K.A. Opperman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> I am rather surprised that none of your work will
> appear in Spectral Realms. I myself have 3 poems
> accepted for publication therein, which I am
> hoping will serve as advertisement for my
> forthcoming verse collection, THE CRIMSON TOME,
> which, as noted in another recent post, will be
> available from Hippocampus in the not too distant
> future....

David Barker and I have had a poem accepted for SPECTRAL REALMS #1. I then began writing my new sonnet sequence, SONNETS OF AN ELDRITCH BENT, meaning for them to see first publication in my forthcoming collection from Centipede Press, but S. T. fell in love with the first sonnet and insisted it appear in SPECTRAL REALMS as well. Amusingly, the sonnet is based on a story that S. T. does not care for, H. P. Lovecraft's "The Hound." As for my dreamland novel, I got bored with it after 9,000 words, but I sent it to my collaborator, David, and he is going to expand and finish it as a long novelette. I really LOVED setting a new thing in the dreamlands, but I was trying to turn a novelette idea into a novel, and that was a mistake. Writing in the dreamlands actually makes one want to write in a very poetic prose, I found, and one can really explore the wonders of imagery and such, because in the dreamlands anything can exist that is ye stuff o' dreams. There are no limitations. This is another facet of Lovecraft's genius, that in exploring fictional themes he used not only the horror genre but science fiction and pure fantasy as well.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11 May 14 | 09:46AM by wilum pugmire.

Wilum, I'm very glad you will appear in SPECTRAL REALMS after all. It will be an honor to have my work appear beside yours. Sonnet cycle, did you say?--my ears always perk up at those 2 words! I never can resist the allure of a weird sonnet cycle. I have found the allure so strong that I have written one myself--it is the first item in my forthcoming collection. It is titled The Land of Darkest Dreams, and is of a somewhat Lovecraftian flavor. The narrator, an inhabitant of the lost, decadent, autumn-cursed town Yorehaven, embarks on a mad quest into the nighted forest, spurred on by half-imagined whispers, and the sheer primal allure of the night (which I have always felt strongly). Any thought of turning back is foiled--for he soon finds himself lost. Ere long, he finds he has crossed into some shadowy, phantasmal dreamland. He goes on, in pursuit of something called The Crimson Tome (about which he has heard whispers by absinthe-drunk dreamers in the local tavern), all the while being haunted by a strange spectral woman in black--The Nightmare Muse--who leads him deeper and deeper into the realms of night and dream.... The cycle numbers 20 sonnets, written in a 15-line sonnet form of my own invention, which is more challenging (and therefore, in my opinion, more fun) to write than other traditional forms.

I am just beginning volume three of ye Variorum Lovecraft, whut begins with AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. I have read this work so many times, but each time I return to it I become instantly & absolutely captivated. 'm doing a very careful, slow reading of ye text, and reading aloud, so as to catch any misprints (we want these Variorum editions to be as free of typos as possible); have already found two misprints in MOUNTAINS, word repetition.

Of course, ye Hippocampus edition I am REALLY hot to handle will be David Schultz's THE ANNOTATED FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH, and this is going to be a huge volume, complete with 40 illustrations by Jason C. Eckhardt. This is going to be an amazing work, on which David has been working for more than three decades. Ye Fungi, of course, inspired me to write SOME UNKNOWN GULF OF NIGHT, and I am delighted to say that the entire sonnet sequence will be included, as a kind of appendix, in my new book from Hippocampus, MONSTROUS AFTERMATH (the title is taken from FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH), following directly after the new revised/expanded version of "Some Unknown Gulf of Night" that will be in that book. (It is to be a good year for ye FUNGI, as some of the sonnets will also appear in ye forthcoming PS Publishing volume that will publish all of Lovecraft's poems that appear'd in WEIRD TALES.)

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

wilum pugmire Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am just beginning volume three of ye Variorum
> Lovecraft, whut begins with AT THE MOUNTAINS OF
> MADNESS. I have read this work so many times, but
> each time I return to it I become instantly &
> absolutely captivated. 'm doing a very careful,
> slow reading of ye text, and reading aloud, so as
> to catch any misprints (we want these Variorum
> editions to be as free of typos as possible); have
> already found two misprints in MOUNTAINS, word
> repetition.
>

It's good to hear that these books are being double-checked by at least one third party for spelling errors. Am curious, is a similar double-check also being performed to ensure that the published edition matches Joshi's original?

I know that two others are checking the volumes. We are trying for an error-free three-volume set--but it has been my experience that no matter how many people proof a book, some errors still remain undetected. I was happy, however, to see that the trade paperback edition of BLACK WINGS OF CTHULHU III corrected the MANY errors of ye hardcover original.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

wilum pugmire Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I know that two others are checking the volumes.
> We are trying for an error-free three-volume
> set--but it has been my experience that no matter
> how many people proof a book, some errors still
> remain undetected. I was happy, however, to see
> that the trade paperback edition of BLACK WINGS OF
> CTHULHU III corrected the MANY errors of ye
> hardcover original.

Agree, it is virtually impossible to ensure a completely error-free text. But it is good to know that there are at least 3 people proofing this. Thanks much for the information. Sorry for my late response.

Those wishing to see how difficult it is to rid a text of errors might be interested in checking out the textual history of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. A good place to start is at the Too Many Books and Never Enough Blog

Just got some new books from Hippocampus Press, ye moft delightful of which is Lovecraft's LETTERS TO ROBERT BLOCH AND OTHERS. I was also sent ye ARC for THE ANNOTATED FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH, whut will be publish'd as limited edition hardcover, probably early next year. Great Yuggoth, it's a wonderful looking book! Ye Contents includes ye entire poem, with a new illustration by Jason C. Eckhardt for each sonnet; photos of Lovecraft's entire handwritten ms (& oy is it a mess!); "The Book", Lovecraft's attempt to write ye Fungi in prose form; and pages and pages of Commentary, which touch on all aspects of Lovecraft's writing the poem and what was going on in his life as he penned it. This hardcover edition will hopefully be publish'd early next year, then to be follow'd in 2017 by a hardcover edition of THE ANNOTATED COMMONPLACE BOOK, again with David E. Schultz as editor/annotator.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

Really looking forward to the ANNOTATED FUNGI, and you make me even more eager to read it, Wilum.

I had heard of the upcoming publication of Fungi, and was extremely excited... but hearing that the Schultz's edition of the Commonplace Book (updated), something I've been trying to get my hands on for well over a decade, is also coming out soon (at least so it seems)... well, "excited" scarcely does it justice. This is wonderful news indeed. Sounds as if the next year or two are going to be exceptionally good for Lovecraftian publications....

If you haven't yet, please check out my poetry collection, The Crimson Tome, available now from Hippocampus Press.

"I believe I can state unequivocally, and on whatever authority may cling to the fact of being Smith’s last living close personal friend, that the torch has been passed to a new generation. No mere clone, Mr. Opperman brings a freshness to this esoteric genre that burns with a freshened fire."

--Dr. W. C. Farmer (Rest in peace, sir), from the Preface

"A native Californian, he claims prominence as one of the few authors who have deliberately followed in the poetic footsteps of such Californians as Ambrose Bierce, George Sterling, and Clark Ashton Smith. As a Golden State Phantastik, K. A. Opperman in this volume becomes another original figure in the line or lineage of those unique California Romantics."

--Donald Sidney-Fryer, from the Introduction

[www.hippocampuspress.com]

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