I don’t normally feature calls from anthology editors, but I’ll make an exception for one that’s both historical and British-flavoured. Shadows Over Avalon seeks stories arising from a short passage in H.P. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward…

They were the pointed Saxon minuscules [scribal handwriting] of the eighth or ninth century A.D., and brought with them memories of an uncouth time when under a fresh Christian veneer ancient faiths and ancient rites stirred stealthily, and the pale moon of Britain looked sometimes on strange deeds in the Roman ruins of Caerleon and Hexham, and by the towers along Hadrian’s crumbling wall.

One of Lovecraft’s ancestral roots went back to Hexham and its district, and he had made an intensive study of the area via maps and books.

The remains of the Ancient Roman frontier wall at Hexham.

What’s wanted for the new book? The editors seek… “Cthulhu Mythos stories set in the Arthurian world”. Deadline: 1st October 2020.

Here’s Bartholemew’s 1910 map of the Arthurian Regions, to help you along, though doubtless the Arthurians now have better. Chester as Caerleon is very dodgy, and presumably the likes of Wolverhampton are only there for orientation.

And two evocative pictures from Hexham…

In the Saxon crypt at Hexham Abbey.

Ancient Roman memorial stone to a soldier, later found and set up in Hexham Abbey.

A Providence naturalist’s bookmark, a potentially useful RPG prop or story prompt. From a Providence notebook of 1897. Lovecraft knew Westminster Street well, and the prospect of obtaining “preserved” animals or curious “fresh specimens” there seems to offer much scope for Mythos fiction.

Update:

It’s Barcelona in 1977, and you’re easing through the pungent alleyways of the Ramblas having bagged this new three-volume set of Relatos de los mitos de Cthulhu…

The above offers another peep at what Lovecraft looked like to the Spanish and Latin Americans in the 1970s, this time with rather more appealing covers than my 1972 example. The covers offer a nice visual mix of monsters, astrological constellations (as if seen low on the horizon through foliage), and what one might interpret as the ‘waves of time’ or ‘cosmic waves’ or simply the ocean.

The ‘Lovecraft and others’ bit suggests that the Spanish were getting a large helping of Derleth along with their Lovecraft, at this point in time. Derleth was apparently the editor. The set appears to have gone to at least another two editions, though with new and less appealing covers than these.

Primitive Organism 2 by Erika Kaniwa of Japan, one of a recent digital art series.

Brown to the Ashmolean, in 1936. If up-sized via AI, printed and glued, it could potentially be a nice prompt for a Lovecraftian RPG game.

Jonathan Goodwin’s ‘Don’t Go Into The Cellar!’ presents, for one night only, his theatre performance Lovecraft Lives!. 28th June 2020 at 9pm UK time, on Facebook. When he has 1,000 subscribers the shows will be live on the YouTube channel.