Return to Wraithwood--sort of....


I am officially announc'd as guest for ye upcoming CthulhuCon that is happening in Portland at ye end of April.  I was very serious in thinking that my convention days are over--I get so worn-out, to the point of physical pain as far as walking goes.  However, my buddy and co-author David Barker will be attending, and Dark Renaissance Books is hoping to have our new book, IN THE GULFS OF DREAM AND OTHER LOVECRAFTIAN TALES, out in time for it to debut at ye convention.  The con is only one and one-half days, so it won't be the usual four or five day event that I am used to.  So that convinced me to try it this year.  I'll be getting a ride down with S. T., so that will be very pleasant indeed.  

I find myself almoft desperate to return to writing, but haven't had any of those inspiring ideas that make me burn to create new weird fiction--until now.  Some years ago, in an attempt to get away from writing my typical Lovecraftian thing, I invented a city of exiles, Gershom; and I imagined that it would become my "new Sesqua Valley", and that I wou'd set lots and lots of stories therein.  Didn't work out that way.  However, I invented Gershom so that I cou'd bring in more of ye Baudelaire/Wilde/Kafka influence, and of late I have been returning more & more to Baudelaire; & this has had me thinking anew about ye Gershom possibilities.  To-night, I came up with ye germ of an idea that I like more and more as I contemplate it.  And that is to have two of my Bohemian poets from Gershom visit a neighboring town, a town perhaps similar to North Bend or Falls City, that is isolated and quaint.  It will be a town with a sinister though vague reputation, a place shunned.  That is has a sinister reputation is part of the reason my poets (male and female, I think) will be interested in visiting it.  And there they will find and stay at a kind of boarding house, similar to the one I wrote about in "Inhabitants of Wraithwood", but this time the place will be filled with picture frames that encase empty canvases, with one or two rare and weird exceptions.  I've been wanting, actually, to write a sequel to "Inhabitants of Wraithwood", and S. T. once suggested that I shou'd turn the story into a novel; so although this new thing would not be a direct sequel, it would be a semi-sequel with a very similar tone and equally odd characters and goings-on.  This idea has taken hold of my imagination, and I feel, at last, a real urge to begin writing it, something I haven't felt for a long time.  So hopefully my next blog will record that I have either completed this new story or, if it proves excessively lengthy, that I have made a good start.

I also want to return work on the dreamlands novel that I want to write with David Barker.  I began work on it, wrote an opening paragraph, and then with all the ill-health crap completely forgot about it.  I have the ache, the growing need, for creativity.  I think that ache is now strong enough to ensure that I will actually begin working.  I hope so!


Comments

  1. This sounds like a fascinating story seed. I am glad you've found your muse again!

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  2. A great idea to use Gershom as your decadent city of exiles. Most intriguing - and fresh. The weird empty cancas frames somewhile rarely populated is burgeoning with potential... Wraithwood as a concept always struck me as having decided decaydent possibility... Yay for a writery muse! Meanwhile I am looking forward to "In the Gulf of Dream..." The writing will focus your attention again and the troubles of the past weeks will melt away. Fly free and strong and beyond forever. G ;-)=

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