Lafcadio Hearn

Candle Game: Kaidankai: a Gathering of Weird Tales of Old Japan by Lafcadio Hearn

Publisher Marketing: In Old Japan, people gathered to pass long, dark evenings testing one another's nerve with the game "Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai." Taking turns sharing stories of the weird, the ghostly, and the supernatural and snuffing a candle after each tale, they would continue long into the night or until, in the growing darkness, someone reached the end of their nerves and called the game off. Candle Game updates this old tradition, providing rules for play as well as classic stories of the weird and ghostly for players to tell. As each candle goes out, the shadows and whatever they hide press nearer...do you dare listen to one more story? THE SHEER, FRAIL SPACE BETWEEN THE EVERYDAY AND THE UNCANNY To the people of Old Japan, the barrier between our world and the world of the ghostly and supernatural was as thin as the paper of a shoji wall, with ghosts and demons and monsters crossing freely and unexpected to torment and terrify the unwary. Near the end of the nineteenth century, author and journalist Lafcadio Hearn accepted an assignment to Japan and found a lifelong home. Fascinated by the disquieting tales he discovered, he collected and translated the most striking and unnerving of them to present to western readers following Japan's then-recent opening to the rest of the world. "Candle Game: Kaidankai" contains complete rules for play and features tales gathered from across the works of the legendary Lafcadio Hearn, including the eerie classic stories "A Tale of Ingwa," "The Boy Who Drew Cats," "The Reconciliation," and "Hoichi the Earless." Included as part of the game, these spooky tales can also be read on their own. But for a lone reader setting out to explore the weird and supernatural world of Old Japan, remember when reading late into the night: in Japanese tradition, the barrier between our world and the next is thinnest in the small hours of the morning..." Contributor Bio:  Hearn, Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was born in Levkas, Greece, as the son of Greek and British parents. In 1869 he went to the United States and did various work, finally as a journalist. In 1890 he came to Japan and taught English in Japanese schools, and became a Japanese citizen under the name of Koizumi Yakuma. He died in Tokyo. Contributor Bio:  Dorsey, Patrick Patrick Dorsey has spent his career as a professional business writer helping people and businesses tell their stories. A natural storyteller his whole life, he began creating his own books in first grade by stapling together crayoned pages. A St. Louis native in all but birthplace, he holds a degree in English from the University of Missouri, St. Louis. It was in college he also began fencing, which he continues to pursue as an instructor and as president of the St. Louis Fencers Club. God's Forge is his first novel published without either a stapler or crayons.