Page:Weird Tales Volume 8 Number 5 (1926-11).djvu/141



T WAS a dark and stormy night." How many authors there are who think that a weird story must plunge at once into a description of a storm! In six out of the first ten manuscripts opened by the editor this morning, the first lines harp upon the weather. Here are the openings, verbatim: 1. "A searing tongue of lightning quivered over the black heavens and the crash of thunder that followed reverberated with such violence that the earth trembled underfoot." 2. "The night was stormy, lightning was slashing through the dismal skies." 3. "It was a night of cold, tempestuous rage. From a velvet sky of Stygian dark the wild winds howled," etc. 4. "The rain was coming down in torrents. Headlights of machines as they flashed by, cast their weird lights upon a drenched world; it was truly a rotten night." 5. "The night was bleak and wintry. The wind moaned through the naked treetops like a lost spirit." 6. "It was night, dark and raining, and something had to be done."

Why is this? Must the heavens growl and weep to make a weird tale? Are the stories in this issue any the less weird because not one of them begins with a weather report? The weather is a useful topic, when one has nothing else to talk about; but unless it is vitally important to the story, a discussion of the weather is as banal in a weird tale as it is in ordinary conversation. Yet an amazingly large proportion of the manuscripts received in the editor's mail discuss the weather in the very first line. The winds howl in fury, and shriek like lost demons; the thunder crashes; the rain pours down in torrents. And the trees toss their tortured limbs—indeed one might think the stories had all been written by the same hand, for they sound so much alike. Such openings are as familiar in the editorial rooms of as the trite "Men think that I am mad, but wait, let me tell my story and judge for yourself"—a type of story opening that has been used by amateurs a thousand times since Poe set the style in The Tell-tale Heart.

The September issue of seems to have made a distinct hit with you, the readers. The comment has been almost uniformly enthusiastic.

Writes Michael H. Sweetman of Calhan, Colorado: "I have read for two years, and think the September is the best issue yet. It is by far the most interesting magazine published today. Jumbee has my vote for the best story in the September issue. It is so real that I can not think it a work of imagination. Was it an actual experience? Across Space promises to be a wonderful story."

"Three cheers for the September " writes Ross L. Bralley, of Independence, Kansas. "It is full of thrills from page to page. Across