Here’s a curiosity which we couldn’t fail to mention – an iconic British secret agent, a book which could only be produced under a maple leaf, and two authors who went on a Lovecraftian mission to break the boundaries. We have exclusives from those authors, Edward M Erdelac and Willie Meikle, and another from publisher Neil Baker. Captain Canuck rules, in our coverage of Bond Unknown, a new MI6 and Mythos double novella from April Moon Books in Oshawa, Ontario.

Our knowledgeable listeners will immediately go, “Oh, Oshawa!”, knowing that this was the birthplace of Albert William Tucker (1905-1995), who, in the fifties, put the final name and form to what is now known as the Prisoner’s Dilemma:

Two members of a criminal gang are arrested and imprisoned. Each prisoner is in solitary confinement with no means of communicating with the other. The prosecutors lack sufficient evidence to convict the pair on the principal charge. They hope to get both sentenced to a year in prison on a lesser charge. Simultaneously, the prosecutors offer each prisoner a bargain. Each prisoner is given the opportunity either to: betray the other by testifying that the other committed the crime, or to cooperate with the other by remaining silent. The offer is:

• If A and B each betray the other, each of them serves 2 years in prison
• If A betrays B but B remains silent, A will be set free and B will serve 3 years in prison (and vice versa)
• If A and B both remain silent, both of them will only serve 1 year in prison (on the lesser charge)

But that doesn’t really have anything to do with today’s feature. So we’ll turn to the publisher and the authors to give you the inside story…

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The Name’s Bond. Neil Bond

A publisher’s tale

The journey to get Bond Unknown into the hands of the people who matter was as nerve-racking as a ski chase on a toboggan run. I first heard about Bond entering the public domain in Canada back in January 2015, and I recklessly posted a missive on Facebook along the lines of ‘Next from April Moon Books – James Bond vs. Cthulhu!’ My outburst was partly in jest as I was already swamped with trying to get my fledgling press off the ground, but the response was huge, and I suddenly realized I had to make a go of it, or die trying.

The legal situation was still quite murky, so I surreptitiously stretched out feelers to authors I already knew, and who I thought could have a good stab at a Bond story set in the Mythos. As I began to discuss the concept with the authors, a number of tenets came to the fore, including the films, which were off-limits. Bond may have been fair game, but the settings, gadgets and original characters from the films were still heavily trademarked. That was not an issue though, as I had already decided that I wanted stories based on Fleming’s original novels. I reminded the authors that these stories were not ‘pastiches’ or ‘deconstructions’ – they had to be written with due reverence for the originals. Other than that, the sky(fall) was the limit. I would allow Lovecraftian twists, supernatural elements, even straight adventures in the classic mold. Everyone got very excited.

Then, I hit obstacle after obstacle as I realized I would not be able to crowdfund the book as Kickstarter and Indiegogo wanted nothing to do with it. Then print on demand was off the table as I could not use Amazon at all – nor were digital versions allowed due the unenforceability of cyber borders. So, I would be paying for everything, including a limited print run, out of my puny, small-press pockets. I would have to wait until I could afford to take the risk.

Bond Unknown became my most high profile ‘on again, off again’ project, and I truly felt awful for the authors who were chomping at the bit. A couple of them went ahead with typical writerly pigheadedness and churned out stories – and I enjoyed reading these unique takes on a beloved character. Ultimately though, Ed and Willie’s contributions emerged as the front-runners for the first book, with several more tales waiting in the wings in hope of more editions. Having worked with them before, I knew what Ed and Willie were capable of, and they had nailed my vision for the book. I had my stories, next up, I needed artwork.

I’m no stranger to a bit of design myself, but I needed something special for the cover, and I reached out to Mark Maddox, whose covers for Little Shoppe of Horrors and Screem Magazine are some of the best I’ve seen. He immediately leaped at the opportunity and we hammered out a composition (although the final, gloriously eldritch image is all Mark’s design). I then turned to an illustrator who has constantly delighted me, M Wayne Miller, and he took a look at the stories before turning in a pair of stunning illustrations. His rendition of Bond is extraordinary in the way that it captures the essence of Bond without specifically referencing any actor or previous images.

All the pieces were in place, I just needed to make my move. Another year passed. What held me back? Funds? Fear? Francisco Scaramanga? A little of each (except, perhaps, the nipple-heavy hitman).

In a moment that might be considered the antithesis of a nail-biting climax, I scraped together the budget, grew a pair, and pulled the trigger. The result is a stack of boxes in the basement that is taller than my daughter, containing 200 copies of a book that I am hugely proud of, that I cannot sell outside of Canada. It’s the kind of risky move that would make Le Chiffre’s eye bleed but, as they say in O-branch, you only live once.

Neil Baker

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Dry, With a Scots Twist

Willie Meikle Reminisces

I came to Bond early. I was taken to see Goldfinger way back in ’64 when I was only six and our local cinema didn’t enforce age rules. It made an impression. I even had the gold Corgi car with ejector seat and everything.

Fast forward a year or so, and I was down the front row with my pals for Thunderball, and for a few weeks after that the world was all jet packs, spearguns and trying to hold our breath in the swimming pools in the local river.

After that I saw every film in the week of release for many years, read the books until the paperbacks fell apart, and was generally a Bond fanboy, even after my disappointment when Connery gave way to Moore. I persevered through Moore’s sillier movies, and was rewarded with a return to my Bond with Dalton. I read the books some more, read the authorised sequels, and then…

I lost touch with the man for a time. Brosnan didn’t do it for me — too much like Moore’s sillier escapades for my liking, and after Goldeneye, I thought I was done with Bond.

Time passed, I rarely gave Bond a thought, then Casino Royale came along, and suddenly the years had been rolled back, and I was back in fanboy heaven again with my Bond.

I’ve mostly loved the Craig years despite some quibbles and grumbles over the direction the stories have taken, and seeing Bond return to Skyfall and the old house on the moor was a personal highlight.

When Neil asked me if I’d like to do a weird Bond story, it was that Scottish connection that came to mind, and the early Bond, Commander Bond, that I drew my inspiration from.

Skyfall also took Bond back to London, and that’s another ever present in my life and imagination, from the swinging ’60s, through a myriad of spy books and movies up to the present day, but also back to Holmes and the Ripper and beyond into the mists of time.

I worked in the old city for almost ten years, and walked past St. Paul’s Cathedral on many occasions. The memory came back to me when I was considering the big end set piece for my story and… here it is.

INTO THE GREEN is a synthesis, of my love for Bond, Scotland, spy movies, London, and weird cults in old, and new, temples.

Willie Meikle

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Erdelac Royale

Edward M Erdelac pokes at some star spawn

I came late to Bond.

The first Bond movie I can remember seeing was Live And Let Die on TV with my parents, probably when I was about four or five. While I loved Tee Hee with his mechanical arm and the creepy 7up guy in the top hat and 007 running along the tops of alligators, the mushy stuff made me leave the room. From bits and pieces I saw of Roger Moore’s iteration over the years, I grew up dismissing Bond as some kind of romance series.

It wasn’t till I was about twenty years old and caught GoldenEye on home video at a friend’s place that I got heavy into Bond. It was Tina Turner’s killer track that I think sold me on it, combined with Brosnan’s bungie jump infiltration of that Russian facility and subsequent dive and Cessna escape in the beginning. No doubt the hours of delirious fun my friends and I got playing Nintendo’s classic GoldenEye shooter (Oddjob was soon disallowed) played its part too.

Suddenly, in my 20’s, I was on a Bond kick. I went back and watched the rest of the series (suffering through three quarters of the goofy Adam West-like Roger Moore years) in anticipation of Tomorrow Never Dies, and when I was out of movies, I picked my dad’s moldy old college copies of the Ian Fleming paperbacks and discovered the hard edged, pulpy, literary Bond, only barely hinted at in a few of the Connery movies (and maybe a bit in the two Dalton outings).

So finally Tomorrow Never Dies comes along…and people’s heads are popping through the floors of fighter planes, a helicopter chops up a marketplace, Michelle Yeoh is not getting the facetime I wanted to see, and I’m sitting in the theater seeing more Roger Moore than Fleming, Connery, Dalton, or the underappreciated Lazenby.

My torrid love affair with all things Bond lasts about as long as Viviene Michel’s.

Though I keep the fires smoldering with rewatches of my favorites, it’s eleven years before it’s fully rekindled with Casino Royale. Even then I’m a bit unsure. I don’t want a repeat of the second date disaster I had with Pierce Brosnan. I know at this point most of you are thinking that’s exactly what happened, but here I have to state a controversial opinion; I loved Quantum of Solace, from the gangsta opening theme song to the last shot of Vesper’s necklace in the Russian snow. This outing, more than any Bond movie since From Russia With Love, conjures for me the scarred, no-nonsense, kill or be killed paperback 007 for me. Skyfall’s really, really great, but it’s kind of a Batman movie. And don’t even ask me what I thought of Spectre.

So when Neil put out the call for Bond Unknown, I knew I positively had to shove aside whatever I was doing and turn something in, particularly for my Dad, whose books offered me a glimpse at his younger self and who continues to enjoy the character, and for my son, who kicked my butt a few times in GoldenEye Reloaded and thrills to the music and the cars of the movies the same as I do.

For my contribution, MINDBREAKER, I wanted to explore the damaged Bond of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. In the opening of MWTGG, Bond attempts to kill M., having been brainwashed by Russian agents in the wake of his taking revenge on Blofeld for the murder of his wife Tracy. MINDBREAKER’s Bond is still trying to bury his wife, still dealing with the lingering effects of Russian reconditioning. I wanted to explore that brief blank spot of his career. Who turned Bond into an assassin against M, and how does 007’s ability to bounce back from that mental conditioning make him peculiarly suited to facing the preternatural threats of the Lovecraftian Mythos when a shadowy subsection of MI6 comes calling?

Well, that’s a pretty cool answer. It involves Bond’s pedigree, Simone Latrelle, John Dee, a nod to Dennis Wheatley, a relic from an antediluvian war, Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign, the Unione Corse, the Star Spawn, and a whole lot of other stuff I hope will appeal to fans of both Fleming and Lovecraft.

Ed Erdelac

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You can only obtain Bond Unknown in print, and only directly from April Moon Books.

https://www.aprilmoonbooks.com/bond-unknown

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See you soon…

A skull is a box in which we keep our memories. Except that only a few of us tie it up with ribbons, and it usually makes little noise. Until it becomes a screaming skull, of course. A few weeks ago we stood before a four hundred year old group portrait of three women, Frances, Margaret and Katherine Griffiths. The painting dominates its surroundings, and Katherine Griffiths dominates the painting. Unlike her sisters, her dress has been re-rendered in dead black, and her presence has never left her beloved home. Neither has her skull, except for brief and unhappy moments.

Today we explore a few different manifestations of the screaming skull, including the famous tale by F Marion Crawford, and generally potter about a bit, as we do. Before we do, have a quote from an account of an account of an account, to which we’ll return later below.

“…the skull was that of a negro servant who had lived in the service of a Roman Catholic priest, and there were dark hints of a murder. The negro had declared before his death that his spirit would not rest unless his body were taken to his native land and buried there. On his burial in the Bettiscombe churchyard, the haunting began; fearful screams proceeded from the grave; strange sounds were heard all over the house, and the inmates had no rest until the body was dug up. Subsequent attempts to dispose of it were followed by similar results.”

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THE BURTON AGNES SCREAMING SKULL

Burton Agnes, the home of Katherine Griffiths (known as Anne), is a magnificent Elizabethan house in the Yorkshire Wolds. The present house was built nearby in 1601–10 by Sir Henry Griffith, 1st Baronet, after he was appointed to the Council of the North. His daughter Frances Griffith, heiress of the estate, married Sir Matthew Boynton, Governor of Scarborough Castle. It’s also one of the most well-known settings for a ‘screaming skull’ legend. As it lies within the uncanny Wold Newton Triangle, and thus directly within our ancestral hunting grounds, we have to mention it.

The story is that Anne had watched the building of the new house and could talk and think of nothing else; it was to be the most beautiful house ever built. When it was almost finished Anne went one afternoon to visit the St. Quintins at Harpham about a mile away, but near St. John’s Well was attacked and robbed by ruffians. She was brought home to Burton Agnes but was so badly hurt that she died a few days afterwards.

Sometimes delirious, sometimes sensible, she told her sisters that she would never rest unless part of her could remain in ‘our beautiful home as long as it shall last’. She made them promise that when she was dead her head should be severed and preserved in the Hall forever, and to pacify her, the sisters agreed. However when Anne died, she was buried in the churchyard.

Then the ghost walked and scared the life out of everybody. Remembering Anne’s dying words, the sisters took counsel with the vicar and eventually agreed that the grave should be opened. The skull was brought into the house and so long as it was undisturbed, the Hall was peaceful and untroubled. Many attempts have been made to get rid of it. Once it was thrown away, another time it was buried in the garden, but always the ghost walked with tremendous noise and upheaval. The skull is still in the house, built into one of the old walls, probably in the Great Hall. Nobody knows for sure just where it is but now she can watch over ‘her beautiful home’.

Burton Agnes Hall

In addition to the legend of Anne Griffiths, Burton Agnes Hall has grounds which include beautiful gardens, an interesting church, and substantial parts of a Norman manor house, built in 1173 by Roger de Stuteville.

Unusually, the site has been in the hands of the same family since that time, passing through various branches, and is still inhabited by the line.

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Bettiscombe Manor

“Students of ghost lore and haunted houses will find the foundation of the foregoing story in the legends about a skull which is still preserved in the farmhouse called Bettiscombe Manor, situated, I believe, on the Dorsetshire coast.”

F Marion Crawford, footnote to ‘The Screaming Skull’

The other most commonly mentioned ‘real life’ example of the screaming skull is usually Bettiscombe Manor in Dorsetshire. We won’t bore you with the general outline – it’s more interesting to go back to our Edwardian Arcane theme, for there are two excellent related pieces for the curious reader and/or historian of the supernatural.

For the readers of scary tales, there is the story written by American writer F Marion Crawford (1854-1909), probably better known for his story ‘The Upper Berth’. ‘The Screaming Skull’ was written in 1908, and published posthumously in 1911, in the collection Uncanny Tales, also known as Wandering Ghosts.

Crawford’s version, although he states his inspiration as Bettiscombe Manor, concerns neither the type of haunting from Bettiscombe, nor that from Burton Agnes. Instead it involves a retired seaman, a history of domestic unrest by the previous occupants of his house, and one long evening where he addresses a fellow mariner who has come to stay with him. It seems rather extended at points, and yet at the same time it’s a slow builder. It has a clever notion in that the story, and the narrator’s standpoint, develop substantially during the relating of it. And it  is a screaming skull, of sorts, though it has other tricks…

For historians of the supernatural and folklorists, we are fortunate in that there is a full account of an investigation made into the Bettiscombe screaming skull, published very shortly after Crawford died. The writer was an English fellow named John Symonds Udal (1848–1925).

Udal was a cricketer, antiquarian, author, lawyer and judge, and quite a chap. He held government office in Fiji for many years, and later served as Chief Justice of the Leeward Islands*. He wrote:

“At a farmhouse in Dorsetshire at the present time, is carefully preserved a human skull, which has been there for a period long antecedent to the present tenancy. The peculiar superstition attaching to it is that if it be brought out of the house the house itself would rock to its foundations, whilst the person by whom such an act of desecration was committed would certainly die within the year. It is strangely suggestive of the power of this superstition that through many changes of tenancy and furniture the skull still holds its accustomed place ” unmoved and unremoved! “

Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History & Archaeological Society Vol 31, 1910

* The Leeward Islands were Antigua, Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Saint Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla and Dominica.

In what might tip us into M R James territory, Udal studied Dorset folklore, customs, and traditions, and became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1901. He would certainly have made a suitable MRJ protagonist.

And there is a curious Dorset and Leewards Islands link. During his time as Chief Justice, Udal was shown a memorial on Nevis to John Pinney, son of Azariah Pinney, formerly of Bettiscombe. On the basis of this, he concluded that the Bettiscombe Skull was that of one of Pinney’s slaves. Finding a reference in an old register of slaves on the Pinney estate to “Bettiscombe”, he concluded that the skull belonged to a slave named Bettiscombe, who must have been brought to England when or before the Nevis estates were sold.

Most entries then add that this theory, which Udal published in the Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries, was disproved long after Udal’s death. However, what Udal said in his original account includes the following:

“Upon one of these subsequent visits I, with others, made a careful examination of the skull; and we were inclined to doubt whether it was that of a negro at all, but as the generally received opinion is that it is I will say no more upon that point. The skull was by no means a large one; the forehead certainly was low but not receding. The upper half of the cranium only was preserved, the lower jaw being missing.”

If Udal was persuaded, it was by weight of hearsay, local legend, and a fascination with the Pinney connection, as more than once in the records he states his doubts. Eventually, he burrows into a long examination of the question of Azariah Pinney, who appears to have been transported as a ‘white slave’ after the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685. Yes, it all gets very complicated, so we’d better leave it to the really curious. You can read the entire, detailed 1910 piece by Udal here:

http://archive.org/details/proceedings31dorsuoft/

NOTE: Crawford, in his fictitious version, avoids the slave angle, but retains certain elements, including the skull being kept in a hatbox, and the fact that the lower jaw was missing.

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A Film at which to Scream

F Marion Crawford’s story was ‘sort of’ adapted for the screen – though the film never credited him. Probably best. The Screaming Skull is a 1958 black and white horror film, produced by John Kneubuhl, T. Frank Woods, and John Coots, directed by Alex Nicol, that stars John Hudson, Peggy Webber, Russ Conway, and Nicol.

It’s a bad movie, in that sort of way which means you can quite enjoy it, and it has moments of being creepily atmospheric. This is delightfully enhanced by the warning at the start. An opening voice-over states that a free burial will be provided to anybody who dies of fright while watching the film. This, we assure you, is not very likely.

In the film, there is a similarly domestic background to it all, with the skull supposedly being that of Marion, the first wife of John Hudson’s character. Yep, Marion. An unsubtle reference to the source of some of their ideas? So in the film you have:

• the first wife who died of an ‘accident’
• a wealthy second wife who has spent some time in an asylum
• a developmentally disabled gardener
• a self-portrait by Marion which resembles the 2^nd wife’s mother?
• unexplained screaming noises
• an actual skull

And so much more. Technically, you might be better sticking to the original story, however.

Or, for more literary relaxation with a screaming skull, you can download the Wandering Ghosts collection by F Marion Crawford for free here:

https://archive.org/details/wanderingghosts00crawrich

UPDATED OCTOBER 2019. Did you ever wonder why you couldn’t find the lurcher bit you wanted on greydogtales, dear listener? No? We’ll tell you anyway. A while back, we wrote something we called Lurchers for Beginners, purely for fun. It drew on years of observing just how weird they could be at at times, far better than fiction. And things went a bit mad. As the series progressed, we found that we had no idea where we put most of it. So, we now present the only even vaguely organised list of our longdog-type articles in existence – the Secret Index.

Our lurchery pack do crop up in many other posts on the site, but often intermingled in articles with curious fiction or art, as the mood takes us. The ones below are pretty much all-canine terrain. We hope you still enjoy the series – especially as there’ll probably be a new chapter next month.

N.B. Posts are numbered purely to confuse, and are given with links which may well work. Random titles probably indicate that we forgot where we were in the series at the time.

N.B. again. Every dog is different, and you don’t get many who do all the odd things we mention. But boy, have we had some weird ones – and loved every one of them…

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THE SECRET INDEX

(Not to be shared with spaniels)

1) LURCHERS FOR BEGINNERS 1

http://greydogtales.com/blog/lurchers-for-beginners/

The viral introductory chapter, which set the whole thing in motion.

“A lurcher is a cross between:

i) a dog which runs too fast for you and chases everything (a sighthound), and
ii) a dog which runs slightly more slowly but still chases everything (a working dog).

“A longdog is a cross between two sighthounds, which means you don’t have a chance.”

2) LURCHERS FOR BEGINNERS 2

this time it’s personal

Where we introduced advanced concepts, such as THE LEAD.

3) THE BATTLE OF DORK’S DRIFT

http://greydogtales.com/blog/lurcher-v-squirrel-the-battle-of-dorks-drift/

The neverending nightmare of Squirrel Wars.

4) WE WERE GARDENERS

http://greydogtales.com/blog/lurchers-for-beginners-3-we-were-gardeners/

Why you don’t have a nice garden any more. An article we should have had sponsored by an Artificial Grass company, if we’d thought of it at the time.

5) THE REASON TO RESCUE

one lunge at a time

The importance of rescues. We use Lurcher Link in West Yorkshire, but in this post we also talked about Lurcher SOS

6) LURCHERS FOR BEGINNERS 4

http://greydogtales.com/blog/common-lurcher-questions-its-lurchers-for-beginners-4/

Bad answers to good lurcher questions. Not only are we not veterinarians, we’re not even coherent some times.

7) DOGS, DELAYS AND DISTRACTIONS

http://greydogtales.com/blog/lurchers-for-writers-a-tragedy-in-too-many-parts/

Why I can’t get anything done in a houseful of dogs, and thanks to them I’m not a best-selling author.

8) THE DJANGO CLOCK CONUNDRUM

end of the year review

Pups having fun, and that Django timetable which rules our days.

9) IT’S JUST NOT FUR!

it’s just not fur

Even includes proper bits, plus vaguely useful advice about your lurcher’s smooth or wiry coat, and the things you will find in it.

10) DAFFODIL WARS

carnacki and other bulbs

Quite simply, Django’s daffodil addiction.

11) TRAINING YOUR HUMAN

training your human

Handy hints, but not for people. Humans need training far more than dogs, and it’s easy with our pull-out guide. WARNING – Do not attempt to pull this guide out.

12) TRAINING YOUR HUMAN AGAIN

training your human part 2

More secrets on training your human, including the importance of communication. Not theirs, obviously.

13) LURCHERS FOR BEGINNERS 8

science at your fingertips

Utter nonsense, if you ask us. The thoughts they really have.

14) BITEY-FACE

http://greydogtales.com/blog/lurcher-for-beginners-9-bitey-face/

The Great Game explained and illustrated, with some great action photos of Bitey-Face in the raw.

15) LURCHERS FOR BEGINNERS 10

http://greydogtales.com/blog/janet-and-john-go-lurcher-mad-eventually/

How we started rescuing dogs many many years ago, and why we are now poor.

16) LURCHERS FOR BEGINNERS 11

ladybirds and longdogs

Another guest dog joins us.

17) HISTORY FOR LONGDOGS

http://greydogtales.com/blog/the-utterly-true-history-of-the-lurcher/

A series of vital historical dates which the repressive paramilitary wing of the Kennel Club banned from being taught in schools. The people must know the truth!

18) POO!

http://greydogtales.com/blog/lurchers-beginners-12-poo/

This really needs no explanation. The delights of poop, and our special guide to consistency. A chart now used across the UK. Probably.

19) A LABRADOR IN THE MIST

http://greydogtales.com/blog/little-juggernaut-memoirs-lurcher-hell/

In remembrance of our beloved non-lurcher, Twiglet, who survived for years in lurcher territory.

20) THE MATING GAME

http://greydogtales.com/blog/training-human-mating-game/

How to stop humans having a love life, and make sure they’re focussed on you (the lurcher).

21) LURCHERS FOR BEGINNERS 15

this water tastes funny

Pups at the seaside. A lot of sand, and a lot of water that just doesn’t seem right.

22) LURCHERS FOR BEGINNERS 16

two years down the road

A round-up of some of the other photos we’ve used of various lurchery wonders – ours, plus those of friends and acquaintances.

23) LURCHER RESCUES ARE GO!

Our thoughts (occasionally useful ones) on what to consider if you feel like re-homing a lurcher.

Lurchers for Beginners: Lurcher Rescues are Go!

24) LURCHERS FOR BEGINNERS: WE IS SNIFFING

The nose has it…

Lurchers for Beginners: We Is Sniffing

25) THOSE LURCHERS IN THE MIST

More of our adventures on the North Sea coast, with explicit photos!

THOSE LURCHERS IN THE MIST

26) THE HUMAN MYTH

Examining the strange world of the tall pink ones…

LURCHERS FOR BEGINNERS: THE HUMAN MYTH

27) LURCHERS FOR BEGINNERS: THE RAW TRUTH

Everything you didn’t want to know about how we feed our little donkeys the raw way.

Lurchers for Beginners: The Raw Truth

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We have no idea what Part 28 will be about, but then we never do…

Today, in the spirit of Joseph Priestley’s scientific experiments, we offer two books which are dark enough, but not quite the usual type of dark. Black Earth by Andy Paciorek, and The Arte Mephitic by Phil Breach & Russell Olson. Not a hack’n’slash bundle, then, but quite different kinds of horror – terrifying Slavic myths and folklore, then stylish alchemical madness drawing on Lovecraft and Ashton Smith.

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The Fertile Black Earth

 

Below, the wet black earth shows through,

With sudden cries the wind is pitted,

The more haphazard, the more true

The poetry that sobs its heart out.

Boris Pasternak, 1912

Black Earth: A Field Guide to the Slavic Otherworld, written and illustrated by Andy Paciorek (one of the founders of the Folk Horror Revival) is a gem. In two hundred pages, you are introduced to almost everything you would want to know about the strange world of Slavic lore. The pantheon of Gods; spirits of field, forest, water and mountains; sorcerers, witches, vampires and much more, each brought out by some one hundred or more striking and intricate drawings by Andy. Nor does the text disappoint in terms of detail.

If you’re not familiar with the area, these are monstrosities and tales from the lands of the Russians and the Ukrainians, the Czechs and the Poles, the Serbs and the Croats. Where possible, the author has also provided alternate names and versions for myths with similarities across this geography.

So you can wander uneasily through the world of the vampire, dhampir and upior, or feel worried at what you might find in the fields of Slavic grain. We particularly liked Lady Midday, the Slavic noon demon Poludnica, whose attentions can vary from teasing to madness, and the deeply unpleasant Rye Mother. And of course, you will find the more well known Baba Yaga, the rusalka and Koschei the Deathless here as well. Even Rasputin.

For Folklorists, it’s a great one-stop resource. For readers and writers, it’s full of vengeful tales and inspirations, with many little-known kinds of horror within. Monstrosities of which you’ve never heard; concepts out of which you could get a whole novel.

TRIVIA CORNER: The Russian name for black earth is chernozem – this is a very dark, very fertile type of soil, ideal for agriculture.. One of the largest chernozem zones in the world is the Eurasian steppe which extends from Croatia to northeast Ukraine, and then runs across southern Russia into Siberia.

And you can get hold of Black Earth here:

http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/8125531-black-earth

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A Breath of Foul Air

For something somewhat different, though also drawing on mythology and the past, our second offering, The Arte Mephitic is a cautionary tale, told in the style of an 18th century chapbook. Inspired by the Mythos created by H. P. Lovecraft and expanded upon by Clark Ashton Smith, The Arte Mephitic tells the story of a dark wizard bent on achieving immortality by any means. Featuring creatures from the world of Lovecraft, as well as traditional European folklore, The Arte Mephitic explores the darkness that dwells in the heart of man.

This is a marvellous little book, which oozes style, short but perfectly formed and very much a collector’s item. The poem itself is illustrated with woodcuts mimicking those found in the pages of the penny press of the 1700s. We’ll happily go with this review comment we noticed elsewhere, which sums it up nicely:

“Excellent long-form poem chronicling the quest of an alchemist in his hunt for immortality. His method is unique, to grow himself an organ of immortality infused with primal matter from the Lovecraftian deity Ubbo-Sathla. To this end he employs all manner of demons and homunculi as his seekers and surgeons, learning that legendary lesson of Icarus, that one should never reach too far in their aims. Highly recommended to Lovecraft fans and metrical, rhyming poetry enthusiasts.”

Michael Adams

All the talk of ‘mephitic’, the foul airs engendered by alchemical work, reminds us of other classic examples. Medical texts of the 1700s were known for their references to mephitic vapours, often a term for belching – and things that blow out of the other end – when illness struck.

And some curative waters from mineral springs were also described as mephitic – the stench of sulphur, for example, is noticeable in water from under the Harrogate Pump Room, which was once a popular tonic.

Fortunately, we were all saved when Joseph Priestley (1733 – 1804) made the transition from alchemy to chemistry and discovered a non-mephitic gas, as outlined in his six-volume work Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air (1774–86).

Priestley called the new substance “dephlogisticated air” and described it as “five or six times better than common air for the purpose of respiration, inflammation, and, I believe, every other use of common atmospherical air.” We know it as oxygen gas (O2).

You can have a look at The Arte Mephitic and its associated wares here:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/527713174/the-arte-mephitic

We are lucky little dogs, and already have all those nice bits, including the beautifully produced and illustrated 12 page graphic pamphlet-story, The Blue Pearl.

We also covered the initial campaign for this project last year, with more mention of Clark Ashton Smith’s Ubbo-Sathla and other roots to the theme:

http://greydogtales.com/blog/survive-mephitis-clark-ashton-smith-arte-mephitic/

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Hunting Geraniums

Finally, it would be a bit of an own goal if we didn’t mention greydog’s new collection at some point, but we’ll keep it brief. A Persistence of Geraniums and other worrying tales is out in print now, and currently getting five star reviews. Tales of hauntings, possessions, murder and madness in the dark corners of the Edwardian period. Including the dreaded Deptford Assassin, Mr Edwin Dry, a dark folk-myth from Suffolk, and more. It’s also delightfully illustrated by Paul (Mutartis) Boswell.

Amazon UK: http://amzn.eu/dknZvPs

Amazon US: http://a.co/3Ax8qzD

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May the Autumn Equinox swell your pumpkins and harden off your turnips ready for the pot (or fanciful carving, in both cases)….

P.S. We weren’t here for a day or so this week because the server fell over and hurt its ankle, apparently.