Re: Quentin S. Crisp
 

I've mentioned it before, but I actually have a huge amount of unpublished material. Partly this is my own fault, in that I need to revise stuff to get it into fit shape to send anywhere. The problem is, once the impelling forced that pushed one to finish a novel - say - is spent, the world tugs at one's sleeve with many hands, saying, "Fill in this form! Pay this bill! Answer this correspondence!" Anything, in fact, except revise one's novel.

At the moment I am not sure I want anything more than to break this pattern of finishing novels that then gather dust by finding a mid-list home for my latest finished novel, Graves, but I can become very despondent even thinking about this, as I've never been very good at the sales and promotion side of things (as might well be imagined, I don't have an agent). Anyway, the point is, I think one decent break would make all the difference (perhaps that's a naive view) in allowing me to make more of my work more available more of the time.

Another way of putting this is: the future is uncertain.

Anyway, I seem to keep on writing and perhaps one day - with the indispensable help of readers and publishers - I'll even do more than muddle disastrously through.

(I shall post more news here as I have it, though will try to be sparing by not posting minor news.)

Re: Quentin S. Crisp
 

I found myself clicking the wrong things due to my laptop's touch pad being smeared, and ended up reading Quentin's story Suicide Watch in this forum's Repository section. I found it to be emotionally cogent and well written, with me reading it in one sitting and my attention never wavering. Best thing I've read by mistake in weeks.

Re: Quentin S. Crisp
 

The Boy Who Played With Shadows arrived today and looks very impressive. I got copy 31 of 85 and was told there were only 5 left when I ordered it on 23rd June.

Re: Quentin S. Crisp
 

And I am now told that copies have sold out from the publisher, but there will still be, as I understand it, copies for sale from Ziesings and Fantastic Literature. Cold Tonnage will have some copies, but I believe they're all spoken for.

Anyway, as usual, I'll try and limit my postings here, but will update with news as seems necessary.

Re: Quentin S. Crisp
 

I have received mine, too. :)

Re: Quentin S. Crisp
 

I've just finished reading this, and really enjoyed the combination of memoir and thought-provoking meditation on weird fiction. I hope it gets a reprint in a future collection because it deserves to be read by more than 85 people.

The reminiscence about Quentin's father's reaction to Lovecraft raised a smile. I remember when I was in the first flush of Lovecraftolatry I tried to persuade my mother to read his work. I loaned her my Panther paperback of The Haunter of the Dark (with the Ian Miller cover) and, after struggling with The Outsider, she returned it saying "I can't get into it." I was too young and stupid to realise that a Catherine Cookson reader wasn't likely to be the most receptive audience for HPL at his most morbid...

Re: Quentin S. Crisp
 

Only just avoided missing this. Dan sent the tracking number early this morning--I will make room to read it as soon as it arrives.

Re: Quentin S. Crisp
 

I've been haunting bookseller sites for the past several days, and finally sighted the rare beast at Fantastic Literature. I already have a confirmation that my order has been dispatched. It looks like Fantastic Literature still has at least one copy:

THE BOY WHO PLAYED WITH SHADOWS - limited edition

Re: Quentin S. Crisp
 

I just finished my review of it here, where I claim this personal work Is essential reading for anyone interested in horror and weird fiction.

Iaiaiii! Shub-Niggurath!

Re: Quentin S. Crisp
 

"One early piece of writing I remember [...], was a tale in which my pet toad, Goosepimple, was anthropomorphised into a superhero of the woodland world" (The Boy Who Played With Shadows, p. 21).

Incidentally, there is a small story arch in Walter Simonson's run on The Mighty Thor where Thor becomes a superhero in the woodland (or, rather, park) world as the "Frog of Thunder", having been transformed into a frog by the intrigues of Loki.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...g/frogthor.jpg