Sad Marsh Ghost

Looking at my shelf, I actually own a lot fewer of them than I thought I did. I started my Mythos odyssey with the recommended Mask of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu solo collections by Derleth, which I found to be comically goofy and crappy. I then checked out his Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos multi-author anthology, which I found to be far superior and featured such excellent stories as Cold Print by Ramsey Campbell, The Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belknap Long and Notebook Found in a Deserted House by Robert Bloch. Much of that collection was pretty unremarkable in hindsight, but it actually was one of the galvanising forces in making me want to become a weird fiction writer, as it seemed like the sort of thing I could conceivably do (and more importantly, enjoy). A big influence in its way, particularly for introducing me to one of my heroes Ramsey Campbell, and the Campbell edited sequel New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos was my first introduction to TED Klein, which was also important.

I have only read the first volume of ST Joshi's Black Wings series, but I did find much to enjoy in it. I remember Wilum's tale was one of the highlights. I do enjoy some Mythos fiction (mostly the more modern and experimental stuff ), but I tend to dip in quite rarely and often prefer the stories simply as solid weird fiction tales with a tangential HPL connection, rather than me having any particular interest in the perceived continuity Lovecraft started.