Interview: Michael Aronovitz

I recently reviewed Alice Walks, a great contemporary ghost story. Michael Aronovitz was kind enough to answer a few questions for readers.



How did you get started in writing horror fiction? What first attracted you to horror/the weird?

I started writing horror fiction because of Stephen King.  I was never a big reader, but he interested me.  At first, I thought it was just the gripping shock value that kept me engaged.  As I grew older, I reasoned that it was King's "familiar" voice and ability to develop character, but now I realize it was always a bit more.  The horror genre provides the writer the opportunity to take characters and put them in moral dilemmas they would not face in real life.  The supernatural element also opens the door to temporal issues that more standard realistic fiction can not.  Therefore, in the the end, I suppose the horror genre becomes a vehicle for character development, which drives a good read.  Moreover, I like scary shit.  It is fun.  I don't see horror as a "genre," but more a necessary element that moves plot action.  It is a spice.  Remember trying to listen to classic rock on CDs?  It sounded empty, no salt or something, and we all went to the antique specialty shop and bought turntables for our old vinyl.  A story without a horror element is a classic rock CD.  I prefer the I-pod, played on volume 10.  The downside occurs when the artist in question depends on the spice for story.  One can not eat a bowl of salt. 



Alice Walks serves as an excellent example of a ghost story. It not only sets a creepy mood, but the ghost in the story is much more complex and active than the Gothic ghosts of old. What were your inspirations for this story, and how did you go about approaching the ghost story in this manner?

"Alice Walks" was not conceived with the idea that I was going to upgrade the traditional ghost story, nor revive it.  Though I do have a masters in literature, I am no historical expert and I would not feel qualified for such a venture (I am a modernist, thesis work in Hemingway).  I don't outline my fiction, because often the story changes a bit as it progresses and I want to leave room.  On the other side of that coin, I rarely just "go" with no idea in mind.  I usually begin with a horrific yet beautiful image and build a story around it so that visual can take place somewhere in the timeline with meaning.  Before starting I also usually have a point A to B and maybe C, but little more, maybe the ending.  I have only been able to come up with something without any prior planning twice.  The first was "The Echo," featured in my collection "The Voices in Our Heads," Horrified Press, February, 2014, and again one Saturday last winter during break when I wrote a piece of flash fiction titled "The Matriarch" in one sitting.  (Still up on Bosley Gravel's Cavalcade of Terror site for free).  I am currently 30,000 words in on the Matriarch novel, but back to "Alice," I initially wanted to do some sort of play on the "Bloody Mary" legend.  All I knew about it was that one said her name three times while looking in the mirror and she would show up in the background.  The image that formed in my head was a graveyard in the winter time at night, a girl-figure of maybe 14 of greenish tint floating between the headstones in her burial dress.  Then some boys who awakened her throw rocks in a loose religious allusion, causing symbolic blood to flow from her.  Once I figured out a fictional scenario to make that occur, I had the premise for "Alice Walks."



You are, or were, a teacher and some of your works that I have read (Alice Walks, How Bria Died) both heavily involve schools and teachers. How has working in education affected your fiction?

The field of education provides a wonderful influence for my writing.  First, from a standpoint of being behind the scenes, I read student fiction and composition constantly.  This keeps me in tune to what people are thinking and the avenues they use to develop argumentation.  This is important, because a paper is simply an exercise in manipulating one's own logical fallacies into what should be read as a "truth," while exposing the flaws in the invisible opponent's platform.  Fiction requires its writer to prove a reality in a similar manner, just delivered through a different voice.  Also, there is just an endless character bank to draw on in the classroom.  To top it off, anything classroom oriented provides a familiarity we all share, while also yielding fictive boundaries built for suspense.  We all know from our fiction classes that time limitation mixed with a "crucible" of sorts (a literal or metaphorical trap) causes an almost automatic sense of the dramatic.  Well, a classroom is a requirement that is a strange enclosed space where the players are meant to sit still when they really don't want to most of the time.  There's even a bell, as in a boxing ring, letting them know when the drama begins and ends.  What could be more perfect?



What scares you?

Ha.  I can tell you what does not scare me.  Ghosts, monsters, haunted houses, and graveyards. Horror books and horror movies do not scare me either.  The things that scare me are far more personal.  Mediocrity.  Apathy (from others...meaning I write and no one listens).  Making mistakes that leave stains.



What are your personal favorite horror/weird fiction novels/stories? How about films?

This is an easy one.  Favorite books: The Stand, Christine, Hannibal, Night Shift, Misery, parts of Dreamcatcher.  Favorite films: Silence of the Lambs, Seven, Halloween 1.  Favorite TV Show: Trilogy of Terror (just the Karen Black segment).



With one collection out (Seven Deadly Pleasures, Hippocampus Press) and one novel (Alice Walks, Centipede Press) you have already built a reputation. What can readers expect from you in the future?

This is going to be a big year for me.  I have "Alice Walks" available through Centipede Press currently, and my old collection "Seven Deadly Pleasures" through Hippocampus.  In February of 2014, my dark collection "The Voices in Our Heads" will be released by Horrified Press in the UK, and Hippocampus is shooting for as early as April, 2014 to publish my dark apocalyptic novel "The Witch of the Wood."  My hard hitting "true crime" leading to the supernatural piece "The Matriarch" will be completed most probably by Christmas. 

Interview: Ross E. Lockhart

Ross E. Lockhart made quite a name for himself as an editor for a small press before breaking off and starting his own small press, Word Horde. Tales of the Jack The Ripper is the first anthology Ross has published with his press, and it's been garnering several positive reviews, my own included. Ross stops by The Arkham Digest to chat about the Ripper anthology and what can be expected from his new press.

First things first, I'd like to thank you for taking the time for this interview.

Thanks for having me, Justin.

How did Word Horde come to be, and how did you settle on such a catchy name for your press?

I'm so glad you like the name. The name Word Horde was the result of my daydreaming while listening to a recording of Beowulf. There's this great line in which Beowulf unlocks his "word-hoard"--the treasure-chest of his vocabulary and storytelling skill--to impress a group of warriors. Somehow, that kenning got twisted around in my head and I found myself contending with a gang of words. That metaphor--words as warriors--really resonated with me, so I tucked it away in my own word-hoard waiting for the right opportunity to use it.

Earlier this year, I started Word Horde out of necessity. As you know, until December of last year I worked as managing editor for--what did the New York Times call them?--a "tiny specialty press" out of San Francisco. Without going into too much detail, that was a company with a lot of problems, and while I was able to fix a great many problems while there, there were fundamental problems that were, frankly, unsolvable. Once we parted ways, I knew I wanted to start my own publishing company so that I could continue doing the work I love, editing great novels and stories and anthologies, but I also realized that I wanted to structure my company in a way that treated authors, editors, artists, and designers fairly and with respect. I wanted the creatives I worked with to feel like they were part of something bigger. Part of the Word Horde.

Why did you choose Tales of Jack The Ripper to be your first project? What do you find alluring about the Ripper and his murders?

As boogymen go, Jack is a rock star. Everybody knows about Jack, but nobody knows who he really was. Everybody has a mental image of this heinous killer--mine includes a touch of Lon Chaney in London after Midnight--and yet, a century and a quarter after five women were brutally murdered, the case remains unsolved. Moreover, Jack has inspired so many authors to expand upon the mystery that the lines between fact and fiction aren't just blurry, they're practically invisible. John Francis Brewer's The Curse Upon Mitre Square may have been the first bit of fiction to explore and exploit the murders, but it definitely wasn't the last. Authors from Marie Belloc Lowndes to Robert Bloch to Harlan Ellison to Maureen Johnson to Alan Moore have taken their own stabs at this subject. With Tales of Jack the Ripper, I wanted to give some of my favorite storytellers a chance to peel back the layers of this mystery and expand on Jack's literary legacy.

Is Word Horde going to focus mostly on short fiction, or do you plan to include novels in your lineup as well?

I'm concentrating on anthologies and short works in the short term, but I would like to include novels--the right novels--in the Word Horde lineup some day. Fiction works best for me in bite-sized pieces. I feel that Poe, in "The Philosophy of Composition," nailed it: "If any literary work is too long to be read at one sitting, we must be content to dispense with the immensely important effect derivable from unity of impression -- for, if two sittings be required, the affairs of the world interfere, and every thing like totality is at once destroyed."

Are you open to any sorts of submissions or pitches at this time? If so, what kind of work would you like to see?

Absolutely. I am doing prep work and beginning to send out invitations for a third Cthulhu Mythos volume, though I'd like to partner with a larger publisher for that project. Word Horde projects I am now reading for include a Giallo anthology (stories inspired by the Italian crime genre and the films of directors like Argento, Bava, and Fulci), and I have plans for anthologies paying tribute to some of my favorite filmic and literary genres (weird war stories, swashbucklers, etc.). I prefer to work with authors on an invitation basis, rather than issuing an open call, but I'm always interested in hearing pitches from authors interested in wrangling an invitation to the party. The more the merrier!

What can readers expect from Word Horde in the future? Are there any projects you can talk about at this time?

Readers should expect great things from Word Horde. I'm not quite ready to reveal all our cards, but I would encourage readers to bookmark http://www.wordhorde.com or sign up for our mailing list or like us on Facebook. That way, you'll not just find out about new books and projects as they happen, you'll also get plenty of behind-the-scenes information.

Once again, I thank you for your time!

Thank you! I had a great time. 

Review: Alice Walks by Michael Aronovitz

Barring religious and mythological texts, the oldest form of horror tale is that of the ghost story. Mankind has always been fascinated with spirits and the afterlife, and every culture not only has their own idea of what happens to us after we die, but every culture also has their own idea of ghosts.

Ghost stories in Western culture became popular in the Victorian era, with writers such as Le Fanu. The turn of the century saw a rise in spiritualism, and an even bigger rise in the ghost story. M.R. James, Oliver Onions, and Algernon Blackwood all helped foster the ghost story even further.

Now, early on in the 21^st century, ghosts still remain as popular as ever. I can’t even turn on the TV without finding it riddled with ghost-hunting shows, or shows like Paranormal Witness, where people share their experiences while actors recreate key scenes. Horror cinema is much the same, with ghost films seeing another rise in popularity due to movies such as Paranormal Activity and The Conjuring. Publishers seem to be jumping on this opportunity as well, in the last two-three years alone I could easily name five or more anthologies all dealing with hauntings and ghosts, helmed by many of the big-name editors including Ellen Datlow, Stephen Jones and Paula Guran, and there’s definitely no shortage of novels dealing with the subject either.

Readers may wonder why I’ve included such a lengthy opening talking about ghost stories without getting to the review. The reason is simple: it has to be understood that the industry is flooded with ghost fiction. Some use time-worn tropes but are written well enough that they are worth reading. Some take the concept of ghosts in radical new directions, making for a fresh take on the genre. Michael Aronovitz’s Alice Walks does a bit of both.

I came across this book on a recommendation by my friend CM Muller. It didn’t hurt that the book was published by Centipede Press either, as Centipede Press is pretty much synonymous with quality. I went through this book rather quickly, and putting it down to head into work was a struggle. 

Alice Walks takes place in a Pennsylvania suburb in the 1970s. The book’s narrator, now an older man suffering from health problems in modern time, is passing his story on to his son. Michael, the narrator, relates the life-changing events that took place during the winter of his own fourteenth year, when he and two friends go playing around in the cemetery his father works and awaken the spirit of a girl their own age that rather recently died. Things escalate from there.

Aronovitz does a masterful job at conveying character and setting. His characters are believable, and he easily puts the reader in the shoes of Michael, who is a rather average fourteen year old boy. The emotional weight that Michael feels every day in his household, due to his father’s shameful suspension from a teaching career over dubious circumstances, has a very authentic feel to it.

When it comes to the ghost, Aronovitz also does something fresh. Alice is a very interesting ghost as far as ghosts go. Many times ghost stories can lose their sense of terror by the end, when the ghost usually becomes a sympathetic figure. The reader finds out that the ghost responsible for all the spooky moments was a murder victim, trying to gain closure and finally be at peace. Aronovitz does something much different with Alice, who goes from evoking terror, to being a sympathetic figure, and then back to evoking terror. Alice’s motivations are different from the norm, and this keeps the story very interesting, as the reader never knows what to expect.

Alice Walks is a shorter novel, and Aronovitz has a strong sense of pace, never allowing the story to slow down or become overburdened and bloated. This sense of focus, combined with an excellent sense of character and setting, as well as an original take on the ghost, make for an excellent debut and marks Aronovitz as a writer to watch. Being a Centipede Press book, the novel's price tag is heftier than average, but it’s worth every penny.

The novel can be bought HERE.

Review: Tales of Jack the Ripper edited by Ross E. Lockhart

Serial killers hold the title of being the most terrifying form of criminal, yet also the most fascinating. Ed Gein, Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, David Berkowitz, Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacy. The crimes they committed were numerous and brutal, and the complete lack of remorse they displayed made them all the more terrifying. While they all had more victims, many killed in a more gruesome manner, they still haven't quite achieved the status of Jack the Ripper. In his story, Ripperology, Orrin Grey's characters ruminate on this, and it seems that what makes the Ripper so legendary is that he (or she) was never caught. There is no face to put to the name. These other killers, once caught under the public spotlight, are just men with some really deep problems. Jack the Ripper remains a boogeyman. There are many theories out there, but the true identity and motives of the Ripper will forever remain a mystery, and with mystery comes power.


With this in mind, it's no surprise that editor extraordinaire Ross E. Lockhart chose Jack the Ripper to be the theme of his first publication from his new publishing venture, Word Horde, just in time for the quasquicentennial of the Ripper murders. Tales of Jack The Ripper contains seventeen stories (three are reprints, the rest original) and two poems (both reprints) from many notable weird fiction authors. While there are a few weaker tales, most of the tales are strong enough to carry their weight. Now on to the stories I liked.


Of the three reprints, Ramsey Campbell's is the strongest. Jack's Little Friend is a second person narrative, and adds a supernatural twist, that maybe the force driving Jack to kill is a parasite of sorts that can be removed and even latch on to others. In A Host of Shadows, authors Alan M. Clark and Gary A. Braunbeck present readers with a dying, elderly Jack. As death nears, the man who was once the Ripper ruminates on whether or not all the good he has done with his life since is enough to wash away his sins. In more pulpy fashion, Joe R. Lansdale's God of the Razor features an antiques dealer stumbling upon a dark entity that compels people to murder, entering their minds when they cut themselves on a razor. Bits of the story may seem silly, but Lansdale has the voice of a master storyteller and pulls off a creepy little tale.


The reprints come early in the book, making way for the originals. Sylvia Morena-Garcia's Abandon All Flesh is about a girl obsessed with a wax museum's rendition of Jack the Ripper. The girl is cold, and indifferent to much of what's going on around her, thoughts of the Ripper being the only thing that seems to draw a reaction from her.


Ennis Drake's The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker is another exercise in the second person narrative. Drake pens a tale of a man reenacting the Ripper murders, interwoven with other tales of violence, making for a commentary of our violence-saturated culture.


T.E. Grau's The Truffle Pig is one of my favorite stories in the collection, and a pure weird fictional take on the Ripper. Blending bits of Lovecraftiana with a confident narrative voice, Grau's Ripper is a misunderstood defender of mankind, constantly on the hunt to slice away the darkness.


Orrin Grey's Ripperology, as mentioned earlier in the review, offers some insight into what makes the Ripper so special among serial killers. These ideas are woven into a narrative about a friendship between true crime authors.


Hell Broke Loose by Ed Kurtz is a look into why the Ripper does what he does, and if anything is a prequel story in the Ripper saga. The protagonist of the story, Blake Prentiss, is a broken-hearted mess of a man who finds himself entwined with the brutal murders of local girls in 1885 Austin, Texas.


Edward Morris and Joe Pulver both take inspiration from Harlan Ellison's famous anthology Dangerous Visions, which included two connected Ripper stories. Robert Bloch's A Toy For Juliette sees a sadistic woman and her grandfather pull Jack into a dystopian future setting, while Harlan Ellison's The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World acts as a sequel. Edward Morris explores this theme of dislocation with Where Have You Been All My Life? In this story, Jack wakes up with amnesia far from home. Joe Pulver's Juliette's New Toy is a short piece told in Pulver's disjointed, poetic style.


Pete Rawlik's Villains, by Necessity throws Jack the Ripper, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Sherlock Holmes, Fu Manchu, and many other turn of the century literary figures into a literary blender to produce a very short, very pulpy story that reads like the beginning of a much larger piece.


When the Means Just Defy the End creates a sympathetic Ripper with understandable motives, but loses steam when it veers into ghost-story territory. Stanley C. Sargent does a great job at giving readers a glimpse into the truly unpleasant and disturbing childhood memories of the killer.


One of the darker stories in the collection, Mercedes M. Yardley's A Pretty for Polly paints an unforgettable portrait of a madman. Over the course of the story, the killer's mental state deteriorates further and further, leading to an unforgettable ending.


Laird Barron's Termination Dust is the one story in the anthology that is not overtly about Jack the Ripper. Instead, Barron sets his slasher tale in a small, isolated Alaskan town. During a blizzard, someone goes on a killing spree. The story is not only an unreliable narrative, but it even tells the reader that it is. The answers are not laid out neatly, making for an interesting puzzle piece of a story, demanding re-reads. Barron's story has the distinction of being the best of the bunch, hands down. By taking some of the Ripper murder themes and turning them into an otherwise unrelated narrative, Barron's tale stands out as perhaps the most original piece in the anthology.


Tales of Jack the Ripper marks a strong debut for Word Horde. Lockhart, in usual fashion, has managed to put together a strong, multifaceted anthology that explores the Ripper legend at length. If this book is indicative of what's to be expected from his new press, than readers have much to look forward to.

We'll Always Have Providence

Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend the NecronomiCon Providence, the premiere Lovecraft/weird fiction convention, held in Lovecraft's home city of Providence, RI. The event had built up a high level of anticipation, with many convention goers booking flights and hotel rooms nearly a year in advance. The air in Providence was thick with excitement at the gathering of so many devotees in one place. I no longer had to explain the meaning of my Miskatonic University shirt, I was surrounded by people who understood. Anywhere I went led to striking up conversations with total strangers, be it in the elevator, or the food cart a block away. I ran into some people who were familiar with the blog. "You're the guy who runs The Arkham Digest?!" Some of the magic of the weekend is truly hard to form into words, and for days afterwards Facebook was abuzz with pictures, comments and jokes about the con. On one post, author Jeffrey Thomas pointed out: "Does anyone notice the con is still kind of going via Facebook?". I myself had to wait a week before attempting to write a recap of the con, as the days following led to a post-con blues, and now that I'm writing I find it hard to put the magic that was the con into words.


Niels Hobbs and the Lovecraft Arts and Sciences Council, Inc. put together a multi-day extravaganza, utilizing several local hotels as the focal points for what was undoubtedly the biggest Lovecraft-themed convention ever. Local theaters were showing Lovecraftian films, The Providence Biltmore and Hotel Providence hosted numerous panels and author readings,the Hotel Providence was the site of much gaming, Lupo's on The Strand featured Lustmord's first North American show in a long time, and the local Waterfire event hosted some Lovecraftian bands. Panels encompassed all facets of Lovecraft: gaming, Lovecraft's influence, writing Mythos fiction, the New Weird, Lovecraftian filmmaking, and art. Vendors consisting of artists and small presses filled areas on two floors of the Biltmore, offering Cthulhu sculptures, dark ambient music, original artist prints, and books. There was a Friday night masquerade ball and the final day of the convention kicked off with the infamous Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast. It felt like I had died and gone to Lovecraft Heaven (or Unknown Kadath?).


There was always something to do, and usually multiple panels going on at the same time, giving convention-goers plenty of choice. I myself sat in on some interesting panels: Writing Mythos Fiction Today part I and part II and The New Weird, as well as several author readings. I attended the masquerade ball for a couple hours, went to see Lustmord with several of my new friends, and attended the Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast. The New Weird panel was a fun one to watch, as all authors on the panel (as well as myself) feel disdain for the term "The New Weird". Author readings were a particular highlight, especially the Saturday morning Joe Pulver/Laird Barron reading. Joe opened with a reading of a new Mountains of Madness inspired short story, and then introduced the audience to authors Mike Griffin and Scott Nicolay. In a surprising moment, Joe split his reading time with the two new authors, who read a few pages of their short stories from The Grimscribe's Puppets. The anthology sold out not long after the reading. Laird Barron then read his tale D.T. from A Season in Carcosa in it's entirety. Later that afternoon I came late to John Langan's reading, but I was able to see him read some of his story Bor Urus from the Shadows Edge anthology, before Caitlin Kiernan took the stage and gave a wonderful reading.


The highlight of the trip, without a doubt, was being able to hang out with new friends and meet many of the authors/publishers I only knew from online. As much as I enjoyed the panels, I even more enjoyed everything on the more personal level: hanging around the vendor area discussing the current state of weird fiction with The Arkham Digest's new contributor Alex Lugo; attending panels with new friends Alex Houstoun and Patrick McKitrick; lurking at the rear of the ballroom during the ball talking real life weird stories with Scott Nicolay and Sam Cowan; going out for an opening night beer with the Griffins, Nick Gucker, Mike Davis, Peter Rawlik, Tom Lynch, Joe Pulver, Kat, and Sam Cowan; grabbing a post-ball late night beer with Sam Cowan and Jeffrey Thomas and talking about how we first fell into the rabbit hole of weird fiction; seeing Lustmord and then checking out Waterfire with Mike and Lena Griffin, Sam Cowan, Nick Gucker, and Cody Goodfellow; having lunch with Laird Barron, John Langan, Richard Gavin, Simon Strantzas and Sylvia Feketekutty; attending Joe Pulver and Kat's small wedding ceremony ministered by Robert Price; and watching the hilarious Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast. These are the things memories are made of, and everyone mentioned contributed to it being an amazing weekend.


Now I find myself back in the mundane, the excitement of the con only just now dying down as everyone eases back into their daily routines. Some are planning on reuniting at other cons, such as the Lovecraft Film Festival, or the World Horror Convention. Some may go years before seeing one another again, while others are keeping in touch via the internet, eagerly awaiting the day they can once again swap stories over beers. Word is that 2015 is being considered for the next Necronomicon, and I have a feeling most of us will be returning.


While I sat in the Providence TF Green airport last Sunday, awaiting my flight to Philadelphia, and relaxing while looking over some of the new books I picked up at the con, I noticed another young man sitting near me awaiting the same flight. He wore a black button-up shirt, with green tentacles on it, and was reading the Del-Rey paperback The Transition of HP Lovecraft. He looked up at me, noticed my convention t-shirt, and his serious face split into a large grin. His smile was accompanied by a knowing look, and a nod, which I returned. We didn't speak a word, but we didn't have to. We had both gone to the same con and although we had two separate experiences, our path's not once crossing, that was all we needed. We were strangers, but at the same time we weren't. I soon boarded the plane, and after several hours at the Philadelphia airport I finally made it home. I look forward to the reunion of so many great people, and hope that it's sooner rather than later. For all my con friends who feel the same way, just remember, we'll always have Providence.

Sitting in on the Writing Mythos Fiction Part 1 panel. Also pictured: Alex Houstoun, Kat.

Laird Barron reading D.T. from A Season in Carcosa.

Jeffrey Thomas, myself, and Scott Nicolay.

Scott Nicolay reading part of Eyes Exchange Bank.

Lena Griffin, Mike Griffin, and myself.

The Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast. Joe Pulver, Lois Gresh, myself, Laird Barron with Tom Lynch and Mike Davis in the background.

Mike Griffin, Cody Goodfellow, Nick Gucker, and myself.

Mike Cisco, Jack Haringa, Laird Barron, John Langan, myself, Richard Gavin, Simon Strantzas and Paul Tremblay.

Mike Griffin reading Diamond Dust.

John Langan reading Bor Urus.

Alex Lugo, Jeffrey Thomas, and myself.

Alex Lugo, Richard Gavin, Sam Cowan, and myself at the Lustmord concert.

Guest Review by Alex Lugo: Supernatural Tales #24

The Arkham Digest proudly welcomes Alex Lugo as our first guest reviewer.

Alex Lugo, Jeffrey Thomas, Justin Steele. Necronomicon 2013.

I had been in Providence last weekend for this little thing called NecronomiCon 2013. In case you haven’t heard about it, the convention was, quite frankly, the greatest Lovecraftian event of all time. I won’t divulge too many details of that wonderfully weird weekend, but needless to say, I came back with a sack of books weighing somewhere around twenty pounds.

And here I am reviewing a book I received the day after the convention officially ended.

With twenty pounds of seriously powerful shit, from Laird Barron’s latest collection The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All to Joe Pulver’s mammoth Portraits of Ruin, I needed something of a warm up before diving into the madness I had brought home from Rhode Island. And Supernatural Tales #24 was a surprisingly excellent means of getting me back into the reading mood after the physical and emotional wrecking ball that was NecronomiCon.

Supernatural Tales is a UK magazine known for publishing stories of quiet terror in the vein of Aickman and M.R. James. Its editor, David Longhorn, has quite a roster of fantastic writers under the magazine’s belt: Reggie Oliver, Simon Strantzas, and Peter Bell (all masters in their own right) come to mind as some of the biggest names which have graced the magazine’s pages. However, when reading Supernatural Tales #24, I was not familiar with any of the writers included in the publication, with the exception of Michael J. Abolafia, who was kind enough to give me the copy of the journal. Still, I had not read Abolafia’s tale prior to receiving the journal, and came to read this book completely oblivious and without any preset expectations. In retrospect, this was quite rewarding. Every tale offered a fresh, exciting, and occasionally terrifying experience that kept me guessing in frightful and semi-maniacal anticipation. So if, dear reader, you do not recognize a name or two among Supernatural Tales #24’s table of contents, just…chill out. It’s cool. Trust me. Really.

Supernatural Tales #24 consists of seven stories (and a few reviews by the editor), of which none were of poor quality. However, some were much better than others and I have chosen three exceptional tales out of the seven which I feel stood out from the rest.

In The Wife’s Lament, Lynda E. Rucker tells a deceptively simple tale of a woman who flees her country with a mysterious man on a whim of sexual indulgence and wanderlust. The main character, Penny, who comes to England to live with Ian, her lover of merely four weeks, begins her slow descent into the supernatural upon discovering a mysterious stone-encrusted brooch hidden in the leaves of the neighborhood forest. With deft skill and near-perfect buildup, Rucker plunges poor Penny into a maelstrom of hideous dreams, occulted folklore, sexually powered angst and a growing aura of striking paranoia and otherworldly tension that leave the reader in a state of cringe-worth awe upon reaching Rucker’s utterly vile twist ending. Being that this is the first story in the publication, it leaves a rather profound impression.

Imagine the cold, quiet atmosphere of M.R. James. Combine that with the magnificent spirituality, the unabashed heathenry of Machen’s disturbing, yet transcendental worldview. Now, throw in the forbidden books and witch-haunted locales of Lovecraft, as well as the rich, poetic power of Clark Ashton Smith and perhaps even W.H. Pugmire, and you have the groundwork for Michael J. Abolafia’s Omnia Exeunt in Mysterium. Abolafia tells the tale of a lonely boy, in mourning of his mother’s death, who, wandering through the cellar of his ancestral home, discovers a most curious rosewood necklace, decked with sigils and a rather curious woodcut engraving. His boyhood curiosity soon sends him adrift in the frost-bitten woods that surround his house, where he begins to piece together the fragments of an occulted past, leading him into a state of Machen-esque ecstasy as opposed to the Lovecraftian damnation readers of the weird may come to expect. This tale of underlined necromancy and non-stop attention to atmosphere goes to show that Michael J. Abolafia is bound to become a future force in the realm of the weird.

I’ve been reading horror for as long as I’ve been able to read. Due to this, it has often become difficult for a piece of horror fiction to actually scare me. I’m simply too desensitized (woe is me)! However, when a tale actually does scare me, it’s usually quite a strong indication of the horrifying power the piece possesses. Sam Dawson’s Man Under scared the shit out of me. Period. This is made even more surprising due to the fact that, of all the stories, I’d say this one was the least supernatural. With the exception of some disturbing dreams and one particularly ambiguous encounter, this story relies more on menacing atmosphere and bloodcurdling imagery than actual supernatural activity. In fact, this is the only story in the publication that could very well lack any actual supernatural presence. The story follows a woman who, after witnessing a deadly train collision, enlists the help of two urban explorers in order to re-visit the train station (a decade abandoned) as a means of confronting (and perhaps validating) the strange images of her nightmares. Over ten pages (but it feels like three), Man Under succeeds in scaring the crap out of readers, not so much by the plot itself, but by the blunt, in-your-face nature of the prose style and atmosphere. There is no build-up, no carefully building tension mounting into a cathartic climax. Dawson assaults the reader with no pause, no warning, like staring at a silent train as it inevitably collides with your soft flesh. It is simply terrifying.

Supernatural Tales #24 is an excellent journal of consistent, disturbing, well written supernatural fiction. Although the aforementioned tales shine a bit stronger than the rest, there really isn’t a poor story in this issue. Highly recommended.

And now that I’m out of my post NecronomiCon fugue, I’ve got a twenty pound bag of books to get to. 

Supernatural Tales #24 can be purchased HERE. 

Alex Lugo, Richard Gavin, Sam Cowan, Justin Steele. Necronomicon 2013.

Video Interview: Ramsey Campbell

A couple weeks ago I was fortunate enough to have a chance to speak with veteran author Ramsey Campbell via Skype. This marks the first video interview for The Arkham Digest, which can hopefully become a tradition.

There were some technical issues during the interview, and we lost connection a couple times, which results in the cuts in the video, and temporary drops in quality. Other than the technical problems, the review went well, and Mr. Campbell and I discuss a number of topics, from his new novella The Last Revelation of Gla'aki (Review here) to seeing his creations appear in games. And without further ado, here is the interview.