NewSSsss from S.T.'s blog... and I'm up in it~ ~~

So deep into The Work lately [yep, more new tales than a bEastie can shake demon at!] I seem to have missed S.T.'s announcement. I'm delighted to see this post as I'm part of it and could not mention it until he did! !! So, partially unleashed~ ~~

Here's what S.T. had to say in his DEC 10 post --

 "I have concluded several important book deals... The other book deal is a two-book arrangement with Titan Books for all-original Lovecraftian stories. The first is one that I mentioned before—a volume of stories using At the Mountains of Madness as a springboard. The second is a more general Lovecraftian anthology. Aside from the usual suspects, I hope to entice a number of big-name authors, several of whom have not written Lovecraftian fiction before. All this will be done while I continue to assemble Black Wings III, which is due to PS Publishing next September. I am looking forward to the simultaneous appearance next March of Black Wings II (PS) and the paperback edition of Black Wings I (Titan)."

The Pulver up-in-it in this is, S.T. has accepted my tale, "WHITE FIRE" for his "AtMoM" spinoff. And he's accepted another new tale of mine, "…down black staircases", for inclusion in either BWIII or his unanamed "Titan" Lovecraftian collection.

"WHITE FIRE" is a sequel to "AtMoM" and a riff of Jack London's "To Build A Fire" and a scene from Jerimiah Johnson, and "...down black staircases" is a Kingsport tale that was inspired by a pair of entries in HPL's Commonplace Book.

He's also accepted another "semi-Lovecraftian" tale of mine, "In . . . and Out", for the next issue of his "Weird Fiction Review".

I hope all of you are having a WONDERFUL holiday season! !!!!!!!!!! Wish every one of you all my bEastly BESTest for yer 2012! !!!!!!!!

http://stjoshi.org/news.html

[soundtrack for a Boxing Day morn various "early" N.R.P.S tunes...] Damn, teacup's empty 'gain~ ~~

MUSIKS & MYTHOS

Coming March 2012 from SPECTRAL PRESS: [from Simon Marshall-Jones]

_MUSIKS & MYTHOS_ To start things off, here’s an update on what’s happening with the first release in the audio-CD series of Lovecraft readings accompanied by specially commissioned and composed music, released in conjunction with Temple ov Azathoth Records.

The first double-CD will be released in March 2012 and will feature Lovecraft’s "The Music of Erich Zann" and "Nyarlathotep". As to the modern writer whose story will be featured on the first disc, that honour will go to… JOE PULVER!! Joe’s story will be "The Delirium of a Worm Wizard" from his _SIN & Ashes_ collection, published by Hippocampus Press of New York.


Final details have yet to be confirmed (such as pricing, packaging format, etc.,) but as soon as they’re available I’ll be passing them on. In the meantime, if anyone is interested in purchasing or reserving copies, then please let me know by emailing me, Simon Marshall-Jones, at spectralpress[AT]gmail[DOT]com.

I think they say, "I'm chuffed!" AM! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That & a hell of a lot of YAYYYYYYYYYYYY

Yes, there will be updates as I have them............. .

More FUN news is coming soon [as they take me off the leash!]!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

some newsssssssssssssssssS

Can't announce the BIG newsSSSSSSSSSSSSSS ;; ; YET! !! Soon!!!!!!!! !
BUT~ ~~

to me these are FAB! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spectral Press will be launching a series of audio-CDs of music and Lovecraft tales (along with Lovecraftian stories from modern masters)................ [drum roll] I'm on the 1st CD! !! My work -- YAYyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyY~ ~~ more news as it unfolds. .....;...........;;... .

http://spectralpress.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/a-little-news/

AND; ;;

                                     over at the BFS there's a review of TOP says~ ~~"If this extraordinary book isn’t at least nominated for a few awards, I’ll be astonished & disappointed."
     The award to me is the READER!!!!!!!!!!! That's the kind of reaction all writers dream of. And as I [and every other writer] sit here typing, that fuel keeps our fingers {and hearts} muscling new WORDS on to the page . . .

                               Oh yeah, "on Lynch's desk" that's the other stuff of dreams~  ;;~


http://www.britishfantasysociety.co.uk/reviews/the-orphan-palace-by-joseph-s-pulver-book-review/


MUSE: Get back to lookin' in that wishin' well. Story is not done!
me: Yes, Boss . . . Do I have time for a smoke first?
MUSE: No. Do you think these things write themselves?

My answers to The Weird Questionnaire

1 – Write the first sentence of a novel, short story, or book of the weird yet to be written.

Tark left Santiago and its stalkers to their experiments of felt.

2 – Without looking at your watch: what time is it?

Midnight.

3 – Look at your watch. What time is it?

1:30 am.

4 – How do you explain this — or these — discrepancy(ies) in time?

Was writing and got lost in the Zone.

5 – Do you believe in meteorological predictions?

Yeah.

6 – Do you believe in astrological predictions?

Nope.

7 – Do you gaze at the sky and stars by night?

Sure do.

8 – What do you think of the sky and stars by night?

Space is the place.

9 – What were you looking at before starting this questionnaire?

A new short work I’m tinkering w/.

10 – What do cathedrals, churches, mosques, shrines, synagogues, and other religious monuments inspire in you?

For the most part, nothing.

11 – What would you have “seen” if you’d been blind?

Perhaps, hopefully, my fantasies.

12 – What would you want to see if you were blind?

My fantasies.

13 – Are you afraid?

There are times, yes.

14 – What of?

Mostly of dying.

15 – What is the last weird film you’ve seen?

BLACK NIGHT.

16 – Whom are you afraid of?

Me. My self-destructive tendencies.

17 – Have you ever been lost?

Certainly was! !!

18 – Do you believe in ghosts?

No.

19 – What is a ghost?

Something in a tale or film, or baggage I carry around. Depends on my mood.

20 – At this very moment, what sound(s) can you here, apart from the computer?

A table fan running on low speed and a James Blood Ulmer song.

21 – What is the most terrifying sound you’ve ever heard – for example, “the night was like the cry of a wolf”?

A simple scream from my son.

22 – Have you done something weird today or in the last few days?

Written a few new tales in the last week. Two set in Carcosa, one shaded by Lovecraftian influence.

23 – Have you ever been to confession?

No.

24 – You’re at confession, so confess the unspeakable.

Not brave enough to take a hard look in that mirror.

25 –Without cheating: what is a “cabinet of curiosities”?

The contents of this caldron I call a brain.

26 –Do you believe in redemption?

Yes.

27 – Have you dreamed tonight?

Yes.

28 – Do you remember your dreams?

Very rarely. Most often I just have the sense I had a nightmare.  

29 – What was your last dream?

I was having tea w/ Tom Ligotti and we were talking about Man on Fire. Anubis came over to our table and asked if we wanted to play a game of cards. There were 2 blackbirds on his shoulders and they did not want us to play . . .

30 – What does fog make you think of?

The unknown.

31 – Do you believe in animals that don’t exist?

No.

32 – What do you see on the walls of the room where you are?

In front of me, over my desk: a painting of the King In Yellow, a shrunken head, and 4 masks. Most of the other walls are covered by bookcases.

33 – If you became a magician, what would be the first thing you’d do?

Make myself a better writer.

34 – What is a madman?

Someone whose reality is too strong to let him or her see this one.

35 – Are you mad?

Might touch upon it here and there in small ways? ??

36 – Do you believe in the existence of secret societies?

There could be, yes, I guess.

37 – What was the last weird book you read?

Submissions for a tribute anthology to Ligotti I’m editing.

38 – Would you like to live in a castle?

No.

39 – Have you seen something weird today?

No.

40 – What is the weirdest film you’ve ever seen?

Tie: Begotten and The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes.

41 – Would you like to live in an abandoned train station?

No. Too cold.

42 – Can you see the future?

Absolutely not.

43 – Have you considered living abroad?

Yes. I do.

44 – Where?

Germany.

45 – Why?

The wind kind of pushed me this way.

46 – What is the weirdest film you’ve ever owned?

See 40.

47 – Would you liked to have lived in a vicarage?

Maybe?

48 – What is the weirdest book you’ve ever read?

Perhaps RWC’s the king In Yellow?

49 – Which do you like better, globes or hourglasses?

Hourglasses!

50 – Which do you like better, antique magnifying glasses or bladed weapons?

Antique magnifying glasses.

51 – What, in all likelihood, lies in the depths of Loch Ness?

Nothing.

52 – Do you like taxidermied animals?

No. The thought of killing another living thing for a trophy is maddening! !! That said, I once saw a stuffed Snowy Owl that was found dead, and it was beautiful.

53 – Do you like walking in the rain?

No. I do not like being wet.

54 – What goes on in tunnels?

They are passages from this to discovery or need, so it would be whatever the journey requires.

55 – What do you look at when you look away from this questionnaire?

My tea cup and me cigarette.

56 – What does this famous line inspire in you: “And when he had crossed the bridge, the phantoms came to meet him.”?

An interest in exploring.

57 – Without cheating: where is that famous line from?

[Draws a blank.]

58 – Do you like walking in graveyards or the woods by night?

Have a few times, but not as a rule.

58 – Write the last line of a novel, short story, or book of the weird yet to be written.

The exhalations of human hearts are dialogues of thin, impure bells melting into silence

59 – Without looking at your watch: what time is it?

2:00am.

60 – Look at your watch. What time is it?

2:23am.



http://weirdfictionreview.com/2011/12/the-weird-questionnaire-by-edward-gauvin/

Interview I did with/and for Chomu Press

Chômu interview #4 Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
We come to our fourth exclusive interview, this time with Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., whose poetically pyrotechnical and paranormally pyromanical novel The Orphan Palace was released by Chômu Press in October. Here he talks about his move from the States to Germany, about the Blues, and, of course, about writing.

Chômu Press: You were born in New York, I believe, but you are currently living in Germany. Does the US look different to you from the distance of your current vantage point?

Joe Pulver: Yes, born and bred New Yorker -- upstate. 5 and 1/2 decades. Outside looking in, it's not so much different as it is vivid, and deeply stirring. Being parted from one's homeland for an extended period of time one comes to miss many things that were small and common and may have been taken for granted, or overlooked in the everyday dash. And adjustments to new cultural views and styles may come fairly easy, but as the old adage goes, you can take the boy out of the city, but you cannot take the city out of the boy. I may be an ex-pat now, but I have never been, and felt, more American. Be it Springsteen ("Youngstown" actually brings me to tears these days.) or Dylan, or any number of others, even the music I play these days moves me in ways it did not before. The same can be said for film and literature.

Germany is wonderful. It's slower, more laid back, the people here are lovely! I enjoy being a world citizen now, but the call of the West is strong, some days the current feels like the most powerful force in the universe. 

When I look at things like the political gridlock in America now I felt less angry and more saddened. I could go on, but it would turn into a rant, or a love letter, or perhaps a call to arms . . .

I think it's time to go play "New York State of Mind". [Which has become one of my personal national anthems these days.]


CP: Do you think feeling more American than ever, in a foreign land, has fed into the writing of The Orphan Palace in any way? I’m a bit of a fan of things like the ‘Southern Gothic’ and there are similar elements in the novel that I enjoyed. I wondered how conscious this was, or if that was just the way it came out.

JP: TOP was penned just before I came here. I was thinking I was coming here, and my thoughts and ideas about a different life, an aftermath to the one I had, did enter in to it. Cardigan heading East and me looking East to Europe, that is certainly in there. Any “Southern Gothic” elements just showed up. I did not intend them.

First thought to THE END, TOP was written in 90 days. I edited and adjusted on the fly, sentence by sentence, page by page. My focus was on FELT, just let the whirlwind go where it needs to go. I had the final scene at the beginning, which was never changed in any way, and just asked myself where does this novel start and dashed from there to The End. 80+% of what you read is unchanged from the 1^st draft.


CP: The Beats, of course, by reputation, often wrote in a similar way, very spontaneously, with little revision. To what extent would you count the Beats as an influence?

JP: Not as much as one might think. I was nearly 40 before I really warmed to any Beat prose. The major exception was “listening” to Burroughs read. As a younger man I enjoyed some Beat poetry, not a lot, but some.

I think what people see in my work as Beat is more a combination of CRIME fiction, and Rock/Music, and poetics. I was 12 when I read my first hardboiled work – Clark Howard’s THE ARM, followed by Spillane, Shaft and Iceberg Slim. Bit deep, hard. I’m still a huge hardboiled/crime fan. The Street is hard and FAST, WHAM add the flash. Do it hard do it fast, that’s one side of it for me. Go with what you are feeling, get to THE END. Then you can go back and fix what needs to be fixed.

Hubert Selby Jr. was not a Beat, but his “get it down fast” style also hit me hard when I was young. So for “feel” that’s an influence. But the same “feel” is also in Blues and that was and is something I cling to and use. 1^st draft is always improvising on the theme [say, a vampire hires a gunman to kill another vampire] and make sure you get the feel up in it.

The Rock/Music side is a kid up in his room with his guitar. He wants to be Hendrix or Buddy Guy. So I’m riffing or crying a lead line. But with WORDS. And the words are influenced by tons of musicians. Dylan to Scott Walker to the Bee Gees. Could be Diamanda Galas or Zappa, John Lee Hooker, or Anat Fort. Depends on what I feel the needs of the tExt are.

Every tExt [of mine], to me, has a soundtrack, a backbeat. That’s key. It gets me in The Zone and keeps me there, and I find, it can and does inform the work for me. So let’s say I’m in Carcosa and I want despair. I may use Borhen & der Club of Gore or Jobim [or The Carpenters! SUE ME! !!] as the aural lifeblood, then it’s run w/ the feel.

I’ve been a poetry fan since 9^th grade. 2^nd drafts are always “Pump Up The Poetics” to me, so 1^st take or 5^th draft, I’m always looking for places in the tExt to add poetics.

Every piece of mine, be it a done in one take, or 5 drafts, it’s find the sound, type what the tExt needs/FEELS—fast as I can [1^st draft], then layer in the poetics. Some of my pieces come out done, or feel done to me. Some I go back and go back and go back in again. I try to stay close to the heart of the 1^st wave of tExt, the heart, but will and do go back and adjust as I feel they need it.

I often feel like I’m in a studio. I’ve got the raw basic track recorded, now add the backing vocals, put the oboe highlight there. Then I look at the mixing board and turn this up and push that further to the back in the left channel.

Guess the Beats’ [and Blues’] spontaneous heart, and how the tExt “feels” to me, is always in there, I want the thing to seethe (in its fashion), but in no way will I limit any form of “composition/construction” in later drafts. The needs of an individual tExt are paramount.

CP: You mention the Blues a couple of times there. Do you have any particular favourite Blues artists? Any recommendations? (I’m no expert but am currently fond of Skip James and Bukka White.)

JP: I began w/ John Lee Hooker and Champion Jack Dupree, Otis Spann too. Dupree & Spann were on a recording called RAW BLUES. I heard it at a friend’s house with Hooker’s Live at the Café A-Go-Go. To say they laid my soul to waste is an understatement. “I’m Bad Like Jesse James” got in deep.

The 2^nd British invasion in bloom, blues was everywhere and I took to it like Nosferatu to an artery. Chicago! Sweet home Chicago. Jump! Shout! Pitch a wang dang doodle! Bought as many “CHESS Records” as I could get my paws on! !! The guitar players had me hooked. BUDDY GUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEN! NOW!! He was the 1^st cat I heard play “One Room Country Shack” – still my #1 blues tune! !! “Trouble In Mind” is #2, followed closely by “Stormy Monday Blues” (At one point back in my vinyl days, I had over 40 versions of this song) and “Mannish Boy”. “I’m Bad Like Jesse James” rounds out my top 5. Add “Sweet Home Chicago” and “Texas Flood”, Hooker covering Van Morrison’s “The Healing Game” and Paul Butterfield’s “Born in Chicago”, I can pop them on and play that playlist for hours on end.

And I will be forever in Mayall’s debt for turning me on to J. B. Lenoir.

Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, T-Bone Walker, Albert King, and Clapton [I still spin FRESH CREAM often!], top my blues guitar list, but there are many others. But it’s not just screamin’ or crying guitars, when Hooker gets slow and low, swoonin’ sets in! He’s the voice to me. My other voice is Muddy! !! Let’s say, I can’t be satisfied.

As much as I love to hear an axe burnin’ the streets of Chicago down, most often my heart and my playlists are filled w/ “slow” blues. Souls on fire – Lady Gaga thinks she’s got a bad romance, HA! Tears and desolation. Rats and roaches, and the only thing you have left is the bottle you’re using as a cleaning agent to dissolve your heartache.

I’m still fond of a lot of the blues-based rock of the late 60’s, but put Hooker and Buddy Guy on the box and I’m in my 1-room county shack . . . and in the mood . . .

CP: While we’ve been preparing The Orphan Palace for publication, there have been riots in London with cars and buildings on fire, and things have been pretty hard all round; I couldn’t help thinking that this book is very much in the mood of our current times. Do you think that’s true? If so, do you have any ideas on what’s down the road for you, or just down the road generally?

JP: Yes, I wanted it to be a modern work – very much a mash-up/hybrid. The music and poetry [as well as most of the fiction] that influenced TOP is modern and the fire burns what fuel it is given.

I’m editing 3 big projects at the moment. A tribute anthology of all new tales for Tom Ligotti (The Grimscribe’s Puppets MRP 2012), and an anthology of all new King in Yellow tales (A Season In Carcosa MRP 2012). The 3^rd is w/ Laird Barron, but we are not ready to reveal what it is yet. Word on that after the holidays sometime . . .

I’ve just finished co-editing the AKLONOMICON w/ Ivan McCann and that’s due out later this year. I’m preparing [the ToC for] my next collection, Portraits Of Ruin, for release next summer from Hippocampus Press and working on a new novel, a tribute to Leigh Brackett and Mars, called A Fire Down Below. [Sadly, I had to scrap what I had written of my last novel as I was unable to secure permission to use the main character. Perhaps I’ll come across an idea of how to retool it?]

“Strange Aeons” magazine will be issuing 4 chapbooks as part of special giveaways in the next 6 months – all are new works by me. Double Feature Press will be publishing a new 40,000+ word collection of mine (Night Begets) next June. The book will pair my work w/ a “major new work” by my friend, Robin Spriggs (Diary of A Gentleman Diabolist 2010 Anomalous Press).

I also so have 6 or 7 [sorry, I lose track and my desktop is always a mess! !!] new tales I’m working on, as well as trying to stretch out in new ways. Beckett is speaking to me a lot these days, so I’m tinkering, in my fashion, w/ things inspired by thoughts of his work. Might play around w/ a play. I have a lengthy surrealist work, In & Out of bloom, pretty much done and I want to start shopping it – if I can find a publisher who is a little more than half crazy.

I have various tales coming in various anthologies next year . . . [I think it’s 6 so far?]

Lastly, my 4^th collection, Stained Translations, is about half done.

And I have just heard about a new fad called sleep that I’m dying to try……………………………. .



[NOTE: this interview [released as one of their newsletters] was done a while ago [SEPT? ??], so what's in the pipeline has been added to............. updates on that soon.. .]

http://chomupress.com/

A Mountain Walked: Great Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos

[Happy, ~still shocked~ humbled!! !, full of YIPPIE~ !!] It's official now~ ~~

Yep, just signed (and mailed) the contracts for S.T. Joshi’s A Mountain Walked: Great Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, coming next year from Centipede Press. This is the anthology [of S. T. Joshi's "favorite" Cthulhu Mythos tales] that was called, The Spawn of the Green Abyss. It will contain my new tale “…Hungry …Rats”.

I still remember sending my tale to S.T. as a possible sub for "Weird Fiction Review" (Centipede Press) and him replying, "No, I want this for my upcoming Best of the Cthulhu Mythos anthology."

There will be a signed/limited edition hardcover. More details as I can! !!

I've posted the ToC here on my blog before, but................... [well, you'll understand I get a charge out of seeing my name with these writers ~ LIGOTTI! !! KLEIN!!!!!!!!! CAMPBELL! !! WOW! !! What planet is this? ??]. I'm also over the moon to see my friends, Hopfrog [get well soon old friend!! !], ST.an, and Cody in this tome! !! 
Contents:


"The House of the Worm," by Mearle Prout

"Far Below," by Robert Barbour Johnson

"Spawn of the Green Abyss," by C. Hall Thompson

"The Deep Ones," by James Wade

"The Franklyn Papers," by Ramsey Campbell

"Where Yidhra Walks," by Walter C, DeBill, Jr.

"Black Man with a Horn," by T. E. D. Klein

"Nethescurial," by Thomas Ligotti

"Black Brat of Dunwich," by Stanley C. Sargent

"The Phantom of Beguilement," by W. H. Pugmire

"...Hungry...Rats," by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (original to this edition)

"Virgin's Island," by Donald Tyson (original to this edition)

"In the Shadow of Swords," by Cody Goodfellow (original to this edition)


http://www.centipedepress.com/

Glowing reviews for TOP

The Orphan Palace continues to receive glowing [and very humbling] reviews. Here's the last few I've seen.


http://hellboundtimes.blogspot.com/2011/12/orphan-palace-by-joseph-s-pulver-sr.html


http://noondaystars.blogspot.com/2011/10/orphan-palace.html


http://grimreviews.blogspot.com/2011/11/orphan-palace-by-joseph-s-pulver.html

When the heart of horror rises...

Lot of AGAINST out there currently. Let’s show folks FOR! !!

For GOOD! !!

You can do a lot of GOOD with a toy for a needy child. Would the heart of horror feed and nurture these children? Would it cure the ills and nightmares that would blunt their dreams? I believe it will. How might it start? Like the opening scene in a long chiller, we need that first step toward nurturing a child’s imagination. Remember play time? You and a toy, you were creating, imagining. You stretched, dreamed, and as a fan of horror and the weird you still dream. So my fellow dreamers, let’s shout down “against” and be for GOOD and take that first small step! Be a creator—inspire wonder, fuel the creative mind, give them a toy.

You give a child a toy. We’ll give you a library!! !

Follow the link to see how to add your voice, donate a toy, and enter to win the library we're giving away

http://www.facebook.com/ToysForTotsHorrorStyle

Horror creators and fans UNITE! !!

You give a child a toy. We'll give you a MONSTER-size library [over 3 dozen so far]!

http://www.facebook.com/ToysForTotsHorrorStyle#!/ToysForTotsHorrorStyle

As a writer of horror and weird fiction they say Pulver's bleak, brutal, DARK!, his work is a multi-verse of Hell, murder & madness are his loves. Guess that's fair. OK, OK, it hits the nail on the head! I've got friends who like to go to zombie cons and dress up, got pals who like to visit graveyards. I have many friends who are visual artists and their work gives me bloody nightmares, and I've got firends who watch scaryass horror films filled w/ demons and gore and MONSTERS and EERIE~sh*t even I can't sit through -- yep, fraidy cat me! !! And every one of them has a heart as big as Cthulhu or Gojira or King Kong. Bet all horror fans and creators have hearts that big! !! Hell, I know they do.

So I hoping the horror community ~who adore hauntings and baying all night long~ will take all that PASSION and creativity and support Toys For Tots~Horror Style. Please tell your friends--I know you're great at baying!, wear a hockey mask (or a gillman suit or get zombied-up) and threaten them if you like. Blog about this. G+, FB post, Tweet, v-blog, ETC! !!, but please share.

If you are a horror creator and would like to donate a book to the winner's goodie bag, great we'd love to have it. And we'd love to have your voice, your support as Hell's carnival barker as well!! And whom better than you weathermen and women of the DARKNESS, who write or paint with such magic & PASSION, to shout it loud?

Please send you friends and/or fans to the following link for details on entering and how to donate a toy for a needy child.

This year let's awaken joy in the heart of a child.

My deepest thanks to all of you! !!

http://www.facebook.com/ToysForTotsHorrorStyle#!/ToysForTotsHorrorStyle

To all horror writers, artists, and creators

Remember your 1st story sale, or the 1st time you held one of your books in your hands, or your new release?  Remember the first illo you did for a tale you loved, or your first cover? Remember that joy, the excitement? We all do. Walk over and look at that book or mag on the shelf, pick it up . . . Coming back to you? You feel that? It's great. You can give that feeling to a child.

You have a voice, a gift, you share it with your readers, with your fans, I'll like you to share your voice to support needy children this holiday season. Please help me spread the word about Toys For Tots ~ Horror Style. Blog it, tweet it, post news in forums, or on FB and G+.  Let your fans and friends and all the wonderful people in the horror community know that the heart of horror has and always will be about the thrill of sharing something amazing. When you give a needy child a toy, you give them amazing, you give them a dream. And dreaming is what we do best! Share the dream!

http://www.facebook.com/ToysForTotsHorrorStyle#!/ToysForTotsHorrorStyle

 

What is Toys For Tots ~ HORROR style?

To all entrants, please read this whole note!

What is Toys For Tots ~ HORROR style?

This is a group of writers/editors/publishers of Horror/Weird/Dark fantasy/etc. who want to do something nice for needy children this year. Each contributor will donate a signed book(s) of theirs [any book, chap, collection, HC, trade, mass market, novel, mag, edited by, etc.][sorry, no “eBooks” as we cannot be certain the winner will have a reading device] and *ONE WINNER* will win them all.

Folks post the pics [2 pics] of them donating to THIS page. One pic showing them holding the toy, one pic of the toy in the box. Sadly, there are a few who might try to cheat and not put the toy in the box, so we need to see the toy really was donated. Take a pic of you holding the toy, then take a 2nd pic of the toy in the box. The donated toy will need to have a price point of at least 5 dollars. I thought a lot of folks have cell phone cams so pics would be easy to take.

How do you enter?

Entrants will need to post a pic of them dropping a toy into a “Toys For Tots” donation box and when all is said and done, say the day after X-Mas, we’ll pick ONE WINNER. Kids get a bunch of toys and we do a little good for those in need in hard times. And someone out there gets a very happy new year! !!

Can a family enter?

YES! You donate a toy, you’re in. Your SO donates one, they’re in! But only one entry per person!

I picked TFT as it’s fairly common and most everywhere in the States. Sadly, due to postage, entrants must live in the States. I also picked this charity as I couldn’t think of another charity where we could be certain we’d be putting something “hard” under trees this year.

We’ll have a predetermined number to pick the winner, between 100 -200 it will be #?, 200-300 will be #?, 300-400, 400-500, 1,000+, etc., etc. [Yes, I hoping for a lot of entries! !!] Then I’ll post the winner’s name here (after X-Mas) and they can message me w/ their address. Then the books will start coming. Each contributor will be mailing the book(s) they’re donating to the winner, so they will not all come at the same time. Books will begin to be shipped after JAN 1st.

We are not a part of *any* group or affiliated w/ any organization. This is just a group of writers/editors/publishers who want to do something nice for children! !! We picked TFT as it will put REAL toys under trees this year!!

Please share this and help spread the word. If you have a blog please consider doing a blog post about this, Tweeting as well. Sharing means word gets out and that puts more toys under trees! !! I know there are no bigger hearts than those of the horror community, so let it bleed!! !

No dealers or booksellers please. This is not for profit in any way, shape, or form. If we find out an entrant is a seller that entry will be not be considered for the drawing.

I’ll be posting what books the winner will receive and adding to the list as I get word of new additions.

Note to any writers and editors and publishers I have not contacted, if you would like to be part of this, please message me here on FB. We would love to have you be part of this! !!

To all the current contributors, my deepest thanks! You make me very proud to be one of you! !!

All my bEastly BEST! !!

http://www.facebook.com/jspulver?ref=tn_tnmn#!/ToysForTotsHorrorStyle

FREE LEENIE! !!

That nasty-old MEANY, Dr. Archer, says the inmates, ah, make that, residents here in ZIMM’s are not allowed to vibrate w/ joy, or play cello, or guitar, or-- Archer suggests that could, under most conditionSSss;  ;;lead to various forms of HOWLin’’’’’’’’’’, and maybe prancin’ ‘bout ALLgleeful & bEastly under craZy moonrays. And they "most certainly are not allowed!" to own and read the "subversive, lurid filth" of muse-maddened poetS! !! Callin’ my pals D’if and Sharkey to help bust this lovely gal out outta her room, um, cell; ;;;;;;;;before any vile snicker~snack{!!!!!!!!!!!!~!~~!} starts  a-vibratin ’ and ruins her lovely & bEastlY brain! !!

Mr. .8gauge is LOCKED & LOADed~ ~~Gonna be a jailbreak tonight~ ~~~~~~~~~~..~.

Karl Edward Wagner

KEW is one of my idols! !! To me, "THE RIVER OF NIGHT’S DREAMING" is canon.


Taken from an interview that was conducted by Chuck Owston for "Dark Troubadour" #1, Autumn 1994.

"Q: In "THE RIVER OF NIGHT’S DREAMING" you make references to THE KING IN YELLOW. How much did this classic influence you?"


"KEW: Much of my work has resonances of Robert W. Chambers. While almost all of his books were hack-work romances, the best of his supernatural horror can stand with the very best. The primary lesson I’ve learned from reading Chambers was to create a deliberate barrier against final comprehension — thus creating the lost uncertainty of an extended nightmare."


Scripture! !!

Looking at "black wings" in Kinsport as Gordon Lightfoot and Libby Van Cleeve's oboe lead me through a night of sharp, cold shadows~ I wonder if there's a place to rest my head in these sunless corridors~~ guess we'll see . . .


Light what a steppenwolf smokes, dream! !!

Some things of note~ ~~

Yes, that's HAPPY DANCING here in Carcosa East! !!
Today I have the pleasure to share a few things...

It is always a delight to be praised by one's peers. Some may see it as merely pals patting each others' back, but these are the people who know what the craft demands, and their opinions count [as does every reader's], and they like you, are 1st and foremost readers. Today I received the following.

"I think T.S. Eliot and E. E. Cummings had a threesome with the Devil. Seems the only way to explain Pulver's masterful work." --Trent Zelazny, author of The Day the Leash Gave Way and Other Stories
"Grim Reviews"  http://grimreviews.blogspot.com/2011/11/orphan-palace-by-joseph-s-pulver.html  also posted a rave review of my new novel, The Orphan Palace (Chomu Press). As I have said in the past, yes, I like these kinds of reviews and yes, I'm still very humbled when I read them.

Over the weekend I had the very great pleasure of reading some new submissions for both The Grimscribe's Puppets and A Season In Carcosa [both coming from Miskatonic River Press 2012]. Both of these tribute anthologies (Thomas Ligotti/Robert W. Chambers) are on track for their summer and fall release dates. I also recieved word from some of the contributors regarding their upcoming sbumissions, all the updates were very pleasing and make me all more the hungry to read them! !! I believe when I have the ToCs ready in a month or two, readers will indeed be very, very happy and there may be a WOW or 2 shouted.

I also recieved a story acceptance yesterday for a tale in a major anthology which caused much GLEE & JOY here in Carcosa East! Trust me, I will SHOUT about it the very second they take me off the leash!! !

Finally, and this is no small thing to me, Simon Marshall-Jones of Spectral Press,  http://spectralpress.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/musiks-and-mythos/  informed me he IS launching a series of Lovecraftain CDs. Each disc will pair a reading of an HPL tale w/ a work by a "modern" Lovecraftian writer. Each will be set to music. And it very much looks like I will be part of this thrilling series of "Musiks and Mythos" recordings! !! So put me down for a YAYYyyy! !!

There are many other things in the works, and I hope to have word of some more of them very soon!! !

Hope yer all well, and WARM! !!

As always, all my bEastly BEST! !!

Joe

Nightingale Songs by Simon Strantzas

Dark Regions Press is proud to announce Nightingale Songs by Simon Strantzas, a new collection that will be available on the DarkRegions.com website next Tuesday, November 15th! !!

In the dead of night, there are footsteps in the hall . . .In the dead of night, your past mistakes will haunt you . . .In the dead of night, you hear a discordant tune . . .In the dead of night, the nightingale sings . . .

Simon Strantzas, master of the subtle and the bizarre, returns with a dozen strange tales and eerie mysteries. From the shores of a remote oil-stained sound to deep within the familiar heart of suburbia, these are the songs of broken people who cannot find a way to fix themselves, who must search the dark for salvation. Like a siren, the nightingale sings them onward to face their end. But it sings for you too. A requiem in your honor. Because, for you, it is already too late.

Nightingale Songs is a dark gem. Strantzas demonstrates once again why he is so highly regarded amongst connoisseurs of the macabre and the fantastic. -- Laird Barron


Simon Strantzas displays a gift for evoking disturbing atmospheres and creating odd, frightening encounters with the uncanny . . .

-- Lisa Tuttle

He does not show you the gate to this new Golden Age of weird fiction that is upon us, but leads you through it.

-- Joseph S. Pulver
Strantzas deftly establishes ordinary and seemingly innocuous situations that spin out of the characters' control and always end with an uneasy sense of menace, even when their resolution is ambiguous or cryptic.

-- Publishers Weekly

Like the subtly disquieting locations in which they take place—a suburban house obscured by weeds and dark butterflies, the basement of a former home grown suddenly unfamiliar, a sleep clinic where the patients never meet—Simon Strantzas’ elegant stories worry at the reader’s sense of certainty. The songs they sing won’t comfort you. But you will remember them.
-- Glen Hirshberg

RICHARD GAVIN

In The Great North there is thunder. Gemma Files, Simon Strantzas, Ian Rodgers, and RICHARD GAVIN! These titans rest on my shelves close to Thomas Ligotti, perhaps that tells you what I think of them and their ability to take away your breath . . .

Gavin is the acclaimed author of CHARNEL WINE, Primeval Wood, The Darkly Splendid Realm, and OMENS.

Earlier this year in "Dead Reckonings" (No. 9) the Review of Horror Literature that's edited by S. T. Joshi and Tony Fonseca, Richard Gavin reviewed my 2nd collection, SIN & ashes. To say I was pleased by the review is a vast understatement. With my new novel, The Orphan Palace, just out from Chomu Press and my 3rd collection, Portraits of Ruin, in the pipeline for a 2012 release from Hippocampus Press I wanted to post Richard's review for those who do not get to see or read the acclaimed "DR".

"Down Dark and Lonesome Highways"

Richard Gavin

JOSEPH S. PULVER, SR. Sin & Ashes. Introduction by Laird Barron. New York: Hippocampus Press, 2010. 325 pp. $20.00 pb.

     If mimicry truly is one of the gravest dangers a writer faces when broaching weird tale country, then few writers are on safer ground than Joseph S. Pulver Sr. With Sin & Ashes, his second collection from Hippocampus Press, Pulver manages to further cement his reputation as one of the most daring stylists currently working in supernatural fiction. He is certainly no stranger to the realm of dark fiction, having built up considerable publishing credits over the years, primarily through the small and specialty presses. But his time as one of the genre’s best-kept secrets appears to be drawing to a close, as his books continue to reach an ever-broader audience and to garner fresh critical attention. With prose that hovers somewhere between the hard-boiled crime genre, poetry, and the sheer lawlessness of Dadaism, Pulver’s work is truly sui generis, so much so that it almost defies classification. This brazen originality is given a hefty exhibition in Sin & Ashes. Whether broaching more poignant fantasy (“Even Night” and “Long-Stemmed Ghost Words”) or the book’s hard-boiled forays into hexes and vengeance (“First There is a Mountain . . . Then”), Pulver invariably manages to impress his fingerprints upon the material.

      The collection’s inaugural tale, “Love Her Madly,” intertwines the postmortem wanderings of Doors lead singer Jim Morrison and those of a young woman adrift in an anguished, almost elegiac modern-day California. It is a bizarre carousel of a story, one that suitably sets the tone for the forty-eight (!!) other tales, vignettes, and prose poems that comprise this gripping volume. “Love Her Madly” grants the reader a survey of many of Joseph Pulver’s interests and inspirations: psychedelic rock, the gritty underbelly of contemporary culture, and an almost unbearable emotional pitch of isolation and despair. Pulver then smoothly switches gears for the second story, “She’s Waiting,” a haunting, heart-squeezing gaze into one woman’s sense of loss. This mournful riff repeats in several other entries, such as “When the Moon Comes to Call” and “As the Sun Still Burns Away.”

     The varied subjects and settings that comprise this book’s vast canvas, coupled with the sheer number of its pieces, make giving a tale-by-tale analysis all but impossible, for Pulver’s work is a gestalt, a tsunami of image and emotion. His words are unfailingly razor-keen, his tone beautiful and horrific at once. Stylistically, Pulver, with his penchant for fragmented, stream-of-consciousness narratives, is most strongly reminiscent of William S. Burroughs. One never sees all in a Joseph Pulver story; rather these narratives play out like scenes reflected in a shattered mirror. We are afforded glimpses and oblique representations, but are offered none of the pat comforts that a more conventional narrative might provide. For instance, in “Huddled in Rags in a Kingsport Alley . . .,” we see H. P. Lovecraft’s seaport town through the prism of one its dejected and broken inhabitants, a woman who has “no room for the devices of Christ-light in her fear-laced deeps.” For in the end, “the mouth of future closes. . . . No one is spared. . . . Little but the noise of the moon survives."

     This is heady stuff, yet it also exposes what might be the only artistic debit of Sin & Ashes: its stories offer no light of salvation whatsoever. The reader has no breathing room, no denouement which carries promise of relief or resolution. In fact, Pulver’s characters seem to relate to hope only as a quaint and hazy memory, an oasis that is now irretrievably lost. All these characters—and by extension, we, readers as well—have left to do is wait for that mouth of the future to clamp its jaws and drag us all down. However, this is not necessarily an indication of a deficiency in the writing. Rather, it stands as a testament to its complexity and relentlessness.

     Pulver is a demanding writer. The reader often has to work simply to navigate the murky, unnerving plots the book presents. The horrors of Sin & Ashes might often only be fleetingly illuminated by lightning flashes of words, but these hints are often brutal and are apt to haunt one well after the book’s covers are closed. Take, for example, this extract from the remarkable “Just Another Desert Night with Blood”:

      Highway. Ditches full of seasons (and the cast-out containers of thirst quenchers). Winds traveling. Red taillights—moon sold souls—bound for somewhere (easy?). Night’s not going anywhere. Never does. The lies cooling. Not going anywhere . . . moth and spider goin’ nowhere . . . phone booth with a broken interior light . . . owl . . . clouds, not built or elaborate, flat on the dark rug of sky . . . asphalt—solid ground has no point . . . boots notch the dust on a road goin’nowhere . . . This nowhere land, a flat leviathan wearing blades and puddles and smudges of black, seamed with memories, holds no scavengers, no mirages, no vultures.

     Here be a demonstration of one of Pulver’s greatest strengths: an almost uncanny ability to pull the reader into settings which are bewildering yet queerly familiar. We may not know who it is who wanders this highway, or indeed which highway it is, yet we do know this person, having roamed that roadway ourselves, if only in dreams.

     Another pervasive characteristic of Pulver is the manner in which he dovetails the supernatural with the banal. Resisting the often disastrous technique of describing the otherworldly with flamboyant language, Pulver details the uncanny with the same edgy, matter-of-fact tone he uses to shed light on the underbelly of American culture, or indeed the fractured spirits of his characters. Forbidden grimoires, ghosts, and dark gods do indeed lurk in these narratives, but they are presented as elements no more or less startling than neon signs or strip clubs or a long vacant road at night. In this respect, Sin & Ashes might be thought of as an extension to the mythopoeia of William Blake—whose London streets were populated simultaneously by merchants and criminals, angels and demons—as it is a current spin on the mythos of H. P. Lovecraft or Robert W. Chambers (a visible influence here). We need not find the cursed grove or the haunted farmhouse, Pulver seems to tell us; the powers of darkness are in fact roaming right alongside prostitutes and gangsters, working-class loners and wrecked dreamers.

     If you are a reader who seeks lulling escapism, this book offers no such creature comfort. Pulver tales are not the kind of stories one slips into like a warm bath. They are splashes of frigid water, which constantly jar and twist rather than flow headlong. This is what makes Sin & Ashes such a potent volume. Pulver is a writer who takes risks with each story he fashions, which in turn makes reading them exceptionally rewarding.

(C) Richard Gavin 2011

Links:

RICHARD GAVIN http://www.richardgavin.net/

HIPPOCAMPUS PRESS http://www.hippocampuspress.com/journals/dead-reckonings/dead-reckonings-no.-9

http://www.hippocampuspress.com/mythos-and-other-authors/fiction/sin-ashes-by-joseph-s.-pulver-sr.

 

Rue Morgue / Chomu Press

In issue #117, "Rue Morgue" shines its spotlight on Weird fiction publisher, Chômu Press.

Chômu has released 12 books so far. It's mind-bending roster contains, among others, Michael Cisco, Reggie Oliver, Rhys Hughes, and Mark Samuels.

“Remember You’re a One-Ball!”, by Quentin S. Crisp
I Wonder What Human Flesh Tastes Like, by Justin Isis
The Dracula Papers, Book I: The Scholar’s Tale, by Reggie Oliver
Revenants, by Daniel Mills
The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales, by Mark Samuels
The Life of Polycrates and Other Stories for Antiquated Children, by Brendan Connell
The Great Lover, by Michael Cisco
Dying to Read, by John Elliott
Link Arms with Toads!, by Rhys Hughes
Nemonymous Night, by D.F. Lewis
Jeanette, by Joe Simpson Walker
The Orphan Palace, by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
Boy is there some TALENT on that list! !! And yep. The last one is mine. Talk about glee, amazment, and humbled [! !!] seeing my name with those, that's, to me, pretty mind-bending.

I'm also happy as heck to see my favorite horror icon, the Phantom of the Opera on the cover. I know he has nothing to do w/ Chomu, but yeah, I'm weird, so I got a kick out of it.Why's The Phantom my boy you ask? Music, a love story, a MASK!! ! You know, all the things I try to squeeze in my stuff . . . When they let me . . .

I'm dying to see what "Rue Morgue" has to say about CP, and word is I might even get a mention [insert bEastly grin and a wink].

Well the Muse is standing here, under the chilly-looking moon, holding open the door to the coach. Guess she wants me to hop in and start tonight's trek to Hammersmith . . . Tea, smokes, gris-gris bag, a new playlist, WORDS~ ~~ guess I'm ready to ride . . . I'll see you in some seedy, back-alley bar in Hammersmith. I'll be the bEast sitting in the deep shadows w/ the grave-robbers. We'll save you a seat. And be sure to bring yer own shovel.

[soundtrack~ ~~Leon Russell “Tightrope”, Mountain “Nantucket Sleighride”, Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive”, Donna Summer “I Feel Love”, Herbie Hancock “Actual Proof”]
http://chomupress.com/

The New School ~ ~~ E

The wheel, sliced bread, CDs, information devices of every stripe, ATOMIC everything, and now eBooks [Yeah, might have left a few thing out...] . . . Like it or not, welcome to the 21st century, P'uul-yverre. Yep. Chomu Press has released The Orphan Palace as an eBook.

I like old school--PAPER! But I put these words out in hopes of finding readers, so if E is another way to share with/find readers, so be it. Bottom line - if somone is reading, no matter what thier choice of platform might be, that's a good thing! !!

PAPER or nope, VIVA WORDS! !!

Here's the link

http://www.amazon.com/The-Orphan-Palace-ebook/dp/B0062SBXOG/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=A12MGAGPLUJEQK

Old schoolers here's the PAPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

http://www.amazon.com/Orphan-Palace-Sr-Joseph-Pulver/dp/1907681116/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

Halloween TREAT[sSS]! !!

While I was down &
                                     out; ;; ill [no; ;; not just my DOOM-sighing brain this time! !!]

                           highly-acclaimed author[!!!!!!!!!!],  Des Lewis [Ol' Weirdtongue hizself, The NEMONYMOUS Man] was doing one of his mind-bending real-time reviews of my new one, The Orphan Palace. As I {rather joyously} read the vocal flights in Weirdtongue, he liked the novel...a....bit.............. .  

AM;;;;;;;;;;;;; ; so glad he did! !!

What did Demonic Des say [as he tried to keep his powder dry]? ?? Go eyeball the thing here

http://nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/the-orphan-palace-joseph-s-pulver-sr/

Also,; ,, as a Holloween treat [pt 2], I got an email saying my Easter~Ghoul tale, "Mrs. Spriggs’ Easter Attire", was accepted for editor, Scott Aniolowski's Horror For The Holidays anthology [Miskatonic River Press 2012]

http://miskatonicriverpress.com/

............... yer bEastie likes that! !! bEastly HIGSSssSs to Tara VanFlower [of LYCIA fame!] who kindly co-ed this one w/ me!!
                   She was so utterly~FAB to play CHOMP-CHOMP/BYE~BYE w/ me!!!

Here's the demonic ToC ~ ~~

Horror for the Holidays Table of ContentsIntroduction by Scott David Aniolowski
TALES OF ROSH CHODESHThe Tomb of Oscar Wilde by W.H. Pugmire
TALES OF VALENTINE’S DAYLove and Darkness by Oscar Rios
Be Mine by Brian Sammons
TALES OF PASSOVERCthulhu Mhy’os by Lois H. Gresh

TALES OF EASTERAnd the Angels Sing by Cody Goodfellow
The Last Communion of Allyn Hill by Pete Rawlik
Mrs. Spriggs’ Easter Attire by Joseph S. Pulver Sr. and Tara VanFlower
Seasons of Sacrifice and Resurrection by Adrian Tchaikovsky
TALES OF MOTHER’S DAYMother’s Night by Ann K. Schwader
TALES OF THE FOURTH OF JULYFree Fireworks by T.E. Grau
Doc Corman’s Haunted Palace One Fourth of July by Don Webb
TALES OF VJ DAYTranslator by James Robert Smith
TALES OF HALLOWEENHallowe’en in a Suburb by H.P. Lovecraft
Moonday by Will Murray
The Trick by Ramsey Campbell
TALES OF THE DAY OF THE DEADEl Dia De Los Muertos by Kevin Ross
TALES OF GUY FAWKES NIGHTTreason and Plot by William Meikle
TALES OF REMEMBERANCE DAYThe Dreaming Dead by Joshua Reynolds
TALES OF THANKSGIVINGEntrée by Donald R. Burleson
TALES OF YULEKeeping Festival by Mollie Burleson
Wassail by Tom Lynch
TALES OF CHRISTMASKrampusnacht by Joshua Reynolds
The Christmas Eve of Aunt Elise by Thomas Ligotti
Letters to Santa by Scott David Aniolowski
Keeping Christmas by Michael G. Szymanski
The Nativity of the Avatar by Robert M. Price

bEast LIKESssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!! !! Lots of BIG-BIG talented folkS on dat list O bEastiesSS!!! ! CONGRATSsssssssssssssssssssss to all the damn fine contributorssssSSSSSSSSSSSS!! !

HAPPY HALLOWEEN to all youse bEastSsssss & bEasteSSes! !!!!!!! Hope it's all TREATsssssssssss fer yas! !!
[soundtrack~ bEastie boys, Spoon, Little Feat, Sam Roberts................... ;]

A guest blog by Jeffrey Thomas

PUNKTOWN! BLUE WAR! DEADSTOCK! And many more....... Jeff Thomas is one of weird fiction's best! And today Jeff has kindly stopped by to offer some of his thoughts on my new novel . . . So away we go~ ~~

THE ORPHAN PALACE, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.

by Jeffrey Thomas

*****

OLIVER TWISTED

     In Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.’s THE ORPHAN PALACE (henceforth, for ease, JSPS and TOP respectively), as a young man our protagonist Cardigan escapes from a sinister orphanage called Zimms, where an evil psychiatrist named Dr. Archer subjects his charges to various forms of torture, abetted by his equally loathsome staff. In Dickens’ OLIVER TWIST, having himself survived a horrible orphanage/workhouse, the sweet and innocent Oliver proves a shining example of the imperviousness of the human soul. Whereas Cardigan wants bloody revenge, and will walk right through the hole he shoots through you to get to it, if you stand in his way.

     So what does that teach us? Well, both books teach us the truth, really. We all walk through fires. They all scar us. But how we as individuals react to the same trials might be very different indeed.     So TOP teaches us the truth. It is a realistic novel, then, correct?

   Mm, yes. It is an abstractly realistic novel.   
 
Are there really sinister orphanages, in which children are physically and psychologically tormented? Nowadays, I wouldn’t think so. In our country’s past, yes, I would imagine there were, and sanitariums where the treatment was even worse. But it’s not JSPS’s point to expose today’s evil practices. At least, not in such a literal sense. The titular Orphan Palace, Zimms, could serve as a metaphor for how we are shaped as human beings in general -- whether that Orphan Palace be as small as our own home, or as large as the USA. As large as this whole world of human beings. The Orphan Palace is the forge of all human life. Whether we are truly orphans or even if we have loving parents, ultimately we walk out its doors to fend for ourselves in a world that might not be literally populated with the novel’s ghouls and evil cultists, but the threatening forces those entities stand in for. Beyond counting, there are malignant people in positions of power, whether they be hateful little administrative types or world leaders, for whom we could consider Dr. Archer a symbolic mask.

    So for me, JSPS’s novel possesses at the same time a very realistic feel -- an uncomfortably realistic feel -- and a fantastical, dream-like, hallucinatory quality. And that’s quite an achievement. This is art, my friend. Art can do tricky stuff like that.

You can find Jeff and his work here:

http://www.jeffreyethomas.com/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_tc_2_0?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3AJeffrey+Thomas&keywords=Jeffrey+Thomas&ie=UTF8&qid=1319651483&sr=1-2-ent&field-contributor_id=B000APMJZ4

Thought it was.. .Monday............. ?. ??

I did.

Somehow I keep missing whole days................. . Perhaps sleeping on a regular basis would repair this? ?? But I fear if I start the Muse will take off the gloves - and she kicks me around pretty good so far............ Really don't care to she what she's like w/out them.

Woke up [...yes there was TEA & smokes.. .and Herbie Hancock {acoustic trio}] to discover a RAVE review of TOP at The Stars At Noonday blog
http://noondaystars.blogspot.com/2011/10/orphan-palace.html
Confess I liked it! !! A lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [I'll skip the describtion of bEastly dancin' all happy-face giddy]!! And found it humbling.

And on TLO in the CHOMU PRESS thread http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=4336  I found Brendan Moody had posted this comment. "My review of The Orphan Palace, which also includes a very brief reflection on Chomu Press as of its dozenth book, is here. I don't think I've ever read a novel so thoroughly akin to poetry as The Orphan Palace; like Michael Cisco's The Great Lover, it's a Chomu book I recognize as brilliant but will have to reread, and look forward to rereading, to understand better why it's brilliant. That may sound like empty praise, but it's nothing of the kind."


And for those of you who do not know what TOP is about, or the Chomu Press giveaway, the info is here.

http://chomupress.com/news/the-orphan-palace-a-road-trip-to-madness/

I read another tale in Tremblay's & Langan's CREATURES! !! I'm loving this tome! !! Not even close to being done, but so far they sure as hell got it RIGHT! !! More on this book when I'm done!

http://www.amazon.com/Creatures-Thirty-Monsters-Clive-Barker/dp/1607012847/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_t_2

Mail arrived and in it was the new issue of "STRANGE AEONS" magazine! #7. As some of you know, I'm a big fan!! Hope yer all reading it!! In the coming months "SA" will release 4 P'uul-yverre chapbooks as special giveaways [nice of 'em don'tcha think?]. The 1st 3 will be my "Russ Myer Triptych" ["The Director’s Cut", "Skin Flick sans Money Shot", "When There’s A Riot Goin’ On…"] and the 4th ["…LIES……Thunder……   ashes………….. ."] will be a tale I whipped up just for "SA" and the upcoming HPLFF. I'll be at the fest this time - even if it's just in a wee tome [insert bEastly grin! !!]

Here's the links:

http://strange-aeons.com/

http://hplfilmfestival.com/

Talked to my pal, Jarred, about a "bEast approved", new KIY product Dagon Industries will be coming out w/ soon. You can find all of DI's niffy products and TONSSSSSSSSS of other goodies at

http://arkhambazaar.com/

Well, I guess I'll stop boring the hell out of you and head off to find a new playlist and WORDS~ ~~~~~~~~~ [more babbling on other projects in the pipeline coming from Carcosa East soon]~ As Lin Carter used to say,

HAPPY MAGIK!! !

yer bEastie

Simon Strantzas on TOP

Not sure how it is for others, but for me a new release is a big high . . . and it's a little scary. I keep asking the Muse to let me buy an ego, but she's a harsh mistress and continually says no - just keep yer ass in the chair typing . . . So I do.

One the the major peices of the high are, for me, when writers I respect and admire have kind things to say about my work. That said, here's a writer, a VERY underrated one in my book! !!, who was kind enough to say the following about The Orphan Palace.

“The Orphan Palace kicks you in the face and doesn’t stop. Pulver’s prose sees the world through a cracked lense of 60’s hedonism and 70’s grit, with a side order of unshakable terror. A serial killer novel that explores the dark side of America via Kerouac in a shell of cosmic horror. What he does is electrifying. I’ve never seen anything like it. My hair is still standing on end.” -- Simon Strantzas.

Simon is the HIGHLY-acclaimed author of Beneath the Surface and Cold to the Touch [both of which should be on your A-shelf! !!], and he's appeared in venues like The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror (ed. Stephen Jones), and "CD" 

You can find Simon here:

http://www.strantzas.com/

And you can find out more abut TOP [watch the trailer, etc.] and enter the Chomu Press giveaway here:

http://chomupress.com/news/the-orphan-palace-a-road-trip-to-madness/

TOP can be purchased here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1907681116/ref=s9_simh_bw_p14_d0_g14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=1XWJEV2SH34JX1PS14X3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1321581422&pf_rd_i=283155

http://www.bookdepository.com/Orphan-Palace-Joseph-Pulver-Sr/9781907681110

[NOTE: The Book Depository ships world wide for free and takes Paypal]


There will be more news [the Kindle version should be released early next week, etc.] about TOP in the coming days.

Your room in _The Orphan Palace_ is ready! !!

Chomu Press has released my new novel THE ORPHAN PALACE.
And what is it you ask?
It is NOT Sugar & Spice & everything nice . . .
Here is a ‘Route 66′ synopsis in exactly 66 words:

“Cardigan heads east through the night-bleak cities of America. His destination? Zimms County Home for Orphaned Children, the palace of dementia where Dr. Archer, ‘Lord of Chaos’, evilly presides – a trap baited with memories. Fires blaze in the rear-view mirror. On the roadside, ghosts, bounty hunters, mermen, Ghoul Hotels. Will D’if, the talking rat, help Cardigan escape this maze, or do all roads lead to madness?”

And here are the blurbs of two highly-respected weird fiction authors:

“Joe Pulver is like the answer to some arcane riddle: What do you get when you cross one of Plato’s Muse-maddened poets with a Lovecraftian lunatic, and then give their offspring to be raised by Raymond Chandler and a band of Beats? His work caters to a literary hunger you didn’t even know you had, and does it darkly and deliciously.” - Matt Cardin

“The Orphan Palace kicks you in the face and doesn’t stop. Pulver’s prose sees the world through a cracked lense of 60’s hedonism and 70’s grit, with a side order of unshakable terror. A serial killer novel that explores the dark side of America via Kerouac in a shell of cosmic horror. What he does is electrifying. I’ve never seen anything like it. My hair is still standing on end.” - Simon Strantzas

 And you can sign up [until NOV 2] to enter the "Prize Draw for uniquely inscribed copy of The Orphan Palace". Where?

http://chomupress.com/news/the-orphan-palace-a-road-trip-to-madness/

And what do you get?

The CP “contest ed” will contain –
                                                 postcard(s) [with a note] from Carcosa East

                    signed & dated
         an unpublished poem/tExt;;;; or 2 . ?. ?.

                                               a “few” special annotationS sprinkled here & there . . {in REDink? ??}.

                                     a drawing of a RAT [this is good for a laugh as P’ull-yverre can’t draw! !!]
                 an illo of a bEastie [see above]
                                                           a TOP bookmark [one of only 25 made]
        a selections from the TOP "SOUNDTRACK" CD

                                                                                 [& maybe some stickers?/rubber stampings??/
. . . .................. and only CTHULHU knows what the hell else? ??]

Here's the CHOMU PRESS page for THE ORPHAN PALACE

http://chomupress.com/news/the-orphan-palace-a-road-trip-to-madness/

I hope you read it/like it/share it/tell Ma/tell Pa/.............. I hope it bothers you! !!
See you in Carcosa............... .~ ~~~~~~~~ ~ ~.~..

yer bEastie

http://www.amazon.com/Orphan-Palace-Sr-Joseph-Pulver/dp/1907681116/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3EQO0NH83VTHU&colid=2F4V4U3J4GAY8

http://www.bookdepository.com/Orphan-Palace-Joseph-Pulver-Sr/9781907681110