Tag Archives: H. P. Lovecraft

Ruminations on Merritt

2 Replies

Today, January 20, is the birthday of Abraham Merritt (1884-1943). At one time, Merritt was arguably the priemere writer of fantastic fiction in the United States, if not the world. For a while there was a fantasy magazine named after him. Sadly, outside of a small number of aficianados of fantasy, he pretty much forgtotten today.

Not entirely, though. Centipede Press as reprinted some of his novels in nice hardcover editions. Paperback copies of his works are available on the secondary market. Continue reading →

A Lovecraft Birthday Post Plus a Couple of Others

3 Replies

Today is August 20, the birthday of H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). It’s also my mother-in-law’s birthday, but that’s just a coincidence, I’m sure. Nothing nefarious about that at all.

I’ve spent a lot of time in a car over the last few years, and I’ve listened to a number of audio books. One of those was the complete works of Lovecraft. It was quite a good listening experience. This particular audio book was produced by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society. The production values are top notch. I’m partly through his collaborations, also produced byt he HPLHS. I took a break to listen to the March Upcountry series by  David Weber and Jonh Ringo (highly recommended.)

There are two other birthdays of note  today, as well. Continue reading →

The Enduring Legacy of H. P. Lovecraft

7 Replies

Today is August 20 as I write this. It’s H. P. Lovecraft’s birthday. It’s also my mother-in-law’s, but I’m sure that’s just coincidence.

Lovecraft (1890-1937) is a legendary figure in the horror and weird fiction fields. I doubt he needs much  introduction here.

It took me a while to warm up to Lovecraft. His brand of fiction didn’t appeal to me when I was a teenager.

Before you pick up stones to stone me, know that he is now one of my favorites. I’ve not read all of his works, but I’ve read quite a few. And the more I read, the more impressed I am with the fictional universe he created. Continue reading →

Lupoff and the Voorish Sign

Leave a reply

Richard A. Lupoff Source: Open Library

I was going to write this post for RIchard A. Lupoff’s (1935-2020) birthay (February 21), which was yesterday, but I didn’t have time to read anything by him. Then I saw the news about Steve Miller and wrote that post. Which I didn’t hit Publish on until earlier today because it was late, and I was tired.

Lupoff isn’t as well-known as he probably shoulde be because he didn’t confine himself to one genre but wrote horror, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery. He also tended to write at shorter lengths rather than novels. He is probably best remembered for the novel Lovecraft’s Book, which mixes fiction with fact and features several real-life pulp writers. He was also known as a writer who could provide a short story for an anthology or magazine on short notice. He should be considered another writer whose work deserves to be remembered.

Lupoff wrote a number of Lovecraftian stories. I’m going to look at one of them today. Continue reading →

Clark Ashton Smith and the Ballantines

8 Replies

Today, as I’m writing this, it’s January 13. Or to put it another way, it’s the birthday of Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961). I’ve been on the road since  I got off work  this morning, and only got home about forty-five minutes ago, which is why I’m posting this so late. Most of you probably won’t see it until tomorrow.

I say all that to say that I’ve not had a chance to read anything by Smith today, so I’m going to do something different. I’m going to take a brief look at the four CAS collections Lin Carter put together for the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. That’s the Ballantine I reference in the title of the post. I’m not going to put “Adult Fantasy” in the title.

As an aside, do you have any idea what comes up if youtype “Ballantine Adult Fantasy” into a search engine? Hint: Don’t try this at work.

Continue reading →

A Brief H. P. Lovecraft Birthday Post

1 Reply

Just a quick post in recognition of H. P. Lovecraft’s birthday. I’ve been swamped with too many projects, writing and otherwise, to have read anything by him this year. I hope to rectify that omission in the next few weeks.

One of the projects I’m working on, which has taken a back seat to more immediate deadlines and concerns, is a Lovecraftian story set in Mississippi in the 1950s. It will be the centerpiece of a collection I have planned.

Once things settle down, I hope to get back to it.

But I couldn’t let today pass without a tip of the hat to the Gentleman from Providence. Now, I’ll go and tip my glass to his memory and literary legacy.

The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Del Rey vs. the SFBC

3 Replies

August 20 (today as I write this) is the birthday of H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). I’ve not had a chance to read anything by him, so I’m going to do something different. There have been two different collections claiming to representative of his best fiction. I’ll survey them here, discussing what stories each contain, where they overlap, and where they differ. Continue reading →

“Pickman’s Exhibition” Now Available

Leave a reply

While things have been rather quiet here on the blog, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on other projects.

I participated in NaNoWriMo this year, focusing on short fiction.  I completed nine short stories, and have made various progress on six more. I’ll talk more about them in tomorrow’s post.

My plan is to publish some of them as stand-alone short stories. I’ve not self-published anything before, so I’m still working my way up the learning curve.

So for practice and to try and figure out what I’m doing, today I published “Pickman’s Exhibition“. It’s a 5900 word story. If you are at all familiar with H. P. Lovecraft, you’ll understand the title.

A Happy Howardian Halloween: A Guest Post by John Bullard

2 Replies

It being that time of year when night starts coming earlier and earlier, ghoulies and ghosties start showing up in the stores, and Texas finally starts to receive cooler temperatures, I thought it would be fun to look at some of Robert E. Howard’s favorite supernatural and horror tales that he was told or learned about. Not horror fiction, but the “real” ghost tales and weird stuff that folks tell around a campfire. The old “a friend of a friend heard this” stuff. Of course, during Howard’s life, Halloween had not yet begun to develop its modern traditions of kids dressing up and going door to door begging for treats, or adults having parties. He never really wrote or told something as a “Halloween” story as it was just a day of the week to him. However, as most Howard fans know, he did write of “things that go bump in the night” in his correspondence with H.P. Lovecraft, trading tales and legends with each other in an unofficial “can-you-top-this” way. Most of us know that Howard’s “Pigeons From Hell” and “Black Canaan” yarns came from spooky stories he had been told as a child from relatives and family friends, but there are several other tales he talks about with Lovecraft that you may not know of, and which fit in perfectly in getting you ready for Halloween. Continue reading →