Paul Tremblay is one of the BEST around! !! If you've read his work you know that! If you have, not go ck him out, everyone loves this master -- and for damn good reason! !!
He was nice enought to read SIN and here's what he had to say...
"Joe Pulver's SINS AND ASHES is a messed up (and I mean Cronenberg messed up) splicing of William S. Burroughs and Thomas Ligotti. Add a whiskey chaser. After reading these vibrant and weird stories with their assorted devils and down-and-outs, I kinda want to party with Joe. But I think I'm too scared to."--Paul Tremblay, author of The Little Sleep and In the Mean Time.
Again, I find myself thrilled and humbled.
Might go dance around the Nightmarium a bit...
Paul's site is here:
http://paultremblay.net/paulgtremblay/
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Simon Strantzas on "SIN & ashes"
Highly-acclaimed author, Simon Stranzas, was kind enough, after reading my new collection, SIN & ashes, to say the following:
"Joseph S Pulver, Sr. is a thunderous scribe of dark fiction. His poetry slams into you, cracking through flesh and bone to the real meat beneath. SIN & ashes is his mighty hammer, deftly wielded and smithed on Hephaestus's great anvil. This is no book for the faint of heart. Filled with hard boiled goodness and devastating imagery, Pulver proves his is a talent to be reckoned with, and cements his rightful place as one of the most interesting voices in the genre. I am both awed and humbled by his power."
I am not alone in considering SS to be among the very best writers in "Weird Fiction", so as you might guess, I am humbled and blown away by his praise for my new collection.
Guess I should add, WOW! !! & YAY! !!
Off to go jump for joy for a while... [and reread it 47 more times! !!]
"Joseph S Pulver, Sr. is a thunderous scribe of dark fiction. His poetry slams into you, cracking through flesh and bone to the real meat beneath. SIN & ashes is his mighty hammer, deftly wielded and smithed on Hephaestus's great anvil. This is no book for the faint of heart. Filled with hard boiled goodness and devastating imagery, Pulver proves his is a talent to be reckoned with, and cements his rightful place as one of the most interesting voices in the genre. I am both awed and humbled by his power."
I am not alone in considering SS to be among the very best writers in "Weird Fiction", so as you might guess, I am humbled and blown away by his praise for my new collection.
Guess I should add, WOW! !! & YAY! !!
Off to go jump for joy for a while... [and reread it 47 more times! !!]
Simon Strantzas BENEATH THE SURFACE
I don't spend much time here talking about other writer's work, but this one I have to mention and highly recommend. Normally I'm wordy as hell, but not this time. Why? Easy -- you need to be on your way to a get a copy of this and not spending time reading about it.
Here's what I will say...
Strantzas = Atmosphere, Atmosphere, Atmosphere! !! + The seasoned subtlety of a literary master and a rich, evocative imagination—a very dark one. Along with Laird Barron and a handful of others, Simon Strantzas does not show you the gate to this new Golden Age of weird fiction that is upon us, but leads you through it. What you encounter on the other side will leave its mark on you. I dare you to look BENEATH THE SURFACE!
Friday, November 26, 2010
tweeking SIN's cover...
SIN's cover has gotten a *font* touch up... Lookin' like we're ready to rumble for X-mas! !!
You can pre-order your copy of SIN & ashes from Hippocampus Press here:
http://www.hippocampuspress.com/mythos-and-other-authors/fiction/sin-ashes-by-joseph-s.-pulver-sr.?zenid=c10d40913b4c7736aaefc23c2733ff4c
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
under the dust in the Nightmarium... JEFFREY THOMAS
Years before Blood Will Have Its Season there was to be a collection of some of my short works... Some of these tales and poetics saw the light of day in BLOOD, a couple in my new one in, SIN & ashes, and there are still a few that have yet to find a home [and several appeared in BLOOD w/ radical changes to the poetic lay out]... That collection was to be called Collisions In The Word Box and PUNKTOWNer [pal, and GREAT writer! !!], Jeffrey Thomas, penned the following as an intro... In a file that holds files of old files I found JT's "intro"...
THEN & NOW(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) THANKS, Jeffrey! [yer still one of the BESTest]!!
Sculpting Words: on Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.’s “Collisions In the Word Box”
JEFFREY THOMAS
What one will first notice upon paging through Joseph S. Pulver’s “Collision In the Word Box” is the unique, sometimes dizzying arrangement of text, the mutability of fonts, the obliteration of conventional paragraph structure. Because this is the landscape of nightmare, of madness, of violence that is being painted for us. This is the reader examining his own face, and soul, in a shattered mirror. This is viewing the fires of hell through a beautiful brass kaleidoscope.
In the opening piece, “PITCH nothing”, a column of the word “enchantment” literally seems to flow from left to right. “Echo” seems to ripple in sound waves, “stumble” to drop off the edge of a step. Pulver constructs rooms and staircases from the bare skeletons of type. His are sculptures of words, making as much use of the empty spaces around them as the words themselves. As Lovecraft’s evil forces dwelt not on the distant stars but in the spaces between them, so does Pulver fill with invisible foreboding the blank spaces between his words. As Pulver himself says: “White space made explicit by the attention of black.”
In “PITCH nothing”, (the first of these gorgeously-titled works – my favorite title being “I once possessed a fragile blue vase”), our protagonist becomes effectively lost in a disorienting limbo of exploded sentences and paragraphs with the floors dropped out of them. One would be hard pressed to find a better portrayal of altered reality, of a mind fragmented by insanity, than in this series of prose poems. In “Water lilies”, the words of the title spread gracefully, but the poetic loveliness of the piece mixes disturbingly with an ominous intimation of violence. In “The Master and Margeritha” (inspired by a Giger painting), Pulver builds a hellish cityscape out of barbed words. The character in this piece and others in the collection yearn for transcendence, transformation (these evolving states artfully conveyed by the unorthodox structure), and – unfortunately for them – they achieve it. In “The Songs Cassilda Shall Sing, Where Flap the Tatters of the King” (an edgy, Kathe Koja-like short story which captures the very essence of Goth), Pulver uses his word-art to manifest the raging anarchy of rock music. A song is described as being, “The death wail of 1000 vampires wasting in solar fire.” “The Delirium of a Worm-Wizard” deftly mixes lush mysticism with forbidding doom. “A Night of Blood and Moon, Then Holstenwall” (a retelling of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligrari”) is a Ligotti-like phantasmagorical nightmare that could be refilmed by the Brothers Quay.
“Collisions In the Word Box” abounds in the mysterious, as best epitomized in the line from “After my skirmishes with unhappiness”: “There are still secrets hidden on the undersides of the leaves.” Each piece seethes with a sinister madness like a straitjacketed ghost forgotten in a dark and cobwebbed cell. As Pulver himself so wonderfully puts it, “Perversion is hired as a governess for our dreams.” In this innovative, hypnotic collection, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. has proven himself to be a perversely masterful sculptor of those dreams.
THEN & NOW(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) THANKS, Jeffrey! [yer still one of the BESTest]!!
Sculpting Words: on Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.’s “Collisions In the Word Box”
JEFFREY THOMAS
What one will first notice upon paging through Joseph S. Pulver’s “Collision In the Word Box” is the unique, sometimes dizzying arrangement of text, the mutability of fonts, the obliteration of conventional paragraph structure. Because this is the landscape of nightmare, of madness, of violence that is being painted for us. This is the reader examining his own face, and soul, in a shattered mirror. This is viewing the fires of hell through a beautiful brass kaleidoscope.
In the opening piece, “PITCH nothing”, a column of the word “enchantment” literally seems to flow from left to right. “Echo” seems to ripple in sound waves, “stumble” to drop off the edge of a step. Pulver constructs rooms and staircases from the bare skeletons of type. His are sculptures of words, making as much use of the empty spaces around them as the words themselves. As Lovecraft’s evil forces dwelt not on the distant stars but in the spaces between them, so does Pulver fill with invisible foreboding the blank spaces between his words. As Pulver himself says: “White space made explicit by the attention of black.”
In “PITCH nothing”, (the first of these gorgeously-titled works – my favorite title being “I once possessed a fragile blue vase”), our protagonist becomes effectively lost in a disorienting limbo of exploded sentences and paragraphs with the floors dropped out of them. One would be hard pressed to find a better portrayal of altered reality, of a mind fragmented by insanity, than in this series of prose poems. In “Water lilies”, the words of the title spread gracefully, but the poetic loveliness of the piece mixes disturbingly with an ominous intimation of violence. In “The Master and Margeritha” (inspired by a Giger painting), Pulver builds a hellish cityscape out of barbed words. The character in this piece and others in the collection yearn for transcendence, transformation (these evolving states artfully conveyed by the unorthodox structure), and – unfortunately for them – they achieve it. In “The Songs Cassilda Shall Sing, Where Flap the Tatters of the King” (an edgy, Kathe Koja-like short story which captures the very essence of Goth), Pulver uses his word-art to manifest the raging anarchy of rock music. A song is described as being, “The death wail of 1000 vampires wasting in solar fire.” “The Delirium of a Worm-Wizard” deftly mixes lush mysticism with forbidding doom. “A Night of Blood and Moon, Then Holstenwall” (a retelling of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligrari”) is a Ligotti-like phantasmagorical nightmare that could be refilmed by the Brothers Quay.
“Collisions In the Word Box” abounds in the mysterious, as best epitomized in the line from “After my skirmishes with unhappiness”: “There are still secrets hidden on the undersides of the leaves.” Each piece seethes with a sinister madness like a straitjacketed ghost forgotten in a dark and cobwebbed cell. As Pulver himself so wonderfully puts it, “Perversion is hired as a governess for our dreams.” In this innovative, hypnotic collection, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. has proven himself to be a perversely masterful sculptor of those dreams.
Monday, November 22, 2010
words...
They called her crazy.
Then.
Crazy. Until sunset and the face of the moon struck them.
Now.
Crazy.
Worse.
Not with her ears open to their eyes. Not then. Called her hag. In the other tongue. Hoping she had forgotten it.
Now. Crazy old hag. If they think they are far enough away from the face of her heart.
(c) Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. 2010
Then.
Crazy. Until sunset and the face of the moon struck them.
Now.
Crazy.
Worse.
Not with her ears open to their eyes. Not then. Called her hag. In the other tongue. Hoping she had forgotten it.
Now. Crazy old hag. If they think they are far enough away from the face of her heart.
(c) Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
in Leng...
Indelicate blades articulating blood-magic before he can argue. Three more through the opening. A step in, they howl. Blades forward, one overheard. Ready. Hungry.
Dogs leaping.
Gunfire. A head becomes a blood-blossom. A chest is ripped open by lead. Third takes two shots in the abdomen.
Slab’s bigger. Wider. No less bloody.
Drifting smoke.
Faces of men and canine savage, blood for blood.
(c) Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. 2010
Dogs leaping.
Gunfire. A head becomes a blood-blossom. A chest is ripped open by lead. Third takes two shots in the abdomen.
Slab’s bigger. Wider. No less bloody.
Drifting smoke.
Faces of men and canine savage, blood for blood.
(c) Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. 2010
Unfilmable says SIN is coming...
Over at UNFILMABLE [the home of COSMIC HORROR CINEMA... and a few other BLOODbaths] the UNdead have been kind enough to mention that my new collection, SIN & ashes, will be coming out next month... Mighty nice of them and a certain Mr. Mullins...
A rather fine bunch of ghouls there... always have their ears to the tombstones to hear what lurks in the dArk places... Stop by and see Mr. Mullins. Tell 'em you like yer SINs w/ Xtra ashes sprinkled on top. I'm sure he'll dose 'em good fer ya... might even put some small dEad things on top fer ya...
http://unfilmable.blogspot.com/
A rather fine bunch of ghouls there... always have their ears to the tombstones to hear what lurks in the dArk places... Stop by and see Mr. Mullins. Tell 'em you like yer SINs w/ Xtra ashes sprinkled on top. I'm sure he'll dose 'em good fer ya... might even put some small dEad things on top fer ya...
http://unfilmable.blogspot.com/
Friday, November 19, 2010
STRANGE AEONS #3 is in Berlin! !!
My contri copies of SA #3 have arrived in Berlin... I am vEry pleased w/ the lovely presentation of my text in this issue. and Eric York's KIY tarot art to go with my text is wonderful!! !
You can get your copy of SA here:
http://strange-aeons.com/
SIN & ashes has a cover...
SIN & ashes now has a cover. Noted surrealist, J. Karl Bogartte, is the artist.
More of Bogo's wonderous art can be found here:
http://homepage.mac.com/photomorphose/surrealism2.html
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Innsmouth Free Press' Historical Lovecraft Anthology
Innsmouth Free Press' Historical Lovecraft is still open to submissions...
Here's what I know --
"We are still looking for stories for the anthology and we are still having too many stories set in Europe or the USA in the slush. Victorian is the most popular time period we are getting, and as such, the competition is fierce because we will only take one or two stories in that setting. We also want to see more stories in ancient times and stuff with female protagonists (we got Joan of Arc the other day, but women are definitely missing from the slush pile). I am very interested in seeing stories in pre-colonial Africa, as it's a neglected region.
Here's what I know --
"We are still looking for stories for the anthology and we are still having too many stories set in Europe or the USA in the slush. Victorian is the most popular time period we are getting, and as such, the competition is fierce because we will only take one or two stories in that setting. We also want to see more stories in ancient times and stuff with female protagonists (we got Joan of Arc the other day, but women are definitely missing from the slush pile). I am very interested in seeing stories in pre-colonial Africa, as it's a neglected region.
Though many people are sending stories with Mythos elements (Cthulhu and co.), we are open to anything Lovecraftian, and it need not include an Elder God, but it should evoke or be inspired by Lovecraft."
I have had my Lovecraftian "Western" "A Meeting on the Trail to Hot Iron" accepted [contracts are signed]. I'm looking forward to seeing who comes and plays in the past. More female protagonists & pre-colonial Africa, THAT I'd love to see! !! OK, Scribes, sharpen yer pencils...
Here's a link to more details:
Friday, November 12, 2010
cold black night... WORDS...
Carcosa-Berlin Express… Cold black night… Blues roarin ‘like the grey Hulk on a STOMP!! !
Getting’ close to finishin’ a new one… odd how some come so hard…
3 books between now and JAN/FEB and it seems weird waiting on word of cover art, etc., but that’s publishers. You sign on, they get the contract and they forget yer email… or so it seems at times…
Working on cleaning on the desktop… NEEDS IT!! ! Bad… Looks like I have a lot done this year…
Only have 5 “active” tales on the desktop now… And one “collection” file that needs to go to pub… That said, I now have 44,000+ words to choose from for NIGHT BEGETS… One more and I’m done…
I’m still wondering about agents… Do I? Should I? W/ the new novel [TOP] ready to go, curious what could happen…
OOPS… 3 more need to be tended too… Then, finally, I can get back to next novel… I want to putter w/ this one bad…
I’ve decided the next collection after SIN & ashes and NIGHT BEGETS will be called Portraits of Ruin… Planning on putting a couple of old things in there – original versions w/ my wEir~D layouts and fonts [want them to see print in the form they were intended/envisioned – especially my 1st “Caligari”!! ! – which almost made it into SIN & ashes, but we yanked it due to page count considerations][also delighted Nightmare’s Disciple will contain Bob Price’s introduction, which was not included in the 1st release due to page count considerations as well. It will also have a NEW “Foreword” by Bob looking back! As he was Dr. Frankenstein on this tome, it’s nice to see his "then & now" lab notes!!]…
There’s a few other things in the works, but I’m still not allowed to talk about them…
Next time I’ll update the list of tales I have coming in 2011, so far… just need to organize the list…
Hope yer all warm & WELL...
Well, there's the King in Yellow pointing at the new desk in the Nightmarium-Berlin... guess that means more WORDS... [maybe he'll let me shave and shower 1st?? ?]
All my bEastly best! !!
Joe
Getting’ close to finishin’ a new one… odd how some come so hard…
3 books between now and JAN/FEB and it seems weird waiting on word of cover art, etc., but that’s publishers. You sign on, they get the contract and they forget yer email… or so it seems at times…
Working on cleaning on the desktop… NEEDS IT!! ! Bad… Looks like I have a lot done this year…
Only have 5 “active” tales on the desktop now… And one “collection” file that needs to go to pub… That said, I now have 44,000+ words to choose from for NIGHT BEGETS… One more and I’m done…
I’m still wondering about agents… Do I? Should I? W/ the new novel [TOP] ready to go, curious what could happen…
OOPS… 3 more need to be tended too… Then, finally, I can get back to next novel… I want to putter w/ this one bad…
I’ve decided the next collection after SIN & ashes and NIGHT BEGETS will be called Portraits of Ruin… Planning on putting a couple of old things in there – original versions w/ my wEir~D layouts and fonts [want them to see print in the form they were intended/envisioned – especially my 1st “Caligari”!! ! – which almost made it into SIN & ashes, but we yanked it due to page count considerations][also delighted Nightmare’s Disciple will contain Bob Price’s introduction, which was not included in the 1st release due to page count considerations as well. It will also have a NEW “Foreword” by Bob looking back! As he was Dr. Frankenstein on this tome, it’s nice to see his "then & now" lab notes!!]…
There’s a few other things in the works, but I’m still not allowed to talk about them…
Next time I’ll update the list of tales I have coming in 2011, so far… just need to organize the list…
Hope yer all warm & WELL...
Well, there's the King in Yellow pointing at the new desk in the Nightmarium-Berlin... guess that means more WORDS... [maybe he'll let me shave and shower 1st?? ?]
All my bEastly best! !!
Joe
[may need to change the soundtrack... "early!!!" Weather Report seems a good bet! !!]
Monday, November 8, 2010
seems trains ain't, so bicyclin' along Tarkio Road...
"Tark left Santiago"
+grainy B&W NOIR
+ a smack of hybrid poetics
+ Karl Edward Wagner
+ shadow/time travel [w/ a Jobim/Mingus soundtrack]
_____________
= lookin' done to me...
In other news... Old PC up & runnin' [no laptop keys!! priceless!]... Cleaning up old files - Lot of ghosts in that closet... 12,000 songs rescued! Happy ears!!
Nightmarium-Berlin taking shape... Books easing into bookcases... Nice to look at old friends on A-Shelves! !!
To be released between DEC 2010 and JUNE 2011 - SIN & ashes [TPB]; Nightmare's Disciple [e-book/TPB]; Blood Will Have Its Season [e-book]; Night Begets [TPB]... and various tales in anthologies & mags - 6 so far [& waitin' on word regarding a couple of others from editors]...
ND & BLOOD getting new covers [Hmmmmmmmmmmm...] - that may prove interesting... Talons crossed - I'll keep ya posted...
Finished a story tale w/ my friend, Tara Vanflower of Lycia [she''s a delight! !!] I REALLY like this short thing we did. We are working on others! !!
Finished a short tale w/ my friend, Kelly Young [for "STRANGE AEONS" magazine]... Think this one is wonderful... I hope it breaks readers hearts [did mine]...
Lots of "TALES" on the desk... 5 in "active" status...
New novel and screenplay screamin' to be heard...
[David Crosby/Brewer & Shipley/Spoon]
+grainy B&W NOIR
+ a smack of hybrid poetics
+ Karl Edward Wagner
+ shadow/time travel [w/ a Jobim/Mingus soundtrack]
_____________
= lookin' done to me...
In other news... Old PC up & runnin' [no laptop keys!! priceless!]... Cleaning up old files - Lot of ghosts in that closet... 12,000 songs rescued! Happy ears!!
Nightmarium-Berlin taking shape... Books easing into bookcases... Nice to look at old friends on A-Shelves! !!
To be released between DEC 2010 and JUNE 2011 - SIN & ashes [TPB]; Nightmare's Disciple [e-book/TPB]; Blood Will Have Its Season [e-book]; Night Begets [TPB]... and various tales in anthologies & mags - 6 so far [& waitin' on word regarding a couple of others from editors]...
ND & BLOOD getting new covers [Hmmmmmmmmmmm...] - that may prove interesting... Talons crossed - I'll keep ya posted...
Finished a story tale w/ my friend, Tara Vanflower of Lycia [she''s a delight! !!] I REALLY like this short thing we did. We are working on others! !!
Finished a short tale w/ my friend, Kelly Young [for "STRANGE AEONS" magazine]... Think this one is wonderful... I hope it breaks readers hearts [did mine]...
Lots of "TALES" on the desk... 5 in "active" status...
New novel and screenplay screamin' to be heard...
[David Crosby/Brewer & Shipley/Spoon]
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Casino R'lyeh Cthulhu Mythos Playing Cards
Jarred Wallace of Dagon Industries has comeout with a deck of Lovecraftian playing cards... play cards? ?? Lovecraftian? ?? Then you need these -- the art [FAB! !!] is by Heather Hudson!! !
Casino R'lyeh Cthulhu Mythos Playing Cards
http://www.arkhambazaar.com/oddities/other/casino-rlyeh-cthulhu-mythos-poker-cards?cPath=36&zenid=omroenvahsdgjfqi8qbqvug2u2
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