Richard Gavin's Blog, page 21

Free Read: "& On the Eve of Yule..."

In honour of Yuletide, my story "& On the Eve of Yule..." is now available to read for free on this website. Simply click on the Online Fiction tab and enjoy.

May the Spirits of the dark season bless you & yours.

WILD FELL by Michael Rowe

Last week my wife and I attended the fantastic book launch for Wild Fell, the second novel written by our good friend Michael Rowe. Yesterday, while a light snow fell outside my living room and a fire crackled in the hearth within, I settled in to read Wild Fell. I didn't expect to devour the book in one sitting...

Here is my blurb that encapsulates my impressions of this extraordinary work:

"Ghosts occupy the liminal spaces between life and death, wakefulness and dreaming, beauty and terror. So it is only fitting that Michael Rowe's WILD FELL evokes all of these things and more. This is an imaginative feat that elevates the haunted house tale to a new level. Like its ghosts, WILD FELL will seduce you, frighten you, and leave you awestruck. A magnificent and peerless novel."

If you take pleasure in classical, poignant, and deeply atmospheric ghost fiction, I urge you to pick up a copy of Wild Fell, which you may do here.

Lovecraft eZine: W.H. Pugmire Tribute issue

The latest edition of Lovecraft eZine is a tribute issue to my friend , the great Lovecraftian author W.H. Pugmire. I am pleased to have "A Massing of the Shades" (my own tale of Sesqua Valley; Wilum's haunted Dunwich or Arkham, set in his native Pacific Northwest) appear in this issue. It stands alongside excellent contributions from Joseph S. Pulver Sr., Robert M. Price, Ann K. Schwader, Jeffrey and Scott Thomas, Jayaprakash Sathyamurthy, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, and S.T. Joshi.

A stalwart contributor to the realm of eldritch Horror, Wilum deserves this recognition.

I'm especially fond of the illustration that was created for my story by another good friend, the hideously talented Nick Gucker.

Lovecraft eZine can be found here.

Laird Barron's "Read This"

Laird Barron has posted some very kind words about my work, including his Introduction to my 2009 collection The Darkly Splendid Realm. I've known Laird for a few years now and am always amazed by his literary talent and his graciousness. His website can be found here.

If you're unfamiliar with Laird's fiction, he is simply one of the best Horror writers working today, with a style and tone that is reminiscent of T.E.D. Klein. His latest collection, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All comes with my highest recommendation. Copies of that book may be ordered here.

Three Books

Over the past few months my reading pile has been graced by three Horror collections by a trio of newer talents to the genre. I wanted to take a moment to introduce each of them to you.

The first is Nightmares of a Lovecraftian Mind by Jordan Krall. Here are my thoughts on the book:
"When I first read Thomas Ligotti's line 'True macabrists are as rare as poets', I knew precisely what he meant. So when I discover a work by a true macabrist, I cherish it. NIGHTMARES FROM A LOVECRAFTIAN MIND by Jordan Krall is just such a book. Poetic, deranged, and imbued with the whiff of the charnel house, NIGHTMARES is a tapestry of finely-wrought fever dreams."

The second title is The Lord Came at Twilight, the debut collection from Daniel Mills.My comments:
“Daniel Mills is the Janus of supernatural fiction. His gaze is fixed on both the genre’s past masters and on realms never before explored. The tales in this book are haunting and are woven with a most eloquent darkness.”
The third and final is Forever, In Pieces , the debut collection by Kurt Fawver:
"FOREVER, IN PIECES is aptly titled, for this book offers readers unnerving glimpses into our eternal fears, both staggeringly cosmic and painfully intimate. Kurt Fawver’s tales are gruesome and poignant. An impressive debut.”

I encourage anyone interested to explore these great new books.

Lovecraft eZine Chat on Youtube

For those who may have missed my video chat with The Lovecraft eZine last night, it is now available for viewing on Youtube:


My thanks to editor/host Mike Davis for inviting me, and to all the participants for their excellent questions and comments. It was a very enjoyable way to spend a night in the lonesome October...

The Lovecraft eZine Video Chat

Mike Davis, editor of the excellent Lovecraft eZine, has kindly invited me to take part in one of their live video chats.

I will be chatting with Mike and other Lovecraftians this coming Sunday, October the 20th at 6pm EST.

For more information on the video chats, visit here. I hope to see some of you there.

Echoes from Hades: Womb of the Black Goddess

The latest installment of my Teeming Brain column "Echoes from Hades" is now online. Entitled "Womb of the Black Goddess," this essay explores the notion of Horror as a means of dark transcendence, as opposed to a wail of existential bleakness.

"Echoes from Hades" may be viewed here.

AT FEAR'S ALTAR reviewed on Teleread

Paul St. John Mackintosh has written a glowing and insightful review of At Fear's Altar for Teleread.com to coincide with the release of the collection's e-book version.

A sample:

"For once, the canned plaudits that describe Gavin as “a master of esoteric horror fiction in the tradition of Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, and H.P. Lovecraft” actually get it right. His work does recall Machen and Blackwood – not the most obvious inspirations for any modern weird fiction writer, even those, like me, who took their models from Lovecraft’s exemplars in his “Supernatural Horror in Literature.” There is the same often quiet and even sedate stroll up to the edge of the abyss, the same easy elision from the everyday to the eldritch (and yes I loved writing that). All the same, Gavin doesn’t strike literary attitudes or parade his intellectual gifts. His writing is simply, deeply disturbing." The complete review can be viewed here.  And for those who might have missed it, some months ago Paul was also good enough to interview me about e-books and my third collection, The Darkly Splendid Realm. That interview can be read here. 

NecronomiCon Providence

I have recently returned from NecronomiCon 2013, a conference of all things H.P. Lovecraft and beyond, in Providence, RI. It was a magnificent event in a beautiful city. I was glad to reconnect with good friends like Laird Barron, John Langan, Simon Strantzas, W.H. Pugmire, Michael Cisco, Joseph S. Pulver Sr., S.T. Joshi, and many others. It was also a pleasure meeting so many readers and online friends in the flesh for the first time.

On the Saturday afternoon I was part of a panel entitled "New Weird vs. Old Weird." We swiftly dispensed with the asinine distinction of "new" and instead focused on the qualities of weird fiction in general.

Simon Strantzas and I also took part in a Lovecraftian walking tour of Providence, which included visits to the Shunned House, HPL's home, and (my personal favourite) the Charles Dexter Ward house. A display on loan from the John Hay Library allowed us to look at Lovecraft's original ms. and sketch for "The Call of Cthulhu" as well as ephemera from the pen of Edgar Allan Poe.

Saturday night I attended a rare performance by Lustmord, which was superb. Lustmord's churning soundscapes have been a soundtrack to my life since the early 1990s, so it was a pleasure being able to experience them live and at maximum intensity.

After a foray into Salem, Mass. (Visitors: be sure to tour Count Orlock's Nightmare Gallery, the finest Horror waxwork I have ever seen.), my family and I ventured home. I've always loved New England and never fail to experience a sense of place there.

Among the many great people I finally met at NecronomiCon was the wonderful Derrick Hussey of Hippocampus Press. He informed me that the e-book edition of At Fear's Altar is now available! Those with Kindle devices and so forth can order their copy here.

In closing, here is a photo of HPL seated before the Van Wickle Gate in Providence, along with one of yours truly at same.