My BIBLIOMANCY interview

Jason Rolfe at BIBLIOMANCY kindly asked me to do an interview for his fine literary blog . . .  Many know Jason as one of Chomu Press' strongest advocates, he's interviewed Chomu Ramrod, Quentin Crisp and insanely brilliant writers like Rhys Hughes and Brendan Connell, so I jumped at the chance to talk about my work, some of my influences, and some of the things I have going on.

Thanks, Jason. You made it easy and a lot of fun! !!

Here's a link to my Amazon author page --



    

The Starry Wisdom Library anthology

Today's guest post is by my pal, editor, Nate Pedersen. Nate's working on a special project Lovecraftians will be very interested in. Here's Nate to give you a first look at the blasphemies and revelations he's about to unleash . . . I think you'll be as excited by this as I am.

       “In a rear vestry room beside the apse Blake found a rotting desk and ceiling-high shelves of mildewed, disintegrating books. Here for the first time he received a positive shock of objective horror, for the titles of those books told him much. They were the black, forbidden things which most sane people have never even heard of, or have heard of only in furtive, timorous whispers; the banned and dreaded repositories of equivocal secrets and immemorial formulae which have trickled down the stream of time from the days of man’s youth, and the dim, fabulous days before man was.”
       --H P Lovecraft, “The Haunter of the Dark”

       The notorious library of the Church of Starry Wisdom was left to rot when the cult abandoned Providence for parts unknown.  Robert Blake discovered what was left of the library in his 1938 explorations - over fifty years after the cult had abandoned the Church.The library still contained such enormous rarities as the Necronomicon, the Liber Ivonis, and the Pnakotic Manuscripts. Imagine the library in its heyday, when the Church was still active.
       What if, on the eve of disbanding, the Church of Starry Wisdom organized a rare book auction of the various tomes in their collection? What if the accompanying auction catalogue was privately published and privately circulated, disappearing for over a century until its recent rediscovery in the archives of Miskatonic University?  What if we could read the 1877 original today?
       My new (and first) anthology for PS Publishing is just that: a “facsimile” publication of the 19th century auction catalogue, entitled “The Starry Wisdom Library: being a catalogue of the unsurpassed occult library held by the recently disbanded Church of Starry Wisdom, offered for sale at private auction Midsummer’s Eve, 1877 by Messrs Pent & Serenade of Arkham, Mass.” The anthology will be presented and designed exactly like a 19th century book auction catalogue, with entries describing the major books in the Church’s collection, accompanied by essays from “noted scholars” on the history of each dread tome. The “noted scholars” will be contemporary horror and speculative fiction authors.  Their contributions will be similar in length and content to Lovecraft’s own “History of the Necronomicon”, a slightly edited version of which will also appear in the catalogue.
       The Starry Wisdom Library anthology was inspired by my personal love of rare book catalogues garnered from years spent working in the rare book trade in North Carolina and Scotland. I am now a freelance journalist and editor and write frequently for the magazine Fine Books & Collections. This anthology was the direct result of a blog post I wrote for Fine Books last October entitled “The Grimoires of Lovecraft”.

       The finished anthology will contain approximately 30 essays on the history of Mythos books.  I can confirm sixteen of the contributors now:

Joe Pulver with an early copy of the banned play The King in Yellow
Livia Llewellyn with the “profane” version of Las Reglas de Ruina
Silvia Moreno-Garcia with the Aztec codex El Culto de los Muertos
Edward Morris with the medieval Irish manuscript The Book of Invaders
Robin Spriggs with a “copy” of the Dhol Chants
Gemma Files with the an entirely new version of the Testament of Carnamagos
Ramsey Campbell with the cult manuscript the Revelations of Glaaki
Kali Wallace with the mysterious stone-written Tablets of Nhing
Donald Tyson with the third Latin edition of Liber Damnatus
Michael Cisco with a 12th century manuscript of Liber Ivonis
F. Paul Wilson with the first German edition of Unaussprechlichen Kulten
Keith Taylor with Robert Boyle’s copy of the Book of Thoth
Genevieve Valentine with the elusive Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan
Scott Nicolay with the ancient South Seas manuscript the Ponape Scripture
Simon Strantzas with the dreaded Black Tome of Alsophocus
Richard Gavin with the ghoulish transformative manual De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis

    The Starry Wisdom Library will also be illustrated with six original woodcuts by the incomparable Liv Rainey-Smith.

       No publication date has been set yet by PS, however the book is likely to be published in fall of 2013 or spring of 2014.  Interested readers can check out the website for the anthology for updates: http://starrywisdomlibrary.com

About the editor:

       Nate Pedersen formerly worked for rare book dealers in North Carolina and Scotland.  He now lives in Oregon where he works as a librarian in addition to freelancing as a journalist and editor.  He is a Contributing Writer for the magazine Fine Books & Collections.

URBAN CTHULHU: Nightmare Cities

Editor Henrik Harksen's Urban Cthulhu: Nightmare Cities (H. Harksen Productions 2012) is out [YAYYyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!] and has arrived in Carcosa East. Pleased? You bet yer nightguant I am! !! It's a lovely looking tome and Paul Carrick and Tom Kristensen's art is lovely indeed.

Here's a little teaser from the publisher... What lurks in the damp recesses of urban existence? These new tales of weird fiction are a blend of urban horror, pulp noir and dark fantasy. Lovecraftian horrors and Cthulhu Mythos monsters have never been this gritty. From haunted Kingsport across the globe to shadowy Berlin and the otherworldly music of Bangalore. From kind, sexy neighbors to cyberpunk paranoia an The King in Yellow. A journalist's search with unexpected results. What really happened to Walter Gilman, and what is the origin of the witch Keziah Mason? And witness humanity fail against the forces from beyond. From weird sounds to screams of madness. Entropy. Chaos. Disorder. Death. Beneath cities, on the outskirts of ruined, aeon-old cities and INSIDE cities. The stench, the decay, the hopelesness... it is everywhere.  

And here's the ToC:

“Dancer of the Dying” by Jayaprakash Satyamurthy
“The Neighbors Upstairs” by John Goodrich
“Carcosapunk” by Glynn Owen Barrass
“Architect Eyes” by Thomas Strømsholt
“Slou” by Robert Tangiers
“Ozeelah’s Lake” by Morten Carlsen
“The Statement of Frank Elwood” by Pete Rawlik
“In the Shadow of Bh’Yhlun” by Ian Davey
“The Screamer” by T. E. Grau“Night Life” by Henrik Sandbeck Harksen
“the guilt of each … at the end…” by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.

Lovecraftian editor, writer, reviewer, and geek (aren't we all?), Brian Sammons has reviewed [PRAISED! !!] UC over at "Horror World". You can find his RAVE here:

http://horrorworld.org/hw/2012/06/urban-cthulhu-nightmare-cities/

Hopfrog on MRP's anthology HORROR FOR THE HOLIDAYS

a certain dear brother of mine has some very nice things to say about Miskantonic River Press' tome. He also has some very kind words of praise for me. What a sweetie he is! !!

You can find MRP at these links --

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=197144847075728&id=1576223866#!/pages/Miskatonic-River-Press/25871246621

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

Lovecraftian fans will want this tome! !!

And here is the ToC:

TALES OF ROSH CHODESH
The Tomb of Oscar Wilde by W.H. Pugmire

TALES OF VALENTINE'S DAY
Love and Darkness by Oscar Rios
Be Mine by Brian Sammons

TALES OF PASSOVER
Cthulhu Mhy'os by Lois H. Gresh

TALES OF EASTER
And 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 DAY
Mother's Night by Ann K. Schwader

TALES OF THE FOURTH OF JULY
Free Fireworks by T.E. Grau
Doc Corman's Haunted Palace One Fourth of July by Don Webb

TALES OF VJ DAY
Translator by James Robert Smith

TALES OF HALLOWEEN
Hallowe'en in a Suburb by H.P. Lovecraft
Moonday by Will Murray
The Trick by Ramsey Campbell

TALES OF THE DAY OF THE DEAD
El Dia De Los Muertos by Kevin Ross

TALES OF GUY FAWKES NIGHT
Treason and Plot by William

TALES OF REMEMBERANCE DAY
The Dreaming Dead by Joshua Reynolds
TALES OF THANKSGIVING
Entrée by Donald R. Burleson

TALES OF YULE
Keeping Festival by Mollie Burleson
Wassail by Tom Lynch

TALES OF CHRISTMAS
Krampusnacht by Joshua Reynolds
The Christmas Eves 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

A preview of "Lovecraft eZine" #15

Coming in mid June, the next issue of "Lovecraft eZine"...


Starry. . . yet . . ., by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. No one writes like Pulver… he’s one of a kind, and I’m honored to publish another one of his tales in the June issue.


Invitation, by Siobhan Gallagher. It’s the waiting game that haunts me. Half-past midnight under a lone street lamp and, nothing. Empty streets and sleeping buildings. So unlike the roaring noise of day, with cars honking and engines starting, people yakking in voices louder than they need be on their phones. All headache inducing. It’s why I’ve escaped into the night, a personally pain reliever, and in my hand an invitation…


In Memoriam, by W.H. Pugmire. Written for Robert Nelson, one of H.P. Lovecraft’s correspondents. W.H. Pugmire says, I have been quite moved, the more I learn about this young suicidal poet, Robert Nelson. I like to pay homage to young doom’d souls, & thus I have writ this wee prose-poem, enclos’d, which I hope you will be able to use in ye Lovecraft eZine.


Station Waiting Room, by Simon Kurt Unsworth. Gaskin turned to go and caught movement from the corner of his eye. He glanced around expecting to see a mouse of rat or even bird, but there was nothing. The sounds of the train were louder now, its rattle an insistent message for Gaskin telling him to move, to go now, but he ignored it. In the far corner, what he had taken to be the remains of a fire was opening, tendril arms fluttering apart like some night-blooming flower…


Pickman’s Marble, by Peter and Mandy Rawlik. An enjoyable flash fiction story by Peter, writing with his wife. It was the work of another artist, both a sculptor and painter that drew me into a strange little shop off the main thoroughfare on a dark little side street, almost an alley. Unlike the other galleries, which took to displaying pieces in front windows to entice potential patrons to enter, the Gallery Giallo seemed to be trying to hide its displays, for the curtains were heavy, moth-eaten and an utterly distasteful shade of pale yellow…


Bus Stop, by Jerod Brennen. Michael’s dread deepened on the ride to school. Each time he dared to peek outside the window, he saw the same thing: more nothingness. Every street was empty, every business closed…


A Stranger at the Door, by Bradly Shelby. A very enjoyable read by a promising new writer. Sometimes I honestly don’t know which is worse- the tense silence during the days or listening to the door creak and moan as whatever the hell that thing is pushes on it all night long while endlessly, wordlessly screaming at me…

In his strange and dark dreams

Artist, Luis Alberto Cayo has a lovely dream-quest...

He wants to create a lurking fear, a Cthulhu pendant, that you can bring into your shuttered room and wear while you dream of balesome rites in monstrous acropolis' like R'lyeh, or to work, or to dinner parties swarming w/ cannibal gods and ancient exhumations.

Here is his evil plan to put some strange in your aeons . . .


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/867463650/call-of-cthulhu-pendant-limited-200-piece-producti

My love letter to the HPLFF

I can't be at the HPLFF, (Portland, OR - May 11-13, 2012), so I've penned a 6,000 word tale/love letter to the fest I adore. The utterly fab weirdos at the ever-wonderful "STRANGE AEONS MAGAZINE" will be there with a "very limited" run of this chapbook. My brand new tale, "…LIES……Thunder……   ashes………….. .", is ABOUT the fest, the films, and the fine folks who go ever year, the weirdos I love! I think friends of "Nyarly" will enjoy this tale.

Here's the cover by my brilliant pal, Nick Gucker!!!

http://www.nickthehat.com/

Nasty Nicky has also done 3 interior illos for this wee slice of darkness.

The wonderful "STRANGE AEONS" magazine can be found here:

http://strange-aeons.com/


The HPLFF can be found here:

http://hplfilmfestival.com/

http://www.facebook.com/events/319963744716911/?ref=ts

Coming this summer

The Robert W. Chambers/King in Yellow tribute anthology of all new tales, A Season in Carcosa, has been sent to the publisher, Miskatonic River Press.

Here is the final ToC:

Joel Lane
Simon Strantzas
Don Webb
Daniel Mills
Gary McMahon
Ann K. SchwaderCate Gardner
Edward Morris
Richard Gavin
Gemma Files
Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
Kristin Prevallet
Richard A. Lupoff
Anna Tambour
Michael Kelly
Cody Goodfellow
John Langan
Pearce Hansen
Laird Barron
Robin Spriggs
Allyson Bird

http://miskatonicriverpress.com/

"Phantasmagorium" news

(c) 2011 JD BUSCH

"Phantasmagorium" the quarterly literary journal of horror has a new editor...

 ~ ~~perhaps you were wondering who this entity is… A little bit country and a lot of R’n’R? Sort of… {but don’t forget the Jazz --heap on the ECM!!-- and folk and solo cello suites.} Sane? On Tuesdays, yeah. Other days might be Buk after dropping a few tabs of Gormengast and backin’ a bottle Cisco-fied occultations, or Lamantia studied all them GEMS Datlow has issued for 3 decades and fell truly and madly in love. Maybe add some dark and stormy winter nights the bEast might travel a bit w/ Rechy and Fowles and Beckett and Michaux and and Zivkovic and Vachss and Eco stashed in his pockets fer fun, depends on the phase of the moon [talk ‘bout a harsh mistress]…
     Does he/IT have grisly chants and shadowy dances? Yep, a few. Sings (if you could call it that) in rain too. LOVES noir and hardboiled! Eats POETICS 24/7! !! “Worships! !!” Cisco, Barron, Kiernan, Koja, KEW, Ellison, Weird fiction, “Weird Tales” {Ann VanderMeer is fab! Her other half is purr-D good too}, more poets then you’d care to see listed here, and the writers listed in the last line of the last paragraph…

     They say I’m brutal, but [if you look deep] I’m not all that big on splatter and gore. Loves ghouls! No to zombies in most cases. Sparkly vamps? NO unless, their name is Ziggy and they bang a stardusted-gong w/ Ronson and Marc . . . Is a stone cold King in Yellow purist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
     So “Phanta”? It will be dark, hopefully tainted by madness, and strange… [DaRK!]-fantasy, yes. Mash-ups, you bet. Unsettling? I sure hope you think so.

     Will you see HPL, steampunk, bizzaro? Might see some here and there . . .
     Laird had the right idea, mix it up, push the envelope where you can, and I will “try” to live up to his vision in my fashion. Am I Laird? No. He wears the shoes of a gifted giant and I cannot fill them… Few, if any, can.

     I will keep you updated w/ our plans. Yer bEast (and my fellow staff members at "PHANTA") hope you enjoy what we have in store for you.

     That said, here's the ToC for our new issue [#3 coming in MAY] ~ ~~

     Cate Gardner “The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon”
     Cody Goodfellow “NATURE’S MOTHER”
     Ann K. Schwader “Blown Out”
     Edward Morris “TO WALK THE NIGHT”
     Michael Cisco “Coptic Light” 
     We'll have the new website up VERY soon. In the meantime you can find out what's going on on our new FB page --   http://www.facebook.com/phanta13

    
     NOTE: [some] other [maybe] falls under the "weird fiction" umbrella things the bEast likes~ ~~ "Weird Fiction Review Online". Ligotti, SGJ, John Langan, Ally Bird… Jean Ray! Chomu Press! Angela Slatter. The Poe Eddie!!!!!!!!!! GEMMA FILES! !! Cody Goodfellow, Simon Strantzas! Alfred Kubin! KEW! Jeff Thomas, Richard Gavin, Daniel Mills, Machen, Bruno Schulz! !! Bruce Boston! !! a certain Mr. D. F. Lewis! Our dear HOPFROG! !! Jack O’Connell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And causes all manner of bEastly swoonin'~ ~~Catherynne Valente, Kaaron Warren, Genevieve Valentine, Murakami, Calvino...  
    

New Chomu coming! !!!

I stole the following from Anna Tambour! !!

http://medlarcomfits.blogspot.de/


Warning: CRANDOLIN to be served up by Chômu Press
To be released in time for the feasting season: my novel CRANDOLIN.
"A fairy tale Dostoevsky would have liked … It's like it was written by a demented chef"
— David Kowalski

The fit with Chômu Press is so perfect that I have hesitated to say anything here, for fear the feasting season will fall off the end of Time, or the End of the World will come at 2:00 the day before the release. So I hereby invoke the Writer's Prayer:

Please, Fate(s) or Who(m)ever,

Let The End of the World come the day after the release of my Important novel.
Chômu Press doesn't publish me-too fiction that you've read somewhere before wrapped in another title. They do publish the most intriguing and readable stuff. And they care about presentation. The productions are luscious, partly because they get some of the best artists involved as well as the superb designer, Anil D.Nataly. And mostly because they do insane amounts of work themselves.
Sure, I could have gotten CRANDOLIN published somewhere, but I have wanted the best, and the context I can put this press into, to show that I really do admire what they do as well as their guts, is to say that they're the Blaft of the UK. And anyone who's followed my love affair with Blaft knows that they're my favourite publisher in the world.
Quentin S. Crisp as editor is just what I always wanted for CRANDOLIN, and me! He's like a rain of vinegar hitting the mountain of me, a pile of bicarbonate of soda. He's what all great editors are — insidious drugs. I've been tripping for weeks. (And if you haven't read Crisp's own fiction, you're missing something major. He's a writer of classics, given the readership. I've just finished Shrike, and think it should be rereleased as a Popular Penguin, though it's hardly been read by anyone yet.)
Finally, CRANDOLIN is too original for agents to have been any more use than a sautéed umbrella. And I wouldn't have approached Chômu Press though it looks mouthwatering, because I grew too cynical about the whole fiction scene. So thank you, dear Starburst Poet (Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.), for not only picking me up from the muck of my own depression, but for being yet another wonderful editor; and then, after that, for turning out to be a big hairy yenta — a meddling matchmaker!
Of course, there are other brave readers to whom I am also indebted. They donated their blood to CRANDOLIN and their shoulders (at least) to me, without ever charging me for their earplug expenses. I shall reveal them as the novel turns.


http://chomupress.com/

Laird Barron interview~ ~~

(c) 2011 J D Busch

As many of you know, Laird is the award-winning author of two stunning collections, Occultations, The Imago Sequence, and the upcoming and riveting novel, The Croning (all from Night Shade Books), all are to my mind, MUST READs! !! He he also one of the nicest guys on the whole damn planet and my respect and admiration for him, both as a writer and a human, is beyond measure. I am delighted and honored to be mentioned (alongside the other GREAT writers) in this interview.

Thanks, Laird!! !

Be sure to read to the end and hold yer breath, another new novel in the works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW! Can't WAIT! !!


http://www.crowsnbones.com/2012/04/an-interview-with-laird-barron/


http://www.amazon.com/The-Croning-Laird-Barron/dp/1597802301/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334860405&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Occultation-Laird-Barron/dp/1597801925/ref=pd_sim_b_9

http://www.amazon.com/The-Imago-Sequence-Other-Stories/dp/1597801461/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b