W. H. Pugmire, Esq. -- WEIRD INHABITANTS OF SESQUA VALLEY

[MrWilum]

@rhagerlugo Many thanks. It's totally Cthulhu Mythos, and I had a blast writing it. Reviews have been pretty good. I'm now trying to write a book that isn't Lovecraftian, but it's slow-going.

[FatherShandor]

Any plans of it being available on Amazon UK?

[MrWilum]

@FatherShandor I don't understand why it isn't now available there. They are a new publishing house and mine is the second book they have published.

[FatherShandor]

@MrWilum I've ordered it from the colony... Only $11 postage, and I should have it by Roodmas.

[MrWilum]

@FatherShandor $11!!! Great Yuggoth! Many thanks, and I hope you like it!

[FatherShandor]

@MrWilum I've yet to read one of yours I've not liked...

[Punktowner]

I'm pleased you like the cover art and intro I did, Wilum -- I was so proud to have been asked to contribute them!

- Jeffrey

[MrWilum]

I've just realis'd ye H P Lovecraft Film Festival is NEXT WEEK! I'm not prepar'd!! I was talking to my buddy Chad Hensley this morning. Our co-author'd story, "The Pornography of Puppets," has just been publish'd as ye lead story in the new issue of Allen K.'s INHUMAN magazine. It is SO COOL to be in Allen's outstanding magazine, and I can't wait to see ye illustration he has drawn for our story. Check out Allen K.'s INHUMAN #4. I think it's ye best collaboration I've yet writ with Chad.

[MrWilum]

How amazing, Julia darling -- I am just this moment cutting out some cardboard to place your copy of ye book into! I shall post it to ye to-day. How I LOVE your reading of the story!

[MorganScorpion]

After havibg the privilege of reading the sequel to "The Hound", I am so looking forward to reading the rest of the stories.

[MrWilum]

Completely reversing ye mood of "Chalk" is "The Million-Shadowed One" (ye title is from Shakespeare). It is a fairly poignant tale concerning an imp conjur'd forth by children of ye valley, an imp that is tainted with ye cosmic tissue of Yog-Sothoth. The book's cover, by Jeffrey Thomas, illustrates this tale.

[MrWilum]

"Into the Depths of Dreams and Madness" came as a surprise to me, after the book had been -- so I thought -- completed. I had such fun writing a sequel to Lovecraft's "The Hound" that I wanted to do another. I love "Pickman's Model," & it has influenc'd a number of my newer tales (including "Inhabitants of Wraithwood," a 13.000 word novelette in S.T. Joshi's Lovecraftian anthology, BLACK WINGS). With this new tale I have Richard Upton Pickman visit ye valley so as to paint the Beast. Ia!!

[bijeto]

BTW Wilum, is Wiliam Davis Manly an homage to Manly Wade Wellman?? If so, what a tribute!

[bijeto]

Sesqua Valley sounds lovely (not unlike my own Mill Valley) and I may have to sojourn there after my visits to Cabrillo, Smithville, and Jerusalem's Lot . It's been very pleasurable taking time off from the October Country. (I seldom get to go on holiday.)

[MrWilum]

Next is another antient tale newly revis'd -- "Swamp Rising." Set in 1900, this is ye first Sesqua tale told in first person narrative by Simon Gregory Williams. It includes one wee scene in which we actually meet that poet of queer legend, William Davis Manly, who dwells within a cabin in ye haunted Sesquan woodland. I was of two minds about actually shewing Manly as a character, but I like how I handled it here.

[MrWilum]

"Totem Pole" follows, and old old tale that was originally publish'd by Jessica Amanda Salmonson in FANTASY MACABRE. 'Tis a tale of vengeance, in which figures an arcane flute in ye shape of a Native American totem of distinctly Cthulhulian nature. To press your lips to it & exhale into it your hot mortal breath is to call a thing of cosmic fury. Ye tale was revis'd yet again for this new collection.

[MrWilum]

The book begins with "Some Distant Baying Sound," a tale that came to me from a Lovecraft thread at THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE. It got me thinking about the mystery of what exactly WAS ye daemon in Lovecraft's "The Hound," & how exactly did St. John meet his nameless doom. The story begins immediately as Lovecraft's ends, with ye narrator about to shoot out her brains. Instead, she overcomes fear and terror & journe to ye Sesqua Valley to seek ye council of the valley's supreme Beast.

[MrWilum]

'tis a thing so mundane it defies my ability to describe it. But I CAN describe my book in more detail with these comments! When one is publish'd almoft exclusively by ye small press, one must be one's own promotional whore.

;-}

[olantern1]

What is this "reality" of which you speak?