Just some bits and pieces that some might find of interest and a bit of egoboo.

1) I have had a short story of mine, "The Bar Nana," accepted for inclusion in the third of a series of anthologies entitled THE ASYLUM. Volume 3 of this
"critically-acclaimed horror anthologhy series" :-) is entitled "The Quiet Ward." It is to be offically released, in trade paperback form, about mid-August at a convention called Horrorfind. It is edited by this author Victor Heck for Prime books.

Besides my own pride of wanting to tell folks about it, while I really wouldn't call it written in CAS style, I do mention Smith within the story. The two main charcters are two mainly visual artists living in Korea and when one tries to describes his art, he says, "I was heavily influenced by Asian drawing styles, Clark Ashton Smith's visual work and a book I read when I was in high school entitled 'Outsider Art' (it dealt with the artistic creations of supposedly 'insane' individuals)."

2) Smith's influence, especially, on visual artwork appears in various, not always expected places. There is an e-gallery based in Sweden known as "Elfwood" and it has literally thousands of artists posted within and it is pretty much divided into two sections, one for Fantasy and the other for SF. All new artists accepted (and they do maintain high standards for that) are expected to select some names they believe to be an influence on their work. One of the names listed is Clark Ashton Smith!

3) I am, currently, working on reviving the "International Clark Ashton Smith Poetry Award" which I help create originally back in the late 70's. Things are moving slowly but surely...I designed the original award and I am now looking at the various possiblities on what the new version will look like (I don't have the original material to make it exactly the same as before). The original was sort of a head bust of Smith with various of his characters woven into it. I am always open to suggestions at this point...just remember, this is not a "big" budget production, but quality is sought for in it.

Well, that's it for now...take care. Frederick

I am continually amazed and delighted to see the international interest in Clark's work. A Clark Ashton Smith Award! amazing! what baffles me
yet is how all this interest and ferment surrounding CAS emerged among
those generally 20 years or more younger than I, and yet, until last
year I had probably encountered no more than three people who had ever
heard his name (including a very bright 16 year old). One thing
which makes me truly grateful for the internet.