TC Editor Interview: Brian M. Sammons and Glynn Owen Barrass Discuss Release of Lovecraftian Cyberpunk Anthology 'Eldritch Chrome,' Now Available from Chaosium, Inc.

Cover art by Daniele Serra

I'd like to share a recent interview I conducted with authors/editors Brian M. Sammons and Glynn Owen Barrass, on the occasion of the release of Eldritch Chrome, an anthology bristling with 18 tales of Lovecraftian Cyberpunk penned by some of the finest names working in Speculative Fiction today.

If you like your punk cybernetic, your future dystopian, and you tentacles biomechanical, this is the book for you.  Pull up tight your vinyl sheets, strap on your kinked out breathing apparatus, and settle in for an unsettling read.

Please enjoy my chat with Brian and Glynn, and thanks to the lads for sitting down with The Cosmicomicon.
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First of all, let’s set the table and give a little background on each of you.  


Glynn: I took up writing rather late I suppose, in my late 30s, but have always been a fan of the written word. Since I first read Lovecraft, at the age of 13, I always wanted to be a writer, and when I graduated university, again late in life, I took pen to paper and began in earnest. Lovecraft, Ramsay Campbell, Raymond Chandler and the Cyberpunk genre are heavy influences in my work. I’ve written over a 100 short stories, most of which have been published in America, England, and Japan.

Brian: I've always been a story teller and that’s why I started running role playing games as a youngster. It allowed me to make up and tell tales to my friends. So as a RPG nerd and a lover of all things horror, I started writing for the Call of Cthulhu RPG in the late 1990s. I then took a long hiatus (not by choice) and when I returned to my keyboard, I started focusing on fiction. While my mainstay has always been horror, I have dabbled in many subgenres such as Lovecraftian, weird, splatter, and I have dabbled in sci-fi, action, and fantasy. I still do game work today and I am currently working with a film company on the screenplay for one of my stories they have optioned to turn into a movie and that’s a real kick.

You both write as well as edit.  Do you value/enjoy one over the other?  

Glynn: Both have their thrills, and I enjoy editing greatly as it gives me a chance to read awesome fiction! Creating fiction is excellent too, the process that goes into bringing a story to life, so this is a tough question. Right now – I enjoy creating a little bit more than editing, but that may change depending on what I’m working on.

Brian: I also prefer to write, because I have that insatiable need to create and tell stories. That said, I do really enjoy editing anthologies and I seem to keep adding more editing projects to the ‘to do’ pile every day. I think I like doing them so much because then I can make the books that I would want to read that no one else seems to be doing. It is a lot of work, and it’s never fun when you have limited space in a book and twice that in great stories to choose from. Rejecting good authors is easily the thing I hate most about being an editor. But to build a book from the ground up, from the initial concept, to selecting all of its contents, to doing all the finishing touches, well that’s what makes all the hard work worth it.

How did you two come together to work on Eldritch Chrome, and from whence did the project arise?  Did the anthology originate from inside Chaosium, or did you take it to the publisher and sell them on it?

Glynn: At the time I was writing a lot of crossed genre Cthulhu Mythos/Cyberpunk stories, and I was chatting to Brian about it one day and just asked him: ‘Wouldn’t it be great to do a book as a collection?’ Brian loved the idea, we put the pitch together, and he was straight on to Chaosium with it, on the condition: ‘Sure man, but I have this great Cthulhu/Steampunk idea that we have to do next.’ Chaosium snapped both ideas up, and a few more besides.

Brian: Glynn and I met on the internet and soon discovered that we had a lot in common. One day while kicking around thoughts about books and stories, he came up with the idea for a Lovecraftian horror meets cyberpunk anthology. I had a long relationship with Chaosium thanks to my Call of Cthulhu writing, and I knew they were looking to jumpstart their slumbering fiction line. They were very interested in the book and so we were off and running.

The cover features artwork by Daniele Serra, a favorite of mine and a name well-known in Weird Fiction circles.  How did you hook up with Dani as the cover artist?

Glynn: We have admired Dani’s work for a while, and when it came to choosing an artist he was our first choice. It was as simple as sending him an email, as Dani loves painting as much as people love admiring his work.

Brian: This was the first time we worked with Dani, but it would not be the last. He also did the cover for this book’s unofficial companion anthology, Steampunk Cthulhu (another collaboration between Glynn and I), and I tapped him again for an amazing cover for an upcoming horror western book called Edge of Sundown. Dani is amazingly talented and just a great guy to work with, so I am sure we will be working with him again and again.

How many submissions did you receive?  Was the volume and quality of the subs about the same as past projects?  What was the most surprising part of the process (if anything)?

Glynn: This was a closed project, so we received about 25 stories. Also this was our first editorial project together but being familiar with the authors already, we knew we would receive quality work.

Brian: Yes, for our first effort together, we decided to go with the authors we were familiar with. Those that we were already fans of. The book that followed it, Steampunk Cthulhu, would be an open call and for that one we read over one million words in submissions! But that’s another story. As for the quality of submissions on Eldritch Chrome, they were all excellent, and perhaps the most surprising part of the process was the number of great stories we got for the book. Of course that meant that many good stories had to be rejected just for lack of space. The one upside to that is that the only best of the best will be found between the covers of Eldritch Chrome, and that makes me very happy.

What can readers expect to find in Eldritch Chrome?  To whom would this anthology appeal?

Glynn: Readers can expect to find unique takes on Cyberpunk and the Cthulhu Mythos genres – the writers here really have excelled in their craft. Really, this anthology will appeal to a lot, we’re not just saying that! Fans of Cyberpunk and Cthulhu, of course, Horror fans, and fans of the individual authors are in for a treat.

Brian: The criteria for making it into this book were twofold. The stories had to be great Lovecraftian/Cthulhu Mythos tales, and they had to be excellent examples of the cyberpunk genre. The authors had to have a strong grasp on both types of tales and those that got the thumbs up from us had that in spades. So if you enjoy reading about the creepy, cosmic horrors that H.P. Lovecraft gave to the world, this book will be for you. If you’re a fan of the dark, dystopian future of cyberpunk, then you’ll also dig Eldritch Chrome. If you are a fan of both, as Glynn and I are, then you’ll love the book.

As editors with a (rapidly growing) track record, what advice can you give to writers seeking to place their work in anthologies such as yours?

Glynn: Heh, well... First of all, read the guidelines well as we are very particular about what we’re looking for. Whatever you do, don’t take an old story and just tack on something to make it match the theme we’re looking for – that stands out terribly and we reject stories like that. Also, proof and edit the hell out of your work before sending it to us. Stories with typos every paragraph rapidly get rejected, but thankfully, the authors we go to are so good at their craft we get stories near hand perfect, which makes an editor’s job far easier.

Brian: Read everything Glynn just said again. And then once more. Got that? Good. The only other thing I could think of to add would be for you to know the genre(s) and the type of stories we’re looking for intimately. If we would do an anthology of Robert E. Howard-like, two-fisted adventure tales set in the world of Alice in Wonderland, then you had better know both R.E.H. stories and the fantastic world that Lewis Carroll crated like the back of your hand. Not having a good understanding of the genre(s) we’re looking for is the surest way to get rejected.

What sort of books would you like to see more of in genre fiction, as writers, editors, and readers?

Glynn: That’s a difficult one. Hmm, more books by us for a start (Laugh, Out, Loud). But seriously, there are some great authors out there that deserve a lot more recognition than they have so far, people that work hard, produce consistently quality work, that we hope we are helping to introduce to a wider audience.

Brian: Glynn beat me to the punch, as he often does, with the answer to what books we would like to see published as writers and editors: books by us, of course. As for what books I’d like to see as a reader, well I have a few more ideas for anthologies that I would love to read. That’s how I usually come up with ideas for the books I edit, so I think I’ll keep those idea to myself for right now. In addition to that, anything by my favorite authors or perhaps more of a return to form from some of my old favorites. Stephen King jumps readily to mind in that regard, although I must confess, I still have yet to read his Doctor Sleep.

What’s next for both of you lads, both individually and as an editing team?

David Lee Ingersoll

Glynn: As a team, there are three more anthologies coming out in the near future: Steampunk Cthulhu and Atomic Age Cthulhu (both from Chaosium) and another project that is sort of a secret that you, Ted, are appearing in with a truly brilliant piece of work. Brian has also written some Call of Cthulhu RPG campaigns that I am proud to have contributed to. Solo-wise, I have a novel being released early 2015, based on the King in Yellow Mythos, and also various Call of Cthulhu and anthology appearances. Brian and I are also soon to be pitching a new Cthulhu Mythos anthology to publishers.

Brian: Since Glynn nailed our team-up projects, I’ll just list some of my other efforts. I am currently working on a novel with an author I admire the hell out of, Jeffrey Thomas. I am editing another Lovecraftian anthology called The Dark Rites of Cthulhu for the brand new publishing house, April Moon Books. I will be co-editing another anthology called The Legacy of the Re-Animator (three guesses as to what that’s about) with the very talented writer, Pete Rawlik. I will be overseeing and editing a collection/shared world anthology for my good friend, C.J. Henderson. I have two ‘straight horror’ (read as: non Cthulhu Mythos) anthologies that I will be starting up soon. I am working on a screenplay for a film adaptation of one of my stories. I continue to write short fiction and scenarios/books for the Call of Cthulhu RPG game. And somewhere amidst all that I try to have a life.

Any closing thoughts?  Prescient insights?  Favorite casserole recipes?

Glynn: Well first of all, thank you kindly for this interview Ted – it has been a pleasure answering your questions. I was thinking of saying something controversial as a closing thought (‘Reptoid Freemasons run the country!’ ‘Recycle your pets!’), but instead I’ll leave you with this: “My brother, knows Karl Marx, He met him eating mushrooms in the people’s park, He said 'What do you think about my manifesto?' I said 'I like a manifesto, put it to the test-o.” (Thank you, Sultans of Ping, F.C.)

Brian: Oh dear, it seems Glynn has gone off his meds again. Well before I give him a hand with that, I will also echo his thanks regarding you and this interview, Ted. You’re one of the good ones, I don’t care what everyone else says. But seriously, I hope people out there enjoy Eldritch Chrome and all the other books Glynn and I busted out butts on to bring out. I hope they also stick around to see what we do next, as it’s going to be pretty damn cool.
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From the Chaosium, Inc., website:

Unquiet Tales of a Mythos-Haunted Future

DURING THE DECADES since H.P. Lovecraft first wrote of the Cthulhu Mythos, many authors have crossed his themes into other genres, enhancing his original vision with stories taking place in the distant past, in the far-flung future, and in myriad places in-between.

Cyberpunk tales are written in dark, gritty, film-noir styles. Their protagonists live and die at the bottom echelon of an electronic society gone awry. They may be seedier, poorer, and less inclined to make moral judgements than stoic Lovecraftian New Englanders, but in Cyberpunk-Cthulhu tales they encounter the same horrors as their more-genteel predecessors.

Confronting monstrous entities and fiends from beyond space and time, the Cyberpunk-Cthulhu hero may wield high-tech weapons and have other advances at his or her disposal. To beings where time has no meaning and whose technologically is so advanced that their actions seem supernatural or powered by magic, no human finds an advantage.

This is the Cyberpunk-Cthulhu world—mythos horrors lurk at the edge of society, mythos-altered technology infects human beings, dark gods lurk in cyberspace, and huge corporations rule society while bowing to entities inimical to humankind.

Selected and edited by Brian M. Sammons & Glynn Owen Barrass. Cover art by Daniele Serra. 272 pages. Trade Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1568823894
ISBN-13: 9781568823898

The Tales Included:

"Obsolete, Absolute" by Robert M. Price
"The Place that Cannot Be" by D.L. Snell
"The Battle of Arkham" by Peter Rawlik
"The Wurms In the Grid" by Nickolas Cook
"SymbiOS" by William Meikle
"Playgrounds of Angolaland" by David Conyers
"Sonar City" by Sam Stone
"The Blowfly Manifesto" by Tim Curran
"Flesh & Scales" by Ran Cartwright
"Inlibration" by Michael Tice
"Hope Abandoned" by Tom Lynch
"Immune" by Terrie Leigh Relf
"Real Gone" by David Dunwoody
"CL3ANS3" by Carrie Cuinn
"Dreams of Death" by Lois Gresh
"The Gauntlet" by Glynn Owen Barrass and Brian M. Sammons
"Indifference" by CJ Henderson
"Open Minded" by Jeffrey Thomas

Publishing News: Full Table of Contents and Cover Image Finally Revealed for 'Urban Cthulhu: Nightmare Cities', Edited by Henrik Sandbeck Harksen for H. Harksen Productions

Urban Cthulhu: Nightmare Cities cover by Paul Carrick

March should be a damn good month for devoted readers - and writers - of the Weird, the Cosmic, and the Lovecraftian.

Not only will it see the release of the Aklonomicon, compiled and edited by madcap talented Aklo Press founder Ivan McCann and the legendary Joseph S. Pulver, but it will also go down in barnacled annals of history as the month that saw the release of another monumental tome, titled Urban Cthulhu: Nightmare Cities, edited by Danish Lovecraftian/horror fiction writer, editor, publisher, and Cyclopean pillar Henrik Sandbeck Harksen, released via his extremely active H. Harken Productions, which has several fantastic books coming out this year, including The Eltdown Shards by Franklyn Searight and the Lovecraftian anthology Whisperers in Darkness, among others, listed here.

My personal tie between the Aklonomicon and Urban Cthulhu: Nightmare Cities also extends to the artistic realm, as Paul Carrick - the conjurer who unleashed the cover above - also provided original artwork for and based on my two stories in the Aklonomicon.  As mentioned previously in The Cosmicomicon, I almost can't believe that my writing is now adorned, in even a small way, by Paul's art, which has been a favorite of mine since I first stumbled across the name "Cthulhu" in some tattered tome so many gibbous moons ago.  Paul is a true Lovecraftian legend, and a proud ambassador and trailblazer in the visual interpretation of things often left partially/vaguely described.  He's the terrifying Cliff's Notes of Cosmic Horror and Dark Fantasy, allowing the reader a mind-bending cheat sheet in the endeavor to visualize the unnameable, helping our feeble human minds to correlate a dangerous amount of its contents.  What would we do without magicians like him?

Urban Cthulhu: Nightmare Cities has been flying under the radar for quite some time, as Henrik isn't one to flash his impressive literary plumage.  So, being the often overly enthusiastic fanboy of all of my esteemed colleagues, I'll do the shouting for him, by releasing the Table of Contents below, from Henrik's recent blog on the subject:

CONTENTS: 

“Dancer of the Dying” by Jayaprakash Satyamurthy
“The Neighbors Upstairs” by John Goodrich
“Carcosapunk” by Glynn Owen Barrass
“Architect Eyes” by Thomas Strømsholt
“Slou” by Robert Tangiers
“Ozeelah’s Lake” by Morten Carlsen
“The Statement of Frank Elwood” by Pete Rawlik
“In the Shadow of Bh’Yhlun” by Ian Davey
“The Screamer” by T. E. Grau
“Night Life” by Henrik Sandbeck Harksen
“the guilt of each … at the end…” by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.

As you can see, the ToC of this anthology is noticeably sparse, reflecting a devotion to showcasing larger works in the anthology format (penned by an exciting line-up of well known names, and some that are new to my eye).  This focus includes my story, "The Screamer," which is my longest piece to date, and perhaps the most personal, as it deals with the strangeness (and worse) that can fester amid the white collar, office drone high rises of west Los Angeles.  "Urban" doesn't necessarily just apply to gritty streets, blighted neighborhoods, and gangland gun battles, as a deeper horror can sometimes be found in the most unexpected places.

I'll go into a bit more detail about the story once the tome is finally released, and I once again send out a barrage of electronic smoke signals to possibly annoy and hopefully delight.  But for now, I wanted to get this glimpse of what's coming for you out into the ether, and plant a spore in your brain as we creep toward the anticipated birth of Urban Cthulhu: Nightmare Cities.

Watch this space for the release announcement, and in the meantime, hazard an occasional look out those cold, office building windows.  You never know what could be taking place on the other side of the glass while we all face our computerized headmasters, counting down the minutes...

Now Available - Chaosium & Red Wasp Design Team Up For Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land

Straighten your twisted spines, Call of Cthulhu gamers and digital Lovecraftian vidheads, as after a year of wandering the moldering wastes, the hugely anticipated Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land is now available for iOS, the resultant spawn of the perfect alchemy achieved by CoC legend Chaosium and brilliant upstarts Red Wasp Design.  The game is a universal app, easily workable  iPad, iPhone SD & HD.

I've covered the game briefly in the past, and so as to not sound redundant, I'll let the official Red Wasp Press Release do the writing for me:

The Stars are Right as 'Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land' Launches!

(for immediate release)

After a year of intensive development, the small indie team of Red Wasp Design have announced that their anticipated title, Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land has launched on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The game is a turn-based strategy RPG inspired by the works of cult horror writer H.P. Lovecraft and developed in co-operation with Chaosium, the publishers of the cult horror role playing game, Call of Cthulhu.

The game is now out on iTunes and is a universal iOS app so the same game works for iPhone and iPod Touch both SD & HD and for iPad, and carries graphics optimised for each of those platforms. It is priced $4.99, £2.99 & €3.99 for the full universal app. The game's designer, Tomas Rawlings said, “We've put a vast amount of our time, energy and ideas into this game over the last year. It's been a long journey for us because we want to get it right. We're not a huge studio, but I hope that fellow gamers will appreciate what we've achieved with The Wasted Land.”

The game features nine 3D levels set in the trenches of World War One. The player controls a team of up to six investigators charged with uncovering a deadly inhuman conspiracy underlying the clash of empires of the Great War. Barbed wire, mustard gas and machines guns will prove to be the least dangerous thing that the investigators will encounter as they venture out into no-man's land to solve the mystery of the Wasted Land. As the game progresses, the player can build up the skills, weapons and equipment of the team to suit their playing style. As well as the physical danger, the investigators must guard their sanity against the myriad horrors that threaten to destroy it.

To stay in touch with the developers and get updates on the game, help and strategy guides and more you may want to connect to Red Wasp Design on Facebook, Twitter (@redwaspdesign) and on their site at redwaspdesign.com

Guest Blogger: Alex Lugo reviews "Some Unknown Gulf of Night"

The Cosmicomicon is proud to welcome back ace reviewer Alex Lugo, who offers up his review of W. H. Pugmire's latest inspired and fantastically original work Some Unknown Gulf of Night, which is, according to Bloodletting Press:  "One of only 100 signed and numbered hardcover copies. Cover and interior illustrations by Matthew Jaffe." 

Get your copy while it's still slippery and hot, and before it goes into a second printing, as everyone knows that owning a first printing copy of a legendary tome means your contributing greatly to your present and future sex life.  Because, as John Waters famously uttered, "If you go home with somebody, and they don't have books, don't fuck 'em."  Don't be caught dead - or trouserless - without treasures such as this adorning your creaking shelves.

So now, as I often do and hope to do for the unforeseeable future, I turn my pages over to Master Alex....

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 Some Unknown Gulf of Night

By W.H. Pugmire

Review by Alex Lugo

           Some Unknown Gulf of Night is the latest, strangest, and undoubtedly greatest book thus far from modern master of the weird tale, W.H. Pugmire. Before even getting into the story itself, one must really appreciate the production and design of the actual tome. It is a very small book, a tad bit bigger than the novella line from Delirium Books. I have always favored over-sized books, but I feel that the small size of the book does it proper justice. It gives off this appealingly ghoulish cuteness, if that makes any sense. The publisher is Arcane Wisdom, the weird fiction imprint of Bloodletting Press. I proudly possess all of the Arcane Wisdom titles, and the owner, Larry Roberts, always delivers a fine production. Some Unknown Gulf of Night is no exception. Along with all the other books of Arcane Wisdom, it has an extremely low print run. Only 100 limited edition copies are for sale, and nearly all of them are gone, so if my review tickles your fancy, you should hurry over to Horror Mall to secure your copy before they disappear into the night.

            Like most of Pugmire’s work, Some Unknown Gulf of Night is extremely Lovecraftian. What Pugmire does with this book is portray his own unique response to Lovecraft’s brilliant sonnet sequence, Fungi from Yuggoth. The book is split up into 36 numbered prose poems and vignettes spanning 191 pages, meaning this is Pugmire’s largest single work yet. Each segment is Pugmire’s own interpretation of that numbered sonnet from Fungi from Yuggoth. Many of the segments are connected, whether it is due to a recurring character, or a straightforward continuation of a previous segment. Other segments are standalone stories. My personal favorite was one of the standalone pieces, which centered upon a weird artist named John who inherits a house near Dunwich and is driven insane by the cosmic lunacy evoked by a strange photograph with which he is obsessed, and attempts to reproduce through his art. This madness carries over to his friend, who is the narrator of the segment. 
 

            Some Unknown Gulf of Night is not a book you read in one sitting. Although it is under 200 pages, the reader must think of the book as 36 different stories, each needing to be digested with the proper time, like a rich meal, served bloody and rare. To read it in one sitting is too much. There are segments in the book that are two pages long, but are so decadent and powerful that they alone have as much depth and wonder as a ten-page work. The brain of the lucky reader risks over-saturation, and the possible bursting of brain tissue, should they attempt to complete the tome in one, unbroken read, as Pugmire’s sumptuous and poetic style is something to be sipped slowly, like a fine aperitif. 

            While not absolutely essential, it will help if the reader is not only familiar with the Lovecraftian universe (as there are some explicit references to his places and characters), but also with Pugmire’s own richly crafted world as well, for there are many call-backs to Pugmire’s past work. For example, one of the most frequent characters is a red haired, black skinned girl (although oddly devoid of African features), who dons a yellow, silk dress. People familiar with Pugmire will know that this woman is Marceline, an avatar and soul-sister of Nyarlathotep himself.  If you are not familiar with both writers, you might be a bit confused when you read this book, although enjoyment is assured, be you Lovecraftian/Pugmire novice or well-read sage.

            
       Some Unknown Gulf of Night is a dream come true to fans of Lovecraft and fans of Pugmire. For the Lovecraft fan, you can expect all types of cosmic horrors, weird locales, and blessedly archaic phrasing. For the Pugmire fan, you can expect mentally deranged characters, beautiful prose, and disturbing atmosphere. What’s not to like? Gulf has a small page count, but it is thick with content. Gulf can be as disturbing as coming across a clown in the middle of the forest, but it can also be as beautiful as a misty Kingsport night. Gulf will disgust you, and caress you. It is a grand paradox of Lovecraft’s world, and Pugmire’s adoring view of it. I assure you that although this book is super Lovecraftian, it is beyond the realm of pastiche. Pugmire writes in a way Lovecraft never could, yet he pays homage to the master at the same time. It is something truly magickal and I honestly can’t explain it. The best way to discover those nighted and weirdly horrific things that Wilum H. Pugmire has carefully arranged in the shadowy corners is to pick up this fine work for yourself.  You won’t be disappointed, nor will you be the same when you close the book as you were when you first opened it.
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by Alex Lugo 

The Gorgeous Lovecraftian Legend

Publishing News: Dead But Dreaming 2 Just Weeks Away From Worldwide Release

 

Misktonic River Press announced today that Dead But Dreaming 2 - the much anticipated follow up to the critically hailed Dead But Dreaming (now considered a collectors item in the genre) - is just weeks away from hitting the streets.

A deciphered smoke signal from MRP Brass reads as such:

Currently awaiting proofs for Dead But Dreaming 2 from the printer. We're mere weeks away from shipping the book out!

Herein are 22 tales of Lovecraftian horror from the modern masters of Cthulhu Mythos fiction: Scott David Aniolowski, David Annandale, Donald R. Burleson, Cody Goodfellow, John Goodrich, T.E. Grau, Rick Hautala, Walt Jarvis, Erik T. Johnson, William Meikle, Will Murray, Daniel W. Powell, Wilum Pugmire, Joseph S. Pulver Sr, Pete Rawlik, Kevin Ross, Brian Sammons, Darrell Schweitzer, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Michael Tice, and Don Webb.

Folks, I'm telling you.  This is one of THE anthologies - Lovecraftian or otherwise - of 2011, and beyond.  The talent pool assembled is wickedly deep and monstrously dark, orchestrated by editor Kevin Ross, who isn't one to go for the obviously slithery, nor fall for repeated use of the word "eldtritch."   This is Mythos fiction all grown up.

Don't miss out.  Get Dead But Dreaming 2 when - or BEFORE! - the rest of the world does, lest you have to do the sad Charlie Brown walk all the way home for the remainder of your silly, ill-spent life...

Give a hoot.  Buy good books.

Publishing News: A Blog About a Blog About a Blog and the Aklonomicon... And Paul Carrick

In case you haven't noticed, I've written about Paul Carrick before.  And yes, by now, everyone knows about my mad Mythos-crush on the artist who first allowed me to dare to dream what Lovecraft's creatures could be, in terms of scope, size, and texture.  I mean, hell, just take a gander at my "Words in the Wheelhouse" section of The Cosmicomicon and witness how many times Paul's name - prior to publishing this blog - has popped up on these very pages:

H.P. Lovecraft (8) Lovecraftian (8) God (5) Miskatonic River Press (5) Publishing News (5) Cthulhu (4) Dead But Dreaming 2 (4) Paul Carrick (4) zombies (4) Aklonomicon 

So, you as you can see, I place him in high regard, just below a Great Old One, and just above the trendiest new undead craze this side of preening teen vampires sporting eyeliner and crushing ennui.  More seriously, this shows just what I think of Paul's work not just as an artist, but also as a devoted and long-time Lovecraftian.  He's important to The Scene.  He's part of the New Roots.

I've already spilled the beans about Paul supplying not one but two pieces of original artwork for my respective stories "Flutes" and "In the Cave, She Sang," which will be published this summer in the toothy, hugely anticipated anthology the Aklonomicon, edited by artist/publisher Ivan McCann and award-winning mad poet and bEast of Berlin Joseph S. Pulver Sr. for Aklo Press.

Well, Paul recently unveiled his two pieces created specifically for my work via his Nightserpent blog.  I now return the favor, creating some sort of reverse linkage, blogging about a blog and a blog and now this blog that just makes my head hurt.  But I sometimes like it when my head hurts.  It means that I'm still alive, and often that something PROFOUND is taking place inside (or just acts as a reminder that I'm getting old and hangovers appreciate with age).

I first viewed his two Aklonomicon pieces a few weeks back, and have since peeled myself off the wall in gibbering excitement.  Now that Paul unleashed his noxious babies into the ether, I figure it's my turn to beam a little with coattail-riding pride at the stellar work he has done, born - in part - by the imagery of my prose.  So...

BOOM!  JAM THESE BAD JACKS INTO YOUR BRAIN HOLES, SUCKAS!:

This first piece is for my story titled "Flutes," which gives a glimpse at what might go wrong when humans start smashing very tiny particles in giant machines deep under the ground.

This second piece is for my story "In the Cave, She Sang..." about the fateful night on New Years Eve, 1968, when Charles Manson trudged up into the hills of Death Valley with a few worms in his pocket to decide the fate of the world.  It could have gone either way, until he heard that song in the cave....  This story was inspired by a seed implanted in my brain by one Mr. Pulver himself.  As a way to pay homage, That Which Paul Wrought above is my nod to him by way of Mythosian avatar (no, not the animated series or the billion dollar movie, silly).  It's beyond exciting to see what has only lived inside your (sometimes throbbing) gourd leap into line, color, and shadow and light.  Into writhing, pulsating life.  It's a writer's dream.

Keep your peeled grapes glued to this space for more announcements about the Aklonomicon and Aklo Press, as the summer heats up, trees die so books can live, and the nights get darker later, and far noisier, as things crawl to the surface to breath the humid air and bask under queer stars...

Guest Blogger: Jeffrey Thomas Reviews "Engines of Desire" by Livia Llewellyn

On this eve of long promised, righteous destruction, The Cosmicomicon continues its much talked about, days old tradition of bringing you the best guest bloggers working and lurking in the murky biz. 

This week is no different, as noted author/artist and Punktown creator Jeffrey Thomas (featured recently in Alex Luggo's guest blog review on pages prior) marvels at the roar and hum of Livia Llewellyn's widely celebrated Engines of Desire: 

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A Review of ENGINES OF DESIRE by Livia Llewellyn

- Jeffrey Thomas

     It’s no novel observation that it’s always exciting to discover a writer you’ve never read before; what greater satisfaction could account for one’s love of reading? Sometimes the pleasure comes from discovering someone others discovered quite a while before you. Last month, for instance, I completed BRAVE NEW WORLD, and in January I came across this guy named Cormac McCarthy. (I always feel a bit late to the game when it comes to movies and music, too -- but better than never, and all that.) Other times, the author you discovered is relatively new, or at least wholly new to you. Recently, writers who became favorites of mine with just one book were Richard Gavin (with OMENS) in 2009, Otsuichi (ZOO) in 2010, and Simon Strantzas (BENEATH THE SURFACE), earlier this year. And now, maybe not too late this time, here I am discovering Livia Llewellyn, via her new collection ENGINES OF DESIRE (Lethe Press).

     There’s a lot to admire here, and where to begin? I’m always impressed when a writer can work confidently within multiple genres or subgenres, and the stories in ENGINES OF DESIRE could be called a mix of horror, dark fantasy, science fiction -- though I wouldn’t blame Llewellyn if she’s as uncomfortable with such limiting categorizations as I am. Better to say, then, that she’s unfettered by genre. The stories tend to be either quite long or quite short, which again impresses; she’s going to let this story be the length it wants to be, whereas many other writers seem to weigh their efforts on the scale of whatever is going to fit the word range of the next zombie anthology. And where so many writers go through the motions of being shocking and edgy, Llewellyn makes them look like posers, writing as she does unflinchingly of infanticide, incest, madness and self-destruction. Her female protagonists are both empowered and compromised. Childbirth is a repeated subject matter, and repeatedly viewed not as a means of bringing joy and promise into the world but perpetuating the suffering of the doomed and damned.

     Among the standouts in these ten stories, we have the grim, apocalyptic “Horses” (and I’ll just stop introducing each story as grim right now -- that’s a given; this is not a feel-good bunch of tales), about a woman discovering the most basic imperatives of a human being, at the hour of human extinction; “The Engine of Desire,” a chilling tale of erotic obsession, the reading of which is like watching a film of a tornado brewing in reverse, from terrible aftermath to the first churning storm clouds; the increasingly nightmarish “Jetsam,” one of my favorites, about the resonance of 9/11; “The Four Hundred Thousand,” about a future civilization where young women are used to spawn whole armies that serve as a metaphor for the pointless sacrifices of war; the eerie, icky, enigmatic “Omphalos,” about the implosion of a most insular family; and easily my favorite, the concluding novella “Her Deepness.”

     “Her Deepness” is about as New Weird as New Weird can be, and again I hate categorizing here. That subgenre has been declared dead before it was even declared legitimate. I think some of those pronouncing it dead did so for their own purposes, owing to their competition with or envy of other authors whose future work they hoped to thwart by labeling it passé in advance. Politics, don’t you know. But categories do have their use when taken with a grain of salt, helping us stumble into the vicinity of things we’re going to like, and I was pleasantly surprised to find something of this particular flavor in Llewellyn’s book. “Her Deepness” could also be called Lovecraftian, but again that would be limiting it too much. It’s a dense, complex story about a sculptress with mysterious powers of shaping stone, called to the outer reaches of an impossibly vast, gritty, alternate Earth megalopolis to release a god-like being said to be trapped within rock, like some sentient fossil. In this tale most especially, Llewellyn indulges her considerable powers of description and setting, her ability to craft hard-edged characters who might not often be likable but are all the more fully real for that, her abundant and fresh imagination, her ability to generate an atmosphere heavy with a true sense of doom, and a prose voice full of glittering black poetry. Like many of the stories here, “Her Deepness” flirts with and ultimately plunges into the hallucinatory. It’s a heady experience. Forget I called it New Weird. Writing like this can never be passé, so I don’t want to run the risk of giving the wrong impression. I will say, I think Livia Llewellyn can hold her own alongside a China Mieville or a Jeff VanderMeer. I will say that much.

     And I will say this: I have another favorite writer. Ah…so this is why I read.

The Coolest Looking April Fools Prank Ever

Yes, that thing above.  That elegantly horrific elder creature that was touted by the talented jokesters at AvPGalaxy as pre-production concept art leaked by 20th Century Fox from the creative camp behind Ridley Scott's anticipated film Prometheus, which began as a prequel to Alien, and then spun off to become something totally original (GASP!), with only a few slight nods to the Giger-dreamed dystopian world in which Alien and all the sequels - both great and small - were set.

If that piece of edible art is an April Fools joke, may every day (other than major bank holidays, family birthdays, and anniversaries) be April 1st, because that sucker kicks the shit out of badass.

This article from Deadline is a bit old, but it gives some background on the mechanics of the project, while this AvPGalaxy update (posted March 15th) includes an excerpt from a translated article conducted and published by Teutonic fish wrap Blick, which makes Prometheus sound more than just a wee bit Lovecraftian:

Scott speaks of Erich von Daniken: “He has guessed right. Millions of years ago, there were intelligent creatures everywhere.” It is a time when HR Giger’s monster didn’t exist. “I have to create something new.”

Hmmmm.....

No, make that HMMMMMMMMMMM....!!!

Maybe Ridley could take a crack at Guillermo Del Toro's At The Mountains of Madness, which - as most know - is currently mired in the Great Nothingness of Unresolved Hollywood Wrangling, where it could reside, cold and forgotten, for untold eons.  Outside of Del Toro, I can't think of anyone better than Ridley Scott to helm something so bleak, massive, and cosmically terrifying.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen.  I'm Ridley Scott.  I'm so fucking cool it hurts.

Cosmic Horror - Human Vision: The Art of Mike Dubisch Seeps Into Burbank, California February 1st -15th

Before I loved Lovecraft, I loved comic books.  And before I loved comic books, I loved Dungeons & Dragons.

I reveled in the images and situations it conjured up in my young, searching mind - images it forced ME to conjure, as if a barely willing apprentice unsure in his craft.  Looking back, it was the first true creative storytelling that I ever undertook, outside of fibbing to my mother about where I was all day, and why my mouth was missing a tooth and my bike most of its spokes.

Alone in my room or around a giddy, soda-stained gaming table, I'd drift for hours in waking dreams, striding the fantastical, endless world organized - but certainly not solely created - by Gary Gygax, marveling at the possibility of infinite realms where anything weird, wonderful, and horrify was possible.  I'd ruminate on the low violence of high fantasy.  Spare with the gods and monsters.  Taste the steel, sweat and sulphur of sword, and of sorcery. It was my cloak against the mundane regular world.  It was imagination personified.

Fortunately, these reveries were fed by the plethora of artwork that accompanied the first wave of D&D in the late 1970's.  The Monsters Manual.  The Tomb of Horrors.  Dragon Magazine.  Man alive, Dragon Magazine... (deep sigh).  It ALWAYS had the most amazing covers, with all the best fantasy artists, including icons like Boris and, of course, the Grand Master Frank Frazetta.  I'd stare at these covers for hours, wondering what was around the next bend in the landscape, wishing it were all real...







I'd like to think that Mike Dubisch grew up the same way, imagining and dreaming from the same fuel, peering into shapeless vistas and giving them form and purpose and monstrous intent.  Judging by the subject matter, range, and enthusiasm of his artwork, I might be on to something.  Take a look...

I first met Mike Dubisch at the 1st Annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival last September.  We (and renowned Perilous Press author Cody Goodfellow, who was just named by Ellen Datlow as one of the Best Horror Writers of 2010, along with fellow Cosmicomicon friends Joseph S. Pulver and Wilum Pugmire, among others) spent several minutes chatting about the the past, present, and future of Lovecraftian/Mythosian/Weirdish art, literature, and film.  I must say that I enjoyed it thoroughly, especially as it was one of the first interviews I conducted that day, on assignment for Yog-Sothoth.com (home to all things Call of Cthulhu, and the best and most active Lovecraftian message on the net).

Just four short months later (has it really only been that long?), I'm taking time out of my Friday night to wrestle with blogspot to vigorously pimp his latest show, thankfully dropped on earth at the Hyaena Gallery, just mere miles from Cosmicomicon HQ, as the raven flies.  I do this because he's that good.  His work is that cool.  

Instead of blathering on, I'll post some of his work, and you be the judge.  Mike's most recent work is the Black Velvet Necronomicon, which goes a little something like this.

Mike's show at the Hyaena Gallery opens on February 1st, 2011, and runs through February 15th.  Opening Reception is Saturday, February 5th, from 8 pm til the witching hour.  That's where I'll be.

Artist Mike Dubisch has been making waves in the world of H.P.Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos fandom for the last few years. His art was featured at the H.P.Lovecraft Film Festivals in Portland Oregon and LA.

His drawings and paintings of dark fantasy have appeared in numerous publications for Star Wars, Dungeons & Dragons, IDW, and Aliens VS Predator. His painting for Mythos magazine "Strange Aeons" Holiday issue was chosen for inclusion in the Frank Frazetta Tribute Exhibition in march, honoring the late grand master of fantasy illustration.

Dubisch will present an assortment of recent horror, mythos and monster based art, all with his unique sympathetic approach, finding a beautiful elegance, personality and deeper meaning in the genre of horror fantasy art.

Publishing News: Dead But Dreaming 2 Cover and Table of Contents

The cover has been released for the forthcoming anthology Dead But Dreaming 2, edited by Kevin Ross for Miskatonic River Press.

Also, the table of contents was also recently leaked out onto the carpeting as well, with the scribes and their  shiny wares lining up as such:

Foreword: Messrs. Cthulhu and Lovecraft Have Arrived", Kevin Ross
"Taggers", Walt Jarvis
"The Unfinished Basement", William Meikle
"Plush Cthulhu", Don Webb
"Class Reunion", Darrell Schweitzer
"First Nation", Scott David Aniolowski
"Your Ivory Hollow", Wilum Pugmire
"The Spell of the Eastern Sea", Michael Tice
"Dark Heart", Kevin Ross
"Transmission", T.E. Grau
"N is for Neville", John Goodrich
"The Timucuan Portal", Daniel W. Powell
"No Healing Prayers", Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
"The Dissipation Club", Adrian Tchaikovsky
"Lure", David Annandale
"The Call", Rick Hautala
"Christmas Carrion", Donald R. Burleson
"The Depopulation Syndrome", Erik T. Johnson
"Uncle Sid’s Collection", Cody Goodfellow
"Father’s Day", Brian Sammons
"Innsmouth Idyll", Darrell Schweitzer
"The Hour of Our Triumph", Will Murray
"Here Be Monsters", Pete Rawlik

There are some VERY major figures on that thar list, mixed in with some relatively newer names to the scene (*cough*).  Overall, it promises to be a spectacular tome of Lovecraftian goodness that shies away from the whiz-bang monster and Mythos sideshow, opting instead to focus on creeping dread and implied weirdness, tinged with cosmic horror and a dash of doom.  Kevin Ross will never force fed you the writhing worm.  He prefers to bounce that bait along the bottom, staying just a bit out of reach until you're ready to swallow it whole, hooking your guts and marking the end.

I really can't believe that in my first anthology with the sweethearts at Miskatonic River Press, I'm rubbing elbows and slimy appendages with the likes of Pulver and Pugmire, Goodfellow and Meikle, Schweitzer and Tice, Sammons and Ross, Goodrich, Murray, and Burleson (and the rest, really, as they're all recognizable names in the Family). 

Keep several of your eyes on this electronic spot for further updates on Dead But Dreaming 2 as they become available. 

And keep at least one good eye up on the sky, at that seemingly blank place between Hydra and Argo, and say a prayer for poor, curious Walter Gilman...

Publishing News: Dead But thankfully still Dreaming

 Howdy, weirdos.

Just wanted to take a break from various end-of-year writing deadlines, holiday highjinx, and NOT blogging on The Cosmicomicon to send out a quick publishing update:

Dead But Dreaming 2, the much anticipated follow-up to Dead But Dreaming, recently closed submissions, culled the lot, and shipped off the locked anthology to the Miskatonic River Press Mothership, with my story "Transmission" stowed away aboard.

I really couldn't be happier.  I've always been a fan of Miskatonic River Press, which is deftly tended by the eternally patient and always gracious Tom Lynch, who serves as President and Managing Editor.  Tom, and everyone at MRP (what the cool kids call it), toil endlessly in loving memory of Keith "Doc" Herber, Editor in Chief and CEO of Miskatonic River Press (and co-editor with Ross on Dead But Dreaming), who passed from this dimension on March 13th of 2009.  What Doc left behind was a sizable legacy and rare standard of quality that has made Miskatonic River Press one of the consistently excellent publishers of Lovecraftian fiction and Call of Cthluhu RPG monographs, scenarios, and other gaming materials.

I hear tell that MRP's Kevin Ross, editor of both Dead But Dreaming and Dead But Dreaming 2, doesn't suffer fools lightly, is quite "selective" with what he considers quality Lovecraftian fiction (eschewing simple pastiche), and is certainly no slouch or newby to the weird fiction and Lovecrafitian game based on his impressive resume, which only makes one wonder how my goofy ass got one through the door.  This review from Amazon.com was particularly telling, and indicative of the high standards of the first Dead But Dreaming, and Ross as an editor:

Dead but Dreaming is the finest Lovecraftian/Cthulhu Mythos anthology to see print in a very, very long time (in a strange aeon, if I may...!). Writing in this often-muddled genre gets no better than this. You won't find a lot of "names" herein, but don't let that stop you from buying and reading this amazing tome. Editor Ross set out to collect stories that paid homage to Lovecraft without being trite slaves to his style. This IS, indeed, a collection of Lovecraftian horror, NOT a jumble of pastiches and old-formula Cthulhu Mythos tales. No, this is fresh and enjoyable, with more than a few surprises in store for the reader. Of the fifteen tales presented, there were but a few that didn't "grab" me, and only one that I can actually say I disliked. The majority here are keepers, for sure. As an author, editor, and small press publisher, myself, I have to admit to jealousy on my part: I wish I had been responsible for this book! If you are a fan of H.P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu Mythos treat yourself to something very special and buy this book!

Regardless of how it all went down, I'm extremely excited to be included in Dead But Dreaming 2, and eternally grateful for the opportunity to join the hallowed halls of Dead But Dreaming authors, which includes such names as Stephen Mark Rainey, Darrell Schweitzer, Adam Niswander, Mike Minnis, Lisa Morton, Patrick Lestewka, David Barr Kirtley,Walt Jarvis, Brian Scott Hiebert, David Bain, Robin Morris, Mehitobel Wilson, David Annandale, and some British dude named Ramsey Campbell (I've gotta look into him, see if he's done much).

As Kevin Ross would say in his Kevin Ross way, "Okay squids, keep an eye out for this book."

You heard the man.

Tom Lynch, MRP writer/editor/wundkind Oscar Rios, and iconic Lovecraftian artist Paul Carrick (not/rarely pictured, Kevin Ross)

Birthed From Poison - Not ET, But Something Possibly Just as Extraordinary

To follow up on my posting yesterday:  Those amazing little guys up above, discovered in the brine choked, ominously-named Mono Lake in the shadow of God-kissed Yosemite National Park....

... have just turned the biological world sideway, as - for the first time in scientific history - a terrestrial life form has been discovered that utilizes arsenic (read as: "FUCKING POISON") to create DNA and synthesize proteins.  Or, put simply, they turn poison into life.

This is a truly earth-shattering discovery, as the GFAJ-1 strain of extremophilic bacteria shows that life doesn't necessarily need to cleave to the Big Six building blocks essential for most known life, those being carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus.  So, if that's possible on Earth, held in the thrall of the Big Six for eons, what does that mean for the prospect of life developing in different, non-Earth-like environments spread across 11 dimensions?  Class?  Yes, that's right.  It RAISES the prospect.  It basically announces that the sky - and limitless light years beyond the sky - is truly the limit, and the possibilities endless. 

As we delve deeper into the land and sea with one hand, while reaching further into space with the other, we are going to keep finding new discoveries that challenge the status quo.  How we handle these sharp 180's will dictate how we evolve and grow as a species.  Do we roll with the New Knowledge, or shut down and pick up our pitchforks?  I think I know how it'll go down, but don't want to jinx it...

I also like the ideas of finding a "second genesis" and a "shadow biosphere" discussed in the linked NatGeo article, which was the scientific inspiration of the exploratory mission on Mono Lake.  Sounds like something out of a Lovecraftian or other "weird fiction" story.  We dig shit like that.  It serves as inspiration for what WE do.

Overall, I think this exciting discovery again reminds us that sometimes the biggest secrets are found within the smallest amongst us.  And, sometimes, we can find the alien, the bizarre, and truly otherworldly right in our own backyard, if we keep our eyes and ears open and tuned to the proper frequency.

The Weird is all around us, as we spin like madmen at 1.3 million miles an hour around our sun, around our galactic axis, around the center of the universe and all space and time, where Azathoth slumbers in his easy chair to the sounds of muzak piping.  In these strange and uncertain times, lets remember to appreciate the extraordinary and the bizarre that is close to home while still peering into the furthest abyss, and never stop searching for the truth as we can comprehend it.  It's what we do, we fragile, smart-mouthed "bags of mostly water."  Why stop now?  Why not boldly go, and see where we end up?  Why not touch the face of God?