In Stock and Shipping: THE COLOR OVER OCCAM by Jonathan Thomas (Signed Limited)!

We are now hand numbering and shipping out copies of:

THE COLOR OVER OCCAM by Jonathan Thomas (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover) #2 in the Modern Mythos Series

To  reserve your copy or get more information on this title just click the cover art below

 

Gorman County disappeared decades ago when floodwaters rose to fill a reservoir. So why should the ghosts of drowned villages resurface only now, in a new century? And what does the reservoir have to do with the grisly deaths, disease, and disappearances stalking the benighted little town of Occam?

Amateur paranormal sleuth Jeff Slater poses these innocent questions, only to encounter hostility, intimidation, and violence wherever he turns. In this saga of Lovecraftian horror, noirish detection, and festering corruption, Slater comes to understand how little he ever knew of his hometown’s macabre history and its bizarre present. Meanwhile, those who do know of Occam’s sinister past warn him with one voice: unearthly doom is on its way. Run or die. But Slater can’t abandon his search for the truth so easily. Can he alter the fate of a town facing cosmic annihilation without destroying himself?

This is the second in our Modern Mythos Series edited by S. T. Joshi and Larry Roberts. The Modern Mythos Series is dedicated to finding the best modern lovecraftian fiction being written today by both veteran and new talented genre authors.

One of only 150 signed and numbered hardcover copies.

THE COLOR OVER OCCAM Now at the Printers!

THE COLOR OVER OCCAM by Jonathan Thomas (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover) #2 in the Modern Mythos Series

Is not at the printers and we should have it in our hands in about four or five weeks.

This is truly one of the best mythos title to come around in years and a must have for any Lovecraftian library. With a foreword by world renown Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi!

Gorman County disappeared decades ago when floodwaters rose to fill a reservoir. So why should the ghosts of drowned villages resurface only now, in a new century? And what does the reservoir have to do with the grisly deaths, disease, and disappearances stalking the benighted little town of Occam?

Amateur paranormal sleuth Jeff Slater poses these innocent questions, only to encounter hostility, intimidation, and violence wherever he turns. In this saga of Lovecraftian horror, noirish detection, and festering corruption, Slater comes to understand how little he ever knew of his hometown’s macabre history and its bizarre present. Meanwhile, those who do know of Occam’s sinister past warn him with one voice: unearthly doom is on its way. Run or die. But Slater can’t abandon his search for the truth so easily. Can he alter the fate of a town facing cosmic annihilation without destroying himself?

This is the second in our Modern Mythos Series edited by S. T. Joshi and Larry Roberts. The Modern Mythos Series is dedicated to finding the best modern lovecraftian fiction being written today by both veteran and new talented genre authors.

One of only 150 signed and numbered hardcover copies.  Click on the cover art above for more information and how to reserve your copy.

MEDUSA’S COIL Shipping Update and More

MEDUSA’S COIL AND OTHERS Volume II by  H. P. Lovecraft edited by S. T. Joshi (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

 

We have received the tracking number from the printer and we should be receiving MEDUSA’S COIL and Others on the 11th of April. We will begin shipping them out as soon as they arrive.

ONLY 5 COPIES LEFT!!!

Some of H. P. Lovecraft’s most fascinating work came from a time in his life that he was forced, by economic survival, to ghostwrite, collaborate and revise the work of others in the field. Here Lovecraft Scholar S. T. Joshi collects the best of these revisions and collaborations in a two volume set to be published this year from Arcane Wisdom Press. Medusa’s Coil and Others is the second of these two volumes. This edition is painstakingly annotated, and includes an introduction and bibliography by S. T. Joshi. The book is a must for the Lovecraft enthusiast and scholar alike. This limited edition hardcover will be strictly limited to only 150 hardcover copies. They will be signed by Lovecraftian scholar S. T. Joshi and will be hand numbered on a custom signature sheet, featuring artwork by Zach McCain. We expect to be shipping these in late January reserve your copy now of this unique collection.

 

Coming soon from TARTARUS PRESS is THE KING IN THE GOLDEN MASK and Other Stories by Marcel Schwab (Limited Edition Hardcover) Import

We are expecting these in late April early May.

The peculiar genius of Monsieur Schwob lies in a species of tremendously complex simplicity; that is to say that, by the arrangement and the harmony of an infinity of telling and precise details, his stories present the sensation of a unique detail.’
Rémy de Gourmont,
Le deuxième Livre des Masques
Revered in the French-speaking world, Marcel Schwob (1867-1905) deserves to be much better known among English-speaking aficionados of Decadent fiction. This new collection of fifty-one stories, including eight newly-translated pieces, aims to address that discrepancy. It brings back into print Iain White’s poetic translations of Schwob’s better-known tales, such as the title story ‘The King in the Golden Mask’, and adds newly-translated gems such as the astonishingly beautiful and haunting ‘The Wooden Star’.

Schwob was a one-off, but he was greatly influenced by English and American writers. He discovered Edgar Allan Poe whilst still a child, and he translated Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Dynamiter into French. He crammed a great variety of literary endeavour into his all-too-short life, and was much admired by contemporaries such as Paul Valéry and Guillaume Apollinaire.

The King in the Golden Mask contains:

Translator’s introduction
Acknowledgements
From Cœur double: ‘The Strigae’, ‘The Sabot’, ‘Train 081′, ‘Arachné’, ‘The Veiled Man’, ‘Beatrice’, ‘Lilith’, ‘A Skeleton’, ‘The Fat Man’, ‘The Dom’, ‘The Amber-trader’, ‘Mérigot Marchès’, ‘The “Papier Rouge” ‘, ‘The Firebrands’.
From Le Roi au masque d’or: ‘The King in the Golden Mask’, ‘The Death of Odjigh’, ‘The Embalming-women’, ‘The Plague’, ‘The Milesian Virgins’, ‘The Sabbat at Mofflaines’, ‘Blanche the Bloody’, ‘The Flute’, ‘The Sleeping City’.
From Vies imaginaires: ‘Introduction’, ‘Empedocles, Reputed God’, ‘Herostratos, Incendiary’, ‘Crates, Cynic’, ‘Septima, Enchantress’, ‘Lucretius, Poet’, ‘Clodia, Shameless Matron’, ‘Petronius, Novelist’, ‘Sufrah, Geomancer’, ‘Frate Dolcino, Heretic’, ‘Cecco Angiolieri, Malevolent Poet’, ‘Paolo Uccello, Painter’, ‘Nicholas Oyseleur, Judge’, ‘Katherine la Dentellière, Whore’, ‘Alain le Gentil, Soldier’, ‘Gabriel Spenser, Actor’, ‘Cyril Tourneur, Tragic Poet’, ‘Major Stede Bonnet, Pirate by Vagary’, ‘Burke and Hare, Murderers’.
La croisade des enfants: ‘The Goliard’s Narrative’, ‘The Leper’s Narrative’, ‘The Narrative of Pope Innocent III’, ‘Narrative of Three Little Children’, ‘Narrative of François Longuejoue, Clerk’, ‘The Kalandar’s Narrative’, ‘Little Allys’ Narrative’, ‘The Narrative of Pope Gregory IX’.
‘The Wooden Star’

Cover illustration by Santiago Caruso

CTHULHU CULT: A Novel of Obsession by Rick Dakan (#1 in the Modern Mythos Library)

Down to only a handful of copies left!!

This is #1 in our new Modern Mythos Series. Each title is hand picked and edited by Lovecrafian Scholar S. T. Joshi and award winning publisher Larry L. Roberts. These titles will be the best modern fiction in the Lovecraftian Mythos and will undoubtedly become one of the most collected series in the genre.

Synopsis:

Having fled town under a cloud of salacious scandal, Shelby Tyree has returned, a mysterious woman at his side and a strange new devotion to horror writer H.P. Lovecraft in his head. His childhood friends Rick and Conrad scarcely recognize Shelby, who has been transformed from a rakish dilettante into a zealous guru devoted to his own pseudo-religion. They take it upon themselves to discover what Shelby is really up to. Why has he founded his own church, devoted to a presumably fictional demonic alien? Is it possible Shelby’s lost his grip on reality or is somehow under the spell of this mysterious woman? Or is it possible that Shelby has uncovered some secret truths that man was not meant to know? “The Cthulhu Cult is a brilliant and scintillating novel of Lovecraftian terror. It grips the reader from the first page and develops a tremendous cumulative power.

Anyone who has the least interest in H. P. Lovecraft’s work will find The Cthulhu Cult a must-read.” –S. T. Joshi

One of only 150 signed and numbered hardcover copies.

THE COLOR OVER OCCAM by Jonathan Thomas

Arcane Wisdom is pleased to announce the next in our Modern Mythos Library series.

THE COLOR OVER OCCAM by Jonathan Thomas (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

One of only 150 signed and numbered hardcover copies.

To reserve or get more information just click on the cover art below.

 

Gorman County disappeared decades ago when floodwaters rose to fill a reservoir. So why should the ghosts of drowned villages resurface only now, in a new century? And what does the reservoir have to do with the grisly deaths, disease, and disappearances stalking the benighted little town of Occam?

Amateur paranormal sleuth Jeff Slater poses these innocent questions, only to encounter hostility, intimidation, and violence wherever he turns. In this saga of Lovecraftian horror, noirish detection, and festering corruption, Slater comes to understand how little he ever knew of his hometown’s macabre history and its bizarre present. Meanwhile, those who do know of Occam’s sinister past warn him with one voice: unearthly doom is on its way. Run or die. But Slater can’t abandon his search for the truth so easily. Can he alter the fate of a town facing cosmic annihilation without destroying himself?

This is the second in our Modern Mythos Series edited by S. T. Joshi and Larry Roberts. The Modern Mythos Series is dedicated to finding the best modern lovecraftian fiction being written today by both veteran and new talented genre authors.

Arcane Wisdom Press Publishing Schedule Update

Here is a quick update on a few already announced title and a couple that will be announced over the next several weeks.

THE GHOST OF FEAR AND OTHERS: H. P. Lovecraft’s Favorite Horror Stories edited by S. T. Joshi Vol I (Signed Limited Hardcover)

This title is already at the printers and we are expecting it within the next several weeks.

H. P. Lovecraft was a voracious reader of supernatural and fantastic fiction, and he was continually on the hunt for powerful and stimulating works in these genres. Many of the stories he read directly influenced his own writings. This first volume of H. P. Lovecraft’s Favorite Horror Stories presents 16 stories that Lovecraft found to be of particular merit. Among them are the beautiful poetic fantasy “Idle Days on the Yann” by Lord Dunsany; Fiona Macleod’s grimly evocative “The Sin-Eater,” which influenced “The Rats in the Walls”; Arthur Machen’s grisly novelette “Novel of the White Powder,” which Lovecraft adapted for “Cool Air”; and M. P. Shiel’s “The House of Sounds,” which Lovecraft ranked among the greatest weird tales ever written. Also included are hard-to-find stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne, E. F. Benson, Théophile Gautier, John Buchan, and others, as well as two stories from the legendary pulp magazine Weird Tales (Seabury Quinn’s “The Phantom Farmhouse” and Arthur J. Burks’s “Bells of Oceana”). The volume contains an introduction by S. T. Joshi as well as notes on the individual stories, giving background on the authors as well as on Lovecraft’s appreciation of the tales and their possible influence on his work.

 

Contents:

• Introduction by S. T. Joshi
• Idle Days on the Yann by Lord Dunsany
• Fragments from the Journal of a Solitary Man by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Man Who Went Too Far by E. F. Benson
• The Mark of the Beast by Rudyard Kipling
• The Sin-Eater by Fiona Macleod
• The House of Sounds by M. P. Shiel
• The Phantom Farmhouse by Seabury Quinn
• One of Cleopatra’s Nights by Théophile Gautier
• The Stranger from Kurdistan by E. Hoffmann Price
• The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar by Edgar Allan Poe
• Novel of the White Powder by Arthur Machen
• The Dead Smile by F. Marion Crawford
• The Ghost of Fear by H. G. Wells
• Lukundoo by Edward Lucas White
• Bells of Oceana by Arthur J. Burks
• The Wind in the Portico by John Buchan

This is a signed limited edition hardcover of only 150 signed and numbered copies.

 

MEDUSA’S COIL AND OTHERS Volume II by H. P. Lovecraft edited by S. T. Joshi (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

 

Volume one The Crawling Chaos sold out quickly and this one is almost gone too. If you haven’t reserved your copy of this book yet do so soon by clicking the cover art above.

This book is in the final stages of copy editing and then it will be at the printers. We expect to have it in hand within about six weeks.

Some of H. P. Lovecraft’s most fascinating work came from a time in his life that he was forced, by economic survival, to ghostwrite, collaborate and revise the work of others in the field. Here Lovecraft Scholar S. T. Joshi collects the best of these revisions and collaborations in a two volume set to be published this year from Arcane Wisdom Press. Medusa’s Coil and Others is the second of these two volumes. This edition is painstakingly annotated, and includes an introduction and bibliography by S. T. Joshi. The book is a must for the Lovecraft enthusiast and scholar alike. This limited edition hardcover will be strictly limited to only 150 hardcover copies. They will be signed by Lovecraftian scholar S. T. Joshi and will be hand numbered on a custom signature sheet, featuring artwork by Zach McCain. We expect to be shipping these in late January reserve your copy now of this unique collection.

Contents:

• Introduction by S. T. Joshi
• Medusa’s Coil (with Zealia Bishop)
• The Trap (with Henry S. Whitehead)
• The Man of Stone (with Hazel Heald)
• Winged Death (with Hazel Heald)
• The Horror in the Museum (with Hazel Heald)
• Out of the Aeons (with Hazel Heald)
• The Horror in the Burying-Ground (with Hazel Heald)
• The Slaying of the Monster (with R. H. Barlow)
• The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast (with R. H. Barlow)
• The Tree on the Hill (with Duane W. Rimel)
• The Battle That Ended the Century (with R. H. Barlow)
• “Till A’ the Seas” (with R. H. Barlow)
• Collapsing Cosmoses (with R. H. Barlow)
• The Challenge from Beyond (with C. L. Moore, A. Merritt, Robert E. Howard, and Frank Belknap Long)
• The Disinterment (with Duane W. Rimel)
• The Diary of Alonzo Typer (with William Lumley)
• In the Walls of Eryx (with Kenneth Sterling)
• The Night Ocean (with R. H. Barlow)
• Appendix
• Notes to “Medusa’s Coil”
• Notes to “The Challenge from Beyond”
• The Sorcery of Aphlar (with Duane W. Rimel)
• The Diary of Alonzo Typer by William Lumley
• Notes
• Bibliography

 

Soon we will be announcing two new additions to our Modern Mythos Library:  THE COLOR OVER OCCAM by Jonathan Thomas. Cover art for this one is currently being completed and we should have the limited edition hardcover up within the next couple weeks.  And the first book in our new novella series in the Modern Mythos Library titled IRON CHAIN by Donald Tyson. Stay tuned for more on these awesome new Modern Mythos Library titles.

Lastly In the coming months we will also be announcing THE SONG OF THE SIREN by Edward Lucas White. This will be a collection of his best work edited and with long introduction by mythos scholar S. T. Joshi (title and cover art for this one may change)

 

Contents:

Introduction

• The House of the Nightmare
• The Flambeau Bracket
• Amina
• The Message on the Slate
• Lukundoo
• The Pig-skin Belt
• The Song of the Sirens
• The Picture Puzzle
• The Snout
• Sorcery Island
• Azrael
• The Ghoula
• Edward Lucas White on Dreams

Review: The Light Is the Darkness by Laird Barron by Alex Lugo

Although I haven’t spent too much time on this mortal plane, I’ve spent most of it reading. Usually, I read horror, but I tend try to read a bit of everything. I just want the reader to keep in mind that I’ve read a great many books, and as such, I feel that I know what I am talking about. Having said that, I have just recently come to a conclusion that Laird Barron’s first novel, The Light is the Darkness, is a modern day classic. It’s up there with Frankenstein, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and The Road. Why, you ask? I have a simple answer: the book is perfect. The characters are perfect. The story is perfect. Everything is perfect. Its only flaw is that it ended! The Light is the Darkness can be considered a mix of Lovecraftian horror, philosophy, science, existentialism, gritty-action, and blunt prose, but I’ll just call the book art.

There is no easy way to provide a synopsis of the story, but here goes nothing. Conrad, a champion of a modern-day, underground blood-sport competition whose matches are held across the globe, is traveling around the world in search of his sister Imogene, an F.B.I. agent who goes searching after the mysterious Dr. Drake, who killed their brother Ezra in some foul experiment. Along the way, Conrad learns the meaning of life, and begins a transition into something much more than human, which is a theme present in a couple other stories from Laird Barron, but never on such a grand scale as in The Light is the Darkness.

            The book’s prose is very blunt, elegantly simplistic, almost brutish, but the words themselves sing of a bleak, gritty world, with much bleaker, grittier themes. Barron makes you feel so small and insignificant, as if the cosmos and all the horrors within them are looking directly at you. The Light is the Darkness forces you to look right into the abyss, to jump in it, swim around, and come out realizing that what looked back at you may have been some mangled portrait of your own, alien self. There are scenes in this book that will haunt and scar the reader. There was one particular incident that gave me such chills, my eyes nearly watered. The book will not give you cheap thrills from the occasional gory episode. Instead, Laird Barron describes some of the most complex and primal actions in ways that scare the living daylights out of you, or make you recline in your chair and think for awhile.  

           The Light is the Darkness is as smart, scientific, and philosophical as it is eerie, horrifying, and downright disturbing. Think of it as a combination of Friedrich Nietzsche, Ernest Hemmingway, and H.P. Lovecraft, and mix that with the bold, blunt, and tough style Laird Barron is known for. I won’t be surprised if there will be a Penguin Classics edition in a strange aeon or two.

            If you’re a fan of Laird Barron, you need this book. Barron fans will appreciate his references to his past tales, such as “The Imago Sequence”, “Six Six Six”, “Hallucigenia”, “Old Virginia”, and perhaps even “Shiva, Open your Eye”. I can also recommend this to honestly anyone interested in fine, complex, dark fiction. I cannot recommend this to lovers of a specific genre because it is a combination of so many genres. If you truly love literature, you will love this book. Not only is the books simply immaculate, but the design is impeccable. The book is published by Infernal House, which is run by one of the best publishers on this plane of existence, Larry Roberts. The book is bond in the most exquisite leather, and comes in a luxurious traycase. David Ho drew some fine illustrations for the book, my personal favorite being a mouth eating the universe. I could probably write an entire other review on the design of the book! Hopefully Larry Roberts and Laird Barron will work on another project in the future.

            The Light is the Darkness shows how insanely godlike Laird Barron is as a writer. As noted above, this book ranks among some of the best books ever written, in my opinion. If you want a real treat for all of your senses, go pick up a copy of the Infernal House edition and immerse yourself. It is worth every single penny. For the design, the book is a ten out of ten, and for the actual story itself, I honestly cannot give it a number. It is that incredible. The Light is the Darkness will take you to the darkest corners of the earth, and when you come back from this adventure, you will go through a metamorphosis of your own.

The caterpillar enters the cocoon. Ouroboros bites its tail.

You can read the entire article here THE COSMICOMICON

The Pugmire, Joshi, Connors Choir and Updates!

Talk about the best birthday present EVER! Nothing like having W. H. Pugmire, S. T. Joshi and Scott Connors sing you happy birthday.  I think even Lovecraft’s ghost was humming in the background. Thanks guys you made this birthday very special indeed!

These very talented men also give a bunch of updates on their future projects so check it out.

 

 

CTHULHU CULT by Rick Dakan Shipping Next Week!

 

The wait is over! Next week we will be shipping the first book in the Modern Mythos Library series published by Arcane Wisdom Press.

This is a limited edition hardcover of only 150 signed and hand numbered copies. Each book has a full wrap around laminate four color dust jacket, custom color endpapers, illustrated signature sheet and is built to last generations!

This is #1 in our new Modern Mythos Series. Each title is hand picked and edited by Lovecrafian Scholar S. T. Joshi and award winning publisher Larry L. Roberts. These titles will be the best modern fiction in the Lovecraftian Mythos and will undoubtedly become one of the most collected series in the genre.

CTHULHU CULT: A Novel of Obsession by Rick Dakan (#1 in the Modern Mythos Library)

Synopsis:

Having fled town under a cloud of salacious scandal, Shelby Tyree has returned, a mysterious woman at his side and a strange new devotion to horror writer H.P. Lovecraft in his head. His childhood friends Rick and Conrad scarcely recognize Shelby, who has been transformed from a rakish dilettante into a zealous guru devoted to his own pseudo-religion. They take it upon themselves to discover what Shelby is really up to. Why has he founded his own church, devoted to a presumably fictional demonic alien? Is it possible Shelby’s lost his grip on reality or is somehow under the spell of this mysterious woman? Or is it possible that Shelby has uncovered some secret truths that man was not meant to know? “The Cthulhu Cult is a brilliant and scintillating novel of Lovecraftian terror. It grips the reader from the first page and develops a tremendous cumulative power.

Anyone who has the least interest in H. P. Lovecraft’s work will find The Cthulhu Cult a must-read.” –S. T. Joshi

One of only 150 signed and numbered hardcover copies.

Here is a sneak peek:

Color Endpapers:

Foil Stamp:

Editors: S. T. Joshi and Larry L. Roberts

 

What I Miss

You know that you’re getting older when you reminisce about the days that are so long gone that the younger generation can’t even comprehend what it was like to live in such a time.

I miss the days of letters and postcards. When someone would actually sit down and write it out in their own hand, fold the paper put it in an envelope, hand write the address and walk it to the mailbox.  A thoughtfully written letter, not the three line flash emails that we get a hundred times a day, but a true physical letter.

I miss the days prior to the Internet when I had to put out a monthly printed catalog for my bookstore. When customers received their catalogs in the mail and were interested in a specific book they called on the phone and we would talk books for a half hour before ever agreeing to a purchase price.

I miss hotdogs. I miss the days when it took a good twenty minutes to make one. Boiling the water, cooking the dogs and then steaming the buns. Now it takes 30 seconds in the microwave.

Somehow I think in an effort to save time we have cost ourselves patients, attention span, human interaction and most notably our concepts of what is truly important.

I miss the time when it seemed that people were guided by ethics, and character was important and something you guarded like a precious jewel for fear of losing what took a lifetime to build.

I miss the time when we as a nation seemed to know which direction was true north, and even though we may have lost our way on occasion we always seemed to fine are way back on the path…these days I feel as though we have lost our compass.

I think I’m going to take the rest of the day off and dream about my grandmother’s chicken dumplings, a time when TV stopped broadcasting at 11 pm, and Bob Wilkins Creature Features was on every Saturday nights.

Larry L. Roberts

IA!!!!!!! YOG-SOTHOTH!!!!!!!!

Wilum Pugmire opens his contributor copies of SOME UNKNOWN GULF OF NIGHT and a copy of CRAWLING CHAOS!