One way in which I wanted to creatively celebrate the marvelous Penguin Classics edition of Clark Ashton Smith was to finally buckle down and write my book of CAS-inspir'd stories. This has been a project that I have ached to work on for a number of years, but I simply didn't have the nerve to begin it, because I fear'd that my stories wou'd seem more Lovecraftian than Smithean. I have now finish'd a very rough first draught of "Some Hidden Rift of Ruin" (title found in "The Treader of the Dust"), the idea of which was planted by entry #5 of THE BLACK BOOK OF CLARK ASHTON SMITH as publish'd by Arkham House: "A man who is merely the emanation of a particular place or arrangement of scenic objects, into which he re-merges when traced by someone who senses a mystery in regard to his personality." An ambiguous entry indeed, which in turn inspir'd an equivocal tale.

One thing that I've decided against is using any of Smith's fantastic realms in my own stories. Rather, I am transforming Sesqua Valley into a kingdom called Khroyd'hon, and thus I can make things up as I desire and not be tied to another's plot lines. Reading the Penguin edition has been wonderful, just holding it and then pausing in my reading to admire the wonderful cover--it's all very inspiring! I have no idea how long it will take me to write a complete collection of CAS-inspired stories, but I am in no hurry. I want to relish this delicious project as much as possible.

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

I look forward to reading the results

Hello William - must tell you how delighted I was to meet you at the Cthulhucon and share a panel with you -
I am delighted with your project and would be honored to see some of your work based on CAS in print -
Again - great to have met you at last.
Dr. F

It was wonderful to meet you as well on to be on a panel remembering CAS and Bloch and so many others. It was especially wondrous to be with you, who knew Clark Ashton Smith, and to hear your recollections!

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

J. D.: could you send me an email? I did this weird thing on my computer that wiped out all of my apps, and deleted my Thunderbird email account, and I have lost all email addresses. I've been getting rid of a few things and want to give you the facsimile printing of THE LURKING FEAR with ye CAS illustrations to add to your personal library. Also, I used a quote from you that will probably be used as a blurb on the back of my next book, THE REVENANT OF REBECCA PASCAL, and so I want to send you one of those when I get copies of ye special trade pb edition next month at WHC. Plus other things I want to discuss via email, but I ain't got your's no moh....

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

wilum pugmire Wrote:
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> J. D.: could you send me an email? I ... want to give you
> the facsimile printing of THE LURKING FEAR with ye
> CAS illustrations to add to your personal library.


Why not send it to Boyd and the Eldritch Dark? He deserves that, in return for all the promotion you do for yourself and your personal friends, using this forum.

And it would be to the joy of a wider appreciation than to just J.D.'s personal library.

Knygatin Wrote:
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>
>
> Why not send it to Boyd and the Eldritch Dark?

It needs to go to a Lovecraftian scholar who has enriched us with his magnificent essays.

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

Has anyone here read THE LAST CONTINENT--NEW TALES OF ZOTHIQUE. I never got it, and now rue that I didn't pick up the copy I saw for sale at the University Bookstore. Copies on Amazon are so expensive, and yet the book seems to have a very good reputation. I remember when I was first seeing Jessica Salmonson and she read me "Hode of the High Place," and I was absolutely enchanted. It would be wonderful if I cou'd somehow be convinced that the book is worth the steep price being asked at Amazon (where all of ye reviews are quite positive).

One homage to CAS that I have started to reread is THE BOOK OF EIBON, edited by Robert M. Price for Chaosium. I began to read the book when I first got it, years ago, but for some reason couldn't get into it; and then I heard, from some Smith fen, that the book was rather awful, so I never went back to finish it. It's a thick volume of almoft 400 pages. I think the one thing that really turned me off about the book were the fragments that were to be arcane formula from Livre d'Eibon, and I found all of this stuff pointless and boring. But glancing through its pages nigh, I see that many of these items are in the form of poetry and are written by some of the genre's finest poets--Richard L. Tierney, Michael Fatina, Ann K. Schwader and Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. Perhaps the bad rep of the book came from such a huge portion of it being written by Lin Carter, and yet I enjoy his Mythos work for its atmosphere of fanboy fun and its enthusiasm. Another dubious aspect of the book is what appears to be unfinish'd stories by CAS that have been completed by others, and my inner gut feeling that such completions cannot do justice to original Clark Ashton Smith.

Books of homage to CAS may nigh escalate if such fans are inspir'd by the new collection from Penguin Classics, which will undoubtedly introduce the writings of Smith to hundreds of new potential fans.

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