Weird Tales interviews S.T. Joshi

03 Friday Aug 2012

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The new Weird Tales website has a complete S.T. Joshi interview (from June 2012), free online…

“The more you read Lovecraft’s letters and learn about his life, the more you realise what a pungent sense of humour he had. This doesn’t come out in his fiction precisely because he felt (rightly, I think) that humor doesn’t mix well with the kind of intense, clutching horror he sought to write. But he really had a good sense of humour, ranging from light-hearted buffoonery to biting satire.”

Slime Dynamics

03 Friday Aug 2012

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Oozing into a bookstore near you at the end of September, Slime Dynamics by Ben Woodard…

“…slime is more often than not relegated to a mere residue the trail of a verminous life form, the trace of decomposition, or an entertaining synthetic material […] this text explores naturephilosophie, speculative realism, and contemporary science; hyperbolic representations of slime found in the weird texts of H.P. Lovecraft and Thomas Ligotti; as well as survival horror films, video games, and graphic novels, in order to present the dynamics of slime not only as the trace of life but as the darkly vitalistic substance of life.”

84 pages.

Introduction – Slime Ascent.
1 – The Nightmarish Microbial.
2 – Fungoid Horror and The Creep of Life.
3 – Extra-Galactic Terror.
Conclusion – Slime Metaphysics?

Build an Elder God

02 Thursday Aug 2012

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How to occupy the kidlings in the dog-days of August? Why, “Build an Elder God”, of course! 🙂 Releasing from Signal Fire Studios on 15th August for $20…

“Building An Elder God is a casual card game of Lovecraftian construction for 2-5 players ages 10 and up. The rules are easy to learn and a typical game takes from 15-30 minutes, depending on the number of players. Build a Cthulhu-esque tentacled monstrosity to completion before the other players, using damage cards to blast your opponents’ creatures to slow down their progress so that you can win!”

A 125th memorial library

31 Tuesday Jul 2012

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Here’s a thought for a 125th birthday present for H.P. Lovecraft (20th August 2015). A new public-access library collection, containing copies of all of the print scholarship ever written about him. The purchase of these books and journals to be funded by a major Kickstarter or IndieGoGo campaign. To be open and catalogued by 2017, which is the 100th anniversary of the inception of the Mythos.

Lovecraft in Historical Context 3 – now an ebook for your Kindle

31 Tuesday Jul 2012

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I’m pleased to say that my new book, Lovecraft in Historical Context: a third collection of essays and notes, is now available for the Kindle ebook reader, in the USA and the UK.

This was a 12-hour hand-coding job, with four passes of proof-reading on an actual Kindle, and is not an automatic conversion. There is a linked table-of-contents, and the footnotes are fully interactive “round trip” links.

The ebook is also available for the Kindle in Germany and Italy.

A 120-page print edition is also available, for those who prefer print. This print edition link will also get you to the table-of-contents and a PDF sample.

Conference – Gothic: Culture, Subculture, Counterculture

31 Tuesday Jul 2012

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A forthcoming conference: “Gothic: Culture, Subculture, Counterculture“, 8th-9th March 2013 at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham and Strawberry Hill House, London.

“This conference, held in the Gothic mansion at Strawberry Hill, west London, will interrogate the many and varied cultures of the Gothic that were largely set in train by the owner of this mansion, Horace Walpole, in the mid-eighteenth century.”

Wedgwood Steventon

30 Monday Jul 2012

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I’m pleased to say that one of the many little galleries in my city is having an exhibition of surrealist paintings likely to interest Lovecraft fans. Wedgwood Steventon’s solo show launches at Artwaves gallery in Stoke-on-Trent on Friday 3rd of August 2012 (7pm-9pm). The exhibition will run from 4th-18th Aug, between 11am-4pm daily (closed Sundays).

Wedgwood Steventon is based locally, but until now has mostly shown internationally. “A collection of works on paper and canvas, personal experiences of an existence in 21st Century England (and Beyond) : a Gathering of Nightmares, Truths and Dares.”

New book – Lovecraft in Historical Context: a third collection

30 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by in Historical context, New books, New discoveries, Scholarly works, Summer School

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I’m pleased to say that the print edition of my annual essays collection is now available for purchase!

Lovecraft in Historical Context: a third collection of essays and notes. 25,000 words, and many illustrations. 120 pages, as a 6″ x 9″ paperback. Buy it here.

Contains expanded, polished, and copiously footnoted/referenced versions of my recent draft essays and short notes. Plus new essays that are exclusive to the print edition.

1. Who was “Harley Warren”?
2. Who were the Blatschkas?
3. Lovecraft’s telescope.
4. Lovecraft’s camera.
5. Edison’s virtual ‘visit’ to Providence, 1896, a source for “Nyarlathotep”.
6. Missing : the Sentinel of Lovecraft’s Sentinel Hill.
7. Running down Danforth, at the Paterson Museum.
8. Neutaconkanut : Lovecraft’s last summer walk.
9. What could Lovecraft and his circle have known of Doctor John Dee?
10. Locating “The Mound”.
11. Some covers of The All-Story.
12. Mirrored : reflections on Lovecraft’s reflections.
13. Ten examples of tentacular propaganda, 1881-1910s.
14. A real horror : on the 1918 flu pandemic in Providence.
And more…!

I hope to produced a hand-coded Kindle ebook edition at some point soon.

Enjoy!