Lou

     First time I played the 1^st Velvet’s album I didn’t care for it, didn't get it. Parts/snippets sure, but most of it left me NO. Fresh Cream, Kind of Blue, the first Weather Report album, the 1^st Sabbath, Country Joe, the Airplane, those hit instantly the first time I heard them. Lou and co, nope and nope. But I bought it, so I kept playing it. Exploring. Hoping.

     By LOADED I was starting to get it. “Sweet Jane” hit me. “Rock And Roll” and “New Age”, yeah, them’s good. But I was not yet a fan.

     Solo, I warmed right up to Cale—kept diving into more. Loved Nico! The dance w/ Lou… warming to where he led, letting him in, that came slow.

     TRANSFORMER. Sat there on the counter in the record store. I was looking at the back cover. Sure I’d heard “WotW” on the radio, liked it a lot. Did I dare spin this new album?

     The guy behind the counter asked, “You a fan?”

     “Not really. Like some of his stuff. Cale solo, a lot.”

     “Ah . . . To me, Lou’s great. He’s like a crime writer, reports from the street. Tells it like it is . . . I can see Lou as a character in Last Exit to Brooklyn.”

      That hit me, so I bought TRANSFORMER.  Adjusted by his comment and ready to try, I took it home and put it on the turntable.

     It played. I danced. "It's good. Good." I like this one.

     Hell, I was getting it. Thought so. Maybe I wasn’t ready for VU when I’d heard it? Sometimes it takes time to see, to understand.

     I went back w/ my new ears. Where the hell had my mind been? This is great. It works... I feel this one. 

     BERLIN. NEW YORK. MAGIC AND LOSS. Perfect albums. BERLIN is desert island!! !

     It took time for me to get Lou. But when I did it was love. 5 decades later it still is.

     All those FRI & SAT nights alone in my hole-in-the-wall apartments. Me and some cheapass whiskey, a few beers, pack of Camels, and a lot of dreams… THXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxx for being there Lou. And thxxxxxxxxxxxx for not laughing as I cried... and listening too. THXxxxxxxxxxx for the beacon. And the TRUTH! It helped!
    
  

Scott Nicolay's Ana Kai Tangata

Some days you get lucky and this is one of them. I'm currently reading the ARC for Scott Nicolay's Ana Kai Tangata. This will be his first collection of stories, due next spring from Fedogan & Bremer.

No less than modern horror master, Laird Barron is penning the introduction. And F&B and Scott have artist, David Verba on board doing the stunning art for this tome.

Scott is keenly-attuned to what unfurls in our darker hours so there will be a lot of praise for this collection.
I'll have a lot more to say about Scott's book as its release draws near.


http://fedoganandbremer.com/

http://davidverbagallery.com/index.html

https://www.facebook.com/scott.nicolay.9

NOW IN STOCK! !!

You can now find TGP at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Grimscribes-Puppets-Joe-Pulver/dp/1937408019

Thomas Ligotti is beyond doubt one of the Grandmasters of Weird Fiction. In The Grimscribe's Puppets, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., has commissioned both new and established talents in the world of weird fiction and horror to contribute all new tales that pay homage to Ligotti and celebrate his eerie and essential nightmares. Poppy Z. Brite once asked, "Are you out there, Thomas Ligotti?" This anthology proves not only is he alive and well, but his extraordinary illuminations have proven to be a visionary and fertile source of inspiration for some of today’s most accomplished authors.

Livia Llewellyn “Furnace”
Daniel Mills “The Lord Came at Twilight”
Michael Cisco “The Secrets of the Universe”
Kaaron Warren “The Human Moth”
Joel Lane “Basement Angels”
Darrell Schweitzer “No Signal”
Robin Spriggs “THE XENAMBULIST: A Fable in Four Acts”
Nicole Cushing “The Company Town”
Cody Goodfellow “The Man Who Escaped This Story”

Michael Kelly “Pieces of Blackness”
Eddie M. Angerhuber “The Blue Star”
Jon Padgett “20 SIMPLE STEPS TO VENTRILOQUISM”
Robert M. Price “The Holiness of Desolation”
Michael Griffin “Diamond Dust”
Richard Gavin “After the Final”
Scott Nicolay “Eyes Exchange Bank”
Simon Strantzas “BY INVISIBLE HANDS”
Paul Tremblay “Where We Will All Be”
Allyson Bird “Gailestis”
Jeffrey Thomas “The Prosthesis”
John Langan “Into the Darkness, Fearlessly”
Gemma Files “OUBLIETTE”

For FREE Wolrdwide shipping [on any size order] The Book Depository has TGP.

http://www.bookdepository.com/Grimscribes-Puppets-Joe-Pulver/9781937408015


http://miskatonicriverpress.com/products/gp.shtml

You may

You may now PRE-ORDER [at the link on the bottom of this post] your copy of this tribute anthology to the uncanny work of Thomas Ligotti.
Here's the ToC:

Livia Llewellyn “Furnace”

Daniel Mills “The Lord Came at Twilight”

Michael Cisco “The Secrets of the Universe”

Kaaron Warren “The Human Moth”

Joel Lane “Basement Angels”

Darrell Schweitzer “No Signal”

Robin Spriggs “THE XENAMBULIST: A Fable in Four Acts”

Nicole Cushing “The Company Town”

Cody Goodfellow “The Man Who Escaped This Story”
Michael Kelly “Pieces of Blackness”

Eddie M. Angerhuber “The Blue Star”

Jon Padgett “20 SIMPLE STEPS TO VENTRILOQUISM”

Robert M. Price “The Holiness of Desolation”
Michael Griffin “Diamond Dust”

Richard Gavin “After the Final”

Scott Nicolay “Eyes Exchange Bank”

Simon Strantzas “BY INVISIBLE HANDS”

Paul Tremblay “Where We Will All Be”

Allyson Bird “Gailestis”

Jeffrey Thomas “The Prosthesis”

John Langan “Into the Darkness, Fearlessly”

Gemma Files “OUBLIETTE”


http://www.miskatonicriverpress.com/products/gp.shtml


Cover Art by DANI SERRA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jack's back ~ ~~

Ross Lockhart, editor of The Book of Cthulhu and The Book of Cthulhu II, has started his own press, WORD HORDE.

Coming this fall is the first WORD HORDE release, Tales of Jack the Ripper. Here's the press release and the ToC.

1888: One hundred and twenty-five years ago, a killer stalked the streets of London’s Whitechapel district, brutally–some would say ritualistically–murdering five women (that we know of): Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly.
The story of Jack the Ripper captured lurid headlines and the public’s imagination, and the first fictionalization of the Ripper killings, John Francis Brewer’s The Curse Upon Mitre Square appeared in October of 1888, mere weeks after the discovery of Jack’s first victim. Since then, hundreds of stories have been written about Bloody Jack, his victims, and his legacy. Authors ranging from Marie Belloc Lowndes to Robert Bloch to Harlan Ellison to Roger Zelazny to Alan Moore have added their own tales to the Ripper myth. Now, as we arrive at the quasquicentennial of the murders, we bring you a few tales more.
From Word Horde and the editor who brought you The Book of Cthulhu and The Book of Cthulhu II comes Tales of Jack the Ripper, featuring new and classic fiction by many of today’s darkest dreamers, including Laird Barron, Ramsey Campbell, Ed Kurtz, Joe R. Lansdale, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Stanley C. Sargent, E. Catherine Tobler, and many more.



Table of Contents
Whitechapel Autumn, 1888 – Ann K. Schwader
A Host of Shadows – Alan M. Clark and Gary A. Braunbeck
Jack’s Little Friend – Ramsey Campbell
Abandon All Flesh – Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The God of the Razor – Joe R. Lansdale
The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker – Ennis Drake
Ripping – Walter Greatshell
Something About Dr. Tumblety – Patrick Tumblety
The Truffle Pig – T. E. Grau
Ripperology – Orrin Grey
Hell Broke Loose – Ed Kurtz
Where Have You Been All My Life? – Edward Morris
Juliette’s New Toy – Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
Villains by Necessity – Pete Rawlik
When the Means Just Defy the End – Stanley C. Sargent
A Pretty for Polly – Mercedes Yardley
Termination Dust – Laird Barron
Once November – E. Catherine Tobler
Silver Kisses – Ann K. Schwader


http://wordhorde.com/

What I did on my HPLFF/GriffinDorm vacation~ ~~

bEast, Hopfrog, & MIKE DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-VIS

BOB & CODY! !!

Leenie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

SuperSTAR & his bEast at play

Cavey & me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

I don’t like flying!
I don’t like flying!
I HATE flying! HATE IT!! ! And 24 hours in planes is pure Hell!!!!!!!!!!!!! And UK security was bloody-gotdamn-BS end-to-end! !! But to get to the HPLFF and my friends, I did.
Glad I did! !!
As my dear brothers, SuperSTAR Mike Griffin &
MIKE DAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaa-VIS, as doing such detailed [and wonderful!] reports, mine will be short… and boring I’ll post links below.
So…
The H.P. lovecraft Film Festival & Cthulhu Con ~ ~~
I did not stay in The Banfield /no-tell motel/ this year. NO! And I did not miss the monsterASS centipedes! !!!!! I had the high privilege of staying at GriffinDorm w/ Mike and his wonderful wife, Lena!!! Mike Davis stayed there as well! We WERE treated like KINGS on retreat in a 5-Star!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To say Mike & Lena are 2 of the warmest, nicest people on the planet is a vast understatement [Add great cooks, generous, and funny too!]. 1^st thing I saw in GriffinDorm was a giant package of Cajun trail mix w/ a green bow sitting on the island in the kitchen. CTM is something I dearly miss here and knowing I love it, they’d got it for me. Man was it ever good! [I did bring home the ribbon Lena had put on the bag. It sits on my desk now!!]
Let’s talk about the food for a second. Every meal, in or out, was FAB! SuperSTAR made a big pot of chili – YES, I DID eat 5 massive bowls! Lena made MARVELOUS homemade coleslaw – I think I ate about 2 quarts of it! The whole week was one great meal after another! And Lena made the best baked potato I’ve ever had. Might have been the biggest too…
Weather for the whole week n Portland. PurrFECT everyday!! Clear at night, so I could look up at the AMERICAN nightsky again! Great moon!
Before the con they took me to see a few things outside of Portland. The falls [you can see them in Mike Griffin’s pics in his con reports] were beautiful and there was a ton of hawks around. I loved it!
The night we went to the Lovecraft Bar, my dear old friend Jarred Wallace and his gal, Nancy were there. It was GREAT seeing them!!!!!!!!!!!! Alicia Graves was there too! Great gal!!!!!!!!!!! Evil J, but great!
For me, the high points of the fest was seeing one friend after the other – it had been a long time in many cases.
So I spent a lot time w/ Bob Price, Mike Davis, Mike & Lena Griffin, Cody Goodfellow, Banshee Ed Morris, Edward Martin III, Kimbo, Ross Lockart, Kelly Young/Brandi aka Stark, Neils Hobbs, Hopfrog, of course!, [delighted to see him on his b-day and give him a bEastly hug], Brian Callahan & his wonderful wife, Gwen, [I’ll never be able to repay them for bringing me to the con!!!], Nick Gucker!!!!!!!!!, Mike Dubisch, Liv Rainey-Smith and her Minion Michael, S.T., Dennis Weiler of F &B [thxxxxxxx for the copy of Worlds of Cthulhu, Dennis!! !], Nkki G, Dominique L, and my brother, Cavey aka Scott Nicolay.
Cavey was snuck in… and yes, Cassilda, the bEast wept tears of JOY! My dear brother standing there! LIVE! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You vants HAPPY, was!!!!!!!!!!!! WAS!
On Saturday, I did a reading w/ Cody & Ed. Absolutely scared to death, I never looked up from the “AtMoM” tribute tale I was reading, and read for 40 minutes. I’d thought Cody or Ed would nudge me when my time was up, but they let me read the whole tale. Felt terrible when it hit me I’d taken up an extra 20 minutes. Nick Mamatas and Molly Tanzer were there for that and my normal stage fright jumped up to HOLY SHIT! To say I’m in awe of both of them and their magical skills as writers is an understatement. Nick was very nice after.
I was on a panel w/ Nick and Cody that went well. Nick was the moderator and did a great job. A couple of times after that, I wanted to talk to him a bit, but my fanboy was in high gear and I passed, fearing I’d just stand there and babble like an idiot.
I talked to Richard Stanley about KIY films. That was pretty great.
I got to meet Steve Kick, the fest Kickstarter donor, who paid to be in a Pulver tale that was featured in the fest newspaper/program guide. I was delighted when Steve told me how much he loved the tale I penned for him.
The Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast w/ Bob & Cody was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bob put me and Hopfrog in the devotional he gave. I roared!
Spent some time at the Moon & Sixpence one night, talking to Ross Lockhart abut books. Great guy! Great editor! Wrote a damn fine debut novel, Chick Bassist! & SuperSTAR bought me a scotch, Glenlivet, no ice, no water – my first drink in years!!!!!!!!!! I liked! !! Kelly & Brandi were there, as were Mike Davis & Lena, Cavey & Alicia too. We all had a great time.
Then Cavey had to leave to go home. More hugs and tearssssssssssssssSs. But I got to spend the day w/ him, so I was OVERMOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wilum brought me a pile of his newer books, including THE TANGLED MUSE. Was I pleased? BET YER ASS! He’s a sweetie! Kelly Young, anther KIY wacko like me, gave me a bottle of his The Tattered King chardonnay. It sits on my desk now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! Alicia Graves, another FAB sweetie!! ! got me one of Sam McCanna’s [Skuvy Ink] wonderful Wilum t-shirts!  Nick Gucker gave me the FANTASTIC original art he did for my Current 93 tribute tale, coming in Jordan Krall’s upcoming A MIGHTY SORROW this summer. You want floored & giddy? WAS! AM!!!!!!!!! And Liv gave me the print of her truly-wonderful KIY piece she did for the Pickman's Apprentice Live Drawing Competition w/ her, Nick Gucker, Lee Moyer, and Mike Dubisch all taking a whack at the KIY [yes, I suggested the theme]. I love all these super-talented folks and it was hard to root for only one!
Cameron Pierce [editor/writer/bizarro/really nice guy!] floored me by telling me I’ll be in his David Lynch tribute anthology, In Heaven, Everything Is Fine, coming later this summer.
I was on a panel that ran over, so I missed most of the live eZine chat on Sunday, but Mike did a great job w/out me.
After the fest was over and we put Mike Davis on a plane to head home to his sweetie and son, or thought we had, Lena, SuperSTAR, and me, went to the beach for the day! Did I like it? LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!! We played in the sunshine-lit waves. Hell they were cold, but I had to get my feet wet in that R’lyeh water.
I have always loved the sense of community we Lovecraftians have [hell, I go on and on about it all the time in the “Lovecraft eZne” chats], and at the film fest it was in full-force. Lovely people, that’s what the fest is to me. When you’re around them, yer in heaven and this year the fest was pure heaven.
I could go on here for another 1,200 word, but as I said, Mike and Mike are doing a great job of covering the fest in more detail, so I’ll let you fill in the holes w/ them!  
Did I have a great time w/ my friends and extended family? The BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hugsssssssssssssssssSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS to all!! !

a certain bEast



Links for more detailed reports and vids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


http://griffinwords.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/h-p-lovecraft-film-festival-con-report-part-i-before/


http://lovecraftzine.com/

A Cold Yellow Moon

Banshee Rev Ed {MORRIS!! !} & _me_ roll out our KIY/steampunk novella,


"A Cold Yellow Moon"

~ ~~ Dig Tesla? Robots? Verne and Moby Dick and the eldritch halls of MU? Want to know how the KIY figures this MADNESS of unfurled BLACKsyllables? You will~ ~~SOON! !! [[[[[W/ an audio version read by Julia "MorganScorpion" Morgan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]]]]]

also in this issue~ ~~

MIKE GRIFFIN! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Robert M. Price~ ~~
Samantha Henderson.................................... .

And mo! !!

 
http://lovecraftzine.com/2013/04/12/lovecraft-ezine-april-2013-issue-preview/

H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival Kickstarter

The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Cthulhucon has started a Kickstarter program to help w/ basic expenses.

Some of the rewards are~ ~~

You could also play Call of Cthulhu with gaming legend, SANDY PETERSEN! !!

You could be worked into a short story by me, Joe Pulver, or be in a fake news story by the amazing, Cody Goodfellow!

Or you might play CoC with DELTA GREEN's Adam Scott Glancy.

There are t-shirts, pins, passes, art by the brilliant MIKE DUBBISCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And more!
One of the best little cons on the planet needs yer help, so whatya waitin' on?



http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hplffpdx/hp-lovecraft-film-festival-and-cthulhucon-portland

CRANDOLIN! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Immerse yourself in the magical world of Anna Tambour’s Crandolin, a delirious journey that takes the reader through Central Asia and Russia with some fascinating strangers and a donkey, a demanding musical instrument, and delicious hints of nougat and honey.”-- Ellen Datlow

“By turns lyrical and absurdist, whimsical and elegantly true, Crandolin is unlike any novel you will ever have read. Anna Tambour is brilliant, a true original.”-- Lucius Shepard


"At heart Crandolin is a rich confectionery, a tapestry woven out of dreams and nightmares, an Arabian Nights tale for the twenty first century with Tambour as Scheherazade, lulling us with her mellifuous voice and artistry. I loved it, and didn't want it to end." -- Peter Tennant, BLACK STATIC


"...with the appearance of her new novel, Crandolin, [Anna Tambour] will surely register Richter-powerful on the delighted synapses of all patrons of weird, funny fabulism. The lively and bold Chômu Press, which touts its catalogue as offering 'new vistas of irreality,' deserves much credit for presenting this out-of-the-ordinary, highly accomplished foray into the Weird...But what's really central to Tambour's tale is the romance of food."-- Paul Di Filippo, Locus Online


"Funny and compelling, strangely wise about its worlds ... It can seem like a fun ride or a maze, yet Crandolin is never just a joke. When Tambour finally invokes one storyteller's sense of 'fear and joy,' it's genuine; we can share in the feeling, at the end of a long, strange trip."-- Faren Miller, Locus


"A fairy tale Dostoevsky would have liked... It's like it was written by a demented chef." -- David Kowalski

“Anna Tambour writes with compassion, mischievous humour, and an at times mouth-watering sensuality, delving into the daily world and beyond to find the riches of magic.”-- KJ Bishop

In a medieval cookbook in a special-collections library, near-future London, jaded food and drink authority Nick Kippax finds an alluring stain next to a recipe for the mythical crandolin. He tastes it, ravishing the page. Then he disappears. So begins an adwentour that quantum-leapfrogs time, place, singularities, and Quests – from the secrets of confectionery to the agonies of making a truly great moustache, from maidens in towers to tiffs between cosmic forces. Food, music, science, fruitloopery, superstition, railways, bladder-pipes and birth-marked Soviet statesmen; all are present in an extraordinary novel that is truly for the adwentoursomme.

http://www.locusmag.com/Reviews/2012/11/paul-di-filippo-reviews-anna-tambour/


http://chomupress.com/our-books/crandolin/


http://www.amazon.com/Crandolin-Anna-Tambour/dp/1907681191/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359193419&sr=1-1&keywords=crandolin


http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Crandolin-Anna-Tambour/9781907681196

The conspiracy to eradicate your fluffysoft Spring

The conspiracy to eradicate your fluffysoft Spring is here.

Yup. After hours of warring over it, THE GRIMSCRIBE'S PUPPETS has a {final} ToC~ ~~


Livia Llewellyn “Furnace” [5,800]
Daniel Mills “The Lord Came at Twilight” [3,950]
Michael Cisco “The Secrets of the Universe” [3,360]
Kaaron Warren “The Human Moth” [2,700]
Joel Lane “Basement Angels” [2,697]
Darrell Schweitzer “No Signal” [1,735]
Robin Spriggs “THE XENAMBULIST: A Fable in Four Acts” [3,369]
Nicole Cushing “The Company Town” [1,700]
Cody Goodfellow “The Man Who Escaped This Story” [8,490]
Michael Kelly “Pieces of Blackness” [3,750]
Eddie M. Angerhuber “The Blue Star” [2,970]
Jon Padgett “20 SIMPLE STEPS TO VENTRILOQUISM” [4,490]
Mike Griffin “Diamond Dust” [4,900]
Richard Gavin “After the Final” [3,100]
Scott Nicolay “Eyes Exchange Bank” [9,050]
Simon Strantzas “BY INVISIBLE HANDS” [6,200]
Paul Tremblay “Where We Will All Be” [4,900]
Ally Bird “Gailestis” [4,019]
Jeff Thomas “The Prosthesis” [4,835]
John Langan “Into the Darkness, Fearlessly” [10,499]
Gemma Files “OUBLIETTE” [8,424]