More on H. P. Lovecraft & August William Derleth

I will record a video commentary on August Derleth's "The Shadow in the Attic" after I have a wee nap.   Been very tired of late, and wonder if it is related to my deteriorating health.  It ain't the heat, as was the case last week, for our weather these past few days has been deliciously cool.  The Derleth story is yet another of his "posthumous collaborations" "with" HPL--stories that were completely written by Derleth long after Lovecraft's death.  The earliest of these stories are actually quite good, and my favourite of them--"The Survivor"--is one of the finest Lovecraftian weird tales that I have ever read, following closely the extended outline for the story that was found among Lovecraft's papers.  But the story I am reading now, "The Shadow in the Attic," is boring, lifeless, except for some rather unexpected erotica (the narrator finds himself accompany'd in bed by a unknown woman, and he fondles her naked breast--certainly not something Lovecraft wou'd have ever placed within a work of fiction!  I doubt I will be able to say much about the story in my vlog, but it may pick up as I continue to read it; or I may, after having my wee nap, become alerted to notable aspect that I cannot now appreciate because of the mental dullness that plagues my sleepy brain
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I find myself inexpressibly weary, tired to ye bone, & thus will not be doing another video to-night.  This has come over me suddenly.  I don't mind it, one expects such things when one is antique.  I have finish'd reading Derleth's "The Shadow in the Attic," & it is a very queer tale all told, with an erotic element that is utterly un-Lovecraftian--but I enjoy'd that aspect of it.  Indeed, there are elements in the story that are very close to ye themes & motifs that I love to use (too often, I fear) in my own weird fiction.  Ye tale left me curiously unsatisfy'd--to ye point where I felt an ache to rewrite "The Shadow in the Attic" and give it a Pugmire twist.  Perhaps this can be one of the tales for my forthcoming collection of tales inspir'd by ye weird fiction of August Derleth.  I am being a little active.  Yesterday I completely rewrote ye just-publish'd story, "The Quickening of Ursula Sphinx," as I am nigh unhappy with the version that has been publish'd in STRANGE VERSUS LOVECRAFT and wanted to improve the story and then use it in the book I am writing with David Barker.  This new story, inspir'd by Derleth's tale, will also be for that book.  So, I wish ye all a good evening, & I will return to-morrow, refresh'd & able to speak coherently about the Derleth story and my ideas concerning it, & my plot to rewrite it in mine own fashion.  Shalom.
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