Some Unknown Gulf of Night by W.H. Pugmire

Last night I started reading my latest acquisition. A response, in the form of prose poems and vignettes, to H.P. Lovecraft's sonnet sequences; The Fungi from Yuggoth. I'm only a short way in so far but the atmosphere of decadence and nightmare-born morbidity in the prose is superbly rendered. Has anyone else picked up this tainted delight?

I've grown very fond of the work of W.H. Pugmire, and I can't wait to read this one, but I'm afraid it will have to wait until the Trade Paperback edition next year. It's great that he's getting to publish such lavish tomes as this and The Tangled Muse, but they're simply beyond my means at the moment. Luckily, like the old school punk he is, he's ensuring that everything will ultimately be available in affordable editions.

For me, he's the by far the best writer currently working in the Lovecraft tradition, and he captures aspects of HPL's style that no-one else has come close to, while adding in his own unique personal vision and experiences. His regular video blogs on YouTube are highly entertaining and full of unexpected insights.

I'm currently savoring both The Tangled Muse and Some Unknown Gulf of Night. While Tangled Muse is a lavish omnibus of most of Pugmire's best tales, most heavily revised, Some Unknown Gulf of Night is all new material. His intent was to use The Fungi from Yuggoth as the germ of a much longer prose work, and I must say I think Ol' Hopfrog has outdone himself this time. Worth every penny the limited edition hardcover cost me.

I believe a homage to Clark Ashton Smith is one of Pugmire's current projects - I'd love to see their prose styles collide!

Latest from Pugmire's Blog - Clark Ashton Smith project on hold, but, instead: "So I have the idea for this new collection. Imagine a book co-written by H. P. Lovecraft, Henry S. Whitehead, and Ronald Firbank! With just a pinch of Poe and Saki."

I hope no one minds that I update this wee discussion. I have, over time, revised and expanded SOME UNKNOWN GULF OF NIGHT, mainly due to dissatisfaction with many of the original entries. I think my original version of the work was around 33,000 words--the new version is 40,000 words, with many of the original sections entirely removed and replaced with new ones. What happened mainly was that I listened to Paul Maclean's (Paul of Cthulhu) recording of his reading of the entire Fungi from Yuggoth, and just as Will Hart's original reading of those sonnets inspir'd me to write the first version of GULF, this new reading, in an exceptionally wonderful British voice, made me ache to revisit my work (which I consider to be my best book) and completely revise it. I am now hoping to convince a British publisher to bring out the new version in an edition that also includes Lovecraft's sonnet cycle--that way the reader can read HPL's original sonnet and then turn to read my prose response. And it would be so cool to have my byline join's with E'ch-Pi-El's on ye cover of a book (shades of Derleth!!).

The Clark Ashton Smith homage book has proved extremely difficult to write, but I am going forward on it slowly. Inspiration has been re-flamed with ye marvelous edition of CAS recently publish'd by Penguin Classics.

The next major book I am working on is my second big collection from Centipede Press. I think I want to call the book MONSTROUS AFTERMATH (I have submitted a story by that name to WEIRD TALES, months ago, but no word from yem as of yet...), and it will feature what I feel is my finest work written after 2011. Now that BOHEMIANS OF SESQUA VALLEY is no longer available in book form, four of its tales will be reprinted in the Centipede omnibus, as will the expanded version of SOME UNKNOWN GULF OF NIGHT and lots of other things written these past few years. I plan on spending the rest of this year writing some solid new stories that will be the original contents of this second Centipede Press collection.