Cthulhurotica reviewed

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.”

CeltX, free writing software

Looking for software that can help you wrange your creative vision? How does “free” and “open-source” sound? CeltX is rapidly moving toward a version 3.0. It started off as storyboarding software for animators and movie-makers — but now includes templates for organising and shaping screenplays, comic books, novels, radio plays, and even stage drama. It’s also nice to see documention books appearing for it. Graham Higson of the UK’s Falmouth University M.A. Writing course has just written a long review of the ebook of the new book Celtx: Open Source Screenwriting Beginner’s Guide.

Joshi podcast interview, and The Gothic Imagination

S.T. Joshi’s blog has updated with a long post on his activities, including a link to a 10-minute MP3 interview between a Penguin Classics Editor, Elda Rotor, and Joshi. The second half of the podcast is a del Toro interview.

I found his mention of this forthcoming book especially interesting…

“John C. Tibbetts’s The Gothic Imagination (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), a substantial collection of interviews with past and current figures in the horror field.”

It seems The Gothic Imagination will be shipping in a few weeks.

  [ Hat-tip: Wilum Pugmire ]

It’s Fatale

An interesting-sounding new comic, announced at the NYC ComicCon, called Fatale.

Fatale is Lovecraftian horror noir — or “noirror”. A reporter in 2012 stumbles on a secret that leads him down the darkest path imaginable… to a seductive woman who’s been on the run since 1935, a mobster who may be an immortal demon monster, and the stories of all the doomed men who’ve been caught in their decades-long struggle. Fatale blends noir and horror to tell a riveting epic unlike anything you’ve seen before.

It’s a massive 12-parter that’s set to ship its first issue in January 2012. Which presumably means it’ll inevitably mutate into a chunky graphic novel weighing in at around 280 pages.

Whisperer in Darkness opens in Vermont

The Whisperer in Darkness movie premieres in White River Junction, Vermont at a special flood benefit screening, with a special talk about Lovecraft’s Vermont trip (the flooding there in the 1920s partly inspired the story) and a prop auction. The film’s makers have also donated three miniature sets to the White River Junction museum which is an interesting-sounding…

“eclectic display space for material culture and an experiment in a new taxonomy. Originally thought of as an “alternative” museum, the museum’s present form and activities resemble the 18th and 19th century “cabinet of curiosities” and point to an interest in the historic roots of museums and museology.”