Monthly Archives: October 2011

The Spyders of Burslem, available now

31 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts, New books

≈ Leave a comment

I’m very pleased to say that my novel The Spyders of Burslem has been published on Halloween, as planned. Available to buy now as a paperback. Kindle users will have to wait just a little longer, because the Amazon approval process holds things up for a day or two. Here’s the blurb…

The Spyders of Burslem. A dark historical mystery, brought to vivid life. It is the year 1869 in the English pottery town of Burslem, where a new age of industry and learning struggles to be born. A young graduate has arrived to teach the workers, but finds himself on the trail of a deadly evil. A new and original novel of 60,000-words, rich with authentic period details and characters.

Here are the chapter contents from the book’s website… with a link to a free sample chapter. Kindle users will, of, course, be able to read the first 10% of the new book for free.

CONTENTS:

Chapter One: Arrival.
Chapter Two: A Providential Meeting.
Chapter Three: The Raising of the Zodiac.
Chapter Four: A Pint of the Finest.
Chapter Five: In a Darkling Aetherstorm.
Chapter Six: Death and Time.
Chapter Seven: Discoveries.
Chapter Eight: The Scrying.
Chapter Nine: A Cunning Kiss.
Chapter Ten: What the Dark Brings.
Chapter Eleven: The Face and the Mind.
Chapter Twelve: The Shadows of the Blind.
Chapter Thirteen: The Workings of Men.
Chapter Fourteen: Lost and Dreaming.
Chapter Fifteen: A First Frost.
A historical note.

Lovecraft as archaeologist

28 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by in New books, Scholarly works

≈ Leave a comment

JAS Arqueologia has published a special academic monograph by Riccardo Frigoli, in Spanish, called: “Las excavaciones de R’Lyeh: La arqueología como metodo, la prehistoria como idea y la literatura fantastica de H.P. Lovecraft”. I very roughly translate this as… “The Excavations at R’Lyeh: the methods of archaeology and the prehistory of this [profession, as found] in the fantastical works of H.P. Lovecraft.” The Introduction, in Spanish, is online as a free PDF, if anyone wants to create an accurate English abstract.

Secret World sucks in a half million for beta

26 Wednesday Oct 2011

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts

≈ Leave a comment

I just can’t see the attraction of multiplayer PC games (and yes, I’ve tried some, from LoTR via Ryzom, to SL), but it’s interesting that Funcom has announced that The Secret World MMO game has sucked in more than half a million registered users. The Secret World is basically Lovecraft meets the Illuminati/Knights Templars in the modern day. And those figures are for a closed beta test, which makes the figures even more impressive. Size isn’t everthing with MMOs though, and as Age of Conan showed. What matters is the quality of the users. Get a half million 13 year-old idiots and the game is ruined. Although the website graphics for Secret World seem to pitch it at the early-teens market, the storyline is from Ragnar Tornquist — creator of the excellent Dreamfall: The Longest Journey — which might give it some adult appeal. The game goes live in April 2012. There’s some nice concept art floating around the web…

del Toro talks Mimic, releases Director’s Cut

25 Tuesday Oct 2011

Posted by in Films & trailers, Lovecraftian arts

≈ Leave a comment

del Toro talks about returning to Mimic (feature-film of Lovecraftian monsters in the New York underground system) after 15 years…

“Almost 15 years on, and del Toro has returned to the film he once regarded as something of a failure [due to interference by the film studio’s suits]. Digging around in Miramax’s film archives, del Toro salvaged the original footage, and returned with a re-edited cut of Mimic that trims out the second unit material he so disliked, and reinstated the atmospheric or character-based moments that irked studio heads back in the 90s. Out on Blu-ray on 31st October, the Mimic Director’s Cut is about as close as we’ll ever get to the film del Toro had rattling around in his head, before all those creative differences began…”

The DVD of the new cut includes lots of commentary, several ‘making-of’ items including “Reclaiming Mimic”, deleted scenes, and the original storyboard animatics.

One of the great Lovecraftian stories set in the NYC underground, “Far Below”, is to be reissued in the forthcoming Joshi-edited anthology Spawn of the Green Abyss (Centipede Press, sometime far into 2012). The story can also be found in the completely-unavailable Century’s Best Horror Fiction, Vol. 1, and also in the 2003 Wildside reprint of the 1974 book Far Below and Other Horrors from the Pulps.

Cthulhurotica reviewed

22 Saturday Oct 2011

Posted by in New books

≈ Leave a comment

This Book and I has a long thoughtful review of the Cthulhurotica anthology. I hadn’t realised that it also has an essay, as well as fiction…

Jennifer Brozek in her essay “The Sexual Attraction of the Lovecraftian Universe” [points] to common elements of Lovecraft’s fiction that welcome an erotic interpretation. […] Lovecraft is known for his lush descriptions of decaying towns, dark forests, and arcane ruins that become veritable Scenery Porn. “‘Food porn’ and ‘woodworking porn,'” Emily points out, “… can get as gratuitous as they want: there is no cultural stigma around watching cooking shows or looking at craft magazines, so we don’t feel we need to apologize.”