The Lovecraft Investigations: A Review

 

Since the 1920s, the BBC has been producing radio dramas. Today, BBC 4, aka BBC Sounds, is still producing radio dramas. They have also ventured into fiction podcasting. And boy, oh boy, do they put on a class act.

I recently listened to all four seasons of The Lovecraft Investigations and was very impressed, for the most part. The production was top drawer. The writing, by Julian Simpson, was superb for the first three seasons, and then hiccuped in season 4.

Mr. Simpson, in the fourth season, lost the story in his fanatical quest to bash fascists in the British government. The propaganda overwhelmed the narrative and, for me, became distracting.

That written, the overall quality of The Lovecraft Investigations is truly superb and I will listen to the next season, should a fifth one be produced. Unless, Mr. Simpson decides, once again, that politics is more important than good storytelling.

The format is a podcast within a podcast and works extremely well. The stories are exceedingly loose adaptations of the work of HP Lovecraft. I would call them Lovecraftesque, with barely any Lovecraft being present. 

It works, though, and that is what is ultimately of importance.

Matthew Heawood and Kennedy Fisher are true crime podcasters who stumble onto the strange disappearance of Charles Dexter Ward — and thereby get sucked into a nightmarish secret world of monsters and occult magic.

The writing is excellent, the voice acting superb, the sound effects are magnificent. There is really nothing here not to like. And if you relish fascist bashing, season four will be your cup of tea.

While each season is more or less complete in itself, Simpson has tied the four together to form an overarching story. So you do want to start at the beginning. That way everything will make sense.

You can listen to the episodes for free on the BBC’s website. They are also available on various podcast services, such as Apple and Spotify.

All in all, I can highly recommend The Lovecraft Investigations. In my opinion, they’re far more satisfying entertainment than most of the tripe on the TV.

Start season 1, episode 1 on the BBC here.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with two bestselling novels. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

My Interview with Ivo Lettercast

 Today, I’m re-sharing my interview with Ivo Lettercast on Indie Author Connection from 2 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ270hyXppY

I talk a bit about my philosophy regarding what it means to be a writer and I perform a reading from my cosmic horror novella Nightmare in Agate Bay.

The interview was great fun, so I thought I’d dust it off and share it again. I hope you enjoy it.

If you want to sign up for my VIP Horror Readers Club, click or tap this link to BookFunnel: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/aj2s8x1slq

You’ll get a free and exclusive copy of “The Feeder”! It’s not available in stores.

The Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigations are a blast to write, and readers like them too: “Had me waiting on tentacle-hooks. …a charming, easy to read, creep-fest!” 

You can get a copy of Nightmare in Agate Bay on Amazon.

Hope you enjoy the interview. Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

Final Vella Update

 

Yesterday, 30 January, the last episode of Tales Macabre and Arabesque went live. The collection of stories is now complete.

You can read my previous update here. I have nothing to add, other than I did get a 40 something dollar bonus for November.

The last locked episodes were read on November 30th. After that, I had a free episode read on December 12th. And that is it. All told, I received $.31 in royalties and $52.36 in bonuses.

For me, Vella is a bust. Sure, the 52 bucks and change was nice. But it won’t break the bank if I don’t get it.

One Vella author advised me to hang out on some of the Vella Facebook pages, where I could tell others about my project, and cross promote with other Vella authors.

And I could do that. But I have no desire to add more time on social media to my schedule. In fact, I have reduced my time to just a couple hours a week so I can focus on writing my next novel.

Attempts to get my mailing list subscribers and followers on Facebook and Twitter to go to Vella all failed. Perhaps due to my older audience. Vella being geared towards a younger smartphone dependent demographic.

All of which leads me to believe that Vella is a closed universe: like Chanillo, Wattpad, Writing.com, and the poetry forums I used to hang out on. And closed universes are difficult to get new people to join.

My other complaint about Vella, is that the romance writers have taken over. 

When I did a search for mystery stories, for example, I got romantic suspense, cozy romance mysteries, paranormal romance mysteries, and other equally non-satisfying results.

A search for horror got me monster romance, vampire romance, werewolf romance, shifter romance, and the list went on.

Very disappointing.

Vella was a nice try, but it’s not for me. I’ll continue to follow the couple authors I know there, but I won’t otherwise be reading or publishing on the platform.

I’ve also decided to unpublish Tales Macabre and Arabesque from Vella. Amazon will remove the story collection in a couple months.

So if you want to read some of my spooky and bizarre fiction for next to nothing (tokens are pretty cheap, and the Zon may even give you free ones) — head on over to Kindle Vella.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

Meet the Author Podcast Show

 

Wednesday, January 18th I spent a wonderful hour and a half with Rob and Joan Carter on their Meet the Author podcast.

We talked about books and life and the writing life. The experience was fabulous. They are wonderful hosts.

If you missed the live show, you can listen to the audio on their website: https://indiebooksource.com/podcast/

Just scroll down until you find my episode, which is number 92.

You’ll also find all the links for the show and you can also explore their website. They have shows for other authors; books for sale; merch you can buy to promote reading, writing, and authors.

You can find links to my books as well — and merch featuring some of my book covers.

You can also download the podcast at this link if you want your own copy:  https://api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/52480191/download.mp3

And finally, if you want to watch the program, you can do so on the Meet the Author YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/RBXLAGwCxAc

As a Meet the Author bonus, I’ve discounted the book I read from, Death Makes a House Call, to 99¢. The discount is good through Sunday, January 29th. Pick up your copy on Amazon!

One of the things I appreciate most about being an author is that I’ve met some of the most amazingly wonderful people over the years.

Rob and Joan are certainly on that list. I appreciate them having me on the show. I had a blast.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright, award-winning poet, and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

Tales of Terror - Part 3

 

Halloween is fast approaching and in this final post celebrating Halloween 2021, I offer a few more of my terror-inducing favorites. These are stories by contemporary writers, my peers, so to speak. And these guys set the bar quite high.

Bleak Mathematics

I love the cosmic horror of Brian Fatah Steele. It is some of the most imaginative stuff I’ve read — by any writer.

Steele’s short story collection, Your Arms Around Entropy: And Other Stories, is one of the best collections of the macabre you will ever come across. And the story “Bleak Mathematics” is not only my favorite from the collection, but one of the most memorable stories I’ve read.

Steele is quite easily the inheritor of Lovecraft’s mantle. Pick up a copy of Your Arms Around Entropy and you will never be the same.

A Crow’s Game

There’s weird, and then there’s Andy Graham’s weird. And Andy’s weird is truly terrifying.

A Crow’s Game is part of The Risen World Series and I could have easily picked any of the 4 books, or the entire series for that matter, to spotlight.

A Crow’s Game is somewhat unusual because it has a weird, nonsensically nightmarish quality about it. Dreampunk terror perhaps.

Andy Graham’s stories are crazy scary. They reveal a world that we really don’t want to know exists. A world that for all of our modern finesse we know does exist, lingering in the deepest recesses of our id.

Get A Crow’s Game on Amazon, and be forewarned: it will scare the bejeezus out of you.

Congeal

John F Leonard is a fairly new to me writer, and I’m very glad to have met him. The stories I’ve read thus far put him amongst the top writers of the tale of terror.

Congeal is a story of post-apocalyptic cosmic horror which, should you read at night, you’ll want to make sure all the lights are on.

I look forward to reading more of Leonard’s work, and I hope you join me on the road into terror.

Pick up a copy of Congeal from Amazon.

Tony Price: Confidential

Richard Schwindt’s work is no stranger to this blog. And his occult detective, Tony Price, is perfect for Halloween. Tony is a colorful character with whom you will quickly fall in love.

The three adventures in Tony Price: Confidential are spooky scary creature-features, filled with dark humor, and, well, scary monsters.

I can’t say enough good things about Richard’s writing, so pick up a copy of Tony Price: Confidential on Amazon and give yourself a scare.

01134 and Exit

Crispian Thurlborn is also no stranger to this blog. I admire the craftsmanship of his work, and when he uncorks the terror it’s the kind that sneaks up on you and grabs you after you’ve read the last page.

01134 and Exit are two super spooky tales of terror. Subtle, understated, they will clobber you in the middle of the night, long after you’ve finished reading. Perfect for Halloween, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Both stories are available on Amazon: 01134 and Exit.

There you have them. Wonderful tales of terror to spook out your Halloween. Enjoy!

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

My Interview on Indie Author Connection

 Today, I’m sharing my interview with Ivo Lettercast on Indie Author Connection.

I share a bit about my philosophy as to what it means to be a writer and do a reading from my cosmic horror novella Nightmare in Agate Bay.

The interview was great fun and I hope you enjoy it too.

If you want to sign up for my VIP Horror Readers Club, the URL has changed. Please use this one: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/aj2s8x1slq

And you’ll get a free exclusive copy of “The Feeder”!

The Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigations are a blast to write, and readers like them too: “Had me waiting on tentacle-hooks. …a charming, easy to read, creep-fest!” 

You can get a copy of Nightmare in Agate Bay on Amazon, or read for free if you are in KU.

Hope you enjoy the interview. Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

Indie April Suggestions - Part 7

 For today’s Indie April showcase, I want to throw the spotlight onto 3 authors who write some of the spookiest stuff out there. So, without further ado, let’s meet these gentlemen.

John F Leonard

John F Leonard is one of many highly talented writers I’ve found on Twitter. He writes cosmic horror (one of my favorite genres), as well as wonderfully spooky stories.

The Bledbrooke Works and Congeal are suspense filled tales of terror. Bledbrooke is something of a prequel to Congeal, so you might want to read it first.

Congeal is a post-apocalyptic tale that is downright chilling. It’s the kind of slowburn horror that stays with you, that continues to haunt you long after you’ve finished the book.

Next on my reading list is his The Dead Boxes Archive, and I’ll be reading it during the daylight hours.

Here are John’s Amazon pages:

US

UK

Canada

Australia

Germany

Check him out. He’s really top drawer, and fast becoming one of my favorite authors.

Andy Graham

Andy Graham writes masterful tales of chilling terror. I hate reading his stories at night, because, quite honestly, they give me bad dreams.

He has the dystopian Misrule series, The Risen World Supernatural thrillers, and I Died Yesterday, a collection of dark fiction tales.

Graham is an accomplished wordsmith. Begin one of his books and you’ll be biting your nails and saying, “What was that noise?”

I’m currently reading A Demon Risen. But only while the sun is up.

Here is where you can find Andy Graham on Amazon:

US

UK

Canada

Australia

Germany

Ray Zacek

Ray Zacek can scare your socks off, or make you laugh with his macabre dark humor. And when he turns to satire, it’s funny, biting, and somewhat chilling all at the same time.

Want a scary story? Try Cosecha and Daguerreotype. Satire? Try Fresh Catch: Fiction Sushi. Dark humor? Give The Sisters a read. I love his books and you will too.

Take a look at Ray’s Amazon pages:

US

UK

Canada

Australia

Germany

He’s a superb storyteller who you will fall in love with. I guarantee it.

John F Leonard, Andy Graham, and Ray Zacek are masters of the art of telling us a good story. They are producing some of the best fiction being written today. Give them a try. You won’t be sorry.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

The Paranormal

Van Dyne’s Zuvembies is live! The seventh book in the Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigations series. And it is off to a good start.

Each Pierce Mostyn investigation is a stand alone story. So you can read Van Dyne’s Zuvembies today — and read the rest of the series later.

Interest in the paranormal is high, and paranormal fiction is hot.

But what is paranormal fiction? When I was kid, back in the 50s and 60s, there was no paranormal fiction: it was called occult or supernatural fiction. Sometime between then and now, those terms fell out of use in favor of paranormal.

To understand these 3 terms, let’s see what the Merriam-Webster dictionary says.

Occult (noun) — matters regarded as involving the action or influence of supernatural or supernormal powers or some secret knowledge of them; used with the

Supernatural 

1) of or relating to an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe

2a) departing from what is usual for normal, especially so as to appear to transcend the laws of nature

2b) attributed to an invisible agent (such as a ghost or spirit)

Paranormal — not scientifically explainable: supernatural

So we can see all of these terms basically mean something that is not within normal or natural experience.

Therefore it doesn’t really matter what we call the genre, because paranormal, supernatural, and occult fiction cover the same subjects: myth, fairy tales, legends, cryptids, ghosts, monsters, the fae, and the like.

Popular subgenres include: cosmic horror, the ghost story, the Gothic novel, werewolf and other shapeshifter fiction, vampire and zombie fiction, and the like.

The paranormal story has been with us for a very long time and down through the ages has been called many different things. But in the end, they all refer to the same class of story.

At base, the Pierce Mostyn books are cosmic horror set in HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos universe. However, I’m not averse to stepping outside the cosmic horror subgenre to give readers a taste of a different class of monster.

Horror stories generally operate either viscerally or intellectually.

Visceral horror is horror that focuses on an emotive reaction, often resorting to the gross out. This is the in-your-face blood and guts horror.

Intellectual horror appeals to the mind. It is usually subtle, and often challenges our understanding of how things ought to be by showing us how things actually are.

Intellectual horror flips aside the curtain; it is taking the red pill.

While there’s plenty of action in the Pierce Mostyn stories, I definitely strive for an intellectual horror approach. Because at the end of the day I think that type of story is truly terrifying.

Comments are always welcome! Until next time, happy reading!