Nard's turn!

..
And he stood there for a long long time, just looking and looking out into space and the deep night at the burning and the burning of ten billion billion white and lovely candles....
..

I know this one! But I want someone else to have a go...

THE GIFT

...okay, I'm next!
Let's see, how difficult should this be? How about Piping HOT!

Here 'tis is:

'Looking back, you saw a flurry of hands, like a magician's dream, doors popping wide, taps turned, brooms wielded, children spanked. The flutter of pink hands was the only sound; the rest was a dream without voices."

I know! I know! (raises hand and waves frantically while bouncing up and down on the seat of his school desk...)
One of the most poignantly creepy stories ever written...
BUT, I'll give someone else a chance...

This appears in my TWICE 22, book, the GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN section. The clue here is sound of fluttering pink hands, as they worked on EMBROIDERY.

Thus, it is my turn here.

Now, some clues and trivia about my selection. This short story made its first appearance in a Bradbury book, and has never been available in any other anthology or collection. Also, it is the only story in the entire book that can make that claim. All the other stories in this collection have been either collected or anthologized elsewhere. If you looked on Phil's Bradbury Media site, the short story is listed with the notation, "First Appearance." I hope these clues will help you. Good luck
and good hunting.

"Another man, a younger one, rounded a corner of the plaza near the Notre Dame Cathedral, wandered on down past an American Bank building, a mosque, a Spanish hacienda, and looked into every door, obviously searching, obviously concerned."

This message has been edited. Last edited by: greenray,

OK, GR, since nobody else has had a guess. I will.
The quote sounds like something from "A Graveyard For Lunatics", which I haven't read for many moons.
But, since you indicate it's a short story, with your clues I came up with "The Night Sets".
This is just a guess, mind you, as the title seems to fit the quote. I can't claim familiarity with the story, not ever having been able to afford a copy of "Dark Carnival".

Then buy OCTOBER COUNTRY, silly.

Oops, "The Night Sets" isn't in OC. Hmmm... my copy says that OC is the same collection of stories as DARK CARNIVAL, but just a different title??? At least, I think it says that. Thought it did. Coulda sworn it did.... [walks away, mumbling]

================================================

Okey-dokey, Artichokey...

I see my blunder. The very brief introduction by RB in OC says that 15 (not all) of the stories were from DARK CARNIVAL.

I still think you're a silly, silly man.

================================================

Congratulations Brailing II! The Night Sets, from Dark Carnival, correctly answers my quote. It is now your turn.

You can make your own generic Dark Carnival, except for the story The Night Sets, by buying the following books and magazine;

October Country
The Small Assassin
Stories of Ray Bradbury
Bradbury Stories; 100 of his most celebrated Tales

Lovers and Other Monsters by Marvin Kaye (Story; The Maiden)

Weird Tales: The Magazine That Never Dies by Marvin Kaye (Story; Interim)

Weird Tales, March 1944 (Story; Reunion)

Please note that this will allow you to have the same stories as in the Gauntlet Dark Carnival, give or take a few revisions made to some of the originals.

If anybody wants to see a simple coded matrix for this, respond on this thread and I will post it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: greenray,

quote:

Originally posted by greenray:
If anybody wants to see a simple coded matrix for this, respond on this thread and I will post it.

I want to see it, just to see what a simple coded matrix looks like! I'll bet it's something to see.

Do you have an original Dark Carnival, greenray? All I could afford was the Gauntlet limited edition.

I hope to read "The Night Sets" someday!

Well I'm back from choir practice now, and seeing that it's my turn, I offer the following:

He puffed and chewed on his cigar and stared blindly at his cards. "Sorry." He blinked rapidly and bit his cigar.
"Is it my turn?"
"It's your turn."

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Spaulding:

quote:

Originally posted by greenray:
If anybody wants to see a simple coded matrix for this, respond on this thread and I will post it.

I want to see it, just to see what a simple coded matrix looks like! I'll bet it's something to see.

Do you have an original Dark Carnival, greenray? All I could afford was the Gauntlet limited edition.

Doug,

After making my own Dark Carnival by using the matrix below, I was able to get a used Gauntlet Dark Carnival at a fair price on Alibris.

Regarding the elusive "The Night Sets," here is a little story of how I was able to obtain it from a University student before getting my DC book;

"It was a dark cover with masks on it. It was a hardback and the price of the book was printed as $3.00, so I'm assuming it was a 1947 original. His autograph was inside on the first page. In order to get the book we had to put all of our stuff in a locker. The room was locked and we had to knock to be let in. They asked me what I was looking for and looked up the number. They gave us paper and a pencil to write with and we had to sign information. There was a list of rules we had to read about the material. Then they went in this special locked room that was at a certain temperature (I'm assuming to make sure the old books didn't age) and brought the book out for us. We weren't allowed to go in the room with all the books. Then I asked if I could get a photocopy and the lady said sure and that it would be 10 cents a page. She then took it in another room and photocopied it. We weren't allowed to remove the book from the locked room we were in, so I'm assuming they take that stuff pretty seriously. I think you can copy whatever you want as long as you pay for it."

"The Night Sets" is a very short story, and the cost was only thirty cents.

Make Your Own Dark Carnival!

Here is a simple matrix for Dark Carnival stories, using the Gauntlet Press listing;

The Homecoming*0
Skeleton*0
The Jar*0
The Lake*SA/O
The Maiden*(Lovers and Other Monsters by Marvin Kaye) Source; Locusmag.com, Story index by author
The Tombstone*SA
The Smiling People*SA
The Emissary*O
The Traveler*(Stories of Ray Bradbury)
The Small Assassin*SA/O
The Crowd*SA/O
Reunion*(Weird Tales, March 1944)
The Handler*SA
The Coffin*(The Stories of Ray Bradbury)
Interim*(Weird Tales:The Magazine That Never Dies) Source; Locusmag.com, Story index by author
Jack-In-The-Box*SA/O
The Scythe*O
Let's Play "Poison"*SA
Uncle Einar*O
The Wind*O
The Night*SA
There Was An Old Woman*O
The Dead Man*SA
The Man Upstairs*SA/O
The Night Sets*(First Appearance, Only Available in Arkham or Gauntlet Dark Carnival)
Cistern*SA/O
The Next In Line*SA/O
The Sea Shell, The Watchers, Bang! You're Dead, The Poems, Time Intervening(Bradbury Stories: 100 of his most celebrated tales)

Key To Codes Above;

O = October Country
SA = The Small Assassin
Stories of Ray Bradbury
Bradbury Stories; 100 of his most celebrated Tales

Lovers and Other Monsters by Marvin Kaye (Story; The Maiden)
Weird Tales: The Magazine That Never Dies by Marvin Kaye (Story; Interim)
Weird Tales, March 1944 (Story; Reunion)

Of course many of these stories are readily available in other collections, my idea was to get the stories using the minimum number of books.

Finally, if you are really on a budget, you can get all the stories in the British abbreviated Dark Carnival collection just by purchasing two paperback books.These books are the 1961 British Second Edition paperback of The October Country, and The Small Assassin. According to Eller and Touponce in Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction; "By purchasing both books a reader could have all the weirds found in the British hardback editions of both Dark Carnival and The October Country. But there were no publisher's notes to explain any of this at all." The British Dark Carnival collection has 20 stories, the American version boasts seven more for a total of 27. Gauntlet added four or five more, depending on what edition you purchased. "Time Intervening" was a bonus chapbook for those purchasing the lettered edition, which is still available for $1000.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: greenray,