The Weird of Hali: Chorazin

[ecosophia]

I'm delighted to announce that the third volume of The Weird of Hali, my epic fantasy with tentacles, is now available for preorder here. Here's the back cover blurb...

Something Sleeps Within The Hill...

 

A last desperate hope brings Justin Martense to the little town of Dunwich in the Massachusetts hills. Justin’s family lies under an ancient curse brought down on them by an ancestor’s terrible deed. Once in each generation, one of the descendants of Gerrit Martense is summoned in dreams to Elk Hill, near the town of Chorazin in western New York, never to return. Now Justin has received the summons; a cryptic message from Nyarlathotep, the messenger of the Great Old Ones, sends him to Owen Merrill, who might be able to solve the riddle of the Martense curse soon enough to save Justin’s life.

As the two of them travel to Chorazin and begin to trace tangled clues reaching deep into the region’s colonial past, strange forces gather, and so do the enemies of the Great Old Ones. Far below the brooding stone circle that crowns Elk Hill, one of the forgotten powers of the ancient world turns in restless sleep—and before they can unravel the secret of Chorazin, Owen and Justin will have to face archaic sorceries, monstrous beings, and the supreme nightmare chronicled centuries before in Ludvig Prinn’s The Mysteries of the Worm...
 

I'm very pleased with the way this one turned out. On to final revisions on the fourth book -- The Weird of Hali: Dreamlands...

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Do you have any with that glorious hardcover the first two had? I'm a completionist.

[ecosophia]

As far as I know, Miskatonic Books (the publisher of the hardcover edition) is still planning on bringing out the other five volumes in fine and over-the-top editions, but I don't have a timeline on the releases. They're online here; drop 'em a line and let them know you're looking forward to the fine edition!

Dolem Arch

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

Is that the same company that will publish the Dolmen Arch? Will the price point on those books be about the same?

Thank you for all that you are putting out in the universe.
Matt

Re: Dolmen Arch

[ecosophia]

The Dolmen Arch will be more expensive, as it's a two-volume set -- the original course came to nearly 400 pages of material. I'll post more details as soon as I get them.

Re: Dolmen Arch

[(Anonymous)]

Two volumes! I don't know about anyone else, but I'm excited.

Should I read the Druid Grove Handbook and The Gnostic Celtic Church before plunging into the Dolmen Arch?

Matt

Re: Dolmen Arch

[ecosophia]

Those aren't required reading -- they're based on the same magical, spiritual, and philosophical system, but take it in distinctive directions. The Druid Grove Handbook is a guide to group work in the tradition; The Gnostic Celtic Church is intended for those who seek a more specifically religious dimension to their work, with sacramental rituals. If you find either of those prospects appealing, though, by all means give 'em a look.

Re: Dolmen Arch

[amritarosa]

I'm looking forward to that coming out!

Re: Dolmen Arch

[ecosophia]

So am I!

Almost a birthday present

[jpc2]

Supposed to come out 'Mis Chwefror dua deg'. Birthday is 'due deg un'.

Just getting to months...

I should have 'Stars Reach' finished again by the time it arrives.

Re: Almost a birthday present

[ecosophia]

Oddly enough, one of my other readers has a birthday on the release date. Apparently the stars are right or something. ;-) Happy soon-to-be-birthday!

Re: Almost a birthday present

[(Anonymous)]

My birthday is the day before it ships (just ordered ... it's my birthday present, precious...). Of course, if the series had only a thousand fans, you'd still expect about three of them to have birthdays on whatever the release date was. So really you should find it odd that you haven't heard this from a dozen of us.
-Dewey

Re: Almost a birthday present

[ecosophia]

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if these books currently have about a thousand fans, so I don't find it odd at all. If any of my books ever hit the big time, they'll start out as cult classics and claw their way up from there -- I've been clear on that for many years.

[(Anonymous)]

Excellent. I'm looking forward to Book Three.

Are we still on track to get the limited-edition hardcovers of the rest of the books? I have the first two and would like to continue the collection if they are forthcoming.

--Ailin

[ecosophia]

So would I. I've just dropped an email to the hardcover firm that's doing the fine and limited editions; I'll post something here when and as I hear back.

[(Anonymous)]

Brilliant, I await with quivering tentacles! The first two were a delight to read, so I'm very much looking forward to this. If only they took longer to read;)

[ecosophia]

Thank you! I made a deliberate choice to keep the seven WoH novels within the same approximate word count (70,000-75,000 words each) -- a lot of authors have the bad habit of letting their books bloat as a series goes on, resulting in severely overstuffed and underwhelming later volumes. I'm in the final stages of finishing book 7 right now, and it's going to come in noticeably under 75,000 words.

On the other hand, The Shoggoth Concerto -- which is set in the same fictive universe but isn't part of the same story line -- comes to 106,000 words, its sequel The Nyogtha Variations will be around the same length, and an as-yet-untitled novel set in Greenland -- a spinoff of what was going to be the sixth WoH novel until it outgrew that story frame -- will probably be bigger still, something upwards of 150,000 words. So there will be some more sizable morsels to engulf.

[barefootwisdom]

Glad to hear we'll still be getting adventures in Hyperboria! I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed when the projected title of Weird of Hali, volume 6, was changed.

I loved Innsmouth and Kingsport, and I'm eagerly looking forward to all the rest!

[ecosophia]

I actually wrote the sixth book of the series three times, the first two trying to fit the Hyperborean setting into the WoH framework, and it just wouldn't fit. So Hyperborea gets its own tale, in which Owen Merrill and Jenny Chaudronnier (formerly Parrish) are minor characters, and the Terrible Old Man and his crew of undead pirates get the space they deserve.

Dreamy!

[(Anonymous)]

Very cool, looking forward to it. The first Lovecraft stuff I read were his "dream-cycle" books/stories "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" and it's sequels. & they are still very much my favorite's. You are right to point out that his efforts as a fantasist often get overlooked in favor of his eldritch horror.

I think one of the things that connected Lovecraft with the inner worlds was his strong dream life where he picked up so much of his inspiration -and was indeed contacted by the various beings who flow through his writings & that of the mythos.

...Yet now that I've read the first of your cycle (and will get to the others)... I'm curious about what letters regarding any dabbling he did in the occult might exist. I loved that device by the way...

& speaking of dreams, when I started in on your tale I had a dream one night where I visited the website "Whipple.org" --the site does exist on this side of the dreamlands, but is dedicated to the genealogy of people with that name. However I was reminded of ecosophian commentator & denizen Robert Mathiesen's recommendation of Thomas King Whipple's essays in "Study Out the Land" --which I looked into again- with much interest.

All this is to say, this very dreamy territory and I like it! (Dream work is one of the areas of the mysteries that I've been a diligent practitioner of.)

Justin Patrick Moore

Re: Dreamy!

[ecosophia]

Lovecraft knew quite a bit about occultism, mined it relentlessly as raw material for stories, but was far too much the dogmatic rationalist and atheist to take it any more seriously than that. In a very real sense, his Cthulhu mythos stories are a satire on the popular occultism of his time, thus his routine digs at Theosophy. (The whole theme of cultists being multiracial is one of these -- the Theosophical Society made, and still makes, quite a point about being opposed to racial prejudice and open to people of all ethnic backgrounds.) All of which, of course, was simply grist for my mill...

[amritarosa]

I finished the first book a little while ago, and immediately ordered the next. Happy that there will be a third soon!

[ecosophia]

Delighted to hear it. There'll be four more as soon as Founders House can do the necessary layout, get the cover art, etc.

Speaking of layout...

[(Anonymous)]

Miskatonic printed so many typos, especially in the first book (some obvious leftovers from the editing process), that it really made me wonder about the advisability of reciting any incantation from their occult volumes out loud. It is evident that small presses don't do a lot of line editing any more, but when they're charging $50 a volume they darn well should. I hope Founders House is doing a better job. It should not be left entirely to authors because, for one thing, a second set of eyes really is better. (If you could ever use free line editing from a part-time professional editor, I'd happily volunteer.)
-Dewey

[(Anonymous)]

Looking forward to it (Chorazin)! I'm reading Innsmouth and Kingsport in preparation right now.

Side note: saw a plug for your book in an interesting place (about halfway down the page): www.themadoptimist.com/blog/2019/02/09/what-are-we-reading-in-the-bathtub

-Geoffrey

[ecosophia]

Delighted to see it -- and the company's all-organic body care products are the kind of things Cthulhu worshipers would appreciate, too. (I'll have to mix up some of the "Cthulhu Fhtagn" bath blend...)

[(Anonymous)]

Hmmm, wonder if the reviewer has been reading your Natural Magic book too :P

CTHULHU FHTAGN bath blend:
-1 part Rosemary
-1 part Cedarwood
-1 part Patchouli
-1 part Geranium

[ecosophia]

Well, given that the reviewer is the cofounder of a natural body care products shop, I suspect he knows more about essential oils than I do!

Illustrations

[packshaud]

Is there a way to buy posters with the illustrations in the books?

Re: Illustrations

[ecosophia]

I'll contact the publisher and find out.

Ebook

[(Anonymous)]

Will the ebook version be available at the same time as the paperback?

I live overseas and I prefer not to have to ship it internationally if possible. I got the ebooks of the first two books together.

Re: Ebook

[ecosophia]

The e-book will be out within a few days at most of the paperback -- it's being released in both formats, and it's purely a matter of timing which is available first.

thoughts and a sonnet

[(Anonymous)]

I just finished both volumes and they were a delight to read! They inspired me to write an eldritch sonnet. Fair warning, a home-brewed stout *might* have been involved ;)

We who dwell in the house of the Nadir
Presiding over the realm of the roots,
Chant within the gloom, things ancient and queer
Guiding the aim of all Earthly shoots.

Occulted whims bubble from hidden dark,
Muttering eldritch truths to hearing minds
Ensuring that to us, history arcs,
To our will, the fates of Men entwin'd

From forgotten stars to limitless depths,
We stir and slumber, forever in dreams.
Whispering fragments of cosmic precepts:
The house of Men was built with rotten beams.

But ours is not a world of sterile woe,
Through us, the songs of Earth forever grow!