Thursday, December 08, 2011

"Inky, Blinky, Pinky, Nyarlathotep" in FUTURE LOVECRAFT


H.P. Lovecraft was a minor writer in his lifetime. His work mostly appeared in mediocre pulp magazines such as Weird Tales, and that's when he wasn't giving his work away to amateur press magazines. But his stories were revolutionary—they did away with the moralizing of most fantasy and horror fiction, and integrated a sort of materialist, scientific worldview into the "mythos" he created. Now, decades after his death, his work has passed into the public domain and Lovecraft is a cottage industry unto himself. Major writers including Joyce Carol Oates and Michael Chabon have written in the Lovecraft mode, and there are Lovecraft games, toys, films, and even a cafe bearing his name. He also turns up in tribute and allusion all over the place—Batman's Arkham Asylum is named for one of Lovecraft's semi-fictional New England towns. "Lovecraftian" is a subgenre with its own niche publishers as well.

The online magazine Innsmouth Free Press is gaining some attention in horror/fantasy circles for its Lovecraftian fiction, and its print anthologies. Their latest—Future Lovecraft—has just been released, and it includes my story "Inky, Blinky, Pinky, Nyarlathotep" as well as stories by Don Webb, Molly Tanzer, and Paul Jessup. IBPN combines Lovecraftian horror with the science fictional notion of the Singularity and the post-human beings that would emerge from such an event.

If you're writing genre fiction and looking for a niche to exploit or a place to publish, I'd recommend checking out Innsmouth Free Press and its anthology series. They don't pay much, but they are getting some significant attention—and they do pay slightly more to "big names." (In the Lovecraftian small press, I'm a big name.) Check out the magazine and book, and give it a whirl!

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