COMPLETE- Short Horror Story Collection 003 SW/ce

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » May 21st, 2007, 12:18 pm

We're after short Horror Stories!

This project is now complete. Visit the catalog page here:

http://librivox.org/horror-story-collection-003/

(Magic Window will be put in as soon as all story information is in the database.)

According to Wikipedia, Horror Fiction is any medium intended to scare, unsettle, or horrify the reader. Historically, the cause of the "horror" experience has often been the intrusion of an evil--or, occasionally, misunderstood element into everyday human experience. Since the 1960s, any work of fiction with a morbid, gruesome, or exceptionally or frightening theme has come to be called "horror".

"Ghost stories" are being collected separately; they generally involve subtlety and indirection. Horror stories often do not. Of course, some stories can go into either collection, but for me, the difference is in the reader's / listener's reaction to the story: it's a Ghost Story when you get a shiver and an Eeek and a Horror Story with a grimace and an Urrgh.

For some stories to read, there's Horrormasters ... and more at Literary Gothic

I've seen a note on one site "Please note that Lovecraft’s fiction is still considered to be under copyright by Arkham House, and any texts presently available on the web without their consent are in violation of that copyright." .. but there has been a discussion in this forum about it: http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3513&highlight=copyright+Lovecraft ... please check there before reading Lovecraft stories.

After 10 stories are submitted, we will collect them, put them up to be checked for major errors by LV Listeners, catalog them, and make them available to the public.

Recording Notes (slightly modified from previously):

Begin your recording with the title and author, followed by the standard Librivox Disclaimer: "This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox Recordings are in the public domain. For more information and to find out how you can volunteer, please visit Librivox.org"
Then again: "[Story Title], by [Author Name]" .. and start reading
At the end, say: "End of [Story Title], by [Author Name]"
Please leave a minimum of 3 seconds of silence at the end of your recording. If the recording is over 30 minutes long, leave 5 seconds; if an hour or more, 10 seconds. This is because some players cut off the end of mp3 recordings on playback.
Recording info: http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6427#6430
More recording info: http://librivox.org/about-recording/
Even more recording info: http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/NewbieGuideToRecording

File Format: 44100Hz, 16-bit, 128kpbs, MP3

File Name: (lower case, with words separated by underscores):
story_title_author_lastname_readers_initials.mp3 (e.g. mystery_of_death_sexton_py.mp3)

(Don't include punctuation - such as apostrophes - in the title, and abbreviate it if it's long, or starts with "the" or "a" etc.)

ID3 Tags:

Title/Name: [Story Title] (e.g. The Mystery of Death)
Artist: [Author Name] (e.g. Mortimer Sexton)
Album: LibriVox Short Horror Stories - 003
Year: 2007
Genre: Speech
Track: (leave blank)
Comment: (optional) Recorded by [your name/pseudonym plus your url, if you wish]

How to submit your story:

If you have your own server space, post the link here. Please leave the file in this location until the project is catalogued. Even better, upload the file to the LibriVox Uploader, see below.
If you don't have your own server space, please upload with the LibriVox Uploader:
http://upload.librivox.org

(If you have trouble reading the image above, please message an admin)
If this doesn't work, or you have questions, please check our How To Send Your Recording wiki page.

Please post the following with your file:

Source from which you read (i.e. Gutenberg etext url)
Your name as you would like it to appear on the catalog page.
URL of your homepage if you have one you would like linked to your name on the catalog page.

I'll download the files to my computer, carry out a quick check of the start and end of the sound file, then will upload them to a file store from which they can be downloaded. They'll be stored there until the collection is complete, then they will be passed to the Listeners thread before the collection is passed to the catalog.

Peter

Story list (updated 22nd December 2007)
1 The Cats of Ulthar; by H.P. Lovecraft
Source: http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thecatsofulthar.htm
Location: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/200712/cats_of_ulthar_lovecraft_sj.mp3
Reader: smijen (Sarah Jennings)
Soundcheck: fine

2 The Power of Darkness; Edith Nesbit
Source: http://www.horrormasters.com/Themes/women_of_horror.htm
Location: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/200712/power_of_darkness_nesbit_kam.mp3
Reader: mackink

3 The Spook House; by Ambrose Bierce
Source: http://horrormasters.com/Text/a0179.pdf
Location: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/200712/spook_house_bierce_sb.mp3
Reader: mrbush77 (Scott ...)

4 The Statement of Randolph Carter; by H.P. Lovecraft
Source: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Statement_of_Randolph_Carter
Location: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/200712/statement_of_randolph_carter_lovecraft_gmh.mp3
Reader: SmokestackJones

5 The Raven; by Edgar Allen Poe
Source: http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html
Location: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/200712/raven_poe_ze.mp3
Read by ZoeStardust - Zoe Earley

6 The Skulls in the Stars; Robert E. Howard
Source: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Skulls_in_the_Stars
Location: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/200712/skulls_in_the_stars_howard_ps.mp3
Read by: Paul Siegel

7 Caterpillars; by E.F. Benson
Source: http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a0207.pdf
Location: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/200712/caterpillars_benson_ajm.mp3
Read by: ExEmGe - Andy Minter

8 The Nameless City; by H.P. Lovecraft
Source: http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thenamelesscity.htm
Location: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/200711/the_nameless_city_lovecraft_mn.mp3
Read by: sjmarky

9 The Crawling Chaos; by H.P. Lovecraft
Source: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Crawling_Chaos
Location: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/200712/crawling_chaos_lovecraft_dw.mp3
Read by: d.e.wittkower

10 The Tomb; by H.P. Lovecraft
Source: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Tomb
Location: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/200712/tomb_lovecraft_dew.mp3
Read by: d.e.wittkower

DrWombat · Post by **DrWombat** » May 21st, 2007, 9:41 pm

I am replying here to confirm that I'll contribute stevenson's "The Body Snatcher" to this collection, but more importantly to add it to my email alert log.

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » May 23rd, 2007, 4:00 pm

First story received, from smijen, "The Cats of Ulthar" by H.P. Lovecraft. It sounds good.

Sarah, what's your source for this story, please?

Thanks,

Peter

smijen · Post by **smijen** » May 23rd, 2007, 8:01 pm

Source for Cats of Ulthar:
http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thecatsofulthar.htm

I thought that I put the source in the comments field at yousendit, but that obviously didn't work for me. Would that have been the best thing to do, or just post the source here to begin with?

Thanks for doing the sound check so quickly. I was nervous about my first recording!

Sarah

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » May 23rd, 2007, 11:22 pm

Sarah,

I tend not to notice anything other than the yousendit link, as I get so much excess information from them.

Here in the thread is the best place for giving me the source and other stuff.

Thanks,

Peter

mackink · Post by **mackink** » June 9th, 2007, 12:01 pm

Hey Peter-
I would like to do William Faulkner's short story "A Rose For Emily". I found the text at <<http://www.ariyam.com/docs/lit/wf_rose.html>>

I'm pretty sure it's in the public domain- the full text is online, and it was published around 1930. Please let me know if there are any problems with it.

This is my first recording, so wish me luck!

-KAM

sheldogg · Post by **sheldogg** » June 9th, 2007, 6:16 pm

Peter,

I'm a newbie, and would like to begin by getting involved with this project as I am an avid reader of gothic literature. My selection for submission is Nathaniel Hawthorne's "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"; I'm certain it meets the public domain criteria and full text links are available via the litgothic.com resource.

Let me know if I'm a go.

Thanks

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » June 10th, 2007, 3:30 pm

Go for it! and thanks!

Peter

mackink · Post by **mackink** » June 13th, 2007, 7:30 pm

I started the recording of A Rose for Emily, but I'm not sure it is actually in the public domain. It was published in 1932 so by the years it is not out yet, but I don't know if there is some exception that makes it legal. Where should I go to find out?

Also, there is some sort of faint background noise. I used GarageBand to record it and I don't know what caused it. It's not intrusive, but is it a problem? And if yes, how do I edit it out?

OK Thanks!
-KAM

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » June 13th, 2007, 10:32 pm

I'm afraid 1932 is almost certainly still in copyright. 1923 is our boundary, unless there are very special circumstances. If no-one else notices your query here, could you put a note in the Advice section, as some of the administrators know ways to check PD status.

Noise removal: at the simplest, you can post a sample in the Advice section, and ask for someone to have a look and perhaps clean the whole file. A couple of the threads in Suggestions mention a) better noise cleaning in the beta version of Audacity and b) another software cleaner (I can't remember the name). I use a cleaner myself, and might be able to do it.

Peter

mackink · Post by **mackink** » June 18th, 2007, 7:32 pm

So instead of dealing with fuzzy copyrights (much as I love that story) I'll just do "The Power of Darkness" by Edith Nestbit instead. It's at Horrormasters:

http://www.horrormasters.com/Themes/women_of_horror.htm

TTFN (Ta Ta For Now)
-KAM

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » June 18th, 2007, 10:19 pm

That'd be great! Nesbit writes a very good horror story.

Peter

redfalcon · Post by **redfalcon** » June 19th, 2007, 9:02 am

Hello Peter ! I would like to read The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe for this horror story collection. Shall I go ahead ? It is available in Gutenberg. Awaiting your approval.

Regards

Harish.S

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » June 19th, 2007, 9:18 am

You don't need to wait .. go for it! The only time you'd need to ask before starting to read for the collection is if you doubted copyright, suitability as a horror story, length of story, or some other practicality like that.

Peter

mackink · Post by **mackink** » June 27th, 2007, 11:15 am

Here is the recording of The Power of Darkness. I've had major issues noisecleaning, so there are two version. The first has the background fuzz eliminated but it has a weird tinny quality, and the esses kind of flare. (At least, it sounds that way to me).

http://people.carleton.edu/~mackink/power_of_darkness_nesbit_kam1

This is the uncleaned recording.

http://people.carleton.edu/~mackink/power_of_darkness_nesbit_kam2

Please let me know if the first one sounds OK to you. Or I can plop the uncleaned one into a help wanted thread and ask someone to filter it for me if this is needed.

Thanks,
KAM