Behind every stack of books is a flood of knowledge:

Behind every stack of books is a flood of knowledge.

Recommended reading - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000)

 

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

by Stephen King

Published by Scribner.
This edition published in 2020.
Paperback.
 
ISBN-10: 1982159375
ISBN-13: 978-1982159375
 
Description:
 
"A one-of-a-kind classic." – The Wall Street Journal.
 
"On Writing had more useful and observant things to say about the craft than any book since Strunk and White's The Elements of Style." – Roger Ebert.
 
"This is a special book, animated by a unique intelligence, and filled with useful truth." – Michael Chabon.
 
“The best book on writing. Ever.” – The Cleveland Plain Dealer.
 

“Long live the King” hailed Entertainment Weekly upon publication of Stephen King’s On Writing. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King’s advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999 – and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it – fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.

Recommended reading - Danse Macabre (2012)

Danse Macabre

by Stephen King

Published by Hachette Book Group.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 9781444723267

ISBN-13: 978-1444723267

Description:

From the author of dozens of #1 New York Times bestsellers and the creator of many unforgettable movies comes a vivid, intelligent, and nostalgic journey through three decades of horror as experienced through the eyes of the most popular writer in the genre. In 1981, years before he sat down to tackle On Writing, Stephen King decided to address the topic of what makes horror horrifying and what makes terror terrifying. Here, in ten brilliantly written chapters, King delivers one colorful observation after another about the great stories, books, and films that comprise the horror genre—from Frankenstein and Dracula to The Exorcist, The Twilight Zone, and Earth vs. The Flying Saucers.

With the insight and good humor his fans appreciated in On Writing, Danse Macabre is an enjoyably entertaining tour through Stephen King’s beloved world of horror.

The author whose boundless imagination and storytelling powers have redefined the horror genre, from 1974’s Carrie to his new epic Under the Dome, reflects on the very nature of terror – what scares us and why – in films (both cheesy and choice), television and radio, and, of course, the horror novel, past and present.

Informal, engaging, tremendous fun, and tremendously informative, Danse Macabre is an essential tour with the master of horror as your guide; much like his spellbinding works of fiction, you won’t be able to put it down. 

Born on this day – Victor Halperin:

Victor Halperin

Actor

Director

Producer

Writer

August 24, 1895 – May 17, 1983

Credits:

Bachelor Bait (1934); Buried Alive (1939); Convoy (1927); Dance Magic (1927); Double Reward (1922); Ex-Flame (1930); Girls' Town (1942); Greater Than Marriage (1924); I Conquer the Sea! (1936); In Borrowed Plumes (1926); Nation Aflame (1937); Party Girl (1930); Racing Blood (1936); Revolt of the Zombies (1936); School for Wives (1925); She Goes to War (1929); Supernatural (1933); Tea: With a Kick! (1923); The Danger Point (1922); The Lone Star Trail (1943); The Unknown Lover (1925); Torture Ship (1939); Underseas (2018); When a Girl Loves (1924); White Zombie (1932).

Born on this day – Gertrude Bambrick:

Gertrude Bambrick

Actress

August 24, 1897 – January 10, 1974

Credits:

A Circumstantial Hero (1913); A Compromising Complication (1913); A Horse on Bill (1913); A Limited Divorce (1912); A Ragtime Romance (1913); A Real Estate Deal (1912); A Saturday Holiday (1913); A Spring Chicken (1916); All Hail to the King (1913); Almost a Wild Man (1913); An Old Maid's Deception (1913); As It Might Have Been (1914); Aunts, Too Many! (1913); Baby Indisposed (1913); Broken Ways (1913); Brothers (1913); Cinderella and the Boob (1913); Cupid and the Cook (1913); Divorcons (1915); Faust and the Lily (1913); For the Son of the House (1913); Frappe Love (1913); Gold and Glitter (1912); Highbrow Love (1913); His Hoodoo (1913); Intolerance (1916); Jenks Becomes a Desperate Character (1913); Judith of Bethulia (1914); Just Kids (1913); Liberty Belles (1914); Love in an Apartment Hotel (1913); Master Jefferson Green (1913); McGann and His Octette (1913); Mr. Spriggs Buys a Dog (1913); Near to Earth (1913); Objections Overruled (1913); Oil and Water (1913); Red Hicks Defies the World (1913); The Adventures of Dollie (1912); The Billionaire (1914); The End of the World (1913); The God Within (1912); The Hicksville Epicure (1913); The King and the Copper (1913); The Lady in Black (1913); The Mothering Heart (1913); The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912); The New York Hat (1912); The One She Loved (1912); The Perfidy of Mary (1913); The Reformers; or, the Lost Art of Minding One's Business (1913); The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary (1916); The Skating Rink (1916); The Suffragette Minstrels (1913); The Telephone Girl and the Lady (1913); The Waiter Who Waited (1915); The Widow's Kids (1913); The Winning Punch (1913); Those Little Flowers (1913); Two Daughters of Eve (1912); Virtue Is Its Own Reward (1914); Who's Looney Now? (1914).

Born on this day – Dorothy Comingore:

 

Dorothy Comingore

Actress

August 24, 1913 – December 30, 1971

Credits:

Any Number Can Play (1949); Blondie Meets the Boss (1939); Cafe Hostess (1940); Campus Cinderella (1938); Citizen Kane (1941); Citizen Kane Trailer (1940); Coast Guard (1939); Comet Over Broadway (1938); Compression (2025); Convicted Woman (1940); Fireside Theatre (1951); Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (1939); Golden Boy (1939); Good Girls Go to Paris (1939); Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (2014); Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); North of the Yukon (1939); Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise (1939); Outside These Walls (1939); Picture People Vol. 2 No. 7: Children of the Stars (1942); Pioneers of the Frontier (1940); Prison Train (1938); Rebound (1952); Rockin' Thru the Rockies (1940); Romance of the Redwoods (1939); Scandal Sheet (1939); The Awful Goof (1939); The Big Night (1951); The Doctor (1952); The Hairy Ape (1944); The Heckler (1940); The South Bank Show (1988); Trade Winds (1938).

Born on this day – Joan Chandler:

 

Joan Chandler

Actress

August 24, 1923 – May 11, 1979

Born on this day – Helena Carter:

Helena Carter

Actress

August 24, 1923 – January 11, 2000

Born on this day – Rachael Carpani:

 

Rachael Carpani

Actress

August 24, 1980 – December 7, 2025

Credits:

15th AACTA Awards (2026); 800 Words (2017–2018); ABC News Breakfast (2025); Against the Wall (2011); All Saints (2001); Australia's Funniest Home Video Show (2005); Beat (2022); Cane (2007); Hating Alison Ashley (2005); Home and Away (2001–2024); Ihaka: Blunt Instrument (2000); Law Dogs (2007); McLeod's Daughters (2001–2009); McLeod's Daughters: The Inside Story (2003); NCIS: Los Angeles (2009); Scorched (2008); Stalker (2014); The 49th Annual TV Week Logie Awards (2007); The Glades (2010); The Making of 'Triangle' (2010); The Rachels (2017); The Umbrella Man (2016); The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee (2020); The Way Back (2020); Touched by Romance (2014); Triangle (2009); True Blue (2010); V.C. Andrews' Dollanganger Saga (2015); Weekend Sunrise (2017).

Born on this day – A. S. Byatt:

 

A. S. Byatt

Writer

August 24, 1936 – November 16, 2023

Credits:

Books:

A Stone Woman (2011); A Whistling Woman (2002); Angels and Insects (1992); Babel Tower (1996); Best European Fiction 2013 (2012); Black Water 2 (1990); Body Art (2011); Deadly Sins (1994); Degrees of Freedom (1994); Dolls' Eyes (2013); Elementals (1998); Ghostly (2015); Life (2013); Medusa's Ankles (2021); Memory (2008); Mistresses of the Dark (1998); New Writing 4 (1995); On Histories and Stories (2000); Passions of the Mind (1990); Peacock & Vine (2016); Portraits in Fiction (2001); Possession (1990); Ragnarok (2011); Raw Material (2011); Short Stories (2009); Sightlines (2001); Still Life (1985); Stories for Mothers and Daughters (2025); Sugar (1987); The Biographer's Tale (2000); The Children's Book (2009); The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye (1994); The Game (1967); The Literary Ghost (1991); The Little Black Book of Stories (2003); The Matisse Stories (1975); The New Uncanny (2008); The Oxford Book of English Short Stories (1998); The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1996); The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories (1984); The Pink Ribbon (2011); The Shadow of the Sun (1991); The Thing in the Forest (2011); The Virgin in the Garden (1978); The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Sixth Annual Collection (1993); The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Twelfth Annual Collection (1999); Unruly Times (1970); White Fire (1991).

 

Movies and television:

Angels and Insects (1995); Bestseller (2001); Bookmark (1995–1996); Ceramics: A Fragile History (2011); Cover to Cover (1987); Inside the News (1975); Late Night Line-Up (1968); Mark Lawson Talks to... (2009); Medusa's Ankles (2018); Newsnight at 30 (2010); Omnibus (1989); Possession (2002); Read All About It (1978–1979); Roundhead or Cavalier: Which One Are You? (2012); Samtaler i natten (1996); Take It or Leave It (1967–1970); The Andrew Neil Show (1996); The Brains Trust (1996); The Burgess Variations (1999); The Late Show (1992–1994); The South Bank Show (1990); The Worlds of Fantasy (2008); Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022); Un siècle d'écrivains (1997).

On this day in movie history - Pitfall (1948)

Pitfall

directed by André de Toth,

written by Karl Kamb, André de Toth and William Bowers,

based on the novel The Pitfall by Jay Dratler,

was released in the United States on August 24, 1948.

Music by Louis Forbes.

Cast:

Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt, Raymond Burr, John Litel, Byron Barr, Jimmy Hunt, Ann Doran, Selmer Jackson, Margaret Wells, Dick Wessel.

Recommended reading:

The Pitfall

by Jay Dratler.

Introduction by Jay Dratler Jr. & Timothy J. Lockhart.

Published by Stark House Press.

First published 1939.

ASIN: B0BGMFDDKV

ISBN-13: 979-8886010084

Description:

Jon Forbes is a happily married screenwriter in Hollywood when his cop friend Mac tells him about a gal named Mona he’s interested in. Her husband is in jail, and she knows that Mac is the cop who put him there. So, Mac asks Forbes to set her up for him. Take her out, introduce her to him as a friend.

But that’s where Forbes’s troubles begin. Because happily married or not, Mona gets into his blood immediately. And he into hers. And now he’s not only lying to his wife, but trying to avoid Mac as well. He and Mona have no idea where this will lead, but they both know it can’t end well. But neither of them figure just how far Mac will go to get Forbes out of the way once he discovers his friend’s betrayal. Nor what Forbes will do to protect his own.

On this day in movie history - A Strange Adventure (1956)

A Strange Adventure

directed by William Witney,

written by Houston Branch,

was released in the United States on August 24, 1956.

Music by R. Dale Butts.

Cast:

Joan Evans, Ben Cooper, Marla English, Jan Merlin, Nick Adams, Peter Miller, Paul Smith, Emlen Davies, Frank Wilcox, Thomas Browne Henry, John Maxwell, Steve Wayne, Wendell Niles, John Pickard, Jack Shea, Ken Terrell, Al Wyatt Sr.

On this day in movie history - Strangers Kiss (1983_

Strangers Kiss

directed by Matthew Chapman,

written by Blaine Novak, Matthew Chapman,

released at the Montréal World Film Festival in Canada on August 24, 1983.

Music by Gato Barbieri.

Cast: 

Peter Coyote, Victoria Tennant, Blaine Novak, Dan Shor, Richard Romanus, Linda Kerridge, Carlos Palomino, Vincent Palmieri, Jay Rasumny, Sloan Roberts / Jon Sloan, Joe Nipote, Larry Dilg, Leo Impellizzeri, Jeanette Joseph, Cecil Hill, Frank Moon, Arthur Adams, Joe Pompa, Alexander Hendrie, Larry Maggart, Michael Haywood, Ken Gerson, Rob Petersen, Mark Wendell, Eric Bartsch, Brian Maguire, Jack Dolan, William Schwalbe, Calvin Greenfield, John Bennet, Paul Duncan, Annely Uherek, Sharon Doss, Shelbie Alvarez, Jo Lynn Anderson, Bella Bremer, Pamela Bailey, Kay Bryant, Sheila Colligan, Camille Crim, Tina Challey, Maria Campese, Laura DeStefanis, Lisa Gold, Julie Grandpre, Della Hafner, Kim Jakwerth, Ella Johnson, Diana Kavilis, Sheryl Marshall, Kristine Marx, Judy Rae McIntosh, Becky Marcus, Shirley Moon, Tanya Moreau, Courtney Nichols, Susan Penn, Jo Ann Quinlan, Rosa Rios, Teresa Rispoli, Janet Stevens, Stacy Slater, Kathy Torsak, Cheri Thomas, Carmen Yadao, Mary Yadao, Sergio Arthur Arocha, Mauricio Azcarate, Jim Baldwin, David Bremer, Dennis Cadena, Jerome Courshon, Christopher Cory, Marc Cherry, Ted Diggins, Andrew Divoff, Taffey Edwards, James Frable, Glen Falls, Jim Fredricks, Sean Francis, Jeffrey Hutchinson, Leroy Hardy, Sean Hale, Martin Keegan, Gil Larson, William Mintz, Ken McWilliams, Gerald E. Miller, Kenny Morris, Kenneth McCarthy, Lionel Petrilli, James Petzoid, Don Parker, Jeff Rutkin, Milton Robinson, Walter Smith, Robert Sugar, Steve Thomason, John Welsh, Jamie Wooten, Edward Yeager, Hercules Bellville, Keegan Marty.

On this day in movie history - Sniper: The White Raven (2022)

 

Sniper: The White Raven

directed by Marian Bushan,

written by Marian Bushan and Mykola Voronin,

based on the true life and experiences of Mykola Voronin,

was released in Ukraine on August 24, 2022.

Music by Nadiia Odesuk / Nadya Odesyuk.

 

Cast:

Pavlo Aldoshyn, Maryna Koshkina, Andrey Mostrenko, Roman Semysal, Oleg Drach, Roman Yasinovskiy, Oleg Shulga, Vadim Lyalko, Vadim Kurilko, Vladyslav Dmytrenko, Eugen Volosheniuk, Oleksandr Bykov, Serhiy Artemenko, Egor Kozlov, Zachary Shadrin, Olena Chervonenko, Demyan Radzivilyuk, Alina Karpenko, Anatoly Tikhomirov, Yanina Andreeva, Evhen Chernykov, Igor Parkhomenko, Vitaliy Kovalskyy, Oleksiy Storozhuk, Vitaliy Belskyy, Aleksandr Dyumin, Oleksiy Nakonechnyi, Andriy Yakubov, Kyrylo Goz, Vitaly Kalyuzhny, Mike Parish, Adrian Petriw.

 

Music by Nadiia Odesuk / Nadya Odesyuk.

Review by Jack Kost:

Saturday, August 24, 2024.

I first saw Sniper: The White Raven back in April (2024), on The Movie Channel.
After watching it, I had to include and recommend it in my book, What’s On?
 
Based on the true life and experiences of Mykola Voronin, an ecologist, teacher and writer.

He lived a simple life off the grid with his wife, Nastya, in Donbas, Ukraine.

In 2014, Russian soldiers invaded and murdered his wife.

Mykola, fueled by rage and the need for justice and vengeance for his wife, enlisted in the Ukrainian Army.

He trained, became a sniper, and fought back.

He switched from idealistic pacifist to warrior, assigning himself the codename Raven, in reference to the White Raven symbol his wife placed in stones outside their home.

Mykola vowed to defend Ukraine.

Russia senselessly invaded Ukraine again in 2022.

This movie and true story couldn’t be more topical or important.

Powerful.

Real.

Raw.

Tragic.

Heartbreaking.

We stand with Ukraine.
Victory to Ukraine.
Glory to Ukraine.
Slava Ukraini.

On this day in music history - The album Change, by Sue Foley (2004)

 

Change

by Sue Foley

was released on August 24, 2004.

Track list:

Goin’ Down the Road Again; Hardworking Woman; Doggie Treats; Careless Love; Change; Bad Luck Woman; Mournin’ in the Morning; Sugar in My Bowl; Here Comes the Sun; Me and My Chauffeur; You Don’t Have to Go; Shake That Thing.