Grimoire

[Frater_Tsalal]

I've never been good at self-promotion (despite my admiration of Andy Warhol), but what the hell, I figure if there's one horror-based forum I should mention my book on, it should be this one above all others.

A few months ago my first (and most likely last) collection of weird fiction, Grimoire, was published by Rebel Satori Press. In terms of exposure to fans of horror fiction it's kind of been under the radar, mainly because Rebel Satori is a small indie press better known for publishing gay erotica/poetry or books dealing with occultism, Buddhism or New Age-related concepts in general, and not really known for asexual Lovecraftian weird fiction. The book was kind of designed as a love letter for weird fiction in general: it was mostly inspired by the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and his followers, the music of Current 93 (especially the Imperium album), and the occult theories of Kenneth Grant, though there were other secondary inspirations as well, including Surrealist art/films, 19th-century French Decadent fiction, Grant Morrison comic books: it was kind of a prism of my literary tastes and obsessions at that time of my life.

Anyway, if you're interested in checking it out, here it is:

http://www.rebelsatoripress.com/grim...mes-champagne/

(Yes, James Champagne is my real name and not a pseudonym. I only mention this because a lot of people have asked me in the past if it's a fake name).

A few years prior to its official publication I released a free PDF version of Grimoire on my Mauve Zone Recordings netlabel. For those who might want to get a glimpse of the book's style before forking over cash, I'll post that link as well, though it should be remembered that many of the stories that appear in the PDF version were revised greatly for the final product (also, the published version of Grimoire has a bonus story that does not appear in the freebie version):

http://archive.org/details/MZR020

[nomis]

Why is it your last collection?

[Frater_Tsalal]

Well, mainly because I prefer writing larger, sprawling books with large casts of characters. Although I enjoy reading short stories (especially horror short stories, which I think is the ideal form for that genre), I find their concise nature to be a bit constraining for me at times (also, I find them very stressful to write). And following the completion of my first collection I tried doing a few more short stories in the weird fiction vein, but it just seemed like I was repeating myself and covering the same ground.

[Derek]

I bought this book on a complete whim quite a while back, but I've only just recently got round to reading it.

The prose style is, alas, a tad unpolished in places and the pervasive references to the occult works of Mr Kenneth Grant are beyond me, but nonetheless, this is one of the most bizarre, grotesque and disturbing books I have read in quite some time - completely unclassifiable.

This may well recommend it to those connoisseurs of the strange and sui generis on this board.

[Freyasfire]

I've recently read this book as well, and was quite impressed with it. It is indeed, different. I have never read anything quite like it before. If anybody is curious, I attempted to right a somewhat detailed review of the book over on goodreads:

Sirensongs (Toronto, ON, Canada)'s review of Grimoire: A Compendium of Neo-Goth Narratives

A brief note: while at the beginning of the review I state that I couldn't remember where I had heard of the book, I actually realized, upon correspondence with the author, that it must have been here. Silly me!

[Frater_Tsalal]

Derek John, thanks for reading the book and for posting your thoughts on it. In regards to the prose being unpolished in places, that can probably be chalked up to a number of factors: the majority of the book was written during a period of my life where my health was quite poor (both physically and mentally: at the time, I was convinced I was dying of stomach cancer, but that turned out not to be the case), so the fact that it's even semi-lucid is perhaps something of a miracle! It was also my first attempt at writing weird fiction-styled short stories, and like most beginning writers, maybe I tried to cram too much in (operating as I was under the assumption it would be my final work). To compound matters, I was trying to write certain parts of it in an archaic style that was somewhat inspired by the Decadent French writers I was reading at the time... but at the same time was trying to write a Lovecraft pastiche... and a treatise on the Typhonian concepts of Kenneth Grant. So it's kind of all over the place, I guess. The main audio inspiration for it was Current 93's album Imperium, which sonically is also all over the place (interestingly enough, I've read that David Tibet thought he was dying when he recorded that album, and that it would be his final work... which, of course, it wasn't).

Having said that, I think I may of been a tad presumptuous and hasty when I claimed, nearly a year ago, that I was done with the genre.

(Just in case anyone thinks I'm ignoring Freyasfire's comment, I've already spoken with her about her thoughts on the book over at goodreads).

[Derek]

Quote Originally Posted by Frater_Tsalal;

Having said that, I think I may of been a tad presumptuous and hasty when I claimed, nearly a year ago, that I was done with the genre.

I'm glad to hear that.

DJ