Thursday, September 14, 2023

The Madness from Arkham Sanitarium


I spent a fair portion of the afternoon devaluing the deluxe edition of Tales from Arkham Sanitarium (Dark Regions), edited by Brian M. Sammons, by scribbling my John Hancock on the signature sheets. The deluxe edition apparently sold out in advance, so if you didn’t pre-order it, I reckon you’re out of luck. The trade hardcover and ebook came out last year. This one features my short story, “Clicks,” which is pretty fucked up, along with 14 other tales of madness and terror.

“Knowing too much, getting a glimpse of the truth behind the curtain we call reality, casting aside the bliss of ignorance and succumbing to the insanity that follows in the pursuit of damnable truths, is at the core of many of the stories of the Cthulhu Mythos. Insanity is central to Lovecraftian horror, so there is no wonder that in his witch-cursed and legend-haunted town of Arkham, a cathedral devoted to mending broken minds was raised. Arkham Sanitarium. Where the screams and cries of the damned are commonplace. Where those that have seen the faces of cosmic entities gibber with regret over their curiosity. Where men and women are cosigned to never ending purgatory for knowing too much. The machinations of the Old Ones are beyond the mental capacity of mankind, and these are the tales of those who learned that too late.”

Table of Contents
“The Crying Man” by Tim Waggoner
“Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation” by William Meikle
“Malformed Articulation” by W. H. Pugmire
“Bit by Bit” by Don Webb
“Let me Talk to Sarah” by Christine Morgan
“The Hunger” by Peter Rawlik
“The Colors Of A Rainbow To One Born Blind” by Edward M. Erdelac
“The River and the Room” by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
“Veteran of the Future Wars” by Orrin Grey
“Folie et déraison” by Nick Mamatas
“Red Hook” by Glynn Owen Barrass
“Clicks” by Stephen Mark Rainey
“...& My Shoes Keep Walking Back To You” by Edward Morris
“Forbidden Fruit” by Cody Goodfellow
Stained Glass” by Jeffrey Thomas

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