Back in 2002, the short-lived publisher, DarkTales, released a nice little anthology of Cthulhu Mythos tales titled Dead But Dreaming, edited by Keith Herber and Kevin Ross. It was the original home of my World War II/Lovecraftian horror tale, "Epiphany: A Flying Tiger's Story," as well as stories by Ramsey Campbell, David Barr Kirtley, Mike Minnis, Lisa Morton, Adam Niswander, Darrell Schweitzer, and others. About 75 copies of the book escaped into the wild before the publisher popped its rivets and went toes up, and I've seen copies of the book selling anywhere from $100 to $300 per copy. Anyway, Dead But Dreaming is looking at the light of day again, courtesy of Miskatonic River, a new small press devoted to producing supplements to Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu role-playing game as well as stand-alone Lovecraftian fiction. The book has been nicely repackaged, closely resembling the original release, but with a few updated extras. I received my contributor copy today, and it's nice to have one that's in pristine condition, as my original is somewhat battered and dog-eared.
It's a tough time for publishers, small pressers in particular, but it would sure be refreshing to see MRP fly in the face of it. The original DarkTales release of Dead But Dreaming received considerable critical acclaim, and I've always felt it was a damn shame that it suffered such an inglorious fate before it could hit the ground running. My story has since been reprinted in Delirium's Dark Homage series and in my collection from Dark Regions, Other Gods (yes, there is a very dark theme about this one, isn't there?), but it, as well as the other tales in the anthology, now have another chance to swat readers clean upside the head and make a powerful impression. By all means, if you're keen on otherworldly terrors wrapped in a dark sense of wonder, then Dead But Dreaming is most definitely for you.
You can visit it at the Miskatonic River Press Web site here.
Speaking of Other Gods, I see from the latest HWA Stoker rec list that it has several. Many thanks to you who have read it and treated it kindly. I plan on checking out the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, with Other Gods cover artist, Wayne Miller, this coming weekend. While the movie itself isn't likely to be scary, the audience is obviously going to be....