiar is that every horror author you've ever read has been influenced by him. Naturally, there's a sexy, supernatural, and mesmerizing character in this sto...