Great News!

The Beyond Lovecraft Indiegogo campaign has reached its funding goals!

It was touch and go for a while there, but we did it. Thanks to everyone who invested, shared, linked, and liked the campaign's efforts.

In other news, it turns out that I'm no longer associated with the website Ginger Nuts of Horror.

If the construction of that sentence seems awkward, it's because I learned about my ouster from the site in an awkward fashion. Without communicating with me in any way, the site's owner, Jim Mcleod, unfriended me on Facebook, removed me from the Ginger Nuts Reviewer's Group, and deleted my account on the Ginger Nuts forums. I haven't exchanged a cross word with him or anyone on the Ginger Nuts team and have worked hard to promote the site in my free time, in addition to spending many, many unpaid hours reading and reviewing books for Ginger Nuts of Horror. Hence, this quiet "unpersoning" is baffling.

My courteous request for an explanation has gone unanswered.

At the time of this writing, my name and biography are still on the team page.

Here are some sample objections to this news, to get them out of the way:

• "Jim kicked you out because you're a ___________." Fair enough, though it would have been brave and professional for him to have told me so.
• "Jim kicked you out because you did ___________." Fair enough, though it would have been brave and professional for him to have told me so.
• "Jim kicked you out because you didn't ___________." Fair enough, though it would have been brave and professional for him to have told me so.
• "Jim's a man of great integrity!" Good for you; you've had a different experience from me. It's these experiences that make us individuals.
• "It's Jim's site; he can do whatever he wants with it." Absolutely. 

Barring any significant updates on this front, it's the last I'll discuss it here.

Beyond Lovecraft: Less Than One Day Left!

The picture says it all, folks:

This is it: the last push. It's not too late to invest in the Beyond Lovecraft Indiegogo campaign and become part of something extraordinary, something original, something made just for you that will have your name on it.

I've talked before about my experience with author Jasper Bark and artist Rob Moran: see for yourself why I'm such a fan of both of these skilled men. Beyond Lovecraft, a love letter to the Cthulhu Mythos, promises to be a true work of art, a book you'll look through again and again.

Art, true art, doesn't come cheap.  Remember when the special effects company behind the film Life of Pi went bankrupt despite winning an Academy Award? Our convenience-based culture is moving away from appreciating the skill and work and agony behind every piece of treasured artwork, whether it's a book, a painting, a vase, or even a graphic novel, and when we lose that, we lose artists. Artistic success is becoming a crapshoot, a function of blind luck leading to viral popularity. We can and should push back against that, and one way is by supporting independent content creators and their projects. Here is a great place to start.

Give yourself or a friend an early Christmas (or Hanukkah) present and invest in Beyond Lovecraft.

Beyond Lovecraft: Where My Money Meets My Mouth

There are 17 days left to contribute to the Beyond Lovecraft Indiegogo campaign.

I've never met Beyond Lovecraft's writer Jasper Bark except in cyberspace. He contacted me after I wrote a glowing (and deserved) review of his short story collection Stuck on You and Other Prime Cuts to thank me. (As an important aside, Beyond Lovecraft's artist Rob Moran did the extraordinary chapter illustrations for Stuck on You.) 

Later, I reviewed Jasper's graphic novel Bloodfellas, which was an awesome piece of work. You'll note that Rob Moran also did the covers for Bloodfellas. 

Months later, Jasper asked me to help with the marketing and sales efforts on Beyond Lovecraft, and I was of course enthusiastic about the project: a great writer and a great artist working together on my favorite horror subgenre is definitely a match made in R'lyeh (so to speak). As a terrible cynic and rugged individualist I'm nobody's fanboy, but I knew I had to get in on the ground floor of a project like this. 

In addition to volunteering my time, I contributed to the campaign: I went for the Pickman's Model perk, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how Rob transforms me into a Lovecraftian nightmare.

Finally, I have also donated a never-before-published short story to the project titled Beneath the Ziggurat, where Lovecraftian horrors, Spanish conquistadors, and Aztec natives collide. A short excerpt is included at the bottom of this post.

At the time of this writing there are 17 days left to donate to Beyond Lovecraft. If there was ever a time to contribute, it's now. What are you waiting for? The perks alone are worth the investment. Be part of something great, something made especially for you. 

Even if you're still on the fence, please share the link to the campaign: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/beyond-lovecraft#/ to get the word out. Thanks!

Beneath the Ziggurat

(an excerpt)

My hands shake, but that is due to age.  As my life creeps toward its end, the fear that has gripped me for decades has loosed its fingers.  See you the splashes of ink, the words that meander upon the page?  As I said, it is age.  I will die soon.  I should have no more to fear.

Matlaltemoc was the name given me on the fourth day after I emerged from my mother’s womb, shrieking as all newborns do in confusion, terror, and loss.  The date was 6 Acatl 1 Ehecatl 11 Malinalli, or, as Friar Rodrigo would have it, April 15, in the Year of Our Lord 1511.  The latter is the “correct” date, just as my name was “corrected” from Matlaltemoc to Mateo Alvarez, also thanks to Fr. Rodrigo.  I bear him no ill will.  What good would it do?  He is long dead, or worse.

For the most part the Spaniards have been good to us, we free people of Tlaxcala.  So they should: with our help, Hernán Cortés annihilated our hated enemies the Aztecs.  My father, Jaguar Warrior Itztli, died in the last siege of Tenochtitlan alongside hundreds of Tlaxcalans and at least a dozen Spaniards.  I remember little of him. 

Not long after the fall of the Aztec empire, the Franciscan friars came to save our souls.  Mictlantecuhtli , Xochiquetzal, Centeotl and all the rest of our gods were replaced with the gentle Jesus Christ, who died on the Cross for our sins.  Fr. Rodrigo stayed in my village of Panotla to build a church and teach us Spanish.  At his end, he thought that Jesus, son of a greater God, would be stronger than what we found beneath the ziggurat.  

The palsy that causes my hands to tremble has increased.  Perhaps it is fear.  Shall I tell my tale, then?  No more dissembling?

Beyond Lovecraft: Pickman's Model

Several years ago I had the distinct honor of working with Peter Fuller, arguably one of the most talented reproduction armorers alive today. Peter's a true artisan in addition to being a good man, and I'm privileged to call him a friend.

One thing he said to me is that in today's culture it's rare to own something of worth, something you use and look at and treasure that another person made just for you. Furniture, silverware, and even artwork are typically mass-produced and sold as part of a set or created to fill a stylistic niche.  We've lost our connection to the artist, to the craft and effort and sweat it takes to make something valued.

With that in mind, take a look at this short video from my friend Jasper Bark:

As perks go, this can't be beat.  At the brand-new Pickman's Model level you get a physical copy of Beyond Lovecraft, something you can hold in your shaking, horror-numbed hands as you read; an electronic copy of the same to take with you when your hard copy becomes too soaked with fear-sweat to carry; a 100 page behind-the-scenes e-book so you can truly learn what Man Was Not Meant to Know; your name inscribed on the honor roll of contributors for bragging rights; shout-outs on social media so everyone in the world knows just what kind of disturbing stuff you're into; and that most priceless thing of all: a piece of art by a true artist created just for you.

There are only ten Pickman's Model slots available, so don't wait until the last minute to see if there are any left: get yours right now.

Even if you can't afford your slot at the moment, please do what you can to support this extraordinary project by sharing the Beyond Lovecraft Indiegogo campaign link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/beyond-lovecraft/x/12314422#/

Beyond Lovecraft Update

I've described why I'm supporting Jasper Bark and Rob Moran's Beyond Lovecraft Indiegogo campaign here, so if this is the first you've heard of it, please click the link to learn why you should get excited about the project, too.

Or, better yet, see what Jasper himself has to say.



This is where we are with funding so far:

As you can see, we're still building momentum.  To bring it home, though, we need more: more exposure, more backers, more funding.  That's where you come in.

For just $25.00 you would not only get an electronic copy of the graphic novel, but also a 100 page behind the scenes Beyond Lovecraft e-book and have your name on the honor roll of contributors to an extraordinary project.  That's a damn good deal.

For 25 bucks you can be this guy, figuratively speaking

The perks get better from there.  Check them out.

Even if you can't provide funding now, please share the campaign link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/beyond-lovecraft/x/12314422#/

Thank you, and I hope to see you browsing the shelves of the Library of Yith soon!

Friday Links: Four Poes, Evil Dolls, and Nethescurial

As we count down the days to Halloween, let's look back at what happened in the world of the strange, the unusual, the horrific.

• In Leeds, Alabama, a man was attacked by his girlfriend's evil doll collection: "Ms Nicole-Fine has been collecting dolls since she was eight, and got her first haunted doll at aged 12. She believes the doll, Violet, was haunted by the spirit of a little girl called Angie who died in the early 1500s. 'When I first got her, I had a vision in my sleep about how she passed away,' she said."
• An egg hatched from Shellhawk's Nest and out came a deeply disturbing Halloween photo from 1938.
• At the invaluably incisive R'lyeh Tribune, Sean Eaton delved into the notion of Thomas Ligotti's Nethescurial as an egregore: "Have you ever had a dream or nightmare that begins with you as a spectator of some weird or frightening event?  Perhaps you are observing some violent or horrific event on a television screen or at a movie theatre—examples of how media technology structures even our contemporary dream life!—and suddenly you are actually in the dream, on stage, fleeing from whatever is lurking there."
• Breakfast in the Ruins brought us four Poes.  
  
• Nev Murray reviewed Greg Gifune's Devil's Breath at his Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "Greg Gifune is a man that has a lot of books out there. Each one is different in so many ways. The one thing that is consistent throughout is the fact that his style of writing is superb. Each and every one of these books is overflowing with a masterfully dark atmosphere that completely immerses you in the particular story you are reading. If you were handed a section of pages to read, not knowing who wrote them, you would immediately know his style if you have read him before."
• John Kenneth Muir analyzed one of my favorite Schwarzenegger films, The Last Action Hero: "Last Action Hero possesses many good ideas, and even a compelling thematic through-line that I hope to enumerate. That through-line ties into the jokes about Shakespeare’s Hamlet and a movie version of the play starring Schwarzenegger (perhaps the best scene in the film…).  It also ties into the characters of Danny Madigan (Austin O’Brien) and Jack Slater.  All three heroes contend with the same “to be or not to be” existential dilemma."
• The inimitable Zombos opened up his Closet to show us the 1964 game Bats in Your Belfry: "Main portion of game consists of 15" tall molded plastic castle w/spring-loaded launchpad that would toss any of the 24 included plastic "Vampire Bats" into the sky. Object of the game was to drop one of the two included heavy metal balls into castle to activate spring-loaded mechanism and catch as many bats as possible w/the two provided plastic skeleton hand scoops."
• Deck the Holidays showed us how to make faux barbed wire.  Very cool for Halloween!
• Steven Wetherell reviewed The Babadook at Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror: "Part of the cleverness of The Babadook is that the viewer spends less time wondering if the phantom is real or imagined, and realises that the differentiation really doesn’t matter— the horror is equal either way, plucking not just at our anxieties about what unknowns may lurk out in the world, but what unknowns may lurk within us." (Interested readers can check out my review of the movie here.)
• Author William Malmborg pointed us to a pretty dumb review of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado.  Kubrick used exterior shots of the hotel in his adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Shining.  I've been to the Stanley Hotel a few times, not to stay, and it's a really nice place.
• Here, I explained why I'm supporting the Beyond Lovecraft Indiegogo campaign and talked about anti-Christianity in our common culture.

Illustration taken from the Arkham Unveiled supplement of Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.

Beyond Lovecraft

Regular readers of my blog know that I'm a big fan of Jasper Bark, a writer of uncommon skill and character.  His short story anthology Stuck on You and Other Prime Cuts and graphic novel Bloodfellas have received rare and enthusiastic five-star reviews from me and other finicky readers.

I'm thrilled to announce that Jasper's developing a brand new graphic novel titled Beyond Lovecraft.  Billed as a "grim and cosmic love letter" to the Cthulhu Mythos, it combines his writing with the extraordinary work of artist Rob Moran, who did the arresting, disturbing covers for the Bloodfellas comics.

While they've secured Markosia Comics as a publisher, Bark and Moran want to take this project to the next level.  To that end, they've started an Indiegogo campaign to raise extra funds.  This is what Jasper himself has to say about Beyond Lovecraft:

This is a great chance to contribute to a project that you'll be proud to have your name on.  The perks are very neat, ranging from Mi-Go level all the way up to Azathoth...and beyond.

One of the great freedoms of independent publishing is that it allows creators to push the boundaries of storytelling and narrative in ways traditional publishers are typically loath to attempt.  Jasper has proven that his work not just flirts with those boundaries, but expands them, taking the reader places he or she has never even dreamed of.  Think of it as the difference between an equilateral triangle and a non-Euclidean figure birthed from an obscenity living in the gulfs between the coldest, furthest stars.  Sort of.

Every little bit helps, and even if you're not in a position to donate now, please share the link to the campaign so Beyond Lovecraft can get the attention it deserves.  The campaign's goals are clear, and you'll know exactly where your hard-earned money is going.

The stars are right.  Great Cthulhu has finally risen from His house in R'lyeh.  What to know what happens next?  Click the link and get on board!