Ex Occidente Press

[Nemonymous]

Yes, get well, Dan.

I think the image is of Mark Valentine...

I've only just looked at this thread, so may I add my best wishes for your swift recovery Dan.

On a related note to the recent speculation on the mysterious portrait I thought this link might be of interest to some folk. Not of serious interest but somehow redolent with serendipity

http://timothyjones.typepad.com/tlbc...me-bylaws.html

Mark S.

[Joe Pulver]

I hope you are better soon!

[kobaia]

Best wishes for a quick recovery, Dan.

[Sand]

Des, you did not dream my very long beard. My beard length varies according to highly abstruse calculations connected with the secret astrology of the dark planets. As currently Phaeton is in the ascendant, in a quincentennial trapezoidal trine with Sepharis, naturally I am well trimmed. When the Scarab Star aligns with Zalkmuth, at a date I of course cannot reveal to profane minds, the beard will start to flow again. Then there will be rejoicing in Ascalon. I trust that is all clear.

[Sand]

The White Guard. The General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Comrade Y.V. Stalin, went to see the play version of this repeatedly. Because of this obscure admiration, the Party allowed its author to carry on living, a rare concession for imaginative writers at that time. The book follows the fortunes of a young Royalist family in Nineteen Twenties Kiev, during the civil war. It is achingly beautiful.

[rhysaurus]

My own Bulgakov recommendations for anyone who hasn't yet read any of his work are: The Fatal Eggs and/or A Country Doctor's Notebook... Both are slim volumes and they show two facets of Bulgakov bejewelled: his fantastika and his realism.

[Comrade Tulayev]

My Cafe Morphine just arrived. Much like Freya's Fire and perhaps others, I will hold off in indulging CM until I at least read Master and Margarita. In fact, I am nearly done with this delightful novel and will soon be digging into the homage...

[klarkash]

The collection known in the US as Diaboliad is brilliant and contains two stories that stand out, for me, as examples of Bulgakov's fantastic and horrific side: the title story, a mad revel which spirals up into a (not un-Ligottian) surreal doom; and "A Chinese Story," a desolate tragedy of exile.

[klarkash]

My contributor's copy of "Master in Cafe Morphine" arrived today! Magnificent. This attractive volume has more than enough heft to handily smash a Kindle into irremediably small pieces.