Richard Gavin's Blog, page 24

AT FEAR'S ALTAR reviewed by Publishers Weekly

I'm extremely humbled by the latest review for At Fear's Altar. Not only is it a glowing one, but it comes from the prestigious Publishers Weekly.

A sample:

"Literate horror fans who have yet to encounter Canadian author Gavin (Charnel Wine) are in for a treat in this collection of 13 stories that evoke familiar genre themes in creative ways. The lyrical prose is often at a higher level than usual presentations of otherworldly demons and malevolent forces..."

The entire review may be read here.

I feel very forutnate because this is the second book I've had reviewed by PW and both reviews have been extremely positive. Those who wish to read their review of my 2007 collection Omens may do so here.

SEARCHERS AFTER HORROR

"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places. For them are the catacombs of Ptolemais, and the carven mausolea of the nightmare countries. They climb to the moonlit towers of ruined Rhine castles, and falter down black cobwebbed steps beneath the scattered stones of forgotten cities in Asia. The haunted wood and the desolate mountain are their shrines, and they linger around the sinister monoliths on uninhabited islands. But the true epicure in the terrible, to whom a new thrill of unutterable ghastliness is the chief end and justification of existence, esteems most of all the ancient, lonely farmhouses of backwoods New England; for there the dark elements of strength, solitude, grotesqueness, and ignorance combine to form the perfection of the hideous." --- H.P. Lovecraft, "The Picture in the House"

This has always been one of my favourite quotes. Being something of a searcher after horror myself, I feel that HPL here encapsulates that deep love certain individuals have for the Gothic, the eerie, the Eldritch.
Imagine my delight when S.T. Joshi accepted my latest story for his forthcoming anthology Searchers After Horror.

While the anthology is not specifically Lovecraftian, its title and basic theme are derived from the above quote. My story is entitled "The Patter of Tiny Feet" and is rather creepy if I do say so myself. Fans of "A Picture in the House" may be pleased to know that my tale does involve one of those farmhouses that Lovecraft felt, and I think rightly,"form the perfection of the hideous."

Searchers After Horror will be published by the excellent Fedogan & Bremer. The Table of Contents is still being compiled as of this entry, but I do know that I'll be appearing alongside W.H. Pugmire, Gary Fry, and Ramsey Campbell.

The Arkham Digest reviews AT FEAR'S ALTAR

Humbling stuff. The full review may be read As a devout Lovecraftian I admit to a special thrill over being reviewed by The Arkham Digest:

"With this collection Gavin has managed to bring together thirteen stories without a single one amongst them. The stories range from dark to downright terrifying, and every single one will linger in the reader’s head for days. I couldn’t recommend this collection more, so finish up what you’re reading, buy this collection, pour yourself a rye-and-ginger, and settle down to read one of the best books published in 2012 and one of the best weird horror collections published ever. Absolutely essential."

Humbling stuff. The full review may be read here.

Review & Interview at The Cosmicomicon

Author, critic, and all around genre gentleman T.E. Grau has posted his in-depth and deeply flattering review of At Fear's Altar. Among his many kind words are:
At Fear's Altar - and Richard Gavin, as a fictionist, essayist, and general figure - is what Horror needs, if the forces of true creativity and innovation are going to battle back those armies amassed to exploit cheap parlor tricks, reconstituted dreck barely resembling the original article, and sparkly spook pap churned out to appeal to the widest and least interested portion of our population.  This collection has the power and vision to recapture the numinous and keep the steam train on the iron track, to bring respectability back to the genre, to keep the "H" big and proud.Along with the review, Mr. Grau conducted the most extensive interview I've yet done.

The entire piece may be viewed here.

THE DARKLY SPLENDID REALM ebook

The fine folks at Dark Regions Press have just released my 2009 collection The Darkly Splendid Realm in ebook format. Those of you with a Kindle device may order the digital version of the book here. Those who wish to purchase a hardcover or trade paperback edition may do so here.

The Teeming Brain Podcast

Matt Cardin, founder of The Teeming Brain website and the preeminent scholar of the realm where Horror intersects with religion, has created the first Teeming Brain podcast and was kind enough to invite me to participate.

The topic was Sacred Terror vs. Cosmic Horror. Inspired by Jonathan Ryan's article in Christianity Today, the discussion examines the similarities and differences between Arthur Machen's "sacred terror" and H.P. Lovecraft's "cosmic Horror."

The fascinating discussion can be heard here.

AT FEAR'S ALTAR reviewed on Rising Shadow

An enthusiastic and flattering review of At Fear's Altar by Finnish reviewer Seregil of Rhiminee has just been posted on Rising Shadow:

"At Fear's Altar is a delightful and shocking collection of dark and disturbing wonders to readers who love dark stories and weird fiction. [...]
I loved At Fear's Altar and I'm sure other readers will love it too, because Richard Gavin is one of the new masters of weird fiction [...] one of the best new horror short story collections, so make sure that you'll read it as soon as possible."

The complete review can be read here.

Echoes From Hades: To Suffer This World or Illuminate Another?

The November installment of "Echoes from Hades", my monthly column on The Teeming Brain, is now online. This time out I postulate some of the meanings and uses of Horror art in life.

"Echoes from Hades" may be read here. Please offer your thoughts in the Comments section if you're so inclined.

AT FEAR'S ALTAR reviewed at The Speculative Fiction Junkie

"...there are authors writing today whose work ensures that the weird tradition speaks to the current age and that it does not grow stale in the future. Richard Gavin is such an author, and while he treads many of the paths blazed by his predecessors, his voice has an indelibly strange melody that is all his own."


4.5 stars out of 5
To read the complete review of At Fear's Altar at the excellent Speculative Fiction Junkie website, click here.

The Next Big Thing

This project was the brainchild of the excellent Mark Morris. I was brought into the loop by the equally grand Rio Youers. It's a nice round-robin of questions after which each participant tags five other writers who will be taking part in the project. My quintet lurk below my responses, which may be read now...


1. What is the working title of your next book?

Being the snail-paced, obsessive, one-word-at-a-time author that I am, I'm going to bend the rules here and talk about my collection At Fear's Altar , which was just released in October courtesy of Hippocampus Press. Were I to give the working title of my next book it would be something like Point-form Scribbles in a Spiral-bound Notebook, which is all very Samuel Beckett-sounding but ultimately not that interesting to anyone but me.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

The individual stories were born of the same holistic process as my other books. They are the products of equal-parts waking life observations, dream/nightmare imagery, unusual words I like to employ, and esoteric concepts that I feel lend themselves to dramatic presentation.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Supernatural Horror is probably the most convenient handle for these stories, like everything else I've written. Though "weird tales" works equally fine. I prefer to call my work "nightmarish."  Not because I dislike the word "Horror" (I actually love the word), but rather because I'm always striving to capture and convey those feverishly uncanny qualities that make our nightmares so disorienting and frightening.

4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Ugh. I wouldn't. I'd leave the filmmaking to the filmmakers. I'd be tickled to see one of my stories adapted for the screen, large or small, but I don't want anything to do with the process. In a perfect world my participation with any movie rendition would consist of me depositing a hefty pay cheque and then some time later walking up the road to my local theatre to watch the movie like anybody else.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Ostensibly these are stories whose characters are stretched to the horizon of experience, where their individual lives are pushed over into the uncanny forces that thrum deep within, beneath, and beyond them. These are stories that show that the blood-freezing, skin-creeping, eye-widening experience of Horror is often synonymous with what is often called "transcendence," "a mystical experience", "god", what have you, hence the book's title.

Wait, that was two sentences, wasn't it. Math was never my strong suit.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

At Fear's Altar was published by Hippocampus Press, the New York-based publisher of many excellent weird books.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Approximately eighteen months.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

The back cover places the book in the lineage of Poe, Machen, Blackwood, and Ligotti, which is some very august company. I'll humbly go with it.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

S.T. Joshi was certainly a major inspiration. As a longtime admirer of his critical writings, it was an honour to work with him in the writer/editor paradigm. For years I was nervous at the thought of even having my work reviewed by S.T. because his grasp of the supernatural tale is so sure and his standards are notoriously high. Having him not only like what I do, but openly support it remains a marvelously surreal experience.

Clive Barker and Algernon Blackwood were also inspirations for the book.

10. What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

One of the stories has the much-maligned word "eldritch" in the title. Odder still, said story has nothing whatever to do with Lovecraft.

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And now, the next five authors: Helen Marshall, Orrin Grey, Daniel Mills, Don Webb, and Jayaprakash Satyamurthy.