Born on this day – James Herbert:

James Herbert

Writer

April 8, 1943 – March 20, 2013

Credits:

Books:

The Rats (aka Deadly Eyes) (1974); Lair (1979); Domain (1983); The City (1994); Haunted (1988); The Ghosts Of Sleath (1994); ‘48 (1996); Ash (2012); The Fog (1975); The Survivor (1976); Fluke (1977); The Spear (1978); The Dark (1980); The Jonah (1981); Shrine (1983); Moon (1985); The Magic Cottage (1986); Sepulchre (1987); Creed (1990); Portent (1992); Others (1999); Once... (2001); Nobody True (2003); The Secret of Crickley Hall (2006); James Herbert’s Dark Places (1993); Gaslight & Ghosts (1988); Now We Are Sick (1991); Ghost Movies (1995); The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, #11 (2000); The Mammoth Book of Body Horror (2012).

Movies and television:

Afternoon Live (1997); Deadly Eyes (1982); Fear in the Dark (1991); Fluke (1995); Haunted (1995); In Search of Dracula with Jonathan Ross (1996); Light Lunch (1997); The Perfect Scary Movie (2005); The Secret of Crickley Hall (2012); The Survivor (1981); The Survivor: Robert Powell on James Herbert (2017); The Survivor: The Legacy of James Herbert (2017); The Unholy (2021); The Vault of Horror (1992); The Wright Stuff (2006–2012); The Write Stuff (1989); This Is Your Life (1995–2003); Today with Des and Mel (2003); V Graham Norton (2002); Wogan (1985–1991).

Born on this day – Greg Iles:

Greg Iles

Writer

April 8, 1960 – August 15, 2025

Credits:

Books:

24 Hours / aka Trapped (2000); Altar of Bones (2011); Black Cross (1995); Black Cross / 24 Hours / Third Degree (2016); Blood Memory (2005); Cemetery Road (2019); Dead Sleep (2001); Dead Sleep / Sleep No More / True Evil (2016); Mississippi Blood (2017); Mortal Fear (1997); Mortal Fear / Spandau Phoenix / The Footprints of God (2016); Natchez Burning (2014); Natchez Burning: Part 1 of 6 (2014); Natchez Burning: Part 2 of 6 (2014); Natchez Burning: Part 3 of 6 (2014); Natchez Burning: Part 4 of 6 (2014); Natchez Burning: Part 5 of 6 (2014); Natchez Burning: Part 6 of 6 (2014); Sleep No More (2002); Solomon Creed (2015); Southern Man (2024); Spandau Phoenix (1993); The Bone Tree (2014); The Death Factory (2014); The Devil's Punchbowl (2009); The Diamond Conspiracy (2002); The Footprints of God / aka Dark Matter (2003); The Piper's Sons (1999); The Quiet Game (1999); The Quiet Game / 24 Hours / Dead Sleep (2003); The Quiet Game / Turning Angel / The Devil's Punchbowl (2015); The Skull Mantra (1999); Third Degree (2007); Thriller (2006); True Evil (2006); Turning Angel (2005).

Movies and television:

Amy Tan in Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir (2021); Tavis Smiley (2015); The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2006); Trapped (2002); Trapped: From Within (2002).

On this day in the Star Trek Universe - Voyager, These are the Voyages:

Star Trek: Voyager (1996)
These Are The Voyages / book (2013)
 

Star Trek: Voyager
Season 2. Episode 22.

Episode entitled: Innocence.

Released April 8, 1996.

Directed by James L. Conway.

Created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor.

Written by Lisa Klink, Anthony Williams.

Based on Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry.

Music by Jay Chattaway.

Cast: Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Biggs-Dawson, Jennifer Lien, Robert Duncan McNeill, Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo, Tim Russ, Garrett Wang, Marnie McPhail, Tiffany Taubman, Sarah Rayne, Tahj Mowry, Richard Garon, Patrick Barnitt, Minh Collins, Tarik Ergin, Kerry Hoyt, Louis Ortiz, Gordon Simmons, Ian Spelling, Simon Stotler, Scott Strozier.

 

These Are The Voyages

by Marc Cushman & Susan Osborn.

The Original Series, Season One.
These Are The Voyages series.

Published by Jacobs Brown Press.
Expanded, Revised edition.
Published 2013.Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0989238121

ISBN-13: 978-0989238120

Description:
"The level of research is astounding ... an incredible job ... The reviews are wonderful and well deserved." – Leonard Nimoy.

"The definitive look at the original series hadn't been written - until now. An exhaustive, episode-by-episode history." – Jeff Bond, Geek Magazine.

"The best book ever written on Star Trek!" – Scott Mantz, Access Hollywood.

"Trek fans will die and get beamed up to heaven!" – Billy Heller, New York Post.

"Everything there is to know about TOS Season One. A great read! I guarantee it!" – Walter Koenig.

In the 1980s Gene Roddenberry and Robert H. Justman gave Marc Cushman permission to write the definitive history of the first Star Trek. They backed their stamp of approval by providing documentation never before shared with the public. These are the Voyages, published in three volumes - one designated for each season of TOS - will take you back in time and put you into the producers' offices, the writers' room, onto the soundstages, and in front of your TV sets for the first historic broadcasts. Included are hundreds of memos between Roddenberry and his staff, production schedules, budgets, fan letters, behind-the-scenes images, and the TV ratings, documenting the making of each episode of the "Classic 79" in staggering detail. Buckle your seat belts, the trek of a lifetime begins here.

On this day in television history - Justified (2014)

Justified
Season 5. Episode 13.

Episode entitled: Restitution.

Released April 8, 2014.

Directed by Adam Arkin.

Written by Graham Yost, Fred Golan, Dave Andron, Leonard Chang.

Based on the short story Fire in the Hole by Elmore Leonard.

Music by Steve Porcaro.

Cast:

Timothy Olyphant, Nick Searcy, Jere Burns, Joelle Carter, Jacob Pitts, Erica Tazel, Walton Goggins, Michael Rapaport, Rick Gomez, Deidrie Henry, Jacob Lofland, Jesse Luken, Don McManus, Alicia Witt, Justin Huen, Leslie Riley, Mary Steenburgen, Natalie Zea, Alex Alexander, Jonathan Kowalsky, Casey McCarthy, Daniel Moncada, Heather Olt, Emiliano Torres, Russell Bertolino, Nicole Bosworth, Cici Leah Campbell, Lisa Pevc.

On this day in music history - Hopes & Dreams (2003)

Hopes & Dreams

by Lisa Lynne

was released on April 8, 2003.

Track list:

Earth & Sky; Living in Love; Dreamdance; Circle the Sun; Bamboo Morning; Soliloquy; Sea March; Home; Interlude; Natural World.

Carson McCullers, on writing:

 

The writer is by nature a dreamer - a conscious dreamer.

- Carson McCullers.

Recommended reading - William Wordsworth Selected Poems

William Wordsworth Selected Poems

by William Wordsworth.

Introduced by Stephen Gill.

Published by Penguin Classics.
First Edition.
First published 2004.
Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0140424423
ISBN-13: 978-0140424423

Description:

One of the major poets of Romanticism, Wordsworth epitomized the spirit of his age with his celebration of the natural world and the spontanous expression of feeling. This volume contains a rich selection from the most creative phase of his life, including extracts from his masterpiece, The Prelude, and the best-loved of his shorter poems such as 'Composed Upon Westminster Bridge', 'Tintern Abbey', 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud', 'Lucy Gray', and 'Michael'. Together these poems demonstrate not only Wordsworth's astonishing range and power, but the sustained and coherent vision that informed his work.