I am Lovecraft's disciple!

Things have been progressing slowly but surely on The al-Hazred Legacy. In the interim I've received some good news from John Ford at Rainfall Records & Books: John has kindly agreed to publish my short story 'The Sparkling Darkness' in issue 7 of Lovecraft's Disciples, due out Christmas 2006. Although not the first time my work has seen print, this will be my first published piece of fiction, and I'm well pleased about it.

A note on site content: The al-Hazred Legacy

I've been something of a roleplayer for well over 25 years (I even remember when the original D & D white box set was still available!). Sadly, I've had little time over the past 18 months to pursue my interest, resulting in my recently having to (yet again) let down a good friend of mine down after promising to run a Delta Green campaign for the umpteenth time. So, in lieu of actual gaming, I now intend to use this blog as a means for detailing initial development of my Lovecraftian indie rpg, tentatively titled The al-Hazred Legacy. If you're not sure what an 'indie' rpg is, check out The Forge for more info.

This will be my first attempt at game design, so I'm not sure how it will pan out; even so, I hope to have a rough-and-ready version available as a free pdf download by December 2006 (which I'll link to this site as and when). Clearly, I'm not going to be in much of a position to undertake rigorous playtesting of the initial version of the game, but I hope to address this problem post-December 2006.

The idea for The al-Hazred Legacy began as an attempt to put a Cthulhoid spin on Ron Edwards' Sorcerer rpg, but I've decided instead to take the bull by the horns and design the damned thing as an original game from the ground up. For the moment, all I can say about the game is that it will (hopefully) be something more than just an indie re-working of Chaosium's classic Call of Cthulhu rpg.

Ghooric Zone undergoing...transformation

Apologies, dear reader, for the lack of content thus far. Hopefully this will change over the next week or so as Whispers from the Ghooric Zone undergoes some minor transformations, and I find a way of getting the site map (whatever that is) recognised by Google. One piece of news, though: my talk at Treadwells went down a treat, it seems, and at the suggestion of one Mr. Ash I have decided to expand the talk into a series of four lectures which will take place during January and February 2007.

Tell Me, Have You Found the Ghooric Zone?

Whence comes the title of my blog? Seasoned Lovecraftians will already know; but for that small minority who a) actually end up reading my blog and b) are even interested, the Ghooric Zone is first mentioned by Lovecraft in his The Fungi from Yuggoth sonnet cycle, and later in his epistolary meanderings. However, my first encounter with this malign realm of abject extraterrestrial horror was in Richard Lupoff's story 'Discovery of the Ghooric Zone'. Originally published in 1977, Lupoff's tale did not see print again until a version was included in the Golden Anniversary edition of Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos issued by Arkham House in 1990. Thankfully, the story is now available online (see my links). This is one of my favourite Lovecraftian tales by an author other than the Old Gent of Providence, and manages to be both intimate and touching at the same time evoking an unearthly sense of cosmic awe worthy of HPL himself (though what he would have made of the interplanetary cyborg sex with which the tale opens is another matter entirely...). Also included is a link to Charles Stross' 'A Colder War'. Stross' recent collection The Atrocity Archive is strongly recommended, and this online tale gives a taste of the unique way the writer combines Le Carre with Lovecraft to create a new genre: the Cthulhoid spy thriller. Read and enjoy.

Yrs most cordially,

Justin

Lovecraft Scholars & yog-sothoth.com

I've just posted links to two of my favourite sites: the Lovecraft Scholars mailing list (which I co-moderate) at yahoo groups and yog-sothoth.com, a site dedicated to the Call of Cthulhu rpg. Check them out for crunchy scholarly Lovecraftian debate and cthulhoid gaming goodness.

Yrs in the Magnum Innominandum,

Justin

Welcome to the Ghooric Zone

Welcome to the Ghooric Zone - my blog concerning all things Lovecraftian. Hopefully this site will also be host to an occasional podcast, but more on that as and when it happens. For now, though, I'd just like to mention my forthcoming talk at Treadwell's bookshop in Covent Garden (London, UK) on Thursday 31st August at 7.30pm. The talk is titled 'Primal Sources: The Lovecraftian Roots of Contemporary Occultures', and will be a somewhat whirlwind overview (with a Q&A session to follow) of Lovecraft's influence on esotericism, ufology and things fortean. Tickets are £5.00, and be advised to book in advance as seating is limited. I'll add a link to the Treadwell's website in the meantime. That's it for now.

Yog Sothoth Neblod Zin,

Justin