Tom Mathews > Recent Status Updates

Two American naval officers, Captain Stanford E. Moses of the USS Von Steuben, which had taken minor damage when the steamship Northwind drifted into it, and Captain Howard Symington of the USS Tacoma, which had felt the concussion 52 miles off Halifax and returned to port, asked, “Is there anything we can do?”

Rescuers, whether professionals or amateurs, appeared by the thousands all over town, an instant army of mercy reporting for duty—unofficial and unorganized but utterly committed to providing aid to anyone who needed it. It was these spontaneous acts of generosity, courage, and selflessness that did more to reassure victims than any formal communication could have achieved.

When the cloud released its contents, it created what witnesses described as “dark rain.” But anyone caught underneath the fallout could tell you it wasn’t water coming down but a thick, black precipitation of hot oil and soot, like liquid tar, mixed with heavy, scalding shrapnel that cut, burned, and blackened everything in its path.

Mont-Blanc disintegrated, leaving only two recognizable parts: the anchor shank, which weighed half a ton and was found 4 miles away in the woods of the Northwest Arm; and an iron deck cannon, intended to protect the ship from U-boats, which landed 3 miles away in Little Albro Lake behind Dartmouth, with its barrel drooping like a warm candle.

The great-grandson of Canada’s greatest privateer, Joseph Barss Jr., who had captured, burned, or sunk dozens of American ships in the War of 1812, Ernest had inherited more than a little anti-American sentiment. But in 1917 that was true of most Canadians, who resented the Americans’ persistent threats to annex their land from the time the United States was born to as recently as 1911.

The reason these men made deals with the Devil was because they could not otherwise harness the power for the acts they wished to undertake, and so they bargained with the only immortal thing they might ever possess: their souls.
They were lazy.

She had no eyes.
Dark holes gaped in her face like a corpse’s, like a skeleton’s, black and deep and endless and growing and gorging themselves on darkness.

"The fainting bride had died yesterday afternoon. Coffins began to appear soon thereafter, carried on slumped shoulders through the winding streets of the city."

*The Matlazahuatl epidemic was a series of hemorrhagic fever outbreaks that plagued Mexico, particularly during the 18th and 19th centuries, also known as cocoliztli in the 16th century. The disease caused high fevers, bleeding, and a high mortality rate.

She flipped her fan open and batted it gently before her face, as if she were warm. A coquettish gesture, another piece of a game they played.

This was the way it was: warm words , the practiced dance of flirtation. Enough to make any onlooker in Zacatecas believe that they were such lucky young things , to be marrying for love instead of money.

If Carlos was a candle, Alba was the shadow it cast. Always a half step behind, flickering with unease at his every move.

Greed was less a deadly sin than family creed, as inescapable as the name he bore

She Went by Gently, by Paul Vincent Carroll ☆☆☆☆☆
The Islandman, by Desmond Clarke ☆☆☆☆
The Lady on the Gray, by John Collier ☆☆☆☆☆
The Awakening, by Daniel Corkery ☆☆☆☆
The Return, by Daniel Corkery ☆☆☆
Saint Bakeoven, by Eric Cross ☆☆☆☆

Irish words were slipping into American slang. “‘So long’ is from ‘slán,’” he’d said. “And when a fellow’s told to say ‘uncle’ it’s ‘anacal’—mercy—he’s asking for.”

"Little Charlie was watching him. “Ball,” he said. “Ball.”
“It’s a base ball,” Michael told him.
“Base ball,” Charlie Comiskey said.

So Honora's son introduced Charles Comiskey to baseball. Does that mean that the author's family is responsible for the 1919 Black Sox scandal?

The pain in my heart shot up and slapped my face. Grandma once talked about Guardian Angels and how they help us do what doesn't come naturally. Well, if mine was around that night, he was beating me with a cry-stick.

Those with good intentions seemed to have no power, and the powerful had no good intentions. We had to get out some way.

His impulse to please women was a flaw because he was no good at it. Ten years back his wife had gotten depressed and wanted to lie on the couch all day. Mick’s response had been to buy the nicest couch available—red leather with sloped armrests ideal for her head. Instead of helping, it had prolonged her depression, and now he was divorced.

One thing he’d learned—time was never saved, it was either curtailed or stretched longer than necessary. If time could genuinely be saved, rich folks would have bought it all up a long time ago.

One thing he’d learned—time was never saved, it was either curtailed or stretched longer than necessary. If time could genuinely be saved, rich folks would have bought it all up a long time ago.

Anger focused his mind, fury would propel action, but wrath was a trap that created mistakes.

Linda had always known she was smarter than most men, which wasn’t really saying a lot about a group of people who believed eating animal balls improved their sex lives. Men were morons who abused women and killed each other. Linda couldn’t figure out why she liked them.

Something about him was familiar...it scratched around in the back of his mind like a rat in a corn crib.

It was made of that old grey stone, the one that made the phrase ‘a man’s home is his castle’ seem less of a metaphor and more a statement of fact.

She looked about twenty, and was attractive in that way that said, ‘this took an awful long time, I hope you appreciate it.’ Tall, blonde, skinny. Breasts that looked so impossibly pert, they reminded Paul of intensely interested meerkats.

“What’s your interest here, Bunny?”
“I told ye, Paulie Mulchrone is one of my boys.”
“Half a wing of Mountjoy Prison could say the same, Bunny. You trained hurlers, not altar boys.”
“Ha. Do ye have any idea how many former altar boys I’ve locked up over the years?”

Wilson gave him a blank look that reminded Stewart of what it was like to have teenaged children.

“He’s a big fan of those Scandinavian crime dramas,” said Stewart.

“They are excellent,” added Wilson.

“Yeah,” said Brigit, “as long as you don’t mind people staring wistfully at fjords for an hour when they’re supposed to be solving a crime.”

He had the unnerving habit of standing slightly too close to people when he talked. He lived in other people’s personal space. Six foot two, he carried weight, but in a powerful way. You could never be sure what the fat to muscle ratio was, but you’d be a fool to find out. Not least because Bunny not only fought dirty but he took a gleeful delight in doing so.

She was not a bad looking woman, truth be told; a couple of years older than himself, short brown bobbed hair, decent figure – she wouldn’t be launching a thousand ships any time soon but she’d undoubtedly create a fair bit of interest in a chip shop queue.

He found himself wondering how he would feel if Germany won the war and reduced England from a prosperous country to an impoverished one; If the English language was forbidden and German substituted; if English people were driven out to make room for Germans. Would he not fight back? Of course he would — to the death if necessary.