ecosophia | Back To Work...

...and I'm pleased to announce, first of all, a pair of books now available for preorder, and a pair of graphic novel projects now available as e-comics.

Let's begin with the one that's likely to stir up the most discussion, debate, spluttering indignation, and blind rage. The King in Orange: The Magical and Occult Roots of Political Power is my book-length exploration of the occult dimensions of the Trump era and its aftermath. The Cthulhu mythos reference is of course deliberate; the history of the last five years has been shaped by the rise of squamous, rugose realities that sane, sensible, comfortable people thought were buried forever. Those of my readers who've followed my blogging through the last five years or so know a good many of the ideas I discuss in this book, but not all. It will be released in print and ebook formats in May. Interested? You can read about it here -- the distributor has a good publicity site, unlike some -- and preorder a print copy here.

Also in a tentacular vein, but considerably more lighthearted, is a project I've been working on for some time: The Weird of Hali Companion, an encyclopedia of the people, places, and (ahem) things that feature in my epic fantasy with tentacles, The Weird of Hali, and its four companion novels. Puzzled by sidelong references to the Kitab al-Azif? Not sure why a book by Zosimus of Panopolis was in Charles Dexter Ward's library? Wondering where you met Tom Gilman before that scene in The Weird of Hali: Arkham? Here's your guide. (It's also going to be a fine resource for the Weird of Hali roleplaying game, which is most of the way through the intricacies of production -- I expect to have an announcement to make in the not too distant future.) As a lifelong fantasy geek, I kept copious notes while working on my tentacle novels, and it seemed unfair not to inflict their gibbering horror on fans of the series. Interested? You can preorder copies in print and ebook format here.

In the realm of graphic novels, meanwhile, I know many of my readers have admired (and purchased) copies of the two graphic adaptations of my stories "Winter's Tales" and "The Next Ten Billion Years" by Wormlamp Productions. I'm delighted to report that both of them are now available online from Comixology, the largest online sales venue for e-comics. Those readers who haven't been following my blogs since the dawn of time will want to know that Winter's Tales is a very capable graphic adaptation of a three-part story from the very earliest days of my former blog, The Archdruid Report, tracing a family's journey through three generations in the declining years of industrial civilization, with a slide rule providing the thread that ties the tales together. The graphic adaptation is by Marcu Knoesen and Walt Barna. You can get the digital comic here, and the print version (originally published in the Summer 2018 issue of Into The Ruins) can be bought here.

10 Billion is based on a future-history vision from the later years of The Archdruid Report, adapted by Marcu Knoesen with art by Daryl Knickrehm You know how authors so often grumble about visual adaptations of their work? This is that rare exception, a visual rendering that's better than the original. With an original frame story and vivid imagery, it's astonishingly good. You can get the digital comic here, and the print edition here.

(And if you're interested in reading the original stories on which these were based, together with the rest of my short fiction from The Archdruid Report, it's available in a single volume as An Archdruid's Tales, which you can order in print and ebook formats here.)

There will be more announcements coming in due time. Stay tuned!

Current Mood: refreshed

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From: (Anonymous)

Simon & Schuster? You’ve hit the big time. Congratulations!🍾

—Lady Cutekitten

From: (Anonymous)

LOL. Didn't they publish John bolton's book? And congratulations JMG!

From:

ecosophia

Er, thank you, but that's not exactly company I'd want to be in!

From:

ecosophia

The book's being published by Inner Traditions, but Simon & Schuster handles their distribution, so it's definitely a step toward the big time. Thank you!

From: (Anonymous)

Finally!

You have *no idea* what happened while you were away.

See, there was this huge Trump rally at the Capitol, and then...

😉 🐸

From:

ecosophia

Oddly enough, I did in fact hear about what happened. Things have gotten seriously surreal, with a bare-chested guy in a horned helmet strolling loose in the US Capitol and Wall Street millionaires shrieking in anguish because some people are putting a short squeeze on them. I await the lead story in the next news cycle:

From: (Anonymous)

Interesting analysis from u/johnnydaggers: https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/l97ykd/the_real_reason_wall_street_is_terrified_of_the/

If he's correct, the shrieking is because the hedge funds have been counterfeiting stock.

From:

ecosophia

Yep. I've been lurking on r/wsb for a while now. (Waves to the apes and autists.) We'll see if he's right, but it's a plausible analysis.

From: (Anonymous)

Ape together STRONG

From:

ecosophia

It certainly worked for them!

From: (Anonymous)

Now the illegitimi are trying to carborundize the Redditors by hoaxing a "silver squeeze." I'm not sure silver is something that financial vampires need to be fooling around with…

From: (Anonymous)

Oops. I forgot to add my moniker. That anonymous comment about the rugous and squamous shenanigans at the, ahem, Capitol was me, Tidlösa, Sweden.

From:

readoldthings

Great to see you back, and congratulations! I was looking forward to The King In Orange, but now I'm especially wondering how you're going to deal with Trump's unexpected defeat.

From:

ecosophia

It was a surprise to me, but it doesn't actually change the story that much. Trump is a figurehead rather than the prime mover; an archetype got projected onto him, picked him up, and did things with him, but his departure from the White House hasn't actually changed that much. The archetype is still very much in play, and I note that Pelosi's attempt to remove Trump as a political factor by impeaching him retroactively seems to have tripped over one of its own appendages; meanwhile Biden's people have already scored one own goal by backing away from the $2K checkes they promised so freely in the last stages of the election campaign. Meanwhile the same spirit of rebellion against authority has now seized, of all things, a day-trading community on Reddit and launched an improbable financial jihad against Wall Street. Things are still very much in motion and the story is not yet over!

From: (Anonymous)

Welcome back JMG, it will be good to hear your opinions again this year.

Although I have to say that Trump's defeat at November and his failure at January 6 changes the story very drastically.

And come think of it why is Trump's defeat any suprise, anymore than Hillary's defeat was a suprise? The latter was defeated by an unknown populist black senator, almost got defeated by a populist mummy, and finally defeated by a populist TV star. The former won presidency by losing the popular vote and barely winning Electoral Collage, and now lost presidency by losing popular vote and Electoral College both.

Anyway hope we can talk later.

Berke Kevser

From:

brenainn

This book sounds really interesting. I'm going to put in a pre-order. It is kind of strange but when I was young, I assumed that the everyday world was just a thin coating over a deeper, more mysterious world. Then, I went through an atheistic, materialist phase for a few years and assumed a "what you see is what you get" mentality. Even after my views shifted in a more theistic and supernatural direction, I didn't bother to look beneath the surface of the everyday world. I'm now realizing that my younger self might have been right. I'd have never guessed things like the occult and magic amounted to much but now, I've seen and experienced enough to think otherwise. Is that crazy or bizarre?

From:

ecosophia

Nope, it's plain common sense. The everyday world is indeed a thin coating over a deeper, more mysterious world, and there are ways to reach through the coating -- or fall through it. Welcome to a larger world!

From: (Anonymous)

There's been a LOT happening.

I'm glad you're online again, refreshed, and able to help us all make sense of the patterns.

EllenZ

From:

ecosophia

Thank you! We're in for a very wild ride.

From: (Anonymous)

I mean just on the cover alone, ordered!

From:

ecosophia

Which one?

From:

lunarapprentice

JMG it's good to see you back.

I've heard stories back in the day of people "dropping acid". I've never done such a thing myself, but I tell ya, the last month of news headlines feels like what it must be to drop acid a have bad trip. It wasn't all that long ago when today's headlines wouldn't have made plausible fiction. This enforced isolation is not helping matters.

Am I the only one who feels this way? If not, my next question is: Can this get even worse, and how long might it last? Nothing in my 62 years, or reading of history suggests anything that resembles the cussed bizarreness of events today.

From:

ecosophia

I dropped acid a number of times back in my first pass through college, and it was never anything half so weird as this -- though in those days you could get good books on how to navigate your way through such experiences, and I'd read them.

Can it get worse? Yes, though it could also peak and fade. How long will it last? We don't know. As for history, this kind of craziness happens from time to time; Giambattista Vico called it "the barbarism of reflection," the point at which thinking plunges so far into abstraction that it loses its last fingernail grip on reality, and people get very crazy. You might find this post, this one, and this one for a first approximation.

From: (Anonymous)

"Barbarism of reflection" and "The clenched fist of reason" have been two phrases constantly in my mind these days. Today I suddenly remembered Camille Paglia. I searched for the video where she, a feminist transgender lesbian, castigates the feminist, transgender and homosexual movements as signs of decadence (in the proper sense of the word). She resolutely proclaims that these are harbingers of societal collapse. It somehow felt like history is suddenly going into high gear.

Anon

From: (Anonymous)

Lunar,

It could and may get worse. The only way to stop it I am coming to think, is for people to stop obeying.

onething

From:

sothismedias

Hi JMG,

Welcome back! Glad you are refreshed.

You made hints before you were working on a cookbook because of fans excitement about all the good cooking in the Weird of Hali? Is that something you still have baking?

In anticipation of sauteed tentacles,

Justin

From:

ecosophia

The Weird of Hali Cookbook: Eldritch Recipes from an Arkham Kitchen is mostly done. I added Claire's French toast recipe and a couple of Brecken Kendall's cookie recipes last night; I have some other recipes from the books to add, but it's on its way to completion. All the recipes are real, usable, and tasty, btw.

From: (Anonymous)

John--

Re the WoH series, is there any chance/word of the hardback editions for vols 3-7? I very much enjoyed the quality of the first two and would like to have a complete set.

David BTL