ankh_hpl | Entries tagged with literature

Retro Spec: Tales of Fantasy & Nostalgia (edited by

ravenelectrick ) has emerged from its publishing cocoon ahead of schedule! It is now available for purchase at both Amazon.com and bn.com.

Twenty-six authors -- including Yours Truly-- offer up science fiction, fantasy, and horror examinations of the culture and politics of the 1920s to the 1980s, in both the U.S. and Europe. Both prose and poetry are included. For the curious but cautious buyer, the complete TOC is still available here.

Lovecraftians might be interested to know that my poem in this anthology, "The Darkness Whispers," was inspired by the discovery of Pluto and HPL's "The Whisperer In Darkness," which was published shortly afterward. Think Mars Hill with mi-go . . .

Just finished reading The City of a Thousand Gods (Sam's Dot), Marge Simon & Malcolm Deeley's novel-in-vignettes, over the weekend.   Featuring thirty illustrations by Simon -- in color! -- this elegant and intriguing fantasy demonstrates what the small press does best.   Combining dreamlike prose narratives, poetic interludes, and jewel-like bits of art at the beginning of each new chapter, it offers a reading experience which suggests as much as it tells plainly.

Chronicling the lifespan of a fantastic metropolis in little over one hundred pages sounds unlikely, but The City of a Thousand Gods manages this easily. Simon and Deeley's individual vignettes -- many amounting to prose poems -- and characters interweave as the timeline progresses, which left me with the feeling of having read (or imagined) a far more comprehensive tale.

Fans of Clark Ashton Smith, Dunsany, or well-illustrated fantasy in general should check this one out.

As a poet who has been spending way more time in the garden than at the keyboard recently, I was comforted by this NPR segment about the New York Botanical Garden. They're currently offering a tribute to Emily Dickinson's passion for gardening, complete with over thirty poems displayed near the flowers and plants which may have inspired them.

I had no idea that Dickinson was such an avid gardener! This definitely makes me want to reread some of her work, and perhaps feel a little better about the hours I've been spending on petunias and snapdragons rather than villanelles and sonnets.

ravenelectrick has just posted the table of contents for Raven Electrick Ink's forthcoming anthology Retro Spec: Tales of Fantasy & Nostalgia. It's due to be released in October, but you can find all the details here. If I do say so myself (and I probably shouldn't!) , this is a very impressive lineup of contributors.

Retro Spec is a themed anthology of fiction and poetry, dealing with culture, society, and politics from the 1920s to the 1980s -- from a variety of speculative viewpoints, ranging from SF to dark fantasy.

My own contribution, a 1930s poem entitled "The Darkness Whispers," might be of interest to Lovecraftians -- and/or fans of the recently demoted planet Pluto.

This from a press release from the communication department at the Bodleian Library, Oxford:

Oxford, 16 November 2009 – The highly-anticipated Shakespeare Quartos Archive has been officially launched today with a complete digital collection of rare early editions of Hamlet. For the first time, all 32 existing quarto copies of the play held by participating UK and US institutions are freely available online in one place (www.quartos.org). This initiative is jointly led by the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford and the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC, through a joint transatlantic grant from Jisc in the UK and the National Endowment for the Humanities in the US.

To read the rest of the press release, and a bit of informed commentary from The Hamlet Weblog, check here.

I haven't had a chance to check this out yet, but -- as a person who spent a couple of semesters buried in the deepest recesses of The Riverside Shakespeare -- I find this concept fascinating. What a great use of 21st century technology in the service of the Bard!

Ever wondered where your favorite dead poet is now? Well, there' s a helpful Web site just for you! Seriously. Poets' Graves has been helping people locate dead poets since August 2003.

It apparently started with British poets, but now offers quite an assortment to be searched by surname or location. The site also includes maps and an amazing amount of other information on poetry and poets (lists of Poets Laureate both US & UK, for starters).

There are also a limited number of listings for other graves: writers, musicians, & artists.

(Thanks to

bookslut for pointing out this remarkable combination of the poetic & the morbid.)

I was unaware that such things even existed, but apparently you can still get a genuine antique vampire killing kit. The write-up on this object is as fascinating as the set itself. Bram Stoker fans, check it out!

Wonder how much this life-saving essential will bring at auction on Halloween?

For those who have been reading my posts about

penguinkeggard's excellent Living Poe Girl series at Tor.com, Part 4 (the finale) is up now. Find it here.

"The Young Girl of the Valley" deals with the ultimate Poe Girl, his wife Virginia. There's a great deal of biographical information about this neglected figure, plus more than you really want to know about consumption in 19th century America. And footnotes!

Before you read "The Raven" this Halloween -- and you will be reading it, right? -- treat yourself to this look at Poe's inspiration for the angelic Lenore.

People interested in contemporary young adult dystopian fiction -- whether as readers, teachers, librarians, parents, or some combination of these -- might want to check out StarShipSofa's Aural Delights # 104 podcast with its excellent "fact talk" by

eldritchhobbit. This thirty minute discussion of young adult "dark future" lit offers a thorough examination of several current works. It also makes a few mind-bending observations regarding what this fiction says (or does not say) about the Millennials who read it.

And the, um, more mature people who write it.

The helpful academic Hobbit has also posted a bibliography of primary and secondary sources used to prepare this talk (or a longer version of it) on her LJ. I'm no expert, but it looks very comprehensive.

Well, poo. Despite my best intentions, I missed the Part 2 posting of S.J. Chambers' remarkable Living Poe Girl series over on Tor.com.   Now I find Part 3 is up! What's a Poe girl to do?

Catch up during lunch, that's what.    Yum.

Part 2, "An Alchemical Marriage," applies some basic concepts of alchemy to death and resurrection in "Ligeia."   Part 3, "Metaphysical Motherhood," discusses change and personal identity in "Morella."

In both cases, these articles convey an impressive amount of information (I particularly liked Part 2's alchemical briefing) in a concise, well-organized manner. With endnotes!   Lovers of Poe, or weird/Gothic fiction in general, shouldn't miss them.

In honor of October and the bicentennial of Edgar Allan Poe, S. J. Chambers has posted the first of a really remarkable 4 part series on Tor.com.

Entitled Living Poe Girl, this series examines the role of Poe's women in his writing. Part I, "Objects of Desire," opens the discussion with "Berenice" (1835), "Morella" (1835), "Ligeia" (1838), “Eleonora” (1841) and "The Oval Portrait" (1842). The writing is both concise and detailed, with useful footnotes for those so inclined.

Anyone interested in a thought-provoking, rather feminist look at Poe should check out this series ASAP. I certainly intend to keep up with it!

Sorry to post this so late in the day, but it's never too late to wish Frankenstein's creator a very happy birthday.

I hope I look this good when I'm 212!

The on-line reviews have started for Blood Will Have Its Season, Joseph S. Pulver Sr.'s first collection of short fiction, prose poems, and poetry. All are deeply infused with weird noir, and many evoke the disturbing world of Robert W. Chambers' King In Yellow.

The first I'm aware of is here, from the blog of the intriguingly-named Lady Lovecraft.

Noted Lovecraftian editor and scholar Robert M. Price has also checked in, with an Amazon.com review here.

Blood Will Have Its Season, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.'s first collection of weird noir (short stories, prose poems, and poems), is now listed for ordering on Amazon.com.

As I noted in my 7/28 post, this book has some amazing cover art -- and anyone going to the Amazon site will get a good look at it! More information, including the complete TOC and a link to free excerpts from the collection, is still available here.

In the grand LJ tradition of putting out the good word for new books by friends, I am happy to report that Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.'s first collection, Blood Will Have Its Season, is out now from Hippocampus Press.

Joe is known to many Lovecraftians as the author of Nightmare's Disciple (the only serial killer Lovecraftian novel I know of!), but this new assortment of short stories, prose poems, and poetry takes another path through the mean streets of his imagination, this time incorporating Robert W. Chambers' famed King In Yellow mythos. The result is razor-edged modern noir, with a poetic yet brutal sensibility.

With an introduction by noted independent scholar S.T. Joshi, and illustrations by Thomas S. Brown and Stanley C. Sargent -- including a killer cover I am a bit too tech-challenged to include here -- Blood Will Have Its Season is a unique addition to the darkest segment of weird literature.

For a free mind-bending sample, go here.

It's a bit late in the day, but there's still time to wish the creator of Sherlock Holmes -- and so much more -- a very happy birthday. Get a few details here, or pop in one of those marvelous Jeremy Brett-as-Holmes DVDs tonight. I'm planning to!

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Page Summary

Retro Spec is now available
The City of a Thousand Gods
Emily the gardener
Retro Spec announces its TOC
Read Shakespeare in the original!
a few grave (& poetic) thoughts
just the thing for antique vampires
Living Poe Girl Part 4 is up
YA Dystopias on the Sofa
Living Poe Girl, Parts 2 & 3
Living Poe Girl Part I
Happy birthday, Mary Shelley!
Blood Will Have Its Season reviewed
Blood Will Have Its Season update
Blood Will Have Its Season: noir goes weird
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, Happy Birthday!

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Yaddith Times

writing, reading, & related remarks

Entries tagged with literature

Retro Spec is now available

The City of a Thousand Gods

Emily the gardener

Retro Spec announces its TOC

Read Shakespeare in the original!

a few grave (& poetic) thoughts

just the thing for antique vampires

Living Poe Girl Part 4 is up

YA Dystopias on the Sofa

Living Poe Girl, Parts 2 & 3

Living Poe Girl Part I

Happy birthday, Mary Shelley!

Blood Will Have Its Season reviewed

Blood Will Have Its Season update

Blood Will Have Its Season: noir goes weird

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, Happy Birthday!