Another Short Story, Etc.

[ecosophia]

My author's copy of the current issue of MYTHIC magazine arrived this afternoon, which was pleasant in more ways than one. Fans of my novel series The Weird of Hali might want to pick up this issue as we wait together for an announcement on the third book of that series, as it contains another Lovecraftian occult-detective story* featuring Jenny Chaudronnier** and Owen Merrill from the series, up against a puzzling and potentially lethal mystery involving a haunted library and a book bound in human skin...

So that was pleasant. The other thing that's been a real pleasure to me is watching MYTHIC ripen from a promising beginning to a solid science fiction and fantasy magazine, one that's getting contributions from a growing list of capable authors. A quick glance through the issue tells me that I'm going to have a couple of evenings' worth of very pleasant reading. If you're into good lively imaginative fiction that's into storytelling rather than striking literary or political poses, it's worth your while. 

*There's going to be a whole series of these. The first, "The Phantom of the Dust," appeared in the Spring 2016 issue of MYTHIC; a third, "The Mummy from R'lyeh," has been submitted, though I haven't heard yet whether it's been accepted or not.

**Yes, that's Jenny Parrish from the second book, The Weird of Hali: Kingsport. For reasons not too hard to guess if you've read that book, she changed her name after she finished her doctorate.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Good news, I'm looking forward to reading more from your WoH universe. I really enjoyed the first book, the contents that is. The actual physical object (the paperback version) was somewhat of a disapointment, with the layout feeling cramped and the design cheap, kind of like a grudging concession for those who can't afford the luxury edition. I suspect you have little influence over these matters, but maybe you can pass on the feedback. Nonetheless, I'll buy the next one in paperback again as I just can't face punishing myself with an eBook in some futile gesture of protest. Any idea when it's coming out?

Best wishes

Mike

[ecosophia]

The publisher is mostly interested in doing the fine editions, and releases the paperback version via a print on demand firm. I have precisely no influence over that -- authors never do. I don't know when Kingsport will be out in paperback; still waiting to hear from the publisher...

[booklover1973]

There are indeed some books bound in human leather. I read this in an English book about bookbinding from Douglas Cockerell. A wholly new meaning of the word "hidebound", indeed!

[ecosophia]

There are indeed. In the late Renaissance, there was rather a fad for binding copies of Vesalius' famous anatomy textbook De Humani Corporis Fabrica in human skin. The book that features in my story is a copy of Morryster's Marvells of Science, which you won't find in any library in the real world but which features in several Lovecraft stories.

[robertmathiesen]

I'm really enjoying your Jenny and Owen stories, and I'm looking forward to more of them! They actually strike me as delightfully "cozy," which is not the usual sort of adjective one expects to apply to Lovecraftian prose at all. (Jeremy Bentham, forsooth, and anthropodermic bibliopegy!)

And of course I'm champing at the bit for the next Weird of Hali. I've been buying the hardcover editions as they appear, and I plan to keep on doing so until the end of the series. (I see that vol. 1 of the hardcover edition is now sold out, and of vol. 2, 245 copies out of the 300 printed have already been sold.)

[ecosophia]

Hah! Thank you for the adjective. One of the things I'm trying to do in The Weird of Hali and the other stories set in that fictive universe is to imagine what ordinary life would be like for the people (and critters) on the other side. To the worshipers of the Great Old Ones, shoggoths and Deep Ones are your neighbors, and if the gods you worship are inscrutable and terrifying, why, so's Jehovah -- and other than that, life is life, and you're looking on proudly as your kids go off to Sunday school to study the Necronomicon...

And I'm glad you caught the Bentham reference. That always struck me as a very Lovecraftian bit of business!

Degeneration

[jpc2]

John,

Back in Innsmouth for the umpteenth time. I picked up 'The King in Yellow' late last year. That was fun!
How about Nordau's 'Degeneration'? Would it be worth a ten for a read?
Hope Mistakonic giving you a reasonable cut. Looking forward to all the remaining books in the line. Too bad it is a mostly fictional world :-).

Coop Janitor
(lost the second oldest to old age yesterday - with out digging 7-8 years old. And a rescue at that.)

Re: Degeneration

[ecosophia]

Sorry to hear of that!

Nordau's book -- well, if you fancy a lengthy and rather shrill denunciation of early 20th century avant-garde culture as morally and biologically degenerate, sure... ;-)

Re: Degeneration

[(Anonymous)]

Well for under $5 including shipping I'll take a look. Abe is having a 50% sale. Would just as soon get ones like this from the Library but mostly they don't have anything I look for. Although I did check out Jung's Synchronisity(SP?) and Symbols.

Innsmouth is doing good on Abe. One signed copy $75. Two paperbacks at over $100. Most are $12 to $20.

Maybe that is what I like about the series. Life is life whether you have tentacles look like a bubble bath or 'reason' yourself in to really stupid situations.

Re: Degeneration

[ecosophia]

Thank you. That's one of the things I've been trying to weave into the novels.