Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 30

A Brief Pause

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Just a quick note to say I’ll be a bit scarce for the next month or so, both here and on social media. As some of you may be aware, my wife and I are expecting our first child in early September, which means I’ll be fairly busy for the next few…years?

Anyway, I won’t be gone forever, but this is your three minute warning that the blog might be fairly quiet for the next few weeks (or months). In the meantime, please feel free to enjoy some free fiction or consider checking out my Patreon.

You could also pick up a copy of my latest novel, Soul Wars. It’s a great jumping on point, if you’re interested in learning about Games Workshop’s Age of Sigmar setting.

The Ghoul’s Portrait

Ulthar Press has released Pickman’s Gallery, an anthology devoted to Richard Upton Pickman, one of HP Lovecraft’s most enduring characters. Among other fantastic stories, it includes “The Ghoul’s Portrait”, my tale of thieves, ghouls and sorcerers. 

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“The Ghoul’s Portrait” is the latest story to feature Amina Algol and her ghoulish siblings, Bera and Arif. Once again, they’re on a mission from Mordiggian, the ghoul-god of Earth’s Dreamlands. This time, they’re in search of the titular painting – a Pickman original – and must face off with an infamous thief of the waking world, as well as a devilish sorcerer.

Amina and her kin have appeared in a handful of other stories, including “The Orphan of Bones”, which is available to read on my Patreon. I always have a lot of fun writing these stories, and I hope to do at least one or two more in the near future, including a possible crossover with the Royal Occultist series.

Pickman’s Gallery is available as a trade paperback via Amazon.com and its international subsidiaries. A Kindle version is forthcoming.

The Great Revelry

Pulpwork Press’ Pulpwork Summer Special is now available. Besides many other fine stories, it includes the newest Royal Occultist adventure, “The Great Revelry”. 

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The Pulpwork Summer Special contains five fantastical stories of action and the occult, particularly chosen for your summer reading pleasure. In “The Great Revelry”, St. Cyprian and Gallowglass confront a murderer with a mania for the Dionysian Mysteries in the halls of the Voyagers Club.

Also, from today until the nineteenth of August, you can nab a free Kindle copy of the Special. You can also pick up a slightly more expensive print version, if you prefer. Either way, why not check it out?

For more on the adventures of St. Cyprian and Gallowglass, as well as past and future holders of the office, take a look at the Royal Occultist chronology on this site, as well as a number of free short stories, available only on Patreon. And be sure to ‘Like’ the Royal Occultist Facebook page, in order to keep up with all the latest news and info on the series!

The Westenra Fund

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A body drained of blood is found on Hampstead Heath. Three nights later, a white face is seen pressed against a window in Highgate. In Hampstead tube station, something titters in the shadows of the platform.  In Surrey, a phone rings.

The agents of the Westenra Fund are on the case…

The origins of the organization known as the Westenra Fund are traceable to an incident in Purfleet, in 1889. A disparate group of men and women banded together to defeat one of the greatest evils to ever assail the shores of England. In the aftermath, the survivors swore an oath to defend their homeland from the scourge of vampirism.

Unlike the Ministry of Esoteric Observation, or the office of the Royal Occultist, the Westenra Fund is a privately funded organisation, with only tenuous links to the British government. While this is mostly by choice, it is also due in no small part to the Fund’s proclivity for excessive collateral damage in pursuing their singular calling – the destruction of the sanguinary vermin known as vampires.

While the last English vampire was reported destroyed in 1908, the Fund has maintained its vigilance against the undead. It has even conducted international operations alongside the Calmet Society and other anti-vampire organisations, in Europe, Latin America and Canada.

The current head of operations for the Westenra Fund is also one of its main financial backers – Sir Arthur Holmwood, Lord Godalming. Godalming is an elderly, but still vigorous man who often insists on leading domestic operations himself. Foreign operations are often left to the mysterious Miss Harker, an unusually pale young woman of unsettling demeanour.

The history of the woman known variously as Miss Harker, (or, variously, as ‘Lady Godalming’, ‘Lucy Harker’, ‘the bloofer lady’ and ‘oh god oh Jesus it’s her run’) is shrouded in half-truths and mystery. Which is just the way she likes it.

The daughter of a solicitor and a school mistress, but the child of a monster, Harker was born with certain unnatural gifts. These gifts – as well as her fierce loyalty to Godalming – saw her swiftly become the most invaluable member of the Westenra Fund. To date, Harker has seen to the destruction of over thirty vampires, five at her own hands.

It was in her capacity as head of the Fund’s foreign operations division that she first encountered Charles St. Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass. First forced to work alongside them during the Carpathian Repatriation of 1920, Harker and the Westenra Fund have since consulted with the Royal Occultist on numerous occasions. Godalming has also reportedly attempted to contact Baron Palman Vordenburg, but, as yet, the Baron has avoided meeting with the Fund’s representatives.

The Westenra Fund, like the Ministry of Esoteric Observation and the London Tunnel Authority, was created as something of a combination foil and plot generator for the Royal Occultist series. And of course, if you’re going to talk about the British Empire and vampires, you can’t really avoid a Dracula reference.

As always, when confronted by such a quandary, I tend to lean into the skid. Using Stoker’s novel as a starting point, I wove it into the fabric of the Royal Occultist series – the events of Dracula occurred, but not necessarily as written. For one thing, the then-Royal Occultist, Sir Edwin Drood, was involved, and there were more casualties. Dracula’s assault on England didn’t begin and end with one small group of Victorians, but rather was a pestilence that endangered London as a whole.

I doubt I’ll ever actually write about it in any detail. It’s probably better to leave it as a noodle incident – often mentioned but never fully explained.

That said, Lucy Harker is a fun character – conceived as an homage to various pop culture vampire slayers, she very quickly diverged into something interesting. If I ever have the time and inclination, I might even try and spin her off into her own stories. I think she’s a strong enough character to have a life of her own outside of occasional guest appearances.

Another note of interest – Harker and the Westenra Fund both first appeared in my 2010 novel, Dracula Lives!. Though it’s debatable whether that novel exists in the same continuity as the Royal Occultist stories, Harker and the Westenra Fund are pretty much the same characters in both. But I’ll leave that up to readers to decide.

Lucy Harker and the Westenra Fund have appeared in the following stories:

THE INFERNAL EXPRESS
DRACULA LIVES!

For more on the adventures of St. Cyprian and Gallowglass, as well as past and future holders of the office, take a look at the Royal Occultist chronology on this site, as well as a number of free short stories, available only on Patreon. And be sure to ‘Like’ the Royal Occultist Facebook page, in order to keep up with all the latest news and info on the series!

Wings of the Bat

I’ve posted a new story for patrons over at my Patreon today. “La Chauve-Souris” is a science-fiction story of sorts – it’s also a monster story, and maybe slightly Lovecraftian? – and one that went in a weird direction. Originally, I conceived of it as a detective story, but that’s not how it turned out. 

Like “Hungerpillar”, it’s a bit of a mood piece. There’s a plot there, but it’s mostly between the lines. It’s another experimental piece, as well. I wanted to try something different, focusing on the characters rather than the story they’re entangled in. I don’t know whether it worked or not. I’ll leave it to readers to decide.

If you’re not a patron, and you’d like to read this story – or any of the others – simply head over to my Patreon, pledge a dollar and you’ll be given access. And if you can’t pledge anything for whatever reason, feel free to enjoy the free short stories I’ve posted. That’s what they’re there for.

Men from the Ministry

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Today’s look at the world of the Royal Occultist features the bureaucratic wrangling of  the Ministry of Esoteric Observation…

The Ministry was formed in 1907, following the disappearance of Edwin Drood, the then Royal Occultist. Drood, a firm believer in the rational sciences and the observation, classification and regulation of the eldritch and aetheric, privately supported the formation of a governmental body to deal with what had, until then, been the sole province of the Queen’s Conjurer.

The Ministry, while small at first, wielded – and still wields – influence out of proportion with its size and oversight budget. As the world grows smaller and more complex, many in His Majesty’s government feel that final authority concerning occult matters should be held not by one man, but by an organisation of dedicated civil servants, who can be better prevailed upon to put the good of the nation first, and dedication to obsolete and eldritch and, frankly, heathen, matters, second.

While Drood’s successor Carnacki often clashed with the Ministry in matters magical, his successor, Charles St. Cyprian, has worked with the Ministry on more than one occasion, including the Seeley Affair of 1921.

The idea of a governmental body tasked with investigating the occult isn’t a new one. It’s a fairly common trope of urban fantasy and modern occult detective fiction. Which, honestly, is why I decided early on to add it as a background element to the Royal Occultist – I love tropes and cliches, and a series like this should be full to bursting with them. Too, ‘the gentleman amateur replaced by a bureaucratic body’ is a trope of espionage fiction, which the series draws from as much as works by Hodgson and Benson, though somewhat more subtly.

The Ministry is often embodied in its appearances by a bureaucrat named Morris. Whether this is his real name or an assumed one is never revealed, but the implication is the latter. A fussy, egg-shaped man, Morris is a monster through and through – a sort of nastier George Smiley, only thirty years early and with fewer redeeming qualities.

Morris, and by extension the Ministry, are good foils for St. Cyprian as well as good plot-motivators. If I ever run into trouble coming up with the impetus for a plot – it’s the Ministry’s fault. If I ever need a deus ex machina rescue – the Ministry can do it. If I ever need a villain that’s a cut above a werewolf or a cultist – rogue (or not so rogue) Ministry asset.

That said, I try not to use them too often. Like the Order of the Cosmic Ram, the Ministry is best used sparingly, and for bigger stories, with political or international implications.

The Ministry appears in the following stories:

THE WHITECHAPEL DEMON
THE JADE SUIT OF DEATH
“The Strix Society”
THE INFERNAL EXPRESS
“Sign of the Salamander”
“Iron Bells”
“The Jagtooth Lane Horror”
“Unquiet in the Earth”

For more on the adventures of St. Cyprian and Gallowglass, as well as past and future holders of the office, take a look at the Royal Occultist chronology on this site, as well as a number of free short stories, available only on Patreon. And be sure to ‘Like’ the Royal Occultist Facebook page, in order to keep up with all the latest news and info on the series!

Beast’s Claw

The newest instalment of the Eight Lamentations series popped up on the Black Library site today. “War-Claw” is a full-length audio drama that finds Owain Volker, Gunmaster of Azyr, and his companion, Zana Mathos, on the hunt for one of the eponymous Lamentations at a mountain outpost, besieged by unnatural creatures.

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The CD version will include interviews with the cast and crew, including yours truly. Both versions will be available for pre-order in November.

Writing this one was a blast. It was the first time I’d tried my hand at a radio-play style script – one without narration. Dialogue alone had to carry the whole story. Hopefully, folks will enjoy what I came up with.

This story takes place sometime after the short story, “The Tainted Axe”. With that in mind, the suggested series chronology is:

“Road of Blades”
“Auction of Blood”
Eight Lamentations: Spear of Shadows
“The Tainted Axe”
Eight Lamentations: War-Claw

I hope to do more audios and short stories with these characters, between now and when I get to start work on the sequel to Spear of Shadows. But in the meantime, War-Claw continues the story begun in Spear of Shadows.

Eldritch Acquisitions

I’m pleased to say that my tale of comedic horror, “Bruno J. Lampini and the Boots of Frankenstein”, will appear in the sixth issue of The Audient Void: A Journal of Weird Fiction and Dark Fantasy. 

Bruno J. Lampini is a character I’ve been wanting to introduce for awhile. He’s a sort of eldritch spiv – a dealer in arcane artefacts, buying and selling them for well-paying (mostly) clients. The character’s name was inspired by George Zucco’s character in House of Frankenstein (1944), the unfortunate ‘Professor Lampini’. Lampini’s world is also inspired by Universal’s monster movies – a sort of monochrome take on the 1930’s, complete with random storms, fog and dodgy accents.

I hope to do more stories featuring the character, if I get the time. I’ve even got some ideas lined up. What do you think of “Bruno J. Lampini and the Bones of Dracula”? Or what about “Bruno J. Lampini and the Hair of the Werewolf”?

The One-Armed Man

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Today’s look at the world of the Royal Occultist focuses on an old friend and staunch ally of Charles St. Cyprian, the ex-soldier and adventurer, Bobby Ogden…

Sergeant Robert ‘Bobby’ Ogden, formerly of the 4th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, currently of no fixed abode. Ogden and his squad were seconded to then-Royal Occultist Thomas Carnacki during the Great War, and served as bodyguards, escorts and general dogsbodies for both Carnacki and his apprentice, Charles St. Cyprian.

Nicknamed the ‘Unnameables’, Ogden and his men faced any number of unnatural opponents in the early years of the war, including a nest of vampires beneath St. Martin’s Church in Ypres and the abominable Hound of Mons.

While the unit did not escape front line duties entirely, they often found themselves fighting a different sort of war – one that left many of them dead, and the survivors with scars, both physical and otherwise. In Ogden’s case, he lost his arm at the Kemmelberg, during the Fourth Battle of Ypres in April 1918. It was during this same battle that Carnacki lost his life, and St. Cyprian was invalided out for the duration of the war. Despite all of the eldritch terrors they’d faced, it was bad luck and enemy artillery that spelled the end of the ‘Unnameables’.

After the war ended, Ogden attempted to forget the horrors he’d experienced, but found himself drawn into the Royal Occultist’s orbit more than once, often to his chagrin. Despite his missing limb, Ogden has lost little of his former vigour, and has proved an able ally, most notably during the sinister events surrounding Bethnal Green Military Hospital in November of 1919.

Ogden, like Philip Wendy-Smythe, was conceived as something of a sidekick for the Royal Occultist. I like peppering the stories with old acquaintances, in order to give the characters some degree of life outside the constraints of the plot.  Too, Ogden serves as a connection to St. Cyprian’s time in the trenches. Unlike the bumbling Wendy-Smythe, he holds no illusions as to St. Cyprian’s somewhat haphazard methodology, and can act as foil for the purposes of humour.

I’m hoping to write more WWI-era Unnameables stories. While I won’t be spinning them off into their own thing, I do want to explore that period of the Royal Occultist’s adventures a bit more. I’d also like to do a few more Post-War Ogden appearances, perhaps dealing with the fall-out of some of he and St. Cyprian’s  earlier adventures.

If you’d like to see Ogden and the Unnameables in action, check out “The Charnel Hounds”, a patron-only story over on my Patreon.

Robert Ogden has appeared in the following stories:

“Hochmuller’s Hound”
“The Charnel Hounds”
“The Dreaming Dead”
“The Return of the Hound”

For more on the adventures of St. Cyprian and Gallowglass, as well as past and future holders of the office, take a look at the Royal Occultist chronology on this site, as well as a number of free short stories, available only on Patreon. And be sure to ‘Like’ the Royal Occultist Facebook page, in order to keep up with all the latest news and info on the series!

An Ocean of Glass…

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Do you enjoy playing Shadespire? Do you like stories of bleak nihilism, bereft of joy and hope? What about time travel? Ghosts? If the answer to any of those is yes, then you’re probably going to want to pick up a copy of my newest novel, when it comes out in September.