I  have checked for the book in my university library system and unfortunately they don't have it.  I think I checked for it in Worldcat, too (I was checking for several things and now can't remember for sure) but don't think it was available through that system either (connecting university libraries worldwide).  Not sure I'd want to pay for it used unless it is really, REALLY, of interest to DS ... like, say, a Bible that the writers used for the show!

 

All things DS-related.    And there's even a chapter that makes reference to the I Ching, with all 64 hexagrams diagramed and the 49th hexagram circled. I'll defintely have to check that out again because, in part, the chapter says: "No. 49, the ko hexagram, is the one that got us into trouble."

MB, if you're anything like me you'll be up all night tonight devouring that book (but hopefully you have a little more practical sense ... )

Hope you'll report back with more detail regarding what you read ... would you be willing to summarize the relevant section on the I Ching?  What about the rest of the book -- many of the subjects (werewolves, etc.) are generic enough to be found in many books -- but are there other aspects of this one that directly link to Dark Shadows?

Thank you in advance for any further insights you might have.

and put it in their schlocky movie.

On the other end of the spectrum, however, we have Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, which shamelessly cribbed the Barnabas/Josette plot (IMHO) as backstory/flashback material for the film, with Dracula's wife believing him dead and committing suicide, and Dracula meeting Mina Harker 5 centuries later and believing her to the the spirit of his lost Elizabetha reincarnated.

Nelson Collins, have you seen Dan Curtis's version of "Dracula"?  He brings the theme of a lost love reincarnated into the picture, so it's usually thought (by those familiar with Curtis' far superior version) that Coppola and Company took the idea from the TV-movie.

Forgot to ask ... did anyone do anything with a drunken sailor?

 

The time is out of joint ...

Most strange, untim'ly happenstance doth affect these hinter regions
What, do these most unnatural portents breed black deeds?

OK, so maybe this Hamlet business is beginning to affect my mind, but it is about 6:30 a.m., not the time of day I usually think most clearly ... but there have been some odd occurrences of late ...

Regarding this forum, last evening, I'd guess somewhere around 5 or 6 p.m., I posted a notice about Dan Curtis' "The Love Letter" airing later that night and another post.  Not too much later, I returned to the board (under the cloak of anonymity) and noticed that the board said that I had made the Love Letter post at 10:30 p.m. "yesterday" (i.e., the day before). Now, I may be confused from time to time, but I know whether half an hour has passed or an entire day ... (maybe Hamlet's madness is affecting me.  Or maybe I'm feigning Hamlet's madness.  Or ...)

So, after this unusual foray into time travel (and no, I wasn't fooling around with the I-Ching) ... I'm writing a letter at my desk on the computer, and suddenly I'm feeling ... vibration.  An 8-foot tall metal storage cabinet next to my desk was shaking, and I could see a box on top vibrate over to the edge; a large framed poster of the Golden Gate bridge over my desk began to scuttle sideways, and my legs and feet felt like I was in one of those vibrating beds.

Mad, you'll say, we always knew, he's mad ...

Well, I'll have you know that despite the strange events I'm relating, the second one, at least, has been validated ... we did have an earthquake in these parts, at 1:10 a.m.  (Hopefully our cousin from England, Ben, who was nearer the epicenter, has survived undamaged!  And Gerard, we know, is off sailing across the ocean.)

But as for the time travel ... now this morning, the Time seems to have righted itself ...

-- Mad Vlad

"The Love Letter" with Campbell Scott and Jennifer Jason Leigh, directed by Dan Curtis, re-airs at 8 p.m. CT tonight on the Hallmark Channel.

This is a decent made-for-TV movie with a love-across-the-centuries fantasy angle.  Curtis borrows from DS with letters crossing the centuries through the hidden drawer of an old desk.