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Has anyone read the short story" The Events at Poroth Farm?"
It was an interesting horror/cosmic terror story that actually takes place in a rural area of New Jersey.Its quite rare that i meet people who read horror stories so i was just curious if there was somebody out there who enjoyed this short story as much as i did. You can appreciate it alot if you are from northern New Jersey. The author's name is Ted Klein.
''Fantastic Horror'', a free on-line magazine, publishes many fine horror tales-they've been kind enough to accept several of mine-and offers a forum for discussion of fantastic stories of all sorts.
Horror fiction is just for fun, Lovecraft and King don't believe in the reality of what they write(Lovecraft was a lifelong atheist)but it does present an interesting ''what if'' to consider.
What if there was a vampire-or a werewolf-or a collection of extraterrestrial demon-gods bent on claiming the Earth?
It would be horrible if it was real, but it's not, just fun to read about.
I like horror. I will have to try out that short story. I never once thought that horror authors believed what they wrote. I always thought it would be a cool to go on a camping trip with Stephen King. I don't like his newer books as well as his older ones. I'm not sure why. It's almost like he's trying too hard now. It doesn't flow as smoothly.
Clive Barker has some spooky ones too. Did you ever read The Amulet by McDowell? I must have read that one 50 times when I was a kid. It wasn't well written as some, but I read for pleasure, so don't really care as long as the story goes smoothly with a decent ending so it doesn't just leave you hanging with no hope of a sequal.
I don't know if this is considered horror, it probably isn't, but I really like the book Still Life with Crows by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I like all their books, but that one was my favorite.
Ahhhhh... nothing like settling down in the evening with a good dark read! One of my all time favorites that I've read until the book is falling apart is Robert McCammon's "Swan Song".
I've read "Cold Heart Canyon" and really enjoyed it, and the Preston/Child combo has been great for me. I'll have to look up the Scarabae Family at my next bookstore run - need something new!
Horror fiction is just for fun, Lovecraft and King don't believe in the reality of what they write(Lovecraft was a lifelong atheist)but it does present an interesting ''what if'' to consider.
What if there was a vampire-or a werewolf-or a collection of extraterrestrial demon-gods bent on claiming the Earth?
It would be horrible if it was real, but it's not, just fun to read about.
There've booen some fine stories about those very things. Donna Boyd did the ultimate werewolf stories. Laurell K Hamilton does a whole gaggle of other-beings, including shape shifters, zombies, witches, and a lot of were-types. Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light pretty much takes care of the 'gods' situation, though his are remnants of a lost/destroyed earth, rather than an invasion.
I find myself on an H.P. Lovecraft kick after stumbling across some short films on YouTube while seeking songs for the Music forum (having ended up there after the Movie and TV forums). Where filmmakers generally fail bringing Lovecraft's tales to life, these fan-made ones are quite impressive. In at least two of them, HPL appears as himself and is treated rather whimsically and decidedly fondly in one ("Out of Mind: The stories of H.P. Lovecraft").
Next, I came across a rock group from the Sixties that I had never encountered though I enjoyed the whole range of music throughout that decade, which was when I was in my teens. The group is~Ta daaaaa!~H.P. Lovecraft! So, I've been listening to them, which led to other Lovecraft-inspired music, particularly Heavy Metal but also Lovecraftian parodies.
By then, it felt as if the cosmos was saying, "Ahem! Remember all of those very old books you have stashed?" Yes, thank you, I do. I now have the irresistible urge to reread Lovecraft, authors who inspired him and his followers. I have quite an impressive paperback library of them since, in my late teens and early 20s, these writers had been rediscovered by college students and were easily found in the bookstores~generally along the bottom rack, out of the way, tantalizing to any book fancier who likes to follow the less-traveled path. If it had any connection to HPL, I purchased it. (I also became a devotee to Thomas Burnett Swann that way, but he's a different matter~I think.)
On YouTube, I started watching documentaries about Lovecraft though I knew a great deal about him from non-fiction works in my collection. Coincidences became downright eerie, especially when I learned that Lovecraft was inspired by Charles Fort, a collector of stories of the unusual/paranormal whom I had become a fan of when I was about 15. Already, I had been reading about parapsychology/the paranormal/etc. since I was 10 years old and happened across an interesting volume on a bookshelf at an aunt's house. Prior to this, I had learned to read at 4 years old, with my parents incorporating a Little Golden Book tited "Then and Now" about dinosaurs and reptiles. At that time, I was positive that I would become a paleontologist and go to the Gobi Desert to work with my first hero: Roy Chapman Andrews. (Forgive me for my ignorance of his demise, but I was a girl child of the early 50s who still did not quite have a grasp on history.)(My parents didn't discourage this though I puzzled many adults who asked me what I was going to be when I grew up: a mommy, nurse or perhaps teacher. When I told them what I was going to be, my parents said they inevitably would have a blank look on their faces; Mom and Dad supposed they didn't want to ask a child what a paleontologist did.) Anyway... Living in a very tiny town with no library, the nearest being at least 25 miles away via two-lane roads, I had rare access to the books I craved until I entered school, which my late-in-the-year birthday delayed. So, my older cousin began bringing home books from her class library, and she and my parents would help occasionally; thus, I was reading at the third-grade level when I was 4-5 years old. When we got to the city occasionally, I was allowed to check out only three books though my parents explained that, by the time we got back home, I likely would have one read already. When the library stayed firm on the limit, my parents took me to the adult section and allowed me to check out books on THEIR cards. I read science fiction, fantasy, mythology of all countries, archaeology, paleontology, and so much more, including the works of A.A. Fair aka Erle Stanley Gardner, Leslie Charteris and Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan, Pellucidar, John Carter). Somehow, I skipped reading anything a child my age was expected to find entertaining: The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, etc.; they simply didn't interest me in the way Thor Heyerdahl and Richard Halliburton, for example, did.
Oh dear... I'm not sure why I came to this forum except to see where this revived passion for Lovecraft was leading me. Could I find others interested? I find that there is so much in my life that matches him, and I find connections to others: Charles Fort, who, as I mention above, influenced Lovecraft, who, in turn, influenced the writing of a book titled "The Morning of the Magicians", which I hadn't encountered before for whatever odd reason; which in turn influenced Erich von Daniken to write "Chariots of the Gods". EVD is someone I began reading in my late teens because he reminded me of Charles Fort and Frank Edwards. (BTW: I just now learned that Edwards was a native of Mattoon, Illinois, where I lived and worked for several years~yet another connection in this growing web!)
What gets really weird (weirder?) is that my mother is hooked on watching "Ancient Aliens", and so I watch, too. We get to laugh at the wild-eyed, wild-haired fellow who tosses in "according to ancient alien theorists" a lot. We see faraway sites other documentaries don't show, and it's light entertainment. Except... The "AAT" guy initially was set up by EVD to sort of handle his fan following, which is how he came to their attention for the series. EVD does show up on the series quite a bit. Once again, there are connections. Sheesh! I promise that I'm not going to start shouting about conspiracies! *snicker* Really, I am not one of those cultists or obsessed people, but the chain of coincidences is getting a bit mindboggling when I always considered that life has no patterns; it's just haphazard, right?
Maybe this is what blogging is about, but I never thought to be a blogger or to pour out my thoughts except for occasional light commentary. I can console myself for thinking that no one is going to bother to read all of this, the ramblings of an ADHD, sleep-deprived, night owl brain. Honestly, I am not a nut or a wacko or some frenzied fiend. (And, they all began to edge away, muttering, "Show no fear." *smile* "Of course! We understand!") *sigh* Maybe I'm just looking at all of it late in life, but it's been quite astonishing to find so many connections in quick order, like a domino design tumbling.
For Lovecraft admirers, this is an excellent documentary with Clive Barker, Guillermo del Toro, Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub, Ramsey Campbell, and others offering views on the author and the Cthulhu Mythos:
BTW: Stephen King, Graham Masterton and many other authors have written HPL-inspired stories/novels, even adding to the Mythos occasionally. Lovecraft's popularity is increasing, and he finally is receiving honors, praise and attention for his influential works.
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