Issue 16 of The Lovecraft eZine is now online HERE

With an introduction by A.J. French, this issue contains fiction as follows:
In the Tank
by Scott Nicolay

The Thing In the Depths
by Pete Rawlik

Fish Eye
by David A. Riley

Fade to Black
by Robert Borski

The Visitor From Outside
by A.J. French

Cover art is by Steve Santiago

Issue 14 of the Lovecraft Ezine is now online. This is a special issue with the emphasis on women’s Lovecraftian fiction and artwork, and female characters in Lovecraft-inspired tales. Contents are:

A Beer and Tentacles
by Holliann Kim

Now She Preys Through Endless Days
by Jenna M. Pitman

Fiesta of Our Lady
by Ann K. Schwader

God Serum
by Wendy N. Wagner

Drive, She Said
by Tracie McBride

Art Section features artwork by Galen Dara

To download, a copy visit the website HERE

There are two interesting publications available for H.P. Lovecraft aficionados this month.

Cyaegha #6 (the Dutch / Flemish Special) is now available, featuring the work of Cornelis Alderlieste, Toren Atkinson, Eddy C. Bertin, Jaap Boekestein, Cardinal Cox, Marcel Orie and Tais Teng. The editor, Graeme Phillips, is seeking submissions to a non-themed issue. Submissions of art, poetry, fiction or non-fiction should be Lovecraft / Cthulhu Mythos-related. Please contact the editor at the email address given on the website HERE if you are interested in contributing, or would like to purchase a copy of the magazine.

The Lovecraft eZine #13 is also now available, containing five stories and one essay.  Ecstasy of the Gold is a brand new story by Stephen Mark Rainey.  Scale Hall is by Simon Kurt Unsworth, and The Dog Who Wished He’d Never Heard of Lovecraft by Anna Tambour. Rounding off the stories this month is The Ouroboros Apocrypha, a Thomas Ligotti-inspired tale by Jayaprakash Satyamurthy, and Over the Hills by Victor Takac.  And if you’re a Ligotti fan, you’ll enjoy reading Brandon H. Bell’s essay, a reverent take on The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. Details HERE

StarShipSofa #235 is available for download, with fiction including Contact Authority by William Mitchell and The Paradise Aperture by David Carani, Science News from J.J. Campanella and a feature on the Writers of The Future XXVIII contest. Details HERE

Meanwhile, the most recent issue of its ‘sister’ podcast, Tales To Terrify, contains the following:

The Whisperer in Darkness (film) by Larry Santoro
Short Fiction: Memory by H.P. Lovecraft
Fact: Horror Anarchy and Doom by Andy Remic
Poetry: Thumb by Martin Mundt
Main Fiction: The 11th Day by Christopher Fowler

Details HERE

Wormwood Issue 18 (Spring 2012) – Tartarus’ magazine of writings about fantasy, supernatural and decadent literature edited by Mark Valentine – will be published on 30 April 2012. It contains articles on H.P. Lovecraft, William Sharp, Frances Oliver, Robert Aickman, Randolph Stow and F. Marion Crawford, with contributions from Joel Lane, Mark Valentine, Mike Barrett, Reggie Oliver and others.

Full details, including pre-order information, are available HERE

15 March 2012 marks the 75th anniversary of the death of H.P. Lovecraft. BFS President Ramsey Campbell has written an article for the BBC website describing Lovecraft’s legacy – the writers whose work he has influenced and why he has such a large fanbase nowadays.

You can read the BBC article HERE

Corvus Books have published an anthology, Zombies, originally published in the US as Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard.

“Horrifying ghouls, decaying corpses, body snatchers, grave robbers and flesh-eating monsters. In this gruesome anthology of the living dead, all these and more will try to catch your eye and devour your brain.

From the macabre pens of the world’s most spine-tingling horror and fantasy writers, the grisliest, goriest, ghastliest stories from the last two centuries have been plucked from the shadows by legendary editor Otto Penzler, to form the most monstrous volume in zombie history.”

Authors include: H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Clive Barker, Richard Christian Matheson, Edgar Allan Poe, Joe R. Lansdale, Lisa Tuttle, Graham Masterton, Robert Bloch, Charles Birkin, Mort Castle, Kevin J. Anderson, W.B. Seabrook, Steve Rasnic Tem, F. Marion Crawford, Michael Marshall Smith, Karen Haber, David A. Riley, Guy De Maupassant, Richard Laymon, Thomas Burke, Anthony Boucher, John Knox, Theodore Sturgeon and Seabury Quinn, among others.

Details and ordering information HERE

THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS

Starring Matt Foyer and Barry Lynch, Directed by Sean Branney

Running time 104 minutes. The HP Lovecraft Historical Society. www.cthulhulives.org

DVD $24.50

Reviewed by Mike Chinn

It’s been a long time coming, but the anticipated HPLHS follow-up to their wonderful silent movie version of The Call of Cthulhu is finally here. The producers continue with the same conceit as the previous DVD: since Whisperer was published in 1931, it follows that a movie adaptation would be a ‘talkie’. Contemporaneous with Universal’s Frankenstein and Dracula.

Albert Wilmarth (Foyer) of Miskatonic University has been aware for years of New England stories concerning strange flying creatures, but dismisses them as nothing more than folklore – similar to myths found all over the world, with the same motifs and symbolism. A long correspondence with Henry Akeley (Lynch) ofTownshend,Vermont, warning him about the creatures and their motives, does nothing to persuade him otherwise. On the night of a university debate with none other than Charles Fort – which Wilmarth loses – Akeley’s nephew arrives with photographs – one of which apparently shows a dead thing when viewed through a special lens – and a wax recording of both a human voice and non-human sounds. Wilmarth is intrigued but still sceptical. Only when Akeley writes one last time – the tone of his letter so different to before – asking Wilmarth to visit, bringing the Kodak prints and wax cylinder, is he persuaded to travel toVermont.

This is a thoughtful opening-out of the original short story, even if the climax – the third act which Lovecraft didn’t supply – may not appeal to purists. Personally I loved it, though I admit it’s more suited to a wider Pulp tradition that Lovecraft himself. The creatures themselves – the Mi-Go – are tentacle-headed lobsters with a ‘futuristic’ alien technology which looks appropriately quaint and dated. Inevitably digitally created – stop-motion had been planned from the start, but would have taken too long – great pains have been taken to make the final images look more stop-motion that CGI.

Indeed the whole production is a labour of love, filmed on a budget that wouldn’t cover the coffee bill for a Hollywood movie. (A three-quarters full size biplane replica which plays a major part in the film was bought off eBay…). The standards of acting and production values are incredibly high with admirable attention to detail (although one shot of Wilmarth waiting for his train clearly shows a modern diesel locomotive approaching from the background). This is a two-disc set: the extras containing a variety of original trailers, interviews and documentaries for anyone interested in the process of film-making (interesting fact: the teaser trailer was shot months before they had a script – or, obviously, the 1927 hairstyle Foyer wore for filming).

It’s gratifying to watch an adaption of Lovecraft done with love and respect for the original; and it’s a pity it didn’t get a decent theatre release. The producers aren’t saying what they’ll do next (let’s face it, they probably don’t know yet) but Shadow over Innsmouth and The Dunwich Horror were banded about. I would love to see these guys tackle either of those stories. Or both.

‘The Century’s Best Horror Fiction in two hardcover volumes, edited by John Pelan.

Featuring Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Shirley Jackson, Robert Bloch, Charles Beaumont, Jack Ketchum, Gary Brandner, Dennis Etchison, Michael Bishop, Ramsey Campbell, David Schow, Joe R. Lansdale, Elizabeth Massie, Thomas Ligotti, Robert Aickman, Poppy Z. Brite, Lucy Taylor, Stephen Laws, Brian Hodge, Glen Hirshberg, Tim Lebbon, W.W. Jacobs, H.G. Wells, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, August Derleth, Manly Wade Wellman, Theodore Sturgeon, David A. Riley, Joel Lane, Fritz Lieber, Ian Watson and many others!

Cemetery Dance Publications commissioned a spectacular two-volume anthology project under the editorship of noted author and historian of the horror genre, John Pelan.

John selected one story published during each year of the 20th Century (1901-2000) as the most notable story of that year — all 100 stories were then collected in this amazing two volume set to be published as The Century’s Best Horror Fiction.

The ground rules were simple: Only one selection per author. Only one selection per year.

Two huge volumes, one hundred authors, one hundred classic stories, more than 700,000 words of fiction — history in the making!’

Pre-orders now being taken at the Cemetery Dance WEBSITE

Back in the late 1970s Adrian Cole created a fantasy character every bit as enigmatic as Michael Moorcock’s Elric – The Voidal. Wildside Press has recently published Cole’s The Long Reach of Night (volume 2) and The Sword of Shadows (volume 3).Volume 1 of the Voidal stories, Oblivion Hand, was published some years ago.

Wildside Press has also published Cole’s Night of Heroes. Here we have a story “drawn from a vast trove of pulp and super-hero sources, from H. Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft and Sax Rohmer.”

Adrian Cole was one of the earliest members of the British Fantasy Society, and will be fondly remembered by many convention-goers for the “serious lectures” he delivered at early FantasyCons.