Basilisk Soup and Other Fantasies

In Basilisk Soup & Other Fantasies you’ll find a mermaid smoking French cigarettes in the bath and demanding a holiday, pickled brains plotting in the pantry while Father tangos the night away under the eye of the most honest spy in all Argentina. There’s Talos and Medea, Witches’ skulls, Caliban, Gawain, evil scientists, Anglo-Saxon poetry, and Frankenstein’s Niece. In the story ‘The Sulphur Remedy’ there’s a giant flea sat where the flatmate used to be and, let’s face it, he’s an improvement. In ‘Basilisk Soup’ a green man has lost his head and isn't going to take it lying down. There are surprise visits from dead girlfriends and Christmas with the nicest cannibal in town. There’s Saxon magic colliding catastrophically with Rock and Roll at sea, and in the pleasant valley Yellow Dust is covering the landscape and transforming everything it touches. Basilisk Soup & Other Fantasies collects together stories and poems that have previously appeared in S T Joshi’s Spectral Realms journal, the Horrorzine, anthologies by Ex Occidente Press, Inkermen Press, Dark Hall Press, and History and Mystery LLC. It also include four previously unpublished tales and ten new poems.

About the Author

Oliver Smith's writing has been described as "literary splatter-horror, and wild-conceited ironic fantasy to die for." (D F Lewis), "richly textured and shaded through a dark and subtle palette", "hauntingly poetic", "beautifully written with a superb poetic turn of phrase" and "not my cup of tea..."(all Amazon reviews).

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