WAITING FOR YE BUS TO INNSMOUTH

My Facebook buddy, David Anderson, Photoshopped this still of me on ye bench in front of the Hollywood Theatre, where the annual Lovecraft Film Festival is held.  S. T. Joshi stopped by to give me a ride to Portland, and before we left I wanted to film a wee video interview with him.  Some rather "serious" people objected to the way I was dressed in my first video with S. T., so--being a punk wanker--I wanted to look totally ridiculous for the second one, and this was ye result.  Alas, I can no longer attend the HPLFF or MythosCon or World Fantasy Con  because I need to stay home and tend to my invalid mother.  I'm really depressed about missing World Horror Con in Salt Lake City, next year I think, as the other WHC held there was so wonderful and, being a Mormon, the city holds a special place in me wither'd heart.  (And this time the World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City has a LOVECRAFTIAN THEME!!!  Wah!!!!)

But, being house-bound means that I can write lots and lots of books, so that's groovy.  I thought that I was completely finish'd with my portion of stories for the book I am writing with Jeffrey Thomas, Encounters with Enoch Coffin.  For this book (to be publish'd in hardcover next year by Dark Regions Press), I was setting my tales in HPL's mythical towns of Arkham, Kingsport, &c, and Jeff was concentrating on real New England cities.  But his newest tale that he sent me, "Fearless Symmetry," was so magnificent that I needed to write one more story for the book, a wee sequel to Jeff's new tale.  And although we were going to have all the stories set in Lovecraft's New England, I decided to set my final tale in Sesqua Valley.  So that is the story I am working on this week-end. 

ENCOUNTERS WITH ENOCH COFFIN is going to be one hell of a good collection.  Jeff has written some of his finest things for it, and I feel that my long story set in Innsmouth and my novelette set in Kingsport are among the best things I have yet penned.  H. P. Lovecraft served as our magnificent Muse for this book, and it is Lovecraftian to the core!  One reason the book came about was because of S. T. Joshi's rather brutal comments on Jeff's Mythos fiction in S. T.'s The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos.  S. T. can, at times, be rather severe (as I have scolded him), and in this case Jeff was really distraught about S. T.'s comments and vowed never to writer another Lovecraftian tale.  To which I said, "No Way."  Because our main character, Enoch Coffin, is a sinister New England artist, I wanted to co-write the book with a writer who was also gifted as an illustrator, and Jeff immediately came to mind.  I am happy that my little plot has worked so well, with Jeff not only returning to Lovecraftian weird fiction, but returning to it with such brilliant work.

Okay, I need to return to writing my final tale of Enoch Coffin for the book, "Unto the Child of Woman."

Shalom.

at ye bench with mine beloved collaborator, Maryanne K. Snyder--we've just had a story accepted by S. T. for WEIRD FICTION REVIEW!