Originally Posted by hopfrog (Post 59432)

That convention was so wonderful. I was in Lovecraftian heaven. And all of the readings I attended were so excellent that it shew'd me how great a time this is for genre fiction. Gobs of talent out there, and it seems we have a thriving small press to bring out our books. I am excited about the future of weird fiction!

Originally Posted by hopfrog (Post 59415)

O my beautiful Buddha! O woe, cruel existence!
I'm not here much these days, my darlings, because I have become utterly obsess'd with ye writing life. It keeps me off line and away from forums, even this, my favourite. Here's some news for ye who might be interested.

THE TANGLED MUSE is wretchedly delay'd. One of ye artists, an old & beloved if slightly deranged punk artist friend, complained that Jerad used art that she did not okay and demanded that ALL of her art be removed from the book -- & ye book was filled to overflowing with her art. This is a sad situation & has both Jerad and I extremely traumatized. So Jerad needs to reprint the book, publishing at a financial loss. I have no idea when ye book will be released -- that dear sweet Jerad wants to publish it at all after this incident seems miraculous.

To help heal the lunacy into which I plung'd from this nefarious situation with my Centipede Press book, I got the CRAZY idea in Novembyr that I was gonna write another book before I left for MythosCon. Larry Roberts of Arcane Wisdom Press asked me to write a wee chapbook for him two years ago, & I simply couldn't think what would be a good enough book for him, because Arcane Wisdom is so fabulous & theyr books so beautiful. Over the past two years I've realised many projects that have long been simmering on me wither'd brain, such as my definitive aesthetic response to Lovecraft's COMMONPLACE BOOK, a prose-poem/vignette sequence that I have titled "Uncommon Places." Another thing I wanted to write was my own response to HPL's sonnet sequence, Fungi from Yuggoth. So I was suddenly, this past Novembyr, obsess'd with writing such a book, a series of prose-poems & vignettes, one for each of Lovecraft's sonnets. I hoped it would be a work of around 40,000 words. I was also obsess'd with replicating the speed with which Grandpa penned his sonnets -- he wrote his sonnets in less than two weeks. I wrote SOME UNKNOWN GULF OF NIGHT in six weeks, a work of 37,000 words. It's a bleeding miracle, but I was totally possessed with the writing of the thing, couldn't pause to eat and sleep. I then SOLD the book the following week to Larry Roberts! That simply doesn't happen. Then, the wonderful Matthew Jaffe (he did the cover art for Laird Barron's second collection, OCCULTATION) agreed to do the art for the book. I thought that Larry meant to publish it as just a paperback, but he amazed me by saying that he plans to do 100 copies as limited edition hardcover! Sweet!

So, I may have four books publish'd this year, and that is crazy and may hurt the sales -- someone may have the $$$ to buy one book but not two of the others. Oh well. I've planned the books carefully. All of the new original work that will first be published in THE TANGLED MUSE will be reprinted in my next book from Hippocampus Press, UNCOMMON PLACES, which will probably be publish'd late this year -- thus they who cannot afford THE TANGLED MUSE at $125 per copy can read the brand new stuff in an inexpensive Hippocampus trade pb. My other book that may be publish'd this year is THE STRANGE DARK ONE--TALES OF NYARLATHOTEP, perhaps to be publish'd this year by Mythos Books, although they are often late with bringing out titles.

So, I've been busy, and this fever for writing is with me still. I am writing a book of traditional Mythos fiction, GATHERED DUST AND OTHERS, for Miskatonic River Press, and I am collaborating with Maryanne K. Snyder on a book of 100,000 words, all of which will be our aesthetic response to the poetry and weird fiction of Clark Ashton Smith. Maryanne and I are also writing a story to be submitted to the forthcoming Arkham House anthology, ARKHAM NIGHTMARES. Then I begin work on a collection of connecting stories concerning a Lovecraftian artist, a book I am writing with the marvelous Jeffrey Thomas. So, there's lots to do. I love this writing life so much. It keeps me away from here, but I often visit without logging in, just to see what's up. My love to all of ye.