…drum roll please…

Guess who’s coming back for seconds!

Cthulhu 2: Electric Boogaloo. Original artwork created for this bulletin by Vanyel Harkema, a talented young artist I met at last year’s World Fantasy Convention in San Diego.

Here’s the big secret announcement: I just signed a contract with Night Shade Books to edit The Book of Cthulhu 2, to be published in October of this year. No, we’re not actually calling it Cthulhu 2: Electric Boogaloo. As I have just begun working on this project, I don’t have more details I can share with you yet, but like the previous volume, it will be a mix of reprints and originals, showcasing even more of the best of the last several decades of Cthulhu Mythos short fiction. Watch this space as we reveal cover art and our table of contents over the next few months. Until then, here’s our working jacket copy…

Last year, Night Shade Books unleashed The Book of Cthulhu onto an unsuspecting world. Critically acclaimed as “the ultimate Cthulhu anthology” and “a ‘must read’ for fans of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos,” The Book of Cthulhu went where no collection of mythos tales had gone before: to the very edge of madness… and beyond.

This year, the stars are right…

And if you’d like to suggest a Cthulhu Mythos story or author you feel I missed the first time around, please feel free to let me know.

Why? For you, dear reader…

So here you go. Something you never thought you’d need. The nine best Cthulhu-related items currently on Etsy. Happy shopping!

1) Meatspider Cthulhu Idol v202

Cthulhu of Willendorf

2) Cthulhu with Jayne Cobb’s hat

For the Browncoat in your life. With bonus secret compartment.

3) Remembering The Future II

Giclée Print of Original Painting by Jason Brammer

4) Box of Miniature H. P. Lovecraft Books

Say, is that a tiny copy of Unaussprechlichen Kulten you’re reading?

5) Steampunk Wall Tentacle

We can’t stop here, this is octopus country!

6) Don Cthulhu

The Call of La Mancha!

7) OOAK Steampunk Cthulhu Pocket Watch

Is it time for the stars to be right?

Cthulhu HP Lovecraft small sized PROP radio

You’re listening to KTLU, Radio R’lyeh…

9) Standing Santa Cthulhu Figurine

The horror! The horror!

As always, this post was brought to you by The Book of Cthulhu, now available from better independent booksellers everywhere, and online through Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble. Want your bookstore mentioned here? Drop me a line!

And The Book of Cthulhu is listed on author Garrett Cook’s Bizarro, Weird and Wonderful Holiday Gift Guide, wherein Cook describes the anthology as “A must have for the discriminating cultist.”

Some people just got the note, couldn’t #FeedCthulhu on time, or were planning to make a donation before meeting up with friends and family.

That’s fine. If you keep giving, and keep Tweeting #FeedCthulhu, I’m happy to keep the doors open until midnight Thanksgiving.

Please help spread the word, and ask your friends to help spread the word. Let’s make a difference.

All you have to do is make a donation–any donation, so long as someone gets fed–then Tweet: I fed Cthulhu [your donation] to [organization] #FeedCthulhu @lossrockhart

That’s it. You #FeedCthulhu and you’re entered to win a copy of The Book of Cthulhu, either an e-book or a signed, personalized copy.

http://thebookofcthulhu.com/24-hour-feedcthulhu-feed-the-hungry-twitter-challenge/

“My really favourite meal is the regular old New England turkey dinner, with highly seasoned dressing, cranberry sauce, onions, etc., and mince pie for dessert.”
—H. P. Lovecraft, in a letter to Robert E. Howard, November 1932

Hi, my name is Ross E. Lockhart, and I’m the editor of The Book of Cthulhu, an anthology collecting twenty-seven tales of cosmic horror inspired by the writer H. P. Lovecraft. Many consider Lovecraft to be one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century. Literary movements from supernatural horror to magical realism to cosmicism to Bizarro have been influenced by Lovecraft’s body of work and his grandest creation… the Cthulhu Mythos.

H. P. Lovecraft died in 1937 at the age of 46. His decline and early death can be blamed, in part, on poverty and malnutrition.

Thursday is Thanksgiving Day in the United States, a holiday where we celebrate our national prosperity and providence. But people in the United States still go hungry. And hunger sucks. So I have a challenge for you. You have twenty-four hours to make a difference. The clock starts at 12:01 am Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, November 23, 2011, and runs until 11:59 pm PST Thanksgiving night.

During that twenty-four hour period, twenty-four randomly selected people who make a food or monetary donation—no matter how small—to a food charity—this can be a local food bank, church, temple, coven, a bin outside your grocery store, or national hunger relief organization—doesn’t matter, so long as they’re feeding people—those twenty four people will each get a free e-book of The Book of Cthulhu via e-mail (ePub format). If you were planning to make a food donation anyway, that’s great. If you’ve never done it before, even better. All you have to do to enter is make a donation, then Tweet the following:

I fed Cthulhu [your donation] to [organization] #FeedCthulhu @lossrockhart

Don’t forget to include the hashtag (#FeedCthulhu) and my Twitter handle (@lossrockhart) so that I can see the post.

I’ll choose and contact the winners through Twitter on Thanksgiving Day, and arrange to e-mail you your e-book copies of The Book of Cthulhu.

But there’s more. For three randomly selected entrants I will also send a signed, personalized copy of The Book of Cthulhu anywhere in the United States. This can be for you, or this can be a gift for a friend, it’s just my way of saying thanks for making a difference.

#FeedCthulhu and Feed the Hungry this Thanksgiving. And thanks.

http://twitter.com/lossrockhart
http://www.thebookofcthulhu.com

While H. P. Lovecraft’s works haven’t often fallen under the ban-hammer, he did create the ultimate banned book, the dreaded Necronomicon.

In celebration of Banned Books Week, I’d like to encourage you to visit your local independent bookstore and check out some of these challenged classic titles. And while you’re there, take a look and see if they’ve got The Book of Cthulhu on their shelves. If not, let me know. I’ve got forty or so postcards left, and I’d love to send them one and let them know about the book.

Far from being banned (yet), The Book of Cthulhu has received some outstanding reviews lately. Brian Sammons at Horror World says, “The Book of Cthulhu is one hell of a tome.” And Paul Goat Allen at Explorations: The BN SciFi and Fantasy Blog calls The Book of Cthulhu the “Ultimate Cthulhu Anthology,” further saying:

“There are no weak stories here – every single one of the 27 entries is a potential standout reading experience. The Book of Cthulhu is nothing short of pure Lovecraftian gold. If fans of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos don’t seek out and read this anthology, they’re not really fans – it’s that simple.”

And, I was recently interviewed by David Templeton of The Pacific Sun [8.3MB PDF], where we talked about The Book of Cthulhu, the movie Apollo 18, and the difference between cinematic and literary horror.

In other Lovecraftian news…

This week, on Monster Brains, Aeron Alfrey posted Rowena Morrill’s cover illustration for the 1978 paperback edition of The Dunwich Horror and Others by H.P. Lovecraft. Wow!

And (inspired by the Paul Goat Allen review above) The Book of Cthulhu contributor Silvia Moreno-Garcia blogged a behind-the-scenes look at the origins of her story, “Flash Frame.”

As always, this post was brought to you by The Book of Cthulhu, now available from better independent booksellers everywhere, and online through Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble. Want your bookstore mentioned here? Drop me a line!

The Outsider and Others

As you can see, instead of baking a cake for Grandpa Theobald, we’re launching this official website for The Book of Cthulhu: www.thebookofcthulhu.com! Please feel free to look around. We’re still working on a few things and adding content.

What are your plans for H.P.L.’s birthday? Re-reading classic tales of cosmic horror like “The Hound”, “The Dunwich Horror”, or “The Call of Cthulhu”? Taking in a Lovecraftian film festival with the Re-Animator trilogy: Re-Animator, Bride of Re-Animator, and Beyond Re-Animator? Pre-ordering The Book of Cthulhu?

In other news, The Book of Cthulhu has received its first review–a solid, four-star review–from  Josh Vogt at Examiner.com:

“The main advantage The Book of Cthulhu has going for it is the enormous span and variety of sources it draws from. Gathering Cthulhu-inspired stories from both 20th and 21st-century authors, this collection provides such a huge scope of styles and takes on the mythology that there are sure to be a handful that surprise and inspire horror in even the most jaded reader. Suffice it to say, if you’re a fan of Cthulhu stories, this collection will thrill you, or at least satisfy your taste for soul-sucking elder gods. If you despise Lovecraft for whatever reason, then ware, lest you find yourself on the Mountains of Madness.”

From Disappointing Monsters by Daniel Bradford and Owen Mackinder

Something about this picture, from Aeron Alfrey’s Monster Brains feature on the artwork of Hannes Bok reminds me that I need to take Maddie for a walk…

Hannes Bok - Frank Belknap Long. The Hounds of Tindalos. Arkham House, 1946

And we’ve only got 146 people signed up so far to win one of the seven copies of The Book of Cthulhu we’re giving away on Goodreads. Can we break a thousand in the next fifteen days? Only if you help spread the word:

But we’re doing it. With the help of Goodreads, the leading book cataloging community on the Internet, we’re giving away seven signed (by the editor) copies of The Book of Cthulhu. Details are at the link below, and the contest ends September 3, 2011.

Okay, maybe it’s actually only six copies and that copy of the Cthäat Aquadingen we found moaning in a corner of the warehouse a few months back. Freaky looking thing. Ate the last intern. Worries the dog. Cries. And should leather smell like that? Boy, somebody’s sure going to be surprised…

On my way in to the city this morning, I tuned in an audio drama adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s gender-bending tale of possession, “The Thing on the Doorstep” from 19 Nocturne Boulevard. “What does a man do when his new bride really, really wants his body?”

And on the way home? The latest Drabblecast, with an excerpt from H.P.L.’s sonnet cycle “The Fungi from Yuggoth” and a reading of “The Haunter of the Dark.”

But it’s been a very, very long day, and now it’s time to settle back with a book. Tonight, it’s an e-book, John Hornor Jacobs’ Fierce as the Grave: A Quartet of Horror Stories, which I downloaded this morning, and is currently only 99¢ for Amazon Kindle.