This Year in Lovecraft (and Robert E. Howard)

[Ancient History]

The cottage hearth beams warm and bright,
The candles gaily glow;
The stars emit a kinder light
Above the drifted snow.

Down from the sky a magic steals
To glad the passing year,
And belfries sing with joyous peals,
For Christmastide is here!
- H. P. Lovecraft, "Christmas" ( http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/...etry/p209.aspx )

So, it's coming up to the end of the year, and I'm starting to look back to see what all has happened to me, Lovecraft-wise...and figured y'all might want to reflect as well.

I started the year with the publication of The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard - Index and Addenda (

The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard - Index and Addenda: Bobby Derie, Robert E. Howard, Jeffrey Shanks: 9780692361153: Amazon.com: Books

 

The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard - Index and Addenda: Bobby Derie, Robert E. Howard, Jeffrey Shanks: 9780692361153: Amazon.com: Books

). Going through REH's letters led me into quite a few different little projects, and of course I focused a little bit more on the Howard side of things.

I also had several Lovecraft-related essays published:

"Great Phallic Monuments: Lovecraft and Sexuality" in The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales: The Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror ( https://rowman.com/ISBN/978144225621...asy-and-Horror ) and "The Female Mythos" in Necronomicum: The Magazine of Weird Erotica #3 (

NECRONOMICUM #3 (NECRONOMICUM: The Magazine of Weird Erotica) - Kindle edition by Alice Renard, Roger Leatherwood, Ben Djarum, Clare Castleberry, K. A. Opperman, Mark Mills, Moxie Marcus, Stanley Webb, Kurt Newton, Justine Geoffrey. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

 

NECRONOMICUM #3 (NECRONOMICUM: The Magazine of Weird Erotica) - Kindle edition by Alice Renard, Roger Leatherwood, Ben Djarum, Clare Castleberry, K. A. Opperman, Mark Mills, Moxie Marcus, Stanley Webb, Kurt Newton, Justine Geoffrey. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

) is sort of tangential - it traces the coincidental connections in the lives of H. P. Lovecraft and Henry Miller, including their common influences.

I've had the very good fortune to write some articles for the REH Two-Gun Raconteur and On An Underwood No. 5 blogs, both of which are primarily concerned with Robert E. Howard, but also publish related material:

Dear Bob; Cordially Yours, Clark Ashton Smith traces the Robert E. Howard/Clark Ashton Smith correspondence, using Lovecraft's letters to his mutual friends to help close the gaps. ( http://www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/de...-ashton-smith/ )

An Irreparable Loss: Robert E. Howard and Weird Tales, 1936 traces Howard's relationship with the magazine in his final year. ( http://www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/an...rd-tales-1936/ )

The Mirror of E'ch-Pi-El: Robert E. Howard in the Letters of H. P. Lovecraft was a three-part series surveying how Robert E. Howard was presented in Lovecraft's letters, and especially HPL's influence in spreading the news of his death.
[1] http://onanunderwood5.blogspot.com/2...-e-howard.html
[2] http://onanunderwood5.blogspot.com/2...-e-howard.html
[3] http://onanunderwood5.blogspot.com/2...howard_13.html

Drafts to H. P. Lovecraft is a four-part series looking at the four surviving drafts of Robert E. Howard's letters to Lovecraft, and compares them to the final product. A little wonkish maybe, but something that hadn't been done yet.
[1] http://www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/dr...ecraft-part-1/
[2] http://www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/dr...ecraft-part-2/
[3] http://www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/dr...ecraft-part-3/
[4] http://www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/dr...ecraft-part-4/

The Shadow Out of Spain was a five-part series looking at Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard's views on Hispanic people, as expressed in their fiction and their correspondence with each other. I think the result is a bit revealing of both men, as well as the time at which they lived.
[1] http://www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/th...-spain-part-1/
[2] http://www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/th...-spain-part-2/
[3] http://www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/th...-spain-part-3/
[4] http://www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/th...-spain-part-4/
[5] http://www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/th...-spain-part-5/

Untrodden Fields: Robert E. Howard's Sex Library was a three-part series looking at one of the often *un*looked influences on Robert E. Howard; there are some connections to Lovecraft, but not many, and again it's building off some of my work with Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos.
[1] http://onanunderwood5.blogspot.com/2...wards-sex.html
[2] http://onanunderwood5.blogspot.com/2...ds-sex_29.html
[3] http://onanunderwood5.blogspot.com/2...wards-sex.html

I also managed a couple of reviews for the Innsmouth Free Press, on Rosanne Rabinowitz' 2013 novel Helen's Story, based off of Arthur Machen's "The Great God Pan"; and The Spirit of Revision: Lovecraft's Letters to Zealia Brown Reed Bishop.
http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/bl...ns-story-2013/
http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/bl...d-bishop-2015/

REH in the Comics: Beyond Barbarians is a survey of Robert E. Howard's non-Conan the Barbarian comic book adaptations on Black Gate, part of their "Discovering Robert E. Howard" series. ( https://www.blackgate.com/2015/07/21...nd-barbarians/ )

One of my major and ongoing projects this year has been the blog Facts in the Case of Alan Moore's Providence ( http://factsprovidence.wordpress.com ), in collaboration with Joe Linton and the assistance of contributing reviewer Alexx Kay. We've worked up annotations for *Neonomicon*, Alan Moore's two *Fungi from Yuggoth*, and the first six issues of Providence, as well as various essays, the most important of which are The Horror of Rape: Alan Moore, Lovecraft, and Neonomicon and American Dread: Alan Moore and the Racism of H. P. Lovecraft. This is one project I'll be carrying on into 2016.
https://factsprovidence.wordpress.co...h-p-lovecraft/
https://factsprovidence.wordpress.co...nd-neonomicon/

...I haven't made much progress on my next Lovecraft/Cthulhu Mythos-related book, which is going to be my primary focus in 2016 (y'know, aside from life and work). I've backed a number of Lovecraftian kickstarters, including Lovecraft, P.I., H. P. Lovecraft in Text Mode, Dark Anna and the Pirates of Kadath, Ben Templesmith's Dagon, Fred Lubnow's Journal of Lovecraftian Science, Vol. 1 and Lovecraft the Blasphemously Large First Issue; and bought (but, sadly, not completely read) a bunch of Lovecraft and Mythos-related books and comics, including She Walks in Shadows, Letters to Robert Bloch and Others from Hippocampus Press, Grant Morrison's Nameless, and Richard Corben's Rat God...those are just the first ones to pop off my head, although I think the latest to arrive is Beneath an Oil-Dark Sea: The Best of Caitlin R. Kiernan Vol. 2.

Fiction-wise...I've dabbled in a few things, mostly unpublishable.
The Female Alhazred ( http://www.the-unpublishable.com/201...-alhazred.html )
They Know in Their Hearts ( http://www.the-unpublishable.com/201...ir-hearts.html )
The Howardian Occult: 1932-1981 ( http://www.the-unpublishable.com/201...1932-1981.html )
The New Ubbo-Sathla ( http://www.the-unpublishable.com/201...bo-sathla.html )

...those are probably the best of a sad bunch. I'm still unhappy with "Providence 2100 CE" ( http://www.the-unpublishable.com/201...e-2100-ce.html ), which started as an attempt to work out my feelings on the whole World Fantasy Award kerfluffle, but I'm not happy with the result, so still very much a work in progress.

Anyway, that's me. How's your year in Lovecraft been?

[hopfrog]

I've had two books published this year. The first was a collaborative effort with David Barker, call'd IN THE GULFS OF DREAM AND OTHER LOVECRAFTIAN TALES. It has been available in hardcover so far, but David and I just sign'd ye signature sheets for a special trade pb edition. My other book is MONSTROUS AFTERMATH: STORIES IN THE LOVECRAFTIAN TRADITION, and it includes ye revised/expanded version of my best work, "Some Unknown Gulf of Night," which is a prose commentary on the entire FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH. As a special treat, my publisher included Lovecraft's entire sonnet sequence at ye end of the book.

I had such great fun writing my wee essays for PS Publishing's LOVECRAFT ILLUSTRATED series. Ye next volume, THE CALL OF CTHULHU, shou'd be out this month, containing numerous colour illustrations by Pete Von Sholly, a new Introduction by S. T. Joshi, and several essays, my own being call'd "Heeding 'The Call of Cthulhu'". The final (of nine) two volumes in the series will be out early next year, and I have essays in both of those.

I've been working with S. T. on choosing ye Contents for my forthcoming book from Centipede Press. Most of the stories will be reprints, but I had one brand new story written especially for the book, a thing of 4,700 words call'd "Pickman's Lazarus." However, because ye trade pb edition of A MOUNTAIN WALKED has been selling like crazy, Chris at Dark Regions Press asked S. T. to compile a second volume, probably to be call'd A MOUNTAIN WALKED II--and so S. T. has asked to use "Pickman's Lazarus" as one of the new stories for that anthology, whut will be a mix of original tales and reprints.

I can't begin to recall all the things I've had in anthologies this year, but one of the coolest books I've written for is INNSMOUTH NIGHTMARES, edited by Lois Gresh for PS Publishing. It's a remarkable anthology, extremely good. Another story of my own that came as a surprise is one I wrote for a Ramsey Campbell tribute anthology, a book of stories concerning Gla'aki. I had an interesting experience writing a new story for Paula Guran's THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF CTHULHU, in that it's the first time I've had an editor request numerous editorial alterations to my story. The story as it will appear in Paula's book, next April, is radically different from my original version; so I have decided to include my original unalter'd version in my Centipede Press book, whut will be publish'd some time in late 2017.

I have numerous other projects, inclufing a novel set in Lovecraft's dreamlands, written with David Barker and near completion; and a collection of stories inspir'd by the tales of Clark Ashton Smith, written in collaboration with Henry Vester.

I live to write Lovecraftian weird fiction, and see no end in sight.

[hopfrog]

I've had two books published this year. The first was a collaborative effort with David Barker, call'd IN THE GULFS OF DREAM AND OTHER LOVECRAFTIAN TALES. It has been available in hardcover so far, but David and I just sign'd ye signature sheets for a special trade pb edition. My other book is MONSTROUS AFTERMATH: STORIES IN THE LOVECRAFTIAN TRADITION, and it includes ye revised/expanded version of my best work, "Some Unknown Gulf of Night," which is a prose commentary on the entire FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH. As a special treat, my publisher included Lovecraft's entire sonnet sequence at ye end of the book.

I had such great fun writing my wee essays for PS Publishing's LOVECRAFT ILLUSTRATED series. Ye next volume, THE CALL OF CTHULHU, shou'd be out this month, containing numerous colour illustrations by Pete Von Sholly, a new Introduction by S. T. Joshi, and several essays, my own being call'd "Heeding 'The Call of Cthulhu'". The final (of nine) two volumes in the series will be out early next year, and I have essays in both of those.

I've been working with S. T. on choosing ye Contents for my forthcoming book from Centipede Press. Most of the stories will be reprints, but I had one brand new story written especially for the book, a thing of 4,700 words call'd "Pickman's Lazarus." However, because ye trade pb edition of A MOUNTAIN WALKED has been selling like crazy, Chris at Dark Regions Press asked S. T. to compile a second volume, probably to be call'd A MOUNTAIN WALKED II--and so S. T. has asked to use "Pickman's Lazarus" as one of the new stories for that anthology, whut will be a mix of original tales and reprints.

I can't begin to recall all the things I've had in anthologies this year, but one of the coolest books I've written for is INNSMOUTH NIGHTMARES, edited by Lois Gresh for PS Publishing. It's a remarkable anthology, extremely good. Another story of my own that came as a surprise is one I wrote for a Ramsey Campbell tribute anthology, a book of stories concerning Gla'aki. I had an interesting experience writing a new story for Paula Guran's THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF CTHULHU, in that it's the first time I've had an editor request numerous editorial alterations to my story. The story as it will appear in Paula's book, next April, is radically different from my original version; so I have decided to include my original unalter'd version in my Centipede Press book, whut will be publish'd some time in late 2017.

I have numerous other projects, including a novel set in Lovecraft's dreamlands, written with David Barker and near completion; and a collection of stories inspir'd by the tales of Clark Ashton Smith, written in collaboration with Henry Vester.

I live to write Lovecraftian weird fiction, and see no end in sight.