iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

The introduction and the text, I should say!

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Oh, I have corrections to make! My info got a bit confused, the reprint is of Wills' first Boscobell book, Author in Distress, the same one mentioned in the blog post! As as it turns out, J.F. Morris _is_ connected with the rerelease, he's contributing the foreward!

100

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Add this long-forgotten gem of detection to your rapidly-growing library of Ramble House reprints from the good ol' days of British crime. They just don't write 'em like this any more. Map on back cover by Gavin O'Keefe.

100

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Luckily Detective-Inspector Geoffrey Boscobell is on the case and before long the poisonous machinations of a murderous fiend (or is it fiendess?) are exposed.

100

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Back in 1936 a speedy motor vehicle was an accident waiting to happen, so it was a good time for British mystery writer Cecil M. Wills to come up with a corker of a tale involving a Keelerian will, a nasty feudal lord with a heavy accelerator foot, and plenty of marital discord.

ramblehouse.com

Fatal Accident

100

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Ramble House is working on a rerelease of Fatal Accident, a Boscobell mystery from 1936 by the character's creator Cecil Wills. ramblehouse.com/fatalacciden...

The cover to the Ramble House edition of FATAL ACCIDENT, mostly black with the title words making a T-shape crossing on the A. Cecil M. Wells, A 'Boscobell' Adventure. A Ramble House Mystery.

111

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

We hope you enjoy our specialized version, which also has a new foreward by Ramble House newcomer Chase Griffin! As always, contact Gavin directly (address on the item's page on our site) for a discount!

000

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

The Ramble House edition, which we call "The Forbidden Inversion," has a twist: the stories are printed in reverse order. It starts with the mostly-happy romances, then The Yellow Sign signifies a decent into madness, ending with the unsettling unreliable narrator tale The Repairer of Reputations.

141

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Maybe the intent was to start the word off with horror, then to lighten it with happier tales to produce a feeling of relief in the reader? A lot of people would say that doesn't really quite work.

100

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

It contains ten stories, but it's mostly the first four that are truly horror. The fifth, "The Demoiselle d'Ys," is a love story with an element of time travel to it. The remaining stories are mostly traditional romances.

100

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

These stories were grandfathered into the Cthulhu Mythos by Lovecraft himself, and also by others, who referred to it to lend verisimilitude to their own stories. Yet, The King in Yellow has always had a certain displeasing aspect to it.

100

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

The works are mostly self-contained, but they all feature the script of an uncanny play, "The King in Yellow" of the title, that causes madness and despair in those who read it.

100

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

The King in Yellow was admired by H.P.Lovecraft and members of his circle, as well as many to follow, for containing four exquisite examples of horror: "The Repairer of Reputations," "The Mask," "In The Court of the Dragon" and "The Yellow Sign."

100

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Aah we're back! Ramble House is back for 2026 with the website finally updated for HTTPS, and a new book, a reprint of Robert Chamber's classic (or at least halfway so) work of weird horror THE KING IN YELLOW! You can get it here: ramblehouse.com/thekinginyel...

The cover to the Ramble House "Forbidden Inversion" edition of The King in Yellow. The cover image, by our own Gavin O'Keefe, is of a yellow recreation of a playing card King of Hearts, with the title and author's name over it, the upside-down King is more or less normal, the rightside-up version though the king has a skull, and it looks like his sword is thrust into it!

2123

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

We're still alive! Hopefully I can get a new post up soon!

130

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Based on law school seminars that Nevins taught for more than 20 years, Judges & Justice & Lawyers & Law is a deep dive into law and legal professionals as depicted in popular culture, and how audience understanding of law was shaped by it.

000

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

The other new book from Ramble House is also by Francis Nevins, Judges & Justice & Lawyers & Law: Exploring the Legal Dimensions of Fiction and Film. www.ramblehouse.com/Judges.htm

The cover to Judges & Justice & Lawyers & Law: Exploring the Legal Dimensions of Fiction and Film, by Francis M. Nevins.

110

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

This volume is a follow-up to a previous book by Francis Nevils on Ellery Queen, this time with Nevins hoping to do more justice to Manfred Lee's contributions to the stories.

000

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

The Ellery Queen books are named for their protagonist and the pen name used by their authors, Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, who wrote 40 books about their character. Nevins knew Dannay and considered him like a grandfather to him, but knew much less about co-author Lee.

100

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Ramble House has two new books out! The first is Ellery Queen: The Art of Detection, compiled by Francis Nevins, two-time winner of The Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award. www.ramblehouse.com/EQ.htm

$The cover to Ellery Queen: The Art of Detection by Francis M. Nevins. More text reads "The story of how two fractious cousins reshaped the modern detective novel." The cousins are pictured: Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee.$

110

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

The Anthologist's Folly got written up in the Washington Post by Michael Dirda: www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0... It mentions that the book contains the until-recently hard-to-find story The Hole and the Pit, the only novel by lyricist Adrian Ross.

washingtonpost.com

Review | In praise of three ‘unimportant’ books

Delving into the unusual worlds of Reid Byers’s “Imaginary Books,” Paul Valéry’s “Monsieur Teste” and “The Anthologist’s Folly,” edited by Johnny Mains.

010

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

The Anthologist's Folly is a collection of eldritch horror stories curated by award-winning editor Johnny Mains. It collects stories from Bram Stoker, Algernon Blackwood, Oswell Blakeston, A.J. Alan, and other horror authors. Its page on Ramble House's website: www.ramblehouse.com/Anthologists...

The cover of the book The Anthologist's Folly, edited by Johnny Mains. It shows an illustration of a stone tower in the woods being struck by lightning.

1115

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Other work has gotten in the way lately, but we're still around! Expect a new post soon.

010

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

As always, contact Gavin directly (email address on the book's page) for a discount and the best shipping rates.

000

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Editor Johnny Mains certainly put in the heavy lifting in compiling this volume, which brings together many lost stories. Some of his work has seen wider exposure: one story appeared in Weird Tales, and one was adapted in the 70s as an episode of Night Gallery.

110

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

But in his writing he wasn't always unsympathetic to the native people, and some of his stories have a supernatural element where the colonizers come out the worst for ignoring their beliefs and practices.

110

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Cook was a master of supernatural horror, fed by the superstitions of the natives he played a role in subjugating. It should be noted that he was a product of his time, and his stories contain some content many would find objectionable today. His post in Borneo ended due to a native uprising.

110

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Most of Cook's work has only been published once before now. The book contains all his short fiction, except for the possibly-lost tale "The Owl's Warning," from Pep Stories, October 1927.

110

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Oscar Cook spent over a decade of his early adulthood as part of the British colonialist project in Borneo, and the experience marked and shaped both him and his writing for the rest of his life. He wrote memoirs (Borneo: Stealer of Hearts) and 38 short stories, of which 37 appear here.

110

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

A new book from Ramble House, His Beautiful hands: The Short Fiction of Oscar Cook, collected and edited, with great effort, by Johnny Mains! www.ramblehouse.com/HisBeautiful...

A sepia-tone photograph of British author Oscar Cook, on the cover of the Ramble House book His Beautiful Hands: The Short Fiction of Oscar Cook, Edited & Introduced by Johnny Mains

274

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Lupoff met with Gores to get his permission to write Marblehead, a story in the same vein.

000

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

The introduction tells us that, while both Lovecraft's Book and Marblehouse are fictional, Lupoff spoke to several people who had known Lovecraft in life about him. Marblehead was inspired by Joe Gores' Hammett, a fictional action story with real-life author Dashiell Hammett as the hero.

100

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Ramble House founder Fender Tucker wrote an introduction that lays out the history of Marblehead here: www.ramblehouse.com/marbleheadin... "[...]there is a sort of car chase from Providence to Salem in a classic 320-horsepower SJ Duesenberg at the nerve-wracking speed of 35 mph!"

A map with the legend "Locale of Political Intrigue: 'MARBLEHEAD'" Th emap shows locations in the town of Marblehead, and an inset depicts part of New England, with the sites of Marblehead, Salem, Providence and Boston pointed out, as well as (some ways to the south) New York City.

100

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Arkham House published mystery and horror writer Richard Lupoff's (RIP 2020) Lovecraft's Book in 1985, but it was a heavily cut down version of a much larger version called Marblehead. Marblehead was lost until 2012 when Ramble House published the complete novel: www.ramblehouse.com/marblehead.htm

The cover to Marblehead: A Novel of H.P. Lovecraft, by Richard A. Lupoff. Three faces look forth from the cover. The face in back wears a swastika pin, and a copy of Mein Kampf is in the upper-left. Yikes!

120

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

We don't know the copyright status, he was popular enough though that presumably someone can still publish them? What RH publishes is a companion, it describes the stories but doesn't quote more than short bits.

100

Reposted by Ramble House Books

Harry Stephen Keeler @harryskeeler.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

[“As he fed the cat with Executive Mansion cutlery, the First Lady asked: “Don’t you think it is shameful for Mr. Lincoln to feed tabby with a gold fork?” Her husband replied: “If the gold fork was good enough for Buchanan I think it is good enough for Tabby” and continued feeding the cat.”]

052

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

I am just the social media person, I can ask Fender what he knows though.

100

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

The Companion is written as a kind of alphabetical glossary. Many characters, places and titles connected with Carr, both that he wrote and that were written about him and his work, are described. 422 pages with an extensive index.

000

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

He's the creator of the detectives Henri Bencolin, Dr. Gideon Fell, Sir Henri Merrivale, and Col. March of the Scotland Yard Department of Queer Complaints (the subject of a British TV mystery series from 1954 where March is played by Boris Karloff -- I've seen some of these).

100

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

John Dickson #Carr was a master of what's called the "locked room mystery," in which a detective solves an apparently impossible case. For aficionados of Carr, and those who would like to be, Ramble House publishes James Keirans' The Carr Companion: www.ramblehouse.com/jdccompanion...

The cover of The John Dickson Carr Companion, a brown background bearing an image of a door, with a large ornate key overlaid on it. The author is James E. Keirans.

231

Reposted by Ramble House Books

Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

In preparation for today’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, state police forced over 100 homeless men and women onto buses under threat of arrest, dumping them in an unheated warehouse. Tents destroyed, belongings lost. Press are barred from the warehouse. The price tag for this cruelty? $17.5 million

theguardian.com

Louisiana coerced unhoused people into an unheated warehouse – and paid $17.5m for it

Dozens of New Orleanians were bused to a site with insufficient heating and blankets days before the city is to host the Super Bowl

33565874225

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Cornell University collects Ed Wood's work: Cornell University's Ed Wood collection: rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs... "Ed Wood's fiction is as strange, idiosyncratic and out of step with his times and mores as his infamous movies."

rmc.library.cornell.edu

Guide to the Ed Wood, Jr. collection, 1966-2006.

010

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Wood wrote EIGHTY novels and hundreds of short stories! A blog post, uncovered by Lemkin at Metafilter, reviews Muddled Mind and Wood's literary career: planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2009/11/revi... The MeFi post: www.metafilter.com/207528/Edwar...

planninecrunch.blogspot.com

Review of Muddled Mind: all about Ed Wood's books

Muddled Mind: The Complete Works of Edward D. Wood, Jr., by David C. Hayes, 2009 update, Ramble House Press, http://www.ramblehouse.com fend...

111

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Notorious filmmaker Ed Wood, director of some consider the worst movies ever made, was also a writer, and his written works are of a piece with his movies. Muddled Mind by David Hayes is a celebration of his writing, and contains a few of his short stories. www.ramblehouse.com/muddledmind....

The cover, title depicted in dripping blood, of the book Muddled Mind, by David C. Hayes and Hayden Davis, PhD.

100

Reposted by Ramble House Books

Casey Johnston @caseyjohnston.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Also a reminder that if you are reading good coverage, share/post those links, a lot has shifted and people need to know where to find information

1174334670

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

"What a magazine this was! . . . wide open to any kind of story, and that attracted a great many talented authors who might otherwise have scorned the magazine's meager pay rates." -- Richard A. Lupoff

000

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Harry Stephen Keeler is best known for his strange and idiosyncratic mysteries, but for 21 years he edited a magazine called 10-Story Book, "A Magazine for Iconoclasts." In this book published by Ramble House, Chris Mikul collects 35 of its best stories. www.ramblehouse.com/bestof10stor...

The cover to the Ramble House collection "The Best of 10 Story Book, Harry Stephen Keeler's Spicy Magazine 1919-1940 Edited by Chris Mikul" It has a hand-drawn illustration of a topless redhead woman holding a gun and leaning against a skull. The back cover text reads: "A Magazine for Iconoclasts. 'The mind of the editor of an average American magazine is a ludicrous wilderness of taboos. He edits his magazine with a craven blue pencil. He lives in horror of printing something that will offend one of his advertisers. His nights are tortured with dreams of letters in the business office of his publication, raising hell with them for having an author pull God's whiskers or remark disparagingly upon this mess of a democracy of ours.
'After years of readactorship with a blue pencil the average American editor has come to the point where he will buy only half a dozen stories. Safe stories he calls them. Take any magazine but 10-Story Book and see how all of the stories fall monotonously into half a dozen well known formulas and threadbare situations.
'10-Story Book has never published formula stories.'
'Harry Stephen Keeler, Editor, 10-Story Book'"
There are quotes from fans too but they're a little too small to transcribe here.

120

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Additional: Wikipedia further identifies R.R.Ryan as Evelyn Bradley, who committed suicide later in life. Wikipedia uses male pronouns for them, I'm not sure if it's in deference to their pen name. We just don't have much information. I apologize to the late Bradley if I got this wrong.

110

Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

I might need to revise these posts, I think I might have gotten some of my facts wrong--

000