Aornos by Avalon Brantley, from Ex Occidente Press

[Sagapharmakis]

Hello.

My name is Avalon Brantley. I am new to Thomas Ligotti Online (though not to Ligotti's work by any means). I wish to introduce myself, and to present a little something I’ve done to inaugurate the dying of summer…

I am profoundly honoured to announce that in about a fortnight, Ex Occidente Press will initiate me into its illustrious fold with the publication of Aornos.

Aornos is a mind-staged hallucinatory tragedy in the classical vein—a shadowy, spiritual, sorrowful tale. Set in Greece during the Archaic Period, the play is a stark and somnambulistic voyage along the ancient limites between being and not, where former forms wander embodied in their own uncertainty, full of reflections, and the shadows of their own old thirsts. Rarely—if they seek it—the living may go there, sink like lead to where Acheron leads, and plumb the deeps of Love and Death where the distinction of the two may no longer be discerned. It forbids, and so invites; come, sail with us to Aornos!

This lustrous little book, with several illustrations, printed endpapers and striking dust jacket, will be limited to only 122 copies, which may perhaps be ready in even less than two weeks, as it is at the printers even as I write to tell you. I hope it brings bleak joys to you as the shadows lengthen on this thirteenth year of the millennium.

Please see the preview pages at the link below:

Aornos Preview.pdf

In addition, September should see the release of my debut collection, Descended Suns Resuscitate, also from Ex Occidente Press.

Descended Suns Resuscitate will be a gathering of the poetic, ecstatic, esoteric and unsettling: sojournings through the blight and light of days long since sunsetted. The itinerary will be splendid—we’ll spend a season besieged within the walls of Ancient Rome, attend the performance of hitherto unsung epics by a meistersinger in a castle dining hall of Medieval Germany, witness the stirring of restless waters beside the bright flax fields of Pas-de-Calais in the France of the Ancien Régime, engage in certain sinister sacraments in Mecklenburg to ensure the next year’s harvest, even briefly visit what may perhaps be the fabled white city of Shambhala in the far inner East, and more, before at last returning with the sun to this temporal tomb, where he acts our brief candle.

Thanks, and may oncoming Autumn raise all of your spirits!


Avalon Brantley

[thujone]

A play by an unknown author? I really like how Ex Occidente Press are keen to always publish the unexpected, their authors have yet to disappoint me and I must say that Mr. Ghetu's editorial choices have been adventurous and excellent. I have little doubt that Avalon Brantley will join the ranks of that secret society of Occidente "new" authors (a.k.a. "my favourite authors") who overnight become the most sought-after and anthologised of the contemporary strange fiction. Aornos sounds and looks fabulous (and different!) from that short preview alone! Consider it ordered.

[Comrade Tulayev]

Congratulations, Avalon. Dan has a knack for finding outstanding new authors.... no doubt Aornos will be fantastic. A play will be a new one for EO too... a greek tragedy no less! I look forward to getting this one in my hands.

What inspired you to write this one?

Congrats again!

[Sagapharmakis]

Thank you both for the kind words, and by the way, I'm sorry to see my post associated a bit irrelevantly on the right. Maybe I should hurry and quote some Thomas Ligotti! Last night when I was posting, I couldn't seem to find a 'New Thread' button anywhere, wasn't sure I was granted privileges yet. Comrade Tulayev, my inspirations are so many: poetry, literature of all eras and areas, fiction of all kinds, history, philosophy, philology, religion, esotericism... I can't even generalise before the list gets too long! But I've always been fascinated by classical visions of the underworld, from Homer to Virgil to Dante, with more obscure works in between such as the Orphic Hymns or the Punica of Silius Italicus. So I re-steeped myself in these fond old haunts and Aornos came of it. I find ancient tragedies and histories still so surprisingly gutting; some are the original psychicological or even visceral horror tales, others sublime and transcendental. It's sad so few of the 3 Athenian tragedians' works survived. So that fine troika, and Aristophanes, Seneca, Herodotus, Plutarch, Sappho... all those old souls played a role, sometimes literally, as for instance, at the end of the play a couple lines come almost exactly from fragments of Sappho's. Anyway, sorry for the lengthy reply, and thanks again for your kind words. I know this may seem an oblique angle to the genre, but I truly hope you enjoy my efforts. AB

[Comrade Tulayev]

Oh my... I'm definitely going to enjoy this one. Thank you for sharing, Avalon. And the preview looks fantastic!!

[Derek]

I was lucky enough to get an advance preview of Avalon's story 'Great Seizer's Ghosts' in the recent Machen tribute anthology and it's a very fine piece of writing indeed.

Bravo to EO for continuing to publish works by new and interesting authors.

[thujone]

A tragedy set in ancient Greece? With a chorus of cicadas and Dionysos setting the stage? No zombies or ghosts (well....maybe a couple, actually), no cruel bloodshed (well....think again), no horror (errrr.... not in the mass market sense, no!) but still a fabulous read?! Absolutely!! I thoroughly enjoyed this odd little jewel in the ever-more bizarre crown of Ex Occidente a lot. And if you should be having second thoughts about reading a "play" - don't worry, I'm sure you'll be eagerly awaiting the author's next collection by the time you have finished this handsome scarce little volume, just like me.

[Nemonymous]

Quote Originally Posted by thujone

And if you should be having second thoughts about reading a "play" - don't worry,

I'd second that!

[Sagapharmakis]

For any that might be interested, this article describes a nekuomanteion in ancient Phrygia, where yet again the familiar traditions of Graeco-Roman necromancy were prevalent in their day:

http://news.discovery.com/history/ar...key-131118.htm