W. H. Pugmire

[G. S. Carnivals]

I have received my annual Christmas gifts from myself. The Fungal Stain and Other Dreams and Sesqua Valley & Other Haunts. Both are very handsome additions to my library. Thank you, Phil.

[G. S. Carnivals]

"We'd all like to be Ligotti, but some of us are doomed to be Derleth, alas."

W. H. Pugmire - Afterword to "The Heritage of Hunger"

[Andrea Bonazzi]

Quote Originally Posted by G. S. Carnivals

[...] and Sesqua Valley & Other Haunts.

I too, received it yesterday by mail from UK!

[hopfrog]

Quote Originally Posted by G. S. Carnivals

"We'd all like to be Ligotti, but some of us are doomed to be Derleth, alas." W. H. Pugmire - Afterword to "The Heritage of Hunger"

Thanx to everyone for all of the amazing support! But, I'm curious -- do people read all of the afterwords in Haunts all at once, before reading the fiction? A couple of people have suggested to me that they did, so I'm curious if this is a common thing. I'm not complaining, merely curious.

[G. S. Carnivals]

Quote Originally Posted by wilum hopfrog pugmire, es

Quote Originally Posted by G. S. Carnivals "We'd all like to be Ligotti, but some of us are doomed to be Derleth, alas." W. H. Pugmire - Afterword to "The Heritage of Hunger" Thanx to everyone for all of the amazing support! But, I'm curious -- do people read all of the afterwords in Haunts all at once, before reading the fiction? A couple of people have suggested to me that they did, so I'm curious if this is a common thing. I'm not complaining, merely curious.

I must confess that I read all of the story afterwords first. I look forward to collections by Harlan Ellison and Howard Waldrop for the story introductions which I invariably devour before reading the fiction.

[hopfrog]

It is apparent in this thread that I am considered a "Cthulhu Mythos" writer. Until recently, I would protest such an appellation, because I have been trying to stress, as author and editor, the difference between "Mythos" and "Lovecraftian" fiction. When I edited the first four issues of Tales of Lovecraftian Horror (note the title) it was my editorial policy that the magazine would publish no Mythos fiction. This policy was a response to one of the tales in my first issue having been rejected by Paul Berglund for Disciples of Cthulhu because Paul considered the tale non-Mythos -- and it was an excellent Lovecraftian story. I am no longer so uptight about being a Mythos writer, and I now acknowledge that I am indeed such a beast. The tales in the newest of my books, Sesqua Valley & Other Haunts, are almost all Mythos, deliberately so. I consider the book a showcase of my early writing and find its contents flawed; and yet it seems to be my most popular book, so perhaps it has merits that I, being so viciously self-critical, can no longer ascertain.

My previous book, The Fungal Stain and Other Dreams, also includes tales that are assuredly Mythos; yet it also contains one or two stories that are meant to be purely "Lovecraftian" and having no Mythos taint. "The Sign That Sets the Darkness Free" is, I feel, a successful attempt at writing a non-Mythos Lovecraftian weird tale. "A Phantom of Beguilement" is another.

I now find my emotional reactionism to being labeled a Mythos author immature. The label is mostly a commercial trademark these days, and in most cases has little meaning. Most of the small press "Cthulhu" books that I have read these past few years have been the worst horror anthologies to waste ink & paper -- too pitiful even to be called "fan fiction". The problem lies not only with the new kids who are writing Mythos fiction but with clueless editors who accept and publish bad fiction. Indeed, I blame editors for the pathetic state of Mythos fiction far more than I do the young writers. Bad writing in a youthful phase can be corrected and improved -- I am proof of this. But one needs (here is another personal prejudice) to be absolutely serious in one's attempts at writing Mythos fiction. Too often the entire sub-genre is treated as a joke. William Browning Spencer, one of our finest writers, recently had what I suppose one must call a Mythos poem published in the Subterrean Press on-line newsletter, and I found it little more than faintly amusing whimsey. Why such a brilliant writer would want to pen such a frivolous thing is beyond conjecture. Or maybe, when it comes to Lovecraftian horror, I am too dead-serious to appreciate light and amusing verse. For the Mythos genre to become more than a joke, it needs editors who can distinguish between good and bad writing, and who are willing to have an anthology that is serious in its literature rather than comical. "Joke" stories rapidly grow old and ill. Serious weird fiction stays vibrant always -- we have only to consider the growing reputation of H. P. Lovecraft to see this, for he was dead serious in his attempts to write noble and serious weird literature. That he often failed -- well, we all fail, no matter how seriously we try.

My experiments with writing Mythos fiction continues, and I am extremely interested in reading serious new Mythos fiction, weird tales that are obviously Mythos fiction and yet absolutely true to their author's vision andf personality. S. T. Joshi's forthcoming book of Lovecraftian fiction, Black Wings, should be a fascinating example of new Lovecraftian/Mythos fiction chosen by a man who loathes the Cthulhu Mythos. Joshi's newest book, The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos is generating a lot of talk online at Lovecraft/Mythos sites. Just its title alone has some fellows foaming at the mouth.

There is much that can still be done within the Mythos genre. There is obviously a readership who is anxious to read new Mythos tales. Hippocampus Press is actively seeking out Cthulhu Mythos writers and editors in an attempt to find Mythos novels and collections and anthologies for future publication. "That is nott deade whut can eternall lie" indeed..........................

[Nemonymous]

Well said, Wilum.
As an aside, in 9 years of publishing 'Nemonymous', no writer, as far as I recall, has submitted to me a Cthulhu Mythos story. And I've had thousands of submissions. It would be nice to get at least one (no guarantees!)!
des

[hopfrog]

I think this is the longest I've been away from here. Things are kinda crazy, but in a good way, I guess. My one hesitation about going online was that it would make it easy for people to contact me and I'd spend all my time answering emails. This has not been the case -- but what I didn't know is that there are so many cool groups and sites to join. To-night I joined a wonderful John Keats site, on which I posted my sonnet to Wilde. I've joined about five Lovecraft groups and six Streisand groups over at Facebook!!!

And now the publishers are coming for me, which is delightful except that I have a hard time saying no. As of to-night I have another new chapbook to prepare. Some gents want to republish my first American collection, the one that Jeffrey Thomas (Punktowner, as he is known here -- who is very in control and doesn't spend too much time online, but is dedicated to working on his books) published in 1997. A good portion of those tales won't be reprinted in any of my other forthcoming books, so I said cool. And I'm gonna write three new Sesqua tales for it, all set in the past, 1917 and ye 1920's. One of yem will be this sequel to "The Hound," the first portion of which I've posted here. I'm keeping these three new tales under three-thousand words, in keeping with the length of the other older tales in the book. After that, and finishing my sequence for Jerad's Poe anthology (which is finally really coming along nicely), I begin to assemble and compose another chapbook for the chapbook line of Bloodletting Press. And then I begin work on a new book for Hippocampus. If I get any more requests from publishers I'm gonna have to say no, which is difficult for me. All of this writing means I'll not be online very much these next few months. I miss TLO already -- but the writing has to come first. I'll try to pop in every other day or so and read some new postings. This place really feeds my imagination, and warms my wither'd heart.
Shalom.

oh, and I actually discovered by accident to-night a flipping Reality Show (!!!) that I like -- RuPaul's "Be the Next Drag Queen Superstar"!!! FABULOUS!!!

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE

[hopfrog]

Been slowly imbibing my copy of Joshi's THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CTHUHLU MYTHOS, and its effect is so odd. When I read Lin Carter's LOVECRAFT:A LOOK BEHIND THE CTHULHU MYTHOS thirty years ago, together with Derleth's TALES OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS, and began to correspond with the living members of the Lovecraft Circle -- it filled me with this burning desire to write Mythos fiction and join the club. I was totally obsessed. Reading S. T.'s book, plus listening to my now-complete collection of all six of ye Audio Realms volumes of Lovecraft's fiction (ye forthcoming Vol. 7 will be a complete and unabridged reading of my favourite Lovecraft tale, THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD!!!) -- all of a sudden I am once again obsess'd with all things Mythos. I think perhaps this is a sign that I have enter'd second-childhood. I burn, I ache, I gibber with ye desire to write, write, write Mythos fiction, book after book after book. (This is the new thing. As a kid I thought of story after story. Now I think of book after book.) I'm working on two new chapbooks of Mythos fiction, one for a fairly new publisher, for which I am rewriting most of the stories in my first American collected (published by Jeffrey Thomas via his Necropolitan Press), TALES OF SESQUA VALLEY, but I am setting the stories in the past, 1917, 1920's, &c. And, cool and gracious friend that he is, Punktowner (who just interview'd me at length for his Punktown blog-spot) has agreed to do the cover illustration!

I'm even enjoying re-reading the early stories of -- gasp! -- Brian Lumley!! I've made-up with Brian and am actually blogging on his fan-site. Isn't life w-e-i-r-d???

[yellowish haze]

Quote Originally Posted by hopfrog

Punktowner (who just interview'd me at length for his Punktown blog-spot)

And here is the link:
Punktalk An Interview with W. H. PUGMIRE

Great interview!