January 22, 2013
by Ross E. Lockhart
Comments Off on Win a signed copy of THE BOOK OF CTHULHU II!

Win a signed copy of THE BOOK OF CTHULHU II!

You’ve pined for it. You’ve added it to your wishlist. You’ve called forth the spirits of long-dead ancestors from their essential salts and asked them for it. But somehow, you still haven’t managed to lay your hands on a copy of The Book of Cthulhu II. Now here’s your chance.

Thanks to Goodreads, the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations, you can win a signed copy of the critically-acclaimed anthology The Book of Cthulhu II! All you need to do is click on the widget below and sign up (if you haven’t already), and on February 08, 2013, we will be awarding three lucky readers autographed copies of the anthology. Editor Ross E. Lockhart will even personalize your copy to you, or your shoggoth sweetheart, since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner.

It’s simple. Click, sign up, and win! But first, check out some of the critical praise the anthology has received:

“…a stunning collection of Lovecraft inspired tales all centered around the infamous Cthulhu myth.”
–Drake Llywelyn, Dark Shadows Book Reviews

“As he did for his previous anthology, Lockhart has cast his net far and wide to haul in outstanding stories from publications both well-known and obscure, none sampled more than once. He has also commissioned four new stories, several so good that they are likely to be selected for reprint anthologies in the future.”
–Stefan Dziemianowicz, Locus

“…any fan of Lovecraft can’t afford to miss out on this one.”
–Justin Steele, The Arkham Digest

“The second volume of The Book of Cthulhu exemplifies the richness of Lovecraft’s legacy: gloomy terror, mystery, thrills, vivid action, chilling visions, satire, science fiction, humor — all of that, and then some, is crammed into more than 400 pages awaiting readers eager for some apocalyptic horror.”
–Dejan Ognjanovic, Rue Morgue

“This follow-up anthology is every bit as fine as its predecessor.”
–Alan Cranis, Bookgasm

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Book of Cthulhu II

by Ross E. Lockhart

Giveaway ends February 08, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

January 16, 2013
by Ross E. Lockhart
Comments Off on Two New Reviews: Dark Shadows Book Reviews & Write or Wrong

Two New Reviews: Dark Shadows Book Reviews & Write or Wrong

We have two brand-new reviews to share with you this gelid Wednesday morning:

Drake Llywelyn at Dark Shadows Book Reviews calls The Book of Cthulhu II “a stunning collection of Lovecraft inspired tales all centered around the infamous Cthulhu myth.” Llywelyn singles out stories by Caitlin R. Kiernan, William Browning Spencer, and Kim Newman, and name-checks Laird Barron, Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Wood, and W. H. Pugmire, further saying, “The stories in this collection vary greatly in theme, tone, and atmosphere, but all pay homage to the great master of storytelling and world-building.”

And at Write or Wrong, Sandra M. Odell reviews The Drabblecast‘s production of Christopher Reynaga’s tale from The Book of Cthulhu II, “I Only Am Escaped Alone To Tell Thee,” saying:

“‘I Only Am Escaped Alone To Tell Thee’ is a deliciously moody retelling of Melville’s MOBY DICK with a healthy dose of a tentacled, winged monster a la H. P. Lovecraft. Ahab is not the monstrous man you have come to expect, and there are far worse horrors awaiting Ishmael. Christopher nails it again and again, whether the timing of the prose, the depth of description, or his choice of imagery. Graeme’s narration grinds the story into the dark, gritty pavement of Nantucket, and alternately leaves the listener wanting more and wishing to drown out his words in alcohol. THE DRABBLECAST hit it out of the part with this production.”

Read the full review at Write or Wrong. Check out the The Drabblecast‘s recording (featuring the incredible Graeme Dunlop) at www.drabblecast.org, or listen to the author read this whale of a tale in his own voice using the Soundcloud widget below:

January 8, 2013
by Ross E. Lockhart
Comments Off on Listen to Christopher Reynaga’s “I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee” again for the first time!

Listen to Christopher Reynaga’s “I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee” again for the first time!

You enjoyed listening to Christopher Reynaga‘s reading of his story “I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee” (from The Book of Cthulhu II) when we posted it last week. Now prepare to hear it again… for the first time. Read by The Drabblecast‘s Graeme Dunlop, this new recording will have you hiding under the couch–and avoiding seafood–for the foreseeable future. Just click here or on the picture below to listen.

And now that you’ve heard both adaptations, what do you think? Which reading was stronger? The author’s, or the actor’s? Let us know in the comments!

January 3, 2013
by Ross E. Lockhart
3 Comments

Listen to Christopher Reynaga’s “I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee”

In the latest issue of Locus, critic Stefan Dziemianowicz highly lauds Christopher Reynaga’s “I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee,” (from The Book of Cthulhu II) saying the tale “so perfectly conflates Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ with Moby-Dick (albeit with a bit of Coleridge and Yeats thrown in for good measure) that it comes as a surprise that no writer had thought to do this before.”

Now, by special arrangement, The Book of Cthulhu II presents your chance to hear the author read this whale of a horror tale through the Soundcloud widget below.

Christopher Reynaga is a first place winner for the 2012 Writers of the Future, recipient of the Bazzanella Literary Award for Short Fiction and a graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop. He has stories appearing in such venues as Cemetery Dance, Boys of Summer and Expanded Horizons. You can follow him into the dark heart of the woods at www.ChristopherReynaga.com

January 1, 2013
by Ross E. Lockhart
Comments Off on A New Year Brings Two New Reviews of The Book of Cthulhu II

A New Year Brings Two New Reviews of The Book of Cthulhu II

Happy 2013! With the arrival of the new year, two brand-new reviews of The Book of Cthulhu II have landed. The first comes from author Jesse Bullington (The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, The Enterprise of Death, and The Folly of the World), who writes, “It’s a great collection of both original and reprint stories, and a highly worthy follow-up to his first Book of Cthulhu, which I thought was one of the best Lovecraft-inspired anthologies I’ve ever read.” Bullington highlights stories by Neil Gaiman, Fritz Leiber, Caitlin R. Kiernan, W.H. Pugmire, Livia Llewellyn, Cody Goodfellow, William Browning Spencer, Molly Tanzer, and Orrin Grey, and concludes, “For those with the Innsmouth Look, this is a great addition to the canon, and for those who have prematurely dismissed HPL and his heirs as schlock, this should prove a persuasive refutation.” Read the full review Writers Read.

The second review of 2013 appears in the January issue of Locus, wherein reviewer Stefan Dziemianowicz has a great deal of praise for The Book of Cthulhu II. Dziemianowicz writes, “As he did for his previous anthology, Lockhart has cast his net far and wide to haul in outstanding stories from publications both well-known and obscure, none sampled more than once. He has also commissioned four new stories, several so good that they are likely to be selected for reprint anthologies in the future.” Singling out stories by Fritz Leiber, Karl Edward Wagner, Neil Gaiman, Kim Newman, A. Scott Glancy, Stanley Sargent, Jonathan Wood, Cody Goodfellow, Michael Chabon, and Laird Barron, Dziemianowicz highly lauds Christopher Reynaga’s “I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee,” saying the tale “so perfectly conflates Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ with Moby-Dick (albeit with a bit of Coleridge and Yeats thrown in for good measure) that it comes as a surprise that no writer had thought to do this before.” Read the full review in the January issue of Locus.

December 18, 2012
by Ross E. Lockhart
Comments Off on The Arkham Digest reviews The Book of Cthulhu II

The Arkham Digest reviews The Book of Cthulhu II

The Arkham Digest‘s Justin Steele reviews The Book of Cthulhu II, saying, “any fan of Lovecraft can’t afford to miss out on this one,” and singling out many of the noteworthy stories and authors in the book. Check out the full review at this link, or by clicking on the cover below.

December 14, 2012
by Ross E. Lockhart
Comments Off on Re-Santamater! Here’s a Claus that could repair dismembered people, says horror maven…

Re-Santamater! Here’s a Claus that could repair dismembered people, says horror maven…

Happy Holidays! Check out this interview with Ross E. Lockhart, editor of The Book of Cthulhu and The Book of Cthulhu II, as he talks Xmas movies and cosmic horror with the Pacific Sun‘s David Templeton.

December 14, 2012
by Ross E. Lockhart
Comments Off on Spotted in the Wild!

Spotted in the Wild!

Whether you prefer your weird fiction with tentacles or guitars, we’ve got reading material to scratch your itch. Available now from better retailers everywhere, including Amazon.com:

The Book of Cthulhu
The Book of Cthulhu II
Chick Bassist
The Pugilist’s Holiday and Other Holiday Tales of the Twisted and Grotesque

And a shout out to Tiff Franks for the “spotted in the wild” photo!

December 12, 2012
by Ross E. Lockhart
Comments Off on Rue Morgue reviews The Book of Cthulhu II

Rue Morgue reviews The Book of Cthulhu II

Keep your eyes open for the latest issue of the always-exceptional Rue Morgue (#129), appearing on newsstands now, which includes Dejan Ognjanovic’s stellar review of The Book of Cthulhu II. “The second volume of The Book of Cthulhu,” writes Ognjanovic, “exemplifies the richness of Lovecraft’s legacy: gloomy terror, mystery, thrills, vivid action, chilling visions, satire, science ficiton, humor — all of that, and then some, is crammed into more than 400 pages awaiting readers eager for some apocalyptic horror.” Author shout-outs in the review include: Neil Gaiman, Kim Newman, Fritz Leiber, Karl Edward Wagner, William Browning Spencer, Cody Goodfellow, Mark Samuels, Jonathan Wood, Michael Chabon, Laird Barron, Paul Tobin, and Molly Tanzer.

Order The Book of Cthulhu II where better books are sold, including Amazon.com.

November 21, 2012
by Ross E. Lockhart
2 Comments

72 Hour #FeedCthulhu Feed the Hungry Challenge 2012

“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 and The Book of Cthulhu II, a pair of anthologies collecting more than fifty tales of cosmic horror inspired by the writer H. P. Lovecraft, and written by some of the biggest names in fantastic fiction, including Laird Barron, Elizabeth Bear, Michael Chabon, David Drake, Neil Gaiman, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Fritz Leiber, Thomas Ligotti, Tim Pratt, W. H. Pugmire, Gene Wolfe, and many, many more.

Readers today 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 seventy-two hours to make a difference. The clock starts right now, and runs until 11:59 pm PST Saturday, November 24.

During that seventy-two hour period, twenty-five 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-five people will each get a free e-book of The Book of Cthulhu II via e-mail (ePub or Mobi 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 (or share it on Facebook or your blog):

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 on Sunday, November 25, and arrange to e-mail you your e-book copies of The Book of Cthulhu II.

But there’s more. For three randomly selected entrants I will also send a signed, personalized copy of The Book of Cthulhu II 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.

Please share this with your friends and family. Together, we have the power to change—and strange—the world. #FeedCthulhu and Feed the Hungry this Thanksgiving. And thanks!

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