Ye Haunter of Providence

Bryan Moore and his bronze bust of HPL

inside ye Providence Art Club with Angel Dean and Jonathan Thomas

My chums and I fly to Boston on Wednesday, and then we shall probably dine, rent a car, and drive to Providence.  I won't be able to sleep much, and so I plan on spending much of Wednesday night roaming the nighted streets of Providence, soaking up the city's atmosphere.  This will be a very work-oriented vacation, because I need to explore Providence and take notes.  Using the notes, my memories and dreams, I will then, upon returning home, begin work on a new book of weird tales all set in Providence.

Thursday morning I lead a poetic picnic in St. John's churchyard.  I will read some of the acrostic sonnets that HPL and his mates wrote there in memory of Poe, and we will dine on doughnuts (Lovecraft's favourite breakfast), crackers and cheese, and coffee ice-cream.  Then we will, as a group, compose our own acrostic sonnet in memory of Poe.  From 4 pm to 5:30 pm is a celebration commemorating the S. T. Joshi Endowed Research Fellowship at the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library at Brown University.  From 5:30 to 6:30 S. T. and the Providence mayor will deliver speeches at the First Baptist Church ever built in America.  Then it is off to the Providence Athenaeum for ye official unveiling of Bryan Moore's bronze bust of Lovecraft.  After that I shall probably stagger on a solitary haunt of College Hill.  Walking is difficult and painful due to health complications, but I need to visit Prospect Terrace and stand before 10 Barnes Street.

Friday, from 10:30 a.m. until 11:45 a.m. I have a panel on "Writing Mythos Fiction Today," where I will discuss this with Joe Pulver, Laird Barron &c.  From 1:00 pm 'till 2:15 I want to attend "HPL: A Life," featuring panelists S. T. Joshi, Ken Faig, Leslie Klinger, and Peter Cannon.  From 2:30 to 3:45 Jason Brock and I will be reading from our work.  Then at 4 pm is "Rhode Island Horror," in which I will be intensely interested as background work for my forthcoming book; and the panel will include Caitlin Kiernan, Bob Eggleton and Jonathan Thomas.  Friday night will be another night of haunting Providence, either alone of with mates.

Saturday morn at nine I am on a panel concerning "The Unnameable Horror," where I will discuss this with Jason Eckhardt, film-maker Stuart Gordon, Allen Koszowski, Sean and Andrew from HPLHS, Bob Knox and others.  Alas, being on this panel means I have to miss Laird Barron's reading.  The next panel I'm on has me a bit nervous, cos I'm not a scholar and will have to fake like I know what I'm talking about.  I'll probably just sit up there and nod in agreement with what the real scholars are saying.  It is "Lovecraft's Literary Influences," with panelists Joe Pulver, S. T. Joshi, Robert Waugh, Darrell Schweitzer and Faye Ringel.  At one on Saturday I want to attend the panel on "The New Weird."From 2:30 to 4 pm I want to listen to ye readings of Caitlin Kiernan and John Langan.   From 4-5:30 pm I am on a panel "Writing Mythos Fiction Today."  Saturday night I want to go haunt Federal Hill, have dinner at Angelo's (an Italian restaurant that opened in 1923 and where Lovecraft, who loved Italian food, might have dined); and if I have some kind of guide with me, I want to crawl to the site where once stood ye church that Lovecraft mention'd in "The Haunter of the Dark."

Sunday morning at nine I have a panel on "Weird and Fantastic Poetry."  From 10:30 to 11:45 I share a reading with Caitlin.  From 1:00 to 2:15 I am on "Self, Gender Identity and Sexuality in Lovecraft" with panelists Caitlin Kiernan, S. J. Chambers, Jesus Navarro, Lois Gresh and S. T. Joshi.  From 2:30-3:45 I want to attend ye panel "The Lengthening Shadow: Lovecraft's Influence Today."  Some folks are going to visit Lovecraft's grave at Swan Point on Sunday, but I am once again in the mood not to visit Lovecraft's resting place--the first time I did so was such a depressing experience, and I have a feeling that Swan Point will by then be completely fed up with having so many people invading their graveyard.  

Monday we drive to Boston and fly back to Seattle.  And I shall sleep ye sleep o' daemons, & dream ye nameless dreams, & then I will awaken and write until my brain dries up.  Selah.