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