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

Laird Barron's "Phantasmagorium" is out now! !!

"Phantasmagorium" is a NEW 1/4ly journal of horror/weird fiction edited by
                           
                              Laird Barron! !!

Rejoice! It's out now! !! And it's only $3.99 for the e-version! !!!!!!!

The 1st issue of "Phantasmagorium" has stories by:

Simon Strantzas "Strong as a Rock"

Stephen Graham Jones "No Takebacks"
Joe Pulver "And this is where I go down into the darkness"

Anne Tambour "Cardoons!"

Genevieve Valentine "Bufonidae"

Scott Nicolay "alligators"
It's Halloween ~ ~~ TREAT yourself! !! to terrors! !!

http://phantasmagorium.co/wordpress/2011/10/

did you see them

Held a………………. .

no sails
looking
in parts of the whole
       ,,,around ,,,the concrete trouble
no high priest
high on daylight-halo piece of mind
low
can’t fix the cherry tree with wings
close band-aid eyes ,,,hide
                                   (in a voyage of chocolate icecream lies)
hide the tide
       the circles to      remember ,,,try
look
at your own

           fist

the difficulted-hearted cluster of gestures and fabrications
                                                                     that stole
the end
of
all of your selected poems

(Buffalo Springfield “Broken Arrow”)


(C) Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. 2011

3 tExts

They say some writers do things like putter away on FB or surf for porn for hours to avoid working on a new story or novel... I'm stupid, I write odd things thing like thisssssssssssssseSe ~~ ~~

no silence/no sleep: a few autumnal seconds

Leaf comes to the fall.
Yellow and grey open the curtain.
“Who judges the words of green?” He asks.
EYES BLACK: “Night.”
BEAK of MORE: “And all the days that close the bridge to water.”
Yellow feels the wind’s animal nature.
Would turnaway from the blackboard of SOLD HERE
and ask of the habitat of justice.
Would…
if he had not lost his, “HEY?” in a back of flat.
The journal of a mouth rubs its eyes,
looks at its essays of mon amour and decay
hands the lesser to Leaf.
Dust closes the size of its past.
There is no grace. Only inches too late.


(M Griffin “Gravity”)


(C) Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. 2011

AFTER THEY ROLL UP THE LAST CORRIDOR OF FIRE

Tom Waits: [staring over his cold coffee] …let’s put words on their skin and make them scream.
bEast: [looking out over his warm tea] Blue words?
TW: [shrugs] Did you get the right size pillow?
b: Size 6.
TW: Does that fit?
b: Yeah. It’s OK. But I’m not very happy with the color pattern.
TW: Menu is short on options.
b: Is. But what can you expect?
TW: Oh. I almost forgot.
b: [looks at the bars] Them? That’s no little feat.
TW: If it was TUES and they passed out the ration of cigarettes would be easier.
b: I still have some newspaper. Think we could smoke one of them?
TW: [looks at the bugs] Renfields. Never tried them. Could.
Samuel Beckett: [in the next cell] Will you assholes shut up. Joyce Mansour will not want to caress my tomorrow if you keep this shit up.
TW: Put a lid on it old man [laughs]
b: Spicier than Spicer that.
SB: Shut the hell up.
TW: Nope and nope.
b: What he said.
SB: I’ll tell Hannibal.
b: I’m soooooooooooooo scared.
TW: You tell the man in the iron mask. So what? They took all the bite out of his cannibal.
b: [chuckles]
TW: [joins in]
SB: He can and will pass Bluto a note and you’re shower meat.
TW: Maybe we should just smoke this thing and hit the road to dreamland.
b: [nods let’s]
SB: So, Joyce. I was wondering . . . To what extend does your language of sexuality signal a shift in male - female violence?
[Tom Waits and the bEast in their degenerate little island of no colors begin snoring.]


(The Box Tops “Choo Choo Train”)

(C) Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. 2011



NOTE: Do you get a damn draft done? No. You light a smoke and find ways to waste 5 minutes . . .




(a piece) about angels left out in the rain


[no sound][tempest of rain moved on. it is dim and grey.]

I came upon two men.
Two.
Men.
One
in need of a shave
and shoes
and
he
sat.
There.
Just
sat.
There
and
the
other. He looked like rain. Rain that has broken a roof,
tasted
the birth of Death.
And
this
other
the
other
man,
paced.
Walked to the side of the
road
and
looked—
looked at the small hill.
The
dark
hill.
Thought to pace —first step to many steps— right up its side and reaching the
top
look out
and see
see
if
if he could see what had struck
the light
from
the sky.
The
man
that needed shoes
sat
ripped from sudden and years
sat on a rock.
He sat
like he was left there
left
there
to die.
In the shadows – in the void – that grey with no smile
left
there
alone
grey
forgotten
to die.
Two.
Men.
Two in their solitude.
Alone
together.
Two.
Men. A shadow of self and a shadow of
self.
Neither home from the to and fro neither. Niether about to turn from the way that is parted from
close.
Two.
Men.
In the ashes of old
fading
light.
One
waiting—
lips hoping for soft. Soft. Hoping for a lamp to glow.
Light
for
this surface
of
fading
hoping…
The other
hoping
for
shoes. Or a lake filled with the starlight of Atlantis or lips to tell eyes if the weathervane could smell charms, or
see
shoes.
Travelers
unable
to turn
from
this
low.
This
faint
dim.
One
who would take light
or
crest the hill.
One
who would travel
if
the sun came out
if
the sun were shoes—
Shoes
and
light
to
spill empty.
The bottle of wine —there—tall—obvious— they did not drink.
One
would
drink
drink miles – again and again
until
he didn’t need an umbrella to cover his nakedness from
what dark
holds.
One
his mouth
holds
nothing.
One
who
has
hands. Hands that fade – again and again
—and
hold
no matters
that
glue
the stock to lips. Where they can be glued to
light
or
concern.
One.
And
one.
Waiting—
again—
like
they
waited
after
the
first again.
Hands
mouth
that
cannot catch
the sound
of
footsteps.
Footsteps
that brought stock.
Stock
still
they are.
One
man.
Waiting.
One
man
sat—
waiting…
I came upon two men who could not see the glow of my lantern. Neither could hear the map I sang. Two.
Men.


(after watching Beckett’s FOOTFALLS and wondering what comment Ligotti might make. Perhaps he’d shake his head, or laugh at me.)

(Soundtrack to the transcription: Paul Bowles Baptism of Solitude)

(C) Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. 2011

Phantasmagorium ~ ~~ OCT 13th! ~~!!

The 1st issue of "Phantasmagorium" edited by LAIRD BARRON{! !!} will have stories by:

Simon Strantzas "Strong as a Rock"

Stephen Graham Jones "No Takebacks"

Joe Pulver "And this is where I go down into the darkness"

Anne Tambour "Cardoons!"

Genevieve Valentine"Bufonidae"

Scott Nicolay "alligators"
"PHANTASMAGORIUM" will arrive on OCT 13th! !!

http://www.phantasmagorium.co/index.html

Phantasmagorium

OCT 13th~ ~~~~~~~~~~~.

And The WINNERSssssssssssssssss are~ ~~

Sarah at SheNeverSlept will be contacting the winners for contact/mailing info! THANKS to all of you who entered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

Chasing Shadows

My friend, Julia Morgan, reads one of my very early King In Yellow tales. This was my 1st or 2nd KIY work, after 12+ years I don't remember.

It was penned while I was writting Nightmare's Disciple. Jules is a siren. I adore her readings of Poe and HPL. I am very pleased [and humbled] that Jules picked something of mine to read. I hope you enjoy it! !!