Ryan Whitley
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frryanwhitley.bsky.social
Ryan Whitley
@frryanwhitley.bsky.social
All things horror/fantasy/sci-fi. Whiskey and the Weird Podcast. The Bibliothecar at The Miskatonic Review for Lovecraftian and Horror Short Story Reviews (on hiatus). Episcopal Priest. He/Him. Same handle on Twit…X.
Reposted by Ryan Whitley
Their eps are keeping me going through grad school at the moment (lol). Also a host recommended Robert Hugh Benson a few eps back and his work has been my obsession the last couple weeks. Really, really, consistently solid recs. Anyways, check 'em out! Enjoyment of Whiskey not required.
November 16, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Reposted by Ryan Whitley
Nothing to do with nothing, but if you're into weird horror check out Whiskey and the Weird. Weird horror book club sorta thing, hosts are great, banter's great, they use the British Library Weird Horror books to structure their selections BUT many of the stories covered are public domain (so, free)
November 16, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Reposted by Ryan Whitley
Why don't we do a little Bar Talk for Episode 1 of the new season?

@thejessicaberg.bsky.social is reading the best book she's read in a long time (The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard) and washing it down with a Labatt's NA. Yum.
October 14, 2025 at 11:46 PM
We’re baaaaaaaccckk!!!!
Extended leave: terminated! Jess, Ryan and Damien return with an explanation of the AWOL (it's lovely, trust us), a beloved classic by Edith Nesbit, and Jess' most wretchedly despised literary couple to date. Plus, Ryan tries to take out his congregation by organ.
October 13, 2025 at 9:54 PM
“Lost in the Dark” by John Langan. Org. pub. HAUNTED NIGHTS, ed. Ellen Datlow, Lisa Morton, Blumhouse Books, 2017. Read in LOST IN THE DARK AND OTHER EXCURSIONS by John Langan, Word Horde, 2025.
August 21, 2025 at 4:01 PM
“The Face of the Monk” by Robert Hichens. Org. pub. BYE-WAYS, by Robert Hichens, 1897. Read in HOLY GHOSTS: CLASSIC TALES OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL UNCANNY, ed. Fiona Snailham, pub. British Library, 2023.
August 19, 2025 at 1:08 AM
“The Great God Pan” by Seabury Quinn. Org. pub. in Weird Tales, October 1926. Read in: THE HORROR ON THE LINKS: THE COMPLETE TALES OF JULES DEGRANDIN, Vol. 1, pub by Night Shade Press, 2017.
August 18, 2025 at 1:52 AM
“Madame Painte: For Sale” by @johnlangan.bsky.social, org. pub. In BEHOLD! ODDITIES, CURIOSITIES, AND UNDEFINABLE WONDERS, ed. by Doug Murano, Crystal Lake Publishing, 2017. Read in: LOST IN THE DARK AND OTHER EXCURSIONS by John Langan, pub. @wordhorde.bsky.social, 2025.
August 15, 2025 at 6:40 PM
“Lot No. 249” by Arthur Conan Doyle. Org. pub. in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, September 1892. Read in: HAUNTINGS: TALES OF THE SUPERNATURAL, ed. Henry Mazzeo, pub. Doubleday, 1968. Illus. Edward Gorey
August 12, 2025 at 3:52 PM
“Still[er] Life, From Hunger” by Caitlín R. Kiernan. Org. pub. In Sirenia Digest #173, June 2020. Read in: BRIGHT DEAD STAR, pub. Subterranean Press (@subpress.bsky.social) , 2025.
August 12, 2025 at 12:57 AM
“The Chartreuse” by Mona Awad. Org. pub. The New Yorker, July 28, 2025. Read in: the same.
August 11, 2025 at 1:28 AM
“Passage to Dilfar” by Roger Zelazny. Org. pub. in Fantastic, February 1965. Read in: POWER AND LIGHT (THE COLLECTED STORIES OF ROGER ZELAZNY, VOL. 2), NEFSA Press, 2018.
August 7, 2025 at 2:21 AM
“The Black God’s Kiss” by C.L. Moore, org. pub. in Weird Tales, October 1934. Read in JIREL OF JOIRY pub by Paperback Library (1969).

While not a bad story at all, I had somewhat higher hopes for this one.
August 5, 2025 at 4:10 PM
“No Abiding Place on Earth” by Matthew M. Bartlett, org. pub. in Nightscript, Vol. 2, ed. by C.M. Muller (2016), pub. by Cthonic Matter.
August 4, 2025 at 2:02 AM
“The Bingo Master” by Joyce Carol Oates. Org pub in DARK FORCES ed by Kirby McCauley (1980), by The Viking Press. Read in the same.
August 2, 2025 at 8:55 PM
“In the Lost Lands” by George R. R. Martin. Org pub in AMAZONS II (DAW Books), 1982, ed by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. Read in DREAMLANDS, VOL. I

Honestly, I read this because I saw a Netflix movie of the same name advertised and I wanted to read the original first.
August 2, 2025 at 2:29 AM
“Jack O’Dander” was tonight’s scary story & it confirms @priya101.bsky.social place among the S-tier of contemporary horror writers.

Her prose is exquisite & her command of characters & their motivations, their “moments before” (as actors say), is stupefyingly precise. The mother in this one…lawd!
February 8, 2025 at 2:45 AM
Someone in another group asked what was the best horror anthology around. I said it was a tie: David Hartwell’s THE DARK DESCENT and Kirby McCauley’s DARK FORCES. What say you?
February 8, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Read Ray Cluley’s story in Best Horror of the Year Vol. 16 tonight and man, was it good! I’m reading them in order; this was the standout of the first four by far. Told in kind of an old style, it details the demise of a village woman and only gives dark hints to the why. Subtle, deft, & brilliant.
February 3, 2025 at 2:14 AM
The Christmas haul! 📚
December 27, 2024 at 6:52 PM
2024 Books Read #43
THE PREFECT by Alastair Reynolds
4.25 ⭐️ - Reynolds proves, over and over again, to be a master of intimate stories played out over cosmically enormous backdrops. I always love how his sci-fi dips a few toes into horror.
November 27, 2024 at 5:22 PM
🚨 New John Langan @mrgaunt.bsky.social incoming in 2025 AND 2026! Brought to us by the good folk at Word Horde!
In our quest to bring you the best in contemporary weird fiction, few titles have had the lasting impact and influence of John Langan’s Bram Stoker Award-winning novel, The Fisherman, which Word Horde published in 2016.
November 25, 2024 at 3:06 AM
I watched HERETIC this afternoon and my goodness, what a bloody masterclass in acting by Hugh Grant. Serious dread and edge of your seat anxiety throughout! That aside, were I an acting coach, I’d make my students watch this over and over again.
November 18, 2024 at 2:39 AM
2024 Short Stories Read #93
“Ymir” by John Langan
Had to stay up to switch the kid’s laundry over to the dryer last night and so chose some Langan to keep me awake. What an awesome story, and the ways it slipcases into the Barron-Verse were super fun. Oh yeah, and it's creepy!
November 15, 2024 at 12:59 AM
Here’s a book of stories I don’t see talked about nearly enough. Livia Llewellyn’s FURNACE. Her story “Stabilimentum” here has and likely always will stick with me, like waking through a spider web.
November 14, 2024 at 1:25 AM